How would you spend £100 Billion?

The government estimates replacing Trident as costing £80 billion. Other estimates are higher. It’s a lot of money. The Green Party does not believe we need the fire power to kill 45 million people. There is no situation in which that kind of carnage could possibly be justified.  Labour and Tories alike have claimed Trident means jobs, but according to this article, Ministry of Defence figures say we’re talking more like 520 jobs based on Trident at the moment. Obviously making new weapons will involve more people, but perhaps not on the scale that has been suggested. If the only interest is job creation, there might be safer, more productive ways of creating jobs that actually achieve something good, if you had a hundred billion to play with.

What would you spend it on?

We want to hear and share alternatives. How would you deploy that much money? What are your priorities? Do you think it’s the best value for money in terms of defence? Write in. Leave a comment.  Tweet at us (@stroudgreens) put a comment on the facebook wall https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stroud-District-Green-Party/178834628826252?fref=ts and if you want to get indepth, send longer pieces to brynnethnimue (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll put them up as guest posts.

Let’s get an alternative conversation going about what we might spend one hundred billion on for the common good. This is not pie in the sky thinking, because if the money is there to pay for weapons, the money is there to pay for other things and if we want alternatives, we should not just talk about them, we should demand them!

(The photo shows a sew up session from Wool Against Weapons. How many war refugees could have not just blankets, but food and proper shelter, for £100 billion?)

Wool Against Weapons

By Chris Keppie

Blue sky, fluffy clouds, farmers making hay. Cricket being won by England. In, to woody Berkshire lanes. 240,000 hours of knitting, purling, thinking, caring, from all across our country and our world, which, this Nagasaki Day, became 7 miles of scarf - pink and beautiful, rolled out, sewn together, and held, in song and noise and silence; held to link and expose, once again, 2 grey, vast, concrete, wired abominations: our country’s nuclear bomb factories.

Aldermaston and Burghfield atomic weapons establishments make the nuclear fuel and casements for our country’s Trident missiles. Some more numbers. 1 Vanguard submarine holds 8 Tridents, each holding 5 warheads, each 8 times more powerful than the bomb which killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima. At least 1 of our 4 subs is on patrol all the time, with the ready potential, then, of murdering 45 million people (3x even the number killed in WW1).

As we mourn and condemn the slaughter and trauma of our cousins in Gaza, Israel, Iraq, Syria, Mali, and on and on, and remember the war that didn’t end all wars, let us also mourn and condemn weapons of most mass destruction, hidden in our seas here and now. Let us loudly say NO to our elected representatives as they sickeningly consider renewal of Trident over the next two years. The so-called deterrence argument rests on the premise that we would ever could ever condone sending these missiles of indiscriminate genocide and evil. It’s that simple. Nothing can justify it. Nothing fluffy or woolly about that. Oh, and a secondary point. What good things could we spend £100 billion on instead?

Such thanks and praise to Stroud’s very own Jaine Rose for leading this extraordinary Wool Against Weapons campaign over the last 20 months and for speaking so movingly and for being so moving at our milestone and on her bike; and to CND and ActionAWE for their ongoing prophetic brilliance; and to Molly Scott Cato MEP for her Quakerly Green voice; and to Thames Valley Police for eating cake with us; and to all who stitched and sang and smiled a tiny part of the awesome alternate whole. It felt like pure worship. I feel overwhelmingly privileged to have belatedly join the rewooloution :)

See Molly and more at Wool Against Weapons at: http://stroudcommunity.tv/molly-wool-2/

http://www.woolagainstweapons.co.uk/

Knit one, purl one, protest!

Videos from Wool Against Weapons are starting to emerge, capturing events of the 9th August. This one features Molly Scott Cato. As it says in the film, this is not the end but the beginning, as the protests against Trident and direct actions will continue. We are going to resist this insane move of spending about one hundred billion pounds on the means to kill forty five million people. See more of the films on http://stroudcommunity.tv/tag/nuclear/

Wool Against Weapons

Green County Councillor Sarah Lunnon, and wool.

Wool Against Weapons: A huge, knitted protest against Trident.

Community crafting for peace.

An expression of hope, for a better future.


Get your coach tickets from Stroud for 9th August from Trading Post or Black Book cafe: http://stroudcommunity.tv/tickets-for-9th/

See Stroud folk saying why they will join the party on 9th August: http://stroudcommunity.tv/why-scrap/

Molly Scott Cato on why she supports the 7 mile long pink scarf: http://stroudcommunity.tv/molly-wool/

Sarah Lunnon on the big pink scarf: http://stroudcommunity.tv/councillor-sarah-lunnon-on-having-a-voice/

Join the Wool Against Weapons facebook community - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wool-Against-Weapons/570747079617581?fref=ts

Greens and Pinks, Wool against Weapons

Green Gloucestershire County councillor Sarah Lunnon was out supporting Wool Against Weapons at Stroud Farmers’ Market recently.

