Sir, Re Lib Dem council chiefs condemn cuts”, Independent 10.2.11

Deficit denier is a very ugly term for those of us who have a positive and constructive viewpoint on managing the countrys financial and other problems.

We can make full acknowledgement of the deficit, and still identify different options for dealing with it. The response of ruthless cuts and austerity measures is an ideological choice made by the big three parties. For Labour and some Lib Dems to criticise the pace and scale of the cuts is still a pro-cuts, pro-austerity choice.

The Green Party, many unions and some economists have proposed an alternative choice. This would involve cracking down on tax avoidance and tax evasion, saving billions every year. It would involve the wealthiest people in society pay a fairer share. It would mean saving £100bn over thirty years by scrapping Trident and its proposed replacement. It would involve a windfall tax on bank profits as well as a heavy tax on bankers bonuses. It would mean reducing the deficit more slowly, and thus avoiding these savage cuts. It would mean smart switching of funds from high-carbon to carbon-reduction spending (for example away from motorway-building and into public transport), and other ways of generating funds such as a green investment bank. It would mean having enough cash to invest heavily in a Green New Deal a major plan to kickstart the transformation to a post-carbon economy while creating a million new jobs and training places. And the new jobs would in turn bring in extra revenue to support public spending (whereas cuts will cost the country a million jobs).

Greens and many others who do not deny the deficit would prefer the government to make this ideological choice based on fairness and sustainability not the one based on destroying public services and punishing the poorest people in society.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP

Green Party Leader

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lib-dem-council-chiefs-condemn-cuts-2210147.html

The panel will consist of election candidates of the Labour, Plaid
Cymru, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and (of course) Green parties.

Chair: Margaret Minhinnick, Director, Sustainable Wales

The Question Time is being is held because of the imminence of the
Referendum vote on March 3, and the next Assembly all-Wales election on
May 5.

Questions on any subject, from Bridgend constituency, Welsh or UK
Issues. (For example: The Cuts; Youth Unemployment; Porthcawl
Regeneration.)

If you have a short question, e mail it to Sustainable Wales on
robertm@phonecoop.coop before FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25.

Everyone welcome/ Entrance free. Croeso cynnes I bawb. Mynediad am ddim.

Totnes is featured in the folowing Guardian article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/06/totnes-transition-towns-ethical-living

It can surely be no coincidence that there are Green Councillors at three levels of government here!

Watch this short (3min) video to see the sort of qualities we are looking for.

Yet again, it takes the Green Party to try to instil some commonsense into a mad world:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12356919
Well done Caroline – and good luck!

It would also be great to have as many people as possible in the audience and taking part,
so put it in your diary!!

PRESS RELEASE (As seen in this week’s Gazette):

QUESTION TIME WILL CLARIFY PARTY DIFFERENCES

Monday, February 28 is Chance for the Bridgend Public to find out what
Their Election Candidates are Offering

A public Question Time is being organised by charity, Sustainable
Wales, inviting people to discover political party policies on a host
Of issues.

It takes place at EVERGREEN HALL, ANGEL ST., BRIDGEND (next door to
Bridgend County Borough offices) at 8pm on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2011.

Director of Sustainable Wales, Margaret Minhinnick, said today: The
Question Time will provide a valuable opportunity for voters to measure
differences between the main parties.

Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative and Wales
Green parties all back the Yes campaign in the referendum on March 3.

Questions might be asked on any mainstream subject the economy,
jobs, youth unemployment, the environment. Obviously, questions need
local emphasis such as Bridgends recycling and rubbish disposal,
Porthcawl regeneration, the cost of public transport.

Sustainable Wales is organising the Question Time, as we do for most
elections, to encourage public debate.

March 3rd is the referendum date in Wales, and the Question Time is
held on the February 28th, making it the ideal occasion to learn what
our parties are promising.

Remember there is an Assembly election in Wales on May 5th this
year. The special Question Time will provide evidence of how to think
of our would-be representatives.

Sustainable Wales urges the public to make use of a rare political
opportunity.
It invites questions to be e-mailed to the charity office, at
mm or brought in and deposited in a special
Question Time box, in the charitys office, at 41, John St.,
Porthcawl, CF36 3AP, between 10am and 4pm.

Sustainable Wales believes a Yes vote in the referendum on March 3
will help streamline the Welsh legislative system, and make our AMs
more accountable.

More information: 01656 783405 <mm>

Saturday 5 February, Channel 4, [S]<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

(Just before the C4 news)

Britain’s first Green MP Caroline Lucas and some of her local councillor colleagues

talk about the policies Greens are fighting for in parliament and town halls around the country.

I simply cannot allow the letter from the climate change sceptic, David Lewis of Porthcawl, to go unchallenged.

Mr Lewis is typical of the sort of science sceptics who question evolution by natural selection; the extent of the holocaust; and the shape of the Earth. The science is established and incontrovertible – human activity, in a wide range of fields, is contributing to accelerated global warming. It may be a bit too complicated for Mr Lewis to get his head around and may not be happening quite quickly enough (the timescales involved are tricky for small minds to grapple with) for him to be prepared to acknowledge it as a problem to him in his cosy little world, but denying facts in no way changes facts. You do not achieve a balanced debate, Mr Lewis, by countering well-grounded scientific research with ill-informed drivel.

He probably has enjoyed watching self-publicising buffoons like Lord Christopher Monckton on television recently preaching his pseudo-scientific nonsense, rather than spent his time, rather less entertainingly, wading through the decades’ worth of mountains of properly scrutinised and endorsed peer review research by proper climate scientists.

The fact that it makes people feel better about themselves to deny the evidence, and carry on as ever they have without a sense of guilt, is exactly the attitude that allowed the holocaust to happen and that allowed churches to burn scientists as heretics.

The one thing that I thoroughly agree with Mr Lewis on is the importance of children, in fact everyone, questioning everything and demanding evidence to support claims they are asked to accept. This way we have a hope of ridding the world of superstitious nonsense and self-interested purveyors of cultivated ignorance.

For those that still cannot be bothered to do the due diligence, think on this. If the climate scientists are wrong, what will be the consequences for the world? Now compare this scenario with the consequences of the climate change sceptics being wrong. This ought to scare people out of their complacency. However, complacency is the order of the day in too many corridors of power and we are probably doomed to contending with serious consequences in my lifetime, and certainly my children’s lifetime.

I hope Mr Lewis and his Lordship are around long enough to perhaps say “Oops, sorry!” as high tides lap at the door of the Ancient Briton one day.
 
Andy Chyba
Bridgend Green Party

PROVISIONAL AGENDA

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Apologies for Absence
3. EAGM minutes and matters arising
4. Election of Officers
5. Local Party Constitution adoption
6. Local membership rates – adult & junior
7. Bank account status
8. Campaigns update
9. Conference
10. Fun fundraising
11. Any Other Business