Spanish Banks and the Lessons of 2008

(Photo credit: Vicky TGAW)

The true test of whether lessons have genuinely been learned from the financial collapse of 2008 is about to be tested as European governments (and the G8) discuss what to do about the recent downgrading in the credit rating of up to 16 Spanish banks.

Back in 2008, we were told that the use of government (i.e. tax-payers') money to bail out the British, American and other banks that were at risk of collapse was an exceptional response to exceptional circumstances; that it was a one-off act, never to be repeated in the new age of financial sobriety and austerity. No bank, we were told, will ever be too big to fail.

If such claims were true, we should expect to see no action at all taken by European governments, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund over the problems faced by the Spanish banking sector. Indeed, we may well, depending on how serious the individual banks' liquidity problems are, see one or more of these troubled banks going bankrupt, rather than being propped up by more public debt.

And, while we're on the subject of likely scenarios, rumours are also circulating that Spanish pigs are learning to fly. 

As Anna Morgenstern notes:

There cannot be a state in which the ruling class act against their own interests wholly and consistently.

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Where Next for African Integration in The Post-Gaddafi Era?

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Exactly one year ago, President Muammar Gaddafi was appointed Chairman of the African Union. The Libyan leader took the opportunity to outline his vision of African economic and political integration.

Next month, African specialists meet in London to deliberate on prospects for an African Free Trade Area.

It’s unlikely that Colonel Gaddafi will be able to attend.

Read the full story here.

 

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Suffolk's Teachers Take 10,000 days off for Stress - Telegraph

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Suffolk's teachers take 10,000 days off for stress - Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is reporting today that teachers employed by Suffolk County Council required a total of 10,000 days off with stress-related illness in 2010.

The total is the equivalent of 50 academic years lost due to stress, depression and anxiety-related conditions.

While the Telegraph reports the story today in the context of the challenges, in general, of the modern teaching profession, and the decline in behaviour standards in the classroom, the article does not offer any specific geographical analysis of the alarming figure.

Last Autumn, I noted that Suffolk County Council (in the east of England) had become the first local authority in the UK to outsource virtually all of its council services in a dramatic cost-cutting exercise. The BBC reported at the time that the aim of the council's New Strategic Direction was to "turn the authority from one which provides public services itself, to an enabling council which commissions other to carry out the services."

Now, at the end of the first year that this strategy has been implemented by the Conservative-controlled Council, we can see some of the human cost of this policy. In addition to the damage done to the health of teaching professionals in the county, there will also be increased financial costs - to cover the supply teachers needed to cover absences, as well as the legal costs involved in any related litigation. This is on top of the money that must be spent providing medical and psychiatric services to these troubled teachers.

The lesson of Suffolk's daring experiment seems to be that whatever the ideological merits of a smaller government, (which of course are hugely controversial in themselves), the process of transitioning to such an outsourced model is vitally important for the health and stability of the public service being delivered.

The more I look at the current government's drive towards public sector reform, the more I am convinced that at a process level (let alone ideologically) it is seriously flawed.

In being confronted with these statistics of teachers' rates of mental health problems in the county, I fear that we are looking at the future across the nation, unless the government can apply the handbrake to its public spending cuts.

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Related articles

• Stressed teachers take equivalent of FIFTY academic years off in sick days (dailymail.co.uk)

Tunisia: the Tipping Point?

Reports today from Tunisia highlight both the desperation of the ruling Ben Ali family, and the opportunity for mass popular action to usher in change.

A common pattern has been observable in the course of the protests and the official reaction to it in recent weeks.

First, the clampdown. In the case of the Tunisian protests, police action has been combined with efforts to shut down online dissent. A facebook page supportive of the protests has been targeted, for instance.

Second, the concessions. The President, faced with mounting pressure, agrees to step down from power in 2014 and to act against corruption (one of the key elements that sparked the initial protests). 

Thirdly, as the army and security forces appear to be no longer opposing the demonstrators, and as a  crowd of 6,000 gathers in Tunis itself, we can expect to see the (final?) stage - resignation of the president and the removal of his corrupt family from public life.

The extent to which this is done in a prompt and orderly fashion will largely determine whether the existing government structures are able to cope with these changes and facilitate the reforms necessary.

Failure to do this may usher in a fourth and more problematic phase: a more general breakdown in law and order and government, with much greater potential for bloodshed and upheaval.

