BUSY DAYS!!

It's certainly been a busy few days.

On Thursday evening I found myself with 3 commitments, starting at 5pm with a flood defence event down in Landport. As a town councillor for the area I was of course interested to see what kind of provision the District Council was likely to be offering residents along Landport Road, but also wanted to know if there was likely to be any help available for the youth centre - at even greater risk of flooding than the houses. We had some useful conversations and hopefully have some leads we can follow up.

At 6pm it was off to the Lewes Arms for a regular meeting of the Lewes Pound CIC, of which I am treasurer. Lots to discuss including arrangements for the Do at the depot, now transformed into the Do at All Saints and I had various cheque that needed a second signature. Luckily everyone was in a hurry, so we got through all our business before I headed off to the town hall for a meeting of the Railway Land Wildlife Trust where I represent the town council. Lots of discussion on feedback from the Linklater Pavilion event - which reminds me I promised to find out if they are still getting the profits from the bar that evening; on a big event next year to tie in with the year of Biodiversity; and on the ranger's annual report amongst other things. I always come away impressed by the hard work so many people are doing in connection with the Railway Land.

Friday morning up early for an all day conference on health services in rural Sussex. Perhaps Lewes is hardly rural, but all the same part of the whole pattern of care provision and always good to have look at the wider picture. The first speaker from Action in Rural Sussex had us all having fun with plasticine - I can hardly remember the last time I handled the stuff - maybe when Madeleine my daughter was small (and she is now in her early 30's, impossible as it seems).

Light relief in the evening when we went to Lewes Film Club to see Casablanca - they just don't make films like that any more. It is full of great one-liners - so often quoted that you almost forget their context within a deeply romantic film with wonderful music. Even more amazing to realise is that it was made in 1942 and so must have been part of the propaganda effort to persuade people that it was worth all the effort to stand up to the Nazis. Yes it's there, but all the same it ends up as an almost perfect film with great acting.

Saturday - again out all day at an open space event arranged to discuss community views on the future of the North Street/Phoenix area in Lewes. Its been the subject of a couple of deeply controversial development proposals, but the the company which has bought up a lot of the land (and extant business premises) has gone bankrupt, so it looks as if the administrator will be looking to sell in the new year. This offers an opportunity for the Lewes Community Land Trust to possibly get a partnership deal with the Guinness Trust to buy some or all of the sites and allow it to develop organically, alongside some affordable housing. Apparently something like 87 people were present for all or part of the day, which is a lot of interest for a Saturday in the run up to Xmas. A number of them clearly had little or no idea what to expect from an open space event - some just left, but others who were sceptical at the beginning obviously felt by the end that a lot of useful ideas had emerged. I had no idea there was so much artistic stuff going on down there and the artists definitely don't want to lose their relatively cheap spaces to a mega commercial development. I hosted a group on 'Does North Street need flood defences?' One person who came said he hope I was being rhetorical, but the feeling at various groups during the day was definitely that the area needs to be flood resilient, rather than protected by the kind of flood wall offered up by the commercial developers. More meetings needed, especially if the community hopes to raise money to buy land there, but a great start to the process.

After all that it's been great to have a quiet day at home today Sunday, catching up with newspapers and email mostly, as well as finding time for this blog.

Citizens Convention (Accountability and Ethics) Bill

I've just sent the following email to the top 5 MPs in the ballot for bringing a private member's bill to parliament. Improvement of our political system is something I care about very deeply.

Congratulations on your success in the 2009-2010 Private Members Bills’ ballot. I am writing to ask you to please adopt the Citizens Convention (Accountability and Ethics) Bill.

This Bill will establish a Citizens’ Convention to look at ways to make the UK political system more ethical and accountable. A Citizens’ Convention would be a deliberative assembly of ordinary men and women whose role would be to lead a national debate on how to improve UK politics and make a series of recommendations. A briefing on the can be found here on the Unlock Democracy website: http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?page_id=2033

I am not one of your constituents but understand what a rare opportunity you have been granted via the ballot. I think there is a considerable lack of confidence in our current political system and believe that this Bill, if successful, could tackle the existing political disengagement in politics.

This Bill already has considerable backing from MPs and campaign organisations, which will give it considerable weight (when being debated) in Parliament and I believe it is realistic to believe that it has a good chance of success. I think that your sponsorship of this Bill would be in the interests of all citizens in this country and I would therefore be very grateful if you would please adopt this Bill.

