Jenny Jones on the London Climate Change Action Plan

Jenny Jones responds to Ken Livingstone's Climate Change Action Plan for London.

Caroline Lucas MEP Speaks against Trident Replacement

There are videos of other speakers at CND's YouTube site.

And there are hundreds of photos on this flickr group.

Dubplates Not Nuclear States

Great video montage of yesterday's Anti-Trident Demo.

Mark Thomas - London Anti-Trident Protest 24 Feb 2007

Why can't MPs see the folly of Trident?

Mary Riddell has an excellent comment piece in today's Observer about the government's nuclear hypocrisy and the false urgency that is driving the Trident replacement debate.

Whether or not the UK government observes the letter of the [nuclear Non-Proliferation] treaty, it will tear its spirit to shreds if, at this critical moment, it goes for Trident Two.

Campaigners lose incinerator challenge

Campaigners, backed by Ken Livingstone and the Greens in London, have the lost their fight for a judicial review of government plans to build a massive incinerator in Bexley.

Greenpeace invade Faslane

Greenpeace invaded Faslane Naval Base, home of Britain's nuclear weapons, today. They had hoped to blockade the sub base while MPs were visiting, but unfortunately the visit was cancelled due to lack of interest.

No Trident Trip for apathetic MPs

From the Pandora column in today's Independent.

Just imagine the fun one could have aboard a nuclear submarine! The big-haired Kali Mountford, bag carrier to the Defence Secretary Des Browne, has spent the past fortnight trying to pressgang her fellow MPs into walking the plank onto a Trident sub.

On offer: a tour of the Faslane naval base, sailing overnight into the icy depths off west Scotland, followed by holiday snaps with the Doomsday weapon.

Alas, this weekend's trip - which eerily coincided with Stop the War's anti-Trident demo in London - has plummeted to the seabed. Not because of concerns about letting certain members of the Commons anywhere near operational missile technology, but due to a lack of support from parliamentarians.

Says a nice chap in Mountford's office: "No Tories or Liberals signed up for it. Perhaps they're scared."

Commons reflects anti-Trident message

CND tonight projected a clear "No Trident Replacement" message onto the House of Commons in the run up to this weekend's big anti-nuclear demo.

Letters on Palestine

There are three very good letters on Palestine in today's Guardian.

On February 8, Fatah and Hamas issued the Mecca agreement. Palestinians are now working to create a national-unity government to rebuild Palestinian society, which has faced systematic destruction under Israeli occupation (Leaders, February 20). Given the international Quartet is meeting today, the British government must seize this opportunity to overturn its wrong and disastrous position of supporting sanctions against the Palestinians, which have created a humanitarian disaster.

For over a year, our government has been complicit with the European Union, the US and Israel in collectively punishing the Palestinian people, because they did not agree with the result of the Palestinian Authority elections. The EU, previously the largest donor, withdrew its funding to the PA from April 2006. The US also stopped its funding, and the Israeli government has withheld tax revenues collected on behalf of the PA of around $60m a month. A recent report by the Commons international development committee said: "As a result, the Palestinian Authority is facing financial crisis and this is seriously affecting the Palestinian people: 51% of Palestinians are now food insecure and 66% of families are below the poverty line." The report concluded that the withdrawal of aid was counterproductive and threatened the viability of the occupied territories.

The government must end its role in punishing the occupied people, the Palestinians, rather than the occupying nation, Israel. It should ensure the EU resumes its funding of the Palestinian Authority, and that it puts all possible pressure both on the US to resume its aid and on Israel to release the withheld tax revenues.
Betty Hunter
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Louise Richards
War On Want
Ismael Patel
British Muslim Initiative
Deborah Maccoby
ICAHD UK
Majed Al Zeer
Palestinian Return Centre
Caroline Qutteneh
Welfare Association
Dan Judelson
Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Which Israel would ambassador Zfi Heifetz like the Palestinians to recognise (Hamas has not delivered, February 20). The Israel created by the UN in 1948, which comprised 55% of historic Palestine? The Israel after June 1967, which consists of 78% of historic Palestine? The Israel of today, 85% of historic Palestine? Or perhaps the Israel that will be, after it has finished building its illegal barrier and settlements, which will then consist of 90% of historic Palestine?
Dina Turner
Farnham, Surrey

After 40 years, the world is still waiting for five simple words from the Israeli government: "We will end the occupation."
Leon Rosselson
Wembley Park, Middlesex

For more on Palestine see the newly launched Enough! coalition.

Robin Harper MSP on Trident

Here's the co-leader of the Scottish Greens on Trident. It's my first YouTube link, so I hope it works out.

Congestion Charging - 40 years too late

Today's extension of London's Congestion Charge zone has sparked another round of media coverage of the "war on the motorist". But really it's too little, too late. I've recently been reading Harvey Sherlock's excellent Cities Are Good for Us which makes it clear that we've know since the 60s that widespread car ownership in urban areas requires the destruction and rebuilding of city centres to accommodate the car (too expensive and unpopular) or the control of private car usage (unpopular).

Since the Buchanan report in 1963, politicians of all colours have lacked the courage to take necessary action to balance the desires of individual motorists with the needs of the population as a whole.

Ken Livingstone has, to his credit, finally grasped this nettle, but unfortunately 40 years of lack of investment in public transport, combined with tax breaks (effectively public subsidy) for private motoring means that the problem is now far worse than ever anticipated.

