Miss Black Britain On Gang Violence

"Politicians need to invest time over a long period in trying to understand young people. Suggesting making computer games less violent or forcing people to give evidence if someone is shot aren't realistic policies to help people live more positive lives."

Shortage Of Midwives Predicted

Hard on the heels of the UNICEF report on breastfeeding, the Royal College of Midwives says that recruitment of midwives (up 4.5% up from 1997 to 2006) is not keeping pace with a rising birth-rate (up 12.5% in the same time).

The RCM warned that fewer midwives were being trained while the newly-qualified ones were struggling to find jobs because of poor NHS finances. Meanwhile, almost half of all midwives are set to retire within a decade.

Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the RCM, expressed "real concerns" about the Government's ability to improve maternity services.

"Planning, investment and resources are needed now if the Government's targets and ambitions for maternity services are not left hanging in tatters. Ultimately it will be women and their babies who suffer a poorer service, and midwives will be left under-resourced and over-stretched."

Driving A Hybrid Car

"It's a very clever system. One minute, you're running on battery, the next minute, you're running on engine. And you can't feel the car changing, apart from the noise levels."

Breastfeeding In Coventry

UK breastfeeding rates are among the lowest in Europe.

UNICEF is releasing a report today that says 4 of every 10 maternity hospitals in the UK have not implemented breastfeeding guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that was published a year ago.

This is on top of research on breastfeeding (June 2007) that: "knowledge of breastfeeding policy, such as government recommendations on the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, was poorer among family doctors and paediatricians than health visitors and midwives."

Breastfeeding protects babies from a range of illnesses and saves the NHS millions of pounds a year. It lowers a mother's risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, hip fractures and low bone density. Bottle-feeding puts babies at greater risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections and other illnesses.

Nice recommended that all maternity trusts should adopt the Unicef Baby Friendly programme, which focuses on giving mothers information so they can choose whether or not to breastfeed, and ensuring they have support to do so. It is intended to be non-judgmental and women who elect to bottle feed will be helped to do it safely and well.

We need events in Coventry, like The Big Feed this past May, more often to raise awareness.

Supporting Coventry's High Streets

Try and spend a few quid in local shops every week. Every little helps!

Why Big Business Isn't The Answer

Jonathon Porritt, the head of the government's Sustainable Development Commission:

"Every time I hear someone - especially if they are in government - say that big business will be the principal agent of change in moving us into a sustainable world, I know this is just bullshit. In a capitalist market-based global economy, where costs are being systematically and legally dumped on to the environment, companies are legally bound to give preference to short-term shareholder interests over long-term environmental security."

Children And Climate Change

"The people who will be most affected by climate change can't do anything about it."

World Water Scarcity

The International Water Management Insitute now says that one third of the world's population already face some form of water scarcity.

It also highlights the importance, in the future, of adopting a vegetarian diet.

A kilogram of grain takes 500-4,000 liters of water to grow, whilst a kilogram of industrially produced meat requires 10,000 liters. If the world's population grows, and people's diets change from cereals to more meat ....

Organic Cotton In Coventry

The Soil Association has a report out later this week that states annual spending on organically produced food, cosmetics and clothes has reached £2bn.

What's interesting is the growth in organic cotton sales.

You can find organic cotton products here in Coventry (tissues, toilet roll, clothing). That being said, if you're buying fairtrade cotton that isn't organic cotton, you're giving farmers a sustainable wage, but leaving them to keeping dealing with some of the most toxic pesticides on Earth.

Concern about the use of pesticides in the growth of cotton, and their effect on the health of farmers in developing countries, has prompted ethical shoppers to turn to clothes and bedding made from organic cotton. Even organic leather jackets and sheepskin rugs are now on the market.

The value of the organic cotton market in Britain is predicted to surge by 50 per cent this year to £60m. High-street chain New Look has launched three organic clothing collections this year and a third of its cotton jersey ranges will be made from organic cotton by next spring. Topshop gives space to People Tree, a leading organic fashion brand.

Jeremy Paxman On Trust And Television

Jeremy Paxman gave the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival this year. As you'd expect, he didn't pull his punches.

This needs saying, and it needs saying quite clearly. There is a problem. Potentially, it is a very big problem. It has the capacity to change utterly what we do, and in the process to betray the people we ought to be serving. Once people start believing we’re playing fast and loose with them routinely, we’ve had it.

I find it pretty hard to believe some of the television bosses when they say they had no idea what was going on. I know people who worked on ITV Play who told me the best part of a year before the scandal how bothered they were by what was happening. Whoever was responsible should be sacked.