Here’s WAW organiser Jaine Rose taking photo. Jaine is a Stroudie, and has put together a wool based protest, knitting a 7 mile long scarf which will be released into the wild briefly on the 9^th August as a protest against nuclear weapons and the renewal of Trident. You can find out more on the website http://www.woolagainstweapons.co.uk/ Support and knitting has come in from not just all over the country, but from around the world.

And here’s Sarah in the midst of some of the amazing woollen pieces that are going into this incredible protest. This isn’t just about knitting seven miles of resistance to nuclear weapons. After the protest, these creations will be reconfigured into blankets and sent to places where they can make a difference, so a great deal of love is going into making these protest knits lovely, durable and able to serve a second purpose.

There’s a Wool Against Weapons facebook page, too. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wool-Against-Weapons/570747079617581?fref=ts

 All photos used in this blog post are copyright Steve Hurrell.

Stroud to knit a 7 mile scarf!

Stroud's Jaine Rose has come up with a great idea....a 7 mile scarf....well Randwick may hold the record for the longest bunting (see film here) - well it would have done if it had been officially verified - anyhow now Stroud is set to create one of the longest scarfs in the world.....or poss the longest? Sadly no as there are some over 30 miles long!!! Anyway Jaine who has an excellent blog - see here - writes:

Between now and August 2014 we will be creating a 7 mile long knitted peace scarf to stretch between Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield, Berkshire, where nuclear weapons are made.
 
This is part of a larger campaign to put pressure on the Government to ditch a planned £80bn spend on renewing the Trident Nuclear weapons programme.
 
Pick up your needles and crochet hooks and help us to protest in a pink, powerful and pro-active way to say No! to more investment in war in the U.K. Can you knit a metre or two of this yarn bombing peace scarf?

See more at: http://www.woolagainstweapons.co.uk/ 

Call Jaine on 01453 751604.

Trident: unauthorised yet MoD announces £1bn contract

I have been itching to write something about Trident but then saw earlier in the week Caroline Lucas had sent out a press release re Trident. It basically says alot better than I was going to about the position by the MoD to go-ahead and spend £1bn without even approval for Trident.....see below....another blog worth looking at is by a Green colleague Richard Lawson - see here his steps to rejecting Trident.

18 June 2012

GREEN MP ATTACKS TRIDENT 'SPENDING SPREE' AS MOD ANNOUNCES NEW £1BN CONTRACT

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond today announced a £1billion contract to cover work on the reactors used to power the UK's Trident submarines, despite the fact that a decision on renewing the nuclear deterrent will not be taken until 2016.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said: "The Defence Secretary's announcement of a £1billion contract to include the development of reactors that will power the as-yet-unauthorised next generation of nuclear submarines raises yet more urgent questions about the profligate spending habits of the MoD - and the Coalition's cowardice on a crucial political issue.

"The Government chose to delay the decision on replacing Trident until after the next election in order to prevent a major Coalition fall out - and now the taxpayer is having to stump up for technology that may not even be needed, while our public services take the hit from austerity. If the Government is determined to plough ahead with this spending spree, then ministers must give some assurances that it will be able to negotiate its way out of these expensive contracts if the decision is taken not to renew Trident."

Lucas added: "In his statement today, Philip Hammond clearly implies that he believes Trident is necessary for national security - despite the doubts already expressed by some in the military about whether upgrading what is essentially a Cold War nuclear weapons system is the right defence solution for the future. This insidious attempt to pre-empt Parliament's decision seriously undermines our democratic system, and sends out a worrying signal to the rest of the world about the UK's commitment to nuclear disarmament."

Mayors for Peace: half the world's capital cities signed

Lots of new cities have signed up - including over half of world capital cities have now joined the campaign to eliminate nuclear arms by 2020 - 64 signed up in the UK including Stroud who signed in 2005. See here.

The scheme was started by Mayor Araki of Hiroshima (who met Stroud Mayor Kevin Cranston in 2006) and comprises of cities and towns that have expressed support to abolish all nuclear weapons. Of course the debate re Trident renewal has been partly shelved but is still costing an estimated £1bn per year in research. It is great Labour are reconsidering their support for it although both Brown and Milliband are still in favour of nukes - and I still worry about what those Lib Dems are up to?

CND have a petition running - see here. A newish report (mentioned on my blog here) shows that replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system will cause an overall reduction in defence employment. The report also shows that with relatively small investment the skills used at BAe Systems' shipyard in Barrow could be diversified into areas such as engineering for wave and tidal energy, growing markets that could provide greater job security than the shipyard's current reliance on Ministry of Defence contracts. You can read the report here and the four page summary here.

