Geordies against mega dairies!

Well, one notable one, Ruth Archer! My light relief is The Archers and their current story line about the local agribusiness fat cat’s plan for a mega dairy has had me shouting at the radio in horror. Finally last night Ruth (the Geordie character) had a furious rant about it. She is right that these kinds of intensive farming are completely appalling – though her farm is not completely perfect, not being organic, but they have at least moved to a lower input system of longer grazing of their cows out in their fields. The future cannot be these massive scale intensive farms – the welfare issues for the animals are intolerable, the human health risks (with massive use of antibiotics and growth promoters etc and diseases like swine flu) and we won’t be able to squander fossil fuels as fertilisers etc with peak oil and climate change. We have to move to organic smaller scale farming with all of us consuming less meat and dairy, wasting less food, importing less out of season stuff, growing more of our own.

And of course, we need to stop the swallowing up of agricultural land for house-building and out of town business and retail parks. Which brings me on to what I have been doing for the last few weeks – campaigning against the national government’s plans for a planning free for all, and now the Newcastle and Gateshead council’s Core Strategy for the next 20 years – which includes a massive land grab of the green belt to the north and west of the cities. North Tyneside are already in the process of trying to build on every bit of land too – as someone said to me it seems as if every blade of grass there is an affront to the planners and must be concreted over.

Well, the campaign against this mad and bad plan is building up very rapidly. There were well over 170 people protesting (some estimated 250) at the Civic Centre in Newcastle on 2 November and several public meetings organised by residents over to the west with up to 200 people. Residents groups in Gateshead are appalled at the plan to demolish over 4,000 perfectly habitable (and indeed inhabited) homes in their neighbourhoods. Then on Tuesday Gosforth Civic Hall was packed, standing room only, we reckoned more than 400 people – all extremely angry and opposed to the destruction of the vital wildlife corridor the plan would wreak by proposing 600 houses to be built on the fields around the Gosforth Nature Reserve. There is a meeting of this particular campaign next Tuesday 22 November at the Gosforth Hotel at 7.30pm.

Green Party activist Dave Byrne from Gateshead, professor of social policy at Durham, spoke about the wider reasons the plan is wrong – the fact that it does nothing to address the real issues of the economic and environmental crisis, and that if it were implemented it would make things worse. We are busy working on our formal submission to the consultation on the Core Strategy and will be doing as much campaigning as we can right across Tyne and Wear – and indeed the North East, as this sort of grab for new housing development by trying to lure developers with the promise of their preferred green field sites impacts all the other councils in the region. Watch this space….

A final thought, one of the issues protesters have raised, especially at Tuesday’s meeting was that of increased flooding – some of the sites are on flood plains, some will block water flow and cause flooding downstream, some will simply reduce water being soaked up by open land by having been built on. Last Thursday’s afternoon drama was a drama-documentary was The State of Water brilliant, but unfortunately no longer available to listen again. Set on a Welsh hill farm, it explored the way that ecological management of the land could restore its capacity to retain water and prevent flooding. The drama of the family was intercut with beautiful, poetic pieces of science about what we are doing to this precious resource – terrifying, if we don’t radically mend our collective ways…

And more fuel poverty …

Fuel poverty was back in the news last week with the further exposure of the effective cartel of the big six energy companies, their disgustingly exorbitant profits and just how little they are actually investing in renewable energy. Meanwhile the subsidy to oil and nuclear industries escalates.

Friends of the Earth have a petition which calls for a public enquiry into the power of the Big Six and for the Government to use the opportunity to fix our broken energy system.

Another interesting news snippet was the scrapping of the last carbon capture and storage scheme (CCS) at Longannet in Scotland. Labour joined in the criticism of this decision, as did the Clean Coal lobby in the TUC. But the fact that this is still an unproven technology, means the only safe thing to do is leave the coal in the ground. We need to cut our energy use, through increased insulation – which creates a lot more jobs than a CCS plant would, and by changing our lifestyles away from high-consumption – which is actually towards a better quality of life.

