Meme: Firsts

AVPS has tagged me in a meme about political first times and to make up for a slow blogging weekend I thought why not.

First political experience I am pretty sure my first defining political experience was watching Michael Foot on TV. It was during the Falklands War and he seemed to be attacking Thatcher for not being patriotic enough. I remember thinking "Aren't you meant to be in CND and that? Shouldn't you be against the war?" Bizarrely the experience made me a committed Labour Party supporter, although I do see the contradictions in that now.

First vote I believe this was 1989 in the local and European elections where I voted - shock - Labour in both. The first of many, many times. I've run out of Labour goes now so my cross goes elsewhere these days.

First demo Seeing this made me remember an action day at my school where hundreds of kids congregated on the playing fields in solidarity with the teachers' strike. I was about twelve so, not being a little Lenin or anything, I basically attended rather than organising the thing. It was good fun though as the Deputy Head got angry with us when we wouldn't disperse and started chasing kids around - forgetting that he was an old man and we were Essex Yoof. Sucker!

Last vote I've no heresy to report I'm afraid. I voted for the Green Party in both local and European elections just a couple of months ago. Keeping up the tradition neither of the people I voted for got in.

Last political activity What's political activity? I just folded about a hundred letters to local supporters and stuffed them into envelopes. Does that count? It was literally a few minutes ago so there was nothing more recent than that.

If you'd like to tag yourself - please feel free - the more the merrier!

Interview with Judy Maciejowska

As I mentioned the Green Party conference is starting on Thursday and as part of that there are going to be a series of elections to some of the most exciting committees and governance bodies you can find. It's just a roller coaster of raves, illicit sex and fashionable cocktails, or at least so I'm told.

Anyway, we have a very important year ahead of us with a general election where there is a general expectation that the Green Party can and should be winning its first ever MPs. That means whoever our elections coordinator turns out to be they are going to have a whole weight of expectations on them and are going to be required to be cool under pressure, highly experienced and have a proven record of national level election organising.

Judy Maciejowska is standing for the post (and you can see her website here) so I thought I'd ask her a few questions to see if I could find out a little more about her;

You've got experience of national election strategy going right back to the Greens' high point of the 1989 European election, what do you feel are the key principles in getting an election strategy right?

First of all the strategy must have the support of the whole party. The election isn’t only going to be contested by GPEx and the target constituencies, but by all the local parties and every activist up and down the country.

So the election strategy needs to be addressed early in the election cycle to give activists the chance to have an input. Fortunately we already have an excellent paper produced by Sarah Birch, a former Elections Coordinator, and passed by Conference last year. Certainly it needs updating to reflect the current position, and this will be one of my priorities, but the framework is there and I’m very happy to adhere to it.

Secondly you need a good ‘nose’ for the important issues around the party, and how to get our message across to opinion formers and voters. It’s good then to be able to bounce thoughts and ideas around with colleagues and the elections team.

How do you see the role of national elections coordinator?

On a day to day basis there needs to be tight coordination of all the relevant teams and departments. It’s no good, for example, having Publications producing leaflets without liaising with Policy or External Communications. Also everybody needs to know that the fund-raising is on target, and budgets are being adhered to. So probably first and foremost the Elections Coordinator must have his or her finger on the pulse of all the campaign’s work, or you end up with a horrible mess.

But no election campaign goes according to plan. You have to expect the unexpected, and that’s where the coordinator’s role is so important, keeping in touch with the candidates, the communications teams, GPEx chair etc.

I also think the Elections Coordinator needs to be prepared to balance the expectations of the wider party with those of the outside world. Of course, that should be said of all GPEx’s externally focused coordinators, but none more so than the Elections Coordinator. Targets and messages must be challenging but realistic, and the figure work and statistics of Chris Rose, our so-dependable National Agent, will be crucial in those sorts of decisions.

How do we balance the crucial need of winning our target MPs at this election and the needs of the national party?

Of course we are putting our maximum efforts into our target constituencies. This is an exciting time for the party and we have a real chance at last, to get representation in Westminster and really start to put our agenda at the centre of policy making.

But we mustn’t forget that there are equally important elections all over the country, not least on local authorities, and these must be given as much support and validity as our target Westminster seats. The London Borough elections only come up every four years and success here is not simply a platform for Westminster, but a genuine way of making a difference in our communities, the foundation of the green agenda.

The same must be said of our candidates all across the country. I’d like to pull together a team of all the regional agents, to get advice and feedback from them, and ensure the campaign is as relevant to activists in the wider party as it is to the target constituencies.

If you're elected next week what do you think the most difficult challenges of the job are going to be, and what's going to be the most fun?

In one sense the biggest challenge comes after the election, when the excitement has died down and activists flop into exhaustion, hoping never to see another leaflet. That’s precisely when our successes and disappointments need to be managed even more carefully.

It will certainly be an exhilarating year, and I guess it will be a challenge just to keep the national election machine running smoothly without pulling my hair out, but that will also be the most fun.

Weekending: 30th August

Not only the week but also August is ending. Shall we miss them? Perhaps a little;

• New blog on the block - Green Christian.
• Check out Jamblichus, you might like it.
• Joyous, that's the only word I can use to describe Glum Councillors.
  

• Are you boycotting Scotland? If so, please do it properly.
• Carnival of Feminism... number two.
  
• I've recently heard about the Union of Concerned Scientists. Interesting.
• A generation of Indian children crippled by uranium waste.
• How green socialism can save the UK.
  

Some more selected climate camp round-uppery;

• Liberal Conspiracy - the real point of climate camp.
• HarpyMarx visits - with camera.
• Sunny Hundal also took some lovely pics.
• More 'official' photos here.
  
• Bristling Badger compares Newbury and Climate Camp.
• Caroline Lucas speaks at the Camp on happiness.
• Guardian News Quiz on the camp.
• The Daily Mail reports. Yes it does.

Some site news;

Over the next week(ish) I'm going to be making radical adjustments to my blogroll links in the right hand column. It's never been comprehensive yet has always been far too long to be of any real use to anyone. So, given the fact that I'm an aficionado of link love and have always believed that linking here in the posts is far more effective than a static link on the roll over there, I'm going to strip it down to the bare minimum.

