New blog address!

This blog is moving to a new address so please come and follow me at http://www.adamvancoevorden.org.uk/ instead. You’ll find a few new posts already, and I’ll be updating regularly in the run-up to the election. See you over there,

Adam

Save Glenfall Way AONB site

Yesterday local protesters rallied to try and save the Glenfall Way AONB site from developers. Due to my recent knee surgery I couldn’t be there to support them, but Lorraine du Feu from my campaign team was able to attend – here’s her report;

Part of the nationally designated Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is once again under threat from housing developers, despite two previous planning appeals having dismissed development proposals.

The field in question is adjacent to Glenfall School in Charlton Kings and provides an attractive wedge of countryside next to a substantial area of housing. It brings the AONB right into the edge of town, providing a valuable habitat for wildlife and connections to other nearby green spaces. I often pass it on my way to and from my allotment and it is eye-catchingly beautiful, the swaying meadow grasses framed by a rich variety of native shrubs and trees.

I was asked to attend the developers’ exhibition on Saturday 22nd by the local protest group. I expected a small crowd, but found well over a hundred indignant people of all ages rallying in front of the meadow. They were all very well-informed and many were veterans of previous battles to save the land from being built on. All in all something like 230 people attended the exhibition, most of whom were opposed to any development.

The quality of the field has been recognised at two planning appeals, one in 1980, another in 2008, where both inspectors dismissed development proposals because of the irreparable harm they would do to the AONB. In the 2008 appeal decision, while agreeing that there could be a shortage of housing, the inspector said: “I have no doubt that the current proposal would result in significant harm to the AONB through change in character and appearance that would be the inevitable consequence of residential development however carefully designed and landscaped.”

The Green Party recognises that the housing shortage has to be addressed, and has a lot of detailed proposals to do this http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ho.html. Ruining a precious piece of the AONB for the sake of 16 houses is not a good way to go about it, especially considering that there are around 33,000 houses proposed for the Joint Core Strategy area of Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury currently being considered by the planning inspectorate, and none of these is in the AONB.

There is no doubt that the current proposals are motivated by nothing but profit, and this is symptomatic of the coalition government’s contemptuous attitude to the countryside. Talking to people at Glenfall I was struck by the fear they expressed at the government’s damagingly hasty rush to sweep aside long-established planning laws in order to respond to lobbying from house-building firms (who are always very keen to develop in desirable locations). They have tried to sell off our forests, they want to change the law of trespass to allow fracking on private land. As the National Trust says, they are “putting short-term financial gain ahead of everything else and failing to protect everyday places that local communities love.”

It was great to see so many people out in force to protect their local “everyday place” and Cheltenham Green Party will give them all the support it can. You can keep up to date with the protest on the facebook https://www.facebook.com/saveglenfallaonb?ref=br_tf

The NHS – worth fighting for

We have an amazing health system in this country – it’s easy to take for granted just how good we’ve got it. I’ve always been of this opinion, but as I lie here recovering from my recent knee reconstruction, I can truly say that I am thankful that we have the NHS.
A quick bit of research informs me that the operation I had (anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction) would have cost me upwards of £20,000 if I were an uninsured medical patient in the USA. The cost would be around £4,000 if I were insured, but I would be paying around £2,000 in premiums each year. This in a system ranked well below the UK by the Commonwealth Fund, a US research foundation. The Americans pay the most (if they can afford it), but don’t get the best treatment. The worst of both worlds.

In America, I would either be paying a lot of money for my treatment, or maybe I would decide that I simply couldn’t afford it. With my injury, that would mean an end to playing competitive sport and an increased risk of early onset arthritis in my knee. Becoming a lot more sedentary would have its own health risks, particularly later in my life. The poor can’t afford to be as healthy or live as long as the rich.

In the UK, worries about money did not even cross my mind. My operation was free, of course it was; that’s just how things work here. From my personal experiences, this system does work, despite the tinkering, the targets and the criticism. So why would we want to change it? Why would we want to move closer to a model that costs people more, excludes the poor and delivers worse outcomes than the ones we receive at present?

The rather depressing answer is again that profits are being put before people. Astoundingly, according to a 2012 report by the Social Investigations blog, a total of 206 parliamentarians have recent or current financial private healthcare connections. Over 70 of these are MPs (and about 80% of these are Conservative MPs). These are the people that we vote in, time and time again to represent our interests. This is an exceptionally unrepresentative group and despite their vested interests, these Lords and MPs are allowed to vote on bills relating to the NHS.

As a result, we have seen billions of pounds of public money go straight into the back pockets of these private healthcare companies. We have seen hospital and A&E closures increase, longer waiting times and cut after cut after cut. We are seeing health workers strike, and for some – midwives, for example – this is the first time they have had to do so since the NHS was formed.

