Protest rally against Lynne Featherstone MP

HelenM · December 2010

Sat 11 December 12noon
Rally at the Clock Tower, Crouch End.
Lynne Featherstone MP, SHAME ON YOU!
Lynne Featherstone MP is the Home Office Minister for Equalities in the ConDem Coalition Government
We say:-
Stop the cuts in services and jobs,
Scrap tuition fees and save EMA,
Defend housing benefits and the NHS,
Welfare not warfare
PROTEST RALLY
Saturday 11 December, 12 noon
Clock Tower, Crouch End Broadway
Protest initiated by Haringey Right to Work Campaign and Haringey TUC

Sevlow · December 2010

I like Lynne Featherstone, so there.

David · December 2010

Good luck with that. My Face Count campaign deterred her not a jot. The other day she even did a face shot inset within another face shot. And then posted it through my door.

Philistine'sMonster · December 2010

F'nar.

Tallboy · December 2010

I also like Lynne Featherstone. "Stop the cuts" is very naive.

procax · December 2010

Let's all give up our jobs and raise welfare for all while we're at it.

HelenM · December 2010

Another option for anyone who is unhappy with our MP

"Recall Lynne Featherstone MP"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/recallfeatherstonemp/

WillM · December 2010

Sorry, Helen, you seem to have confused this site with LabourList. And there's no such thing as recalling an MP, so perhaps set up a better petition. If you're going to carry on this political spam, I'm pretty certain there's a political thread put up specifically for the purpose.

Emma · December 2010

I think it's as useful and valid to post information about local political rallies on here as local craft fairs. Some people won't want to go, but some people will, and it's a valid bit of information.

sincers · December 2010

Hang on. Isn't there something in the site rules about promoting rather than debating political party politics? And how does this differ from the bullying/ganging up on thread that was summarily deleted the other day?

Brodiej · December 2010

Has anyone actually seen some positive response from a petition? As far as i can see the bloke on the door at 10 Downing Street takes the documents, gives you a nice smile, and then files them in the bin when the door shuts.

Even as a tory, i would have preferred to go on a march against our local MP than go to a craft fair. At the end of a walk on the heath yesterday i was bullied into Lauderdale House to witness some of the most pointless activities known to man. Anyone for a stain glass window with a picture of your dog/cat on it? Only £19.99!

David · December 2010

And there they are again. The sg.org site rules. I made them into a book once. I'm sure I gave it to Andy. He denies having it. I suspect he accidentally donated it to Mind and is afraid to tell me.

sincers · December 2010

Its like the UK constitution. Its not all gathered in one single document, but in court, judgments are made by the law of precedent. In this case I say there be one.

sincers · December 2010

..I'm not sure why I went all 'piratey' at the end there......

andy · December 2010

Just be nice to each other. Just because we might disagree, there's no need to be disagreeable.

tosscat · December 2010

It's nice to be important but it's important to be nice.

David · December 2010

Higher or lower? Didn't they do well? All of our questions are based on a poll of 100 people, etc.

sincers · December 2010

Good game, good game.

Duncan · December 2010

I know Liberal Democrats are not really supposed to win and get into government but I mean it's not as if it's against their constitution or anything is it?

HelenM · December 2010

Something else people may be interested in hearing about:

The "Save Our Forests" petition is growing fast - we have now got 85,000 signatures!

Please help get past 100,000 signatures by forwarding this e-mail and asking your friends to sign as well:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

A lot of people still haven't heard about the government's plan to sell off our woodlands. We need to spread the word. We need to make sure people know about these plans while they are still just plans - not when it's too late and forests are already being fenced off, run down, logged or built over.

If enough people sign the petition, we can make the government rethink. This campaign is growing every day. Together, we have now raised nearly £20,000 and we have come up with great plans to sound the alarm up and down the country. If we keep working together, we can win!