I hope that makes it more usable for readers without offending anyone I remove - as that will be 95% of you. I will continue to link to you in my posts and also feel free to do what some call 'link whoring' - where you gratuitously link to a post you've written that you think deserves wider coverage - although please, only on the weekending threads.

If you think this is a bad policy let me know now, before I do it, rather than after when I'll be far too lazy to go back and get all those deleted posts back online.

The video this week shows us how to be safe with guns;

South African troops on strike

South Africa has been blighted by riots and social unrest from some months now and in the context of political disunity among the old allies of the ANC there seems to be little light at the end of the tunnel.

With the news that around 1,500 troops went on strike, marched and demanded to see President Zuma demanding a 30% pay rise on top of their concerns that the army is being drafted into law enforcement duties. The police then attacked the striking soldiers and mayhem ensued.

The government now intends to sack every single one of the soldiers saying that they would not tolerate "thuggish behaviour by our armed forces". Although it appears they do tolerate it in their police forces.

Those involved "must accept no sympathy from the state, as the law will take its course... Defying a court order... and attempting to invade the seat of government is totally unacceptable, especially from people who have the responsibility of being the true defenders of the constitution... This is applicable to all types of protests we have seen, which is bordering on hooliganism." *

The demonstration was organised by the South African National Defence Union (SANDU). SANDU national secretary Pikkie Greeff said that soldiers were some of the lowest paid workers in the country. “Soldiers often leave their loved ones at home and put their lives on the line for their country. Our members are part of the country’s poverty problems.”

Debating policy: prostitution

One of the interesting discussions that we'll be having next week at Green Party conference is on our prostitution policy. Whilst there's no motion this time there are two workshops aimed at rethinking our current policy - a policy I've expressed some pride in on a number of occasions.

In short our current policy, which was developed in liaison with organisations representing sex workers themselves, is aimed at taking the criminality out of the industry, pro-unionisation and enabling women (and men) to be safe, working in environments of their own choosing.

There will be two fringes at conference, the first (Friday at noon) is hosted by Eaves Housing for Women which describes itself as a "Debate on the demand for prostitution and human rights". Eaves oversees the high profile and heavily government funded Poppy Project which works with trafficked women.

The second is at four on the Saturday "Prostitution – is it time to update our policy?" which has Jenny Jones, Caroline Lucas, Sandrine Levêque (of Object) who will be arguing for us to change our policy and Natalie Bennett who will be the case for the defence.

Now, leaving aside the fact that there are two fringes booked both aimed at changing our policy on the same issue with one outnumbered speaker allowed to argue for the Party's policy, I'd like to say that this looks like a bit of push to at the least tone down our liberalisation message and at worst will be for greater emphasis on law enforcement, sidelining the views of those sex workers and advocates we consulted when formulating our original policy.

For my money policy should be directed towards helping the vulnerable protect themselves - by joining unions, by forming co-operatives, protected at work by legislation rather than criminalised. Our focus should be on the rights of the sex worker not the criminalisation of sex work.

Whilst the trade remains illegal those who work in the industry will be disadvantaged, and even where it is just the clientele that are criminalised, sex workers themselves say it makes them more vulnerable to attack and leaves them on the wrong side of the law.

I certainly hope that these fringes do not mark the beginning of the end of what I regard as one of the best social policies in the Party's manifesto. I guess I'll just have to attend the fringes and see what happens.

Science pledge: just say no

Well the science pledge poll results are in and, I can proudly announce dear readers, that you're wrong. Or rather 63% of the people who voted in the poll are. It happens, don't feel bad about it.

Should a pledge be introduced for scientists and technologists to promise to respect the Earth and life upon it? Selection Votes Yes - absolutely! 35% 46 Yes - could be a good idea 28% 37 No - although I'm sympathetic 10% 13 No - I hate the idea 25% 32 Not sure 2% 2 130 votes total

I'm assuming 'foul play' but I could be wrong. I'd just like to raise some of my problems with a pledge specifically for scientists (which is currently the Green Party of England and Wales' policy).

1. Why single out scientists? Why not make industrialists or hedge-fund managers take a pledge?
2. What happens to them if they don't? When some poor sap working in theoretical physics, wrestling with an algebraic leviathan, doesn't want to 'respect' anything without the prefix 'nano-' attached does he lose his job? What does that do to academic freedom?
3. Why do we have to rely on moralistic mechanisms like pledges? Don't they substitute for the more difficult process of actually persuading people? What's wrong with making environmentally damaging practices illegal?
   

I personally believe that such a pledge feeds into the idea that all Greens are anti-science. Well, that may be true of some but I reckon they're the minority and I hope to prove that in March by taking out our policy to make people swear oaths to Mother Nature or whatever.

NB next week is Green Party conference and the whole 'Is science naughty' thing is going to get aired formally at two workshops, hope to see flocks of sensible Greens there.

3 pm Friday Stuart Jeffrey is leading a panel on "science and health care - what treatments should be available on the NHS?"

12 noon on Saturday We have a workshop billed as setting up the science and technology working group, although actually it's going to discuss some of these issues around policy in a bit more depth.

Climate Camp: round up

Just a selection of the climate camp in the news and that;

• Day one at climate camp and Big Brother is nowhere to be seen. CiF Green.
• Rebel site venue for climate camp. Independent.
• Climate Camp sets up near Blackheath. Guardian.
• The Telegraph asks - what's not to like?
  
• Activists gather at climate camp, BBC. In pictures.
• Open Democracy like what they see.
• So does Waging non-violence.
  
• Green Ladywell is very excited by the camp arriving in her town.
• Andy Hewitt of the Green Left also welcomes the campers.
• Camden Green Party has a report of their discussions with CCers on their blog.
• The police have issued a helpline for journalists who get in trouble, with the police.
  
• There's going to be a movie on Monday. Ecomonkey.
  
• Climate Camp TV here.
• Climate Camp blog.
• Indymedia reports. Site taken.
  