Anyhow re Mayors for Peace I have contacted Mayor Andy Reed at the Town Council as at the moment the Stroud link on the website takes it to the District Council website rather than the Town. It was 4 years ago that I was involved in a campaign that saw us write to all the Gloucestershire Mayors to see if they would sign. Some signed like Lydney, some ignored and we had a couple of rather strong anti-letters!

Trident debate and petition

A year ago we had a debate in Stroud between the four political parties about Trident - see here - well this year we are repeating the event as a Coffee House discussion - see here about other discussions and below about the event which looks set to have Neil Carmichael MP attend to argue in favour of renewal. See also at the bottom of this blog entry an email link to sign a letter to Osbourne urging them not to renew Trident. I've already sent my email.

Photo: Banksy credited graffiti

Next Coffee House discussion - Friday, September 24th.

Do we want new nuclear weapons?

Our Government is about to take decisions on future military expenditure and our nuclear weapons:

- What is the use of nuclear weapons in tomorrow's world?

- Should the UK spend £billions to replace its Trident nuclear submarine fleet with a new nuclear system?

- How do Britain's decisions affect worldwide nuclear non-proliferation negotiations?

- What would a better defence policy be like?

7.30-9.30 Venue - Star Anise Cafe, Gloucester St., Stroud.

Over the next few weeks final decisions will be made and in the firing line are schools, hospitals, housing and disability benefits and essential support for renewable energy. Compass, who have organised a letter campaign, ask:

"How can it be that spending on building weapons of mass destruction is protected while investment in the 20 year Schools for the Future programme is scrapped? How can it be that the nuclear weapons factory at Aldermaston is given an extra £1billion funding every year to build new nuclear warheads while scientific research funding is cut?"

Tell George Osborne not to renew Trident at:
http://action.compassonline.org.uk/trident

Meanwhile CND have just released a report yesterday about the loss of jobs Trident will lead to - Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said "The Chancellor is demanding up to 20% cuts from the MoD and has stated that the cost of Trident replacement will come from the main defence budget. So going ahead with Trident will have a devastating impact on non-nuclear defence manufacturing. Trident is cash-hungry whilst providing relatively few jobs. Hundreds of millions are to be spent with US-based contractors, providing nothing for the UK economy. Other areas of defence spending at risk from Trident generate far more employment per pound spent. Closing RAF bases and scrapping surface-ship programmes will cause significant job losses in the coming years, whereas cutting Trident would have little impact until at least 2016. The report makes clear that with relatively small investment the key facility dependent on Trident work - BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow - could be re-aligned towards the rapidly growing needs of the low-carbon economy. Precision marine engineering skills are perfect for developing wave and tidal energy systems, where Britain could be a world leader. Diversifying into a market with strong domestic demand as well as huge export potential would provide much greater job security for shipyard workers. Relying almost entirely on a few MoD orders will always be a precarious formula."

Nuclear-Free Zones nearly cover the world

I think I might have covered this petition before but wanted to highlight it again - if you agree with millions of others that the government should scrap plans to spend in excess of £76bn on replacing Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons then please join the Rethink Trident movement and join me in signing this petition:
http://action.compassonline.org.uk/page/s/stoptrident

Interestingly combined with treaties prohibiting the placement of nuclear weapons in outer space and the Antarctic, much of the world is now covered by one of five existing nuclear weapons-free zones (NWFZ).

NWFZs have been established through multilateral treaties in regions such as Latin America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and since July, Africa - they play an important element in the nuclear non-proliferation regime. It is a great pity the UK can't also join.

World Habitat Day today: thermal envelopes, Ruscombe housing and more

I was asked some weeks ago to blog today on the subject of World Habitat. The United Nations has chosen the first Monday in October to be World Habitat Day - a day to stand up and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere. See the website here for what it is about: http://worldhabitatdaynews.com/

However I've ended up picking several housing topics.
As regular blog readers will know I've covered various aspects of housing on this blog in the past - I had wondered about writing about the changes to housing that could mean Council's like Stroud building Council housing. But that is for another time.

Then I wanted to highlight The Guardian that recently covered the two-bed thermal envelope house - see article here - a revolution in the village of Chewton Mendip! Here there are homes with ultra-modern materials which already meet the government's strict zero-carbon rating that all new houses will have to meet from 2016 - and, crucially, they have been built to a comparable cost to conventional houses, blowing away in an instant the claims of the big housebuilders that meeting the 2016 target will entail huge cost and put up property prices.

"These are the most thermally efficient houses built in the UK in 2008 and are twice as good as the PassivHaus [energy efficiency standard] in Germany. And if I had built them on a larger scale on a larger plot, they would have been cheaper to build than conventional houses; I am quite sure of that." Local builder Arthur Bland

It is vital we move in this direction rather than building homes that aren't even fit for the next 10 years. Rising fuel prices and climate change mean sustainability is not some add-on measure. One aspect that I don't think gets enough coverage is the wonders of green roofs - I will try and do a blog on that soon as I'm in the midst of building a small shed with a green roof and can share the fun I've been having.

