25 May 2010

Cut Spending! (But don't mention Afghanistan)

The coalition government are introducing over £6billion worth of cuts. These will inevitably lead to more people being out of work among other things and are only the very first of what will be a whole series of spending cuts.

Of course we have to tackle the deficit sooner or later, I'm not trying here to join the already vast argument over whether these cuts should be made now.
But I do think it is ridiculous that we are being asked to face domestic cuts by the government while we are still maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan at a huge cost. Even those who supported the war should now accept that we can no longer afford it. Every time we are asked to face cuts we should ask why we are still fighting this war.

18 May 2010

Coventry Green Results

Just realised I didn't post the local Green results, so here they are:

http://www.coventry.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/council--government-and-democracy/elections/

It's nice there was a higher voter turnout generally with it being a general election. Enjoyed going to the count, like watching democracy in motion but we still need proportional representation to reflect what people are really voting for:

http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/news_detail.php?id=552

Food can help cut the fiscal deficit

I like this article in the Guardian. It makes so much sense, why are we paying hardly anything to people in 3rd world countries to grow food cheap for us when they need it to eat themselves. And why are we flying it half way around the world when we've perfectly lovely fields being set aside in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/17/food-help-cut-fiscal-deficit

15 May 2010

The Truth about Climate Change

I've just come across this Youtube channel with a lot of good info on the issue of climate change.

http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610

At the moment there are a lot of voices who are saying there is no problem with man-made global warming despite there being a strong consensus on the issue within the scientific community. It's good to have some accessible sources defending the science on climate change since most of us don't have the time to read all the scientific papers on the issue.

10 May 2010

Lets hope Lib Dems don't blow it

I am disappointed with the Lib Dems. After the elation of the first Green MP and it being a hung parliament (as opposed to Tories in control) it is disappointing that we may end up with a Cons-Lib Government after all. See Caroline's warning Will fickle Lib Dems blow their chance to make history?

03 May 2010

The Environment vs Social Justice

Why do the main parties put the economy above everything? I know it's important but people's lives, social justice and having a world to live in are surely more important. See Caroline's interview with Jon Snow

I like that the Green Party realise what really are the important things in life. Instead of measuring countries using GDP, surely how equal, happy and healthy people are are much better indicators than how many TV's or cars people own.

More equal societies almost always do better than less equal ones. See the Spirit Level slides. I find this facinating.