Adrian Hollister

Quite a busy day today with lots of people around and an evening party, but the highlight was an afternoon face painting. This time of year I spend quite a bit of time face painting for charity. I have wondered if I should turn this into a business, but I much prefer doing it for fun whilst earning money for local charities. Lekhampstead fate is one of those great old style fates, wonderful people, loads of small stalls, and a great lack of serious commercialisation. The local people here in the Downlands are just great when you get to know them and there is nothing better than seeing the smiling faces (or scary faces) of kids freshly face painted. All the face painting at this event was by donation only and I made a nice £25 for charity - not bad for a couple of hours fun painting kids faces!

The location for the fate was in the grounds of the big house in Lekhampstead and organised by the owners, the Carr's family. Is there a more idyllic location up here on the Berkshire downs? I'm not sure, but I do know that it's a shame that this appears to be the last Lekhampstead fate. I do hope that can revive it for 2010, I would certainly be happy to come along again.


Foot note: If you would like Adrian Hollister to face paint for a local charity event please use the Contact Me button on the left.

Well the Green’s have not done badly in West Berkshire - 77% more votes in 2009 this despite a very low turn out of just 37%.

We secured 4619 votes, which is close to the UKIP 6126 and Lib Dem 7167 votes. Tory old boys took 18336 votes. Labour were of course in fifth place behind us again.

Top five in order were:

Tory Old Boys Party 18336 (up 20%)
Lid Dem wannabe like you Tory’s Party 7167 (down 17%)
The only got one policy UKIP Party 6126 (up 3%)
Pro communities Green Party 4619 (up 77%)
Spent and wanting New Labour Party 2011 (down 37%)

I've spent the best part of the afternoon at Newbury train station. An odd choice perhaps for an election day, but I have been chatting and leafleting people on the way back from their daily commute. A good deal of the people who stopped to talk were just not going to vote - "it's a waste of time all politicians are corrupt" is the message they relay. When they hear that I'm Adrian Hollister and I'm from the Green Party and I'm going to contest the General Election here and the council elections - they stop and smile. The grumpy face that greets most politicians at the moment (especially the poor ole Lib Dem chap I saw the other day taking a good verbal beating from anyone the came close to him) was not present. People like conviction politicians, especially ones who have put other peoples interests in front of their own; and Green Party politicians are seen as the most ethical and the least corruptible of any political group. They are right - we do what we do for the betterment of our society, not for personal gain and not for glory or fame. Tory's and Lib Dem's should note this - it is their biggest liability (as their leaders have recognised).

I went to my local polling station at just before 10pm to cast my vote. It was clear that very few people had been there, with the polling clerks estimating less than 10%. Whilst this does not include postal votes (something that is usually quite high in very rural areas) it is perhaps an indication on the numbers of people put off by the corrupt Tory, Lib Dem and Labour members of parliament. I can only hope that by the next election faith has been restored in the political system and that people vote to take down the old Gentleman's clubs in Whitehall and remove the cheers and jeers politics that goes with it.

One of our new ex-battery chickens Bernard, or General Nicey as the girls had named her has died. Not quite sure if it was natural causes or if the dog's had something to do with it (generally they leave the chickens alone). At least she had a few weeks of good life following her internment in a battery cage.

The rusty boot in my old Discovery 300TDI is not unexpected. Just about any Disco of this age seems to suffer. Anyway, old boot floor was taken out (see previous post) and a nice new one welded in by the father in law. To do this I drilled what seemed like a million holes in the new boot floor and he welded through them. This should give something akin to the spot welds originally used - they may actually be stronger as there are more weld points.



As you can see in this picture, there weld holes are a bit rough, but no one is going to see them so I don't need to grind them off. Everywhere has had two coating's of high zinc primer (80% zinc) and on the inside of the landy there is bit too generous coating of Hammerite.



You can see in the picture above the nice coat of zinc primer and the first coat of Hammerite black. Each of the weld points has this treatment as have areas that are likely to rust (gullies around the boot floor etc).



Areas not exposed have also had a coat of galv repair zinc spray (95%+ zinc) then a good spray of Waxoyl. This should help keep these areas rust free for many more years. None of it looks elegant though, but you never get to see it so who cares!

