Goodbye Āloka, our teacher; what Buddhism can teach us about the world we have

Goodbye Āloka, our teacher; what Buddhism can teach us about the world we have

I have not been able to write much recently. I have been caught in the busy trappings of life; working, renovating a kitchen and spending time with my family over the summer. So it seemed apt to me to take some time to stop and reflect on the death of a very important person and Buddhist teacher; Āloka David Smith.

Āloka David Smith 1946 - 2015

Āloka David Smith attained awareness in 1981 and went on to found  and lead the Dharmamind Buddhist group. It is through a Dharmamind group in Nailsworth, Stroud, that I came in to contact with Āloka and his teaching; I feel that I owe him a great debt for his teachings. Āloka’s teaching focused on practicing Buddhism ‘in the body’ and reintegrating the body and mind. Āloka advocated a practice that was simple, yet so difficult, in it’s method of ‘just sitting in open awareness’ (with no breathing techniques etc in meditation) and achieving a connection with your true awareness, or Buddha nature, through a process called ‘silent illumination’.

Although I am an atheist, I would also describe myself as a Buddhist and Buddhism is very important in shaping my thoughts about how we should approach the world and how/why to ‘be green’.

I could get in to a long complex debate about how you can be a ‘Buddhist Atheist’ but this isn’t really the space to do that. It is simpler for me to say that most importantly Buddhism is about ‘being in the here and now’ and it does not matter if there is a god or not. Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t. In this context though, what really matters is that you spend your time in the present moment wherever you can. I see Buddhism as being very practical and worldly, whilst at the same time giving a greater sense of interconnectivity with all living things. This interconnectivity, the combination of all things, far outweighs our own significance… some sort of essence that in order to encapsulate it in a word, you might call it ‘God’!

A very brief  and very simple breakdown of Buddhism

Buddhism has been about for over 2,600 years and has since its inception purportedly delivered thousands of individuals in to state of peace and wellbeing. The story goes that Siddhartha Gautama, once a wealthy prince, found that he was always unhappy and unsatisfied no matter what he did. Siddhartha Gautama, giving up his unsatisfying worldly riches, went forth to try all manner of different religions and methods to overcome his dissatisfaction.

Eventually Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment whilst sat meditating under a Bodhi tree and became ‘a Buddha’. Notice he became ‘a Buddha’ not ‘the Buddha’. There are many ‘Buddha’s’ and the term means ‘someone who is perfectly enlightened’ or ‘at peace’ could be another way of saying it. The Buddha then, is not a god, he is more like a symbol of what is possible; a reminder to be ‘in the moment’ and to follow the example set in the story.

 More recently the same ideas have become incredibly popular, but without the Buddhist trappings, in the form of ‘Mindfulness’. To be mindful is to be in the present moment and it’s most basic level if you are ‘in the present moment’ you can’t be worrying about the future or the past. For this reason, practicing Mindfulness is seen as a great way of improving mental health by combating the causes of depression and anxiety for example.

 A central part of the teachings of Buddhism and the skill of mindfulness is the practice of meditation. Meditation essentially means being in the moment and often people will try to firm up this skill by ‘sitting’ in meditation and focusing on the present moment; normally by focusing on breathing or by saying some kind of prayer (mantra) in their heads. The latest research in neuroscience is now demonstrating the importance of meditation for mental wellbeing.

Celebrating the life of Āloka David Smith

                                                “All momentum lost,

                                                I’ve run aground,

                                                I’ve come to rest,

                                                At last I have come home”

A few weeks ago on 13^th August 2015 I travelled with my good friend Rob up to Birmingham to attend the funeral of Āloka David Smith. In 2012 Rob and I had arrived late to the ‘Dharmamind’ Buddhist group which Āloka founded in 2007, but the group struck a chord with the both of us at a time when I think we were both looking for answers.  At that time, when we were beginning to hear Āloka’s teachings for the first time, it didn’t seem to matter that we had come to the group 5 years after it’s founding; Āloka wasn’t going anywhere we thought.

