PRESS RELEASE: Green candidate to contest Tatton

The Green Party will put forward its first-ever parliamentary candidate for Tatton in 2015, challenging sitting Conservative Chancellor George Osborne.

The ‘Green Surge’ has seen a 100% rise in Green Party membership in England and Wales since the start of the year and the party is putting forward more candidates than ever before.

Tina-Louise Rothery - a prominent campaigner in the North West anti-fracking movement - joined the Green Party two years ago.

She says: “The problems with our current situation appear less to do with the economy and far more to do with the way that economy is managed and whom it does - and doesn’t - benefit.

“Corporate interests have an unhealthy influence on decisions made in Westminster.  Look at the planned spending on huge projects like HS2 (due to end Wilmslow’s direct London service) instead of improvements to existing rail - including the Mid-Cheshire line - that would bring greater benefit to the local population; or the way they insist on pursuing short-term, risky energy solutions that will bring no benefits on prices or security for UK residents.

“Time and again the UK electorate watches the predictable cycle of political activity in the run up to an election; promises being made that we know will be broken. Each election leaves us disappointed and for too long, the choice on the ballot paper has been limited to a very similar line-up.

“The priorities, concerns and challenges in our everyday lives are not reflected in the policies of the current government and haven’t been for as long as I can remember. Looking at the grey suits and behaviour in the House of Commons is like looking back in time to a fossilised place that just isn’t part of the ‘real world’ anymore.”

Tina-Louise Rothery joined the Green Party “because unlike other parties, it is not funded by big business and is not influenced, swayed, encouraged or bullied by corporate interests and because we are focused on the issues that matter; the preservation of our NHS, the integrity of our education, clean affordable energy, getting the railways back into public ownership, fair taxation, action to tackle air pollution and refusing the advance of dangerous industries.”

“Unlike the vast majority of those in politics who claim to represent the residents of the UK, I do not come from a background that has groomed me for the government we know today – and I believe this to be a distinct advantage.”

www.tinarothery.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/TinaForTatton
https://twitter.com/TinaForTatton

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Tina-Louise on TV:

Keiser Report (RT, 12/7/2014): Tina Rothery on Fracking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-HNDqBMwRY

C4 News (28/7/2014): James Rees-Mogg v Tina Rothery on Fracking in the UK:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKysDy8xpxQ

Published & promoted by the Green Party Tatton Campaign Team, 3 Shuldham Close, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6UE, on behalf of Tina-Louise Rothery.

We swarm...

We singe each other where our edges touch
Much too much ‘us’ in one place
Disaplacing reality as we
Scorch ourselves in embrace
Tracing lines of fire at our extremes

Cause only where extremes are spent
Were we ever able
Ever meant
To be

No place in day-to-day space for us
Just existing in the ether at the  shadow lines
Spine to spine on the line of existence
That breath of space where we embrace
Our souls

Where souls embrace our whole

And we recognize our entirety by being
Seeing the join and making it fade with recognition
Knowing that only here and now
Somehow, is the real of existence

I love you
I love who we are
When we’re together
Like this
Bliss in co-joined decision
To act
As one
For all
And all
For one

http://www.northfylde-ps.co.uk/alancadman.html

We’re swarming now…
Like starlings gathering at sunset
We’ve finally met our points of union
And soon there’ll be so many more
We’ll soar…
High on truth and trust
Filled with lust
…for the honourable path

2014 ...out of place

The best faces come when staring bleakly into the worst places... seeking solace.

The ugly of the reality, of the shape of the corruption and abuse of power we uncover as we strive to make sense of the seeming idiocy of those imposing on us ...is sickening.   As we question those in office about the decisions they are making that directly affect our lives - we are made to hush. As we stand to protect vital resources from obvious, immediate threat - we are pushed down and arrested away. As we speak and share and spread truths to those not yet informed - we are shouted down by over-funded, over-hyped, PR-manipulated BS from Marketing Agencies charged with masquerading beasts as saviours.

This can’t have just happened; must have been a system morphing over time from what is perceived as ‘democracy’ to this ugly brute of bullying hypocrisy that somehow ‘puts us in our place’ – as if such a thing existed!

