Many of you will have listened over the last couple of mornings to the Today Programme’s reports on the Congo.
If you have you will know how harrowing they are, if you didn’t then go along to Radio 4’s listen again feature; this morning’s report was on at about 7.40am. In it a young woman from the Congo told of how, amongst other abuses, she’d been raped by 19 men in one ‘session’, been forced to hang her own child and watched as the Rwandan militia killed her brother for refusing to rape her, his sister. For the four months that she was held by the militia she was naked; no clothes at all, not even rags.
Deemed too harrowing for us to listen to, were the descriptions of forced cannibalism and worse (although I’m not sure I can imagine what that could be).
You can find details of how to help at Oxfam, where there is also a link to the Arms Control Campaign.
My point, in bringing this to your attention, is to make sure, as we are all agog at the transfer of power from Tony to Gordon, that we remember what their and our job is. On the Radio 4 PM Blog this afternoon, one blogger made the comment that it was time to for the UN to get off their backside…they’re right of course. But the UN works to the priorities of the member states and particularly those of the Security Council.
Our government seems currently to be more focused on its own party political navel and dealing with the ‘blowback’ from their foolish and illegal decision to go to war in Iraq.
The Middle East is important (I know, what an understatement) and if peace were to be brought to that region the world is sure to be a safer and more stable place. But, always hard to do, I am not sure it is possible to compare even what is happening in the Middle East & Iraq, to what is happening in Africa. It seems that as the atrocities in Africa get worse and worse we stop up our ears and hope nobody tells us any more.
It occurs to me that we might do this through a sense of colonial guilt. If we find out too much, our sense of guilt might just be unbearable; so better out of sight and then it will be out of mind. But if that’s so, then it is stuff and nonsense. I am not responsible for the actions of my ancestors of a hundred or even fifty years ago. Although, obviously, I must be is cognisant of the fall out from their actions and the effect it has had on mine and others life. But I am responsible for what is allowed to happen now and it is up to us as human beings to make sure that this barbarism in Congo stops; by supporting the UN, by supporting the NGOs, by not ignoring it or feeling too overwhelmed by it all and putting our leaders back on the hook.
So, Mr Brown, who has made so much about his concern for Africa…what are you doing about the Congo?
I cannot begin to imagine the unbearable pain of the parents of the little girl gone missing in Portugal. I can, however, imagine that the pain now coming out of Africa is multiplied a thousand fold. I only wish that our outrage and concern, as evidenced by the media, was as proportionate.
Focus on the Congo
Posted in Africa, Arms Control, Human Rights, Media, Middle East on by
24 hours away from London!
Posted in Clipper 2002 Yacht Race, Sailing, Sea Sickness on by
I've just got back from 24 hours away from London to go to the wedding of a fellow crew member from the Clipper2002 Round the World Yacht Race...and it's all come flooding back!Although my part of the race was just the first leg, from Liverpool to Lisbon to Havana...6 weeks spent on board a 60ft yacht with 12 other people in some of the most trying physical conditions (because, yes, I had signed up for the Bay of Biscay bit!) is more than enough to build close, long lasting relationships. We now get together about once a year to celebrate some major occasion in one of our lives.
It takes no time at all to slip back in to that easy intimacy and comfort that is as close as you can get to being with family without actually being related. And like with most family gatherings the same stories and jokes are brought out and rehearsed and you know you are witnessing oral history in the makin
g! The stories about me are all based on my legendary sea sickness, which, with the exception of 4 days in Lisbon, was how I spent the first half of the trip to Havana.Our South African navy skipper at one point suggested that rather than writing my crew name, JoJo, on the back of my 'oilies' jacket so that I could be recognised in bad weather, it should have been written on the seat of my trousers, so much time did I spend hanging over the back of the boat being ill. That is, until we turned left towards Cuba, were no longer heading into wind and I was able to start speaking again!
For me, the little girl with her nose constantly in a book and with an uncanny ability to get out of any activity in sports day, taking part in a transatlantic yacht race was somewhat counter intuitive - I am not sporty to say the least. Despite the sea sickness, as my crew always take care to remind everyone, I didn't miss a single watch...and I did it! And I am, as you can probably tell, rather amazed and very proud that I managed it. I am not a natural sailor and it was physically the most challenging but also one of the most precious experiences of my life. Everything from going for a swim hundreds of miles from land during the doldrums, to witnessing the beauty of a moon rise at sea to finding the energy from
somewhere to rustle up scones with jam and cream 14 days sail from land was just amazing.I also, of course, found a set of wonderful crew members, those of whom I sailed with, know me as well as anyone else on this earth and can make me uncharacteristically sentimental! It was just lovely spending yesterday and today with them..again...and telling the same old stories again!!!