My earlier posts on the Tunisia demonstrations and its background can be found here. 

The following video, in which gunfire can be heard, was taken on January 11th in Sidi Bouzid and uploaded by Tunisian blog Nawaat. 

BoinbBoing, meanwhile, has a photo essay from today on its site here. 

The following was uploaded today, January 14th.

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Related articles

• Is Tunisia The First WikiLeaks Revolution? (huffingtonpost.com)

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What Next for the Student Movement?

Reproduced with permission under a creative commons licence from Our Kingdom. Written by Guy Aitchison.

The volcanic eruption of student anger and militancy in Britain over the last few months has blown the political space wide open, making a broad-based movement against austerity thinkable where previously there was only rumbling discontent. It has certainly been an exhilarating experience to be part of, but whether future historians look back on the heady period leading up to the parliamentary vote on tuition fees as the beginning of the fightback against the neoliberal juggernaut or the last desperate gasp of social democracy, will depend on the next steps the movement takes.

An extraordinary opportunity has been presented to us. Len McCluskey, general secretary of the biggest trade union, Unite, has called for an alliance between trade unions and the "magnificent students’ movement". This call, from the leader of the country’s biggest trade union, which echoes the countless personal messages of support delivered by unionists at the university occupations, is without parallel in the history of social activism in this country. 

With over seven million members, the labour movement represents by far the largest organised force in this country, and through the power of co-ordinated action, from strikes to occupations, to political mobilisation and education, is capable of putting serious pressure on the legitimacy and functioning of the state. 

The key question now is how to turn rhetorical expressions of solidarity into concrete relationships of support and co-operation, not only with trade unions, but with the full diversity of campaign groups that are springing up at a local and national level to fight the cuts. 

One important theoretical debate concerns whether the movement should strive to retain its hitherto organic and decentralised nature or whether this is merely a temporary phase before the inevitable discipline of central organisation and leadership. I hope to set out elsewhere the creative potential of networked organisation and the dangers of over-reliance on traditional hierarchies. Here I will confine myself to ten practical suggestions on the way forward. They are in no particular order of priority and come from a student perspective:

1. Convene nationwide meetings of the occupations, and then broaden these out to other groups. 

We need forums to strategise on the way ahead. Online networks have proven their efficacy, but the occupations also demonstrated the importance of a shared space and face-to-face interactions in fostering the strong bonds needed for concerted political campaigning and direct action. One of the most impressive political meetings I’ve taken part in was the Cambridge University occupation general assembly - a genuine "big society" get together of over 300 people from all backgrounds and walks of life, brought together to discuss how to oppose the cuts. There is no reason why these kinds of meetings can’t become a regular occurrence.

2. Educate each other, disseminate skills. 

The occupations served as fast-track apprenticeships in political activism. Thanks to them, hundreds of young people now have the skills and confidence to run democratic meetings, deal with the press, engage in non-violent resistance to bailiffs, and so on. We need to disseminate these skills further through workshops and informal instruction, across sectors as well as within them. At UCL occupation we were given a lesson in the community organising techniques of "power mapping" by a unionist from the TSSA. Students, in return, could offer their own knowledge and skills, such as how to organise through social media.

3. Build and strengthen links with school students. 

They have been the most radical and militant, leading from the front at the days of action. University students need to be forging links with students at local schools, giving talks to their societies, and encouraging them to get involved in activism. They are the ones who will suffer the brunt of cuts to EMA and university funding and many are keen to get involved. I expected ten pupils at a talk I gave to Camden School for Girls, with Jo Casserly, on the eve of their occupation – instead there were at least 100.

4. Keep it adventurous and creative. 

Think flashmobs, culture jamming, political art, the techniques of the Yes Men and the Situationist International. A group of Goldsmith’s graduates have formed the University for Strategic Optimism, a nomadic institution which pitches up and holds lectures in capitalist spaces such as Lloyds TSB and Tesco. As we saw in Parliament Square, even a calculated technique of state repression, such as the kettle, can be subverted and turned into a mini festival. We need more of this; anything satirical and subversive the authorities find difficult to handle.

5. Convince the wider student body. 

When you’re caught up in deliberative enclaves of the like-minded it can be easy to ignore the opinions of the wider student body. This is a mistake. Their support, even if only passive, is critical. Public talks, workshops, and informal persuasion can help bring them in. This is an attractive moment of political persuasion by example, but also argument; it needs to face outwards not be totally absorbed by itself.