Death is an important teacher in Buddhism; it reminds us of impermanence. Impermanence, Āloka explained in his teachings, is an impersonal law and if we could fully embrace the truth of this law we would see that all things are in a constant state of change. It is because we fail to understand what impermanence is that we grasp at things, experiences, people, possessions, money. If we faced the truth that these things go in to change we wouldn’t grasp at them and as a result we wouldn’t experience ‘suffering’ (dukkha, to use the Buddhist term).

Understanding ‘suffering’ brings us to the most basic formulation of the teachings of Buddha; ‘The Four Noble Truths’

1. 1.       All life is suffering, a struggle in which we cannot find happiness
2. 2.       The cause of suffering is craving or attachment. (To put it another way; it is failing to see that all things are impermanent)
3. 3.       The cessation of suffering comes with the cessation of craving and grasping
4. 4.       There is a way out of suffering, a path that every individual can take responsibility for.

The path, as Buddhists would see it, is the path that the Buddha took. But really if Buddha isn’t your thing I would think you could simplify it by saying ‘be nice to all people and all things and the way to do that starts with spending time in the present moment’.

It was this path that Āloka was so skilled at teaching. Not just because of the incredible personal journey he had taken, not simply because he was a very skilled meditator, not just because he was very wise and thoughtful. But because Āloka was normal! He could be grumpy and particular, he could have a joke and be a lot of fun and he could convey a simple and profound teaching by using normal every day words.

Āloka died on 31^st July 2015, on the blue moon, on a day known in South East Asia as ‘Guru Purnima’ or ‘Teachers Day’. On the Dharmamind facebook page, his group (Sangha) and friends, left this message;

                                    “Dear Facebook Sangha,

Yesterday (July 31st) at 17.25 our teacher, Aloka David Smith, passed away. I expected that when it came time to send this message, that I would be full of sadness. But the manner of his passing was so gentle we almost didn't notice it had happened. A slow quieting of breath over a ten minute period, then no more movement. It was a teaching for us all about how to enter stillness. So it did not feel sad.

There is no doubt he was in full awareness of what was happening to him. In this regard he got his final wish - to die in full awareness following 40 years of practice, and to fearlessly be present to the dying process. Even death was time for practice for Aloka, and this was his final teaching to us, and one of the most powerful. Aloka - "light". Please bear him in mind in your meditations and pujas over the coming days.”

‘Even death was time to practice for Āloka’. This should not be taken as something strict and severe. On the contrary, in Buddhism to be in awareness, fully committed to the practice, is to be in peace and not suffering. 

How frequently do you come to the end of the day and struggle to remember how it has passed? How often do you find yourself bored, trying to distract yourself in some form or another, maybe through reading (or writing!) or watching TV? How difficult do you find it to be still, to be alone with yourself? Even for only a few minutes? Try it now.

How much time do you spend truly living? Truly alive and in the moment? Awake to all that is happening?

Āloka’s funeral was a celebration of his life and teachings. Āloka had written a letter which was read out so that he could address us all from beyond the grave. He had planned his funeral and the readings that would be given. Having embraced death fully aware of what he was facing, Āloka committed himself to making it a continuation of his teachings and making it an important lesson to us all.

If we want to be able to face death as Āloka did we need to live in the ‘here and now’. We need to have full commitment to being alive and having compassion. It is not easy to achieve and Āloka demonstrated again and again that it requires full engagement in the face of frequent ‘failure’. But so long as you are committed and trying, you cannot fail.

When I think of all the things that are happening in the world at the moment I only wish that I could have brought some of our world leaders along to Āloka’s funeral. If I could have sat them beside me and asked them to think about what is truly important in life. To consider how we are all so interconnected. We do not live in isolation. That we will all die, that all things go in to change, and that life is transient.

If we could get some of our world leaders to consider these teachings would we have massive consumption of finite natural resources that damages the planet? If presidents and prime ministers considered these things would they worry about amassing wealth and power for themselves? Would a little boy have washed up on the beach?

When you realise the true nature of awareness, the true experience of life, the concern for all of the other trappings fall away and you become committed to all other life; realising that we are all one.