Weak leadership strikes again.....
Posted in on by
The criticism of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from the Israeli Government’s Commission into the first five days of the war is damning. It lays the blame for the results of the war on Ehud Olmert’s as a result of his position and behaviour.
What is so striking about the findings of the report (read more here) is that it brings us back to the reality, that whatever our analysis of international relations, our models and frameworks for understanding conflict and consensus or our processes and goervernance, in the end politics and sometimes, the very act of war, comes down to personalities and their feelings about themselves and the events around them.
I know that it’s easy for me to say now, but I felt at the time that, had Sharon been in charge, he would have not felt the need to prove anything. But Olmert, with Sharon in a coma in hospital was feeling like a shadow of his predecessor and attempted to act decisively. Had he in fact been as strong a leader as he was trying to look the Israelis would never have gone to war.
The whole episode achieved nothing for Israel, nothing for Lebanon, nothing for the Middle East and just further entrenched an externally funded terrorist organisation like Hezbollah. It is a grim situation indeed.
At the time of writing he is refusing to entertain any idea of resigning. I am glad to see that at least one of his ministers, Eitan Cabel, has done so, because he can no long bring himself to sit in a government led by him. I hope that the Israelis themselves take decisive steps to get rid of him soon, which at least they can, as one of the few democracies in the region.
What is so striking about the findings of the report (read more here) is that it brings us back to the reality, that whatever our analysis of international relations, our models and frameworks for understanding conflict and consensus or our processes and goervernance, in the end politics and sometimes, the very act of war, comes down to personalities and their feelings about themselves and the events around them.
I know that it’s easy for me to say now, but I felt at the time that, had Sharon been in charge, he would have not felt the need to prove anything. But Olmert, with Sharon in a coma in hospital was feeling like a shadow of his predecessor and attempted to act decisively. Had he in fact been as strong a leader as he was trying to look the Israelis would never have gone to war.
The whole episode achieved nothing for Israel, nothing for Lebanon, nothing for the Middle East and just further entrenched an externally funded terrorist organisation like Hezbollah. It is a grim situation indeed.
At the time of writing he is refusing to entertain any idea of resigning. I am glad to see that at least one of his ministers, Eitan Cabel, has done so, because he can no long bring himself to sit in a government led by him. I hope that the Israelis themselves take decisive steps to get rid of him soon, which at least they can, as one of the few democracies in the region.
Girls are humans too!
Posted in Civil Liberties, Corruption, Human Rights, Iran, Middle East, Women's Rights on by
The Johann Hari column in the independent this morning, got me going again…I have hardly been blogging of late but every now and then a topic comes up that inspires in me the hopeless desire, in an almost Liberal Polemic type way, to write a series of essays on a subject – an urge almost completely missing from my university career more’s the pity!
There are lots of things in politics that get me quite excited, especially when I am applying them in a practical sense, for example, as a school governor instead of just proselytising on them. BUT there are two subjects that to me a so big and important that I metaphorically pace up and down in my head, I get so worked up about them. One is the current assault on our civil liberties (and anybody else’s, for that matter) and second, and related, is human rights and specifically the lack of human rights that are attributed to women all over the world.
Hari makes a compelling case for the fact that too much respect for multiculturalism makes us blind to what is often a blatant disregard and contempt for the human rights the female half the world. So often our analysis of a situation is based on the experience and sensibilities of men; the experience of a woman is invisible or silenced. But in every oppressed, minority or dispossessed group or culture, the women will be there, at the bottom of the pile.
One of the courses I took at University, as part of my degree in International Relations, was entitled ‘Feminist Theories of International Relations’; at the time it was the only course available in the UK on such a subject. In fact I must have been writing an essay, after all, because I remember my Step Dad’s surprise, as he looked at my pile of books brought home for the holidays from the university library, that it was possible to find enough to say on such a subject to fill one book, let alone the six that were on the kitchen table.
That was during the first round of the Balkans wars and only then was rape becoming recognised, in mainstream as opposed to just feminist dialogue, as a bona fide weapon of war. Of course, it always has been from the Vikings to the fall of Berlin, but it’s only in the last 20 years or so that academic discourse has included it along side analysis of, say, military hardware and intergovernmental organisations. Until that point the experience of women in war, beyond keeping the home fires burning and knitting socks, was yet again invisible.