Now time to put the internal trim back together and replace most of the rusty screws, washers, nuts and bolts with stainless versions.

Rich Tory old boy Richard Benyon has decided that now is a good time to appear green. Green at the gills perhaps, but anyway, he is now (following a long period of negative or no comments) decided that he is in favour of Wind Farms and Wind Turbines.

Adrian Hollister said, "I notice that in Newbury Weekly News 21st May 09 Richard Benyon is now in favour of Wind Turbines after being a parliamentary sceptic(1). It's all good being in favour of Wind Turbines but I can't help wondering, given the size of Richard Benyon's estate, how many Wind Turbines he has?"

The landed gentry eh - they are in a different world to the rest of us (at least in mind if not body).

Now if he was serious, he would do what I suggest here: tell the American's it's time to leave RAF Welford and use it's high flat ground (next to the Motorway) for a wind farm. The position is not overlooked (except perhaps a golf course and a handful of residents who I'm sure would be happy seeing all those dangerous munitions go); it's a brown field site; and there is good motorway access for construction and maintenance vehicles.

Mind you if Richard Benyon kicked out the American's from one base it would seriously damage his love of weapons exporting and his beloved DESO (2) then what would he have to talk about in Parliament?



References:
1. typical example - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmpublic/planning/080122/am/80122s01.htm#08012280000167 - where he doubts the countries ability to get it done.
2. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=DESO&pid=11727 - pages of the stuff here.

The old Landrover Discovery 300TDI has a rust spot or two (well ok, a lot of rust spots) all around the boot area in the usual boot panel and under the wheel arches. Rust is such a damn nightmare on these older landies, and with the disco's boot floor up you can see why...



As you can see from this I've taken the boot panel out. What a darn tedious nightmare it is to remove all of the spot welds! Anyway, as you may be able to see in the picture, the underseal doesn't cover much, especially any of the crevices that water and muck just loves to stick. A lot of the panels around the outside have rusted as well and there are some very nasty rust spots in the wheel arches (big enough to get my arm in). I don't want to take the sills off yet, but I suspect they are in just as good a condition.

After a good clean up and a lot of angle grinder action we are back to bare metal and ready to weld on new bits. I've decided not to paint the chassis or cross members as the rust is only surface, so I've wire bushed off the worst and used a high zinc spray to cover the tops of everything. When I've put the panels back I'll underseal the lot and it should last for quite some time. More pictures to come of the boot panel going back in and the nightmare that is undersealing

In support of the residents of Theale who have had their driveway access blocked by road barriers installed by the DB Schenker, I have sent emails and letters to company executives calling for them to reconsider their actions.

“From: Adrian Hollister

To: Heller, Keith

Cc: Meiklejohn, Graham

Sent: Tue May 19 10:48:42 2009


Subject: Garage Dispute in Theale



Sir, I am greatly disappointed to read in Newbury Today that you have 
decided to block access to the garages of homes in Theale.  Whilst 
your business is a valued part of our community, each business has a 
responsibility towards our community too.  The amount of monies 
involved, the cost of recovery and the bad press you are rightly 
receiving over the issue must far outweigh your need to take profit 
from one or two members of the community.



I urge you to reconsider the blocking of access to these properties 
and to consider allowing free access as part of DB Schenker's give 
back to the residents of this community.



Yours sincerely,


Adrian Hollister

Parliamentary Candidate

West Berkshire Green Party

email: adrian@westberksgreens.org.uk 
website: http://www.westberksgreens.org.uk”

Looking to email them directly? Try keith.heller @ dbschenker.com and graham.meiklejohn @ dbschenker.com (take the spaces out from around the @ sign)

With the European elections just over a fortnight away, a ComRes poll has put the Green Party in the South East in third place with 16% of the vote, four points clear of the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives and Labour are in first and second place with UKIP trailing behind the Greens with 15%.

Meanwhile a YouGov poll released tomorrow (Monday 18 May) found 34% of respondents said they would either definitely be voting Green or would consider voting Green. This is the highest percentage ever to indicate potential support for the Greens.