The other frustration I have is that so much of the discussion about our energy use only focuses on domestic use, and especially on electricity production, whereas the bulk of energy use is on transport, intensive food production,and industrial production (though mostly we have exported that to China and other parts of the world) – and so is petrol, diesel and oil.

More madness is coming our way if we don’t succeed in stopping it, with the government’s proposed change to the Planning system, to allow a free-for-all, which will see yet more out of town dormitory housing estates and massive retail and business parks.

We have started a campaign against a horrendous plan hatched by Newcastle and Gateshead councils which will pre-empt the new national planning framework with huge housebuilding on green belt land, demolition of perfectly good housing in urban areas and retail developments etc. They are fixated on putting all eggs into the basket of “getting economic growth going” – and population growth too – through this strategy of doing more of the same as they did through the boom years – insanity!

There are lots of other examples of terrible planning in the region which we need to cooperate as widely as possible to defeat.

We do need to revolutionise our planning system to deliver truly sustainable communities, where everything is local, people can live, work, shop, play, grow food and have green space within twenty minutes walk or cycle – well actually, ten minutes for the green space! Nobody actually wants to sit in horrendous traffic jams or commute for hours every day by crowded metro, train or bus. And we simply can’t go on planning our towns and cities in this way, with peak oil and climate change.

Jarrow 75 years on

Marching behind one of the original Jarrow Crusade banners from the Town Hall to Christ Church today really did feel like being part of a long chain of protest across the years. Then sitting in the church from where they set off 75 years ago was very moving, and standing to sing Jerusalem, imagining those men and their families right there, with their class warrior MP “Red Ellen” Wilkinson.

In quite a radical address, the Archdeacon of Sunderland Stuart Bain, went through the history of the march and then made the link to the present, asking our current government “Is what you are doing going to bring hope and justice? If not, then think again.”

Well, I think it’s quite clear what the real answer is to that question, whatever the coalition might try to argue. For real hope and justice, what we need is a genuine Green New Deal to bring real jobs to Jarrow and the rest of the UK, rather than throwing money into a black hole courtesy of the banks.

BTW Jerusalem was chosen as an all time great protest song by Pauline, one of the people on the Rebel Radio programme on NE1 FM last Tuesday and you can listen to it all again. Pauline played a version sung by Paul Robeson, a great singer and political activist. I had suggested Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised to another of the programme makers and was delighted to hear that played along with some other great songs – part of a whole hour of alternative news, political analysis and humour. This is going to be a regular monthly programme so you can get involved, send in ideas and news…

Consumerism doesn’t make our children (or us) happy

Spirit Level author Kate Pickett in today’s Guardian CiF argues “How to make children happy? Reduce social inequality”. She is welcoming the UNICEF report exposing the damage that high income inequality and consumerism do to family wellbeing.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail goes straight for the guilt angle, blaming parents for spoiling children with designer labels to make up for lack of quality care, and quoting right winger Jill Kirby:

It is amazing that this study manages to blame consumerism rather than lack of parental discipline or the absence of fathers in the family. The reason why this country has low levels of child well-being compared with Sweden and Spain is surely connected to our much higher levels of family break up.

There’s a good riposte to this from Madeleine Bunting also on Guardian CiF “Guilt is for ministers, not mothers”. She follows her initial argument against yet another knee-jerk reaction blaming working mothers, by looking at why consumption of expensive brands is so linked to status in this country compared to Spain and Sweden:

surely relevant is the “strong and shared social expectation of family” evident in both Spain and Sweden, an alternative value system to challenge materialism

Food poverty – and tax again

Food poverty and food banks – more evidence of the widening of the gap between rich and poor – on Radio 4′s Food Programme today. Exposing how the government is stepping back from any responsibility to ensure that people on benefits or low pay have enough money to be able to eat properly, leaving charities to try desperately to fill the gap with food banks right across the UK.

