Being Red and Green

A positive outcome from this election, along with the Tories getting thrown out of office and (hopefully) the election of a handful of Green MPs, is likely to be that the demand for electoral reform becomes unstoppable. This poll of polls probably understates support for Reform, which is ( sadly) almost certainly growing. It might end up winning nearly 20% of the votes but still only win less than a handful of seats. Labour on the other hand are likely to win a huge majority with a little over 40% of the vote, with the Tories holding on to more than a hundred seats with barely more than half of that. Electoral reform can’t come soon enough and may even contribute to building the coalition for serious action on climate change that we so desperately need.

https://youtu.be/Gy4NT6K4TUY

  WE NEED GLOBAL GREENS TO HELP LEAD A MOVEMENT FOR GLOBAL ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THE CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCY The outcome of COP28 was as unsatisfactory as we all expected. Although there was agreement (at last !) to transition from fossil fuels this only applies to energy generation. There remains no firm commitment to stop using fossil fuels for transportation, construction, food production or anything else, and no commitment even to encourage people to move away from  a meat-based diet. Time is fast running out. In the meantime, Greens in the UK and elsewhere continue to focus on electoral advancement, based largely on a commitment to mitigate the worst effects of the Climate and Ecological Emergency on their own localities, regions and nation states. Such an approach is an unsatisfactory response to the scale of the emergency and imminent global catastrophe. We would like to see greens leading governments across the planet. Realistically we know this isn’t going to...

The author begins her clear and concise book with a stark warning.  “People are finally beginning to face up to the climate emergency. However, while nations rally to reduce their carbon emissions, and try to adapt at-risk places to hotter conditions, there is an elephant in the room: for large portions of the world, local conditions are becoming too extreme and there is no way to adapt”.  She then offers a solution which also addresses an increasingly toxic issue in politics, and in doing so provides hope rather than despair.  Vince  summarises the current reality of run-away climate change as others have done, and agrees with the need for economies and lifestyles to change in order to limit the extent of the coming catastrophe. She concludes however that even with maximum mitigation – renewable energy, changes to transportation and to the way food is produced and buildings constructed – the most realistic scenario is that global temperatures will rise by 3-4 degree...

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There is a housing crisis in the UK,which has various components.  There is clearly a need to provide adequate temporary accommodation to all those who need it. At present local authorities only have a duty to accommodate those considered to be in ‘priority need’, which usually means they have dependent children, are fleeing violence or who have significant disabilities or health problem. As if being homeless wasn’t priority enough !   Beyond the agreed need to provide adequate ‘ emergency’ accommodation there is a need to substantially increase the supply of ‘ social housing’, provided by local councils and housing associations, and offering relatively secure tenancies at reasonable rents. The significant decline in the quantity of social housing since Thatcher’s Right to Buy legislation in the 1980’s has meant that more and more people, including families with young children, have to rent from private landlords, with no security of tenure and little protection from poo...