6. Call for co-ordinated strike action. 

This will be a vital tool in defeating the government’s austerity programmes. Students should be making the political case for strikes in defence of jobs and the welfare state, as well as providing support for workers who withdraw their labour. At UCL occupation we organised delegations to attend the pickets of striking tube workers – this should become a regular activity.

7. Improve legal knowledge and anti-surveillance practices. 

We can expect a furious backlash from the police and the wider political and judicial establishment. The repression of student activists has already begun with police raids on suspected leaders. The Met are demanding ever more draconian powers and tools to deal with protesters, whilst Lib Dem politicians urge intrusive "intelligence" gathering operations designed to suppress legitimate dissent. We need more people trained in legal observation attending demos, and wider awareness of the techniques needed to foil police intelligence gathering, both online and off.

8. Beware sectarianism. 

As a political theory Phd student, I enjoy robust theoretical debate as much as the next activist, but one of the wonderful things about the occupations (at least the ones I witnessed) was how they prioritised practice over ideology. It would be a great shame to now descend into ideological fetishism or for different factions to move in and try and appropriate the anger and energy to grow themselves at the expense of the wider movement. This movement's openness and pluralism is a political strength; without it, it won't succeed in bringing in the larger public.

9. Become a networked participant. 

There has been something of a backlash against "clicktivism" of late (largely from those with little experience of digital activism) but it’s no coincidence that the most successful anti-cuts actions to date – the student protests and UK Uncut - are those that have harnessed the power of online networks. Join Twitter, join Flickr, work Facebook, set up a blog – and use online platforms such as False Economy to link up with other campaigners in your area and pool knowledge and resources. Start open mixed group websites for exchanging information, ideas and video reports and images. Participate in non-partisan websites such as OurKingdom or start your own.  

Ultimately, activists should consider moving their online operations from private social media conglomerates, inherently vulnerable to corporate and governmental pressure, to self-hosted, open source networks. The scandal of corporate connivance in the attack on Wikileaks and the recent "disappearance" of UK Uncut’s Facebook group underlines the urgency of such a switch.

10. Support the motion of No confidence in Aaron Porter, but don’t let it distract from the core task of building the movement. 

It would be nice to have a combative NUS President prepared to mobilise the organisation’s resources on behalf of students, but the real lesson of the last few weeks has been how ineffectual "leaders", desperate to appear responsible and safeguard their own careers, can be bypassed by taking autonomous action.

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Christians and Wikileaks

Reaction to the Wikileaks phenomenon among Christians has been mixed, but in my observation this week, it has gravitated towards being concerned or annoyed, with a minority being outraged. A short piece by Julie Clawson on the Sojourner's website has been the only article I have read so far from a Christian perspective that sees the publishing of the leaks as a qualified good.

In reflecting on the more general view among Christians whose comments I have read this week, which express concern or hostility, I have noted a number of theological and political assumptions which are influencing interpretations of the Wikileaks project. In addition, as we shall see, there are more personal concerns being raised about the nature of security and privacy in the Internet age.

1. A high view of government. The "key texts" of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 appear to represent a grid through which a deferential perspective on the role of political rulers is formed and expressed.
2. A concern about process. I have heard some say that while they see it as helpful for the public to know the facts about how its government has been operating, they are nervous about the manner in which Wikileaks have gone about disclosing the inner workings of the state.
   
3. A concern about lawlessness. The commencement of Denial of Service attacks against businesses which have withdrawn support from Wikileaks (including Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and PayPal) has, in my reading, raised the hackles of those who might otherwise be more sympathetic to the Wikileaks agenda. One church leader in the United States, for instance, has questioned whether these DOD attacks represent a "spirit of lawlessness" as described in 2 Thessalonians 2.
   
4. A concern for privacy - both at the institutional and individual level. It has been interesting to hear some express concern that the leaking of the State Department's internal memos could be a step in the direction of everyone's private thoughts and correspondence being broadcast online. Interestingly, I have not come across this particular Orwellian concern being expressed by anyone other than Christian writers in the last week.

