If anyone hears of this happening at Archbishop McGrath, I want to know about it please. I also want to know if anyone sees or hears of a homophobic booklet called “Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be” – distributed in some Catholic schools. (Andy Chyba)

Source:

Catholic school pupils have been asked to back a petition by the Coalition for Marriage, which has so far attracted about 466,000 signatures.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Pupils at state-funded Catholic schools in England and Wales being asked to back campaign against same-sex marriage

The Roman Catholic church has written to every state-funded Catholic secondary school in England and Wales asking them to encourage pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage.
Students at one south London school were shown a presentation on religious opposition to government plans to let gay couples marry in civil ceremonies. Church leaders believe the proposal would reduce the significance of marriage.

The Catholic Education Service, which acts for Catholic bishops in England and Wales, contacted 385 secondary schools to highlight a letter read in parish churches last month, in which two archbishops told worshippers that Catholics have a “duty to do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations”.

The CES also asked schools to draw pupils’ attention to the petition being organised by the Coalition for Marriage, a Christian campaign which has attracted more than 466,000 signatures to date.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “This is a clear breach of the authority and privilege that the Catholic Education Service has been given in schools.

“Surely it is no part of its remit to promote a specific political campaign from this purely sectarian viewpoint. It is disgraceful that children are being encouraged into bigotry when they are attending a state school paid for by taxpayers.”

A pupil at St Philomena’s Catholic high school for girls in Carshalton, in the south London borough of Sutton, told the website PinkNews.co.UK that children aged 11 to 18 had been encouraged to sign the anti-equality pledge by their headteacher.

She said: “In our assembly for the whole sixth form you could feel people bristling as she explained parts of the letter and encouraged us to sign the petition. It was just a really outdated, misjudged and heavily biased presentation.”

She said some pupils had responded by buying Gay Pride badges to pin to their uniforms. “There are several people in my year who aren’t heterosexual myself included and I for one was appalled and actually disgusted by what they were encouraging,” she said. “After all, that’s discrimination they were urging impressionable people to engage in, which is unacceptable.”

The British Humanist Association said the CES’s actions were likely to be in breach of sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act, which ban the political indoctrination of schoolchildren and require political views to be presented in a balanced way. The Act was used in a failed attempt to prevent schools showing Al Gore’s climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Although today’s weather might make it seem like the wettest drought in history, water supply issues are an ever growing problem that fracking can only make substantially worse, at best, but could make catastrophic. This should be the big story at the moment.Some people have picked up on it, and this is a very good piece: http://forargyll.com/2012/04/question-how-can-we-license-fracking-when-we-have-permanent-drought/

The use of the word ‘permanent’ in describing the drought we have seen declared in some parts of the country is not, perhaps, very wise  (and the writer has some misconceptions over drilling mud and frack fluid being the same thing) – but I endorse the following extract:

All the media are bleating about is the possibility of earthquakes triggered by the deep earth (3 miles down) detonations that fracture the shale. These have indeed in America and in the UK, with Cuadrillas experimental drilling in the Bowland Shale in Lancashire near Blackpool, caused earth tremors.

The risk of earthquakes is, by a substantial degree, the most minor of the hazards of the fracking process.

Fracking takes around 3,000,000 gallons of water a shot thats three million gallons, in case anyone thinks weve been over generous with the zeros.

Would anyone care to explain where this volume of water is to come from in the drought conditions the UK is already experiencing so early in the year – the worst in living memory and likely to remain a permanent feature of life in global warming?

At the moment 17 English counties are officially drought zones, there are hose pipe bans in force and the government is asking people to use water wisely.

Moreover the underlying water table is at an unprecedentedly low level.

Hose pipe bans seem risible in the light of a readiness to license fracking with its massive use of water to extend … the fractures caused by the deep detonations.

It is not as if this is water that can safely be returned to water courses after use.