It was therefore encouraging to hear that householders are willing to pay more for a home with renewable technologies. Results of a survey of 2,500 people by the Energy Saving Trust show that 35 per cent of people surveyed would be happy to pay more for a home with microgeneration technology present. 49 per cent of those surveyed also said that they would be interested in finding out the suitability of their home for generating renewable energy. However, 53 per cent of respondents said that they are put off installing renewable technology due to the high upfront costs and the long return period.

This is good news and was certainly reflected in the many people I spoke to in the recent Eco-Renovation Open Homes event that I helped organise here in Stroud.

Next month the Coffee House discussion returns to Star Anise cafe and looks at planning locally: Where should housing go? This is very timely as here in Stroud that is exactly what we are looking at - plans for the next years - do folk want more houses in the villages or new settlements or what?

Ruscombe fields (pictured) have already been purshased in a whole host of plots with the view by their owners of turning them into housing. You can read lots on this land banking in this blog by using the search facility (see for example here). Anyhow the fields have been resubmitted along with others in this district. Does this mean development in Ruscombe? See the plans I've photographed below.....

All this raises concerns - you will note that the "Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment: Methodology Scoping Report", (catchy title that one!) is out and a desktop study of development in the area is also being completed. The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (HLAA) basically provides information on opportunities that exist to meet the housing needs within the District. It will be used to inform the core Strategy DPD (Development Plan Document), which sets out the key elements of the planning framework for Stroud District. It is NOT the full Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment but rather a scoping report. At least that's my understanding.

As you will see from my attached photos developers have already put forward Ruscombe fields and others in this area - but this is not about making decisions on that - these fields do not meet the Council's current criteria for development - they are in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) plus a whole host of other reasons that have been noted before. Clearly we need to robustly object to even the suggestion.

All this is all the more pertinent as a van was parked a week or so ago in the fields - this maybe wholly legitimate - indeed at this point I have no reason to suspect otherwise - but we need to be watchful as we want to ensure the Article 4 on those fields is upheld - that article removes certain permitted development rights like putting up fences.

So the challenge is on - where to build housing - not many folk want it in their backyard. As many have pointed out we are failing to look at what is going on in the wider picture - the types and density of housing needs relooking at, the way our economy is biased towards the SE and to a lesser extent SW putting pressure for more homes, the fact that we are still building on flood plains or areas that maybe under a meter of water in years to come, the fact that the number of second homes equals the number of homes we need for homeless - isn't there something about people paying more for the privledge of a second home.....hey I've written on this before so wont go there this time.....suffice to say we need a proper look.

On World Habitat Day I've touched on issues locally but clearly we need to look much wider at what affordable housing means to other nations. How can we even be thinking about building Trident when so many don't even have a roof? See Bruce Kent in Stroud here. If we are serious about world peace making sure folk have the basics is surely the first step. Now it's virtually World Habitat day - I was going to rework this so folk could read but you'll have to have it in this raw state - apols for errors!

Four parties in Stroud debate defence

On Thursday Bruce Kent was in Stroud - see here with links to actions on Trident - this was followed on Friday night by a debate sponsored by the Green party in The Space in Stroud with spokespeople from all four parties.

Photos: Panel from left to right: MP David Drew for Labour, Parliamentary spokespersons Cllr. Martin Whiteside for the Greens, Chair Jane Mace, Lib Dem spokesperson Cllr. Dennis Andrewartha and Neil Carmichael for the Tories. Plus other pics from the evening.

But before I get to that please email Miliband before 1st October here on arms control. While Governments talk, over 2 million people have died from armed violence. As the campaign Control Arms website says: "Irresponsible arms transfers fuel conflict, poverty and human rights abuses. In the past, David Miliband and the UK Government have shown leadership in promoting a strong Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations. But right now the Treaty is stuck in the slow lane – governments have been discussing the ATT since 2006, meanwhile over 2 million people have died from armed violence. The UK Government needs to finish what it started, it's time to get down to business."

Anyway to the evening of discussion - a turnout of around 80 people with most engaging in challenging and informative discussion on topics including the replacement of the Trident missile system and the military alliance of England and America.

All four parties were represented and spoke from the platform: MP David Drew for Labour, Parliamentary spokespersons Cllr. Martin Whiteside for the Greens, Neil Carmichael for the Tories and Lib Dem spokesperson Cllr. Dennis Andrewartha. This was the first meeting of party spokespeople ahead of the elections that will take place before May 2010.

During the course of the evening Green Party Parliamentary candidate Cllr. Martin Whiteside – who has wide ranging experience of poverty and war - been to Afghanistan 5 times - found support for his views on non-proliferation and democratic solutions to international problems. Perhaps not so surprising being so many Greens in the audience - only the Conservative spokesperson spoke in favour of the need to retain Trident. Anyway there is now a more full report on the evening here.

