good news

Our new government is starting to take shape and it's nice to see a breath of fresh air breezing through politics. Governments of any hue start to go stale after about 6 or 7 years and the last crew were looking very shabby and decadent. Nothing like the hopelessness of the Thatcher era of course - those governments were degenerate rather than decadent and were stale from day one!

So it's shaping up that the tory part of the coalition will be handling the economy and the liberal part will be dealing with dismantling the disgusting authoritarian state Labour left us with.

In my view Labour lost because it was reverting to the mean - idiotic unions were causing trouble for no reason, the authoritarian streak (ID cards, 'terrorism' etc) was winning the battle, money was being borrowed and 'created' in a desperate attempt to keep their natural constituency - consumerist chavs - in tat. It had to fall.

With a coalition the hope is that the two elements will continually challenge and refresh each other, stopping this reversion to the mean - very mean in the tories' case!

All it now needs is a HUGE dose of reality, Green reality, to inform these two pillars of new politics. Get kids out of the classrooms and into the fields and farms for at least half the time, start closing roads and building railways, switch from hydrocarbons to renewables, stop net immigration, encourage small businesses and co-operatives, bring the soldiers back home and localise politics whilst winding down globalisation.

create centre

A few weeks ago we took a trip on the train along the harbourside and ended up at the Create Centre. This weekend we visited the centre itself and were very impressed. Bristol should be very proud of this innovative and forward looking venue. As well as an eco house (which made us somewhat jealous from our Hartcliffe council house perspective) there are exhibitions and a nice cafe. It's accessible by bike and train (and even by the old fashioned 'car') and gives us all a glimpse as how we are going to live once the oil runs out. Great stuff!

phoenix rising

After years of lingering around doing nothing the characters made famous in the 80s through Oh Cracky! comic are springing back to life via Facebook. Best known in Sussex, around Newcastle and Leysin, Switerland they ae now offering themselves to a whole new audience.

Join the Facebook group today!

election time!

Big day tomorrow. Unusually after years of certain Labour victories this one's wide open. Obviously the tories are irrelevant, especially in the SW, and I've always had a healthy and natural revulsion of Labour, being brought up in a fiercely Labour household, like all Sussex folk.

I've been a member of the Green Party, Wessex Regionalists and SNP over the years. None of them were quite what I was after. I'm naturally Green but detest with a passion the left wing scum that have infiltrated and altered the party so that it is no longer a genuinely Green party, but a far left wing party with some patronising semi-green policies.

So tomorrow I'll be voting Lib-Dem for two reasons. Firstly they have a genuine chance of kicking out the vile sow Dawn Primarolo who currently serves as MP for South Bristol. Secondly if they do hold the balance of power, or even win outright, nationally, then there's a very good chance that PR will be pushed through. This will be the most important move forward in British politics since the Norman Conquest. Once PR's in there will be a huge resurgence in British politics as suddenly EVERY vote will be worth something.

As always I'll be doing an all-nighter tomorrow, with canapes and drinks, watching Labour squirm, the Tories fall short of an overall majority, election of the first Green MP in Brighton and a big swing to the Lib Dems. This will set us up nicely for the autumn 2010 election ...

towards sustainablility

A new organisation set up in Bristol is Shift Bristol, which offers practical advice on sustainable living.

After the latest bombshell from the US Military we're ALL going to need this!!

steam in bristol

A real treat in Bristol, and perhaps not as publicised as it should be, is the Bristol Harbour Railway. This runs from the SS Great Britain, along the harbourside for about 400 metres, then reverses and runs alongside the river to the Create Centre.

This is an unusual railway with some street running and open carriages for passengers which gives a much more intimate ride than your average steam railway. It is also very accessible for the same reasons.

It's not open every weekend, but check the timetable and if it is running please take a trip - you won't regret it!

vegenomics

A rather perverse argument used by guilty meat eaters is the 'if we didn't eat meat there'd be no cute farm animals'. Tossers.

This lamb lives at the Hartcliffe Community Farm. Her twin died shortly after being born, but she's flourishing and will soon join her mum, and the rest of the sheep, up on the hillside. She'll never go to the abbatoir, or the butchers, or end up on some sad hippy's plate. The farm just about supports itself, and may well become a model in the post oil era. The animals are pretty much able to wander at will at the farm, and it's great seeing the kids touching them, and sometimes getting bitten by them - it's all part of the skills and knowledge they'll need in a supermarket-free future.

Farms in the future will need to be both 100% organic and 100% arable. Farm land is too valuable to waste energy converting grain to meat, and as oil-based fertilizers first rise in price astronomically, then vanish altogether, they will all need to switch to organic farming methods. Of course farm animals will have a role in the future - sheep for wool and milk, pigs for manure, ducks, geese and hens for eggs, horses for farm work, goats for milk etc. But the mad waste of energy and the pure nastiness and unhealthyness of a meat diet will ensure that modern farms will do the right thing and stop exploiting animals and mistreating them. And as for the current crop of farmers? y Destined for the scrapheap, unless they can keep ahead and change their ways.