NEWS RELEASE: North Kelvin Meadow – award winners!

On the first anniversary of its formation, the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign (1) has been awarded a Certificate of Merit as part of Beautiful Scotland’s Neighbourhood Awards. Karen Chung, Treasurer of the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign, collected the award today at a ceremony in Motherwell Concert Hall.

The certificate was awarded as recognition for the environmental and community improvements the Campaign has made to a previously derelict site. The group won particular praise for tackling problems such as litter, graffiti and vandalism, and for positive efforts to communicate and engage with a wide cross-section of the local community.

Over recent months the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign has been threatened with eviction by Glasgow City Council, which wants to sell the land to a developer for flats. The land has never been built on and has always been a community resource. The campaign to retain the land as a community green space has attracted support from a wide cross-section of people, including MSPs Patrick Harvie (Green), Bob Doris (SNP) and Robert Brown (Lib Dem), as well as a petition of over 800 signatures.

Beautiful Scotland Assessor Brian Chennell praised the group’s work, saying:

“The project is at a very early stage but does have great potential, given the number of people involved and the size and location of the site. If they had the cooperation of Glasgow City Council, the group could develop the meadow into an alternative community area for the benefit of residents.”

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“There can’t be many community groups being threatened with eviction one day and winning awards the next. I am immensely proud of the work the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign have done over the last year, work which I know is inspiring people across Glasgow and more widely.

“This award is yet another clear message to Glasgow City Council – it must now be time to abandon your efforts to undermine the good work the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign is doing and instead get behind their efforts to improve their neighbourhood. The administration appear to have forgotten who they were elected to serve, but hopeully this award will refresh their memory.”

Notes

1. The North Kelvin Meadow Campaign was launched on 13 October 2008 after Glasgow City Councillor Jim MacKechnie rejected out-of-hand the results of a survey conducted in August 2008 by Douglas Peacock, chairman of the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign. The survey showed local residents overwhelmingly supported the creation of a green space on the former Clouston Street pitches and opposed the Council’s plan to sell the land to a property developer for the construction of 115 flats.

Since its launch the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign has worked to transform the former pitches, which have been disused for over two decades, into a multi-use community green space comprising allotments, an orchard and a wild meadow. Residents have come together to clear the land of rubbish, repair and paint fences, install composting facilities and raised-bed allotments.

The online petition can be found at:
www.gopetition.com/online/28274.html

NEWS RELEASE: Greens to report “unbalanced” BBC

BNP & GLASGOW BY ELECTION: GREENS TO REPORT “UNBALANCED” BBC

Today’s much-publicised appearance by BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time will be aired during the election campaign for Glasgow North East, and the Scottish Green Party will formally report the BBC to Ofcom for a clear breach of the Ofcom Code. The Code requires additional care to be given to the issues of fairness and political balance during election times. (1)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“The decision to offer a respectable platform to Nick Griffin is a shameless bid by the BBC for ratings, and it comes at a heavy price. The people of Glasgow North East will go to the polls next month, and the most publicised political coverage of the election period will feature a fascist whose party has historically had virtually no support in Scotland.

“The decision to allow the BNP onto Question Time this week is wrong on so many levels. It remains a fascist party which stands opposed to the democratic values which Question Time should exemplify. But even if they’re being treated like a legitimate small party, this instant invitation to the UK’s foremost political discussion programme is wildly unbalanced.

“If you only watched Question Time you’d have no idea that the Scottish Green Party even exists. Greens were first elected to Holyrood over a decade ago, but have never had an invitation to appear on Question Time. Nick Griffin’s been an MEP for less than six months and he’s already getting an opportunity to make his bigotry seem respectable. It starts to look like the BBC is more interested in being provocative for the sake of it than in representing political balance.

“The BBC have had to choose between ratings and responsibility, and it’s gravely disappointing that they’ve made the wrong choice. We have therefore no alternative but to report the Corporation to Ofcom, who will hopefully ensure that skewed and cynical coverage of this sort is never again aired during a by election campaign.”

Notes

1. Rule 7.1 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code states:
“Broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes.”

See:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/bcode/

Rule 5.12 of the Code prevents “undue prominence as follows:
“The prevention of undue prominence of views and opinions on matters of political or industrial controversy and matters relating to current public policy”, where undue prominence is subsequently defined as “a significant imbalance of views aired within coverage of matters of political or industrial controversy or matters relating to current public policy.”