Spot more? Tell me - I'll put it up!

Climate Camp: local politicians respond

Let's see how local politicians took the news that Climate Camp has rocked up in Lewisham.

Labour's Mayor 'tweeted' that "Climate change huge concern to me but do not believe irresponsible approach of the CC campers will win public support and make change happen."

Lib Dem councillors issued a statement saying that "We are appalled at the disturbance caused to local residence and amenities. We hope that both the Protesters and Police alike act with respect for the local community."

Green councillors on the other hand said "We're really proud Climate Camp chose Lewisham as its base for communicating its hugely important and positive message.

"The campers have promised to be good neighbours and we are confident the heath will be left just as it was found. I'd urge local people to visit the site, see it for themselves and perhaps even pick up new skills at the camp's packed programme of workshops."

Councillors Sue Luxton and Darren Johnson getting all over excited! God bless 'em!

Sports Desk: 25th August

Welcome to this week's reports from The Daily (Maybe) sports desk;

Football

SportsDirect have been selling a T-Shirt that mocked the victims of the Hillsborough disaster saying 96 victims was not enough. Charming.

Meanwhile in Argentina they are in the throws of one of those crisis / opportunity things. In the midst of a financial crisis the government has ridden to the rescue with a financial deal that should breath new life into the game allowing any broadcaster to show football matches for free.

Of course, some have to go to real lengths to catch a game. Take Michael Greenwell. His quest to watch a Celtic Game in Nepal is recorded here.

Cricket

Steve Platt mentions the left, cricket and T-shirts on sale in this quick post.

Another cricket short from Norfolk Blogger on Dean du Plessis, the blind cricket commentator.

Athletics

Caster Semenya (below) is one of the quickest women in the world. Or is he? Carole Cadwalladr, Dave Zirin and The Nation have interesting things to say on the controversy which has led to the boss of South African athletics quitting. At the center of it all a woman that no one accuses of cheating or making false claims over her gender.

Certainly when she came home it was to a rapturous welcome.

Activism

This week's climate camp has an action defending communities disrupted by the Olympics. Details here...

And finally, and I thought you might enjoy this...

Admiral Hege-money

Listening to the news this morning I'm sure I was as delighted as all of you will be to hear that the Admiral insurance group is still making a healthy profit despite these trying times. That certainly is a relief.

Anyway, it was during the piece that they read out exactly what the Admiral Insurance group covers and something caught my attention. The following is part of the list;

Admiral - the Group’s first brand, set up in 1993 - mainly targeting those who traditionally pay higher than average premiums, including drivers under-35 and those living in big cities.

Bell - set up originally as Bell Direct in 1997 - its main target market being drivers with zero no claims bonus.

Diamond - created for women in response to a need in the market place for insurance specifically for young women drivers, which is not only good value, but also as hassle free as possible.

elephant.co.uk - is the UK’s first wholly online car insurance service. The brand passes on cost savings generated by being an online brand to customers in the form of lower premiums.

Gladiator Commercial - is the Group’s commercial vehicle insurance broker that was launched in April 1998. The Company acts on behalf of several of the largest commercial vehicle insurers in the UK.

Confused.com - is an intelligent, automated car insurance shopper. Customers input their details once, and receive quotes from all the major car insurance websites.

Balumba.es is the Admiral Group's first European company and launched in November 2006.

AdmiralDirekt.de is the Admiral Group's second European company and was launched in October 2007.

Conte.it is the Admiral Group's third European company and was launched in May 2008.

Rastreator.com is our Spanish price comparison site, it was launched in March 2009. Currently it offers online car insurance comparison services.

Did you spot it? No, no - not the soul crushing villainy of the capitalist hydra whose beast spouts many heads but has just one belly...

The price comparison companies. Admiral own both a large share of the many insurance 'brands' and the resources that are meant to help you choose between those brands.

Now, I've scoured those websites and there's something very interesting. Whilst most users will assume they are receiving independent advise they never claim to be independent, they never list which insurance companies they link to and they never make clear that they are part of a constellation of insurance companies that has a direct financial interest in increasing the market share of their companies over the opposition.

Questions: Is this not a conflict of interest? Should they not be obliged to make it clear which insurance companies they compare the prices of and end up recommending? Should they not have a big sign on their sites saying "Warning: you are asking the chef how you should be cooked."

Life and death in Sao Paulo

Two thousand slum dwellers on the outskirts of Sao Paulo have been fighting attempts to evict them today. The police fired tear gas at crowds who erected burning barricades and threw Molotov cocktails and stones to resist the eviction.

Homes in the Capao Redondo area, which have stood on the site for the last two years, were bulldozed (right) leaving thousands of the poorest Brazilians homeless.

As the former residents of Capao Redondo look on helplessly at the rubble where their shacks once stood they can take heart that their nation is to receive a massive new oil windfall pouring wealth into somebody's pockets at least.

Brazil is one of the biggest economies in the world but there is a massive gulf between the richest and poorest. The Brazilian government effectively criminalises poverty. For all the promise that President Lula once held the situation for these workers has not improved. Sadly, there is little that they can do but fight back and hope for a better day.

Open Letter to the Met from Climate Camp

The Camp for Climate Action has issued this open letter to the Metropolitan Police as a helpful guide on how to ensure the camp is a healthy, safe, and community orientated place to be. Enjoy.

Weekending: 23rd August

New blogs, links I've spotted and the odd bit of frippery;

• Iraqi immigrant, Dana Ali, faces deportation after an alleged Home Office blunder fails to recognise his marriage to a British citizen. Please do read.
  

• Meanwhile at the bar is a new group blog that looks rather good.
• Also check out Green Construction UK.
• I only just came across Whirled Peas.
  
• Guerrilla Welsh Fare is an interesting Plaid blog.
• I'm really getting into Derren Brown's blog. Very special.
  
• I've never linked to Our Kingdom and I should really.
  
• I don't go in for Lib Dem bashing particularly but The Keane Green has a very interesting post along these lines.
• There's an interesting project to map out local blogs called Nutshell.