This last point refers to the dreadful contamination of produced water – over and above of the chemicals thrown down in the frack fluid. But remember, no other human activity threatens not just water contamination – but water disappearance. Watch this; she is more eloquent than me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rLyoAU85JJU

The numbers get astronomical in terms of water usage in the fracking process. 3 million gallons per frack is a reasonable average. Using industry sources, there will be an average of around 10 boreholes per drilling pad, with at least 6 fracks per borehole in its lifetime. So that is 3x10x6 = 180 million gallons of water used per site. With sites needing be spaced at regular intervals of just a few miles apart (they are just a few hundred meters apart in some parts of the world) we could see 1000 + across South Wales alone. 180 billion gallons of water!!!!!!!! That is roughly 330 thousand Olympic sizes pools’ worth. Or nearly 3 Lake Windermeres!!!!

[These calculations are based on realistic averages – not upper limits which could inflate the total 40 fold. I leave the fanciful sums to the industry]

I am off to fix that dripping tap!

Let us be clear. The Green Party is a left of centre party. The three mainstream parties have long offered just slightly different brands of right wing politics. As much as we respect many of our councillors, especially Labour and Lib Dem ones, many of them (and many of their supporters) cling to the forlorn hope of being able drag their parties back to the political ground that they know their traditional support, including most of the people of Bridgend and the Valleys, still need. But now we offer them, not a way back, but a way forward to a new brand of Eco-socialism. Eco-socialists are united in the belief that if we are to have a worthwhile future, the whole world needs to come together to drive capitalism from centre stage and create an alternative society based on principles of social and environmental justice as well as popular participation.

We know we have a long way to go before we can emulate the success of the Green Party in other parts of the country in gaining control of councils. We are realistic about what we can achieve this time around in Bridgend, but whatever the outcome, we will campaign and lobby for the things that will make a difference to peoples lives and provide a future fit to bequeath to our children and future generations. Among other things, we will be promoting the following initiatives:

• Promotion of quality apprenticeships. The Council needs to lead by example by instigating a programme of apprenticeships in as broad a range of areas as possible, to help counteract the tragic waste of potential and source of many of societys ills, that is youth unemployment. Particular encouragement needs to put into developing the skill sets needed for the industries of the future, such as those needed in energy efficiency and the renewable energy industries. With over 7500 employees, there should be scope for hundreds of apprenticeships within the organisation, and it could become a criterion for the awarding of sub-contracts. There is no greater blight on our collective futures than youth unemployment and it must be a top priority.
• Improvements to transport. We would like to see: a feasibility study into extending the Maesteg train line up into Caerau; free buses for under 16s (parent taxi services often double the road miles needed for the journey, taking young people there and back); and parking charges used to subsidise bus fares and services to ensure that it is always cheaper and viable to use public transport instead of cars. Parking charges should be imposed at out of town shopping centres to create a level playing field for town centre shops. We would push for the completion of the much delayed Brackla Park & Ride rail station and would also facilitate and incentivise car sharing by commuters heading to Cardiff and Swansea every day (such as by providing dedicated car parking facilities adjacent to the main M4 junctions). New housing estates, such as Parc Derwen, Coity, need linking in to bus services straight away once residents start to move in. Much more needs to be done, in collaboration with experts like SUSTRANS, to help people make smarter, healthier and safer travel choices.
• Ensuring disabled access is improved across the county. It is all well and good to improve access in town centres, public buildings, bus stops and in peoples homes, but there is a lack of joined up thinking. In many of the neighbourhoods where people live, such as Bettws, the challenge is getting from the front door to the disabled parking bay, or bus stop, or local shop or chemist. We would ensure all registered disabled people have neighbourhood accessibility surveys and remedial work done to alleviate this situation. Where this proves difficult, see would seek rehousing to more accessible locations.
• The eradication of fuel poverty across the County by ensuring every home takes up the opportunities to have their homes properly insulated and efficiently heated. PV for Free schemes, such as the one promoted by Sustainable Wales until Westminster pulled the rug on the FITS, will be investigated and promoted. All business premises need to have insulation standards imposed on them too.
• Making Bridgend a Frack-Free Zone. This will ensure that the pursuit of ever more extreme forms of fossil fuel exploitation (shale gas fracking, underground coal gasification etc) are not allowed to blight the the health of our people and the quality and value of our land and environment. Such reckless pursuit of the last vestiges of fossil fuels also contribute to and exacerbate our lemming-like rush to the precipice of catastrophic climate change.
• Presumption in favour of all renewable energy related developments, that do not directly impinge on the quality of life of nearby inhabitants, allied to a presumption against all fossil fuel related new developments. We share the vision of the Danes in planning out a future (within a 30 year time frame) based exclusively on our abundant renewable energy potential. It can become a focal point for the boom industries of the near future. We have to be weaned off of fossil fuel dependence sooner or later and those with foresight and courage will lead the way in the transition to a future powered by renewable energy. We can lure the innovators and pioneers here to Bridgend with our natural advantages and the right package of incentives (business rate exemptions etc).
• Quality secular schools. We will promote equality of opportunity for all, alongside quality education for all, following the most successful models of comprehensive education. When implemented properly, this produces higher standards across the board with especially big benefits at the lower end of the spectrum. This has got to be in the interests of everybody.
• Improving our recycling and re-use performance. We would acknowledge the huge strides made to transform Bridgend from one of the worst performers in Wales to one of the best performers in Wales, in terms of recycling rates achieved, but this is damning with faint praise. We cannot rest on our laurels. There are many improvements still desperately needed. We need, for example, garden waste recycling; soft plastic recycling; and better containers to prevent collection day becoming neighbourhood littering day. We can also learn a lot from neighbouring Neath Port Talbot about re-use initiatives such as unused paint being collected and used for school and community projects; tool re-use projects; outgrown school uniform and sports kit re-distribution schemes; promotion of freecycling schemes; furniture and bicycle restoration and repair workshops etc.
• Local food initiatives. These will be many and varied, but including the promotion of community managed farms, gardens and allotments; school allotments/farms ; local produce accreditation schemes; garden buddying schemes (that can pair up those with knowledge to share with those with energy and muscle power to spare); the development of Bridgend Farmers Market to make it more accessible to as many people as possible, as often as possible through permanent premises in town and shopping centres. Some of these things have been given lip service in the past, but we would ensure they are all properly resourced and promoted.
• Low impact living initiatives. Permaculture and other low-impact lifestyles and building techniques will be encouraged and facilitated. These can provide the inspiration and develop the knowledge base and skills required to help build sustainability into all of our lives, while also providing very low cost housing options and encouraging the self-sufficiency which truly frees people from the benefits trap.
• Accountability of Councillors. All councillors currently receive the same basic allowance/salary of £13,868 for being your elected representative, irrespective of how much effort they put in on your behalf (admittedly a handful chose to forego the tiny increase in last years allowance). Attendance at formal meetings is an one valid indicator. One councillor only attended 17 such meetings in the whole year, whereas another managed 103. In terms of registering referrals (matters brought up by constituents in surgeries and through letters etc), two registered 232 in a year, whereas five did not register any whatsoever!! And yet they all received the same basic allowance. This is clearly not acceptable and we will work to change the system to ensure greater accountability and consistent value for money from all our councillors.

Another system that desperately needs changing is the Council Tax system. This is not something that Bridgend CBC can do much about on its own, but we will campaign to at least restructure Council Tax bands to make them a progressive tax rather than the regressive tax we have at the moment. Looking through the Property News this week, you can find a property in Pontycymmer for sale for £27,000. Whoever buys this will face a Council tax bill of £861; which is 3.2% of the property value. There is a property for sale in Porthcawl for £1,750,000. Whoever buys this will face a Council tax bill of £3022; which is 0.2% of the property value! This is patently inequitable and unfair. Green Party policy is to ultimately replace Council Tax and Business Rates with a much fairer, simpler and environmentally beneficial Land Value Tax.

Nothing we propose is especially original. All these ideas have been tried and tested and can be seen to work in other parts of the world (Scandinavia, Australia and Germany among them). They are associated with progressive values, innovative thinking and a willingness to grapple with the challenges of the future while we still have a little scope to experiment with and refine the ideas and technologies that we will need to cope. The big challenges we face include the consequences of climate change, an aging population and the need to restructure our supply and demand for energy. In all these cases it is the poor and the vulnerable that are likely to suffer the adverse consequences the most. This is why environmental issues are social issues too; and why Eco-socialism is the way forward.