Rule 6.1 of the Code is explicit that elections, for these purposes, include parliamentary by elections like Glasgow North East.

BLOGPOST: Moir and the tweet-frenzy

More has been written in the last few days about Jan Moir’s spiteful homophobic ranting than I have been able to keep track of. While the original article provoked an immediate wave of 140-character anger, the response has also included follow-up articles from the likes of (on the side of all that’s good and right) Charlie Brooker, Stephen Fry, Dave Gorman and (on the side of the Ms Moir herself) Ms Moir herself, Christian Voice and… er… approximately no-one else.

Now a few people may have been surprised that the Daily Mail should print a streak of bigotry like this, but anyone who’s actually picked up a copy from time to time would surely know better. At the Mark Thomas show in Edinburgh at this year’s fringe, the audience were initially very warm to a proposal that the Mail should be legally required to print “The newspaper that supported Hitler” under its masthead each day, but in the end settled for “This is a fictional representation of the news. Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental.”

My own experience of them is typical – denounced as “Green Threat to the Family” in big black letters on the front page just after entering Parliament, I was described as a “militant gay activist turned MSP”. Not elected of course. Turned. A few years later in the run-up to the 2007 election, I was described in their pages as the “voice of the irresponsible, left-led, anti-family, anti-Christian, gay whales against the bomb coalition”. Proudly, I memorised this on the day. Sadly I’ve never yet found a plaque long enough to have it inscribed, so I’ve had to make do with putting on my Twitter bio.

This is by no means the most hurtful that the homophobic and prurient elements in the British press see fit to print. Many people have experienced far worse, more personally targeted and painful coverage, the kind of thing which can literally wreck lives for the sake of a cheap headline or a columnist’s ego.

But what to do, what to do? The online response had a powerful and assertive mood; the more so because it was spontaneous, not orchestrated as the clearly startled Moir tried to claim. There can be no doubt about it – like the previous week’s tweet-frenzy against Trafigura, it felt good!

But what will it change? The online discussion has now broadened to consider the role of the Press Complaints Commission. But I doubt that a stonger or independent PCC would change the Mail’s overall ethos. Hatemongering hacks are given power partly by the fear-of-the-other which they deliberately engender, and partly by the readiness of many in public life to capitulate or hide from them, as in the case of Glasgow City Council and countless other examples. Either way, it’s a vicious circle.

And when we score these occasional victories against them, we quickly find ourselves drawn into another debate altogether, as those who would seek to defend bigotry do so on the basis of free speech.

It’s a spurious argument of course. If I (and a few hundred thousand other people) hear someone say something stupid and bigoted, and we point at them and should “look at the stupid bigot!”, nobody has lost their right to free speech. Quite the reverse, we have all exercised it. But I’ve found myself on the receiving end of this argument frequently, especially when pointing out specific examples of stupidity and bigotry which happen to emerge from the orifice of a member of the religious hierarchy. How dare I deny their right to free speech? Well I wouldn’t. I simply call what they said witless, or irrational, or hateful, or worse.

Yet even Channel 4 News brought these two issues together – the right to challenge bigotry and the right to free speech – when they arranged a single studio discussion to consider both the online response to Moir and the BBC’s decision to invite a Nazi onto Question Time.

In each of these three cases – Trafigura, Moir, and the BNP – we can see the interface between institutional decision makers and the public changing. The institutions, the BBC, the courts and the PCC, are different of course and each has a different degree of power and form of governance. But in each case a common challenge is going to have to be faced, whether we like the results or not.

Technology has made it possible for people to collaborate ever more easily. Now the widespread broadband and mobile internet connections which millions enjoy make it possible to collaborate with an immediacy that’s still startling in its power. Institutions which resist that change will find themselves overtaken, but those which genuinely explore the possibilities may find real advantages.

A few years ago, Demos published their ideas on the application of open source principles and methods to public policy, and to ideas like media regulation. As Eben Moglen and others have argued, the democratic collaboration which the Free and Open Source communities have demonstrated could even be applied to the legislative process.

