Skip navigation.

Posts tagged with "Edinburgh"

I have Entered Politics, I Can Say Untruths with a Straight Face!

, , , ...

It is official. I have entered politics! With my first letter to the Edinburgh Evening News, I have sparked two people on the EEN web forum to strongly disagree with me and call me a "career-driven supporter" of the SGP, speaking "no more than blatant propaganda"! Here are the posts in full:

#12
(#10 Climate Truth) - Wow! It is good to hear from someone who can speak knowledgeably about these issues that have been reduced to no more than blatant propaganda by the Greens and too many career-driven supporters. Climate Truth's comment refers to the latest IPCC report allegedly supported by "2,500 scientists" and to the "Summary for Policy Makers" which has been released in advance of the report proper. If I understand correctly, this Summary was issued before the report proper was finalised. However, it was announced that the report would not be changed except to bring it into line with the Summary - completely the wrong way round! The summary should be of the findings of the Report! It is not only Tom Redford who says such untruths with a straight face - Greens as a group are lying their way through the Press. A couple of days ago we had another who stated as fact something that was just not true, not misinterpreted, not misunderstood but just not true. And these people have the gall to suggest we vote for them!



#14
Yes (12), I too dislike this propaganda that the Greens are using to present their argument. It implies that they have a very weak case so have to use the "big lie" to make their argument. Tom Redford says that Helen Martin "writes that the scientific community is divided on the matter of whether climate change is caused by human activities. This is simply not true." That statement is simply not true, as Climate Truth says with significant references to dissenting scientists. At least Steuart Campbell, whilst supporting TOm [sic] Redford's view, is honest enough to admit the reality - that pursuing the Greens' policy would wreck the economy, a significant factor in my view. I had the privilege to attend the lecture given some months ago by Bjorn Lomborg, who left Greenpeace at the same time as one of the co-founders. They took the view that the argument had been won, that people were correctly concerned about ecology and it was no longer necessary to pursue confrontation to make their case. Too many Greenpeace activists enjoyed confrontation to follow their lead, leading to that schism. Lomborg argues that whilst everyone should be concerned about the planet, Kyoto required far more investment than the improvements that it could create. It couldn't produce a realistic return on the investment, both in activity and financial cost. He even wrote a book about all the other steps that could be taken instead with far greater benefit to the planet and its inhabitants. He has been described as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He also disagrees with the IPCC "findings".



Full Forum Page

Term 3

, , , ...

I have a policy of not discussing exams until one week after they have taken place. So I'll only very briefly mention the added interest that my first exam as a university student had. With "typical" luck, the building for the exam had suffered a power failure and all the lights were out of action in the hall, so we were all treated to the stress of waiting for half an hour while alternative accommodation was arranged. It might not seem like much, but when you have been preparing for an exam like that, having it postponed, even for a short time, is not a nice thing. But aside from that, I'm not going to speculate on how I did. There's just no point.

I have been doing a lot of fun Green Party campaigning over the Easter Break though. I helped Mark Ballard with some leaflet stalls around the Lothians, and I'm also assisting in keeping his campaign blog and website up to date. Hopefully it will all pay off in the elections on the third of May. I think we are probably going to do quite well, but this election looks as if it might be a bit unpredictable.

Carrying on with the green theme, I also managed to get a short "holiday" to Cornwall in. I say "holiday", because it was the only time I really got to relax and not do anything academic or work related. I even turned off my mobile email! We stayed in a youth hostel, which is green in that it sources its food and drink locally and treats its staff well; and we paid a couple of visits to the Eden Project. It was nice to be able to see it at a different time of year from usual. On the second visit, we were there particularly early, so the photos I took had hardly any people in them. I think I may have gone a bit too arty with this one:



There is a full gallery in my photos section. I'm looking forward to going back in summer. It is great the way that it is open all year round. It lets you see the plants in lots of different ways.

That was my Birthday

, ,

Well, that was the first birthday I have spent on my own. It was OK. I had a long lie in, breakfast in bed, and presents, before going out for a long lunch at the Cornerhouse Cinema cafe. They had a sale of film posters, so I bought one from when they screened "Who Killed the Electric Car?". Then I spent the rest of the day watching a couple of DVDs and eating Amaretto biscuits.

