The Spirit of Christmas

This new report by Green MEP Keith Taylor shows a 60% rise in food bank use and thousands facing a hungry Christmas: http://ow.ly/rNhZ5 

The report focuses on the South East, an area traditionally a lot better off than much of the country. It is a shocking thing that in an affluent nation like ours, anyone should be hungry, but hunger is on the rise. Malnutrition is a real risk for people who regularly miss meals, or go more than five days without eating, with long term health implications for people who aren’t eating properly. If you’ve never done that, you might take a moment to try and imagine what it’s like not to be able to afford to eat properly. Weight is no indicator, either. A person eating a badly balanced diet, can be both obese and suffering malnutrition. Junk food with lots of calories but little nutritional value, is often a cheap option.

The Charity The Trussell Trust runs a number of foodbanks in Stroud district – typically open for a few hours several days a week, they are giving food to some of the most desperate people in the district. Dursley Tabernacle, Douglas Morley Hall in Stonehouse, Wotton Baptist Church and The Cross at Parliament Street, Stroud, all host foodbanks. http://strouddistrict.foodbank.org.uk/

Of course you have to be able to get there. We have a lot of smaller villages across the district, many of which do not get much of a bus service. The person who cannot afford food probably also can’t afford the cost of petrol, or a bus ticket even assuming a bus is available. We might imagine the countryside as a place for the wealthy, but many of our villages also have small pockets of council housing, and older people in houses bought before rural property prices inflated so outrageously. We have a small population of people living on narrowboats as well. The tendency of foodbanks to be in small towns, may hide the extent of rural poverty and the people who cannot access that help.

The rise in foodbanks marks the failure of our modern politics and culture. They are proof of a corrupt system that punishes the poor for being poor. The government may talk of ‘recovery’ but Shelter (http://www.shelter.org.uk/) are telling us there will be some 80,000 homeless children in the UK this Christmas. And how many hungry people? This is not recovery, this is the destruction of lives, and an assault on civilization.

 

St Nicholas was a saint famous for giving to others. This Christmas, charity at home is more critical, more needed than it’s been since the Victorian era. You can bet the bankers who wrecked our economy, and the politicians who dish out the austerity measures will not be going hungry on Christmas day, or any other day. Plenty of other people will. It’s not acceptable.

Nuclear power is not a cheap option

A letter from one of our local Green councillors, Martin Whiteside, tackling nuclear issues. Re-blogged for the benefit of those of you who may otherwise have missed it.

23^rd October 2013

 

Dear Editor,

The agreement to let the French and Chinese build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset has serious implications for us in Gloucestershire.  If we are not careful, next in line could be the go ahead to build a massive new nuclear power station close to us on the Severn at Oldbury. If something went wrong, (like happened at Fukushima, Chernobyl or  Three Mile Island) this would, at average wind speeds, carry radioactive contamination to us in Dursley in 40 minutes, Stonehouse in one hour and Nailsworth or Stroud in 1 hour 20 minutes.

Nuclear power is not only dangerous, it also makes no economic sense. These nuclear power stations will only be built with a guaranteed price subsidy from you and me and our children - on our electricity bills for the next 35 years. Our higher bills will be subsidising shareholders and taxpayers in France and China for a generation! Does handing over this technology to foreign companies make us more energy secure in an uncertain future? The Greens don’t think so. Who will be left with the legacy of the nuclear waste (we still have found a way of dealing with our existing waste – let alone any new waste!) - we will! Who will suffer if there is an accident – we will!

The Green Party energy policy is based on the latest scientific evidence. It shows how we can live comfortable lives without nuclear, while still radically reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to invest more in energy conservation and genuine renewables. The good news is that this will also create many more local jobs than nuclear, and with technologies that are locally owned and creating local profit. It makes a lot of sense.

Martin Whiteside – Green Party District Councillor

Stroud Supermarkets (we have enough already thank you)

This is an article by Nicholas James, reproduced with his blessing. Stroud Against Supermarket Saturation really needs your support…

 

Please sign the following petition:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/stop-further-out-of-town-supermarket-developments-in-stroud
Or ask at least one other person to do so. Please forward this to your friends.

If we can hit the 500 mark soon that would be a start.

Sherbourne, Dorset August 2013 - Plans to build a Tesco superstore which prompted protests have been scrapped as Tesco say the site "won't work" as road access was too difficult and expensive to resolve. Residents formed a "No Thanks Tesco" campaign against the store and 11,000 signed a petition against the plans.

The population of the town is 9,523!!

Supermarkets claim that they offer us choice, value and convenience but they are actually powerful corporations who bully their suppliers and crush local economies. We think that Stroud has enough supermarkets and that we should be supporting our local shops and opposing the building of more supermarkets in our town.

SASS is not against change or development and fully supports new investment and regeneration in the local economy in line with the 'Local Plan'. However, we maintain that these developments will harm industry, including small and medium sized enterprises, as well as putting pressure on diversity of livelihood and overall employment rates.

Stroud has a thriving town centre that is full of vibrant local independent retailers and a hugely successful nationally acclaimed farmers' market. Its unique mix of shops, cafés and bars provides an excellent retail setting for tourists and residents alike. Stonehouse too has a diverse mix of independent shops, and is well-served by the co-operative store on the High Street.

These distinctly positive and attractive elements in the retail settings could change very significantly if these supermarket developments are allowed to proceed.

 

Developers propose to locate one supermarket on a flood-plain at Ryeford and another on a historical industrial site in Lightpill. Each site is on a key gateway route into Stonehouse and Stroud. We should fight to conserve the historic built fabric and the established infrastructure investment, and thus to enhance the integration and cultural identity of the district.  This is what gives Stroud its rich and varied attractive characteristics. We already have four large supermarkets operating in Stroud district and SASS argues strongly that there is no need for any more.

FFI http://www.tescopoly.org/
Nicholas James

 

You might also want to support Stroud Against Supermarket Saturation by following @SASS on twitter.