We are here to ensure that our environment is not sacrificed in the pursuit of the short-sighted capitalist growth agenda, and to ensure that the poor and the vulnerable do not suffer from the cuts and austerity measures demanded by the staggering mismanagement of the economy by successive Conservative and Labour administrations led by millionaire public school boys. We all instinctively know what is fair and it is not for nothing that we in the Green Party use the following rallying call: Fair is Worth Fighting For. Wherever you can, vote Green on May 3rd.

From the BBC website:

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has acknowledged that it is can be hard to get the the environmental message across in times of austerity.

But she told the Today programme’s Justin Webb that overlooking green issues at a time like this was a “tragedy”.

“There is no contradiction in promoting a green economy and dealing with jobs and the environment,” she said.

“It is through investing in green technologies that we can get the economy stabilised”.

Listen to the full 4 minute interview here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9716000/9716078.stm

http://holyredundant.org.uk/?utm_source=e-bulletin+subscribers&utm_campaign=9599e2a136-holy_redundant&utm_medium=email

The Governments proposals to reform the House of Lords will preserve and entrench the influence of unaccountable representatives of the Church of England in our Parliament.

At present, the Church of England is granted privileged access to our Parliament. Anglican Bishops sit alongside Peers in the House of Lords, they have the right to vote and debate, they influence our national way of life. They acquired this right solely by virtue of their religion, their gender and their position in the hierarchy of one particular denomination of one particular Church. They are unaccountable to the public.

We want fair reform of the House of Lords which does not afford privilege to any special interest group.

We urge the Government to remove the automatic right of Bishops to sit there.

None of the arguments for keeping Bishops makes sense, and keeping them is unpopular with the public. At a time of general reform, we possess a once in a generation opportunity to remove this archaic and unjust aspect of our political system.

Visit the link above for information about the campaign and how you can assist.

The key messages of the campaign (that the current situation is unfair, unjustified and unpopular) can be seen in more detail here:

http://holyredundant.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Key-messages.pdf

Just 2% backed more gas power in the latest UK opinion poll to show overwhelming support for clean energy

Almost nine in 10 people want to see the government ramp up the UK’s use of clean domestic energy and reduce the country’s reliance on imported gas, a new YouGov poll reveals.
Just under two-thirds of the 2,884 people questioned on behalf of campaign group Friends of the Earth listed wind, wave, solar or tidal as power sources they wanted to see playing a greater role in the UK’s electricity mix over the next decade, while just 2% backed an increase in gas capacity.

The survey is the latest to signal strong public backing for renewable energy, following Sunday’s YouGov poll for Scottish Renewables that found 71% of Scots supported wind power, and a separate Ipsos MORI survey last week that reported 67% of respondents were in favour of using more wind power.

Currently, only 9.5% of UK electricity comes from renewable energy sources. Friends of the Earth is concerned the government is encouraging a new “dash for gas” by exempting gas-fired power plants from emissions restrictions that will effectively ban new coal power stations.

The wind energy sector is also facing an increasingly vocal campaign against new wind farms, while concerns are mounting that renewable energy investments are being put on hold as a result of investor concerns over the degree of political backing for clean energy.

Today Friends of the Earth is using St George’s Day to launch a new Clean British Energy campaign that calls on the prime minister to use his speech at the Clean Energy Ministerial on Thursday to demonstrate his backing for low-carbon energy.

The group claims that increasing the UK’s reliance on domestic renewable sources would not only help decarbonise the energy sector, but would also enhance energy security and create new green jobs. Government figures show just under £4bn of investment in renewables over the last year yielded nearly 14,000 new jobs.

“The public has given a clear vote of confidence to clean British energy from our wind, sun and sea it makes no sense for the government to pursue an unwanted, costly dash for gas that’s causing our fuel bills to rocket,” said Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth’s director of policy and campaigns. “Ministers have a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our electricity market to help smaller businesses, schools and communities plug into clean and affordable power.

Source: Guardian 23/04/12

We are in full electioneering mode and busy canvassing and leafleting in target wards.

We are getting a generally warm reception – although the prevailing mood among the electorate seems to be that of apathy and utter disenchantment with the whole political process. I predict very low turnouts – and this could actually prove beneficial to us as the disaffection is primarily with the parties in power. It could be very close indeed in one or two seats for us – so all to play for!