Central government needs to bring in a living wage and benefits that are liveable on – a citizens income, and local government needs to be enabling people to grow more food too – more allotments, garden sharing, community gardens… Our community garden at school has continued to be successful with lots of great produce and some wonderful shared meals round the fire pit. My front garden has also flourished, despite the dry spell doing for the spinach – great crop of delicious strawberries. We also had some excellent potatoes from the back garden and from the community allotment at Bill Quay Farm.

 

Our Front Garden raised beds this summer

There was more on the 3D use of our space to grow things edible, medicinal and useful for dyeing etc – forest gardening – on Gardeners Question Time today.

Of course what the government would much rather do is give a tax cut to the rich by getting rid of the 50p tax band, because of course the rich need to be paid more to incentivise them, while the poor need to be paid less. Richard Murphy demolished the eminent economists’ argument for this tax cut on the Today programme last week.

Caroline Lucas was on a panel on tax dodging at this weekend’s Green Party conference and last week welcomed a report by Ethical Consumer on the tax haven firms that run our public services.

I wasn’t able to get to conference but instead went to the Sunderland Carnival Against the Cuts with Gangsters of Ska and 1977 – exactly the music that politicised me aged 13 in 77.

Imagine

Seeing our son singing this utopian song on stage at his primary school tonight in his leavers’ show was so uplifting – the optimism of youth is such a counter balance to the grim anger at my union meeting yesterday evening for instance. Shed a few tears tonight, especially as the focus of their show was a “lifetime achievement oscar” for their lovely headteacher who’s retiring this summer… Really wonderful to hear the genuine appreciation for someone who has given lifelong public service, something this government is determined not to value (unless you’re a volunteer of course).

Going back to the song, I’m just so moved that my son is a dreamer too – of another world being possible

New Woodcraft Folk group

Busy setting up new Woodcraft Folk Group, with a meeting at the wonderful Green Fleece Cafe at Bill Quay Farm on Saturday – join us there at 1.30 if you’re interested in helping set up a new group in the Gateshead/South Tyneside Area.

If you haven’t come across the Woodcraft Folk before, it’s

A movement for children and young people, open to everyone from birth to adult. We offer a place where children will grow in confidence, learn about the world and start to understand how to value our planet and each other.

What I love is the Woodcraft’s passionate belief in equality and cooperation, that by encouraging children and young people to think, while having loads of fun, they will help build a peaceful, more just world.

Children and young people are welcome to this meeting too and we’ll have more activities for them – whatever the weather.

Meanwhile, a Green from Gateshead, David Byrne, will be speaking at a public meeting organised by Tyne and Wear Left Unity next Thursday 14th July, 7-9pm at St John’s Church Hall, Grainger Street, Newcastle – near Central Station. His talk will be on the political implications of ecological crisis. With world climate on the brink, greenhouse gas emissions increasing by record amount to highest carbon output in history,despite economic recession, the likelihood of controlling global warming and climate change is rapidly disappearing. Our children and grandchildren will not be able to live on this planet as we do now. Is this the beginning of the end? Certainly it’s time for us to change how we live right now.

On a more cheerful note, here’s a couple of photos from the Green Festival we had at Bill Quay Farm Saturday before last – wish I had more of the music and the kid’s activities, but the camera packed up….

Flying Pickets

Well actually the Flying Picket Cycle Cafe, which was out and about in York yesterday supporting the strike and got reported by the BBC. Greens were involved, with Green Councillor Andy D’Agorne in the photo on the BBC website, shown below. York Stop the Cuts organised this mass pedal through the city, visiting picket lines. The cycle group towed a trolley containing tea and coffee, aiming to visit a number of official picket lines at government offices, colleges and schools.

Brilliant!

Green Councillor Andy D'Agorne

 

As was Billy Bragg on pensions, and Greece, tonight on Any Questions and great that he fiercely criticised Ed Miliband for his condemnation of the strike. Miliband’s soundbite from his speech to the Local Government Association, that “The Labour Party I lead will always be the party of the mums and dads who know the value of a day’s education” had me incandescent with rage. As it did the teachers at the school I work at, on return to work today – people working at the chalkface, putting heart and soul into our children’s future and, in a school like ours in a deprived area, helping pick up the pieces of lives devastated by the damage this unjust, grossly unequal society inflicts.