In his book ‘The World We Have; A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology’ The beautiful Zen master Thich Nhat Hann wrote;

“It’s wonderful to realise that we are all in a family, we are all children of the Earth. We should take care of each other and we should take care of our environment, and this is possible with the practice of being together as a large family. A positive change in individual awareness will bring about a positive change in the collective awareness. Protecting the planet must be given the first priority. I hope you will take the time to sit down with each other, have tea with your friends and your family, and discuss these things. [ ] Then make your decision and act to save our beautiful planet. Changing your way of living will bring you a lot of joy right away and, with your first mindful breath, healing will begin”

Goodbye Āloka David Smith. Thank you for your commitment, your example. Thank you for the Dharma.

***

Sentient beings are as limitless as the whole of space.

                May they each effortlessly realise the nature of their mind

                And may every single being in all the six realms,

                Attain all together the Ground of Primordial Perfection.

                By the merit I have gathered from all acts of virtue done in the this way,

                May all the sufferings  of every being disappear.

***

You can visit the Dharmamind website, where you can purchase books by Āloka David Smith and find out about the regular meetings around the UK and the monthly day retreat in Birmingham http://dharmamind.net/

The great distractions; Corbyn, the Left or Right debate and the anti-capitalist question

Corbynmania has struck the country and it has certainly pierced hard in to the conscious of all groups on the political left. The prospect of having a leader of the Labour Party with apparently true socialist ideals is very interesting and exciting.

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to become Labour leader makes a striding and refreshing change to mainstream politics. With his anti-austerity focus, calls for nuclear disarmament and commentary on peace, among other things, Corbyn seems almost so good he could be Green Party!

From what I can see, the excitement around Corbyn has sown confusion in to the ranks of the Green Party and other non-right wing parties. After years of it being abundantly clear that Labour are no longer left wing, socialist or a party for working people there appears to be a chance to restore the Labour Party to what it once was.

In a previous piece I wrote about ‘progressives must work together’ and this is something I still believe to be true. I think all parties and political groups that want to see real change in the very limited democratic system that we have need to find common ground and make a true opposition to the awful Tory government. I would much rather see Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party than any of the other candidates and would be far happier with Corbyn as Prime Minister than Cameron.

But I for one will not be rushing out joining Labour and paying £3 in the hope that I can help Corbyn to victory.

As good as Corbyn may seem now, he is not green; Corbyn is not a member of the Green Party. Instead Corbyn has remained glued to party that has been increasingly centre-right and playing catch-up with the Tories. Labour, like the Tories, have a very poor record when it comes to the environment. This I believe is precisely because the Labour Party are not green; they are not informed from an ecological perspective.

I don’t want to discourage anyone who feels galvanised by the Corbyn sensation and it is a great thing that the prevalent discourse that the ‘country is apathetic towards politics’ is being challenged. Of course it has been challenged for a long time by a lot of quarters but in our very limited democracy the media is only really interested in a couple of players.

So if you feel inspired by Corbyn to take any kind of political action get out there and do it! And damn well good for you.

Left wing, right wing and anti-capitalism

There have been other debates floating around within in green circles that I would like to take a quit look at. The first of those is the debate about whether or not the Green Party is ‘left wing’.

To be ‘green’ is to put the environment first. As well as being a practical political option, the concept of being ‘green’ also means to share in a philosophy.

While the Labour Party have been drifting up the political stream, so that they are sailing very comfortably just behind the Conservative Party, there are questions among greens about whether we can take up Labour’s space in the race. Unfortunately, everyone participating in that particular race is heading in the same direction. It is an end goal where the environment will never be the first consideration; a destination in which the environment will only be considered if it does not distract from the endless march of business and industry.

This is simply not an option that can coincide with a green philosophy.

The domination of the ‘left wing vs right wing’ in political commentary has created a false dichotomy. That there is only left or right to choose from. It would be silly to say that greens do not share common ground with the left and that they would not often be allies with the left over the right.

For a long time I believed  that I was left wing and anti-capitalist. Nothing on the right has ever attracted me. I searched for an answer from the examples of left wing societies that we have seen come in to being but found for me that there was no answer there. Communist and socialist regimes that we have seen have been tyrannical, oppressive, dictatorial, grey and unrelentingly industrial.

