Is anyone listening?

Right a few things to get off my chest tonight, mostly based around the fact that this Government has created an atmosphere of governance where no-one listens to public opinion. Obviously the big issue around this is the massive furore over the road pricing thing. So like a million and a half ill-informed selfish pricks knee jerked they're way onto the Downing Street website and clicked to show their disapproval at driving costing them a bit more...maybe...if they drive during rush hour...in a city. Now I don't really have an opinion just yet about the scheme, obviously my knee-jerk says its a good thing but I admit I am uncomfortable about the monitoring aspect of it, but thats neither here nor there. What is interesting about this is the amount of excitement that Tony Blair/Downing Street (I doubt he actually wrote that email) responded to public concern and then that he went ahead and ignored it.

Isn't it sad that power is now so concentrated around the little No.10 bubble that it comes as a great shock when Blair realises that not everyone is willing to go along blindly with his schemes. That upsets me as does the going along and doing it anyway. I mean in this case it makes sense, I mean after all, all that is happening is a review and trial. I may be biased because I happen to agree that drivers need more sticks (and carrots) to give up the little tin box addiction but the arrogance of not really paying attention to public concern is fucking irritating. I mean they didn't even pretend that they were going to pay attention to the concerns people were having, just that they were going to explain why they were going to go ahead and do it anyway. It reminds me of the futility we all felt while marching against the Iraq war. That morning, as similar amounts of us converged on London to show our displeasure, Blair made a similarly patronising statement about him being glad that we lived in a country where people could express their disagreement with those in government and that he would seek to answer our concerns. At no point did he say "and if enough of you show up and are articulate in your reasoning then I may accept that I've lost track of the people who elected me and think again" but there ya go. Piss off Tony, we're bored of you now.

Here's the full text of his email. I haven't read it but I'm sure it's delightful, and i'm sure the comments are equally amusing!

On a similar note, something I blogged about last year has come to an inevitable conclusion today. East Sussex County Council voted to allow the building of a waste incinerator in Newhaven (Residents angry as incinerator plan approved) . I won't bother telling you again why its a terrible idea because I already have, but please read around it and make sure this kind of thing stops happening. This is particularly odd because I'm currently temping for East Sussex County Council and I heard someone mention something about TV cameras today and didn't really think anything of it. I've been keeping up to speed on this issue and I work at the building where the decision was made but I had no idea it was happening until I got home and read email, way to go with the consultation ESCC!

Finally as an update, the Nisshin Maru is still drifting (read an update here), and teh Japanese are still refusing help. Greenpeace now have an email form, which is way better than the one I did, that will go to the Japanese government so fill it out. Oh and while you're there check out the webcam on the Greenpeace boat - cool almost live pics of the Antarctic seas!

Three blogs about governments of varying levels from around the world not listening to their constituents. Isn't democracy great?

Japanese Whaler Emergency

This has to be a short one as I'm in a bit of hurry but it is very important.

The Beeb has posted a story about a stranded Japanese whaling ship that is in danger of spilling fuel in an area near the largest Adele penguin colony in the world ( Japan urged to 'use Greenpeace'). Greenpeace have a boat in the area that can tow the boat away from the colony and thus avert a possible massive environmental disaster (Greenpeace ready to tow striken whaling ship) but the Japanese are so far refusing to accept help. Now no doubt Greenpeace were there to cause trouble for the whaler but the issue is now bigger than a dispute between Greenpeace and the whaling industry.

They need to be forced to let Greenpeace intervene. With that in mind my old buddy Milli comes into the equation. Send him an email (david.miliband@gsi.defra.gov.uk) asking him to urge the Japanese minister for the Environment (this guy) to take action.

This is really fucking important so please do it now and ask your friends to it as well. What follows is the text of the email I've sent to Milli (on a lighter note this has got me thinking about hwo might be Vanilli - I want Ruth Kelly but I have no reason to say that), feel free to nab it or write something a bit more eloquent:

Dear Mr Milliband,

As I am sure you are by now aware the Japanese whaling ship the Nisshin Maru is stranded in the Ross Sea in Antarctica. Chris Carter the Conservation Minister for New Zealand has urged the Japanese to accept Greenpeace's offer to tow the ship clear to avoid a possible environmental disaster were the ship to start spilling fuel


I ask you to urge Masatoshi Wakabayashi, the Japanese Minister of the Environment, to accept intervention by Greenpeace to solve this problem before it causes an avoidable catastrophe.

I look forward to hearing of your timely action.

Kind Regards,

I'm Back and More Environment Stuff

First up, apologies for the lack of posting since forever. I'm back and I should be able to be regular from now on. I'm also going to change tack a bit and keep thsi blog purely current affairs (I've got others where I can sound off about Anna Nicole Smith and Hot Fuzz).