What can we deduce from the above points, and are there alternative or complementary considerations that are worth taking into account when assessing the Wikileaks phenomenon? A few broad themes present themselves:

1. Romans 12 and 1 Peter 2 could be read against the backdrop of a New Testament that paints a rather more negative view of government than might be suggested if those two passages are taken in isolation. We see in the writing of the apostles rulers portrayed as routinely corrupt, immoral and bloodthirsty (think Herod), described as enemies of the gospel (emperors and their subordinates) and as members of an immoral world system that is under God's judgment, represented variously as a drunken prostitute and a many-headed monster.
2. We ought to think carefully about "why" it is that many believers appear to be more troubled by the process of the leaks than they are by some of the facts they reveal. In particular, the large (and previously unreported) number of civilians who have lost their lives as a direct result of the American and British invasion of Iraq ought, surely, to be of greater concern than any loss of prestige caused to the governments that have contributed to these loses. If this is not the case, we must ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our faith and the moral priorities that arise from it.
3. We should be careful not to equate lawlessness with disturbing the status quo. Blind obedience to rulers is not a virtue, Christian or otherwise, and all moral people will have some actions which they will not commit, even if required to do so by the State. Furthermore, we should be careful to not miss the fact that the leaks reveal spectacular acts of lawlessness on the part of those in government. Illegal phone tapping of citizens, and orders to obtain biometric data from UN diplomats, are revealed as just two of the most obvious examples of lawless activity that elected leaders stand accused of by their own official documents.
   
4. We should be careful to be historically consistent when analyzing such a phenomenon as Wikileaks. It is ironic, to say the least, to hear residents of a nation birthed in an act of armed rebellion (the United Sates) denying the right of citizens to take modest action to assert their freedoms and challenge the perceived injustices of militarized and increasingly dominant governments.
5. Concerns about individual privacy are important and valid concerns. However, the reality is that the greatest threats to our right to a private life come not from reporters such as Julian Assange, but from corporations and governments who have the power and the motive to pry, spy and intrude in ways unimaginable a generation ago. Against such a backdrop, the need for a free press (defined as one that says things some people don't want to have said) remains of paramount importance as a restraint against tyranny.
   

Amid Much Gentle Nodding of Heads, Middle England Gets Back to Work and Prepares for the World Cup

Reports of the potential collapse of western civilisation following the election of a hung Parliament have been greatly exaggerated.

There seems to be a noticeable tone of tacit acceptance in the air surrounding the current political settlement - albeit tempered with huge increases in reported applications for membership of the Labour Party following Gordon Brown's dignified resignation speech.

The constructive tone that the leaders of both the winning parties have sought to convey has no doubt helped to create this mood of acceptance. Though the events of the last few days have been unprecedented, they have not been tumultuous.

Indeed. it appears that some from across the political spectrum have things to cheer about in the government's policy package. Immigration caps, scrapping ID cards and ring fenced NHS spending combine with the most radical constitutional and electoral reforms for a century.

All very orderly. All very British.

Roll on South Africa......

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Britain's New Government: What's the Rush?

Middle England is in a frenzy, assisted in part by sections of the media, who are both benefiting from the current political uncertainty (due to higher readership and viewer numbers) and, who are at the same time implying that the pace of negotiations represents a potential crisis.

In case we were in any doubt about the need to reach a speedy conclusion to the negotiations, we are unceasingly being reminded of how "the markets" might react to the current political "stalemate".

Behind this criticism of the current political process, two issues seem to be implied:

1) The urgent need for "strong leadership"

2) A criticism of the LibDems for not agreeing to support the Conservatives sooner.

In both cases, the issues are controversial. Firstly, "strong leadership" is portrayed as decisive and with a mandate to enforce its decisions. It's true that such characteristics can be seen as "strong". The playground bully is one example of such strength, as is the elected government that takes is country into a war without a legal mandate and against the counsel of its allies, and by pressurising its own MPs to support it.

It seems that the advocates of "strong leadership" are confusing strength with style. A consensual or cooperative style of leadership, for instance, can be equally strong, even though it may not resort to tactics of dominance and control quite so often. Indeed, there is a case to be made that any organisation (government included) that can win a broad base of support is likely to be more in tune with those it serves and less likely to take decisions that damage them. Governments elected by a first past the post system, by contrast, will often use their notional majorities to implement policies that are focused on their core supporters rather than the public at large.

The second issue (of the LibDems not supporting the Conservatives more quickly) is easier to see through. The failure of any party to secure an outright majority is a result of the political will of the electorate, with a vote that saw the highest turnout for years. The idea that the LibDems Or any other party should ignore this democratic reality - and simply go along with the wishes of the largest single party - is, to my mind, a foolish and dangerous notion. Franky, it smacks more than a little of sour grapes.

