Political

Newbury Greens travelled with friends and members of other political parties to the march in London today. What a great event. Pictures and write up to follow.

Posted by Adrian Hollister

Dear Richard Benyon,

It's clear that the cold war is over and spending a vast amounts of money on a new generation of nuclear weapons does not make the UK or the world a safer place.

In the 21st century we need an army (with boots) that are flexible enough to deal with security threats (primarily terrorism), peace keeping duties (and potentially interventions) and humanitarian missions, such as helping dealing with the aftermath of the Tsunami in Japan.

Through an FOI request (http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/gpuk/mod_trident_foi_2010_jan.pdf) it has been shown that the MoD are already purchasing parts for the next generation of nuclear weapons systems.

I note that you are strongly in favour of nuclear weapons but your coalition government announced a deferral of the decision to renew the nuclear submarine fleet (something that seems essential for the new range of nuclear weapons systems) until 2016.

I would appreciate an understanding of your position on EDM1477 - is this something that you agree with? I would also appreciate confirmation on the coalition government's stance on renewal of nuclear weapons - it seems to me very confused.

Lastly, I would also like to understand how you came to the judgement that nuclear weapons are in the best interests of our country - I have yet to see or read a rational unemotional justification.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Hollister

Posted by Adrian Hollister

Yet again there were more accidents on the A34 running past Newbury in West Berkshire. Weekly, if not daily there seem to be accidents involving the short slip roads or the slow and winding hill based section running through the downlands past East Ilsley. Both seem to cause traffic to slow down well below 70 often blocking both lanes leaving other traffic to panic, this is made worse by those selfish few driving faster than the conditions allow.

Why don't we just mandate a slower speed limit through Berkshire on the A34? Average speed camera's are often described as safety cameras, here is a real example where safety would undoubtedly improved.

So come on West Berkshire Council, improve our environment, our safety and save a bit of the environment too: reduce the speed limit on the A34 through Berkshire to 50mph.

Adrian Hollister.

Posted by Adrian Hollister

Newbury and West Berkshire Green Party member Miriam Kennet gave a speech in the House of Commons this week on changing the model of economics and business so that goods are no longer built with built in obsolence but everyone is encouraged to reuse recycle and repair things that once they would have thrown away. The capitol expenditure cost savings for local business would be significant.

The speech was hosted by COMTEK which specialises in preventing E waste. The local company The Green Ecnonomics Institute, with 3 offices in Reading help mobile phones to be recycled from the Thames Valley and given to people, to hospitals and schools in countries like Togo where people cant afford telephones. The evening also discussed how larger companies are lobbying against this initiative and how smaller companies can benefit and how open source is a very green idea.

Repairing computers is now becoming one of the fastest growing industries and the new ideas of recycling and reusing even computer applications was introduced. The evening held on the terrace at the House of Commons also featured the Carbon Trust, Computer Aid and many people from the telecoms, computer industry.

For further information and for press enquiries please email local member Miriam Kennet.

Posted by Adrian Hollister

With oil prices again on the rise and a real prospect of oil prices sticking at ever increasing levels, people have again begun to start thinking about the mortality of the current energy sources. Here in West Berkshire there are protests going on for a small wind turbine at Sheepdrove farm in Lambourn. Short sighted people often called NIMBY's (Not In My Back Yard) moan about how it would scare horses, kill flocks of birds, produce noise and ruin their land scape (none of these points are, IMHO, real issues). These are, of course, the very people driving car's, running oil central heating and very much like their electricity supply thank you. These are also, of course, the very people that would be first in line to complain when the energy they use becomes too expensive.

Already we have seen here in West Berkshire's downlands how the villages here have been hit by the high oil prices. Lambourn, Great Shefford, Chaddleworth, the Ilsley's and more are all vulnerable as their sources of energy for heating and hot water are seemingly limited. There is no gas up here so everyone is blighted by the high oil prices... oil for heating, bottled gas, electricity and coal/wood all have undergone a bizarre uplift following the price of oil. Competition, it seems, is again not the answer.

Despite this, there still seems to be a short sighted approach to renewable energies here in West Berkshire. Why do all new houses in West Berkshire not include solar powered solar hot water heating? A simple and relatively cheap measure for the developers, but the long term benefit to our community and our society would be dramatic. Why not embrace the use of local renewable energies? If every farm the size of Sheepdrove had it's own wind turbine able to produce 50-100kW, not only would be farms start to become electricity neutral, but the times of domestic high demand are not in common with times of commercial farming high demand - allowing excess electricity to be ploughed back into the local community ensuring a good sustainable supply.

Many people saw and endured real hardship after the second world war - during these times people knew how to re-use, repair, and recycle. We seem to have forgotten this, and people now resist a sustainable future for their children and their grandchildren. Odd, in my mind, that people would be so careless about the people they love and know, assuming that someone else can solve the problem elsewhere. I wonder where they think future energy will come from? I wonder if they have thought that the next world war could be over energy? where would we as a nation stand in an energy war? a question for another blog entry I think.

Adrian Hollister

Some links:
Lambourn Web site
Newbury Today Article

Posted by Adrian Hollister