Stockwood hits the headlines – for better or worse

Strange that this Bristol backwater should suddenly attract media mentions across the British Isles. Stranger still that it should happen twice in successive months.

Both stories have what the press loves – the chance to write a story that will produce a titter or a snigger among the readers.

In March, it was the BioBus, usually described as the Poo Bus. I'm sure it's no accident that First introduced it on the Number Two route, gifting an easy line to the journalists and guaranteeing media attention. Apparently the bio-methane fuelled bus is a first for the UK, though the technology is well established.

Long before moving to Bristol over a decade ago, I organised a Green Party trip to see Wessex Water's plant at Avonmouth. What made it special was that while other water companies were still pumping sewage into the sea, or taking it out in barges to be dumped, Wessex already had the foresight to treat it onshore. The biogas provided a renewable fuel, used primarily to generate electricity, while the dried granular byproduct could be used to enrich or remediate soil. It's that biogas that's now being used as a (relatively) clean renewable fuel to carry passengers from Stockwood to Cribbs Causeway (if they have the staying power, and nothing better to do!) and all points in between.

So it's a good news story.... well done First, well done Geneco and Wessex.

….............

This month's Stockwood story has a very much darker side. I don't know how the media got hold of it, though I have my suspicions. In the coming local elections, UKIP's candidate to succeed Jay Jethwa as one of Stockwood's two ward councillors apparently has a 'professional' life as Johnny Rockard (snigger) a maker, promoter, and actor in pornographic videos. Google his name if you must - I did, but a click or two more was enough before I abandoned the enquiry!

Cue lots of press and broadcasting media attention for the candidate, who's the vice-chair of the local party. Cue righteous indignation from UKIP and its supporters, complaining of being picked on by the media. My guess is that all the attention was inevitable, no matter what colour rosette the candidate was wearing.

Apart from the press enjoying the chance to describe in detail the 'plot' of one such video, and a huge burst in public awareness of UKIP's man in Stockwood, just before an election, the story is a bit of a non-event. It won't bring about a multi-million local tourism boom. Most people accept that for better or worse, the sex trade exists and people do work in it and they do meet a demand.

But despite of UKIP's defence of its candidate, making and selling porn is not like more legitimate businesses. It's a very dark sector of the economy, strongly associated with exploitation, with people trafficking, with drugs, violence and even modern slavery. Perhaps the media should have used this story to raise these much more serious aspects of the industry, instead of just treating it as a bit of a joke.  [added 14/04/15] Looks like 'Object' are presenting them with the evidence now.

Meanwhile, for balance, here's a list of the other candidates aspiring join David Morris as Stockwood's councillor for the coming year, until the first 'whole council' election in 2016. Sadly, like the UKIP man, none of them actually live in the ward.

Phil Bishop – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Ian Campion-Smith – LibDem

David McLeod – Labour

Graham Morris – Tory (David's son, I understand. Part of the Tory's inheritance strategy?)

Ellie Vowles – Green. Best of luck, Ellie!

Ballot Paper shockers – UKIPWars in Bris, while Stockwood's guaranteed two non-resident councillors

Instead of standing in the council election for Stockwood (of which more below) I'm the Green Party candidate in Brislington East this time round. It looks like being a colourful election, because there's another of those bizarre UKIP 'misunderstandings'.

One Phil Collins has been busy putting his 'independent' leaflet out, complete with the union flag, explaining that he's a UKIP member and intends to form a UKIP branch in the ward. But he's not just up against the usual electoral suspects, including me and the sitting councillor Mike Wollacott. There's also an 'official' UKIP candidate, John Langley, competing with him for whatever anti-European, anti immigrant votes the ward can muster.

The clash might be partly explained by this news item from last year. Collins used to be UKIP's branch chairman, but like so many of their spokesmen he was embarrassingly candid with his anti-immigrant opinions, so they dropped him. Or did they? A footnote to the Post story, added in an unusually sober style by regular 'Post' commenter/ranter UKIPBristol, said the ban had been withdrawn by the local UKIP branch.

You have to wonder whether they've managed to sort it out over the last year. Looks like they've not.

In Stockwood, May's ballot paper is looking remarkably different, with new faces – including Issica Baron for the Greens – filling the list. Except, that is, for long-time Tory councillor David Morris, who – much to many people's suprise – has decided to run for another term in spite of poor health. If David should be re-elected, we'll continue, as we have done for ten years and more, to have a couple of councillors who (presumably) quietly get on with whatever ward casework is required, but otherwise don't keep us informed, refuse to expose themselves to public debate, and who unfailingly vote with the Tory group on the council. You get what you vote for.  Or what you fail to vote against

One reason I've abandoned another stab at the Stockwood seat is that history shows I may well fail yet again. In itself that would be bearable - but by standing down I won't have to worry that the elected local councillors won't in future find cause to hamper and delay my every attempt to get improvements in the ward, in case I should turn it to electoral advantage. Such is the tribalism of party politics.

I hope that if elected in Bris E , I wouldn't fall into the same trap. But it's a big factor in taking my name off the Stockwood ballot paper. And I'm confident I could represent Brislington East every bit as well as Stockwood.

May 22nd – sovereignty, democracy, or corporate dictatorship. You choose.

Way back, when the internet was young, the 34 countries of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) was secretively planning a bid to shift the balance of power away from states (which, at least in theory, act in the interests of their people) toward corporations (acting solely in the interests of their owners) . It was called the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). Nominally in the cause of promoting economic growth, it set out to 'protect' foreign direct investment from interference from elected governments.