Next month the Coffee House discussion returns to Star Anise cafe and looks at planning locally: Where should housing go? Where should wind turbines go? And more - but before signing off this blog wanted to quote Stop the War Coalition, of which the Green party is a member -- they said today: Much is being made of UN calls for nuclear disarmament this week. Every missile nuclear or otherwise that is scrapped is welcome. Anything which reduces tension between big powers is to be applauded. But the cuts proposed will leave enough nuclear weapons in play to destroy the planet many times over and the changes taking place amount to a shift to new military priorities not a move away from intervention.

Long range nuclear weapons, even aircraft carriers and big tanks may be de-prioritised because of the kind of wars the west will be fighting. The new British Chief of staff General Richards outlined the new thinking last week. Afghanistan was a "signpost" indicating the nature of wars in the future - "asymmetric" conflicts with less need for traditional military hardware like tanks and warplanes.

"Future conflicts are more likely to involve non-state actors and failed states, like Afghanistan, rather than traditional wars between states... How we deal with the threat posed by violent extremism, often embedded in dangerously radicalised states, will be an issue that will dominate our professional lives." In reality the big powers will keep enough nuclear weapons and hi-tech hardware to continue to intimidate potential rivals, but they are clearing the way to spend more on targeted, infantry-led interventions round the world. General Richards also made clear the military sees no choice but to fight to the end in Afghanistan - whatever that is - and he explained why defeat is not an option. Imagine he said, the "enduring grand strategic impact on the UK's authority and reputation in the world of the defeat of the British Armed Forces, and its impact on public sentiment here in the UK." The war in Afghanistan is not about the well being of the Afghan people, economic, social or political, it is about the projection of American and British power abroad.

We can also remember that there is a national Bring the Troops Home demonstration on Saturday 24 October at Hyde Park at midday. It will be lead by anti-war military families, army veterans and soldiers and will march to Trafalgar Square for a mass rally. Unfortunately this clashes with the 350 Internatioonal Climate Day when here in Stroud we will be planting 350 trees and finishing 350 beehouses.

Bruce Kent in Stroud

Last night I was at The Space to hear Bruce Kent, a former Catholic priest, a former tank commander and a long history with CND - he stands with the great political radicals of my youth like Tony Benn. Anyway he spoke for half an hour then answered questions....We were also treated to wine, coffee, tea, cake and songs from the Stroud community choir - one song at the end had us all joining in for an anti-war song - plus some powerful poems from Jeff Coates and Dennis Gould.

Photos: Bruce, the Community Choir and below audience listening to Bruce

Hearing Bruce Kent speak re-fired my anger that we are even contemplating Trident - just this week we heard that Trident could cost as much as 97 billion pounds - five times what the Government claims - this is based on research by Greenpeace using only Government sources - see here - add that to the running costs of two large aircraft carriers will be as much as £130bn. Can we really even entertain the idea in the current recession but even setting that aside completely Trident makes absolutely no sense.

What I liked about Bruce's talk was his discussion about creating a peace culture rather than one of war - looking at the everyday words and phrases we use related to war like 'in the firing line' and 'watch your back' - he talked about the failures to recognise our great peace campaigners - the UK's first peace Nobel prize winner whose grave in London is covered in brambles yet we celebrate or Generals by putting their statues on podiums - he talked about our Royals going into the services rather than say the Fire Service - he talked abut our processions of soldiers rather than nurses and lifeboat folk.....anyway as usual with these blogs I'm running out of time - see here a talk he gave elsewhere that covers some of the same points.

There are actions planned in Stroud but for now two that I have taken are as follows:

Take Greenpeace action to email your local MP re Trident here.

Take 38 degrees action here to email Gordon Brown.

In his speech on Wednesday to the United Nations general assembly, Barack Obama named "non-proliferation and disarmament" as one of the four "pillars" essential to move ahead - and as Bruce Kent says he is the first President to talk about elimination of nukes. There is some hope.

However Gordon Brown's gesture to cut Trident subs from 4 to 3 is, as Paul Rogers says, 'an exercise in political symbolism rather than a major change in Britain's nuclear posture'. The fourth submarine is essentially a "spare" and it is probable that. It doesn't move Britain on - many have welcomed it as a gesture but we have been here before - we need much more radical moves than that if we are to make an impact.

"...the current economic recession - and the severe and long-lasting cuts in public expenditure that will follow - could have important consequences for Britain's defence and security policy: in effect, forcing the country to acknowledge both the irrelevance of much of its current defence posture and the need for a radically different approach to international security."
Paul Rogers (see more here).

Three interesting articles

Photo: nothing to do with articles - just yet another photo of an overturned grit bin - this time in Puckshole - I have asked Highways to install ones that do not tip over so easily. They are currently considering the request.

