Just Supper Friday 3rd February 2012
Posted: 28/01/2012 Filed under: Just Supper | Tags: holocaust memorial day Leave a comment »Venue – The Well, Willen MK15 9AA
Just Supper begins at 19:30 with an optional meal at The Well’s Open Table, followed by a presentation by a guest speaker at 20:15. If you do not want the meal please just come for the presentation at 20:15
Please phone 01908 242190 to reserve a place at the Open Table meal or email bookings@thewellatwillen.org.uk. No booking necessary for the presentation. All are welcome
Presentation
Paul Salver of Leon School and Sports College – Speak Up,Speak Out – The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.
Interesting web site with a video to watch about using your voice against hatred and injustice.
http://www.hmd.org.uk/
Unlock Democracy
Posted: 26/01/2012 Filed under: MKPJN News | Tags: democratic reform Leave a comment »John Pinkerton (MKPJN Chair) posted this as a comment to the Luddite post. I have moved it here as you might miss it otherwise.
UNLOCK DEMOCRACY has circulated this urgent email :
Please help save the Sustainable Communities Act!
I am writing to you about an urgent situation regarding the Sustainable Communities Act [1]. The government is planning to change the way the Act works. Its plans would seriously weaken the Act and would remove your right to protect your local pubs, shops and post offices and to create thriving local communities.
Please write to your MP today to ask them to urge the government to not weaken the Act:
http://action.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/save-sca
Up and down the country, thousands of people have got involved in this new democratic process. Under the Act, councils are required to not just consult you, but to actually “reach agreement” with you on ideas to help the local area. This means they have to have a dialogue with you, to negotiate and agree a final decision with you.
This is the first time a “bottom-up” form of governance has existed in this country. It is the first time people have been allowed to set the agenda and to be genuinely involved in a decision-making process about your local area.
But government has seen the success of the Sustainable Communities Act and is worried it could lead to further democratic reform. Government would prefer power to be locked up in its hands in Westminster and Whitehall.
Government must set new regulations on the Act soon. If their plans for these regulations go ahead as set out in a recent consultation [2], people like you will lose your right to participate in the Act. Your council could simply ignore your views if it wanted.
Government is also resisting calls for there to be a time-limit on responding to people’s ideas, meaning it could delay responding to proposals it doesn’t like indefinitely. It is also backtracking on a promise to allow town and parish councils to use the Act directly.
We must stop the government’s plans to water down the Act and remove our rights to protect our communities. Please could you help by writing to your MP:
http://action.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/save-sca
On our web tool we have included a list of points we suggest you make in your letter.
Two other links you might find interesting are included blow.
http://www.localworks.org/node/5
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/scaconsultation2011
Luddite
Posted: 22/01/2012 Filed under: MKPJN News | Tags: Luddite 1 Comment »
An engraving from 1812 showing the 'leader of the luddites'
November 2011 to January 2013 is the 200th anniversary of the Luddite uprisings. The Luddites were textile workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire who saw their skills and communities being threatened by a combination of machines, and other practices, that had been unilaterally imposed by the new class of manufacturers who were driving the industrial revolution.
History has not been kind to the Luddites who are portrayed as opposed to all technology and progress, in fact the Luddites opposed only technology ‘hurtful to Commonality’ (the common good).
This anniversary comes at a timely moment because the consequences of the whole industrial capitalist system that began with the industrial revolution are becoming so severe that they can no longer be ignored. From global warming, resource depletion and biodiversity extinction to unwarranted pressures on families and individuals leading to increasing levels of mental and stress related illness. The downsides of industrial capitalism are leading to disillusionment with the myth of progress. Now, as with the Luddites, along with some benefits, science and technology often empower the powerful and marginalise the weak, create unemployment, deskilling and creating dependency, destroy whole ways of life and impoverish communities, just the things that the Luddites fought against 200 years ago.
Perhaps with this anniversary it is time to address the question of which technologies and economic and social structures we need for a sustainable and just world.
My thanks to www.luddites200.org.uk who provided the inspiration for this post.
Four Days Inside Guantanamo
Posted: 19/01/2012 Filed under: MKPJN News | Tags: omar khadr Leave a comment »This award-winning film is to be premièred on the Al-Jazeera web site. The film records the interrogation of a young Canadian in Guantanamo Bay. It shames both the US and Canadian governments. Only 15 years old at the time of his capture by US forces in Afghanistan in the summer of 2002, Omar Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The film is based on seven hours of video footage declassified by the Canadian courts. There are still between 100 and 200 detainees at Guantanamo.
Paste this link into your browser to watch an 8 minute trailer for the film.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2012/01/20121121051543501.html
Amnesty’s Security with Human Rights can be found here -
http://www.protectthehuman.com/terror
You can add your own comments on this and other posts by clicking on the ‘leave a comment’ link under the heading of the post.
Doomsday Clock
Posted: 11/01/2012 Filed under: MKPJN News | Tags: doomsday clock Leave a comment »
The Clock before it's move
There has been some media coverage of the “Doomsday Clock” moving to 5 minutes to midnight, the hour that symbolises possible global destruction. The “Clock” is designed to raise awareness and assess the present threat to us all. It first appeared on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 and has become a recognised indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change and emerging technologies in the life sciences.
The present move in the clock has been prompted by inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists can be found here
http://www.thebulletin.org/
Remember you can add your own comments on this and other posts by clicking on the ‘leave a comment’ link at the top of the page.
World Development Petition
Posted: 04/01/2012 Filed under: MKPJN News Leave a comment »
The World Development Movement’s campaign about financial speculation on food continues with a request to sign a petition by the 11th January.
The EU have published financial market regulatory proposals, which could tackle food speculation, and these are soon to be scrutinised in the European parliament. Markus Ferber is the lead MEP and he has sought input from interested parties. The petition is aimed at putting the WDM point of view to him.
The petition can be found here
http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-speculation/petition-dont-weaken-proposals-regulation-food-speculation