Mind you Mark Serwotka demolishing Tory minister Francis Maude on the Today programme had been a great way to start the day, definitely worth listening to the clip. Extremely refreshing to hear someone cut right through the devious dishonesty….

A plague of jellyfish,but no fish, or forests!

Jellyfish shut down Torness Nuclear Power Station south of Edinburgh and one commenter on the Guardian article, Bluecloud, argues that jellyfish swarms are rapidly increasing due to overfishing and climate change. A BBC article says that although water temperatures along the east coast of Scotland have been relatively normal, it is thought that higher than average temperatures elsewhere in the North Sea may be a factor.

So nuclear power stations will be more and more likely to fall victim to the consequences of a heating planet, and of course continuing catastrophic overfishing.

Which brings me onto the State of our Oceans report, that we are “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history” – ecosystem collapse is happening. You can download the full report here. We desperately need to protect our blue planet.

And then there’s our green lungs, the forests. The government’s panel to decide the future of our forests is now up and running and will be taking answers to their questions till end of July. So 38 degrees have a link to the panel’s questions. As they say, “a flood of messages will show the panel that the public wants our forests protected, not sold off to private companies”. They will collect all our answers together and hand them over to the panel as “a huge, people-powered message – protect our forests!”

This is crucial because “the panel answers to Caroline Spelman, the same minister who cooked up the plans to sell the forests in the first place. So although the panel could come up with sensible plans for our woodlands future, they could be under pressure to rubber-stamp more sell-offs.”

We need another urgent campaign about this to prevent the Government going for another sell-off.

Small is beautiful

We had our own small and beautiful Green Festival at Bill Quay Farm yesterday, with rain, but no mud! Excellent talks on beekeeping, forest gardening and permaculture, plus wide ranging political discussion following a talk on green economics and Latin American eco-socialist activism, especially indigenous peoples’, by Derek Wall. Lots of Greens from Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland (plus some from Newcastle and North Tyneside) came, plus lots of local families enjoying the wonderful music, stalls and food – Pam and the cafe workers surpassed themselves, with Gateshead Floddies (a bit like rosti) and fabulous cakes and puddings – Newcastle pudding (lemon bread & butter), Northern tart – coconut, apricot etc… all delicious.

Our wildlife gardening activities were very popular – ladybird sanctuaries and bumblebee hotels – that reminds me Phil Wilson posted about flowers to grow to help bumblebees. We were also planting seeds – herbs, sunflowers and pumpkins – in fibre pots which children and grown ups could take home with them. We talked to everyone about the possibility of setting up a Woodcraft Folk group round here – as the nearest ones are in Newcastle or Ryton. We will meet again in the cafe at Bill Quay farm on Saturday 9th July at 1.30 to talk about getting a group going.

Really great to network with all the people who came, the people working at the farm and the people who brought their fabulous stalls – the free produce from the Gateshead Community Agriculture project, gorgeous homemade cakes and jams from Coach House Kitchen, textiles from the Bill Quay textile workshop, recycled jewellery from Joanne Dale, Riverford Organic Veg, the Vegetarian Society and beer-making by my other half, including offering free samples….

Just going to finish off a lovely weekend, after gardening in the sunshine today, by listening to last night’s radio 4 programme about Fritz Schumacher, who wrote the landmark book Small is Beautiful – a life changer for me when I read it as a student. Not sure about the focus of Jonathon Porritt’s programme though – the legacy of this radical book for Cameron’s Big Society… I trust that Porritt, who has criticised the claims of this government to be the greenest ever, will point out the contradiction between the heart of Schumacher’s vision of economics as if people and ecology matter, and the rampant big business capitalism continuing to be pursued by this government at any cost.