• I'm becoming increasingly alarmed at the way the Libyan prisoner release affair is being handled in the media. The Flying Rodent expresses some of this, Al Jazeera a little more and Haaretz a bit more. I'd like to add that the crowds cheering al-Megrahi home were welcoming someone they believed had been wrongly convicted and was innocent of any crime - not celebrating terrorism. Not that anyone seems to be pointing this out.
  

Letter of the week comes from Friday's Independent;

With regard to the howls of protest from America about the release or transfer of "the Lockerbie bomber": could anyone remind me how many years in jail were served by the American(s) responsible for the downing of the Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, killing all 290 aboard, including 66 children?

Hedley Sutton, Cinderford, Gloucestershire

A little climate video I spotted from YouTube;

Vesuvius: 23rd August 79 AD

Today in the year 79 AD was the day of Vulcan, God of Fire, and Vesuvius began it's fateful rumble that would herald the two day obliteration of Pompeii and Herculanium with the deaths of tens of thousands.

Earlier in the month the springs and wells had dried up and they'd been experiencing earth tremors - but this was nothing new and the volcano had been growling in its sleep for something like twenty years before the big day.

They hadn't realised that these smaller signs were portents of a cataclysm and they continued their lives in the shadow of the volcano, unaware that when their doom came they'd have little to no chance to flee.

Pliny the Younger, whose uncle died in the disaster commanding a fleet that went to the rescue of the area, witnessed the eruption at the tender age of seventeen and he described how ash and stones rained down as sheets of fire leaped out of the volcanoes maw and the sky was covered with thick, black, poisonous smoke.

This wasn't the last time Vesuvius has erupted either. Apparently it has awoken dozens of times in spectacular fashion, including during the Second World War although the Allied forces had captured the area at this point (1944) so sadly the eruption hampered the Allies rather than the fascists' war effort.

In praise of rationing

Everyone was going on about rationing last week. First you had that Tory whinging about his wages then the Republicans claimed adopting a system like our beloved NHS would lead to rationing health care, even though no one’s proposing creating an American NHS and it’s their system that denies people care when they need it, not ours.

When did we start seeing rationing as a bad thing? My grandma thought wartime rationing was great. Bringing up five kids, with her husband away, it guaranteed a standard of living she never had in the thirties.

Rationing did not just deny people the ability to have more than their fair share in a time of scarcity; it also guaranteed that everyone had enough. During a national crisis it was a measure that said everyone was still entitled to the basics of life.

Today we’ve started to see anything that denies us the right to consume as much as we want as some sort of hateful attack on our human rights, akin to Pol Pot’s killing fields. However, it’s just rational to understand that if we continue to insulate the atmosphere at the current rate things will get a touch uncomfortable.

If I continually put on jumpers demanding my right to wear as many jumpers as I like it shouldn’t come as a surprise when I get really hot. If we clog the air with thick gases the effect might be rather similar.

The current system of rationing that we use is called money. If you can’t lay your hands on enough units, you can’t purchase the goods you want. This system doesn’t guarantee that everyone has enough and it pretends we live in a magical fairyland where there are no limits, especially if you have a functioning credit card.

A more rational system could kill two birds with one stone (which you might need to do, if stones were rationed). We could ensure everyone has somewhere to stay, something to eat and at least one decent party dress. We could also ensure that those items that are most polluting (because they’ve been shipped a long way, they’re made of toxic substances or they use lots of energy) don’t get produced in such numbers that they damage our long-term interests.

Less pollution, less inequality, everyone with a bed to sleep in. I say that a world with rationing would be fairer, create clean air incentives and rehabilitate a word that’s fallen among scoundrels. MP’s and Republicans.

Best Green Blogs Announced

Total Politics has announced the top Green blogs for 2009.

The top five or 'golden circle', chosen by popular vote, are;

1 (1) The Daily (Maybe)
2 (2) Two Doctors
3 (9) Peter Cranie
4 (3) Another Green World
5 (10) Barkingside 21

The number in brackets indicates the place in the same poll last year.

Good choices one and all. Special mention should also go to Sue Luxton who came in at number seven and is therefore our top blogging councillor. Your commemorative plaque is in the post!

A special thanks to everyone who voted for me, I'll try to reward your kindness with the best blogging I can provide over the coming year. It's all just a bit of fun of course, but heart warming none the less.

Well done James

Get in! Well done James.

Iain Dale has published the Total Politics list of top Scottish Bloggers and Two Doctors has achieved even further greatness moving up to number five.

He's the only Green to make it into the Scottish top ten so far and it would be good to see the green blogosphere in Scotland become strong enough to hold two or three of those top ten places in future years.

There are some good green bloggers north of the border like Adopted Domain and Suitably Despairing, I also believe Euro-blog Thursday Briefing is written by a Scot. All three of these deserve to gain a bit more profile for their splendid efforts.

Let's hope that we'll also see Patrick Harvie add a blog to his existing stunning website. He's possibly the only person I follow on twitter whose tweeting has reached the news so just think how effective his macro-blogging might be - hmmm.

Well done James. All power to the existing and future Green and left bloggers up round your way.

Politeness in politics

On a personal level manners are something I value pretty highly and it's doubly useful in politics to be able to work with others without generating needless feuds over some sideshow about so and so being rude to such and such. It's difficult to avoid entirely but bullies, bores and braggarts are rarely successful politically.

Trotsky went so far as to argue that politeness wasn't just about keeping an organisation ticking over smoothly without problems, it was actually a political virtue in itself when he said; "Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people."

I'm inclined to agree, although we're all human - naturally - so I wouldn't want to suggest I insist on the highest standards, I just prefer them.

Manners come into their own when you're talking to the general public about politics because whilst they are bound by no particular code the activist has to remain true to their task and put aside their desire to huff and puff if they feel offended.

I was collecting money for the firefighters during one of the Essex FBU disputes once when an older couple came up to me. The guy wanted to have a go at me and strikes in general and we had a little discussion in which he described striking firefighters as cowards. I replied that they weren't cowards "They're fucking heroes."