It’s not just war; a different set of human rights standards exists in everything - from the fact that women in Iran often spend far longer in jail for political crimes than men (see www.wafe-women.org for more info on this topic), for no other reason that I can identify other than a deep seated misogyny, to the approach to educating women in countries and cultures, we may consider as highly educated. It is often just the elite that is so; I have a friend, from the Sinai, whose sister was taken out of school aged 9 to help her mother look after the rest of the kids, whilst he went off to university to study English. Such an education is an impossible dream for her as she can’t actually read. When travelling in Egypt, much is made of experiencing traditional Bedouin culture. I’m sure there’s not many women tourists who would really like to experience it, in all its glory – there’s a lot more to it than camels and tea!
And then, don’t even get me on to the topic of Saudi Arabia! We are all so rightly repulsed by the idea of BAe bribes, hardly blink at their human rights record as it pertains to women, but again are rightly outraged when a western contractor is flogged for smuggling in alcohol.
Human rights and respect for others cultures includes everybody, women and men…and, as Hari points out, we must not allow any fear of appearing racist or intolerant of other cultures get in the way of that.
There are lots of things in politics that get me quite excited, especially when I am applying them in a practical sense, for example, as a school governor instead of just proselytising on them. BUT there are two subjects that to me a so big and important that I metaphorically pace up and down in my head, I get so worked up about them. One is the current assault on our civil liberties (and anybody else’s, for that matter) and second, and related, is human rights and specifically the lack of human rights that are attributed to women all over the world.
Hari makes a compelling case for the fact that too much respect for multiculturalism makes us blind to what is often a blatant disregard and contempt for the human rights the female half the world. So often our analysis of a situation is based on the experience and sensibilities of men; the experience of a woman is invisible or silenced. But in every oppressed, minority or dispossessed group or culture, the women will be there, at the bottom of the pile.
One of the courses I took at University, as part of my degree in International Relations, was entitled ‘Feminist Theories of International Relations’; at the time it was the only course available in the UK on such a subject. In fact I must have been writing an essay, after all, because I remember my Step Dad’s surprise, as he looked at my pile of books brought home for the holidays from the university library, that it was possible to find enough to say on such a subject to fill one book, let alone the six that were on the kitchen table.
That was during the first round of the Balkans wars and only then was rape becoming recognised, in mainstream as opposed to just feminist dialogue, as a bona fide weapon of war. Of course, it always has been from the Vikings to the fall of Berlin, but it’s only in the last 20 years or so that academic discourse has included it along side analysis of, say, military hardware and intergovernmental organisations. Until that point the experience of women in war, beyond keeping the home fires burning and knitting socks, was yet again invisible.
It’s not just war; a different set of human rights standards exists in everything - from the fact that women in Iran often spend far longer in jail for political crimes than men (see www.wafe-women.org for more info on this topic), for no other reason that I can identify other than a deep seated misogyny, to the approach to educating women in countries and cultures, we may consider as highly educated. It is often just the elite that is so; I have a friend, from the Sinai, whose sister was taken out of school aged 9 to help her mother look after the rest of the kids, whilst he went off to university to study English. Such an education is an impossible dream for her as she can’t actually read. When travelling in Egypt, much is made of experiencing traditional Bedouin culture. I’m sure there’s not many women tourists who would really like to experience it, in all its glory – there’s a lot more to it than camels and tea!
And then, don’t even get me on to the topic of Saudi Arabia! We are all so rightly repulsed by the idea of BAe bribes, hardly blink at their human rights record as it pertains to women, but again are rightly outraged when a western contractor is flogged for smuggling in alcohol.
Human rights and respect for others cultures includes everybody, women and men…and, as Hari points out, we must not allow any fear of appearing racist or intolerant of other cultures get in the way of that.
Prius not so dull after all....
Posted in on by
A few months ago I blogged on the topic of how dull but necessary for me I thought the Prius was and how lamentable the lack of choice of cars that seek to mitigate their environmental unfriendliness -I can't quite bring myself around to describing a car as environmentally friendly!
Still waiting for the Mercedes SLK'e for environmental' to come on the market (this is just a dream of mine and not any prior market knowledge) but am pleased to see that Saab has brought out a biofuel adapted engine - great if you live in Norfolk or Somerset, where the majority of the biofuel supply is, as I understand....