If some senior Tories are questioning the point of Trident then surely Gordon Brown should live up to his disarmament rhetoric argues CND's chair Kate Hudson. See New Statesman:
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/05/nuclear-weapons-trident-brown

What on earth are we thinking when we go into shops and buy lots of pointless stuff we just don’t need? John Naish says it’s not so much what’s on our minds, but which brain we use when we spend. See The Ecologist: http://theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2064

The Green party comment on the losses to road haulage jobs. See: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/07-05-2009-road-haulage-job-losses.html

Trident: Labour misled parliament

While we are on nukes - see last blog - I have to mention my anger at news that Ministry of Defence documents obtained by CND reveal the Government plans to replace Britain's nuclear warheads, despite Ministers repeatedly telling MPs that no decision would be taken until after the next election.

The shocking revelation came to light in a private speech to arms industry executives by a senior defence official. Whilst the Commons voted last year to replace the submarines that carry the UK's nuclear warheads on Trident missiles, the revelation that officials have been secretly telling the arms industry that the warheads will be replaced suggests that Parliament has been misled.

Words almost fail me - what does this Labour Government take us for? Where has democracy gone? While I have huge respect for David Drew who has opposed Trident's renewal I find it very hard to understand how he can remain a supporter of this Government? The Ministry of Defence has since denied it has agreed to spend £3bn on new nuclear warheads yet the documents clearly reveal a senior official told the arms industry a decision had already been made. And £3bn!!!! Think of what could be done to tackle climate change and fuel poverty with that....

Kate Hudson, Chair of CND, said: "Staffing at the Atomic Weapons Establishment has grown by a third in the last five years, with billions spent on new facilities, yet throughout this the Government has been telling MPs and the public that it would be years before any decision was needed. It is a disgrace that the MoD is secretly telling the defence industry one thing, whilst Ministers are saying quite the opposite to Parliament."

Anyhow talking of nukes - regular blog readers will know I have had contact from hunger strikers protesting in Prague at support for the US defence shield...see more here and here below is an update from CND:

On a recent visit to Prague, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a treaty agreeing a US Missile Defence radar base in the Czech Republic. However the Treaty will be subject to ratification in the Czech Parliament after the Summer, with the government only able to rely on 100 of the 200 seats. However of those 100, six are members of the Green Party who want to wait until the US elects a new President.

Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has recently met with US under-secretary of State, Daniel Fried in Warsaw for more talks on the US Missile Defence system.

Recently a transcript of a heated discussion between the President Kaczynski and Foreign Minister Sikorski appeared in a Polish newspaper, where Kaczynski accused the government of holding secret talks with Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. Kaczynski believes that the tough stand the government is taking over the shield is a delaying tactic until after George Bush steps down as president. Negotiations have yet to be concluded as, according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, his government is not convinced that the terms of the deal will make Poland more secure. Among other requests, Warsaw is demanding the permanent stationing of Patriot missiles in Poland. Despite recent speculation it has been denied by a spokesperson of Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus that Lithuania had agreed to have elements of the U.S. missile defence system deployed on its territory after talks stalled between Washington and Warsaw last month.

Czech hunger strikers try to stop US base

I've just read about the Czech activists Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar, who are currently carrying out a hunger strike in protest against plans for the installation of the US missile defence radar at Brdy - I've emailed my thanks to them for raising this issue.

Photo below: Greens Caroline Lucas MEP and Shahrar Ali at Trident march

It is tragic that the Czech Government is intent on agreeing such a destabilising scheme despite the overwhelming level of popular opposition from the Czech people. It looks like the plan may be pushed through the Chamber of Deputies by the most slender of margins, lacking anything of the consensus essential for such a significant long-term strategic decision.

US missile defence threatens to spark off a new Cold War; one in which the US strives to be able to strike at will, without any fear of retaliation. Given that, it is not surprising that the concerns of the Czech people are also shared by the majority of the UK population: 54% of Britons think that hosting the missile defence system makes Europe less safe, whilst less than a quarter disagree. Read more and send your support from here.

Vote Green 1st May

It was wet canvassing this evening in Rodborough - despite waterproofs the rain seemed to still manage to get in - anyhow here's a last appeal to vote Green tomorrow - see more re the 17 Stroud District candidates here.

Photo: a drier moment - Phil Blomberg, candidate for Rodborough and Dr Carol Kambites, former Town Councillor earlier this evening

And see blog on 28th April about The Observer saying vote Green in the Mayoral elections and 20th March about the Livingstone-Berry pact in London.

Anyhow I'm not writing more here otherthan to quote part of a letter by Phil Blomberg to the local press last year - it seems appropriate to re-quote as Tories in Nailsworth send out another leaflet saying 'Vote Blue, Go Green'....can they really be serious????