Both left and right as we know them have been contained within ‘industrialism’; it’s devouring of resources and it’s constant expansion and growth.  As Jonathon Poritt explained in his book ‘Seeing Green’ “industrialism and sustainability are mutually exclusive”. Simply you cannot be involved in the constant expansion of industry and be sustainable at the same time. Porritt explained;

“Socialisation of the means of production makes little difference; what are vices under capitalism do not become virtues under communism. A filthy smokestack is still a filthy smoke stack whether or not it is owned by the state or by a private corporation”

This would lead many greens to say that ‘capitalism’ is the problem. That capitalism and the consumer culture are driving this swallowing up of finite resources. That capitalist societies will never put the needs o the environment first. Capitalism is the problem and so we should be anti-capitalist.

But I think this is too simplistic.

What does ‘capitalism’ mean?

“an economic, political, and social system in which property,business, and industry are privately owned, directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organisations and people”

Cambridge Dictionary

The above definition does not include what most anti-capitalists despise about the capitalism that we have. I think for most anti-capitalists our capitalism would actually be defined like this;

Capitalism (as we know it) ; an economic, political, and social system in which property,business, and industry are privately owned, directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organisations and people, where profits are put first at the expense of society, it’s people and without recognition of the undeniable truth that all wealth is ultimately drawn from the finite resources of the planet.

Perhaps the elite that are responsible for the Cambridge Dictionary have their own reason for not carrying my extended definition of capitalism, but either way it is not in there.

But if you think about it we all know that capitalism can fit the Cambridge definition and does not have to fall in to my extended definition; we can think about our own local situation and consider the Stroud famer’s market. Here is capitalism in full swing as local organisations and people benefit from directing the greatest possible profits for their wares from our pockets. We love our Stroud farmer’s market; the smells, the interesting items, the warm characters. What a pleasure.

The important thing here is that, to my knowledge, the local businesses that operate from the Stroud farmer’s market are not generating their profits at anyone else’s, or the environment’s, expense.

We can be green

We need to put to one side the discussions of being anti-capitalist, left wing or right wing; we can be altogether different. We can be green. To be green is to put the environment first because there is no other option; all other things that might be important to you depend on this planet we call home.

There is another incredibly important reason to put down the argument of left vs right and anti-capitalism; because most people don’t care. Greens have had a difficult time reaching out to the type of people who live on the council estate where I grew up. All of this academic debate about ideology ultimately gets nowhere when you are facing the practicalities of everyday living on the breadline. This is where the ideology of the right dangerously dominates with ease because the lies are well spread if not actually made material; the wealth of the richest will trickle down, we need a strong economy, watch out for those migrants they are taking your job, that sick person isn’t working as hard as you are, we need to free up trade (and step on your rights)…

We greens need talk of the real things that greens strive for in power and how our policies make a real difference to people’s lives.

• ·         Creating a fair economy; ending austerity, restoring the public sector, paying a real living wage, a Robin Hood tax on banks and increasing the minimum wage to £10ph by 2020
•  
• ·         A public NHS; Fighting  for a publicly funded, publicly provided health service free at the point of use. Ending the creeping privatisation of the NHS and repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Making mental health a much higher priority with resources to match this
•  
• ·         Affordable energy and a safe climate; Taking urgent action on climate change and working with other countries to hold the increase in global temperature to below 2 degrees. Banning fracking, phase out coal power stations and say no to new nuclear. Investing in a public programme of renewable generation, flood defences and building insulation.
•  
• ·         Free education; Scrapping university tuition fees, reversing cuts and investing in further education. Promote a comprehensive system of local schools offering mixed ability teaching staffed by qualified teachers. Bring Academies and Free Schools into the Local Authority system.
•  
• ·         Decent homes; Abolishing the cruel and unfair bedroom tax. Provide 500,000 social rented homes by 2020 and bring empty homes back into use to ensure everyone has access to an affordable place to live. Cap rent, introduce longer tenancies and licence landlords to provide greater protection for renters.

·         Better transport; Returning the railways to public hands, saving money and improving services. Introduce an immediate cut in fares of 10% to give passengers a much-needed financial break. Promote walking and cycling to help reduce pollution and improve people’s health.

Taken from the Green Party England and Wales 2015 mini manifesto

Not left. Not right. Just busy being green and ignoring these great distractions.

