Clinton Vs Obama

I find Hillary Clinton staying in the Democratic race totally unbelievable.

1) She's behind in states won, in the popular vote won, and in delegates won. She has next-to-no mathematical chance of making up the delegate gap (even if she wins the 10 remaining states 60% to 40%, and Michigan/Florida are re-run, she'll only be ahead by 20 delegates. If Michigan is re-run, Obama is neck-and-neck with her there, and Obama will probably win North Carolina and Oregon). Tellingly, Clinton won California at the start of February, and polls now show that Obama would win California in a walk if it was held today.

2) She was wrong about Iraq, and Obama was right.

3) Due to the polarisation of politics under her husband's presidency, there are people who will walk across broken glass in a general election to vote against anyone named Clinton.

4) She's telling porkies about being key to Northern Irish peace, and being under sniper fire in Bosnia when she wasn't, and about opening borders with Macedonia when she didn't.

5) She was wrong about Iraq, and Obama was right.

6) Clinton has said very odd things about Barack Obama.

7) She didn't disown Geraldine Ferraro ... sure, a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, who's African-American, with internet rumours saying, falsely, that he's Muslim, has it easy.

8) If all that wasn't enough, her campaign is a managerial shambles:

Businessmen who provided Clinton services in Iowa, New Hampshire, and New York have come forward lamenting her campaign's failure to pay debts on time. Two Ohio event producers told Politico.com they are urging other companies to insist on cash payment up front before working with Clinton. At the beginning of this month, Clinton – who often promises to fight the insurance industry over the rising cost of health care in America – also owed more than $225,000 in unpaid health bills for campaign employees.

Putting Our Economy On A War Footing

"If military policy has long been based on the dictum that we should be prepared for the worst case, should it be so different when the security is that of the planet and our long term future?"

Preparation For The Local Elections

We look to be set to run in 14 wards (everywhere by Henley, Holbrook, St Michael's, and Wyken). The deadline for getting nomination papers/forms into the council is Friday at noon. The trick is not to get them in on Friday morning, but to get them in on Wednesday morning. Then, if we've messed up/need clarification, we've got time to run around with our heads cut off to make things right.

We have two sets entirely completed, and we have 12 others in the process of getting done. Hopefully, through a delightfully chaotic process of people dropping by my house to get them certified, we'll have everything in by Wednesday.

Our election leaflet is well on its way to being designed. We only need a few photos, and then it'll be off to the printers. In 2006, we had an A5 leaflet. In 2007, we had an A4 leaflet. In 2008, we've got a double-sided A3 leaflet. Fingers crossed, we've finally struck a balance between bold and clear pledges, and enough detail for people to know what they're voting for.

News Round-Up -- 30th March 2008

- 19 school fields were approved to be sold by the Labour government last year ... Labour's 1997 general election manifesto stated: "We will bring the government's policy of forcing schools to sell off playing fields to an end"

- The 3rd of April will be the 8th anniversary of Labour bringing in vouchers for asylum seekers. Refugees didn't even get change if the value of the vouchers exceeded the cost of what they were buying. This was in place for 2 years, including during the 2001 election.

- Fellow blogger Guido Fawkes is looking for a set of Jacqui Smith's fingerprints

- Wetherspoons seems to be abandoning any hope that its pubs will go green around the country, including in Earlsdon at the City Arms

- Labour is finally trying to do something about fuel poverty that involves challenging the energy companies

Government Urged to Ratify Disability Convention

The disability charity, Scope, is urging the government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention sets out the rights of disabled people, covering civil and political rights, accessibility, participation and inclusion, education, health, employment and social protection.

Scope's executive cirector, Andy Rickell, said he was concerned that the UK would opt out of several sections - including the right to attend a mainstream school, the right not to live in a residential home, and the right to be treated as someone with the capacity to make decisions on their own behalf.

"We are seriously concerned that the government will not ratify this treaty in its entirety ... There cannot be a 'pick and mix' approach on this. It will weaken the value of the convention and also undermine the government's record on promoting disabled people's human rights."

Young People's Theatre At The Belgrade

The Belgrade Theatre, here in Coventry, have an ongoing programme called "In Our Own Words" -- work by young people for young people.

One of their upcoming works, 9th to 12th April, sounds very intriguing:

The history of Coventry's industry seems harmless enough . . . but for one teenager it becomes something far more sinister as she starts to get too close to the city's involvement in the arms trade for safety. Soon she’s involved in a war of her own - with her college, with activists, with history, and with a creepy corporation who seem to know more about her family than she does.

Green Campaign For Mayor Of London

Sian Berry's campaign for Mayor of London is using some interesting tactics.

They have downloadable posters in PDF format (not much new there), but they also have HTML code so you can put the posters into "your favourite social networks ... within people's comments, as messages, in bulletins or use them as graphics on your own profile page, blog or website."

Oh, and she's been endorsed by a teddy bear.