Yours sincerely,

I'd hate anyone to think that I was completely obsessed by politics and didn't have any 'hinterland' - as a famous politician once put it. So occasionally I intend to write about everyday life and about things cultural.

Last week, I am amazed to realise I actually finished reading 3 books. Even more amazingly two were non-fiction and only one a novel, though I have already finished another novel this week. I'm surprised because I always go to bed with my latest novel and, reading till late, tend to go through them quite steadily, whereas non-fiction tends to be squeezed into the odd gaps in the evenings between meetings and an occasional television programme.

I had been reading Richard Dawkins latest - The Greatest Show on Earth - for weeks. I would count him as one of my heroes, partly as such an inspiring writer and teacher on evolution and partly because of his advocacy of the sort of militant atheism to which I subscribe. In this book he sets out to provide all the different kinds of evidence now available to support the theory of evolution. This is intended to refute the ideas of the creationists and intelligent designers, though he largely refrains from outright attacks on them - allowing the evidence beautifully assembled by him to do its own work.

Having finally finished him early in the week - with a sigh of regret at leaving his wonderful writing - I moved on to the latest by Susan Hill - Howards End is on The Landing. This ostensibly refers to her deciding to spend a year reading - or re-reading - books she already owns and with her finally settling on a list of 40 she would need to have on her desert island. Some of the favourite authors she looked at certainly chimed with me from classics like Thomas Hardy ( like me she loves The Return of the Native, but unlike me hates Jude the Obscure and she doesn't even mention a favourite tear-jerker of mine - Tess of the Durbervilles) to largely forgotten people like Elizabeth Jane Howard (I vowed to get down my row of her novels and re-read them, as I remember loving them back in the 70's - I think). Mind you I couldn't agree with her dislike of Jane Austen or her enthusiasm for Anita Brookner - very tedious in my view. Still, having vowed to cut down on my book-buying as part of my 10:10 commitment this book certainly gave me lot of inspiration for shopping my own shelves. Actually I loved all Susan Hill's own early novels so will have to re-read them too.

The novel I finished last week - Sunnyside by Glen David Gould - was a disappointment to me, as I absolutely loved his first novel - Carter Beats the Devil. There were 3 separate story strands, all set during World War One. The largest chunk was devoted to Charlie Chaplin's early career and for me it never caught life, though there were some striking scenes. One section my heart sank whenever it came up. I found myself only actively enjoying a third strand about a lighthouse keeper turned soldier who rescues two new-born puppies in war-torn France. One of them turns out to be that great canine hero of numerous films - Rin-Tin-Tin, which at least brings us back full circle as, at the beginning, the lighthouse-keeper was one of numerous people across the States caught up in the hysteria of imagining they had seen Charlie Chaplin wherever they were on a certain day in 1916. I had really looked forward to this so sad to be disappointed.

Take action on climate debt | World Development Movement

Take action on climate debt | World Development Movement

I've just sent the following messages reminding Gordon Brown of the climate debt we owe to the majority world.

Dear Prime Minister, FINAL DEMAND: UK’s climate debt to the world’s poorest people The industrialised world has become rich through a carbon-intensive model of development. It is responsible for over 70 per cent of historical carbon emissions. This leaves the UK with a massive climate debt to the world’s poorest people. We hereby demand the UK stops increasing this debt by radically cutting emissions immediately. Furthermore, the UK’s outstanding climate debt to the world’s poorest people must be paid in full by providing: • Both the funds and free transfer of technology to enable climate-friendly development. • Financial compensation to the developing world to support it in adapting to the devastating effects of climate change. FAILURE TO PAY THIS DEBT WILL RESULT IN MASSIVE GLOBAL INJUSTICE Please respond before the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009. Yours sincerely, ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear G77 Ambassador, I am writing to you as part of the G77 group of developing countries negotiating collectively at the Copenhagen climate summit. I want you to know that I have written to my government demanding that they recognise and repay the climate debt that the UK owes to the Global South. I have insisted that offsetting cannot count towards paying this debt, and that finance for adaptation and mitigation must not be through the World Bank. Please keep your nerve at Copenhagen, and demand what the UK and the rest of the rich world owes you.

Finally it is Saturday and not a single meeting in sight!

A run-through of this week's meetings gives a pretty good idea of the normal routine since I've been a Lewes town councillor.