His eyes popped and then in horror he boomed "Don't you swear in front of my wife!" and they were gone. I don't take back the sentiment, obviously, but by swearing I lost any chance of persuading that guy that the strike was worth supporting. A little slip lost me my chance with him, oh well.

When knocking on doors today I had two contrasting experiences that made me wonder on the significance of manners in politics, if any.

The first was an older gentleman who told me flat out that he'd have nothing to do with the Greens. We got into a conversation where he told me what's the point of fighting in Afghanistan when we can't win and we're just killing "them poor buggers", and then there's the immigrants (pause while I waited for whatever was on his mind, which never came) and then those thieving bastards... those bloody MPs.

You could say it was a wide ranging conversation which was all very pleasant, included not a little laughter and ended with a hand shake and fond fair well. No political joy, but personally very pleasant.

The story round the corner was quite different, a woman came to the door already cross before she'd even seen me. Pre-cross if you like, her inner hive of wasps had already been poked with the sharp stick of life and I was the first passer-by.

She opened the door with a cheery "What the bloody hell!" and I prepared to have my buttocks handed to me with speed and force as I explained who I was and that I was canvassing the area. "I've got no time now," she barked and I prepared my retreat "but you can put me down as a definite, oh, and how do I join the party?"

She was obviously having a busy day and I don't begrudge her the fact she was having a strop but she was the rudest person I've encountered door knocking for a while by miles even though by my canvassing sheet she was a bit of a success. The general culture, at least in the places I go, is that you're polite to canvassers even when you despise their party - something I like to encourage out of self interest.

It was a good reminder, for me anyway, that whilst I respect manners more than possibly any other virtue in a person they don't necessarily go hand in hand with any sort of political affinity. Of course I knew this already, there's plenty of lefties I don't like and Tories that I do, but it's nice to be reminded of it now and then.

Derelict ideas

I spotted this little news story on the Scottish section of the BBC site about how a group of people decided to improve their local community and Glasgow council has decided to take them to court for the pleasure.

It seems a patch of land had lain fallow and unused for more than 25 years, so all credit to the locals who had the get up and go to turn it to good use, growing vegetables, planting flowers and essentially empowering the community without doing a single person in the world the least bit of harm.

Glasgow council has seen things differently and issued a 'get off my land' notice to the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign which has been operating for some months improving the area.

According to the Beeb; "Douglas Peacock, who chairs the group, said the idea was to transform a derelict piece of land into community use. The campaign began with a few people volunteering to plant flowers and clean up the site".

"It's now a wild flower meadow and on the back of this some local people wanted to grow vegetables - hence the raised beds which we have installed. We now want to do something bigger and install a raised bed which will grow herbs and lettuce for the whole community".

It sounds bloody marvellous to me. People who care about where they live are the backbone of the community. They should be supported by the council not taken to bloody court.

It's also good to see that MSP Patrick Harvie is supporting the cause saying "The city council has seriously misjudged popular feeling about the North Kelvin Meadow, and it will regret this absurd legal action... Local people are being taken to court for improving their public space, for working together and for growing their own fruit and veg, something which Glasgow needs to do much more of.

"The North Kelvin Meadow Campaign is Glasgow at its finest, and the council should be listening to it, not prosecuting it."

Which is exactly what I just said. Bloody plagiarist.

Whilst the council may say that if you transgress the letter of the law you have to be punished, I'd say that natural justice dictates that if the council left the land to go derelict when others have a use for it - why should we leave it in the hands of those who'd squander an ideal opportunity to grow something with roots?

Sports Desk: 18th August

Hi there. Here's my weekly sports desk reports. I hope there's something here for everyone.

Golf

President Chavez of Venezuela is known for his denunciations. He's often found denunciating like a mother. This time the subject of his ire? Golf. As George Bernard Shaw said it's "Typical capitalist lunacy".

Football

Splintered Sunrise discusses sporting boycotts as Israel's football team play in the North of Ireland.

Dara O'Briain is a very funny guy and he's just started writing a sports column for the Guardian. His first go is worth reading, although a little heavy on the 'me' side - I suspect that's because not much has happened yet. Best of luck with it Dara.

Olympics

Whilst Mayor Johnson is all girlish glee when he thinks of the Olympics not all his Tory colleagues are as enamoured. The infamous Andrew Boff, for one, who compares the Olympic village site to a "child's potato print". Steady on Boff old chap, steady on.

Guardianista

Joan Smith in Guardian argues that sport should be gender neutral. I'm right on but this all seemed a bit much.

Urban Fitness

I'm a great fan of free running, or parkour. Well the best free runners in the world have come to compete against one another in Trafalgar Square. The BBC reports and you can see the coverage here. More please!

Community

Greens win free sports for teenagers. Providing more positive options for young people.

As part of her negotiations on the Council’s annual Budget, Katie Dawson got approval for her plan for a £300,000 programme of free sports for under-18 year olds. This is now in hand, with Council officers working up a range of activities - new community competitions for football, basketball and cricket, and less familiar sports such as parkour, street athletics, ice-blading, canoeing, angling and sailing.

Partnerships will bring rugby into the borough with Saracens, extend the Arsenal Kickz scheme, and develop dance programmes. Says Katie: “This is an exciting plan, because I wanted to take the activities to the likely users. There’ll be youth sports nights in schools, extended summer play-schemes, and events on estates, in parks, even in night clubs. ”

Parts of the programme, eg trampolining and dance for teenage girls, will be targeted at hard-to-reach groups. The programme will also offer ten new apprenticeships, to help young people into full-time jobs as sports coaches, life guards and gym instructors.

Cricket

There's a great piece in Red Pepper called neither a business nor a cause by Mike Marqusee which explores the consequences of moving towards 20:20 cricket. Mike's always good value and it's well worth a read.

That's your lot for this week. If you spot anything over the next week for the next sports desk report- let me know.

Twitter is froth - so what?

Much excitement in the BBC news room as they announce that twitter is "40% babble". Babble being the technical term for 'tweets' that the 'researcher' didn't care for. All I can say is, so what?