Add to this the problem of climate change and it is clear that the congestion charge is too little too late. We can't afford to wait another 40 years for a brave politician to grasp the nettle of carbon rationing or Domestic Tradable Quotas.

Next year's Mayoral election will be a real test for the establishment parties. Will their green rhetoric match the expectations of millions of Londoners who want to live in an accessible, sustainable city?

CheatNeutral

Thanks to SchNews for flagging up this wonderful spoof of the Carbon Offsetting industry.

Are you a female stud or a male slag, spreading your love around a little too freely, and behind backs? How about the convenience of paying a one-off fee to expunge the guilt of your dodgy liaisons? Launched on Valentine’s day, a new website is offering the public a chance to offset their infidelity by funding one of CheatNeutral’s certified ‘monogamy-boosting’ offset projects, funding people to stay loyal and faithful. Naturally, they urge customers to first measure and reduce their unfaithfulness as much as possible, but by offering people the ability to offset the remaining ‘unavoidable’ cheating, they claim to be “saving relationships, making people feel better about themselves, and providing practical, achievable ways to reduce global levels of heartbreak.”

If you’re wondering what the cuckold this crazy-sounding scheme is all about, the site’s designers point to the logic of Carbon Offsetting schemes in explanation: “It’s a joke – about paying for the right to carry on cheating. Carbon offsetting is also a joke – about paying for the right to carry on emitting carbon. What we need to be doing is reducing our emissions. Offsetting stops us thinking about how to do that.” The site may not help a vast new army of slutty anti-offsetters into action as much as amuse them, but so far over 65,000 people have done their bit (having had their bit) and offset in a bid to save the world’s love-o-sphere.

Blair: "I don’t really know the answer"

Following the government's court defeat over the nuclear power "consultation", CND today reveals that Labour's leader hasn't got a clue why there has been no consultation over plans for Trident replacement.

Speaking at a Young Labour conference in Glasgow today, Tony Blair said that he ‘doesn’t really know’ why there has not been a debate on Trident replacement in the Labour Party.

After Blair’s speech in front of hundreds of Young Labour members at today’s conference, the press were asked to leave the room prior to the question and answer session.

During the Q&A, a delegate asked the Prime Minister why there has not been a debate and vote in the Labour Party on Trident. Mr Blair, visibly caught off-guard by the question, replied:

‘I don’t really know the answer to be frank. I think in the end there will be a vote in the Commons. There should be a very lively debate in the party and elsewhere. The trouble is we need to take a decision at some point…In terms of the process I honestly don’t know the answer. I know it was an issue at the National Policy Forum and so on but I don’t have a problem with people voting on it at all. Let the party express their view on this but we will need to take a decision on this as a government.’

Seventeen motions on Trident replacement from Constituency Labour Party groups were ruled out of order before the Labour Party conference in 2006. In January 2007 three motions on Trident from members of the Labour National Executive Committee, including CND Vice President Walter Wolfgang, were again ruled out of order.

It's good to know that democracy is alive and well in the Labour Party.

Don't Attack Iran

This is a brilliant slide-show of images of everyday life from Tehran, backed with Yusuf Islam singing Peace Train. Well worth a minute of your time.

Assembly in shambles

Paul Kelso's "Digger" column in today's Guardian shows just how badly we need more Greens on the London Assembly if we're going to get anything like a Green Olympics.

The London Assembly again demonstrated its inability to hold the Olympic project to account yesterday, blowing a chance to question the organising committee's top brass, Sebastian Coe and Paul Deighton, and its chief executive, David Higgins. Given the chance to check on the all-important issue of the rising costs assembly members instead engaged in self-indulgent grandstanding, bickered over time limits for asking questions and offered lengthy statements instead of inquiries. They then had the cheek to issue a statement claiming Londoners were still in the dark about costs. Lord Coe, Deighton and Higgins will have been glad to have got off so lightly from shambolic proceedings overseen by the assembly chairman, [Tory] Brian Coleman.

Government loses nuclear power case

An excellent result for Greenpeace in the High Court today, means that the government will have to re-run the consultation on new nuclear power stations.

But don't worry, Alistair Darling made it clear on the World at One that Labour are planning to ignore the result of any new consultation as well.

The Guardian article is here.

Not in our name: Indy launches campaign against Trident

The Independent today launched a celeb-heavy campaign against Trident replacement. And CND joined in with it's own Celeb-led press conference to plug the big No Trident demonstration on Saturday 24th.

Road pricing is not the answer

The Times front page today is all about the mass opposition to Labour's plans for road pricing. While I have little sympathy with the lobby that says driving is too expensive already - the cost of motoring has fallen in real terms while the cost of public transport has soared - I agree with them to the extent that road pricing is a typical wrong-headed Labour solution.

It would be just like Blair to push through the wrong solution just because there is massive opposition ("It's almost as unpopular as the war colleagues, it MUST be right"). But if Labour succeed in setting up road pricing they will be creating a licence to pollute if you can afford it. The only real solution to congestion, air pollution and carbon wastage is carbon rationing. Whilst we might not favour the wartime slogan "Is your journey really necessary?", we could well ask people "Is it really necessary to go by car?"

Extremists within their midst?

I liked this note in the Guardian diary

In the light of the events of the past few days, d'you reckon the government will be urging moderate members of organisations representing the nation's motorists to address the actions of the extremists within their midst? Just a thought.