A few points to bear in mind regardinging voting in UK General Election 2019

Looking at newspaper stands on my regular Co-op shop has exposed me to the hegemony(1) of mainstream mass media's portrayal of General Election 2019 as very much a 'two horse race' between party leaders Boris Johnson (Conservative aka Tory) and/or Jeremy Corbyn (Labour Party).

The pro-Brexit newspapers such as

• Daily Mail
• Daily Telegraph and
• The Sun

have largely demonised Jeremy Corbyn as 'antisemitic' and pro-Remain newspapers such as

• The Guardian 
• i Newspaper/The Independent and
• The New European

have gone along with that idea while showing more of the tarnished halo of Boris Johnson. The pro-Brexit papers portray Johnson with more referential terms such as 'The Prime Minister', etc; the pro-Remain papers generally show him as untrustworthy but deride Jeremy Corbyn as supposedly antisemitic.

There is much of pantomime about these portrayals, as could be expected by, for example, the offshore ownerships of the pro-Brexit media, and the fact that former Press Secretary to Tony Blair Alastair Campbell is Editor in Chief of The New European. Would either group and the interests that they represent be keen on the idea of a man of Jeremy Corbyn's principles being Prime Minister of the UK?

But the 'two horse race' imagery borne of a 'First Past the Post' voting system helps to breed a generally false impression of choosing a personality over knowing anything really about the policies on offer. There are more political parties in this UK General Election 2019 than just Conservative and Labour, and I am a Green Party member in one of the 316 parliamentary constituencies that Electoral Reform Society reckons to be a 'safe seat' where tactical voting would not be relevant.

You can check whether yours is one of the 316 'safe seats' at https://action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/53250/action/1

Voting for policy preferences is more valid in 'safe seats'

I'm in e-mail communication with Green Party members in less 'safe' seats who will reluctantly vote Labour this General Election 2019 so as to keep the Tories away from Government or at least to minimise the continuation of harm that a sizeable Tory majority could reap on vulnerable people.

Yet the existence of Short Money as a link between votes cast for a particular political party and the funding they receive from UK Government at further general elections. So voters in 'safe seats' can value their vote more and hold their nose less when they come to vote.(2) and (3)

If you care about Fuel Poverty and Climate Emergency, read this

 Ruth of Fuel Poverty Action writes:

Make your vote count against fuel poverty tomorrow!

Dear friends,

FPA are not party political, but want to draw your attention to some information relevant to fuel poverty in this election.  Insulation programmes have been gutted in recent years, profiteering on energy -- a vital need for all of us -- has put lives at risk, and the climate emergency is already costing many, many more.  Every well-placed vote is crucial now.  .  

On current policies and promises, see  for example:

• Re insulating homes (4) (which must be done with safe materials and accountably to residents!)
• New report re bringing energy back into public ownership (5)(which can be at national, local, or community level)
• Climate change = poverty.  Floods, fires, extreme winters and rising food prices kill.  See Greenpeace scores (6) on climate change policies, and  Friends of the Earth (7) scores and different parties' comments.

Please draw your own conclusions from these and other sources, and make sure everyone you know goes out to vote!  There is more at stake than ever.

Ruth

I should add, however, that delays in speed of responding as exampled in the Friend of the Earth evaluations of parties' policy commitments and responses to Friends of the Earth initial reviews of their manifestos, resourcing aids timely responding. So, when the Friends of the Earth evaluation of Liberal Democrat and Green Party policies states:

The Lib Dems set out additional pledges to its manifesto in a letter to Friends of the Earth, recommitting to the policies in its previously published Climate Emergency policy document. However the Greens did not provide any additional clarification or restate previous pledges in a number of policy areas ahead of the deadline we set. A letter was subsequently received from co-leader Jonathan Bartley, which we have not included in the scoring document but have published for transparency

 consider the argument that in the case of the Green Party — with fewer corporate backers and their vested interests — that "the spirit was willing but the resourcing was depleted by tactical voting in a First Past the Post electoral system, to lower the amount of Short Money received."

So, I hope you have your polling card at the ready for you to vote, although I realise that postal voters have already cast their votes.

