Have Your Say

(emboldened portions of text my own - Tom)

Dear thomas,

Next week, Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Climate Change, heads to the international climate talks in Copenhagen. It's urgent that the world signs up to a fair, ambitious and binding deal, and real progress at these talks is crucial. This week, we have a brilliant opportunity to urge the minister to push hard for real progress in Copenhagen.

Ed Miliband has agreed to join a phone call with 38 Degrees members before he sets off. He'll answer our questions and hear our concerns at 10am, Saturday 5th December. Thousands of us dialing in to listen and ask questions will be a great way to send a powerful message - he'll go to the summit with our words ringing in his ears.

Register to join the phone call now:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/phone-call-with-the-secretary-of-state

Joining the phone call is easy, but you need to sign up to take part. [1] Enter your details in a few seconds, and you'll be sent instructions including the number to dial on Saturday and password to join the call.

Together we can send a powerful message to the government that we want them to do all they can to secure a good deal to tackle climate change. Ed Miliband has agreed to join us for this call because by campaigning together we've got the government's attention. Now we can talk to him directly and send a strong message that we want the government to bring back a good deal.

We know that people power is crucial to persuading world leaders to sign up to a strong deal in Copenhagen. Next Saturday afternoon, thousands of people from all over the UK will march through the streets of London to demand a safe climate future for all. Some of us will be there. [2] For those that can't make it down to London, joining a phone call with Ed Miliband that morning will be a great way to still be part of the pressure.

Register to quiz Ed Miliband on the UK's first public phone conference with a cabinet minister:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/phone-call-with-the-secretary-of-state


Thanks for getting involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny, Nina and the 38 Degrees team

PS: Please forward this email to your friends and ask them to join the call too by clicking here: http://38degrees.org.uk/phone-call-with-the-secretary-of-state


NOTES

[1] Once you've registered, we'll provide you with a number to dial and a password to join the call. Calls will cost the same as an ordinary national phone call. You can submit your question to Ed when you register. Later this week you'll have a chance to vote to prioritise the most popular questions. Register here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/phone-call-with-the-secretary-of-state

[2] 38 Degrees will be gathering in Grosvenor Square in central London at 12pm, ready to set off at 1pm. Come and find us - we'll be the ones with the big 38 Degrees banner and we'll have some blue paint if you want to join in with the blue hand stunt around Parliament at 3pm! More info about The Wave and Stop Climate Chaos can be found here: http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-wave

38 Degrees brings you together with other people to take action on the issues that matter to you and bring about real change. To find out more visit www.38degrees.org.uk. If you no longer wish to be part of our movement and receive our emails, please click the link below to unsubscribe:
www.38degrees.org.uk/unsubscribe

™ 38 DEGREES 2009 Registered Company No. 6642193


Do your bit for Climate change.

UPDATE: My question to Ed:

Does the recent leak of emails and data from the CRU/UEA groups (dubbed "ClimateGate" in the media) change our position from one supporting mitigation to one supporting adaptation, considering the emails and data cast serious doubt on the entire case for Anthropogenic Global Warming particularly as the main scientists involved represent the scientific arm of the IPCC?

Still need questions regarding what his definition of the Greenhouse effect is, whether he will enforce FoI requests to access all data used in policy formulation and, for fun, Whether he thinks 1 tree rings worth of data from an obscure wilderness in Russia is enough evidence to base a multi-trillion pound, multinational project with the ability to impoverish millions worldwide?

Go on; you know you want to.

Chris Mounsey LPUK At Libertarian Alliance

LAConf09, Chris Mounsey: "The UK Libertarian Party" from Sean Gabb on Vimeo.

LPUK Conference 28th November 2009

The Annual AGM/Conference will be held at the Gladiator Room, Gloucestershire Cricket Club, Nevil Road, Bristol BS7 9EJ 10.30am- 4pm November 28th 2009


The Conference will deal with matters of policy and constitutional matters to be put forward by members via their regional coordinators, and the election of officers for 2010, plus party organisation, aims and objectives

A business meeting dealing with end of year accounts and hand over to the new NCC will be held in January.

We need to know numbers attending by November 2nd. There will be a £5 charge to defray costs on registration so please help us by registering early, and as ever Donations will be happily received.

Contact members@lpuk.org

The Sportsman Pub is nearby where I understand the usual fare can be obtained.

There is carparking available for 100 vehicles.

Directions

By Road

From the North:

Exit Junction 19 on M4 onto M32 to Bristol

Exit at Junction 2

Take the 3rd exit off the roundabout, keep in right hand lane and follow brown
tourist signs to County Ground. Continue on Muller Road for approx.1 mile.

Turn left into Ralph Road, opposite Bus Depot.

At T junction, turn left and then take first right into Kennington Avenue.
At top of road, turn left (signposted) into Nevil Road and drive through the Grace Gates into the ground.

