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| Newsletter | May 2002 |
local election special local election special local election special local
We are in a period of considerable social change. There may be social change, but we can cope with Toxteths. But if we have a highly educated and idle population we may possibly anticipate more serious social conflict. People must be educated once more to know their place.-- Dept of Education official, 1984
Please try and circulate as widely as possible to the electorate in Rushmoor, ie Farnborough and Aldershot.
The BVEJ contribution to local democracy!
A typo slipped in for the web address for AdSubtract and SpamSubtract. If you have not downloaded this excellent software please do as it cuts out a lot of crap. [BVEJ newsletter #0022 March 2002]
We have managed to find the time to add a few more newsletters to the website.
Why do we cover international news and events? A question we are often asked. We are a small group based in the Blackwater Valley on the Surrey-Hants border so why are we even covering national events let alone international events?
The answer is simple. We live in an interconnected world. What happens on distance shores affects us just the same as what happens on our doorstep. We buy fashion from sweatshop factories. We import food from miles away, depriving local people of the land to grow food.
Our actions effects people many miles away.
Local politics is often seen in the same light as national politics, full of spin and underhand dealings. -- Paul Taylor, Tory Knellwood councillor wannabe
John Debenham (Cons, Knellwood) has resigned and been put out to grass, not a desired end to a political career in local politics but infinitely preferable to an ignoble end, defeat at the hands of Independents - Tories do not believe they can win in Knellwood, previously a safe Tory seat. The Woolger affect, defeat at the hands of an Independent, strikes fear into the hearts of Tories.
Why are Tories lining up to stick knives into the back of David Clifford? It has got so bad that we almost feel sorry for the clown.
Boundary changes leave Labour three seats down. Their best chance to pick up three seats is in the new Wellington ward (much rearranged Queens) where there is a three-way marginal between the major parties.
Tories seem to have written off Knellwood as they are serving up third rate candidates and no-hopers - Paul Taylor, Steffen Stoneman, Roland Dibbs.
Why do Tories go around in gangs in Knellwood? Are they that afraid of the electorate?
Boundary changes mean all seats are up for grabs in all wards. No party is able to field candidates in all wards, and many are no-hopers just to put a name on the ballot paper.
King Arthur is standing as an Independent in Grange. A further three Independents are standing in Knellwood, plus one in Heron Wood and one in Empress. A total of nine Greens are standing in Aldershot, three in each of the following wards Rowhill, North Town and Heron Wood. If you want to help the Greens in Aldershot or the Independents in Farnborough (or contact candidates directly):
Peter Barnett 01252 653144 {Aldershot}
Gwilym Anthony 01252 517623 {Farnborough}
Only a few days left to polling day on 2 May 2002. We have tried to identify who to vote for and who to kick out to make a trip to the polling station worthwhile. Kicking out Tories is always worthwhile as we want to break their stranglehold on power, but we also want to kick out councillors who have failed to work for the community and elect candidates who are willing to stand up and be counted for the local community.
This election you have three votes. Vote for people not parties.
Vote for:
Tony Gardiner Cons Manor Park Keith Parkins Ind Knellwood Gwilym Anthony Ind Knellwood Alistair Mackie LibDem St Mark's Mike Roberts Lab Heron Wood Derek Asker Ind Empress Arthur Pendragon Ind Grange Adrian Ashurst Green Rowhill Peter Barnett Green Rowhill Carolyne Culver Lab Manor Park Adam Stacey Green North Town Peter Sandy Ind Heron Wood Craig Card LibDem Mayfield
Kick out:
John Marsh Cons Fernhill Alan Ferrier Cons Fernhill Roland Dibbs Cons Knellwood John Mathews LibDem Cove & Southwood John Wall Cons Empress Rosemary Possee Cons Empress David Clifford Cons Wellington Charles Choudhary Cons Rowhill George Dawson Cons St John's Peter Moyle Cons St John's Graham Tucker Cons St John's Mike Smith Cons Grange
Town hall officials have been shitting themselves at the thought that local campaigner Keith Parkins (Ind, Knellwood) might get elected, the Tories fear so. The Tories are getting more and more paranoid as each day passes and election night draws ever closer. They have now wheeled out Gerald Howarth MP to attack local campaigner Keith Parkins (Ind, Knellwood).