 

Alan Wheatley

Notes

1. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=hegemony
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money_%28Parliament,_U.K.%29
3. https://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.com/2015/03/value-your-vote.html
4. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/nov/02/labour-scheme-homes-energy-efficiency
5. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/09/numbers-public-ownership-uk-utilities-nationalisation
6. https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/labours-plans-for-climate-and-nature-score-twice-as-high-as-the-conservatives-according-to-election-manifesto-ranking
7. https://friendsoftheearth.uk/general-election/general-election-2019-manifestos-final-scores 

Debt slavery of a nation disastrous for planet Earth

I preface this intro to a New Internationalist magazine online article by stating that I am in favour of the UK remaining in the European Union. The EU is not perfect in my view, and should be reformed from within. And as a member state of the EU as well as being one of the G8 economies of the world, the UK potentially can help transform the EU as an agent to reverse Climate Catastrophe tipping point.

I note though that the EU's European Central Bank — together with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — has operated like an economic and environmental criminal regarding the formulation of land usage for former Soviet Bloc nations Poland and the Czech Republic, toward orienting those nations' economies toward fossil fuel extraction and large scale farming for export.

Naomi Klein has written of how the Troica [IMF, World Bank and European Central Bank] perverted the prospects for the Polish economy by way of "debt slavery" of a nation. The events also form the backdrop to Andrzej Stasiuk's novel 'Nine'. See The Portrayal of Despair in Poland after 1989: Stasiuk's 'Nine' and Melanie Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine'.

For more on the EU's Common Agricultural Policy's impact on Poland, for example, see Compassion In World Farming's review of Julian Day Rose's 2013 book In Defence of Life. More recently, the 'Conference of Parties' [to an international agreement aimed at limiting global emissions of greenhouse gases] COP24 was hosted in Poland. You can read up at New Internationalist website of how the purpose of those talks was perverted by commercial sponsorship.
https://newint.org/search?key=cop24+poland+fossil+fuels&sort_by=search_api_relevance

More recently the impact of the European Central Bank on the Greek economy has become infamous in terms of the hardships of the Greek people, yet the environmental impact of such debt slavery is only just emerging, as Zoe Holman outlines at New Internationalist:

Greece opens its arms — and seas — to hydrocarbon giants

The state hopes deep-sea mining will pay off its crippling debts – but the only outcome will be environmental devastation, argues Zoe Holman.

The Syriza Party leader was first elected on a promise to scrap the draconian terms for a bailout set by the European Union and the IMF. He later went back on his pledge, accepting the EU's mandated austerity measures.

One afternoon in early July, Jenny Pyliou looked out onto her land, part of a protected nature reserve in Thesprotia, northeastern Greece, to see a group of researchers for the Spanish energy company Repsol sticking rods with explosive devices into one of her fields. Her husband called the police,  who on arrival, instructed the workers to remove the instruments, noting that oil exploration activities had not be approved in the area.

The following day, the men returned to reinstall the devices, informing the Pylious that they were extremely costly and that the couple would be liable for any damage if they removed them. Such antics by the oil companies, who get up to them with relative impunity, are what Greeks can now expect more of following the government’s licensing in late June of major hydrocarbon exploration by oil giants ExxonMobil and Total.

‘Now that Pandora’s box has been opened, this issue is going to stay with us – one way or another, Greece will be labelled as an oil country,’ says Giorgos Velegrakis, a post-doctoral researcher on the history of oil in Greece at the University of Athens and a member of the nationwide Initiative Against Hydrocarbon Exploration. ‘This was out of the question a decade ago, but now you never know what will happen.’ ....

Former Finance Minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, has written illuminatingly regarding the debt trap, and I commend:

• https://www.thenation.com/article/can-yanis-varoufakis-save-europe/
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/26/talking-to-my-daughter-about-the-economy-by-yanis-varoufakis-review

Meanwhile, I believe that the current state of Greece surrendering its national sovereignty to major agents of Climate Catastrophe may give an indication of what might be included in Boris Johnson's ' 'bold new agenda' for the UK Parliament.

The HydroCarbon Industry is truly a nasty face of global industry despite all its greenwash

The purveyors of non-renewable energy from hydro-carbons seek to profit from the colder winters that global warming is bringing on: they have as much compassion for their customers as heroin and cocaine pushers have for theirs. There might not currently be laws against what they do, but ....

Much better for the UK and the globe are Fuel Poverty Action and its agenda.

I close with a youtube reference to an American tale of how mining destroyed a family home and its surrounds in western Kentucky. It's a Jean Ritchie song that I've treasured for over 40 years, and a much lighter song that she recorded with Oscar Brand, 'A Paper of Pins'.





Alan Wheatley

My response to Fuel Poverty Action's 20 September Climate Strike Call-out — and my response

Fuel Poverty Action e-mailed me:

Hello FPA members and friends, 

Please can you comment on this draft FPA Call-out for 20 September climate strike?  We hope it isn't very controversial but perhaps you have improvements.  It could go on our website as well as being emailed to our friends and allies.  