Nationally Tories and Labour both support more road building, doubling airports, Trident, the war in Iraq, GM crops, nuclear power, blocking key EU Environmental legislation and the insanity of ever more economic growth. Scottish Friends of the Earth recently researched all the parties 'green' policies and found the Tories have the least firm commitment to environmental policies and that only Greens have policies to address the issues like Climate Change. Market bases policies that are so enthusiastically endorsed by the three main parties will continue to drive climate chaos: markets work when we consume more yet this is what we need to change.

The Green Party has long called for a return to more redistribution and greener taxes by simply replacing VAT with green taxes. We also need an end to road building and airports expansions. Local production for local need, a huge expansion of public transport and renewables, zero waste and the rest are possible. The most important part of change will be the demand that policy is governed not by the needs of more economic growth but on the basis of what is good for humanity and the rest of nature.

Phil Blomberg, Stroud District Green party

Shelter, NUT and PCS industrial actions all need our support

The last few weeks we've seen several strikes and industrial actions - I write in this blog about the Shelter strike today and tomorrow - see more below - but also last week the National Union of Teachers strike at many schools across the County and the recent walk out by 200 staff at the Land Registry in Gloucester organised by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union.

Picture; May Day tomorrow.

Both NUT and PCS groups have been offered a below-inflation settlement that represents a real-terms salary cut - just as the credit crunch is biting and the cost of living is going through the roof. Labour have presided over a tax and pay structure for the public services that has seen the gap between the richest and the least well-off stretch even more wide than it was under a Tory government. It must surely now ensure that teachers and other public servants, are given pay rises that reflect the work they do and the current level of inflation.

Of course to do so would cost money, but not doing so calls into question the very future of high quality local public services - but there are plenty of ways to find the dosh - like end the war in Iraq, ditch the ID card nonsense, tax those earning £100.000 more and scrap plans for a Trident replacement.

Indeed at the heart of these actions is the extent to which we value the work of our public servants. Forcing another pay cut on them can only make future recruitment and retention harder and in the case of teachers it will threaten to reverse recent improvements in local schools' performance. See more here re my statement re PCS.

Shelter actions

Green Party Principal Speaker Dr. Derek Wall has pledged in the previous months Green Party support for the workers of the housing charity Shelter, who have taken industrial action after rejecting out of hand a revised contract offer from Shelter managers.

The original dispute erupted earlier in the year, after Shelter managers demanded staff work an extra two and a half hours a week without additional pay - lost income worth an average of £1,700 per person over a year, despite Shelter's 2007 annual report revealing an annual income of £49.1m, with staff costs of £27.7m. I am aware that at least one of those effected lives in Stroud.

The charity's Chief Executive Adam Sampson emailed Shelter employees informing them: 'Those who decide that they are not prepared to work under the new arrangements will, with regret, be issued with notices of dismissal.' Staff are being told that if they want to continue in their jobs, they have to sign the new inferior contracts, on poorer pay and conditions. Union members were recently balloted on whether to accept or reject the new offer. Members voted to reject this, which further escalated the industrial dispute and led to this weeks strike.

Dr. Wall, who was a founder of the Green Party Trade Union, said "There are a number of industrial disputes in the news at present, but I don't think we should forget the demand of Shelter workers for fair pay and conditions. Workers at Shelter originally took industrial action because they were told by the homeless charity managers that their wages must be cut. The Green Party of England and Wales supported the staff strikes then, and we support them now. It is very sad that a charity which tries to tackle social injustice is treating its workers in this manner, and we call on Shelter to reject pay cuts for its hard working staff."

This Shelter dispute is deeply disappointing from a charity that I have supported financially - but the dispute effectively arises out of the government policy of commissioning out of public services to the voluntary or "Third" sector. This was a policy pursued very consiously and vigorously by New Labour as a way of getting public services on the cheap. Voluntary sector organisations are now in competition with the private sector in a race to the bottom to provide the cheapest service. Management at many voluntary sector organisations have have chosen to cheapen their bids by reducing their workers' wages and conditions - this appears to be happening at Shelter. As one commentator wrote: "This government policy is forcing a situation in the voluntary sector of 'survival of those most prepared to slash workers' wages and conditions'."

Discrimination paper to dilute equality duties

The new equalities watchdog - see previous blog re concerns about one appointment - begins work just as the government proposes to sweep away some of the most important advances in recent years.

Photo: Randwick woods before the winds have blown the leaves off this last week

It seems the green paper on discrimination law looks set to dilute duties on public bodies to promote race, disability and gender equality, in spite of - or perhaps because of - the fact that they have begun to prove effective.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission also rightly worries about the green paper's failure to back a new duty covering age, religion and sexual orientation. Age discrimination has been outlawed in the workplace and extending the same principle to services would have huge implications for social care.