So the research company has labelled 40% of what people say as "pointless babble". Alright, what percentage of what people say to each other face to face is "pointless babble"? More or less? Because if it's more (and it might be if we used the same guidelines) would that make Twitter more highbrow than everyday conversation?

Also I'm rather intrigued as to what criteria they used. At what point do we cross the line from chit chat to babble? In my case it's normally after the fifth sherry, but obviously everyone has a different tipping point.

"Almost as prevalent as the babble were "conversational" tweets that used it as a surrogate instant messaging system. The study found that only 8.7% of messages could be said to have "value" as they passed along news of interest."

So conversation is not of "value" and linking to something is automatically worthwhile? Are we sure about this?

Yet more bullshit social media bashing by people who don't understand it's just people talking to each other using a new means. That new means has its own unique contours, strengths and weaknesses. You don't have to like it and I certainly don't think we should buy the hype that the revolution will be twitterised, or that now is the age of the Twitter Tsar but we shouldn't just go along with stories who discard sites like twitter because people use them to talk to each other, which is what they were designed for.

Surely the point is that if people find it has value for them they will use it, if not they will go elsewhere. Telling people that their conversation bores you isn't research and it doesn't tell us anything of value. If you've monitored our conversations and found them inadequate it's time for you to get a new hobby, not us.

Weekending: 16th August

Hello dears. Are you sitting comfortably?

• Trotfinder has an excellent edition of the Carnival of Socialism up.
  
• Due to scheduling clashes I don't highlight Britblog roundup very often, today I can.

• Bloggy Blanc.
• Tripping up Trump.
• GreenFacts is interesting. A site that promotes science within the Green movement.
• Raincoat optimism was an interesting Labour blog I came across this week.
• Blurred clarity is the first blog I've seen that features the writer dancing. Nice.

• Mark Watson is on Radio Four, one of the chosen people, but he's also quite green.
• You may wish to consult the cartoon character times table.
• Have you voted in the Britain's Got Direct Action poll, if not, why not?
  
• This is lovely. If you like tinkly noises that is.

Letter of the week from the Guardian;

Jackie Ashley is right about the banality of much social networking behaviour, but fails to see how this simply reflects trends in the real world and is not driven by technology. It is odd that for many Twitterers "reality takes second place to a life in which you become the star of your own dull movie", but as her example of cine-camera-eyed tourists demonstrates, this phenomenon is not new. In our time reality has also taken second place to what is presented in the media. more...

We're all talking about health care at the moment so I thought this little clip from 'Sicko' might be of interest, although of little surprise to UK readers;

Congratulations Scarborough Green Party

Nick Harvey, long time Green campaigner, won a council by-election last night for the Greens in the Hertford Ward of Scarborough Borough Council taking the seat off the Conservatives.

Nick stood for the first time in the ward in 2007 when two seats were up for grabs, the results were;

Con 732
Con 709
LD 591
GREEN, Nick Harvey, 508
BNP 212

Yesterday Nick took the seat with;

GREEN, Nick Harvey, 894 (66.5%)
Con 356 (26.5%)
Ind 94 (7%)

Through a combination of community campaigning and targeted canvassing this brings Scarborough's Green group to three. Good work.

Update: just noticed, via Luke, that there was a second by election in Scarborough on the same night which was won by an independent taking the seat off the Lib Dems... I'm intrigued.

Who put Fitzpatrick on the guest list?

What's minister Jim Fitzpatrick up to? He's invited to a wedding of Muslim friends and when he gets there he doesn't like the seating arrangements so he storms out. Well, he says that he and his wife "left so as not to cause offence." Whereas going to all the papers to denounce the wedding he was invited to is the kind of wedding gift we'd all love to receive, don't you think?

The Labour MP arrived at the wedding to find that men and women were to be seated in separate areas, which is the custom in some Muslim ceremonies and not in others. He then decided that the wedding arrangements were not to his satisfaction and left, no doubt ringing his press officer as he stalked away.

He's quoted everywhere as saying "We are trying to build social cohesion - this is not the way forward." I agree. Insulting your hosts is not the way to build community cohesion.

It's their wedding and the arrangements are theirs to make. Who hasn't been to a wedding where they've had to contend with sitting through drunken embarrassing speeches, being seated next to a boorish relative or some other less than ideal arrangement?

When you're a grown up you recognise that you've been given the privilege of attending a ceremony that's very special to the bride and groom and you take it all in your stride. You don't spit your dummy out.

The minister has a different opinion and says that "I’m not pandering to any minority opinion." Why not? He panders to Rupert Murdoch. He pandered to Blair. More importantly complying with the family's wedding arrangements isn't "pandering" it's more commonly called manners.

Why Fitzpatrick has chosen to demonstrate to his constituents that he has the manners of slug is his own business I suppose, but I would not expect the episode to be what we call in the trade "a vote winner".

Pulling out of recession

You'll have seen that Germany and France have pulled out of recession. Last quarter they had a 0.3% growth compared to everyone else's continued decline.

The obvious question is what are they doing right? It seems to me there are some basics;

• They are in less personal debt.
• Their banks take less risks.
• They have tighter financial regulation.
• They make things.

Meanwhile over here the governor of the Bank of England has warned that recovery will be a slow and painful road. Tell us about it.

Whilst France and Germany have not been immune to the neo-liberal fetish that swept the globe in the last twenty years they have dug it into the economy far less deeply and have been able to weather the world financial crisis a little more robustly than other nations.

Good for them. Let's learn that economic lesson and then start on the more advanced sustainable economic models.

Bad Barry Bites

The Archbishop of Wales has come out against people being able to opt out of religious services at school. Barry Morgan thinks that prayer offers pupils the opportunity of "recognition, affirmation and celebration of shared values", and people should not be allowed to opt out of our shared values, particularly if they don't share them.

He made the statements as Wales followed England in allowing over 16s to opt of religious service as part of their school day. I should point out that if you're under 16 you're still forced to sit through prayers, et al, even if you have firm convictions in another direction, like atheism.