Monday evening to Landport Residents Association. This was mostly talking about the coming Xmas party, which is to be held at the Youth Centre.

Tuesday evening to the Budget working party at the town hall. Unlike last year where some of us were determined to bring about a reduction in the increase proposed by the town clerk to below 4%, this year he had proposed a more modest increase of 2.49% and I felt happy to go along with that. "Nemesis" pontificated on how important it was that the town council had sufficient income to do worthwhile things for the town and suggested he'd like to see a bigger increase.I agreed with the first part of that, but felt that we must bear in ind the hard times being faced by many people out there in the real world. So we agreed to agree on the 2.49%.

Wednesday evening and back to Landport for the youth centre management committee meeting. As chair I'd drawn up a longish agenda. As ever there is always discussion on work that needs doing on the building, but good news Kate informs us that the county council is planning to give us a grant recognising that we cannot keep the building open for youth activities without some financial support. We discuss the proposed Xmas party, as well as cleaning of the building - we have an enthusiastic volunteer, but are worried that it may be too much for her physically. The AGM had been planned for January, but we realise that we will have to change the date because all the town councillors on the committee will be attending the panto as part of the civic party (ah, a town councillor's lot is definitely a happy one!!). No problem and I agree to do a notice for Lewes News, while Roger will see if he can get something into Viva Lewes - Perhaps to do with the mural we hope will be done in the hallway by a student from the college.

Thursday night and it is the Fairtrade town steering committee meeting. I end up with a commitment to re-jig the leaflet and print it ready for distribution on Late Night Shopping, along with leaflets we have from the Foundation. We also discuss plans for Fairtrade Fortnight - more work needed on that in the New Year.

Friday afternoon and it is the traffic working party at the town hall. The lead councillor and the officer from the county council have come to hear our concerns at the lack of consultation with us on the parking scheme. Finally - after what seems like quite a lot of resistance we are promised that we will be fully consulted when the scheme is reviewed next spring. I suppose we will have to wait and see if that actually happens. Along meeting and I get home exhausted.

AsI nearly said at the beginning thank goodness for the weekend and no meetings!

As well as being signed up to 10:10 as an individual and having persuaded Lewes Town Council to support, I have just signed up Landport Youth Centre, where I am chair of the management committee. We hope very much to get the young people involved in meeting the target.

As chair of the Lewes CND group I was interested to receive a copy of the letter below today asking Barack Obama to call an international ceasefire for a week to celebrate his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now wouldn't that be something if it actually happened, though I'm not holding my breath. After all it it were possible to stop warfare for a week people might start wondering if there couldn't be a - much - longer ceasefire.

On our car we have a sticker which says WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER. It is surely about time that politicians started to understand that in the end we will have to talk to our so-called enemies, so why not start with 'jaw-jaw' instead of 'war-war'?

INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE CALLS FOR GLOBAL CEASEFIRE DURING NOBEL WEEK IN DECEMBER

OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

Nov. 15, 2009, Washington DC

Dear Mr President :

We have two requests to make of you. In just a few weeks you will travel to Oslo to receive the world’s most distinguished award, the Nobel Peace Prize. In order to underline the solemn nature of this award and the responsibilities it implies, we call on you to declare the week devoted to the award ceremonies (Dec. 4 -11) a period of global cease-fire, initiated by the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It would be an historic step, as was the ‘Christmas Truce’ in the First World War.

Your election as President of the USA and your many eloquent speeches, have given rise to extraordinary expectations. Among the most important is the commitment you have expressed to achieving a world without nuclear weapons. We therefore call on you to take bold steps now to open negotiations on their complete elimination. We already have the road maps, including the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention; it is a matter of political will, and leadership. We are looking to you, the Nobel peace laureate 2009, to take those steps. With the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty coming up in May next year, this is the ideal moment at which to make such an announcement. We are sure that it would receive a positive response among other nuclear states. And it would generate tremendous support among the peoples of the world, who continue to live under the nuclear sword of Damocles, 20 years on from the end of the Cold War.

This letter is endorsed by the participants at the annual conference of the International Peace Bureau (Nobel Peace Prize 1910), under the title Rolling Back Militarism: a Task for the Global Movement. The event was held on Nov. 14-15, 2009 at Georgetown University, Washington DC, with participation from IPB member organizations and partners from the USA, Canada, Sweden, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, France, Argentina, Liberia, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya.