Interestingly, the largest group who would consider switching were LibDem voters. It's far more common for the Greens to attract former Labour voters, who were the second largest group considering switching. Also interesting was the fact that around one-fifth of those considering switching were Conservative voters - the group normally the least likely to switch to Green.


Adrian Hollister said, "We find the same here in West Berkshire, many of our new people are ex-Liberal Democrat voters. Most are just confused and angry about their confused policies and their involvement in the expenses scandal." If you would like to know more about the Green Party in West Berkshire please see our web site www.westberksgreens.org.uk - you can find my contact details there. We also have a first Sunday coffee and market day in Newbury where we meet up with family and friends in one of the cafe's near the farmers market - your welcome to come along and have a chat.

Our local MEP and Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas will be in Newbury on the 21st of May. So come along and meet her, 9:30-10:30am in Newbury Town Hall, coffee and cakes will be provided.

I stole the title here from members of Reading's ever increasing Green Party, but the point is the same. The Telegraph's revelations about MP's expenses must be an utter embarrassment for what are often wealthy Conservative, trade union funded Labour and should know better (perhaps) Lib Dem members of parliament. Is it a surprise that MP's have been making vast amount of money selling their second homes as their policies boost house prices? Is it a surprise that New Labour and Liberal Democrats behave in the way we would traditionally associate with the fat cat Tories? I don't think so. Politics has become so grey, with all three of the main parties looking Tory, walking Tory and talking Tory. We have what seems to be three main parties stinking of greed.

What happened to the honest politician? What happened to the conviction politicians? Did Maggie convert them all to wannabe Tories?

So what about the Greens then? Has there ever been a Green Party politician (and there are many councillors, MEP's and London Council members) accused of financial irregularity or abuse of power? No. There never has - why would there be? We all try to do what is best for society, best for our communities and best for our future. We are not motivated by the greed that has corrupted other parties.

If you want a clean parliament, then vote clean, vote Green.

So, I've gone through my first full tank of Biodiesel from Thatcham. 90 Litres of the stuff. How did I get on? I ran very very low on the oil veggie oil that was in there to ensure that I had as pure a mixture as I could get and filled it to the brim in Thatcham. I've got to say that I've not noticed any difference from running on either straight Diesel or cetane boosted straight veggie oil. I wonder why we everyone doesn't start using this type of fuel? Mind you, a lot of diesel cars can easily run on filtered waste veggie oil which would be better still. Why have manufacturer's not picked up on this and started marketing their cars this way?

1. Turn it off. Lights at night - especially in offices. Computers, printers, photocopiers, coffee machines. They all consume power most often when they don't need to. Don't forget these devices consume power even when on stand-by or power saving mode.

2. Reuse, Repair and Recycle. IT is a nightmare and throwing things away because they look grubby or out of date.

3. Travel less and work from home. This not only improve a personal local social environment (getting up later, spending more time with family by not commuting), but also reduced our reliance upon heavily polluting transport systems. Of course this needs to be offset by high efficiency household heating and green energy. Perhaps something that employers will assist with in future years.

4. Spend time understanding 'need' and 'want'. Most waste occurs feeding the 'want' - do you need a new computer or want one? do you need the latest version of office or want it?

5. People are part of the environment - we have needs, social needs. Social needs cannot be met by IT, but IT can facilitate it. So when you plan your IT projects and proposals think about how it will help the people socially and the benefits that will bring to the welfare and sustainability of the business (and the communities within that business.)

Adrian Hollister said, "How in the time of such recession is the Council able to justify the cost of £100K+ for three Council Officers? There are plenty of people out there unemployed, give them or their colleagues within the Council a chance at the role with a realistic salary.

If these Council Officers are, as the Conservative 'executive' member Anthony Stansfeld says, lower paid than our neighbouring authorities then they should be able to find another job at the drop of a hat.

If as I suspect, they are all overpaid, then a correction in their salary in line with the performance of West Berkshire and the recession in the Country is due. Perhaps we could use their excessive salaries to fund the sixth form schools shortfall introduced by New Labour?"

Reference: Newbury Today's article 'Three council officers earn six figure salaries'