Morgan appears to believe that school prayers are "a shared spiritual experience", well that's not how I remember them at all. The idea that you have sports halls packed full of adolescents wrapped in some sort of aesthetic wonder, touched by a divine hand, was somewhat far from the reality I remember.

In fact, as a primary school kid one of my first memories is of being slapped by the headmaster because I didn't want to pray at school assembly. That showed me the love of Jesus and no mistake.

One RE teacher we had was a real joy. I forget his name because he didn't last long but he was a fundamentalist Christian of some sort. In his very first lesson with us he rebuked one lad who'd said he didn't believe in God by telling him "But if you don't believe in God you can't have any morals!" This was so palpably false that he instantly transformed us into a room of atheists. Spotty, greasy, Essex atheists.

Sadly Morgan has form. A couple of years ago he was in the news saying that fundamentalist atheism is one of the great problems facing the world. He described removing crosses from hospitals and the like as constituting "virulent, almost irrational" attacks on Christianity. Would I be right in thinking that almost irrational would be... rational? Whatever, that's by the by.

More importantly he described this tendency to recognise the diversity of our nation in less than glowing terms. "All of this is what I would call the new "fundamentalism" of our age. It allows no room for disagreement, for doubt, for debate, for discussion."

That would be terrible that, allowing no room for disagreement or doubt. I mean what next? Forcing people to attend religious services they don't agree with? Where would that all end... oh, hold on.

Give that man a medal

Good to see Stephen Hawking getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Obama administration.
Obama said of the recipients of the honours; "What unites them is a belief... that our lives are what we make of them, that no barriers of race, gender or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit, and that the truest test of a person's life is what we do for one another."

Quite.

It must be particularly welcome because Hawking has been used and abused recently by the Investors Business Daily who, in the course of an anti-health reform rant, said "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Of course, they've taken that bit out now but the problem is obvious. Not only does Hawking live in the same town as me (Cambridge, UK, where I sometimes spot him wheeling around) and has had top notch care from the NHS all his life, the idea that in the UK, unlike the US, the health care system evaluates your worth before treating you is the exact opposite of the truth.

It is the US where your worth literally makes the difference between life and death. What's interesting is the IBD did not change their editorial position of spouting rubbish about the NHS, they just edited out the bit where they made themselves look like fools.

Hawking has now had the opportunity to wade in to defend our national health system rather than one based on rationing by wealth. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS, I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

All treatment offered to him regardless of his ability to pay. Can the US system that rations the poorest say the same? Of course not. Maybe those Democrats who are wavering about reform might learn a lesson from the great man - it's not the size of your wallet that matters but the size of your ambition.

Sports desk reports

This week a few more sports items that I've seen here and there that I thought you might be interested in;

Football;

I thought Practically Insurgent wrote a lovely post pouring out his heart and soul on how he feels football is drifting ever further from his life.

Meanwhile Proper Tidy gets himself into the mood as he prepared for the first fixture for Wrexham's Red Army. (Result: 3-0 to Wrexham)

Arsenal's new flats development will segregate the rich from the poor. (Also in the same article Jeremy Corbyn's attempts to foil Islington council reversing a decision on Arsenal's match day parking).

And on a different note there's Scott Murray's tribute to the worst football kits ever.

Boxing:

It seems that women will be allowed to box at Olympic level for the first time. The London 2012 Games should be the first to feature women's boxing.

Natasha Jonas, Hannah Behanny; (front) Lucy O'Connor, Savannah Marshall and Sharon Holford. Leading British boxers.

Fishing;

Anglers mourn the death of Benson, an enormous carp, who was caught over sixty times in the last twenty five years, here. I think of this as a fun story, but it's sad really, poor old fish.

Cricket;

I missed this at the time but the Morning Star had a great piece on cricket as an imperialist beast a couple of weeks ago. Great fun.

Meanwhile James Lawton has an interesting piece on English cricket asking Flintoff direct; "Is it about England regaining the urn won so gloriously with the help of your inspiration in 2005, and then a year later squandered so grievously under your captaincy – or a series of Flintoff farewell concerts as stagy as any produced by the late Mr Frank Sinatra?"

That's all for this week. If you spot anything you think I should include next week, let me know.

Top Five Blogs

With eerie timing Neil asks me what my top five blogs are. The timing's weird because the Total Politics poll results will be coming out soon. Last year I was in the eighties somewhere sandwiched between Christopher Hitchins and Melanie Phillips, I'd be lying if I said I could not imagine more alluring bed fellows. Fingers crossed this year's poll sees me move up rather than down (just a bit of fun, just a bit of fun).

Anyway, I remember well from doing the first top Green Blogs poll in 2006 that these lists are brilliant ways of annoying lots of people apart from the winner so let me stress I'm choosing five blogs some political, some less so, that are representative of my tastes. Blogging's about variety and comparing a blog of philosophical essays to, say, one that posts short jokey snippets is a near impossible task.

A Very Public Sociologist; As one might expect I rather like lefty blogs. Phil's place is probably the best example of an open minded yet tough socialist blog. As an added bonus the conversation in the comments threads is often excellent. I could have mentioned Louise, Dave Semple or Peter Cranie here. I also like Liam's blog but he doesn't post often enough for my insatiable appetites, likewise Mary.

If Charlie Parker Was A Gunslinger; I love this sort of thing. Random collections of fun, weird or just plain bizarre images. Sometimes haunting, sometimes ridiculous always worth a look. It's why Mr Donkey exists after all. Photoshop disasters and Rupert Mallin are also excellent although very different.

Liberal Conspiracy; group blogging can be a wonderful thing when you get it right. Liberal Conspiracy is a solid, campaigning group blog / magazine. Pickled Politics, Third Estate, Stroppyblog, Lancaster Unity or The F Word as examples of other group blogs I enjoy.

Chicken Yoghurt; Political blogs that regularly make me laugh are a must and I find Justin's blogging to be effortlessly sharp. Or maybe he just makes it look that way. The only blog where I often find myself thinking "Christ, I wish I'd written that." In this category I could have mentioned Cruella, Sadie's Tavern or Ian Bone could go here too.