From Central Bristol :

From St. James Barton roundabout in the City Centre, take exit marked Horfield (A38)
Continue along Stokes Croft Road and onto Gloucester Road

After approx. 1.5 miles turn right into Nevil Road (Signposted)
The Grace Gates are at the end of Nevil Road

By Rail :

Bristol Temple Meads is in the centre of Bristol, approx. 2 miles from The County Ground
Bus no. 8 or 9 will take you from the station to the bus station and then take any of the buses as below

Bristol Parkway is on the northern side of the City and approx 4 miles from The County Ground

By Bus :

The Bus Station is located in the centre of Bristol.

Outside the Bus Station from The Travel Inn, services, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 and 77 will take you along the Gloucester Road. The stop is Nevil Road, which is within 100yds from the Ground.

Something To Be Really Worried About On May 6th 2010.

I listened to Radio 4 this morning, to Austin Mitchell after his fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference yesterday. Eight people turned up at his meeting, and one of those was his wife.

I saw the empty seats, the closed off areas at Brighton

I saw the photographs of half dead, half asleep Lib Dem supporters whilst Cleggy gave his all at the Lib Dem Conference.

UKIP and BNP are in dire straits financially; the LPUK is examining the pointlessness of contesting seats at Westminster in favour of building a grass roots local authority base.

Next week I am going to be watching the glassy eyed adoration of no policies Cameron and the Conservatives.

Basically Party Politics has collapsed in this Country, dwindling party memberships, over centralisation into Westminster, the recession, the expenses scandal etc has traduced democratic politics that has taken four hundred years to build up in less than twenty years.

The Public know it’s a fix, the Public want Radical Change and a New settlement, that was evident at the Forum on Modern Liberty, but that clamour for real progress has been stymied by the big three parties, and the growth of smaller Parties and pressure groups will never have a voice under this Electoral system. The British just don't do the 'Summer of Rage'

The Public has withdrawn from even voting, because ‘the Government’ always gets in. This has produced the bizarre situation where corrupt faux aristocrats lead the Labour Party. Has it really got to the point where Mandelson is the saviour of the Socialist Left? Is there nobody left in the Labour Party that can see what a travesty this is. We have now got a situation were Esther Ranzten and a baggage handler from Glasgow, are now seen as the authentic voice of politics. Don’t get me wrong anybody who takes on somebody who is trying to explode a car bomb has physical courage, but I am not sure that I want my politics to be along the lines of ‘fisticuff’ Prescott. A man who can barely string a coherent sentence together.

Politics is dead, the only option on offer is Mandelson’s ‘post democratic’ age. This is just an Oligarchy by another name with the rest of us condemned to the role of exploited serfs.

Unless the Radical smaller Parties start to coalesce around the concept of a new constitution, a new settlement and a new voting system, we are going to see the gradual sapping of the life blood in our democratic institutions, with the Police and the EU taking up the slack and running the country by default. The Army is now a degraded institution, loved and respected by the people. Hated and kept short of funds by the political classes and sent to fight illegal wars and to occupy foreign countries, the police on the other hand seem to have no shortage of equipment and helicopters, because the political classes see them as the only thing between us and them.

I spent the weekend as a Libertarian, with a Socialist, a near BNP supporter two Tories and a Liberal Democrat. We discussed politics we all had strong points of view that we could never agree on, but we had a forum to discuss politics because we had respect for each other and ‘ground rules’ that everybody was entitled to their say. What we did agree on that this was not replicated at either National or Local level. There is no forum. If nobody is prepared to listen to my point of view, why the hell should I listen or engage to somebody who wants to talk ‘at’ me about their politics.

That is the position that the Public now have with the current political structure.
There may be only 646 of them and sixty million of us, but nobody is listening to the sixty million, only to the 646, and pretending that this the body politic.

Personally the prospect of a Cameron Government on May 6th fills me with dread, as it will not be any different to Blair/Brown.

Irrespective of each of our political standpoint, we have to fight for a New Constitution, one that comes from below not imposed from above.

Our Politics are Moribund, and worse still has absolutely no mandate from the people of this Country.

Let's Get Together

Dear Yorkshire LPUK members

As your friendly Yorkshire region co-ordinator, I would like to announce an up-coming, to-be-confirmed meeting of members so that we can actually meet each other, have a bit of a banter and start to get the ball rolling for the party in good old God's Country.

I will be emailing members with more concrete details in due course. But this is just a flag up to say 'we're hooking up, are you interested?' and if you would like to express interest and give a shout out to a particular location of choice, please post a comment.

I want to keep things totally democratic as far as venue, location goes, so let's be having your ideas.

