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“Red is grey and yellow white but we decide which is right and which is an illusion” *
*An extract from a poem spoken in two parts in the Moody Blues album ‘Days of Future Passed’, the quotes have been highlighted in context.
Morning Glory/Late Lament
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?
Pinprick holes in a colourless sky,
Let insipid figures of light pass by,
The mighty light of ten thousand suns,
Challenges infinity and is soon gone.
Night time, to some a brief interlude,
To others the fear of solitude.
Brave Helios wake up your steeds,
Bring the warmth the countryside needs.
Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day’s useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?
by Graeme Edge (circa 1966)
Financial Services: The Edinburgh Reforms
Oh good, more lessons learnt, so now we can return to full-on boom ‘n’ boost economics again – brought to you by a Government lacking democratic legitimacy and doesn’t feel the need for accountability to the electorate!
Doncaster-Sheffield Airport
I know a great deal of “noise” has been generated over the need to “save” this airport. As I understand it, it has been proposed to close it for commercial reasons and the Yorkshire Party (amongst others) oppose such a move for reasons of an integrated transport infrastructure, which is understandable.
But I’ve yet to hear a plausible argument based on genuine sustainability and/or the benefit to the people of Yorkshire?
Democracy Drinks
The irresistible demand for social, electoral, democratic and constitutional reform will most likely be initiated from the exploited “colonies” (a.k.a. the English county regions) who find themselves at the wrong end of current arrangements and have no voice or representation when it comes to their own self-determination.
The so-called “United” Kingdom government is largely preoccupied with an imaginary polarized conflict over pointless ideological differences, generating short-term thinking and planning from its’ members, who in turn are seeking to reinforce their own personal circumstances by pursuing self-interest goals, at the expense of the rest of the nation.
Of course there are members with honest intentions and an altruistic approach but unfortunately they are the minority and their “common sense” policies are of no interest to the “fourth estate”.
All this dubious justification emanates from the “city state” masquerading as a capital, giving rise to its’ perceived self-obsession and navel gazing, eagerly replicated by a vacuous media in search of salacious gossip, which plays to their own narrative.
For an organization with its’ headquarters in the “city state”, to be organizing a “democracy drinks” events also in the “city state”, can only be for reassurance the “sky is not falling in” and to confirm the modern incarnation of a “feudal society” is not under threat!
Wider Public Good
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “In view of the offshore energy windfall, Sir Michael Stevens, the Keeper of the Privy Purse has written to the Prime Minister and Chancellor to share the constitutional monarch’s wish that this windfall be directed for wider public good, rather than to the Sovereign Grant, through an appropriate reduction in the proportion of Crown Estate surplus that funds the Sovereign Grant.”
Three of the new offshore wind farm locations are off the North Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire coast, and three are in the North Sea off the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. Once developed, the ambition is for them to generate enough electricity for seven million homes.
This will add to the existing 36 operational offshore wind farms on Crown Estate sites off the coasts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Anti-monarchy campaigners, Republic, have rejected the move as “cynical PR to pre-empt a government decision to reduce the percentage“.
– or –
The heir to the throne, once widely ridiculed for expressing his environmental concerns, being “ahead of his time” and delivering on his beliefs.
Another Future is Possible
For too long, Britain relied on energy produced and owned abroad – empowering oligarchs while multinational oil and gas companies make record profits.
Without action, the day will come when companies like BP and Shell generate their billions not from extracting oil and gas, but from owning the majority of our clean energy generators like solar and wind farms.
Another future is possible, as we transition away from oil and gas to green energy, we have an important opportunity.
This is our chance to ensure renewable energy projects built in the UK are owned by and benefit us, the British people.
It’s also an important part of getting buy-in, a community will want to have a local solar or wind farm if they are the ones who will own it, and democratically decide how its profits are spent.
We’re looking to change decades of how our energy system has operated.
by The Co-operative Party
Common sense, community ownership and profit sharing projects are the hallmark of the Co-operative movement and this one doesn’t disappoint in its’ vision.
However this project and many others like it, stand little chance of ever seeing the light of day, whilst the Co-operative party remains shackled to a “corpse” (long-term electoral pact with the Labour party).
Unfortunately, many of the co-operative societies across the country have either ceased to exist or have abandoned their founding principles but continue to trade on their name (which is bordering on fraudulent), due to poor management, hostile legislation or both.
It started with a simple, practical idea: faced with low wages and high food prices, a group of workers pooled their scarce resources to open their own food store, where they and their community could buy quality food at affordable prices.
But it was a radical idea too: instead of the profits from that store being hoarded by a private owner or extracted by distant shareholders, they were shared out between the ordinary customers who shopped there – who also each had an equal say in how the store was run.
That store, opened in 1844, was the first successful co-operative – but the principles behind it are the same ones that drive the co-operative movement today.
Because we still believe in that same simple, practical and radical idea: that the people who should own and profit from a business aren’t a select few at the top, but the entire community it serves.
Co‑operative principles don’t stop at the shopfront. Whether it’s a tech company owned by its workers, a football club owned by its fans, or a wind farm owned by the community it powers: we believe things work best when we each have a say and a stake in its success.
We want to build a more democratic economy by growing the number of co-ops in every sector. But historically, the system has been stacked against co-ops and in favour of private business.
It’s incredible that today, in 2023, we look around and see some of the same problems that those workers in Rochdale faced over 150 years ago, from endemic hunger to low wages. A different kind of economy is possible, but it will not happen by accident.
Joe Fortune
General Secretary
Co-operative Party
Friends of the Earth
It is desirable for lobby groups and campaigners to maintain ethical standards, equal to or higher than; the politicians, parties and bureaucrats; we seek to influence and inform. Friends of the Earth has fallen well short of this criteria, not for the first time, by following their “business model” and promoting a so-called sustainable bank, via channels established to communicate their environmental messages to members and supporters. It is with regret, the editorial response is to cease propagating links to any of their activities or websites.
– It would seem the off-shore banking collapse is no longer within “living memory”!
– Whilst the bank concerned may well only invest in, what it considers to be sustainable ventures, there’s no mention of consulting their customers.
– Any business which conducts the majority of its’ transactions over the Internet, has by definition a significant “carbon footprint”, it’s not as though there will be a branch on the local high street, within walking distance.
A genuinely sustainable approach, would be a local bank owned by the community, with a democratic say in the investments and a share in the profits.
HS2 set to run on “ironic” rails!
Voestalpine a rail engineering giant has submitted plans to re-open part of Hull’s huge Priory Sidings complex, a disused siding and open an assembly & storage plant with a reinstated connection to the mainline.
Whilst the sustainability criteria has not been reviewed, as this element currently remains within the jurisdiction of the Hull City Council, Planning Committee and Officers; we can’t help but be amused at Voestalpine selecting part of Priory Sidings as a logistics hub, due to its’ transport links (the port and dock facilities were not part of the considerations, as the supply chain is intended to be via the Channel Tunnel rail link), when the UK Government adopted its’ usual introspective, London centric, colonialist view; in deciding that Kingston-upon-Hull did not warrant an HS2 connection!
n.b. The hyperlinks below unfortunately do not open in a new page, to cause a new page to be opened press & hold Ctrl before selecting the hyperlink, will have the desired effect in most browsers…
For more detail please see the following entry in the Pale Green – General Library:
27-03-2023 – Voestalpine Turnout Technology – Planning Application 23/00409/FULL
Media references:
– Rail engineering firm plans to re-open Hull sidings that haven’t been used since 1987 for HS2 assembly plant connected to the mainline
– Part of Hull’s huge Priory Sidings complex set to be brought back into use for £10m project