So, I'm still stuck with the Prius and actually test drove and ordered one last weekend; I've been a little busy of late, so must have somewhat surprised the salespeople with my premise that an hour and a half was an unreasonably long time to spend test-driving and buying a car. I wouldn't have done it that weekend at all but for the fact the lease on my current car is expiring and I kept receiving letters from the car company to tell me when they were going to be taking it away.
Reconciling myself to the fact that it is an automatic, which is not so bad for driving in the city I was actually pleasantly surprised - although it could be just a novelty factor.
The thing I love most about it thought was for that brief test drive in Bromley, where we just used the battery, I didn't make a horrible noise and I didn't create any pollution to get up anybodies nose! And that is very satisfying....and not dull at all!
Still waiting for the Mercedes SLK'e for environmental' to come on the market (this is just a dream of mine and not any prior market knowledge) but am pleased to see that Saab has brought out a biofuel adapted engine - great if you live in Norfolk or Somerset, where the majority of the biofuel supply is, as I understand....
So, I'm still stuck with the Prius and actually test drove and ordered one last weekend; I've been a little busy of late, so must have somewhat surprised the salespeople with my premise that an hour and a half was an unreasonably long time to spend test-driving and buying a car. I wouldn't have done it that weekend at all but for the fact the lease on my current car is expiring and I kept receiving letters from the car company to tell me when they were going to be taking it away.
Reconciling myself to the fact that it is an automatic, which is not so bad for driving in the city I was actually pleasantly surprised - although it could be just a novelty factor.
The thing I love most about it thought was for that brief test drive in Bromley, where we just used the battery, I didn't make a horrible noise and I didn't create any pollution to get up anybodies nose! And that is very satisfying....and not dull at all!
Sydenham got there first...
Posted in Civil Liberties, Crystal Palace, Police, Safer Neighbourhood, Sydenham, Young People on by
This morning Radio 4 did a piece on a pilot scheme in Middlesbrough where anti social behaviour is be dealt with by the use of ‘talking CCTV’.
So much for Middlesbrough being first; this has already been happening at Sydenham Station, although I don’t know how frequently! One evening last summer, I came into the station to go into town where a couple of young lads were sitting on the back of a bench on the platform, with their feet on the seat. All of a sudden a voice came over the platform speaker, saying something like ; ‘Will the young men on platform one take their feet off the bench. Yes, YOU!’
The effect was immediate, they got down and the rest of us in the station just sort of smirked at them; minor piece of anti social behaviour dealt with.
But as I crossed the bridge over to the London platform I was aware that, although instantly very effective, this did not bode well. It’s also not so hard to extrapolate from John Reid’s latest plans a world where our behaviour is monitored and controlled by the state. If that’s the case, we’re not really that far from 1984, are we? The thing to remember is as well, how easy to implement state surveillance is in this country, as we have more CCTV cameras per head than any other country.
However, it is not enough just to demonize CCTV; I know from my work with the local Safer Neighbourhoods Team in Crystal Palace that a CCTV camera, well advertised and pointing at the right place can transform the quality of lives of residents on estates. And let’s not forget that it can also serve the defence of human rights and civil liberties as Liberty’s calls for an IPCC investigation of the treatment of a woman by the police in an underground car park in Sheffield illustrate.
It is, though, a very typical response from the government, in the face of antisocial behaviour, to resort to a centralised state delivered solution; and how much more centralised do you have to get than a faceless voice over a loud speaker?
If however, we want a solution to low level anti-social behaviour we need to look to ourselves.
If we don’t like the behaviour of our fellow citizens such as putting feet on seats or littering we actually have a choice. We can either leave it to the government to sort out and hence not be surprised when we find ourselves being treated like children, or we can start to set examples and take responsibility as individuals and a community for the behaviour of our young people.
I’m not suggesting any sort of vigilantism and it is for the police and the safer neighbourhood teams to deal with violent, threatening or criminal behaviour.
But many times the situation is quite benign, so, instead of tutting (or as often happens with me ‘fuming’) to ourselves because someone has dropped litter or a young person has their feet up on the seat in the train, we should say something, do something, just provide a different model of behaviour for them to follow. It may not always be successful, our request may be initially ignored but even a failed request will have a bigger impact on future behaviour than none at all.