Please help spread the word and get the petition past 100,000 signatures before Christmas. Forward this e-mail and ask your friends to sign by clicking here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

If you use Facebook, please also spread the word by sharing the petition on your profile: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/forests-facebook-share

If you use Twitter, please send a “tweet” about the petition by clicking here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/forests-twitter-share

Forests like the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, Grizedale, Thetford, and Alice Holt are national treasures. Once they’re gone, they are lost forever. If we get enough signatures on the petition, we have a bigger chance of making sure they are protected for wildlife and future generations.

Thanks for being involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny and the 38 Degrees team

P.S. Spreading the word and getting more signatures on the petition was one of the most popular suggestions on our poll to decide what we should do next. We also agreed we need to turn up the heat on MPs, and organise events near to woodland areas. So we are going to have a busy few months saving our forests!

NOTES:
See for example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/29/forest-sell-off-government, or http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/848165-national-tree-week-the-importance-of-woodland-cover-to-a-nation

Arkady · December 2010

What are they selling them for? Presumably they won't allow them to be cut down, as there is legislation for that, so they won't be 'lost forever'. Is it not in the hope that private companies, motivated by a profit margin, will encourage larger visitor numbers? I'm ambivalent about that, but isn't this a bit alarmist?

andy · December 2010

For irony's sake, I hope they don't print that petition out.

Sevlow · December 2010

Save the Whale, Free the Weed!

ADGS · December 2010

These forest sale plans, of which I am well aware, have been cautiously welcomed by many conservation and wildlife charities. Who recognise, as I do and many 'will somebody think of the squirrels?' panic-merchants do not, that huge swathes of the Forestry Commission's holdings are conifer deserts, horrid sepulchral places of no benefit to animals or other plants, and a lot of which are already fenced off or simply inaccessible. Turning them into almost anything else would be a blessing, while, as Arkady says, the headline ancient woodlands which the petition implies are under threat are protected by various other legislation.
I have supported and signed some prior 38degrees petitions but, based on what we've so far seen of the plan in question, this one is a misfire.

Arkady · December 2010

Interesting, thank you. Helen?

Rona · December 2010

There's no proposed legislation to sell off the forests in Scotland and Wales. But I think on the whole I would support the 38 degree campaign in England. The Forestry Commission has learned not to plant rows and rows of sitka spruce which were so dense there was no undergrowth and few birds, and has broken up these plantations with deciduous larches and native Scots pine and other varieties. they've also increased tourism and educational initiatives. There is a danger that in privatising the forests new owners will just go back to the monolithic stands again (not that we really need pit props any more which is what they were originally grown for!). I'm not sure whether the legislation will protect all forests at all - they're not all protected as SSSIs etc. So on balance I think I support the campaign but I'm going to do a bit more research.

ADGS · December 2010

I know the FC has stopped planting new conifer deserts, and even remedied some small number of the existing ones, but the country is still littered with the bloody things. If the thinking is that private companies, community groups and charities will do a faster job of remedying that, then I would tend to agree, especially when people in the relevant bits of the charity sector seem keen.

Arkady · December 2010

The transition to from pine-for-logging to native mix is quite something to witness. I was up at Kielder a few years ago, a managed forest that is still used for timber. As they clear an area they replant it with a various trees, mostly native, add bird-boxes, leave small unplanted areas for wild flowers, plan footpaths for visitors, etc. The transformation was astonishing. The remaining stands of old pine were… actually I can’t beat ADGS’s term: sepulchral. I kept expecting to see a glimpse of a sweet-house.

Rona · December 2010

Kielder is fantastic!! I agree - especially in the autumn when the larch is turning golden. Lovely. I was on the Woodland Trust site this evening and they are measured about the proposals. I think we need to see what the proposals actually are before commenting. I don't think it is proposed to sell of our forests to private housing developers or anything like that - but who knows?
Arkady what is a sweet-house?

Arkady · December 2010

As in one witches live in until they get shoved in an oven by kids. These days they'd get an asbo.

miss annie · December 2010

Traditionally it's usually an elaborately decorated gingerbread house as most of those tales are of German origin. I've always fancied living in the middle of a forest in one of those although it would be fraught with danger what with marauding whippersnappers and transvestite wolves and whatnot.

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Protest rally against Lynne Featherstone MP

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