We have repeatedly warned of the problems that the deforestation of the heathland to the west of Farnborough Airport would cause. One of these problems is the siltation of Fleet Pond. TAG knew problems would arise but failed to carry out the necessary remedial works. [BVEJ newsletter #0016 September 2001]
Further problems have now come to light - the fish in Fleet Pond are dying off, the pike have all but disappeared and other species are seeing drastic declines in populations.
It's not only the fish, the waterweeds are also dying off. Sandy Bay, where Gelvert Stream emerges into Fleet Pond was fringed with waterweeds. Before the weeds died back it was a breeding ground for fish.
Why are the various agencies silent?
Fleet Pond is a SSSI. English Nature are silent. The area of heathland destroyed is also a SSSI, as is the Basingstoke Canal, which is also badly affected. Again English Nature have remained silent.
The Environment Agency are the regulatory body for open waterways. Why have they taken no counts of the fish populations and investigated their decline? Why are they not sampling the water?
Hart Council own Fleet Pond. What are they doing?
Dave Goddard has been coordinating local fisherman. He would be only pleased to have help.
Dave Goddard 01252 616356
Last winter (2000/1) TAG destroyed a large amount of tree cover in the Long Valley area. Not content with that destruction they went over the area again last summer (2001) and destroyed what was recovering. This winter (2001/2) yet more trees have been destroyed.
It is not only Fleet Pond that is suffering. The increased runoff also drains into the Basingstoke Canal. When the level of the canal becomes too high surplus water is released by a gate beside the A325 onto the airfield and eventually runs off into Cove Brook.
Stephen Lloyd, Increased silt pollution 'is killing pond life', Fleet News, 12 April 2002
[BVEJ newsletters passim]
I am concerned about the regeneration of the town centre which at present is a disgrace. -- Montserrat Starling, LibDem Knellwood councillor wannabe
KPI fund raising for Shopability. You got to be joking? Right?
Unfortunately not. Opposite Sainsbury's inside Kingsmead three exercise machines for a fund raising event over Easter. This is the same KPI that has failed to mend the automatic doors, trapping disabled shoppers in the centre. So whilst Simon Rutter (KPI) has been having a go at one end of the centre, disabled shoppers have been struggling to get out of the doors at the end.
Wimpeys at the dead end of Queensmead was subjected to a routine spot check on food hygiene. A mere coincidence that the franchise owner was one of the retailers who has kicked up a fuss about the state of the town. Other food retailers have not had the same spot checks, not even one which has been poisoning people with its bad and undercooked food, with bins overflowing with food and foxes and rats crawling around. Rushmoor will get around to that one when they have the time.
Questions to ask your local election candidates (you may well think of many more):
Remember it is the Tories who have been backing KPI all the way, who have been encouraging them to speed up the unwanted development. Local Tories have been going around slagging off Independent candidate Keith Parkins (Ind, Knellwood) for his actions in trying to stop the town centre destruction, which shows where the Tories loyalties lie. The stupidity is that they have been doing so outside of Knellwood where they have nothing to gain by doing so.
Why is Gerald Howarth getting into bed with KPI?
Some time in May, as a response to the consultation exercise last year, the government is expected to announce their plans for air transport in the South-East. Various leaks have indicated that Farnborough is expected to increase to its maximum capacity of around 90,000 movements, ie around three times the planning limit.
We have heard through our very efficient grape vine and well placed moles that freight is to be moved from Heathrow to Farnborough.
Can we trust the Tories, or any other party, to say no? The simple answer is no we cann not. The only people we can trust to say no, and to work with the community to block further expansion, are the Greens and Independents.
Two questions to ask your local election candidates (you may well think of many more):
Remember it was the Tories who said yes to the TAG operation at Farnborough. Roland Dibbs, ward councillor for Knellwood (the ward worst affected by the airfield), not only voted in support of TAG he spoke on their behalf.
FARA, as we go to press, are delivering an information pack on the airfield. If you have not had a copy ask FARA (01252 654920).
BAE Systems is cheap [and] while there are likely to be some bumps on the way, the company looks a good bet for those willing to cash in on swelling government defence budgets. -- FT.com
11 September 2001 caused stock markets to plummet, but some shares went the other way, BAE Systems was one of the exceptions. Sales in 2001 were £13.1 billion (7% increase), profits £1.26 billion (32.6% increase). BAE Systems currently has a £43.8 billion order book.
Major investors in BAE Systems include Hampshire County Council (£1.170 million) and Surrey County Council (£1.111 million). Please lobby both councils to disinvest.