Anyhow, in many cases with teenagers it is a lack of awareness that such behaviour is antisocial than any deliberate intent. And OK, so maybe their parents should be teaching them how to behave, but that doesn’t absolve us from our community responsibility. That is certainly not an excuse that would have entered our heads 30 or 40 years ago - or even 20, if you happened to be an adult in the village where I grew up!
If each one of us just undertook one action, provided some sort of role model just once a week, then we would surely start to make a difference. This is not a policy but grass roots action, that I am advocating and it is a slow burn not an overnight solution - obviously!
I firmly believe that people don’t drink and drive as much now, not because they think they’ll get caught by the police, but that it is no longer socially acceptable – I’m looking forward to when speeding becomes an equal taboo.
We have an opportunity as individuals to have an impact on our community and I am convinced that the world most of us would prefer to live in is one where the community regulates itself rather than leaving it to someone a bunch of private security employees to bawl at us through a loud speaker.
I just don’t want naming and shaming; I want a strong, supportive and free community.
So much for Middlesbrough being first; this has already been happening at Sydenham Station, although I don’t know how frequently! One evening last summer, I came into the station to go into town where a couple of young lads were sitting on the back of a bench on the platform, with their feet on the seat. All of a sudden a voice came over the platform speaker, saying something like ; ‘Will the young men on platform one take their feet off the bench. Yes, YOU!’
The effect was immediate, they got down and the rest of us in the station just sort of smirked at them; minor piece of anti social behaviour dealt with.
But as I crossed the bridge over to the London platform I was aware that, although instantly very effective, this did not bode well. It’s also not so hard to extrapolate from John Reid’s latest plans a world where our behaviour is monitored and controlled by the state. If that’s the case, we’re not really that far from 1984, are we? The thing to remember is as well, how easy to implement state surveillance is in this country, as we have more CCTV cameras per head than any other country.
However, it is not enough just to demonize CCTV; I know from my work with the local Safer Neighbourhoods Team in Crystal Palace that a CCTV camera, well advertised and pointing at the right place can transform the quality of lives of residents on estates. And let’s not forget that it can also serve the defence of human rights and civil liberties as Liberty’s calls for an IPCC investigation of the treatment of a woman by the police in an underground car park in Sheffield illustrate.
It is, though, a very typical response from the government, in the face of antisocial behaviour, to resort to a centralised state delivered solution; and how much more centralised do you have to get than a faceless voice over a loud speaker?
If however, we want a solution to low level anti-social behaviour we need to look to ourselves.
If we don’t like the behaviour of our fellow citizens such as putting feet on seats or littering we actually have a choice. We can either leave it to the government to sort out and hence not be surprised when we find ourselves being treated like children, or we can start to set examples and take responsibility as individuals and a community for the behaviour of our young people.
I’m not suggesting any sort of vigilantism and it is for the police and the safer neighbourhood teams to deal with violent, threatening or criminal behaviour.
But many times the situation is quite benign, so, instead of tutting (or as often happens with me ‘fuming’) to ourselves because someone has dropped litter or a young person has their feet up on the seat in the train, we should say something, do something, just provide a different model of behaviour for them to follow. It may not always be successful, our request may be initially ignored but even a failed request will have a bigger impact on future behaviour than none at all.
Anyhow, in many cases with teenagers it is a lack of awareness that such behaviour is antisocial than any deliberate intent. And OK, so maybe their parents should be teaching them how to behave, but that doesn’t absolve us from our community responsibility. That is certainly not an excuse that would have entered our heads 30 or 40 years ago - or even 20, if you happened to be an adult in the village where I grew up!
If each one of us just undertook one action, provided some sort of role model just once a week, then we would surely start to make a difference. This is not a policy but grass roots action, that I am advocating and it is a slow burn not an overnight solution - obviously!
I firmly believe that people don’t drink and drive as much now, not because they think they’ll get caught by the police, but that it is no longer socially acceptable – I’m looking forward to when speeding becomes an equal taboo.
We have an opportunity as individuals to have an impact on our community and I am convinced that the world most of us would prefer to live in is one where the community regulates itself rather than leaving it to someone a bunch of private security employees to bawl at us through a loud speaker.
I just don’t want naming and shaming; I want a strong, supportive and free community.
Were the BBC at the same conference as me?
Posted in Conference, Media, Ming Campbell on by
Just had the speediest of browses of Lib Dem Blogs to see loads of people saying 'I wasn't at conference but I don't like what the BBC said Ming said in his speech...' etc, etc.
Well, I was at conference, was in the audience of the speech and don't recognise anything in it that said we wanted to go into coalition with Labour and would be prepared to drop PR as a pre-condition!