The high uptake of instant online communication was of course initially widespread among communities of people who used the technology in their work. While they have been pioneers, I don’t expect Geek Power to take over the world (well not quite all of it) but as more and more people engage with the world around them in this instant, collaborative and dynamic way, they will increasingly expect systems of decision making to operate accordingly – and if their expectations are not met they will simply work around them and find ways to exercise their own power.

Many of the ideas the Demos paper discussed couldn’t have been realised at the time. Perhaps we’re still not ready. But something very much like them is on the way, and like a new trending topic we’ll barely even recognise it till it’s happened.

With Trafigua and Jan Moir, Twitter has shown what it can already do. I can’t wait to see what #bbcqt looks like on Thursday night.

NEWS RELEASE – Swinney must not give in to Ryanair blackmail

Responding to news that Michael Cawley, Deputy Chief Executive of Ryanair, will meet with Finance Secretary John Swinney today to ask for the Air Route Development Fund (ARDF) to be reintroduced or for a similar fund to be set up, Scottish Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie urged Mr Swinney not to give in to Ryanair’s blackmail. The airline is claiming that it might deliver new jobs and tourists to Scotland, but only if the Scottish Government comes up with cash to support it.

The ARDF was scrapped soon after the SNP came to power in 2007 as part of an agreement with the Scottish Greens, who sought to stop subsidies to air travel and instead provide support for public transport through future budgets.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“This is nothing more than a shameless bid for a bung from the taxpayer, made by a company which seems to revel in its status as a serious polluter. Back in 2007 we made it clear that we wouldn’t support the SNP’s budget unless they scrapped this outrageous aviation subsidy, and I’m glad to say that they accepted that. Any reversal of that decision would put the Scottish Government in the pocket of Ryanair and would make a mockery of Scotland’s recently-agreed climate change targets. I strongly urge Mr Swinney not to give in to Ryanair’s calculated and cynical blackmail attempt.

“We don’t need to stop flying altogether, but the idea that we can just keep expanding aviation year after year while still taking climate change seriously is absurd. The Scottish tourism industry can have a great future, but it will mean attracting people from closer to home, who can get here by rail and by ferry, as well as Scots who want to see more of their own country. The answer is not to develop more opportunities for Ryanair to make a fast and dirty buck from the public purse.”

Finally, it’s a blog.

OK, I admit it. Some days, a microblog just isn’t enough.

After about six months of running the new and improved website and tweeting like there’s no tomorrow, I’m giving in and adding a blog. I was only ever going to be able to hold out so long, and today’s events have finally broken my will.

Yes, school’s back at Westminster and the kids have all had an extra reason to worry – the report cards have been issued on day one. I’d guess that most people will feel both angry and dismayed that the expenses issue is still topping the news agenda – that goes for indignant MPs who would rather just bury the thing, and furious voters who would only feel a sense of justice if they’d seen a few convictions handed down by the courts already.

But what I find most frustrating is that this is a period of crucial importance to other political issues which ought to be at the top of the agenda. One group of activists went to great lengths to remind the Honourable Members that our very future is threatened by the Government’s inaction on climate change, and by its support for new runways, and new coal-fired power stations.

Sadly even if it weren’t for the ongoing expenses furore, some MPs just don’t get it. Just as others have previously expressed their outrage at public protest across the road from Westminster, some seem to think that the location of today’s peaceful direct action is more important than the cause.

Radical change in politics has rarely happened without direct action – something which we can all celebrate after the fact but which small-c conservatives will always hit out against at the time. But the likely successes in the climate change debate currently coming one after another are evidence that activism can have more impact than the political process alone.

In fact it remains to be seen whether the political process will achieve much at all on the world stage, and anyone who makes an effort to focus minds (those minds which remain open anyway) on this issue are to be commended. This matters more than moats and duck islands.

So yes, thanks Greenpeace, and keep up the good work.

New blow to coal plans at Hunterston

The Scottish Green MSPs welcomed today’s announcement by Danish energy company Dong that they would no longer support plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston. (1) SNP Ministers added the project to their National Planning Framework 2 some four months after consultation closed, (2) and local community campaigners announced plans last month to seek a judicial review of the Scottish Government’s decision. (3)

Dong Energy, owned by the Danish state, declared today that their emissions per kilowatt of electricity produced would have to be cut by 85% by 2040. (4) The proposed power station was to be a joint venture with Peel Energy, who will now come under increasing pressure to abandon the climate-busting scheme following last week’s collapse of E:ON’s similarly polluting project at Kingsnorth. The Greens today lodged a parliamentary motion urging Peel to drop out of the scheme too, and calling on Scottish Ministers to prioritise efforts to reduce energy demand. (5)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“There is a real energy gap – Scotland could be powered almost six times over by renewable energy, yet Ministers of all parties have stuck religiously to dead end technologies like nuclear and coal. It seems the private sector have been quicker to realise that the future of Scotland’s electricity network is decentralised and renewable, not opencast coal and bogus pledges to capture carbon.