The crucial section to look at is the section "what we are striking for".  There are big debates going on about "demands" among other groups which are preparing for this autumn's many mobilisations on climate change.   Identifying aims can be important -- in making sure that justice is not left to one side in the pressure to act on the climate emergency, in helping people to identify their own immediate interest in events like the Strike, and, of course, in helping to determine what the outcome is.  For us, that includes particular attention to fuel poverty.

Do you think the aims we have listed do this job?  Do you think there is something crucial missing?  Could it fit within the balance of the whole?  This is not an invitation to major edits, but do say if you think there is something wrong. We'll do our best to take account of your views.  

Our AGM on 10 September will also be a chance to discuss them.

Please look before 9.0 Friday morning (30 August) so the call can go out.   

Thank you!

Ruth and Gianluca

--

Cold homes, fuel poverty, climate change, millions of homes in debt to their energy supplier, huge profits for the Big Six... the energy system isn't working.
Another energy system is possible! Get behind the Fuel Poverty Action Energy Bill of Rights

Fuel Poverty Action's
Energy Bill of Rights

My publishable response

I agree with the call-out document, but would like to emphasise that traditionally landlords are more likely to have stocks of portable heating devices to loan out to tenants who foot the fuel bills.

My personal priority this week is for me to get a pair of THERMAL CURTAINS for my upstairs room to make it more habitable, particularly after noon and into the nights in my West-facing windowed one-person house. I reckon my landlord will agree to this, especially as the price is likely to be £40. (Sweat drips into my ears in the summer months.)

I believe that a challenge and opportunity for the Climate Emergency movement is to help bridge socio-economic class differences of participants. In my personal experience, the mainstream of Climate Emergency folk are largely ignorant of poverty, housing and benefits issues; they are more au fait with the impact of climate change on animal species. Hence my News Forwarded to You by Alan Wheatley blog with its subtitle-cum-Mission Statement:

Connecting self-acceptance, lifelong learning, and difference to mutual empowerment through sharing insights courageously and cordially

Saving the planet is not the sole preserve of a particular social class, and should involve everyone. And a statement I heard in my 25th year at a time when I had been under verbal attack and was very vulnerable was, "When people are lonely, perhaps it may be because they have invested more time and energy into building walls than bridges?" Given the role of smear stories involved in the promotion of right wing 'welfare reforms', while I believe we need to combat climate change, we also need to tackle 'hostile climate' issues regarding disadvantaged minorities -- of which I am one.

I can view 'shared intelligence' as a campaigning tool rather than a means of oppression. ('Think tank' and 'educational charity' Policy Exchange that has advocated sell off of social housing in affluent areas — aka 'privatisation of social housing' — calls Extinction Rebellion 'Extremism Rebellion' -- the same vested interests demonise Climate Emergency campaigners and supposed 'feral underclass' alike.)

'Who Funds You?: The UK Campaign for Think Tank Transparency'
awards Policy Exchange an 'E' rating for '0 transparency of funding'

That, plus the parochial nature of my local Hereford Times and its general 250 word limit for letters to the editor, helped lead to my launching my new personal blog earlier this month,

https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/

Connecting self-acceptance, lifelong learning, and difference to mutual empowerment through sharing insights courageously and cordially

I wish you all the best for the AGM and 20 September, while I shall be probably looking for a cool spot nearer home. I may well be visiting London some time later in the Autumn, making a week long visit that will be much less stressful than my getting to Hereford Railway Station, to London, and all the way back in one day.

Best Wishes

Alan

Fuel Poverty Action AGM, TUESDAY 10 September 2019 at London NW5 2DX

From Fuel Poverty Action

at Crossroads Womens' Centre, in Kentish Town, London NW5 2DX.  NB it is a TUESDAY rather than our usual monthly "first Thursday"

[Alan will fill in the meeting time later. This posting is just as advanced notice.]

Happy summer to all!

Ruth

--

Cold homes, fuel poverty, climate change, millions of homes in debt to their energy supplier, huge profits for the Big Six... the energy system isn't working.
Another energy system is possible! Get behind the Fuel Poverty Action Energy Bill of Rights

Fuel Poverty Action: Energy Bill of Rights

Also from FPA, https://www.fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/news/nothing-about-us-without-us%ef%bb%bf/

Help with route preparations links provided by Alan

 http://www.travelinemidlands.co.uk/wmtis/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&timeOffset=15

https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

https://www.thetrainline.com/