Go and read Lynne's blog, where you get a rather succinct take about what the BBC are on about!
Seriously, I think the BBC were watching a different speech from the one I was did. I went for a post conference lunch with a few colleagues and nobody there took anything like that away from the speech, conversation s with other colleagues on the train back home didn't highlight anything about a Labour coalition either: so it's not just me that can't see it. The BBC probably couldn't find anything to criticise so had to create a furore that just wasn't there!
Well, I was at conference, was in the audience of the speech and don't recognise anything in it that said we wanted to go into coalition with Labour and would be prepared to drop PR as a pre-condition!
Go and read Lynne's blog, where you get a rather succinct take about what the BBC are on about!
Seriously, I think the BBC were watching a different speech from the one I was did. I went for a post conference lunch with a few colleagues and nobody there took anything like that away from the speech, conversation s with other colleagues on the train back home didn't highlight anything about a Labour coalition either: so it's not just me that can't see it. The BBC probably couldn't find anything to criticise so had to create a furore that just wasn't there!
Getting on my bike...
Posted in on by
I discovered a very interesting fact last night, which I have sourced to Transport2000, and the fact is this: only 13% of journeys in Outer London are made on public transport!
Although I have been walking and cycling more, I have to admit that some of those car journeys were me.
So what stops me from getting out of my car*:
· because I know I can park somewhere, generally for free, when I get to the other end
· because I am terrified of sharing a road with cars, when I’m on my bike and only really cycle across the park to go to the shops
· because I’m worried if I leave my bike anywhere for too long, it will get nicked
· because although it’s very easy for me to get into the centre of London by public transport, getting across town usually means about 2 or 3 connections
I’m not personally that worried about safety…my night bus usage has dropped a lot in recent years: although that’s more a function of age and going to bed early than fear! However, I know other people are and I do try not to travel anywhere on buses between say, 3 and 5pm, because I do find being on a bus full of school kids at times intimidating.
I find it frustrating that Ken Livingstone has really focused all his attention on reducing congestion in the centre and inner London boroughs (quite successfully to be fair, I'm not frustrated by that). However, all his transport strategy aims for in outer London is that the rise in traffic slows. So, in effect, he is targeting an increase in car use in outer London!
For me, personally, the biggest thing to get me out of my car would be a larger, more connected network of cycle lanes; ones that separate me from cars and lorries completely. I think a lot has been done in central London around this, but we need more in outer London. Oh, and can we somehow design cycle routes that don’t disappear when we get to the hard bits like one-way systems and roundabouts! That’s the bit when I need them the most!
I also have a suspicion that if we sorted out school transport, made it a more attractive to parents, who think that kids on buses now have a sort of mobile Lord of the Flies thing going on and don’t want theirs part of it, then we might just get the school run cars off the road. That would reduce car use, and does during holidays, by 20% alone!
*I am aware that you can walk and cycle and still not be going on public transport.
Although I have been walking and cycling more, I have to admit that some of those car journeys were me.
So what stops me from getting out of my car*:
· because I know I can park somewhere, generally for free, when I get to the other end
· because I am terrified of sharing a road with cars, when I’m on my bike and only really cycle across the park to go to the shops
· because I’m worried if I leave my bike anywhere for too long, it will get nicked
· because although it’s very easy for me to get into the centre of London by public transport, getting across town usually means about 2 or 3 connections
I’m not personally that worried about safety…my night bus usage has dropped a lot in recent years: although that’s more a function of age and going to bed early than fear! However, I know other people are and I do try not to travel anywhere on buses between say, 3 and 5pm, because I do find being on a bus full of school kids at times intimidating.
I find it frustrating that Ken Livingstone has really focused all his attention on reducing congestion in the centre and inner London boroughs (quite successfully to be fair, I'm not frustrated by that). However, all his transport strategy aims for in outer London is that the rise in traffic slows. So, in effect, he is targeting an increase in car use in outer London!
For me, personally, the biggest thing to get me out of my car would be a larger, more connected network of cycle lanes; ones that separate me from cars and lorries completely. I think a lot has been done in central London around this, but we need more in outer London. Oh, and can we somehow design cycle routes that don’t disappear when we get to the hard bits like one-way systems and roundabouts! That’s the bit when I need them the most!