“Today’s good news follows the announcements over the last seven days that neither a similar coal plant at Kingsnorth nor Heathrow’s Runway 3 will go ahead. The decks are being cleared of massively polluting projects, and SNP Ministers should think again about other expensive and unacceptable schemes like the additional Forth Road Bridge. They now have a golden opportunity to move towards the kind of successful low carbon economy Scotland needs, but it will require some courage and some actual change in policy.”

Notes

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8302913.stm

2. National Planning Framework

3. Coverage of the legal challenge

4. Dong statement (translated by Google)

5. The Green motion lodged today in the name of Patrick Harvie MSP reads:

Doubt over future of Hunterston coal fired power station
That the Parliament welcomes the announcement that Dong Energy has withdrawn from the plan to build a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston; regards unabated coal as the most damaging and unacceptable energy source, and opposes any expansion of it in Scotland; calls upon Peel Energy, the remaining company involved in the Hunterston plan, to drop the project altogether; and calls on the Scottish Government to commit to invest in slashing energy demand instead of permitting the expansion of unsustainable and polluting energy technologies which belong in the dustbin of history.

Ministers’ energy plans are a spectacular disappointment

Greens described as “underwhelming and unsatisfactory” plans by Scottish Ministers for a home loans scheme to cover more expensive energy efficiency measures. (1) Scottish Government figures published in a wider consultation on energy efficiency show that the average need per household is £7,000, making a £2m fund entirely inadequate. (2)

The Scottish Green MSPs proposed a loans scheme for hard to treat properties during last year’s Budget negotiations, an approach based on the successful Re:Charge scheme delivered by Green Councillors in Kirklees. (3) This project brought in a £1m loan fund across Kirklees, an area with less than a tenth as many houses as Scotland. (4)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“SNP Ministers want us to believe they understand the benefits and opportunities real energy efficiency can bring. Their rhetoric may be excellent, but their actual commitments remain a spectacular disappointment.

“The loan scheme they’re proposing is not even close to the scheme we proposed in last year’s Budget. It’s a drop in the ocean, a bare minimum so Ministers can say with a half-straight face that they’ve done what they promised Parliament in February. Even if every penny went on delivery it wouldn’t even get the job done in three hundred Scottish homes out of more than two million.

“To make it work, to make a real difference to those with hard-to-treat homes, we’d need to see a fund worth tens of millions. That could be enough to make a real start on those cold and draughty properties that can’t take loft or cavity wall insulation.

“If the current draft Scottish budget goes through unchanged, this entire SNP administration will have failed on energy efficiency, which remains the cheapest and most effective way to cut both household bills and carbon emissions. Existing money is being mis-spent, and Ministers’ plans for the future are no better.”

Notes

1. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2009/10/08103328

2. See p58 here:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/287719/0087747.pdf

3. www.idea.gov.uk

5. Scotland has 2.3m homes. Kirklees has 159,031 by 2003 figures.
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/statistics/keystatisticsreport.pdf

Greens announce candidate for Glasgow North-East

The Scottish Green Party today announced that David Doherty will be the party’s candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election, which will be held on 12 November. (1) Mr Doherty, 24, is on the board of a building renovation charity in Glasgow which promotes both hi-tech and low-tech ways for householders to save energy. (2)

David Doherty said:

“There is a lot of cynicism around about politics, and I can quite understand why given the behaviour of the parties already represented in Westminster. However, I believe green politics can help improve people’s lives, protect our environment and support a truly sustainable economy.

“I am standing in Glasgow North East because I believe the area needs more investment, with housing in particular having been neglected in previous years and facing serious budget cuts. As a Green MP, I would work for a Green New Deal for the people of Glasgow, using government investment to boost affordable and low-energy housing, public transport that’s both low cost and high quality, and supporting the innovation we need to deliver long-term sustainable jobs.”