Then the government really would have to invest in its future....take dementia as one example - the UK was in the bottom third of Europe in delivering high quality dementia care. This indictment of past failures is set against rising need as the number of people with dementia soars from 700,000 today to over one million by 2025 - the situation is severe. Only a third of people ever receive a formal diagnosis, while those who do, go on to navigate a confusing system characterised by overstretched services, poor carer support and a lack of awareness and training. At least now a strategy on dementia is planned but this will not be helped by this green paper - or for that matter the squeeze on public funds.

And how will we pay for it I hear some as? Well I saw recently a blog entry that asks: "When will Britain accept that it is no longer a colonial power that can organise the world along its own lines and instead start looking after the people who live here?" See blog entry here which includes:

"Earlier this year, MPs on the House of Commons defence select committee were told that the cost of the Iraq war was set to exceed £1bn in 2007. The NHS debts totalled £512m. Make up your own mind where the money would be better spent. While we are on it, the remaining £500m could go towards social care. Practically every single social services department in the land is calling for financial help. Granted, that £500m would be a drop in the ocean.However, when the independent Iraq Analysis Group estimates the cost of the entire campaign in Iraq at nearly £7.5bn so far, there is a feeling that this is the sort of sum that could be invested more wisely. And that doesn't even take into account the new Trident system that has been estimated to cost £76bn over 30 years."

And of course there were calls at the weekend for more dosh for 'defence' - see BBC report here.

Nuclear: trainee journalists to pose questions, Tory speech and Windscale

Over the last couple of days I've had phone calls from a couple of trainee journalists at Cardiff Journalism school who will be taking part in an exercise next week at Oldbury Power Plant. The exercise apparently involves checks to safety and emergency procedures in the event of an accident - most likely taking the form of a leak/evacuation scenario which will be attended by local police, fire and plant staff.

Photo: If it had flooded evacuation for thousands may well have been necessary?

The exercise is designed to test the know-how and general ability of the press officers and staff at the plant on dealing with the press should a similar situation arise. The students have been invited along to produce a newspaper front page and spread afterwards as part of an assessment, as though the leak or fire has actually happened.

There are many issues to raise here as Emergency procedures in my view are wholly inadequate in terms of a nuclear incident - see talk re nuclear we had on Tuesday this week from top nuke scientist John Large - he highlighted serious concerns - like for example that computer models take a while to run to show where needs to be evacuated - plus in the past we have raised issues about plans for distribution of potassium iodate tablets, evacuation plans for say half a million people etc - see Glos Green party website for more on that and re letters written to Disaster Planning Officers - the recent flooding in Gloucestershire also highlights that services were stretched to limits - concerns were raised that if the sub-station had flooded and cut power, many thousands would have faced evacuation.

Clearly there should also be questions as to why this plant should have been allowed to continue to operate when there have been so many problems.

Anyway I wasn't intending to ramble too much on this topic now - wanted to highlight here a speech by the Conservative Dr Liam Fox. He started - "I want to begin with three simple facts. (1) In 1997 Technical Area 18, a highly secure area of Los Alamos National laboratory in New Mexico, was successfully breached by US special forces in a special security exercise. They were able to steal enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb. (2) Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the German government reported more than 700 cases of attempted nuclear sales, including 60 instances that involved seizure of nuclear materials. And that was only in the first three years. (3) Following the collapse of the Taliban after the invasion of Afghanistan, American forces uncovered details of an Al Qaeda nuclear planning cell. Osama bin Laden has called for the killing of 4 million Americans." See his full speech here.

The first point he makes is another example of concerns re safety - Greenpeace seem to have also walked in to virtually every nuclear power station in this country - see news release re the 'Kapow' they projected on to Oldbury. Anyhow it is great that Dr Fox is raising concerns but he doesn't come to all the right conclusions - certainly safety and security need raising - but where is talk of Britains role - we are promoting nuclear - indeed how much more unfair is it to say we need nuclear for our defence, energy security and to tackle climate change but you can't have it - the reality is, as this blog and others have shown, nuclear is not the answer to climate change, or energy security and only leads to a more unsafe world. We need to become a leader in renewables rather than wasting billions on Trident and 2 new Aircraft carriers.

This week saw the 50th anniversary of the Windscale fire on October 10th 1957 - the first serious nuclear accident - a reactor fire at Windscale (now called Sellafield), three years after the first nuclear power station was opened. Since then, there have been other serious nuclear accidents - in the UK - Douneray, Chapelcross and THORP, in Japan - Monju and Tokaimura, and in the USA - Three Mile Island - and of course parts of the UK are still contaminated by the fallout from Chernobyl.

The Windscale anniversary is surely a sobering reminder that nuclear power creates horrific dangers for humanity and the natural environment. The fire spread radiation across Britain - Tuesdays nuke talk this week had a map showing the effects on populations for many hundreds of miles. It was like some horrifying event from a science fiction movie. The very name Windscale was changed to Sellafield as a public relations move to make nuclear power more acceptable....