Thursday, 10. May 2007, 01:20:35
politics, environmentalism, Evening News, Edinburgh
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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
Friday, 4. May 2007, 19:53:12
politics, election, Scotland, Election 2007
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What a disappointing day for the Scottish Green Party. We lost five of our seats in Parliament, but gained eight in the local councils. The count in Edinburgh was the last to be concluded. I'm not sure where we go from here. In terms of governing with a majority, any coalition would require the Greens to be part of it, possibly also with Margo McDonald. But there is still the option of minority government that Labour seem to be pushing.
My main focus now is to rest. I have had a total of four hours sleep since Thursday (four more than most people at the count). It is really quite shocking how there were so many problems with the count. From what I could see of the contentious papers, most of the spoils were caused by people filling in the papers incorrectly. A lot of people were using numbering where they should have used a cross, and using crosses where they should have used numbering.
I'll be checking BBC News all day tomorrow to find out what is going on.
Full Election Results
Friday, 4. May 2007, 12:45:33
parliament, Scotland, Election 2007, politics
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I'm shocked by the number of spoilt ballot papers that are being announced in the Scottish elections. From what I have seen, it seems to be, not that the computers aren't counting papers correctly, but that the electorate haven't understood the papers. I've seen a lot of papers which are filled in completely incorrectly.
It doesn't look good for the Greens or any of the other small parties. We seem to be losing our list seats to the SNP, so the hopes that we had for 15 MSPs are gone. We have returned Patrick Harvie for Glasgow, but lost the South of Scotland. No other regional results are in yet. From what I have heard, the political classes are now losing faith in the electoral systems, so it will be very interesting to see how the next government decides to proceed in four years time. I will be keen to see how we do in the council elections.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/elections/2007/07index.htmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/scottish_parliment/html/region_99999.stmUpdate:
SGP has lost the Mid Scotland and Fife Region.
Tuesday, 24. April 2007, 22:50:09
Edinburgh, university, politics, Cornwall
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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.
Tuesday, 3. October 2006, 10:41:46
politics, travel, trains
Have you ever travelled in the luggage compartment of a train? I have! From Edinburgh to Manchester, I sat in very cramped conditions on the floor of the luggage compartment of a Virgin Voyager service. I was travelling on an unreserved service (no one had seat reservations) and the train was so overcrowded that the only place that I could sit down near my bags was on the hard, uncomfortable flooring in the luggage area. Though it could have been worse, a few people had to make the three and a half hour journey standing up.
I'm going back to Edinburgh in November and I don't have a seat reservation for the service up. I found a ticket for only three pounds, so I won't mind quite so much if I have to sit on the floor, but I will object if I have to stare at the windowless walls of the luggage compartment again. Fortunately, on the way back to Manchester, I have a first class ticket with a seat reservation booked.
The way that tickets are priced in Britain is utterly confusing. It costs £35 for a return ticket from Manchester to Edinburgh in standard class. But if you search quite hard, it is possible to get a ticket for £28 that is standard class on the way to Edinburgh, but first class on the way back to Manchester. I'm convinced that some of the fares are randomly assigned to tickets!
I suppose that I had better get used to such an odd system. On a completely different topic, you may have noticed an addition to the photo at the top of this page. I'm standing in the elections to the Student Council! I have decided that I want to stand in all these sorts of elections, so I can get experience of "politics".
Friday, 8. September 2006, 11:17:12
university, Edinburgh, politics
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.
Wednesday, 23. August 2006, 18:26:44
politics, Edinburgh
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).
WIDGETIZE