Protesters demand an end to nuclear trains in Gloucester

Press release from STAND:

On Friday the 26th September members of Stand Against Nuclear Development (STAND) are going to demonstrate and leaflet at Gloucester station.

This is in protest at the transport of water-filled flasks carrying highly-radioactive fuel rods from Hinkley nuclear power station to Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria for reprocessing, which pass through Gloucester weekly. As well as these highly radioactive flasks there are also flasks of intermediate level waste from 5 different nuclear power stations in the UK which go through Gloucester on their way to Berkeley for storage.

James Greenwood, prospective Forest of Dean parliamentary candidate for the Green party, said: “We are calling for this transport to stop, 1) because these flasks emit low-level radiation – and exposure to any increase in radiation levels means increased risk of cancers, particularly thyroid cancer in children; 2) In a serious accident the flasks would break open, releasing highly-radioactive material into the surrounding environment, causing deaths and requiring mass evacuation.  Can you imagine trying to evacuate Gloucester before the wind covered the city in radio-active poison?”

Barbara French, secretary of STAND added, “We are also calling for plans for building new nuclear power stations in the UK to be scrapped, since operating such stations would mean high-level nuclear waste continuing to be produced for many more decades into the future. This will either have to be stored in the area of the power station, threatening more cancers locally, or be transported by rail to Sellafield, with the dangers this would represent. This is just one of many reasons why STAND opposes the proposed huge new nuclear development at Oldbury.”

This protest in Gloucester is part of a coordinated protest against nuclear trains and nuclear power that is taking place up and down the country this weekend at stations used by trains carrying nuclear waste.

Philip Booth, a Stroud District Green Party member said: "We hugely welcome fellow Glos Greens raising this issue. Highly-radioactive fuel rods from Hinkley nuclear power station travel to Sellafield in Cumbria for reprocessing via Gloucester every week. There are also flasks of intermediate level waste from five different nuclear power stations in the UK which go through Gloucester on their way to Berkeley for storage. It is time to ditch dinosaur risky, uneconomic nuclear technology and embrace renewables...."

Further information about the plans for the new nuclear power station at Oldbury can be found on STAND’s website, www.standagainstoldbury.org



STAND is an independent campaigning group not affiliated to the Green Party. We support them because we share their view that nuclear power is too dangerous and unsustainable. We are glad to host news, press releases, events and announcements from any group, organisation, charity, or business that share our aims and beliefs.

 

The Greener Gloucestershire Festival

The Greener Gloucestershire Festival is happening at the University of Gloucestershire, Park Campus, Cheltenham this weekend from 12pm – 5pm!

Come along and join the celebration of all things sustainable in Gloucestershire – from local community initiatives and projects to local beer and face painting.

The festival aims to find out more about putting sustainable living into practice, with advice, information and support from many local experts, as well as interactive talks and discussions on topics such as G.M., carbon reductions, faith and sustainability and communications skills for effective sustainability.

The first event of its kind is organised by the Greener Gloucestershire Team at UoG Students’ Union, hopes to bring Gloucestershire communities together with staff and students to celebrate the amazing work in sustainability done by volunteers, organisations and businesses working to keep Gloucestershire a healthy, green and beautiful place to live. There will be something to meet the needs and interests of everyone, young and old – green and blue! The festival will be host to workshops, music, real ale and cider and the a chance for bakers and makers to exhibit at the impressive Cheltenham Connect Village Show

Stall holders from across the county will be selling their local produce and sharing their green initiatives and campaigns. This looks to be an eclectic event with delicious food, local cider and ale, and music from local bands including UkesAnon and Talis.

Greener Gloucestershire is a partnership between Gloucestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (GFirst LEP) and the University of Gloucestershire Students’ Union, and aims to enhance the student experience while they live and study in the county. The project was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) backed National Union of Students (NUS) Students’ Green Fund.

Greener Gloucestershire project manager Rachel Purdon is looking forward to the inaugural festival: "We're delighted to be hosting the inaugural Greener Gloucestershire Festival on Park Campus. It is a perfect opportunity to come along and ask some questions about what sustainability really means, and have your say on what you want the future of Gloucestershire to look like – as well as trying some delicious

food and drink.

