Still the nasty party

I spotted an article on Socialist Unity alerting me to the following hideous Tory leaflet on Conservative Home  It is the kind of material I would expect from the BNP, not a major political party. 

 

You can read the front of the leaflet here and the back here  

This leaflet plays to ignorance, racism and hatred.  The Tories deserve to lose the election on this one act alone.

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Vote Andy Chase for York Central

Andy Chase will be the Green Party candidate for York Central. I have a great amount of respect for Andy who has been a committed local campaigner for many years. He has been involed in many local campaigns includin:

* He was involved in the successful campaign to prevent automatic ticket barriers being installed at York station.
* He spoke at the public inquiry against the "Coppergate II" scheme against building a shopping mall around Clifford's Tower and was a member of the local campaign group;
* He has campaigned for greater social justice, for example calling on the government to reverse the "10p tax" hike against the low paid;
* He has taken action to support local facilities, such as community halls, in his local area;
* He has been involved in local residents' groups for many years;
* He opposed the war in Iraq and has protested against the programme to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, which will cost £75bn, more than the annual budget of the NHS;
* He has been active on planning issues, opposing the demolition of Victorian buildings in the city for yet more flats, and commenting on important planning documents for the city's future development;
* He opposed the closure of post offices in the city and collected petition signatures door-to-door. Micklegate Post Office was eventually saved - one of only two offices reprieved from closure in North Yorkshire;
* He has campaigned and organized meetings on sustainable transport, and wants to see the city transformed into a green, pleasant space where people can walk and cycle in safety, with clean, efficient public transport and the city's heritage enhanced. He actively opposes the dualling of York's northern Outer Ring Road;
* He spoke out over the original plans for the Terry's site, rejected by the city's planning committee in 2007, because of concerns about overdevelopment and traffic.

Andy's full biog can be found at http://york.greenparty.org.uk/achasebiog.php

Please also visit Andy's blog at http://viewfromthecastlegreen.blogspot.com/

If you can help with the campaign please contact the local party through our website at http://york.greenparty.org.uk

Save BBC 6 music

I was mortified when I read the story in the Times on Thursday reporting that the BBC are planning to axe BBC 6 Music and the Asian Network.

The NUJ confirmed the story on their website:

Jeremy Dear and Gerry Morrissey, general secretaries of the National Union of Journalists and BECTU respectively, received a detailed briefing from Lucy Adams, director BBC People, this morning, confirming media reports as largely correct.

BBC 6 music fills a gap in the market, which no other station covers. It is for those of use who find the music and presenting of Radio 1 to be too immature and that of Radio 2 to be aimed at the older listener.

The station gives us such fine talent as Adam and Joe and Collins and Herring, which I religiously listen to every Saturday morning.

Please join the Facebook group in support of BBC 6 music at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?src=fftb#!/group.php?gid=278123313911&ref=ts

Sign the petition at http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/

And if Tweeting use the hash tag #savebbc6music

If the BBC need to save money they need to start looking at some of the ludicrous salaries paid to its top presenters.

Lib Dems cannot draw graphs

I received the latest version of the Lib Dem focus magazine in the post and found this rather interesting graph:



[Taken from http://www.madeleinekirk.org.uk/]

I put these figures into Open Office and came up with a rather different looking graph:



Although the correct figures are shown on the graph it has been manipulated to give the impression that the Labour vote is only half the level of the other 2 parties standing.

They are bound to play the same trick in areas where the Greens are standing, so the moral of the story is to look at the graphics they are putting out and call them to account when the data is misrepresented.