The internet killed the MAI. A copy of the draft text was leaked and people realised what it could mean. Although the mainstream media largely ignored it, the word spread around the world (I remember setting up pages on the North-East Green Party website describing what local impacts it could have). Eventually the resistance grew so strong that the French government listened to what the people were saying. France withdrew from the OECD negotiations, and no longer having a consensus there the whole project was dropped.

Until now, that is.

They're at it again – and this time it's the USA and Europe making the running. MAI v.2 comes packaged within the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Most of the mainstream commentary on the TTIP has been on breaking down tariff barriers to open up markets and encourage economic growth. It's fairly uncritical, disregarding even the loss of discretion for individual states to regulate on, for instance, safety, gm foods and organisms, financial services regulation, or environmental improvements. Such things are dismissed in the treaty as impediments to the 'supreme, inalienable fundamental freedom' to pursue economic competition. Outside the specialist press and the internet, there's been very little discussion about the provisions that encourage FDI (foreign direct investment) by giving investors more confidence in being able to produce what they like where they like and how they like without any risk that the public authorities might get in the way.

Thus, for instance, EDF could make a legal claim against the British government if its profits from Hinkley B were threatened by new safety or environmental regulation. Most of the train operating companies, major bus companies, and airlines could do the same thing. Tobacco companies could challenge legislation requiring plain packaging on cigarettes (in fact Philip Morris are already doing exactly that in a bizarre legal challenge designed to bypass Australian national law using the 1993 Hong Kong/Australia Investment Treaty)

Crucially, such cases would be not be decided in a domestic court under British law, or even a European Court under European law; they would be heard by an international court set up solely for this purpose, passing judgment solely on the basis of compliance (or not) with the terms of the TTIP. The public good has damn all to do with it.

 

The European Parliament's consent will be required before TTIP is ratified. They want to do that within a couple of years, so it'll be down to the MEPs we elect on May 22nd.

I really don't know (though I could make an informed guess) how Tory, Labour, or LibDem MEPs would vote. 

I do know* how the Greens would vote. 

And I should know how UKIP ought to vote (if they turn up), given the importance they attach to national sovereignty.  But I suspect they'd not object to this handover of power from elected governments, whether local, national, or European,  to international corporatism.

* best summed up in this report from the two UK Green MEPs  we already have

The weather that dare not speak its name

That homophobic  UKIP councillor in Henley-on-Thames may have had his own ideas about what's caused the ever-more-frequent extremes of weather. True, there is something apocalyptic about the floods and the storms that encourages that kind of irrational response .   As I write, every rail link between Devon and Cornwall and the mainland has been broken by the high seas or the unending rain – and even the urban areas of Torbay and Plymouth aren't going to reconnected to the rest of the country anytime soon. Who'd'a' thunk such a thing could happen?

 The rational explanation for the 'weather' is equally apocalyptic. It only gets mentioned in passing, though - and then only apologetically, anticipating a backlash.   Climate Change – a reality, and very probably a key contributory cause of our unprecedented extreme weather – scarcely dare speak its name in polite society. It's much too discomfiting. Following the abject failure of the world's politicians to tackle the causes, they now seem equally reluctant to acknowledge, let alone respond to, the effects that are already upon us. And we've barely started yet. It's going to get worse, far worse.

Yet right now, all we see is a localised blame game being played out among the politicians (who seem blind to the overriding science). And a grossly incompetent global warming sceptic (ie. 'Do Nothing' advocate) is still allowed to remain in post as Environment Secretary.

 

Meanwhile, I see that back in 2011, his predecessor Lord Henley (what is it about Henley?) dismissed the £100 million cost of restoring an alternative rail link to Plymouth as “far too expensive”.

Hell, you could build an Arena for that.

Eurotrash

Our Green Party freepost leaflet for the European parliamentary elections may be low budget... but at least it's honest, it's about what's really in the tin.



Unlike the other three leaflets that have hit our doormats this last couple of weeks.

UKIP's jingoist message is summed up as 'say NO to European Union' and a few similar lines, while asking us to appoint them to represent us in a Parliament whose validity they don't recognise. They hope to pick up votes from the 'Westminster' parties in the wake of the expenses scandal - although their own sleaze record is, frankly, pretty awful, and they rate bottom of Open Europe's rankings, just published, of British MEPS performance in promoting transparency and reform in the last 5 year term (Greens are top). The UKIP leaflet proudly shows a picture of Winston Churchill, who was in truth a great enthusiast for closer European ties. Not for nothing are this lot called BNP-Lite

The BNP's core fascist agenda isn't of course mentioned in their own message to us voters. But they have contrived to picture an elderly couple of 'this country' putting their own interests ahead of those seeking asylum - although the couple pictured are really Italian, and knew nothing of how their photo would be used!
An emotive list of past British 'triumphs' is linked to earning 'British Jobs for British Workers'. Hmmm.... Trafalgar? There were 18 nations represented in the crew of the 'Victory'. Dunkirk... D-Day? Does the BNP realize that Britain was fighting AGAINST everything their evil little party represents?

Labour. You'd really expect better from Labour, even now. Sitting MEP Glyn Ford is strongly featured. You'd think he'd tell us something about what he's achieved in Brussels, and what he hopes to do if re-elected. But no, there's next to nothing about him or even about Europe. Instead we get negative campaigning against the LibDems and Tories, and populist appeals to lock up even more young offenders, and (a la BNP and UKIP) to get tougher still on immigrants.

So what's missing... not considered even worth a mention? The greatest challenge facing the human race, that's all. Climate Change. And Europe is the key player, representing us in the desperate search for international agreement.