“Everyone is welcome to come along - whether you're interested in gardening or electric cars, saving bees or football – we’d love to see you there.”

Groups who will be present at the festival include Global Footsteps, Vision 21, Transition Towns, Allotment Society, Zero Carbon Britain RSPB, UOG Beekeeping Society, Sustainable Direction Ltd, Gloucester Bike Project and many more!

The Greener Gloucestershire Festival will be held from noon until 5pm at the Park campus, The Park, Cheltenham, GL50 2RH. To find out more, please visit www.greenergloucestershire.co.uk/festival

Greener Gloucestershire an independent group not affiliated to the Green Party. We support them because we share their green vision for a better future. We are glad to host news, press releases, events and announcements from any group, organisation, charity, or business that share our aims and beliefs. 

Waste opportunity?

A new report by Cambridge Econometrics estimates the UK economy would be 1.1 per cent bigger in 2030 if it met its carbon targets, with households £565 a year better off. “And that is before you even consider the climate change benefits that may result from decarbonisation,” writes James Murray in businessGreen.

That runs in a totally different direction to what we usually hear. Politicians from other parties, and industry folk tend to view anything green as an expensive, anti-business project. However, sustainable approaches do not have to be a sort of martyrdom. We could, as a country, live well by making better use of our resources in the first place. It’s also worth noting that climate change is going to be expensive. Flooding isn’t cheap, nor is the erosion it so often causes along with the havoc for home owners, farmers, and businesses. Damage from high winds has a price tag, dangerously hot weather and bitterly cold winters cost us as well. The more unpredictable the climate becomes, the bigger the costs, on every level.

You’d think that every last ‘suit’ with an eye for the bottom line would already be paying attention to this. With Greenhouses gasemissions hitting record highs,  the need for radical change is truly urgent.

In Stroud we’re looking at how to get a circular economy around waste. Re-using resources, rather than sending them to landfill, is much better in terms of carbon impact than sourcing from raw materials in order to bury them in the ground. New waste strategies, developed after 3 research reports and extensive public consultation, will bring some real benefits when contracts change in 2016. Green Cllr Simon Pickering has led the way in getting food waste collected.

Stroud has a good record in terms of what we send to landfill per person, but our percentages of waste recycled are not what they could be. The current waste collection contract doesn’t cover food waste, but when that changes, we’ll be moving closer to our target of recycling 60% of waste.

Click here for more about waste in the local news.

Thanks to everyone who has given a bike to Access Bike so far!

Last term 20 young people were given a reconditioned bike, helmet, lock and lights for £20, thanks to those donations, the work of Creative Sustainability Community Interest Company and partners Tarmac and Trail.

The project is focusing on young people who couldn't otherwise afford a bike and has worked with Archway and Marling Schools  to find young people who need one. This term Maidenhill and Thomas Keble will join in with the project and 20 more young people will benefit.

Owning a bike means that young people can join in cycling related social, sport and community activities, giving them more independence to get to school and after school activities, increased social and recreational confidence and helping towards participation in activities such as cycling clubs and competitions.

The project has also given work to young people and aims to train two young people to become cycle safety and maintenance trainers. Callum Partrtidge, 19 says "This is an amazing opportunity for a young person who wants to make a career out of cycling. It's hard to find the money to invest in the training, but once you've done it there's loads of work out there. "

Anna Bonallack, Director of Creative Sustainability says "There are lots of ways that companies and individuals can get involved in Access Bike. We are looking for a like minded company to sponsor a young person to become a professional trainer; we need expertise to help us develop a local cycling plan with schools to help their students cycle safely to school, and more good quality bikes to recondition.  Like all social enterprises we also need some help to market the project!"

If you have a bike you don't use or can help with marketing, sponsorship or the cycling plan get in touch. All bikes will be reconditioned by experts at Tarmac and Trail but the better nick they are in the more bikes they can get through. Call Anna on  01452 770177 or email anna@cscic.org  

*

Access Bike is an independent charity not affiliated to the Green Party, although we are proud to mention that Anna Bonallack has stood as a Green candidate in the past. We support them because we share their desire to support healthy and sustainable transport and to tackle the disenfranchisement of our young people by equipping them with real resources. We are glad to host news, press releases, events and announcements from any group, organisation, charity, or business that share our aims and beliefs. 