Sue Luxton's Green Ladywell; Councillor's blogs are not for everyone. Dog poo, planning applications and lap dancing licensing may well be a minority interest but for anyone interested in the their area or what are hard working representatives are up to I recommend them. I could have mentioned Bob Piper, Irfan Ahmed or Ben Duncan here.

If I missed you out I bet you noticed! Sorry. If I'd written the post on a different day I'd probably have mentioned different blogs. You really, really, really should not take it personally. For example I seem to have missed out Green bloggers almost entirely! Sorry to those like Weggis, Stuart, Richard, Dean, Natalie et al - you know I love you!

P.S. I like the fact this is catching on!

Top five Tories

In a bid to ensure this blog is so full of outrages that if I ever stand for election there will be enough evidence to hang me, Weggis asks who are my top five Tories - knowing full well I wont write a spoof post outlining which Tories I think lose the Conservatives the most votes (Tebbit, Obsborne, Soames, Gove and Daniel Kawczynski if you're asking).

Anyway here's my top five. Disclaimer: I am not a Tory. I don't vote Tory and have no plans to do so within the next century or so.

Matthew Parris: I shouldn't really. I suspect he's done more for the rehabilitation of the Tories than any other but then I'm a sucker for urbane and chaming. It's one of those things that I like. The other thing I like about him is that he's willing to challenge his own ideas and change his mind. A rare quality in the politically minded unfortunately.

Steven Bercow: our new speaker of the House seems to have annoyed all the most reactionary Conservatives so he must have quite a bit to recommend him. As it happens I'm not sure I wanted a more progressive Tory to be pulled into an administrative role where he couldn't speechify on the issues of the day, but if it had to be someone he will definately do.

Harold MacMillan: possibly because I don't know much about him but he always seemed like a rather pleasant chap. Also someone told me once that he was asked what it was like being Prime Minister and he said "I get a lot more reading done." I hope that's true.

John Major: Ok, I'm running out! I basically feel sorry for the guy. The forgotten Prime Minister, obscure because he wasn't nearly as vile as his predecessor or his successor. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard people say something along the lines of "First you had Thatcher and then Blair..." I guess that's a pretty high accolade for a PM, no one can remember you because you didn't screw things up too much.

Iain Dale: Leave to one side the fact he occasionally verges towards climate denial. Leave aside his status as founder member of the Hazel Blears fanclub. First of all I've always quite liked Iain when I've met him. Second of all he has a proper sense of humour and lastly and most importantly when he organises political discussion, in whatever forum, he likes to throw the net wide rather than sticking to the same old faces and political co-thinkers. I think all three of those things are admirable qualities.

There. Done. I know some of these choices might be controversial but you try it!

Weekending: here comes the sun

This is the end, the only end, my friend;

• Living with rats, great name for a ecologically friendly blogger.
• Mrs Normal is doing good blogging at a very nicely laid out site.
• Karina Talking is another left field blog worth checking out.
• Joe Moran has a lovely blog you can relax into.

• The Justice for Jean campaign has a petition for a memorial to Jean at Stockwell Tube. Please do considering signing it.
• Left On The Shelf is a second hand books service based in Cumbria, specialising in Socialist and radical books. (h/t Paul Stott)
  
• Man charged with stealing 25 pence banana. One jury trial and £20,000 later... not guilty.

• A sixth month time laps picture taken with a pin hole camera. Fascinating.
  
• A crow drops stones into a tube to bring a worm nearer the top.
  

Letter of the week in the Morning Star on Thursday;

Dialectics teaches us that at some point a quantitative difference becomes a qualitative distinction. [Jim: Actually that's enough!]

I love this song, the video also appears to have Ricky from Dr Who on it. Disconcerting.


Less links than normal this week. That's not because I'm trying less hard, it's more because I never try - I just build the links up over a week. Sometimes they're spots, sometimes people send me requests and I'm happy to oblige. Anyway, less requests and less idle browsing of the internet equals less weekending links. Mystery solved!

My top five zombies

Over at Dogwood Tales Neil is challenging people to make him name 'top fives' of their choosing. I naturally went for 'top five zombies'. Having read his response, which included a cocktail, I'm tempted to have a crack at it myself.

Football boy from Shaun of the dead.

Much over-looked in the pantheon of the undead 'football kid' as he is known is a bit part in that fantastic film 'Shaun of the Dead'. For me he exemplifies the futility of a zombie's urges to at once hold on to its last vestiges of humanity, whilst succumbing to its primordial desire to suck a hole in your head.

This is demonstrated through the medium of football.

The undead leader in I Am Legend adaption 'The Omega Man'.

As one of the few speaking zombies in film Matthias breaks down anti-zombie prejudice and helps us to see that they too have a point of view. The Martin Luther King of zombies if you will. Great film, great book.

I've always had a sneaking suspicion though that the undead were in fact Marxists and radicals who wanted to tear down the society that had made their aberrations possible. Could be wrong though. At least they never drool the word "Braaaaiiins..."

Obviously the zombie robots from my post - Zombie Robot Pandemonium - deserve a place here.

The theological implications of a zombie robot are unlikely to be lost on you and be assured that I am all too aware of them. That post is probably for another day though.

Robert Carlyle in 28 weeks later.

Wracked with survivor's guilt the opening scene where Carlyle desserts his wife as she faces certain death is extra-ordinarily powerful and worth seeing the film for on its own. We're talking unrelenting pathos here people.

He then sleepwalks his way through life until he discovered his wife actually survived. Torn between relief and facing the consequences of his betrayal Carlyle ends up being one of the most sympathetic zombies of all time, and one of the most scary.

The top place has to go to Toxoplasma Gondii. The parasite that prefers to live in cats' brains but also infects other creatures inducing behavioural changes in them.

If a rat is infected it will be irresistibly drawn to the scent of cats, essentially making it easy prey. The cat eats the rat and 'hey presto' Gondii gets to live in a cat's brain again! If a human is infected they are six times more likely to die in a traffic accident. Fact.

That's my top five zombies - any other top five lists I should be compiling while I'm at it?