Since the politicians are talking about the formation of the government of the UK, with responsibility for decisions that can affect the lives of millions, it seems more important to talk through the issues now, even if that takes time, than to rush into an coalition or partnership which will collapse within months. Even if it leaves the newsmen standing around with nothing to report on.

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Vancouver Olympics Shows Influence of Beijing-Style Politics

"The Beijing Olympics were meant to make China more like Canada. Vancouver 2010 has managed the opposite."

So writes David Goldblatt in a recent article in Prospect Magazine.

Of particular concern is a law passed by the government of British Columbia giving police the power to enter homes and other premises displaying “anti-Olympic” signs.

The UK Parliament has passed a similar law in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London - a classic exampe of the unhealthy "post-democratic" alliance of government with global firms.

I wonder whether there will ever be a backlash aginst the corporate dominance of professional sport.

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Another Reason to Dispair at the EU

This from the EU-funded Samuri surveillance system - whose aim is to create the "next generation" of CCTV:

Existing systems focus on analysing recorded video. SAMURAI is to develop a real-time adaptive behaviour profiling and abnormality detection system for alarm event alert and prediction.

We aim to develop an abnormal detection system based on a heterogeneous sensor network consisting of both fix-positioned CCTV cameras and mobile wearable cameras with audio and positioning sensors.

These networked heterogeneous sensors will function cooperatively to provide enhanced situation awareness.

I notice that the ever-reliable and ethically impeccable BAA are major players in this monstrous supra-government-funded initiatve, which WE DON'T NEED.

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Married for Money: The Unnatural Union of Government and Business - LaVonne Neff - God's Politics Blog

Married for Money: The Unnatural Union of Government and Business - LaVonne Neff - God's Politics Blog

I've blogged previously about the problems of the merging of government and large business interests.

Here's another comment on the trend from an Amercan perspective.





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BBC NEWS | UK | Teen alcohol crackdown 'success'

BBC NEWS | UK | Teen alcohol crackdown 'success'

The trouble with this "successful" campaign to crackdown on teens drinking alcohol is that it was carried out by agents of the state.

When parents, in large numbers, step back from their role of teaching, instructing, disciplining and, at times, restraining their children, and when they allow the state to take on that role, then we are all in big trouble.

When that happens, the state is no longer even a Big Brother but a Pushy Parent.

This is bad news for parents, for children and for society as a whole, whose freedoms become even more eroded by an all-embracing governmental bureaucracy.

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Is Local Democracy Back in Fashion?

The Local Government Association has produced a new pamphlet arguing for much more radical decentralisation of political power and decision making in the UK.

"Who's in Charge? A Manifesto for a New Politics" calls for, among other measures, the dismantling of the Quango State; local tax autonomy, including the power for local councils to set business rates.

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UK Global Warming Report: Acknowledging the Tipping Point?

The UK Global Warming Report has, out of the blue, taken the climate change discussion forward in one disturbing leap.

Whereas many within the environmental movement have argued long and hard for significant reductions in greenhouse gases - as preventative measures to reduce the risk of global warming - the report assumes such warming will continue to get worse and focuses on the realities of what will probably happen to the climate in the UK over the coming decades.

I reported on this blog 15 months ago that James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia theory, was predicting then that the world had already passed the tipping point of widespread environmental degradation and that significant environmental collapse was highly probable within 20 years (make that less than 19 now).

The UK report, released today, assumes significant climate change and offers a range of possible scenarios for the UK based on the latest and best scientific models.

None of which should make us apathetic about seeking significant reductions in greenhouse gases now. After all, we want to try and see the "best case" scenarios rather than the worst ones.

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Now the Government Wants my Phone Number

On the draft application form for the national ID cards - may the plan be cursed - that the government is determined to introduce at a cost to the tax payer of billions of pounds, applicants are required to provide "a contact telephone number."

That's a strange request, since the ID cards - curse them - will not contain the bearer's phone number, nor will it be stored on the national database.

This rather begs the question as to why the government should require these phone numbers, which, let it be understood, are not subject to the same regulations concerning privacy and security that will govern the cursed database and ID cards themselves.