The ‘traditional’ parties are not in politics for us. They are in it for themselves, and we need to tell them that we’ve had enough. A vote for the Green Party is a vote for people before profit. It is a way of registering that you want public service put before shareholders’ bottom lines. A Green MP for Cheltenham would fight against privatisation, against cuts, against closures and would demand that a full programme of services is available in the town – including a fully operational A&E department. I have the faith to fight for the NHS – I hope you do too.

To read more about MP’s vested interests visit http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk

Image credit to 33.media.tumblr.com

Firefighters’ strike

Once again the reality of a situation has been brought home to me by talking directly with the people involved. I’m starting to wonder whether politicians do enough of this. None of the firefighters I spoke to on the FBU picket line on Sunday had seen hide or hair of a politician during the strike.

The firefighters’ strike has not sprung up out of nowhere; it certainly didn’t happen overnight. The FBU have been in dispute with the government for over four years now, and the strike is the desperate last resort of a force that cannot take any more.

Firefighters are being asked to increase their pension contributions for the third year running, in order to receive the pension they had already been promised. Added to this, they will have to be able to continue working until the age of 60. This will require passing an as yet unspecified fitness test. If they don’t pass, they would have to accept an up to 50% reduction in their pension, or face dismissal from the service.

Firefighters are already making fairly hefty pension contributions from a salary of below £30,000 with a retirement age of 55. This is because it’s a job that requires a very high level of physical fitness. The FBU have rightly said that 60-year-old firefighters could be a danger to themselves, as well as the public. It is simply not appropriate for them to work on until 60, and they’ve been paying these unusually high contributions in order to accrue a decent pension over a shorter career. It makes sense, and it’s fair. But now, this government wants to move the goalposts.

This comes up at a time when the force is already dwindling in numbers and growing in age. A firefighter on the picket line told me that the average age in the Gloucestershire brigade is now 47, mainly because recruitment has been frozen for five years. The upshot has been that four man crews have had to take the place of five man crews at some call-outs. It was explained to me that the fifth man is usually the one who attends to casualties at a blaze. The depletion in numbers and an ageing force are increasing the risks to our firefighters and also to us. They can not operate effectively if they do not have the manpower.

The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have come to compromise agreements with their firefighters – only the coalition government in London holds out. They have yet to budge an inch towards compromise.

This government has been unrelenting in its attack on the public sector, and particularly on those in vocational and caring professions. Firefighters, teachers, nurses and many others are being consistently undervalued and unfairly treated, and this is leading to a breakdown of the essential institutions we all depend on. Last month, midwives went on strike for the first time since the NHS was formed. It’s a testament to their dedication that apart from the first three hours this strike took the form of not working through their breaks or working unpaid overtime. The government has been complacently expecting that these high levels of compassion, selflessness and dedication often found in such professions would prevent strikes happening, but they need to realise that now things have got to the point where people are so hard-pressed, and their professional integrity so compromised, that they cannot see any other way forward.

It is heartbreaking to talk to men and women who are dedicated to doing a difficult and vital job for all of our benefit, and who can’t do that job to the standards that they’re committed to because of the shortsightedness and greed of this incredibly damaging administration. This is ideological warfare against organised labour and a functioning public sector. I certainly didn’t vote for that – did you?

You can sign a petition here https://www.change.org/p/department-for-communities-and-local-government-dclg-must-improve-its-unworkable-pension-proposals-for-firefighters and lobby your MP here http://www.fbu.org.uk/

Green Party Candidate Launch – and why I’m standing

Last weekend was the official launch of all Gloucestershire’s Green Party candidates for the 2015 general election. This is the first time that the Green Party have fielded a candidate in every one of the county’s six constituencies, and really demonstrated just how far the party has come since the last general election. The Green Party is on the up – we are growing rapidly in members and becoming a far more mainstream electoral choice.

Demonstrating the Green’s recent gains, the event was chaired by Green Gloucestershire County Councillor Sarah Lunnon, and the candidates were introduced by the South West’s Green MEP, Molly Scott-Cato. Molly and Sarah are living proof that the Greens have become a viable – and indeed welcome – option for the electorate.

In Cheltenham, in the 2010 election, I did not have a choice that reflected my opinion; there was no Green name on the ballot. There was Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Labour and UKIP. I had read the manifestos, the campaign literature and the statements made in the media and none of these parties came close to representing the opinions I held. I spoilt my ballot. Four years later, when offered the opportunity to reduce this democratic deficit, I eagerly accepted. I want a Green choice for the people of Cheltenham. I don’t want people to have to spoil their ballots, to vote ‘tactically’ or vote for second best. I want the people of Cheltenham to have the biggest chance of being able to vote for what they actually want. I really believe that if you don’t do that, your voice is never heard and your vote is truly wasted.

