Call this Christian?

Such intensity of feeling brought so many Newton St Cyres residents to their Parish Hall last night that not only was there standing room only, the standing room included those who were outside the hall leaning in to listen through the open windows.

The reason?

Underneath the well-drained, fertile and

beautiful farmland of nearby Winscott Barton Farm

lie 3 million tonnes of gravel and sand

 which could be extracted and sold

to bring in money

for the Church Commissioners

who own the land.

As tennant farmers, four generations of the same family have made Winscott Barton a highly productive dairy and crop-producing farm. If the Church Commission gives them notice to quit and the gravel extraction goes ahead all this will be lost, not just for the twenty or twentyfive years it takes to sell off the gravel, but forever, because the reduced amount of farmable land that is left will drain so poorly.

Why might the Church Commissioners even entertain the idea of ruining forever a good farm - when everyone knows our country falls well short of producing all its own food?

Their investments haven't always been guided by an ethical approach as is now ensured by their Ethical Investments Advisory Board. But recently they did eventually decide to pull out of controversial dam building in India.

So if they can back off from harm in far off India,

perhaps we can persuade them to do no harm in Devon?

Please let the Secretary of the

 Ethical Investment Advisory Board 

know how you feel about the idea of

Winscott Barton Farm

becoming a gravel quarry.

"Women" won't do.

So far we have two Eds, two Millibands, one David and a Balls.

Three men, no women.

Does this look like the right kind of leadership election?

Going by theyworkforyou.com's listed voting records

 there's not a huge amount to choose between -

Ed Balls

David Milliband

Ed Milliband

Unhelpfully, theyworkforyou.com's list doesn't include  a "women's issue" voting record, though of course the whole list is of interest to both women and men.
Contrary to the media's simplistic and superficial 'take' on the gender imbalance in Parliament and Government, "women" does not ..........

Anti-Labour media buries our good news

Adam Boulton and Sly News showed everyone the media bias that Labour Party members have long recognised.

It is only newsworthy when Labour lose a national election.
But when Labour make substantial gains in local elections....?

The BBC buried the link to the bare statistics on their Elections 2010 main page.
Go compare - the lobbying group Urban Forum Untold Story Of The Local Elections.and the Local Government Chronical Labour encouraged by gains in local elections

Labour - 442 councillors gained. Control 15 more local councils

Tories - 119 councillors lost. Control 8 less councils.

Lib Dems - 129 councillors lost. Control 3 less councils

Most of the Labour gains were from councils that used to be No Overall Control.

So as our Country goes hang,

 locally people feel they've been hung out to dry too often

and are turning back to labour.

 Across England it is still the Tories who dominate the most councils.

But in the May elections next year

Labour is set to further regain control of local government.

Be part of the return to Labour values locally

Be liberated from zombie arguments. Vote Planet!

How dangerous is it to wear a T-shirt that says

"Global warming is a lot of hot air"?

I expect such a T-shirt exists.
If worn by a climate scientist on an IPCC working group, or worn on the high street by a global warming denier, its dual meanings couldn't be more opposed.

Do we laugh or despair?
If unchecked our planet will reach lethal temperatures well within the lifetimes of people alive today.
Yet we still behave (Kyoto, Copenhagen) as if the most important sustainablity is the acheivement of yet another moratorium event on the matter.

But there is no point in endlessly, politely trying to persuade a denier.

Ben Goldacre's succinct exposure of climate change denialists in his Bad Science column in the Guardian alerts us to the folly of engaging with denialists' zombie arguments, or as I've always thought of it -  "Never wrestle with a pig, You both get dirty and the pig likes it."

We don't need everyone to understand climate change. We just need enough of those people who set trends, make decisions, influence expenditure, etc.

What are the important decisions that need to be made?

Who currently makes them?

Are they getting the message?

If not, why not?

Vote Planet!

In May next year District and Parish council elections

will be held across Central Devon.

We need to start now to ensure that all those who stand for election

get the global warming message

and we need to campaign to make sure

that those with the most positive responses get elected.

Go Labour! Building on our result.

Factor in the tactical anti-Tory votes and we think our 6.9% vote share could mean as many as one in ten people in Central Devon hold dear the principle of progressive change towards a better, more equal and sustainable society: Labour values.

In Central Devon we have a crucial democratic role to play.

As I made clear at all the hustings meetings - being stuck with two-party, and sometimes single party, dominance of local councils risks a lack of accountability,  lack of transparency, and the quality of service provision.

What Labour in Central Devon now aims for is to increase our local impact. We need to challenge, scrutinise and improve local council decisions and services at parish, district and county level.

A massive thank you to all Labour supporters who voted - whether directly for Labour of tactically against the Tories. We now need to tackle the two-party domienence in Central Devon.
Already Labour members are making a difference locally.
And the Central Devon Labour Party is large enough and active enough to support those who step forward to keep local authorities under scrutiny and also to consider taking on council roles.

If you feel you have a contribution to make, whether as a supportive Party member, a local council watchdog, or going for council elections next year to represent Labour values then please email me on munyori@blueyonder.co.uk

Healthy Badgers, Healthy Cattle

Is it possible to reach a win/win

balance of nature

in the battle against bovine TB?

Speak to farmers in Central Devon, those who care as much about the wildlife on their farms as they care about their animals, and you will soon be directed to a group of people who beleive there is a way forward.

I've had the pleasure of meeting some of them.

As a result, at the NFU run hustings event in Okehampton I was given a DVD.

Bovine TB - A Way Forward

It makes for compelling viewing.

It costs only £4.99 including postage. You can see more details and buy it here

It features the work of the Healthy Badger Project to which not enough media attention is given, and not enough scientific credence.

Get the DVD, watch it with others who share your concern that there should be
a win/win for cows and badgers.
Spread the word.Thank you.

Robin Hood Tax wins by a clear margin

Lobbying emails are pouring in at this stage of the election.

But in the last two days one huge lobby has come crashing into my inbox - email after email asking will I support the Robin Hood Tax

Absolutely!

I've signed up.
I ask everyone who reads this blog to sign up too.

But we need to do more. The Robin Hood Tax needs to go along side the two proposed IMF bank taxes so that we have three ways of getting the banking system under control.

And by the way - compared to the daylight robbery of us, I don't think of the Robin Hood Tax as us robbing the banks back - I think of it as a kind of redistributive justice.

If we're ever going to save planet earth and the billions of us on her then this has got to happen.