Colin Archer, IPB Secretary-General

Tomas Magnusson, IPB President

It's Queens Speech day. As a long standing supporter of electoral reform one of my big disappointments is that Brown missed his big chance to fix our broken democracy today - it was perhaps his last opportunity to be known as the PM with the guts and the vision to start fixing our broken democracy. At the urging of Vote for a Change I've joined many other reformers in writing to Gordon Brown demanding action.

Gordon Brown has promised us the referendum we need if he wins the next election. He could still give this to us on election day - but he can also make sure that we get this referendum in the next Parliament, even if he loses, by passing legislation that binds the next Parliament to reform.

It's in his power - so we need to urge him to use it.Join me now in writing a letter to Gordon, asking him to use his last "last chance" to do the right thing:

http://voteforachange.co.uk/ourchoice

38 Degrees | Invite

38 Degrees | Invite

yet another email sent to my local MP on an issue that Greens care passionately about. In thus case it is about child poverty and the need for the Chancellor to prioritise this in his Pre-Budget statement, especially at this time of recession.

38 Degrees | Don't top-slice the license fee: email your MP now in less than 2 minutes

38 Degrees | Don't top-slice the license fee: email your MP now in less than 2 minutes

I may be a wannabe MP myself, but for now I make sure I contact my local MP on important issues like this one. I hope you will follow my example.

GREEN PARTY

FAIR IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR

Probably six months to go to the general election and time to start talking and writing about the issues we'll be needing to highlight during the campaign.

People all too easily dismiss the Green Party as just being about the environment, so I suppose it is just pandering to the stereotype to record my delight that on Thursday night Lewes Town Council voted unanimously in support of my motion asking it to sign up to the 10:10 initiative. However our party is also very much committed to social justice and I've just put together a letter based on the Green Party's reaction to the government's Social care White paper:-

Social Care – Keep it Fair

With up to 11 million disabled people in the UK and approximately 5.2 million carers in England the government's Social Care Green Paper will clearly affect many Lewes residents.

The Green Party opposes the unfair means-testing of benefits. We support universal benefits with fair, equal and uniform access to care because investing in people's wellbeing helps keep them from deteriorating. Entitlement should be based on need, so as well as opposing means-testing we oppose care-charging. Assessment of entitlement, whether at national or local level, should not be driven by the bonus culture which often accompanies the involvement of the private companies or pseudo charities.

Disabled people should not bear the brunt of ‘difficult financial choices'. If spending cuts are necessary they should not affect services provided to older and disabled people. Care and support must be available free at the point of use. We believe that leaving the provision of services chiefly in the remit of Local Authorities increases the risk of such funding being spent in other budgetary areas when no real provision for ring-fencing is provided. Thus a national and universal system of funding is essential.

The Green Party opposes the disempowerment of disabled people by withdrawing or reallocating Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Attendance Allowance (AA), as these benefits allow disabled people to self-direct their independent living options. DLA and AA are currently easy to claim. Making AA means-tested would discourage claims and we believe the government is more interested in stigmatising claimants of means-tested benefits than in promoting benefits entitlement. The argument that the benefit is complicated to apply for should not be used to replace it with an even more complicated means tested benefit. The vast majority of disabled people and disability organisations have made clear their opposition to the removal of DLA and we support them in that. We also believe that £53 per week Carer's Allowance is inadequate - indeed, a cruel indictment of the government’s disregard for family carers.

Green proposals include:

• More resources for carers and respite care for both carers and those cared for by them. Given that Department of Health figures recognise that family-based carers save the NHS £87 bn per year UK-wide, a serious lack of consideration of the needs of family-based carers suggests a surrender of the welfare state to the market.

• A guarantee that disability benefits and financial provision for carers will not be reduced. Family-based carers can offer greater specialised knowledge and commitment to the care and support of loved ones than an army of paid care workers on cover shifts and with limited in-service training. It does seem also that the requirements of people with invisible disabilities such as mental health problems, learning disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions have been ignored. Such service-users are more sensitive to changes regarding the identity of the carer, while market-driven ideas of 'accountability' lead to excess time being devoted to bureaucracy rather than actually attending to helping vulnerable adults.

The Green Party believes that most people want a fair system of social care and fair is what my party thinks is worth fighting for.