People widely recognise that the Green Party stand for real action on climate change, but recently Green policies on social justice are becoming more prominent. Having grown up on a council estate in one of the most deprived areas of Cheltenham, this is really important to me and a major reason why I’m standing. We are committed to creating a fairer society in a way that the other parties are not. Increasingly, the main parties have offered policies that only serve narrow interest groups, most usually the wealthy and the powerful. The policies put forward by the Green Party focus on fairness for all of us: on a living wage, not just a minimum wage; more social housing and a cap on rent to prevent people being forced into the uncontrolled private rental market, and ensuring essential public services are kept in the nation’s hands, rather than sold for short-term profit and long-term harm.

Everyone deserves to share in the prosperity of our country, not just the top one percent. Immigrants and people on benefits aren’t the cause of what’s wrong with this country, but their plight is an indicator of the way we’re going wrong. Why should the vulnerable be punished for the greed of the bankers who pushed this country to the brink? It simply does not make sense that the banks are bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds, whilst benefits are slashed for those who need them to survive. The fact that an ‘affluent’ town like Cheltenham needs a food bank tells us a lot about the priorities of our current political order.

Home

A country can and should be judged by how the poor and vulnerable are treated, and sadly the UK is failing this test again and again. The Green Party are a party of compassion, fairness and sustainability. We are against elitist interests and short term gain. Electorally, we are increasingly showing (as Molly and Sarah have) that we are a real alternative. This is why I am proud to be standing for the Green Party and proud to be offering Cheltenham a choice for real change.

Short film of a Wounded Badger Patrol

Hopefully this is the last we will see of the coalition government’s ridiculous and deliberately misleading scheme to kill 70% of a protected species, but it’s too early to be complacent. They’ve ignored science, public opinion and economic viability before and they can do it again. If the badger cull were to be rolled out across England it would not only be an absolute disaster for our wildlife and ecosystems, but would also be worse than useless at controlling the spread of bovine TB. Disrupting badgers in the way the pilot culls have done is actually making the situation worse, as badgers won’t return to a sett that’s been disturbed and this pushes them into new areas.

It was intensively farmed cattle that originally infected badgers with TB, not the other way around, and most TB infections are still between cattle – mostly in dairy herds, where animals are often overcrowded and overworked. Badgers are only responsible for about 5% of infections. The future of the cattle industry will not be assured by destroying badgers; quite the opposite, as they are being used as an excuse to avoid bringing in better regulations for the dairy industry. The way to stop TB spreading is tighter biosecurity, fewer livestock movements and better testing systems within herds.

The Welsh government’s successful badger vaccination programme has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of infected cattle slaughtered. They’ve combined this with cattle regulatory measures as well, and in three years there hasn’t been a single instance of a badger needing to be removed and euthanised due to being visibly sick with TB. As the majority of badgers killed in the Gloucestershire pilot culls have been trapped and shot, rather than killed by free shooting, they might just as well have been vaccinated and released; DEFRA are not testing any of the badgers killed during the pilot culls – they are quite likely to have all been perfectly healthy.

The badger cull began as a cynical PR exercise to win Tory votes in rural areas and ensure support from the National Farmers Union and the Countryside Alliance. It’s a cruel and frankly irresponsible attempt to get out of passing measures that would actually make dairy farming itself a far more humane enterprise. It’s been a catastrophic failure. The government should admit their mistake, and not dig themselves any deeper into this immoral, expensive and counterproductive exercise.

With special thanks to Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting http://www.glosagainstbadgershooting.org

Saturday at Cheltenham Literature Festival and TTIP demonstration

I started the day meeting up with other 38 Degrees members who were out in force all over the country on Saturday for the European day of action against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. As most of you will now be aware, this is a really disturbing new trade deal being negotiated between the EU and the US which would give corporations the power to sue our government for passing laws which damage their profits. For example, US healthcare companies could sue our government for reversing privatisation in the NHS. We spoke to a lot of people, most of whom were interested (and surprised) to hear that there was something in their power to do to stop the agreement going ahead. People across the spectrum are opposed to TTIP – once its implications are explained it’s very clear that it is inherently undemocratic. 38 Degrees members in Cheltenham are still in contact, and are planning further demonstrations this weekend. If you haven’t already, you can ring South West MEPs on these numbers, and ask them to vote against TTIP.