I blame our parents… and theirs and theirs and theirs – couldn’t they see this coming? Didn’t they notice the ebbing away of true human rights and freedoms? Didn’t they recognize that the gifts of ‘choice’ were myths and treason?

And what are WE now? Are we them? Will our children wear their soft-coated shackles and thank us for them? If we sit back – don’t act… then we add to the barbaric attacks on our resources and most of all – our ability to affect our lives, protect ourselves, stand up for others and play any role in what new rules are enforced upon us to barricade us out of the way.

It’s been a terrific and horrific journey from Occupy, through fracking... to here

The terrific is actually more magical than that word explains – my heart is so damned, ridiculously full it could explode… expanded and nourished by the most glorious humans I have ever met. I’ve learned more than I thought could be known, have hugged with true hearts and genuine feeling more than all the rest of the years of my life and I have never felt more positive about the future – my faith is beautifully wrapped, intact and makes a map of certainty.

Yeah the awful stuff is happening, threatening, burdening us with dwelling still in the cold ugly places of faceless, soul-starved corporates… but WE are there – it isn’t just you or just me holding up a sign… we are tribe!

What now? What next? It's just this moment become 2014 and it feels like that really matters; feels like we need each and every, single other... more now than ever before.

Remembering the start of something...

Remembering the signs that made the sense that led to this:

When I went to the London Stock Exchange on 15th October 2011 - I did so because I'd reached a personal 'enough-is-enough' moment. I'd seen the government bail out the greedy, gambling, irresponsible banking sector again and in the next breath... speak of austerity and cuts for 'we, the people'. They talked of 'trickle down' and that's just ridiculous - why give money to the very sector that created the problem and then HOPE they will trickle it back into society? Then they said... "it's ok, they will probably lend it back to businesses and people" ...grrrrrrrrr! Why wouldn't they build in an INSISTANCE that they at least ensure the money makes its way back out of the vault? They didn't build in a clause or requirement or anything. So... along with my sister Julie Daniels and a tent we went to join Occupy the London Stock Exchange.

It was clear that 'our' government wasn't actually ours at all - that somewhere along the way we had not only let the corporate lobbyists in... but we had grown so used to this, we weren't noticing that something needed to be done about it. Those lobbyists are still there and we didn't get them out - this is clearly evidenced in the fight we are having to ensure dangerous, extreme energy extractiontechniques like FRACKING - are not done in our country. Key lobbyists and those PERSONALLY invested in the industry itself... walk the corridors of our houses of commons and lords: John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley (Lord Browne), Baroness Hogg, Lord Howell (Chancellor George Osborne's father-in-law), #Balcombe MP Francis Maude and others. They have hijacked democracy.

BUT... the amazing coming together of individuals from all walks of life and all sorts of places, for all sorts of reasons... that became a worldwide Occupy Movement - was a fertile space and time; many of us, freshly informed and empowered - went on to discover symptoms of this 'DISease' of our democracy, this corruption of our government - all over the place. We joined other groups or made our own and became merged with campaigns tackling poverty, disability rights, employment, environmental and community threats, saving the NHS, exposing insane economics and for my sister and I, RAFF - Residents Action on Fylde Fracking.

It's not our UK Occupy anniversary until next month but it was Occupy Wall Street that placed a seed of an idea in me 2 years ago - the idea that I didn't have to accept anything so intolerable as watching communities be put at risk for some investor's profit or the ceaseless hacking away at the quality of our education and health care systems or the vile disregard for the dignity of our elders when they most need and deserve it or the slashing of our rights to object to any of this.

I DON'T accept these things and I am making time... for my outrage as it has a purpose and I owe it to the next generations. I am in the best company, alongside the finest individuals I have the fortune to meet - activists are people who give a damn and that makes them gorgeous.

The 50 Best Signs From #OccupyWallStreet

Need You...

Our Government NEEDS us...