It simply won’t wash for senior figures in the industry to blame our troubles on an influx of untrained young people: the ITV Alzheimer’s documentary and the trailer for the series about the Queen were made by a couple of the most venerable figures in the business.

The question we have to ask ourselves is, is there something rotten in the state of television, some systemic sickness, that renders it inherently dishonest?

Coventry South Newsletter

We've printed a 10 000 copy newsletter, and we'll be distributing it over the next fortnight throughout the wards of Wainbody and Cheylesmore, along with parts of Earlsdon.

It has articles on the Strident protest at Faslane, organic fruit/veg boxes and the recent floods in Britain. It also has an events diary of upcoming peace/environmental meetings in our city.

The idea is to focus on part of the Coventry South constituency in the lead-up to a national election in spring 2008 (unless Gordon Brown divorces Prudence, with Labour still £20 million in debt, a spring election is more likely than a snap autumn one).

We'll have a 2nd issue of the newsletter in November, and a 3rd in late Jan/early Feb.

We're calling it "Coventry Greenleaf" -- aping Brighton Green Party's newspaper. They began "their" Greenleaf as a ward-focused newsletter in 1994, and look where they are now (12 city councillors, and on the cusp of giving Britain its first Green MP in Caroline Lucas).

Great oaks from little acorns grow ...

Nationwide Protests At End Of Climate Camp

Following the end of the climate change camp at Heathrow Airport, activists made protests nationwide on related issues:

- Eight protesters chained themselves together at British Airways' World Cargo Depot at Hatton Cross.
- Protesters superglued themselves to BP's headquarters
- Five protesters blocked the main gate to Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations, on the Suffolk coast
- Activists dressed as red herrings appeared at the offices of offsetting companies Carbon Neutral (London) and Climate Care (Oxford).
- Protests were held at the London offices of Bridgepoint Capital, a private equity firm which recently bought Bradford-Leeds airport and intends to expand it.

Monbiot On Climate Camp Rumours

People can't defend the indefensible -- expanding aviation to ensure that Britian misses carbon reduction targets -- so the response is to smear.

Where did the story [on hoax bombs to cause alerts and assaults on the Heathrow fence] come from? It was, or so the byline claimed, written by Robert Mendick, the Evening Standard's chief reporter. One of the campers phoned Mr Mendick and asked him what was going on.

"I'm very constrained about what I can say for various reasons," Mr Mendick replied. "Suffice to say I understand what you're saying and I can't go into it. Er, and I would further say it's, er, not something I was actually massively involved with and, er, I'll leave it at that." "What do you mean?" "... I really can't go into it."

So what does he mean? Why is Mr Mendick unable to say where the claims in his story came from? How did he manage to write an article that he was not "massively involved with"? Is there a computer programme at the Evening Standard that composes reporters' articles on their behalf?

Update On Green Mayor Of Richmond

Back in mid-January, I posted about the election of Gayle McLaughlin as the mayor of Richmond. Richmond is in the Bay Area of the US, near San Francisco. She's the first Green mayor anywhere in the US in a town/city with a population over 100 000.

The San Francisco Chronicle has published another article on her progress.

It's interesting for Coventry, since Richmond is also a former industrial city trying to reinvent itself:

A Green Party member and former anti-war activist from Chicago might seem like an odd fit for Richmond, but the Green Party label is a little misleading. McLaughlin comes from working-class roots; her father was a carpenter, and the family lived in a blue-collar neighborhood. She understands the importance of manufacturing and industrial jobs for working-class families -- and, in a city with Richmond's environmental history, the health benefits that go with them.

Last year, before the mayoral election, McLaughlin helped persuade the council to rescind the longtime practice of allowing Chevron to self-inspect and self-permit its own projects. She describes Richmond as a city "which has suffered from decades of oil industry pollution" and promises that the city will carefully scrutinize Chevron's latest proposed refinery modifications, designed to allow the company to process the dirtier crude oil that's being dredged from the world's depleting oil reserves.

McLaughlin is still scrambling for funds, but she hopes to establish a Richmond Youth Corps program that would employ 1,000 at-risk kids year 'round to restore creeks, repair roads and help in libraries. She has already managed to boost the city's summer jobs program for youth from 290 positions last year to 350 this year.

And the new mayor is also seeking funds for a crime-prevention program that would send "peacekeeping teams" with mediation skills into crime-ridden neighborhoods. The teams would provide links on a case-by-case basis to substance abuse, mental health, vocational training and other government assistance programs.

The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema

One of the more intriguing things I've seen in a while, and they have 1950's usherettes!

"The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema is the only UK bicycle-powered cinema, uniting art, education and sustainability by screening D.I.Y films, independents and small productions; demonstrating how to generate power locally and independently of fossil fuels; engaging people in idea of sustainability."