These are exciting times for our new, fresh party. We have gathered strong momentum recently, with a burst in new membership applications and also the welcoming of Cllr Gavin Webb (formerly of the Lib Dems) to the party fold.

So this is a good time for LPUK members to get together and have a chat about party and non party stuff and form the beginnings of the culture of the party that has good things in store.

Over and out

JD

Tories & Labour must be running low on parachutes

The staggering trend for the main parties to choose 'high profile' candidates for General Elections continues unabated.

According to the Telegraph, Harriet Harman's husband is being lined up for a safe seat at the next election. Jack Dromey is said to be 'very likely' to get the nod for Leyton and Wanstead. Lucky people. I'm sure you're very jealous, if you happen to not be a resident in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency.

The piece states:

"Labour MPs believe Mr Dromey, 60, would be a powerful weapon in any future leadership bid launched by Ms Harman were he to become an MP."

Do even Labour Party grassroots members want this?

"The pair would...become Labour's second most influential "power couple" after Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, and his wife Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary."

Great!

And best of all...

"In 2007 Ms Harman helped fund her successful £100,000 campaign for her party's deputy leadership by jointly taking out with Mr Dromey a £40,000 mortgage extension on their London house. 

A senior Labour source said: "Leyton and Wanstead is perfect for Jack. It's in London so he and Harriet wouldn't even need to buy another house." Ms Harman is MP for Peckham."

Phew! Well, thank heaven for small mercies! Aren't you proud of British democracy in action, ladies and gents?

"I hope I land on a safe seat.....Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

The fact is, even the grassroots memberships of the main parties are growing sick and tired of the stitch-up nominations of candidates. It is of course bad enough that our parliamentary 'democracy' appears unfit for purpose and anything but democratic.

Our elected representatives, once chosen in our First Past the Post system, disappear off to Westminster and fall swiftly into line. Either by their own choosing, or at the wrath of the Party Whip system.

In Yorkshire, we had a relatively recent example of this sort of thing, which has to be the real cherry on the cake. As reported in the Halifax Evening Courier on the 20th July 2009, a Labour Party official in Yorkshire's Calder Valley has stated:

"'Following the National Executive Committee's refusal to listen to us over the selection of Parliamentary candidates, several of our keenest activists have resigned.

"Most are just apathetic and unwilling to engage – and who can blame them.'"

Why the despair amidst the area's Labour Party rank and file?...

"There has been turmoil since Labour leaders refused to endorse Janet Oosthuysen, of Hebden Bridge, as the Calder Valley Parliamentary candidate, which forced a re-run of the selection process.

The new candidate is Stephenie Booth, of Todmorden. who was unavailable for comment"

Does the name sound familiar? Well it should do - Stephanie Booth is Cherie Blair's stepmother.

I'm guessing you can start to see a trend from all that I'm explaining here.

In a similar vein, David Cameron notably took the decision to open up the selection process for candidates to non-party members. So long as people can prove a 'record' of 'public service', they need not have any traditional ties with the party and can stand on its behalf.

This may sound like a good idea, but it is far from a good idea. It is bereft of logic and it can only encourage the phenomenon of the principle-free, ambitious, self-serving 'career politician', who has the character and ability to charm people, and connections in all the right, high places.

There's nothing wrong with having friends and people skills. But don't we want our politicians to advertise their stripe? To show integrity and loyalty to what they believe in? Everyone's politics falls somewhere on the spectrum and I believe it only honest and right that if people go into politics, they are clear about where they stand and why.

This is classic Cameron, all over. Another smooth talker. Another pretend moderate, who only has one ambition in mind - hoover up as many 'centre' and 'centre-progressive left' votes as possible in order to win. 

It's about winning for winning's sake. Just like under Blair, and just as it will likely be under Cameron.

This is what we have to look forward to. The slow poisoning of the well of British politics, which for too long has laboured under an unworkable and undemocratic system.

Yorkshire LPUK meetup will be held...

.. In York.

The votes that I received were 2 for York, and 2 for Leeds.
I should have known this wouldn't be straight forward, so I have had to cast my own vote. I was going to abstain, given the fact that I am arranging this, and I live in York, but now I have to cast my vote, it is for York.

I'm sorry if this makes things difficult for you, but if we decide to arrange another meetup after this, and I am arranging it, it will be in Leeds.

I think it'd be best, if we want to continue having meetups, that we go on tour. York first, home of Guy Fawkes and the venue of the first LPUK AGM. Next to Leeds, where we can decide where to go for the one after, where we can decide where to go after that, and so on and so forth.

As for the venue, I need to double check to see if it is still open (There was talk of it closing down a while ago, and I haven't been near it recently to see.), but I would propose we go to the same place that some of us went to after the AGM last year, The Spread Eagle.

I'll get back to you with more details when I have them, but for now, mark your calendars on the 15th August for a trip to York.