I also have a suspicion that if we sorted out school transport, made it a more attractive to parents, who think that kids on buses now have a sort of mobile Lord of the Flies thing going on and don’t want theirs part of it, then we might just get the school run cars off the road. That would reduce car use, and does during holidays, by 20% alone!
*I am aware that you can walk and cycle and still not be going on public transport.
A letter from Tony
Posted in Civil Liberties, e-campaigning, ID Cards, petitions, Road Pricing, Young People on by
Aaaargh! So now we know, what's in store for us if we sign up to a 10 Downing street petition.
Yesterday, horror of horrors, I got an email from Tony Blair, making the case for ID cards. I have so far resisted the temptation to clamp my hands over my ears and sing 'I'm not listening, I can't hear you, la, la, la...' and despite the rather scary proposition of the police 'fishing' for fingerprints at whim, as highlighted on The Today Programme this morning, I'm not going to go into here what's wrong with ID cards.
But, what does interest me is this whole online political engagement 'thing' that has arisen with these petitions. Even though it means I have to receive emails from Tony Blair, I do find it all rather exciting because some of these petitions are involving more than us 'usual suspects'; and if you're reading my blog, then unless you're my Mum or my friend Ali in Holland, you know I mean you!!!
The 'Scrap the ID cards petition' got 28,000 signatures, the road pricing one 1,500,000 and each one of those 1,500,000 is going to get an email dropping into their inbox arguing for the Government Policy. Now, I wouldn't normally wish this on my worst enemy, but actually, I think it is more important that people start to be politically engaged first and then politically engaged with me and the Lib Dems, on the basis that that first bit is harder to achieve than the second.
I got the viral email asking me to sign the road pricing petition via a non political friend, who had sent it on to a number of others. They all probably vote but that's as far as they go; the only regular political discussion they seem to take part in is 'Jo-baiting', an unsurprisingly easy thing to do, perhaps they save the interesting stuff for when I'm not there!
It's also likely that those who are going to get their letter from Tony, were on average younger than the voting population; just that group who seem so disillusioned and disengaged with the political process - this has got to be a good thing for politics and the taxpayers and voters, surely?
I'm not the only one that is really excited about the potential that viral campaigning has, even if it is the Downing St that's got all the email addresses, am I?
Yesterday, horror of horrors, I got an email from Tony Blair, making the case for ID cards. I have so far resisted the temptation to clamp my hands over my ears and sing 'I'm not listening, I can't hear you, la, la, la...' and despite the rather scary proposition of the police 'fishing' for fingerprints at whim, as highlighted on The Today Programme this morning, I'm not going to go into here what's wrong with ID cards.
But, what does interest me is this whole online political engagement 'thing' that has arisen with these petitions. Even though it means I have to receive emails from Tony Blair, I do find it all rather exciting because some of these petitions are involving more than us 'usual suspects'; and if you're reading my blog, then unless you're my Mum or my friend Ali in Holland, you know I mean you!!!
The 'Scrap the ID cards petition' got 28,000 signatures, the road pricing one 1,500,000 and each one of those 1,500,000 is going to get an email dropping into their inbox arguing for the Government Policy. Now, I wouldn't normally wish this on my worst enemy, but actually, I think it is more important that people start to be politically engaged first and then politically engaged with me and the Lib Dems, on the basis that that first bit is harder to achieve than the second.
I got the viral email asking me to sign the road pricing petition via a non political friend, who had sent it on to a number of others. They all probably vote but that's as far as they go; the only regular political discussion they seem to take part in is 'Jo-baiting', an unsurprisingly easy thing to do, perhaps they save the interesting stuff for when I'm not there!
It's also likely that those who are going to get their letter from Tony, were on average younger than the voting population; just that group who seem so disillusioned and disengaged with the political process - this has got to be a good thing for politics and the taxpayers and voters, surely?
I'm not the only one that is really excited about the potential that viral campaigning has, even if it is the Downing St that's got all the email addresses, am I?
More working from home, please!
Posted in Environment, Young People on by
Gary, the Sports Presenter from the Today Programme, couldn't make it through the snow this morning and did his sports bit from his own house! This is good, because it shows that even the Today Programme presenters can 'work from home'!! Hooray!
Why aren't we doing more of this? Why do we all insist on piling into trains, getting into cars and criss crossing the country making ourselves tired and ruining the planet?
It drives me crazy that we don't take advantage of how technology is able to free us and instead just let it enslave us - after all in the UK we work the longest hours and are the least productive country in Europe - or at least we used to be, I don't know how EU enlargement has impacted that.