...it is a victim of abuse and WE must come to the rescue

Currently, daily and for the longest time - bullies, liars and thieves have sent sharp-suited, slick-talking Lobbyists into the place where our laws are made. These Lobbyists buy, cheat, manipulate, blackmail and bribe their agenda in – masquerading as democracy. 

THIS isn’t democracy – our democratic SYSTEM of government has been beaten out of shape - to serve the powerful, the wealthy and the greedy; it is now so broken and so ugly that only the worst, can function within it. 

Those lower-down the heirachy who claim to represent us are mere mouthpieces, part of the charade; feeble MPs, too weak, too threatened, too ambitious or too corrupted to do the job we trusted them with. They are NOT speaking out about the abuse and are therefore facilitating it with their compliance. Gutless and worse than ineffective; they serve as the phoney face of this fiction.

The system though is JUST a structure - NOT an ideology, NOT set in stone and NOT (yet) out of reach. It just requires fixing or redesigning so that it reflects the honesty, fairness and justice we should be demanding of OUR democratic system of government.

WE are the many and the bad are the few

Up until the internet came along, those holding office and wielding power had the loudest voices through control of media; now though, we connect, we broadcast, we get informed and are buoyed by the realisation that so very many share our discoveries and dismay...as well as our hopes.

We KNOW that trusting politicians is a stupid thing to do, we KNOW each government (all parties) will break their election promises, we KNOW that there is a revolving door that sees politicians end up with great roles in the private sector after complying with Lobbyists throughout their terms, we KNOW our academic institutions are having their research bought, tampered with and paid for by those industries with a vested interest in the outcomes and we KNOW we are lied to daily... so, WTF?

I often hear: “You know there’s nothing you can do to change it don’t you?”
THIS is the saddest thing because it reflects complete submission to a system we KNOW to be lying to us; an acceptance that the abuse can continue and that we WILL be passing this on to the next generation.

I also (more and more frequently) hear: “You know all we need is for the others to join us – then we CAN change this.”
THIS is the source of my optimism and certainty that our individual humanity (when combined) is the home of the solution. 

We are divided, fragmented and encouraged to turn on each other by applying labels and making assumptions and judgements we really have no right to make - but I KNOW when we come together with a shared need to solve a problem, a unique connectivity brings about unique solutions.

It IS time for each of us to be the honourable people we are at our core – time to get a whole lot louder and the only way to do that is to become an *activist.
(*Activist = someone who acts on their concerns).

So what DO activists do? They research, they gather with others who feel the same, they write letters to politicians, they put themselves in the way of bad acts, they dance in protest, knit in protest, chalk in protest, perform in protest, be loud in protest and sit in silence when that suits.

Knitting Protest

You can be the activist YOU choose to be... alone, in secret, in public, with others or at a mass demonstration. Recently I have seen noble individuals, standing alone with simple signs in simple acts of protest at appropriate locations; I have seen little knitted droplets shaped to represent water, hanging from trees in a town threatened by big energy; I have camped in the mud with 300 others because it was worth it for the opportunity to share plans, resources, humour and determination;  I have been amongst a mass of Anonymous-masked others taking to the streets because they ARE our streets and I have sat in deep conversation with a ‘Knitting Nanna’ from Australia who travelled across the world to help inspire and charge those facing a shared fight with a hugely powerful industry.

Deciding to do something about the wrongs you see is an individual choice 

~ but a universal obligation

Remember that scene in that movie where the angry newsman finally loses his ability to put up with the masquerade any longer and screams: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it!” I had this surge within me in October2011 – my own, personal ‘enough-is-bloody-enough’ moment brought on by bailouts and cutbacks that were so absurd - I felt it a huge insult to ask us to swallow it. 

Because our government isn’t OURS, it can watch the suffering of those facing ATOS assessments that de-humanise them beyond comprehension – all under the guise of weeding out the tiny, tiny fraction that are not legit; it can steal away OUR NHS that we and our parents and their parents paid for dutifully, imagining it would be our legacy, that the taxes and NI contributions might ensure it; it can turn a blind eye to the desperate needs within our communities for investment in the things that matter like respectful, dignified care for our elders, a more generous teacher-to-pupil ratio for our young and a way of meeting our energy needs that doesn’t sacrifice our health and well-being.