I used the days running up to my birthday to stock up on provisions for the day. I seem to have gone a bit over the top, so I was able to have pasta with pesto, a glass of white wine, many amaretto biscuits, birthday cake, and after dinner mints for dinner tonight! As for breakfasts, it'll be until at least next week before I have finished the Panettone!

So that was my birthday. A few other interesting things happened recently. The weekend before this one just passed, I went back home and attended the Scottish Green Party Conference. I didn't really spend much time voting on motions or anything. It was mostly a social visit to catch up with people from Parliament. While I was in Edinburgh, I found out that I had been elected to the Student Council. When I say that I was elected by one vote, you could interpret that as either I had one more vote than my opponent, or that I only got one vote. Sadly, the latter was true. But I suppose that it doesn't really matter seeing as I got a seat.

The one disadvantage of being on the Student Council is that I have to attend the Union's AGM, which is tomorrow at 1730. This means that I will leave the flat at around noon, and only get back around half seven! A gruelling day lies ahead.

A New Design

, ,

You may have noticed that I have redesigned the way that my blog looks. I just got bored of the old look, so I used a fresher, cleaner looking template from Opera, with a modified style sheet to add the picture in the banner above and to change the colour of the title text from white to grey. For the picture, I cropped the top part of a National Geographic desktop wallpaper.

On a completely different topic, I'm just starting to realise that I'm going to university on Saturday! I have just a week left until I go to Manchester. I have to keep reminding myself that I will still spend around twenty weeks a year in Edinburgh, so I'm not leaving for good, but it's still strange to think that by this time next week, I'll be living in halls of residence. I had dinner with friends last night, and I guess it really set in when I was saying goodbye to everyone.

Seven Days Left!

, ,

It's just so exciting! In only seven days, I'm going to be moving into the halls of residence at Manchester Metropolitan University. I'm going to spend most of this weekend buying the last few things that I need, and gathering up everything to pack. I was put in touch with someone senior in the NUS in Manchester by someone who I know at Edinburgh Uni. I'm going to try to become a NUS rep. To be honest, I'm still slightly confused as to how the NUS actually works, but I'm sure that I'll work it out.

I know that this posting hasn't been very coherent so far. It is just too exciting! I think I'll miss going to Parliament. But I'm planning to do a placement with some of the civil servants working for one of the Executive's Ministers around Christmas, so maybe I'll visit Parliament then.

My gap year has been so different from anything that I've ever done before. I have met the former President of Ireland, undergone a Counter Terrorism Check, attended a political party conference, cycled 650 miles and been to one of the biggest gatherings of environmentalists in Europe. Hopefully the coming academic year will be just as exciting.

Festival of Politics

,

While the sheer volume of tourists can be annoying at times, like when you want to get from work to the shops and then home and find that you have to pass through the largest arts festival in the world to do so, the Edinburgh Festivals can also have a good side. As well as the main International Festival and the Fringe, there are smaller festivals, like the Festival of Politics. I went to a couple of the events today.

The first was a talk by Oliver and Hugh Miles, a former diplomat and his son, a journalist who lives in Egypt. It was really interesting to hear from them. Oliver Miles gave the background to the current conflicts with a history of the region, while Hugh talked about the influence of Al Jazeera on the media and society throughout the Arab world.

After lunch, I went to an event entitled "Innovative Democracy". The event was described as "a conversation on democratic innovation and the future of political participation", but it didn't seem to live up to those aims. I think it centred around getting young people engaging with politics and the use of technology a bit too much. I would have liked to hear more about how to get everyone involved more. Aside from that, it was pretty good.

The festival is on until Saturday and I think I'll go to an event every day. Tomorrow there is "The Royal Society of Arts Lecture at the Festival of Politics: Technology, Politics and Change", which will have a hard job living up to such a grand title, and "Conflict and Terror: Does the Media Make it Worse?", which features Hugh Miles again. The best bit should be on Friday, when I have a ticket to see Armando Iannuchi discussing politics and satire! (Yes, I am sad enough to put an exclamation mark after that).
December 2009
M T W T F S S
November 2009January 2010
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31