BAE Systems AGM will be held 3 May 2002. Get a share from CAAT and come and share in the fun!
Things that go around tend to come around. Arms to war-torn regions inflame the conflicts. Conflicts generate refugees, refugees come to the UK. Tis only right that local authorities that invest in warmongering companies should reap the harvest of refugees.
Every taxpayer in the UK subsidises arms companies to the tune of £30 each.
Worldwide windpower was up by 31% in 2001. Germany leads the world with an installed capacity of 8,000MW, almost a third of the total. Two-thirds of the additional capacity for 2001 was accounted for by three countries - Germany, US and Spain. In the US capacity increased by 63%.
Germany has announced a massive windpower expansion over the next 25 years. It should lead to a cut in CO2 emissions of 10%.
At 520MW, Ireland is planning the world's largest offshore windfarm.
Denmark is a country that we look to as progressive in renewable energy. All that is soon to change. The election of a far-right government will lead to a halt in all funding of renewable projects from 2002 onwards.
Last September the EU adopted a directive on renewable energy (2001/77/EC). By 2010, 12% of the EU's total energy must come from renewable sources, 22.1% of electricity must be generated from renewable sources. Within two years of the directive coming into force, member states must certify electricity from renewable sources.
A long-term study by the University of California School of Medicine of 110 children has shown that those who move from polluted areas to areas with cleaner air have improved lung functions, conversely, children who move from clean areas to polluted areas showed deteriorating lung function.
The EU is delaying a directive on air quality.
Rushmoor air quality has suddenly improved. There has been no real improvement, the air quality may well have deteriorated - the measurements and models have been refined leading to an apparent decrease in air pollution.
When we travel we expect to find interesting local food. Well okay the ignorant Brit no, but the discerning tourist yes.
We don't travel for the food but when we look around, take in the sights, what better than to partake of quality local food.
In Puerto de la Cruz, an old Spanish colonial town on the north coast of Tenerife in the old quarter in the maze of winding streets there are excellent restaurantes serving local food. In a fruit and vegetable store you can be offered goats cheese from the proprietor's own smallholding.
In Wales it is possible to walk into a local pub and find not quality local food on offer but the same bar junk food as in the centre of Birmingham.
Food is as much a part of culture as the local customs, music and historical artefacts.
Post foot and mouth there has been a push to promote tourism, though we would question the need for tourism, certainly not the mass-market grockels type. Noticeable by its absence is any mention of local food.
How pleasant it is to walk into a local pub and find fresh trout on the menu, trout caught a few hours before from the river we walked along to get to the pub.
Jose Bove and Francois Dufour, The World is Not for Sale, Verso, 2001
Brian Donahue, Reclaiming the Commons, Yale University Press, 1999
BVFoE are spreading rumours that the Network South East Railcard is about to be withdrawn. The truth we do not know, we have been unable to unearth anything to support the claim by BVFoE and they are not well known for getting their facts right.
But let's for the moment give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the rail companies are engaged in secret talks to rid themselves of the railcard. The best way to stop them is to bring it to the attention of Stephen Byers. He has enough problems on his plate without presiding over the loss of the railcard. He has set himself a target of increasing rail travel, withdrawal of the railcard is not going to help him meat his target.
What we are seeing in occupied Palestine is on a scale far worse than the Nazi occupation of Europe, what we are seeing is on a par with Pol Pot in Cambodia.
War criminal Ariel Sharon is behaving true to form. Complicit in the massacres in Beirut in the 1980s he is now carrying out the same policy of ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine.
Bush says stop, Ariel Sharon sticks up two fingers. Ariel Sharon knows that the US says one thing and means something else. We know when the US is getting tough when it cuts off arms supplies, something it has never done and no longer dares to do for fear war criminal Sharon will invoke the Sampson Syndrome and set the whole Middle East aflame.
When Sharon speaks of a 'nests of terrorists' to be destroyed, he is speaking of a Palestinian town or village, when he speaks of terror, he overlooks Israeli state terror.
We do not have to sit idly by. It was people power that ended apartheid in South Africa. When governments refused to boycott the people stepped in. Supermarkets are still stocking Israeli goods, drive them off the shelves.
Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & the Palestinians, Pluto Press, 1999
John Pilger, Heroes, South End Press, 2001
Early Day Motions are the formal means by which MPs petition the government. Here are a few you may wish to try.
Many of these are issues we have covered in past BVEJ newsletters.
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