Today... is a good day to become the activist you choose to be

You are NEEDED x

Occupy AT (after tent)

Noam Chomsky said:
“You can't achieve significant initiatives without a large, active, popular base. It's necessary to get out into the country and help people understand what the Occupy movement is about -- what they themselves can do, and what the consequences are of not doing anything.

Organizing such a base involves education and activism. Education doesn't mean telling people what to believe -- it means learning from them and with them.”

I have been giving a lot of thought to what we do next as a movement; how do we progress and grow what we have started? How do we include others of the 99% who have only witnessed a (likely negative) media representation of Occupy? A lot of other people are also considering the same thing and trying to find our next steps, as is Noam Chomsky in the quote above.

Here at Occupy London, we have had our court case and await our fate after 11th January 2012.

When asked the other day to write one side of a debate for The Occupied Times of London, I had to give the matter even more attention; the subject requiring a response was to choose whether I believe our OccupyLSX camp should stay or go.

Sadly (and surprisingly for me) I chose the ‘to go’ side of the debate. Not completely, I believe what we have done is important and historic and needs to remain in some form ie: an information point and teaching area (a la Tent City University) that are staffed by rotating Occupiers (not twirly-people …but ones who support Occupy and come for a while, to be later replaced by others).

So many people have sent words and donations of support to Occupy but been unable to attend and stay in a camp for a whole host of very good reasons: health, job, family, finance etc. Staying in a tent is just not a practical way for the vast majority of the 99% to demonstrate and seek solutions to society’s problems.

My thoughts on what could be a part of what happens next include this idea for Occupy Outreach:

OCCUPY Presentations

AIM:
-To enrich people’s understanding of what the OCCUPY movement is, how it functions and what sort of problems it is confronting in society.

-To enrich the OCCUPY movement with fresh insights and contributions by more people.

METHOD:
An interactive presentation about the movement that can be delivered by anyone with knowledge of OCCUPY. The presentation would be effective if given from - or accompanied by - a tent : )

TOOLS:
A tent, an OCCUPIER and a *presentation pack.

*PRESENTATION PACK:

The Presentation Pack would be designed to show how Occupy functions ie: hand signals, workgroups, General Assemblies etc. and include time for questions and answers. The presentation would lead to a proposal that those participating would come up with by posing an appropriate question or topic that will get the participants working in groups, facilitating, presenting their conclusions, proposing and finding consensus.

PLANNING:
There could be two types of opportunity for OCCUPY Presentations – PLANNED OCCUPIES where we have scheduled in advance with the host (school, workplace, group etc) and FLASH OCCUPIES where we simply appear somewhere (shopping mall, street, park, civic building etc.) and get a crowd.

POSSIBLE ACTIONS

Planned/Staged Occupies:

OCCUPY ASSEMBLY - for schools/colleges etc. either in assemblies for the whole school or a select year, class etc.

OCCUPY GROUPS – for youth groups, drug user groups, volunteer groups etc.

OCCUPY STAFF MEETINGS – for nurses, hotel staff, shop workers etc. as part of their scheduled staff meetings

Flash Occupies:

OCCUPY Shopping Malls

OCCUPY Town Hall entrances

OCCUPY the street (any street)

OCCUPY alongside an event like a fair, market etc.

Once I’d touched you, I couldn’t let you go…

I was there outside of the London Stock Exchange on Saturday 15^th October 2011 at noon. I was amidst around 3,000 others as part of the ‘Occupy London Stock Exchange’ movement that was in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and so many other Occupy actions across the world on that day.

Encountering others with shared views, is like balm for all the times you have had to fight to be heard, believed or understood. It is also impossible to have been there and then walk away untouched by the dedication, determination and sheer hardiness of those that brought tents and were settling down to a very cold, uncomfortable night’s sleep on the hard, stone, consecrated grounds of St. Paul’s (stunningly beautiful) Cathedral. I will join them in a tent on Wednesday and am not hardy. (UPDATE: here now!!)

I don’t want to.