Patrick Harvie, the party’s co-convenor and MSP for Glasgow, said:

“Having Greens elected to the Scottish Parliament has helped deliver real change on the environment and social justice, although there’s obviously much more still to do. Westminster is crying out for a Green voice, and the people of Glasgow North East can be the first to deliver that historic breakthrough.

“Whatever the outcome, though, we’re in this campaign to talk about issues the other parties ignore. We’re the only party to put public transport in Glasgow ahead of new motorways, and the only party to understand that Glasgow’s economic problems can’t be fixed by refloating the same economic model which has now so clearly failed. We’re also the only party in this election with a clear policy to end the benefits trap. I look forward to supporting David’s campaign on the doorsteps of Glasgow North East.”

Notes

1. David Doherty is an environmental protection graduate of Strathclyde University. He lives in Clydebank, and is Convenor of the Dunbartonshire Greens. He has a strong track record campaigning for people and the environment and writes a column on environmental issues. David campaigned in the 2009 Euro-elections where the Scottish Greens’ vote overtook the LibDems and Tories in Glasgow North East. As a practising Catholic, David is also active in the Eco-Congregation Network, and his interests include cycling, hillwalking, cinema and travel.

A picture of David is available on request.

2. See: www.eco-renovation.org

SNP accept call for cross party dialogue

At First Minister’s Question Time today the Deputy First Minister answered questions from Patrick Harvie MSP and members from other parties about home insulation. In her answer she accepted the need to build on the cross-party consensus on the issue, as demonstrated in yesterday’s debate on energy, and offered an open meeting to discuss how to make significant improvements in this area. (1) In response, Patrick Harvie has today written to Ministers to accept this offer, and to all other party leaders to urge them also to attend this meeting. (2)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“I’m delighted to see the movement across Parliament towards the kind of ambitious Scotland-wide insulation scheme we proposed during last year’s Budget process. The comments made yesterday by Wendy Alexander and Gavin Brown were particularly welcome, as were today’s contributions from Nicola Sturgeon and Liam McArthur.

“The time has come for this to be something the whole Parliament works together on, a joint project that shows Parliament’s collective ambition to meet the targets we set in the Climate Change Bill. A scaling up of our ambition on insulation would of course also serve to tackle fuel poverty, rising fuel bills and unemployment in the construction sector.

“Following First Minister’s Questions today I have therefore written to Ministers to accept their offer of an all-party meeting on the issue, and to all other parties in Parliament to urge them to accept this offer too. The aim of such a meeting must be to reach consensus on how to deliver this ambitious but sadly delayed project within existing budgets. Last time it was left too late and the deal never happened. We cannot afford to see brinksmanship again on an issue that is both so urgent and yet so simple.”

During last year’s Budget process the Green MSPs proposed a £100m a year scheme to insulate all of Scotland’s homes in a decade. In response, the Scottish Government allocated £15m this year and next for a much less ambitious home energy efficiency. (3) The Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee report debated yesterday (4) included the following recommendation for £100m – £170m of additional investment:

“The Committee calls on the Scottish Government in the forthcoming budget round to consider substantially increasing resources for an area-based, targeted energy efficiency/conservation programme designed to tackle fuel poverty and reduce energy demand.”

In yesterday’s debate, Wendy Alexander MSP said (5):

“Action point 3 for the Government in the countdown to Copenhagen is to commit to the home insulation scheme that was first promoted by the Green party in last year’s budget negotiations, and to make it big scale, with a big impact. It should adopt a street-by-street, house-by-house approach to improving energy efficiency. I predict that that is what will be done in a few years’ time, so why do we not just get on with it now? That is what the committee wanted?an area-based, targeted energy efficiency programme ‘in the order of £100-170 million per year over the next decade to come’. Currently, the home insulation scheme receives £15 million a year. The draft budget that has been published in the past month proposes a 17 per cent cut in capital budgets in Scotland next year, the value of which is hundreds of millions of pounds. Let us put £100 million back into an area-based targeted energy scheme.”

Notes

1. Official Report for yesterday’s debate on the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee report

2. Text of the letters available on request.

3. Scottish Government’s news release

4. See paragraph 108 of the report.

5. Official Report for Wendy Alexander’s contribution