The Fatal Disease of Fake Democracy

Thank you to Adeline Thomas for sending me this of what they've gone through over there... it tore at my heart to watch. Quite tearful as I look down now at my list of 'To Do's' in preparation for tomorrow's journey to London with our women of Lancashire - 100Women at Parliament Square - we're still trying so very hard to not having running battles on streets as our baseline normal - although it is becoming so. We still try to knit and sing and dance and engage and share knowledge and remain non-violent and try to keep a grip on who we truly are... but this is big and ugly and threatens to make us into the same :(

I want to change the bloody system that has us all riding on its suicidal journey in support of industry profit. We're headed for a cliff and as more and more of us scream to be heard... the government here shuts down asking the questions they don't want the answers to... greases the wheels of planning regulations so applications to drill and test can glide through unhindered by pesky safety concerns... and now seeks to remove decision making on production sites from the hands of local councils and the people who will have to live with the worst impacts and outcomes - and put that decision into the hands of a faceless, unaccountable government department far-removed from the sites.

Democracy is a fairytale we're misled to believe in because we're engaged with putting an 'X' in a box every 5 years that gives some impression of it being tangible and real... during those terms of office though, we have no power, no influence, no ability to engage with democratic process, no ability to shout STOP! and hope to be heard... during their terms of office, each government opens its doors almost every day to lobbyists - but slams them shut to us.

We don't have a fracking problem or an environmental or social problem - we have a fatal, systemic disease.