But since coming back to get my things for a longer stay with Occupy in London, I have felt wrong getting into a soft, snuggly bed – knowing that those who remained weren’t and nor were all the others standing for what I believed in across the world.

What I believe in.

That is the continuous question asked of those who Occupy; wherever they do it, as well as online of those who support the action. Such a disparate swathe of humanity is contained in this 'Occupy' that the unity is a miracle. But it’s there – a singular strong sense at the core of this – brighter and stronger than all the other stuff to be mad about around it. This is from some fine Professors who are supporting the Occupy movement and it expresses the feeling very well:

“…the dramatic increases in poverty, joblessness and economic insecurity in our society are directly related to the extraordinary rise in inequality, particularly the wealth captured by the 1% of our population, which has deeply corrupted our political system. We stand united with the 99% to take back our economy and government from the 1%.” (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Professors-supporting-Occupy/?mid=5067)

I hope the weight of the determination of those who Occupy, is felt; sleeping outside in uncomfortable conditions really isn’t a lifestyle choice. I can only begin to imagine how much responsibility those at Occupy Wall Street must feel – so many across the world looking to them for example, for clarity, for purpose and for hope that this at last, might be something that works.

A lot needs to change in the world but there’s only 1% stopping that change.

The effect of removing our power and wealth from just 1% of the population should not result in a suddenly unrecognisable, unworkable world and does not need to lead to violence.

You only have to watch a Ted Talk (http://www.ted.com/) to be in awe of the wisdom of humanity and know that the answers are in here, somewhere

…or gaze at the universe with Professor Brian Cox (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zdhtg) to know we are missing out on being amazing delights of creation; started, somewhere out there.

One life each.

I will not spend it paying for the 1% to relish theirs whilst I scrape by, worry, wonder and wish at what could be so much better for all around me.

But what do you hope to achieve?

On October 15^th 2011 I will Occupy the London Stock Exchange

"But what do you hope to achieve?"

...I hope to achieve the breaking of a spell.

Those in power (who are abusing it) have only got away with it for so long because they didn’t hear us complain loud enough.

Those in power (who abuse it), imagine that we are so busy scrambling to make a life with the poor quality tools they provide – that we won’t have time to notice just how bloody fabulous life could be – if ‘we the people’ weren’t held in place by the 1% that has the power (and abuses it).

...I hope to achieve power by standing with others.

‘We the people’ are, in all areas of our lives, labelled and then divided by these labels. We are black, white, male, female, gay, straight, graduate, student, christian, muslim, public sector, private sector, yob, youth, unemployed, immigrant, foreigner, expatriate and all the rest.

These labels are used to divide us by the media representation of those labelled and by those in power who make laws based on highlighting the wrong in any one labelled group at any time. There are no good groups or bad groups, no right labels or wrong labels – just an ease of division.

BUT before my label I am first and foremost one of the people who inhabit this earth. I see this in every other human before I see their label and start working out what divides us. I hope we can hold ourselves to this one label so that our sameness unites us and we cannot be divided and conquered (again and again)

...I hope to achieve change.

I want the system of government to change; not just the party and the people. It is the way government abuses the power we give them with our votes and taxes that needs to change. The way politics and business are so entwined needs to change. The priorities of government need to change so they reflect the role as representative of the people and FOR the people - not banks, business, other governments etc.

I don’t know what this change looks like – but I know it shouldn't be so ugly.

I don’t have answers - I just have questions.

I don’t have solutions – but I have a starting point along with others from the 99%
who are stifled by the abuse of power by the 1%.

And I have hope - because I am with those who:
#OccupyWallStreet #OccupyOregon #OccupyBoston #OccupyToronto #OccupyLeeds #OccupyCanada #OccupyAtlanta #OccupyTheHood #OccupyPittsburgh #OccupyPhoenix #OccupyDameStreet #OccupyDublin #OccupySydney #OccupyManchester #OccupyLondon #OccupyLSX #OccupyTucson @occupytaipeitw @occupystaugust @OccupyUP @OccupyWSaParis @occupyseaside #occupywallstreet #takethesquare #otw
and so many more too numerous to list.

#OccupyTogether