December 19, 2011 – 1:01 pm
At the Woodbrooke conference in November there seemed to be a desire among Friends there to engage with alternatives to the present failed economic system, so I thought there might be some interest in a report published by the Compass organisation (compassonline.org.uk) - Directions for the democratic Left. It is entitled ‘Plan B’, and has [...]
December 6, 2011 – 9:15 pm
As the neoliberal net closes in on us is it trivial to think of the small steps to economic equality? A Saturday day out in London. Under two hours on the train south from a northern city– but then 20 minutes queueing in border control – well not exactly – really queueing for an underground [...]
At last this last week we got a vague glimpse of the ‘elephant in the room’ whose overpowering influence we have all felt for the last how many years, though it remained unnamed - the IMF! And on the same day as the IMF announced they were proposing taxes on banks – just like they decided more [...]
December 22, 2009 – 11:02 am
Tagged climate, Copenhagen
Thoughts after Copenhagen – I didn’t believe in the ‘invisible hand of the market’, but after Copenhagen I am beginning to wonder! People across the world told their governments they wanted action on climate change, yet when the leaders of governments met together the voice of the people that was not heard – was it [...]
December 21, 2009 – 3:09 pm
Tagged climate, Copenhagen
I didn’t believe in the ‘invisible hand of the market’, but after Copenhagen I am beginning to wonder! People across the world told their governments they wanted action on climate change, yet when the leaders of governments met together it was not the voice of the people that was heard but the interests of corporate [...]
November 3, 2009 – 5:25 pm
there was an interesting discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on You and Yours today (Tuesday 3rd Nov) -it gave an idea of the parameters of the debate as far as it has got to on the BBC! – available on listen again.
October 20, 2009 – 10:05 am
Sunniva has referred us to the latest from NEF [http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_PublicationDetail.aspx?pid=300]. I haven’t been able to read the book yet but in 2008 they published ‘A Green New Deal’ which is on their web site, and I’m guessing that the new book develops on from that. ‘The Green New Deal’ quoted Daly on challenging growth, and [...]
October 6, 2009 – 1:01 pm
Tagged climate, simplicity
This week’s New Statesman carried a piece by Mark Lynas on how people are ‘blowing hot and cold’ on climate change – about the continuing debate on whether it is really happening or not. I didn’t feel that this was an issue for Friends at the conference – perhaps because we would all agree anyway [...]
September 30, 2009 – 9:36 pm
Tagged climate, green, sustainability
I was at a public meeting last night organised by our parish council to discuss the Borough Council’s options paper and core strategy which are part of the new planning process, the Local Development Framework, which government has introduced to replace the old Local Plan process. Gone are the direct questions about whether to support [...]
September 28, 2009 – 11:27 am
Tagged international, simplicity
What I came away with was a sense of lots of doom and gloom which was potentially disempowering. But personally I’m still in for the work to help change hearts and minds from the grass roots up! And the Quaker message for me is fundamental because equality and simplicity of living on our earth is [...]