Of course, the problem here is 'Bosses' because a culture that allows working from home can only come from the top - if your boss doesn't approve, well, you just don't work from home, do you?
And yet, I find it completely illogical that more Bosses don't see the benefits to their teams and therefore themselves of regular 'working from home' - it's almost as if, because they had to sacrifice a home life in order to spend 3 hours a day commuting to and from an office they think that's the only way to succeed. Or, maybe they just want the rest of us to suffer like they do....
In fact, in a number of organisations that I've wroked with, it's only the top Bosses that are allowed to work from home - it's almost as if it's seen as a reward for having practically worked yourself into an early grave..you have to nearly ruin yourself and your family first; what a waste!
There are obviously times when a team needs to get together and work together but I know lots of organisations that , due to historical mergers, operate over multiple sites, hundreds of miles from each other. There are also obviously jobs that can't be done remotely! But these are often the exception. Blimey, if Gary from the Today Programme can work from home, many of the rest of us probably can!
So, they know the technology supports remote working; the economics supports remote working; society supports remote working - for goodness sake in the UK we spend less time with our kids than any other country in Europe, yet lock more of them up when they commit crimes - just think what a difference having an adult around after school could make to so many teenagers!
Many organisations have looked at home working as a way on cutting down the number of desks and space needed; they've sold it in to their senior management as a cost saving idea and consequently, it has failed because that's not what it's really about. (Note: ID Card people - if you're not honest about the real benefits of a course of action, it is very likely to fail)
I think home working, working from home, remote working, whatever you want to call it, needs to be sold in to organisations on the basis of their Corporate Social Responsibility - to flexible working, to being a good employer, to being more productive, to lessening the carbon foot print of the organisation, to having, basically, a slightly less frazzled work force!
Just think, if just half of us, could spend one day out of five working on a PC or a laptop from home, instead of traipsing into the office what that could do for reduction in CO2 emissions, traffic, accidents and our ability to organise delivery and repair people - just that last bit would reduce massive stress in so many people!
Thanks, Gary from the Today Programme!!
Why aren't we doing more of this? Why do we all insist on piling into trains, getting into cars and criss crossing the country making ourselves tired and ruining the planet?
It drives me crazy that we don't take advantage of how technology is able to free us and instead just let it enslave us - after all in the UK we work the longest hours and are the least productive country in Europe - or at least we used to be, I don't know how EU enlargement has impacted that.
Of course, the problem here is 'Bosses' because a culture that allows working from home can only come from the top - if your boss doesn't approve, well, you just don't work from home, do you?
And yet, I find it completely illogical that more Bosses don't see the benefits to their teams and therefore themselves of regular 'working from home' - it's almost as if, because they had to sacrifice a home life in order to spend 3 hours a day commuting to and from an office they think that's the only way to succeed. Or, maybe they just want the rest of us to suffer like they do....
In fact, in a number of organisations that I've wroked with, it's only the top Bosses that are allowed to work from home - it's almost as if it's seen as a reward for having practically worked yourself into an early grave..you have to nearly ruin yourself and your family first; what a waste!
There are obviously times when a team needs to get together and work together but I know lots of organisations that , due to historical mergers, operate over multiple sites, hundreds of miles from each other. There are also obviously jobs that can't be done remotely! But these are often the exception. Blimey, if Gary from the Today Programme can work from home, many of the rest of us probably can!
So, they know the technology supports remote working; the economics supports remote working; society supports remote working - for goodness sake in the UK we spend less time with our kids than any other country in Europe, yet lock more of them up when they commit crimes - just think what a difference having an adult around after school could make to so many teenagers!
Many organisations have looked at home working as a way on cutting down the number of desks and space needed; they've sold it in to their senior management as a cost saving idea and consequently, it has failed because that's not what it's really about. (Note: ID Card people - if you're not honest about the real benefits of a course of action, it is very likely to fail)
I think home working, working from home, remote working, whatever you want to call it, needs to be sold in to organisations on the basis of their Corporate Social Responsibility - to flexible working, to being a good employer, to being more productive, to lessening the carbon foot print of the organisation, to having, basically, a slightly less frazzled work force!
Just think, if just half of us, could spend one day out of five working on a PC or a laptop from home, instead of traipsing into the office what that could do for reduction in CO2 emissions, traffic, accidents and our ability to organise delivery and repair people - just that last bit would reduce massive stress in so many people!
Thanks, Gary from the Today Programme!!
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