Labour Wants To Avoid EU Energy Targets

Labour is making clear that it wants to dodge EU targets and avoid installing widespread renewable energy within Britain:

At a closed session of the energy council of EU ministers this month, the business minister, Lady Vadera, proposed that British investments in renewable energy anywhere in the world should count as part of UK's effort.

In a speech that astonished European renewable energy companies, environment groups and other EU energy ministers, she ... also appealed to Europe to allow all EU countries to count carbon "saved" from coal-fired stations fitted with equipment that captures harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The electricity generated by this "clean coal" would then count as renewable energy and go towards UK national targets.

Last night, renewable energy companies and environment groups reacted with alarm.

"This would kill renewable energy in Britain," said Dale Vince, chief executive of Ecotricity, Britain's biggest windfarm company. "It makes a mockery of any attempts to address climate change. The idea that we can build wind farms or other renewable energy projects [abroad] and then offset them against the UK target is outrageous. If it were possible to build projects anywhere in the world where planning is lax, nothing would be done in the UK."

Mental Health And Prison

Juliet Lyon, Director, Prison Reform Trust:

Jack Straw needs to get his cabinet colleagues to accept prisons cannot and should not continue to pick up the tab for a range of social and health needs.

Our prisons today contain an estimated 5,000 people with severe and enduring mental illness who should not be there but in treatment, [it's] a national disgrace. Not to mention the thousands more with lower-level mental health problems currently in custody who could be treated effectively and safely in the community.

A national network of diversion centres in courts and police stations to identify and help people whose offending is driven by mental illness not criminality would do much to relieve pressure on prison places, cut re-offending and help some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Many of the solutions to prison overcrowding and re-offending lie outside of prison walls.

Titanic's Shipyard Builds Tidal Power Generator

"I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about global warming."

"Jack! Jack! It's the world's biggest tidal electricity generation system, Jack!"

Vast Iceberg Breaks Off Wilkins Ice Shelf

All together now, it's only a natural warming cycle.

"It's farther south than any ice shelf we've seen retreating before, it's bigger than any ice shelf we've seen retreating before, and in the long term it could be a taste of other things to come. It is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region."

US Arms Shipments To Afghanistan

I need to file this under "you couldn't make it up" ...

The Pentagon entrusted a 22-year-old previously arrested for domestic violence and having a forged driving licence to be the main supplier of ammunition to Afghan forces at the height of the battle against the Taliban.

Independent Asylum Commission

The Independent Asylum Commission is coming out with an interim report today. It spent a year speaking to policy makers, former home secretaries, and asylum seekers, and it held meetings around the UK.

Sir John Waite, co-chair of the commission and a former Appeal Court judge: "We heard worrying stories about the conditions being experienced by some asylum seekers, in particular the scale of the destitution ... The picture that emerged was one of people struggling to live."

The Refugee Council has a handy myth-busting part of its website:

- Asylum seekers are not economic migrants. The top ten refugee producing countries in 2006 all have poor human rights records or are places where war or conflict is ongoing.

- The UK is home to less than 3% of the world’s refugees – around 290,000 out of 8.4 million worldwide.

- We're not even in the top 15 of industrialised countries for asylum applications per capita (we were 16th in 2006).

- Asylum seekers do not jump the queue for council housing and they cannot choose where they live. The accommodation allocated to them is not paid for by the local council. It is nearly always "hard to let" properties, which other people do not want to live in.

Urban Planning And Climate Change

The Guardian, 26th March 2008:

The signs of Lerner's urban revolution are everywhere: in the once-abandoned quarries and landfill sites that have become parks and recreation areas; in the Lighthouses of Knowledge, educational centres where the city's youth can study and socialise free of charge; in the cultural centres and theatres; and even in the signs hanging from car garages, proudly proclaiming how many tyres they have recycled since the year began.

"Mayors that I talk to say, 'This can't be done in my city; it's very big; it has 10, 12 or 15 million people.' Or they say, 'Oh, our country is very poor, our city doesn't have the resources.' And I always say it is not a question of scale or of resources - any city in the world can improve, and improve a lot, in less than three years."

Lerner also believes that urban planning can be a key weapon against global warming and climate change. "As I'm a descendent of Jews, I have some commandments that we need to follow," he says. "First commandment: use your car less. Second commandment: separate your rubbish. Third: live near to your work, or work near your home. It needs to be about life, work and movement being all together."

Labour's Environmental Record

Some Tory MPs have sponsored an interesting Early Day Motion (a straw poll, where MPs can show where they stand on this issue or that issue). It's on "Government Carbon Pollution" ...

This House notes that the Sustainable Development Commission report, "Sustainable Development in Government 2007," found that nearly two-thirds of government departments are not on track to meet their carbon emissions reduction targets; further notes that when the Ministry of Defence is discounted, all performance improvements are negated, and that carbon emissions from Civil Service estate offices have increased by 22 per cent, and energy efficiency has worsened by 3.3 per cent.