I think I probably gave a lot of leaflets to people on their way to hear Naomi Klein, as we were right next to the festival site! She was talking about her new book on climate change, ‘This Changes Everything’. As it turned out, there couldn’t have been a better way to reinforce our message. One of Naomi’s main points was how damaging trade agreements can be to carbon reducing initiatives, particularly those working on a local level. She gave the example of Ontario – who are on their way to becoming energy self-sufficient – trying to transition to renewable energy and bolster the local economy by giving their struggling car industry the contract to manufacture wind turbines. This neat, logical and fair solution was undone by the World Trade Organisation, insisting that foreign multinationals be allowed to compete.

Another point that really resonated with me was the connection she made between the economy and the environment. Capitalism and a growth based economy are simply not compatible with environmental and social good as an economic system that demands constant growth requires constant consumption. Fossil fuel companies are the biggest of big business, and until our governments can get up the courage to properly regulate them, they are going to continue to burn enough carbon to raise the temperature of the earth by an unwithstandable 6 degrees.

My last stop was to hear Shami Chakrabarti discussing her new book ‘On Liberty’. She’s an amazingly engaging and charismatic speaker with a wicked sense of humour. A few things I hadn’t realised – the Human Rights Act that our government is trying to scrap and replace with a ‘British Bill of Rights’ actually is already as British as it could possibly be, having been championed by Winston Churchill in 1951 as an example to war-torn Europe and as a means of preventing the re-emergence of fascism.

She also spoke eloquently and knowledgeably about the sloppy knee-jerk law-making our government resorts to in the wake of atrocities such as 9/11. Often rushed through and with questionable legal work, it results in legislation with an incredibly wide remit. Just when we want governments to be at their most effective and incisive, they are actually just trying to appease an understandably frightened and horrified public by making grand gestures that they hope will convince us that they are still – and still deserve to be – in control.

When asked how she manages to stay positive, given the distressing subjects she has to confront daily, Shami pointed out that living in one of the most open and comfortable democracies in the world, she was one of the lucky ones. “What kind of civil rights campaigner am I?” she asked us, “I’ve never even been arrested!”

We are lucky. And that’s exactly why we mustn’t become complacent. In the words of Caroline Lucas, our former party leader and Green MP (who, incidentally, has been arrested!), “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” We do have the power to change things in this country now. Let’s use our liberties while we still have them all!

I’ll be blogging in more detail on these three subjects soon. See http://www.38degrees.org.uk and https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk for more details of their campaigns.

Wounded Badger Patrol with Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting

After being selected as the Green Party’s Parliamentary candidate, one of the first discussions I had with party members focused on which local issues were most important to them – the badger cull was a topic that came up again and again. Like most people in our animal-loving country, I am disgusted by animal cruelty in any form. The idea of shooting badgers was never going to be one that appealed to me. But even aside from this, the culls have proved to be financially wasteful, ineffective and contrary to scientific opinion. On Thursday night three of us joined Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting on one of their wounded badger patrols to get some first hand experience of exactly what’s going on.

The purpose of the patrols is to visit badger setts within the cull zones around the county and look out for injured badgers. The patrols are peaceful, keep to public footpaths and those on patrol are required to sign a declaration promising that they will stay within the bounds of the law whilst on patrol. If injured badgers are found, wildlife rescue are called out and reports are made.

I didn’t quite know what to expect on the patrol itself. The idea of coming across wounded and distressed badgers was certainly upsetting, but much better than the thought of no-one finding them at all. One thing that didn’t surprise me, but still greatly impressed me, was the passion and commitment of the people voluntarily co-ordinating and participating in the patrols. There were quite a lot more people than we expected (even Bill Oddie was there!).

The group I was allotted to was led out by David, a long-time badger enthusiast. Whilst out on the darkened footpaths, David told us stories of going badger spotting with his young son, many years back, including a harrowing account of discovering a destroyed sett. After some investigation, they managed to coax a surviving, but severely injured badger out in the open. David got the badger to a vet, and after a lengthy operation to piece its skull together, the badger went on to live for a further seven years in a local sanctuary. This first hand story really drove home the barbarity of some of the acts that are carried out against badgers and other animals by human beings.

We visited setts at 8 different sites throughout the night, and thankfully all the badgers we saw this time were alive and well.

Our PM has described the badger cull as a decision requiring ‘political courage’. I don’t think there’s anything particularly courageous about ignoring scientific evidence and the opinion of the people you’re supposed to represent. It would be far more courageous to properly regulate a cattle industry which moves livestock around far too much and keeps animals in conditions which are, frankly, ideal for spreading disease. A lot of alternatives have been proposed – simple ones, such as better fencing to maintain a larger degree of separation between badgers and livestock, and the obvious solution, vaccination.

You can learn more about patrols here: 
http://www.glosagainstbadgershooting.org
For an excellent article covering all the facts, try here:
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2590057/unlawful_ineffective_toxic_the_badger_cull_must_end_vaccination_is_the_answer.html.

Thanks for reading,

Adam