| What do you think of this folks? I am not sure about the video concept, but who can argue with the message?
|
Green Party local election broadcast 2011 – “No Joke”
Leave a reply
Yearly Archives: 2011
Earthlings
| EARTHLINGS is a powerful and informative documentary about societys treatment of animals, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. This multi-award winning film by Nation Earth is a must-see for anyone who cares about animals or wishes to make the world a better place. It endorses Green Party animal rights policy ( http://policy.greenparty.org.UK/AR ) |
Meeting Agenda 21st April 2011
| Bridgend Green PartyMeeting ALL WELCOME! Thursday 21st April 2011 at the Haywain Function Room. Coychurch Road, Bridgend, CF31 2AP. 8.00pm AGENDA
Policy Discussion Topic – Nuclear energy. |
Petition calling for fracking moratorium – SIGN NOW!!!
| http://38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1717939-a-call-for-a-moratorium-on-hydraulic-fracturing-in?utm_source=38degrees.uservoice.com&utm_campaign=ShortUrls&utm_medium=facebook
Bridgend and the Vale Green Parties have been the principal movers of this petition, also backed by the Vale Says No campaign group. We desperately need every body to take a minute of their time to sign up and support what we have been doing. Please spread it far and wide via Facebook, Twitter etc. And all your email contacts too! Thank you for your support. Andy |
Fracking – a battle won but a war still to win
| It was great to get a phone call on Tuesday from Louise ‘Erin Brockovich’ Evans (theValeSaysNo.com) to tell me that Coastal Oil & Gas have withdrawn their application for test drilling at Llandow. This is fantastic news for the Evans family. The proposals threatened to ruin their livelihoods and to have a huge impact on the Llandow Trading Estate and surrounding areas. For many who so passionately supported the local campaignthis is probably seen as the end of the road. After the huge impact this campaign has hadit is quite likely that the frackers will steer well clear of Llandow altogether in future. Job done for the nimby brigade.The really good news is that the people close to the the Llandow campaign have done sufficient research and groundwork to know that this really is not the end of the storyjust the end of a chapter.
We know from what we have seen in Bridgend CBC that the frackers will be back. I never thought that Centrica pulling out of Bridgend CBC was the end. New applications will pop up at any time and almost any place. We have seen it happen. After the huge own goal at Llandowthey will certainly stick to the tried and tested strategy of finding remotetucked out of sight places from now on. It was no surprise to me that Coastal Oil & Gas and their partnersEden Energydecided to pull the application. There was the very real risk that the public outcry we helped produce may have led VoG to make a landmark decision to deny the planning application at Llandow. They could not risk that. The rest of the industry would have been appalled that they were clumsy enough to give scope for this to happen. We are left with a situation of no precedent for turning down test drilling applications and local authorities in BridgendNeath Port Talbot and Swansea with a track record of quietly processing and approving these applications. So where do we go from here?
I am delighted that the people behind TheValeSaysNo are intending to carry on the fight.
I believe we have to continue to push hard for a nationwide moratorium and a change of planning procedures for such proposals. We have the attention of some elected representatives, to which we can hopefully add the vital dimension of an elected Green to the WAG, Jake Griffiths, in May. We also have the attention of the local and regional media to a degree. We must keep momentum up on these fronts.
We have raised public awareness considerably and to a point that, if and when phase 2 and phase 3 applications, that involve actual fracking, come about, I think we will be able to really mobilise local opposition.
We also need to think about fostering links with other anti-fracking groups. We know where the frackers are going to target in the UK. We know of opposition movements in numerous countries in Europe and around the world.
My own knowledge and awareness keeps developing all the time. I have new legal avenues to explore that have the potential to put a real spanner in the works of the frackers. We are slowly uncovering the network of links between the companies involved and their levels of investment. We are picking up valuable snippets of insight into things like noise levels and frack fluid composition. We are regularly adding to the portfolio of evidence that demolishes just about every attempt by the frackers to put a positive spin on their endeavors.
I am confident that we now have a group of people with the will, the knowledge and the tools to see this through and keep the frackers from raping the land for short term gain at the expense of immediate and long term environmental damage and short-sighted energy policy.
|
Public Meeting with Coastal Oil & Gas in Cowbridge
| Another well attended meeting, this time featuring representatives of Coastal Oil & Gas Ltd trying to reassure us that the only want to do a sample collecting. They failed.
A little more substance from Jane Hutt this week and continued support from Alun Cairns and some local councillors who have clearly been taking good notes from my speeches at the last two meetings and from this blog. I left with somewhat mixed feelings today. On a positive note, there is clearly a groundswell that may lead to VoG making a landmark decision to reject the test drilling application. On the downside, I think we could then see a lot NIMBYists melt away from this campaign. We even heard one VoG councillor effectively saying leave the lovely Vale alone and go and mess up the grotty Valleys! And this is exactly what will happen, for sure, if we let them. And if the test drilling gets approval on Thursday, we then have to monitor its activities, which I suspect will have very modest impacts, and then sit around indefinitely looking out for phase two applications, which will probably avoid Llandow like the plague and pitch up somewhere a bit more discreet. Either way, Thursday will be the end of the beginning of the wider battle we will need to fight. The next stage is the peaceful, placard waving, slogan chanting fun of site visit protest. Join us at the Llandow site at 2.00pm. Copy and paste this map url for an accurate location fix of the site |
Labour voters: give your Second Vote to the Greens
| One strand of the WAG campaign. What do you think? Pass the video link on to anyone you think may be a Labour supporter.
Dear Labour Voters of Wales, |
South Wales Echo – Fracking Special on Saturday
I quote: “DON’T MISS: For an in-depth look at what “fracking” could mean for South Wales, see tomorrow’s Echo”. (At the end of today’s piece on Wednesday’s meeting – pg6). |
Latest coverage and international support
| Great coverage in today’s Echo: Quotes Andy extensively
Support from Canada: Support from France: Post #18 here: http://thevalesaysno.com/?p=33 (loving their website name!) Bonjour We have the same problem in France, but due to a very concerted campaign anyone who is anyone(or wants to be anyone) from local mayors to mainstream politicians is turning away and saying Non!. It is a real vote loser here. There is a national day of protest next weekend (17th April) with demos and marches all over France and this is not the usual trawler and tractor blockades, this is huge numbers of real people. I know it is different in UK, there is little in the way of protest from what I can see. The gas co.s have been keeping a low profile but are starting to fight back (especially Mark Miller of Cuadrilla drilling in Blackpool) and pro-gas websites are springing up. As one of the first groups to appear I suggest you contact other environmental groups (Greenpeace and FOE local branches etc) and try and get some sort of coalition of anti-shale groups, assemble some resources and gang up on the gas companies. Have a look at my site http://www.schistehappens.com (shale is schiste in French) It is more of a fanzine that your very grown-up looking site but there is some useful stuff on it. If you want to steal anything from it feel free. RPJ Support from New Zealand: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_113479065383673 Say No To Fracking in New Zealand is a group set up to network among people who are passionate about the whenua, Fracking(hydraulic fracturing) may become a common practice within the oil industry so pressure must be asserted on the govt to stop this destructive mining process. |
2nd Vote Green logos
Ideal after your email signatures
Ideal for your Facebook profile pics. |
Bridgend's Green Leftie 