Any Questions

by Sue Hartley

On Friday, 5^th September, Radio 4's long-running, live political-panel programme, Any Questions? found its temporary home at Westonbirt School. I was one of a few local Green Party members who took up the invitation to attend. The hall was packed to hear the panel of Caroline Lucas (Green), Michael Dugher (Labour), Anna Soubry (Tory) and Roger Helmer (UKIP) answer questions submitted by the audience on the night.

As a regular listener to Any Questions? it was fascinating to get the 'behind the scenes' picture of how the programme is organised and to enjoy the 'warm up'. I was impressed to find that this excellent programme is run by a team of four people - producer and assistant and two technical bods, plus the public-facing Jonathan Dimbleby, of course. And to appreciate how Radio 4 segways seamlessly from the news in London to the outside broadcast location, wherever it happens to be in the UK.

But to the programme itself. The first two questions were about ISIL/ISIS - what would be the impact of air strikes and should British jihadists be allowed to return to the UK. On the first question, the other three panellists all spoke in favour of some level of military intervention, while Caroline argued that a settlement is likely to depend on regional political solutions, rather than military intervention, and we should be working to achieve a consistent (and hopefully ethical) foreign policy. She articulated really well the damage we have already done in the Middle East through military intervention, and the inconsistencies in our foreign policy - for example that we fund, supply arms to, and support Saudi Arabia despite its government  beheading a group of Saudi citizens last week and it being a source of funds to terrorist organisations. She was the first to receive a round of applause for her answer and continued to receive by far the most positive response from the audience throughout the evening. On British jihadists, Caroline spoke of the importance of dealing with UK citizens in the UK, rather than trying to render them stateless, and put human rights and due process at the centre of her argument. She stood her ground when Michael Dugher suggested she was giving terrorists 'the benefit of the doubt' and it was clear to the audience that this was just an attempt at political point-scoring. A light moment occurred when Roger Helmer suggested that the European Court of Human Rights was somehow exacerbating the problem and Anna Soubry retorted that, as far as UKIP is concerned, if anything's a problem, just blame the EU.

Two further questions got on the air. The first was about the bill put forward in the Commons to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax. Proposed by a Lib Dem, this was carried to second reading on a combined Lib Dem and Labour vote -the first time Lib Dems have voted against Government policy on the tax. Here, Caroline and Michael shared the moral high ground as Greens and Labour have opposed this heinous policy throughout. However, both Lib Dems and Labour were accused of electioneering (LDs with an eye to the General Election, Labour to the independence referendum in Scotland). At one point Caroline described the Conservative policy on the bedroom tax as cruel - this riled Anna Soubry who said she'd come into politics to help people, but Caroline came straight back with the response "Well, you're in the wrong party, then", which was appreciated by the audience. The last question, from a 15-year old schoolboy, asked whether more work should be done in schools to alert young people to the risks of abusive relationships and how they should respond to child abuse. Here Caroline scored again, as she is about to present a Private Member's Bill to make PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) mandatory in schools.

One Green Party member, Nicola Hillary, was called forward at the start of the programme to put her question, "Given the opulence of the surroundings tonight, isn't a £10 minimum wage, as suggested by the Green Party, the least we can do?" As she was number 4 on the list, I was sure she would get on air, and was dismayed when the producer held up five fingers and instructed the man with the microphone to bypass Nicola in favour of questioner 5, the young man asking about sexual abuse. So near and yet so far!

It was good to attend an evening of wide-ranging political debate and, though there was clearly a group of UKIP supporters somewhere in the room, it was obvious that the majority of the audience was firmly in agreement with Caroline Lucas.

Big Green Chat

The Ecotricty Big Green Britain Chat at WOMAD 2014 featuring John Snow.

How we spend your money

All too often ‘politics’ implies ‘gravy train’. Scandals over MPs expenses, inappropriate donations... it can all get very sleazy. So, what happens when you donate to the Green Party?

