Vomit

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7002627.stm

Leader?

Will post soon on immigration and HIV. Perhaps ’soon’ will end up being as part of another HIV series for World Aids Day at the beginning of December…

The fireworks on the Thames were spectacular. Policing was low key and civilized (if only they policed protests like that!). Nice end to the summer Really enjoying Linux (my new operating system) too!

Conference appears to have gone well and the leadership debate is now in full swing with ballot papers out next month. It hasn’t been a good debate at times but it has made me certain that a Leader is not a good idea for the Green Party (he says, as he wades into the debate). It is not about not trusting other Greens, it is not about not wanting us to be successful. It is about providing an alternative vision for politics in this society: showing that people can be empowered decision makers without delegating those decisions to a leader. It is also about recognizing that people are fallible and leaders are easy to corrupt: and I believe that a party without a leader is more likely to have open and frank internal debate.

Let’s keep ourselves leaderless so that each member of the party can be a leader in her own right and we can work collaboratively rather than under the direction of a ‘manager’.

The End of Summer

Couldn’t make it to Green Party conference (yet again) due to a few unavoidable things. I really wanted to go, but fingers crossed I will finally manage it at the conference in the spring!

The weekend hasn’t been wasted and I’ve had lots of chances to have fun! Both the Thames festival and open house have been happening this weekend, with the grand finale of the last weekend of summer due to be a firework display on the river. Last night, Southwark bridge was closed to traffic so that lots of independent stalls could sell a variety of produce: a big feast on the Thames. Open house has been giving thousands the opportunity to see the insides of buildings they normally only walk past: I had the chance to have a guided tour around UCL and many other places were open. Luckily the weather was suitably brilliant – a fantastic end to London’s summer!

London never fails to amaze and the true diversity displayed this weekend is testament to that and has made for a very enjoyable two days so far. Fingers crossed the finale will be just as good…

I have also managed to break free of Microsoft this weekend and install the operating system Linux on my computer. It works well and completes all the functions I need very efficiently. Best of all, it is open source. Unfortunately, the BBC’s new iPlayer doesn’t work on Linux (a real travesty!). Our public service broadcaster should be making sure that all of its services work on all major platforms. Apparently, it is in talks with a lobby of Linux users with regards to providing some kind of service for Linux users: hopefully sooner rather than later!

Anyway, I’d best be off: fireworks on the Thames in soon!

studentmedic

Still lots of police officers: I wonder what has happened to policing all the rest of London: looking after its citizens, while the police concentrate on policing corporate interests…

DSEi

Two police officers at every platform of the DLR today. Lots of military figures from far away places (e.g., Canada) and lots of salespeople for weapons of mass (or minor) destruction. If only the police would spend as much effort looking after me and my family and friends. If only they would spend the time and effort looking after the people in the local area (Tower Hamlets, the borough has some of the highest crime rates in London). Perhaps they could spend the money on helping victims of domestic violence: Tower Hamlets has the second highest rate of domestic violence in London. The could even spend the time policing our roads to prevent car accidents.

Instead, as an insult to Londoners, Canary Wharf is aided by the police to host an ‘arms fair’ (what a euphemism). This island of wealth in one of the country’s poorest areas is a disgrace in itself: the land it is on is privately owned rather than looked after by the state: the owners can ask you to leave for no reason. Minutes away are 1960’s council estates and under-funded schools as well as roads which a council seems unable to keep clean. To fete military ‘top brass’ here so that they can buy more weapons for illegal wars in the middle east is truly wrong.

I am proud that the Mayor and our two London Green Party assembly members have spoken out against this travesty. Sometimes to Green Party feels like a small voice of sanity in a sea of (at worst)psychopathy and (at best) apathy.