Our mini manifesto seems to be striking chords in many places – which is encouraging.

https://bridgendgreens.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/press-release-bridgend-green-party-to-make-an-impact-in-the-local-elections-in-may/

The recent flurry of national publicity on fracking has led to a few enquiries on what we know and have been doing about the issue. Our prominence in the national campaigning on this particular issue gives us added credibility.

So in these times of increasing despair and exasperation, the message has got be:

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Apologies for Absence
3. Minutes and matters arising
4. Officers’ reports
5. Campaigns update
6. Elections – BCBC 2012 – Campaign update
7. Arrangements for attending Election Count
8. DoNM

NOTE – Venue is 2 minutes walk from both the Bus and Train stations in Bridgend.
See map: https://bridgendgreens.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/next-meeting

PLEASE NOTE EARLIER TIME THAN USUAL –
IF THIS IS A PROBLEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP

Thanks,

Andy

It has taken a while for this to surface, as it was shot last summer in the run up to the Co-operative event we helped organise at Bridgend College.

I think the credits should mention the wonderful Sarah Woods rather than Saul Woods (or at least as well as).

Mark does an excellent job, I hope you all agree. A career change beckons methinks.

Andy Chyba

Today we have had a Labour Councillor suggesting that our pledge to push Bridgend Council to provide quality apprenticeships shows ignorance of the Apprenticeship Programme within BCBC. On the contrary, it is because of our awareness of the tokenistic nature of this programme that we feel so strongly about this issue.

Bridgend CBC is by far the largest employer in the county with over 7500 employees.

How many of these 7500+ employees are on apprenticeship schemes? FOUR (attached to Building Maintenance), or less than 0.05% (five hundredths of 1%)

How on earth can we expect other big employers (who will have a fraction of BCBC’s employees) to take apprenticeships seriously when the Council shows such a lack of commitment and ambition? Where is the hope for our young people in this?

Things are set to improve ever so slightly. There is a commitment in place to add two more to Building Maintenance in the autumn, and add maybe another half a dozen in areas such as Motor Vehicle Maintenance, Groundworking and Highway Maintenance. A dozen in total at best it seems. With the existing hundreds of unemployed youths in the county about to be joined by another batch of school leavers with no prospects of work, this is a scandalous situation that none of can afford to see.

This article in the Guardian, last October, stresses the importance of Councils taking a lead in apprenticeship take-up:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2011/oct/27/councils-key-apprenticeship-construction-scheme

It stresses another strand of our mini-manifesto commitment on apprenticeships. Not only should Councils be taking on apprenticeships, but it should use its buying power to require suppliers to to commit to a minimum number of apprenticeship places during the procurement process. I can find no evidence of Bridgend CBC doing this – but would love to be corrected if possible.

The lack of ambition and commitment in BCBC is highlighted by the good practice shown elsewhere.

Sunderland Council recently received an award from Unionlearn for its quality apprenticeship programme. Their Chief Executive recognises the value to be had:
‘One of the key benefits in recruiting an apprentice is that their mix of on and off the job learning means they have the skills that work best for your service. Indeed, it’s been reported that employers who take on apprentices benefit from higher productivity, reduced staff turnover, and an improved skills base. An apprenticeship also develops the skills of local people and involves the local community in the delivery of local services.’

London Councils have provided over 2600 apprenticeships between 2009 and 2012 in fields as diverse as health and social care, animal welfare, engineering, horticulture, ICT, business administration and construction.

Sheffield City Council is committed to providing 100 apprenticeships a year either in house or through its partner organisations.

There are examples we can learn from from all over the country. Equally there are examples of bad practice we need to learn from too. We are certainly not advocating the abuses of apprenticeship provision highlighted by this recent Panorama programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fm01r

It is absurd that companies like Morrisons can have 40% of its workforce enrolled on apprenticeships schemes. They are clearly exploiting the system with the complicity of private training providers (such as the now infamous A4e, with their Conservative Party connections). Everyone bar the poor apprentice is guaranteed to profit out of this sort of scenario.

As we say in our mini-manifesto, there is no greater blight on our collective futures than youth unemployment and it must be a top priority.

It is clearly not at the moment in BCBC – and only a Green presence in the Council chamber is likely to prick their consciences enough to make it so.

Andy Chyba