What this photo shows is our ‘glamorous’,  post-election party, stood on the side of the road.  It was rather good fun and got us some much needed media attention. It’s also about typical of how we do things – cheap, cheerful, getting the maximum use out of the resources at our disposal. It’s intrinsically Green, really – avoiding waste and excess, thinking about efficiency and best use, putting results for the many ahead of indulgence for the few. We don’t have a physical office, locally. No one gets a limo. Many of the people in that photo turned up on foot, having spent the pre-election weeks giving extraordinary amounts of time and energy in order to get Molly and our councillors elected.

On the Main Green Party website, there’s the following -  

£ 5.00 will pay for 100 direct mail leaflets to be sent in target regions

£ 10.00 will part fund a social media campaign

£ 20.00 will pay for 10 placard boards for our protests

£ 30.00 will pay for 1 billboard for a week with our message

£ 50.00 will pay for a well targeted press release£ 100.00 will pay for 50 volunteers to be coordinated in a door knocking campaign

We depend on these small donations, and with them are able to get a great deal done. This is very much the kind of thing we spend your money on – fliers, adverts, raising Green issues in public spaces.  No gravy trains, no dodgy expense claims, no duck houses...
http://stroud.greenparty.org.uk/donate.html

Getting ready for 2015

With the enormity of the 2014 elections behind us, it would be really tempting to just sit back, draw breath, celebrate having got Molly Scott Cato into Europe, and relax.

However, 2015 is an election year, and locally there will be more elections for Stroud District Council. Greens have a lot of work to do between here and the next big vote, not least in getting non-voters inspired to engage with democracy. We need to get our alternative vision on the table so that people know there is something to debate, there are choices to make and their vote really can make a difference. When it all looks remarkably similar - as is true of the main parties right now - it's easy to see why voting for one or the other hardly seems worth the effort to far too many people. That's a huge failure on the part of mainstream politics. We should not be afraid to offer different visions rather than squabbling over an imaginary mid-ground and being far too led by corporate preferences.

If you're ready to make a start on the next round, you might be ambitious and thinking about standing for the General Election. If you want to make a smaller gesture - but a very valuable one, you can help the Party raise its profile through social media.

• "I'm voting Green in May 2015" badge: http://twibbon.com/Support/thegreenpartys-2015 
• "#VoteGreen2015" banner: http://twibbon.com/Support/thegreenpartys

Media blackout and Green options

How do most people find out about parties, policy issues and what’s going on in politics at the moment? Well, if you’re passionate about politics you probably read political blogs. You might go so far as to join a party – and that party will keep you informed with their take on things and the work they are doing. For most people though, it comes down to the media. Newspapers, television, radio. This is how we know what’s going on, what the issues are and what our options might be.

In order to have a decent democracy, we’ve got to have good information. You can’t make a good voting decision if you don’t know what’s going on. You aren’t going to make it to a party website to check out their policies if you don’t know the party exists. If you’re not much interested in politics in the first place, you might not want to go that far, you just want enough insight to make some choices.

At the last elections for councils and MEPs, about two thirds of people did not vote. We need to be asking why. How we talk about politics and how we get political ideas in front of people who feel intimidated, bored, or despairing in face of politics, is a big issue for anyone who cares about democracy.

If you mostly followed the BBC, you could be forgiven for thinking that UKIP were the only party out there some of the time and you’d have had no idea the Greens exist, much less how good the odds were you had a Green to vote for. Is that fair? We don’t think so! If all you hear from the media is the politics of hatred, fear and despair – and that’s my personal assessment of the mainstream right now – if that’s all you hear, why would you vote? Small differences of emphasis between the main parties and no real alternatives, versus the alarming UKIP brigade. Our local example announced herself to the world in a series of letters establishing that she doesn’t understand the difference between geographical climate difference, and climate change. It doesn’t inspire confidence, much less hope!

If a desire to blame and hate other people doesn’t get you out of bed of a morning, what else is there? This is why the silence around Green politics is so troubling. You can’t have a proper debate unless there are a range of options on the table. We’re being offered the same narrow choices, as though real alternatives could not possibly exist. They do.

If you’ve been uncomfortable with recent broadcasting, you can join the thousands of people who have already signed this petition of protest. Let’s open the media up a bit to some proper debates!

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bbc-news-stop-this-media-blackout-of-the-green-party