Now on to the important things. I'm afraid I'm sticking with the theme of climate change (isn't it kind of stunning that in the year since I last posted the same issues are still stuck in the same places). Two reports from the BBC have struck me today. One - Nuclear review 'was misleading' - shows how little the UK government has actually the thought about nuclear power before deciding to move forward. They've chosen this as the easy 'don't upset the electorate' option and frankly it disgusts me. It's terrifying when a Tory leader who is a despicable person realises that renewable power is what people want to hear about (even if he is just doing it as a headline grabbing part of his party's rehabilitation) and the leader of Labour doesn't. The report is about the fact that a judge ruled today that when putting together it's nuclear power review last year that it didn't properly consult and presented some misleading information to the consultees. David Milliband (bless the little twat) then insists (in stunning display of 'I could run at a million miles an hour if I wanted to I just don't feel like it' playground petulance) that the Government could appeal but they've decided not to and also that the report doesn't criticise the information but rather the consultation process. Which is a lie. Mr Justice Sullivan said that the information provided was 'misleading' (check out the Greenpeace press release). Go Milli! In my book if the information on which you base your report is misleading and false then the report itself is going to be misleading. But there ya go.

Also from the BBC today comes news that Tony Blair wants to set limits for raises in temperature above a level which would cause catastrophe (Leaders plot path to climate deal). The pointlessness of setting targets for reducing climate change to a level that would only cause a bit of a world ending disaster is obvious but what really gets me about this is that most climatologists agree that global temperatures are going to rise by a couple of degrees over the next century because of what we've all already done to the planet. It's wrong to concentrate on the limiting temperature rise when we've got no real idea how much impact anything has (that's not to say it doesn't have an impact, just that we can't calculate how much of a temperature increase each coal power station creates). What we should be doing is setting wide ranging, enforceable targets for reducing emissions, from transport to households to power generation. There is no magic bullet, this is going to take a wide ranging approach that is going to need people to make changes to the way they live their lives. What Blair is proposing is a way to let us all sleep a little better. You know, when a flood kills millions in Asia and the water doesn't recede we can all go "Well the Government is trying to limit temperature rise so I don't need to stop taking 14 flights to the end of the road every year".

To continue with the theme the always excellent Comment is Free on the gruaniad website has a great thread started by a piece by Jeremy Seabrook about taking responsibility for climate change - All Together Now.

I'm Back and More Environment Stuff

First up, apologies for the lack of posting since forever. I'm back and I should be able to be regular from now on. I'm also going to change tack a bit and keep thsi blog purely current affairs (I've got others where I can sound off about Anna Nicole Smith and Hot Fuzz).

Now on to the important things. I'm afraid I'm sticking with the theme of climate change (isn't it kind of stunning that in the year since I last posted the same issues are still stuck in the same places). Two reports from the BBC have struck me today. One - Nuclear review 'was misleading' - shows how little the UK government has actually the thought about nuclear power before deciding to move forward. They've chosen this as the easy 'don't upset the electorate' option and frankly it disgusts me. It's terrifying when a Tory leader who is a despicable person realises that renewable power is what people want to hear about (even if he is just doing it as a headline grabbing part of his party's rehabilitation) and the leader of Labour doesn't. The report is about the fact that a judge ruled today that when putting together it's nuclear power review last year that it didn't properly consult and presented some misleading information to the consultees. David Milliband (bless the little twat) then insists (in stunning display of 'I could run at a million miles an hour if I wanted to I just don't feel like it' playground petulance) that the Government could appeal but they've decided not to and also that the report doesn't criticise the information but rather the consultation process. Which is a lie. Mr Justice Sullivan said that the information provided was 'misleading' (check out the Greenpeace press release). Go Milli! In my book if the information on which you base your report is misleading and false then the report itself is going to be misleading. But there ya go.

Also from the BBC today comes news that Tony Blair wants to set limits for raises in temperature above a level which would cause catastrophe (Leaders plot path to climate deal). The pointlessness of setting targets for reducing climate change to a level that would only cause a bit of a world ending disaster is obvious but what really gets me about this is that most climatologists agree that global temperatures are going to rise by a couple of degrees over the next century because of what we've all already done to the planet. It's wrong to concentrate on the limiting temperature rise when we've got no real idea how much impact anything has (that's not to say it doesn't have an impact, just that we can't calculate how much of a temperature increase each coal power station creates). What we should be doing is setting wide ranging, enforceable targets for reducing emissions, from transport to households to power generation. There is no magic bullet, this is going to take a wide ranging approach that is going to need people to make changes to the way they live their lives. What Blair is proposing is a way to let us all sleep a little better. You know, when a flood kills millions in Asia and the water doesn't recede we can all go "Well the Government is trying to limit temperature rise so I don't need to stop taking 14 flights to the end of the road every year".

To continue with the theme the always excellent Comment is Free on the gruaniad website has a great thread started by a piece by Jeremy Seabrook about taking responsibility for climate change - All Together Now.