I cannot bring myself to believe that the collection of these phone numbers will have anything to do with the government's other big database initiative - to collate all of our phone and internet records, all in the name of national security. Nor can it have anything to do with the money that can be made by selling on these numbers to private sector companies.

Sir Ken McDonald, recently retired Director of Public Prosecutions, made this comment on the government's planned communications database.. I can't improve on this as a critique of what is wrong at the heart of this agenda:

"The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile.
We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."
No other country is considering such a drastic step. This database would be an unimaginable hell-house of personal private information.
It would be a complete readout of every citizen's life in the most intimate and demeaning detail. No government of any colour is to be trusted with such a roadmap to our souls.

source


This is the party that won only 15.3% of the popular vote at the most recent electoral test they took part in. Hopefully, we have only months to go before we can finally give this government the Parliamentary electoral kicking it deserves for introducing this oppressive database state and for taking our country into an illegal war of aggression in Iraq.

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Rumsfeld Preaches A Different Gospel

Former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered Bible verses to be placed on the front of top secret military intelligence documents prepared for cabinet and Presidential briefings during the Bush years.

The covers of these documents have now been made public and combine to paint a picture of a gospel of violence and nationalism.

The images, which can be viewed here, are a sober reminder of the dangers of misusing the word of God to support one's own agenda - in this case the Project for a New American Century , a right-wing think tank advocating the aggressive expansion of American diplomatic and military influence around the world, especially into the middle east. The Project was the first body to articulate the concept of a "regime change" in Iraq, several years before it was expressed as government policy by the Bush administration.

President Obama has ordered these Bible verses to be removed from future intelligence briefings under his administration - a move which may be criticised by some as evidence of the secular nature of the current administration but which, in my view, could be equally seen as the kind of action needed to purge a gospel of war from the corridors of power. Perhaps this act could be loosely compared with Hezekiah destroying the bronze serpent - an object that had been a means of grace but whose use had been perverted into a form of idolatry.

Historically, third stream Christian groups have included many pacifists or, as some would describe themselves, active peacemakers. Even those who have not been pacifists have been careful to avoid the trap of using Biblical proof texts to justify militarism, as Donald Rumsfeld has so crudely done.

Hazel Blears as Labour Party Weather Guage

When Communities Secretary Hazel Blears publicly criticises her government's communication strategy, you know things are bad.

Ms Blears is the member of the cabinet most likely to be wheeled out into television studios to defend the government when it faces a range of unpopular issues. I've seen her defend the indefensible on numerous occasions, from the invasion of Iraq to the abolition of the 10 pence tax band. She is asked to do so because of her loyalty and professionalism, even though she may personally disagree with a specific policy.

So when the MP for Salford feels it necessary to write an article critical of the government, it's a legitimate assumption for outsiders to make that things are pretty dire in the senior ranks of the Labour Party.

Let's hope the general election is sooner rather than later so that the electorate themselves can have their say on the Brown (and Blair) years.

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Springtime for Gordon

The Prime Minister's flowers at Number 10 are looking very fine.

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Labour Revolt Over Heathrow Expansion

The 28 Labour MPs who voted on Wednsday night against the government's planned expansion of Heathrow Airport to include a third runway have sent a strong message to Gordon Brown about the political opposition that awaits this project.

The vote was the largest rebellion on a motion tabled by opposition parties since the Labour government came to power in 1997.

Rebels included three former Labour party environment ministers - Michael Meacher, Chris Mullin and Nick Raysnford.

The building of a third runway may also cost Labour votes. An ICM poll conducted in December suggested that 23% of respondants would be "less likely to vote Labour" if the third runway was built. Of those who said that they intended to vote for Labour at the next eletion, 13% declared themselves "less likely" to do so if the expansion were to go ahead.

Director of Greenpeace John Sauven suggested that the commons vote "will have alarm bells ringing in No 10. Gordon Brown has got a problem on his hands."

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Straw Bale Houses go Public - at Last

News that a local authority is to build Britian's first social housing out of straw bales is good news as it marks, perhaps, the beginning of the end of this proven technology being left out to pasture (boom, boom).

Modern straw bale houses have been in existence for decades and represent a viable form of low cost, low impact and sustainable housing - in an indstry that desperately needs to move beyond lagging and double glazing if it is to contribute significantly to reducing greenouse gases.

Sadly, the emergence of straw bale housing into the mainstream in the UK has been painfully slow. In case you want a go, here's a helpful video from America.

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