The Old Bracknell by-election was my first. Previously I have not had much interest in politics, however I now feel the balance of the world is such that we cannot afford to sit back and let things carry on, business as usual. To me, Green policies just seem right and represent a fair way for how we should be living. Time is running out, and we need to change our outlook with how we treat the environment – Mother Nature has finite resources which we are rapidly overconsuming and spoiling. We need global social equality and not a world where the rich can afford to mask their exploitation by offsetting it to those less fortunate. The Green New Deal paves the way for ethical investment in to the future, and a sustainable path to economic recovery.

I am happy with having won over 5% of the vote. It shows there are a good number of our constituents who do care for the environment and a fair society. As has happened in other areas, we need to continue to build on this and prove that we do offer a viable alternative. Nationally, an ever increasing number of people are starting to understand and follow Green principles. It is looking quite possible that we can win some seats in Westminster this General Election. This breakthrough will give Greens a greater voice, and chance to hold other Parliamentarians to task with regard to ethical and environmental decision making. It is a battle, but with Greens, fairness really is worth fighting for.

Dr Adrian Haffegee (East Berkshire Green Party)

It seems rather like the awful Staffordshire Hospital and the banks that are now owned by the UK taxpayer. The investigators say: “Don’t worry, nobody is to blame and do keep paying fat remuneration and wonderful pensions to those at the top.” Pity about the poor service to the customers.

I deplore all these shambles.

David Young

The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

I hope people will notice that they have a third option and use their vote to show they care about the sort of world that future generations will have to face. This means voting for the Green Party. We have serious ideas to prevent the  planet’s sixth mass extinction taking place later in this century.

One point from Mr Earwicker’s letter: he talks about “strategic…plan…deliver…by 2050″. This is typical LibDem thinking. He won’t be here in 2050 for the next generation to ask why such plans didn’t work. It is essential to have policies for the short, not the long term. Then the electorate can check progress against warm-sounding, comforting waffle.

I hope local voters will show that they want world politicians to tackle immediately the planet’s perils. We must start this year. By the time of the next election is will be too late.

David Young
The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

I must point out one difficulty in Mr Earwicker’s letter. He demanded higher Government payments to local authorities. Of course if that happened then our UK taxes would rise and residents would merely have to pay up that way instead. Mr Earwicker needs to say that he is actually calling for higher rates of UK taxation.

David Young
The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

This page will continue with David Young’s (Green Party General Election Candidate for Bracknell) letters to the local press and other subjects related to Bracknell and Green issues.

The cause will be the closure of almost all of our nuclear and coal power stations, due to old age. Sorry but the North Sea Gas will be almost gone too. Of course the crisis would be arriving sooner but for the world recession.

UK plc won’t create sufficient foreign exchange to buy all our additional energy needs from abroad. Unless measures are taken now, power cuts will become common in the next decade. Very expensive power will particulary affect the less well off. I don’t suppose the bad bankers will notice.

'Beautiful' wind turbine at J11 of the M4

Very many on-shore wind turbines need to be built; off-shore ones are much less effective. Mr Dowling identifies the problem. What he doesn’t mention is that Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have opposed many local wind-farm proposals all over the country.

For the good that they do our planet, I think wind turbines are beautiful. After all humankind has been using nature’s windstrength for thousands of years. Lots of windmills close to population centres are the main way to prevent our lights going off.

David Young

The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

Notice from Bill Dowling (FoE) follows:

RECYCLING CONTAMINATION

I attended a RE3 (see www.re3.org.uk) Stakeholder meeting on 25th January, on behalf of both the SRA and Bracknell FOE. It was reported that they are having serious problems with excessive contamination of the recycling materials entering the MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) at the Smallmead waste site in Reading. I know that Sandhurst residents are pretty good at recycling, and probably are the least likely to be causing these problems, but I feel I must report this back to you. The MRF machinery that sorts out all the mixed waste that we residents put in our blue wheely bins is pretty good, but it has only been designed to do the job well when the stuff coming out of our blue bins matches this simplified list of 4 things:

• Paper and Cardboard
• Food and Drinks Cans
• Plastic Bottles
• Empty Aerosol Cans

Anything else is a problem, and can even “gum up the works”! Machine down-time is wasteful. More energy is needed to shut down and restart the machine to unclog it and repair minor damage. More serious damage can lead to a complete shut-down of the plant and recycling being sent to another plant in the UK. While there has to be some manual intervention by human operatives at various stages, this would be reduced if the correct items were placed in the recycling bins. The operatives work very hard to remove contamination so that the recycling can be forwarded to reprocessors and made into new items. Contamination is a big problem and does nothing to help the recycling process or the operatives in their jobs.

There are 5 problem areas in priority order:

1.PLASTIC BAGS. Loose plastic bags of any sort MUST NOT to be put in! And, please NEVER EVER, put your recycleables inside a plastic bag, whether pre-sorted or not!

Plastic bags not only clog up the machinery but when they do get through the machinery they can cause the sorted materials to be classed as contaminated.

2.PLASTICS OTHER THAN BOTTLES. ONLY plastic bottles can be handled by the machinery, all other plastic items (incl. bottle tops!) have to be manually removed.

So it is a huge help if bottle tops are removed, and the bottles are crushed too!

We do know how you feel about all the other plastic packaging, but there is still insufficient demand from any plastic processing companies to justify recycling them.

(I plan to explain more about this in a dedicated article in the next magazine.)

3. TETRAPAKS. These cannot be recycled with our mixed paper and cardboard!

They are made from a complex laminated paper, metal foil and plastic material, so they too have to be manually picked out. The only place Tetrapaks can be recycled is at Longshot lane and at a few Supermarkets: e.g. Waitrose in Sandhurst, from whence they then have to be shipped all the way to Sweden for recycling!

4. GLASS BOTTLES. These must not be put in. They get broken! They can and often do damage the machinery, and are dangerous to operatives safety. Pieces of broken glass also contaminate the sorted materials, heavily reducing their value.

5. PUTRESCIBLES. Food waste of any sort whatsoever MUST NOT be put in, and certainly not hidden in a plastic bag! Worse still, of course, is any form of animal waste. You wouldn’t want to work with machinery handling this stuff would you?

Bill Dowling, Recycling Officer, 2nd Feb 2010

Ray Earwicker (Letters, The Standard, January 7) promised to “set the record straight on the LibDem policy on the Lisbon Treaty”.

He didn’t: I will.

In Spring 2009 the House of Commons debated whether there should be a UK referendum where we could all say what we thought about the Treaty.

Most Labour MPs said no referendum. Almost all Conservatives voted yes.

The LibDems, as they often do, sat on the fence (very uncomfortable) as they had been ordered by a 3 line whip to abstain.

Now surely whether there should have been a referendum is something we all should have had a view about, one way or the other? The Green Party demanded one.

David Young
The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

I call on the Council to fine these anti-social residents and also ensure that suitable publicity follows.

David Young
The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.

The Gulf Stream, with its warm south west wind, is the main factor in our climate. It has shut down several times in the planet’s history causing a ten degree centigrade drop in our temperature. It could easily shut down again by 2040. We don’t need to take the risk.

Green Man pub, Bracknell

Global warming has caused Arctic ice to melt resulting in a marked loss in Gulf Stream strength. No longer does it have the power to push the current treacherous weather away. We need the Gulf Stream. Without it we would have the current cold temperatures, or worse, for 5-6 months every year. And by then there won’t be sufficient home energy to keep us warm.

Carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming. Its level is currently two thirds higher than the average pre industrial amount. We have to tell our politicians that the quantity in our atmosphere must be reduced. We need to use huge amounts of renewable energy, properly tax air travel and have better buildings insulation.

And we have to give this message at the 2010 election. By 2014 it will be too late.

David Young

The Green Party General Election candidate for Bracknell.