Political

During the two Christian hustings it's is clear that people are concerned about the impact of globalisation and free trade both on the poverty in the 3rd world and on our own greedy need consumption to make us happy (buying things clearly do not make us happy).

There are clear strong theme for the 'right to life' and the right to a good quality of life both here and throughout the world. Richard Benyon was proud that he didn't support equal rights for all in our society (with his anti-gay votes reference
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=1727&dmp=826) and he steered clear of his pro-weapons exporting stance whilst claiming he supports all forms of right to life. UKIP also came out strongly against the LGBT community claiming that there was 'something wrong with them'. The Green Party has very strong human rights policies and stance which I hope was recognised by all.

I had very strong support for Green Party environmental policies as well, clearly the others struggled: Richard Benyon failed to make a cohesive 'green wash' argument (how can you support globalisation and free trade and say that localisation and fair trade are the way to go!); David Redndel was also on the fence with environmental issues such as nuclear power and weapons.

There were also areas where Green Party policy is not compatible with the various Christian views - our support for carefully monitored and managed euthanasia; pro-choice stance for abortion; and our policies to ensure we have an 'inclusive' society (not one for example that supports closed faith schools or closed moral religious teachings). But the feedback I had from people was that although they were not in agreement they were pleased that I had clearly brought up the differences and was
prepared to listen to them and their argument.

We had 7 people from the last event pledging to vote for Adrian Hollister (Green Party) and wishing us all the best.

Why is it that "as a matter of interest you are the only prospective candidate who has bothered to reply" is typical of a whole bunch of emails that I'm getting every day. I know that when standing for election you get a large number of emails and a lot of post too; so why don't the other candidates take the time to respond to the people asking questions? I try to answer every email I get, with my views and I don't just respond to the ones I agree with - I suspect the other's are just not responding to questions that they don't have 'good news' stories for or agree with. Another example perhaps of having to listen to what the politician does not say rather than what they do say (for example there is still no sign up from the other PPC's for or against either Friends of the Earth or CND's campaigns).

I've also noticed that some of the other PPC's seem to be asking for an address to write to - doesn't this defeat the whole object of email? a quick mechanism to ask and reply to questions. It seems the rest of our PPC's are of a generation where the electronic world (the world of business, the majority and our immediate future) is lost to them (and their vast staff).

I had a great time Saturday afternoon in Newbury doing a 'meet Adrian Hollister the Green Party PPC' session in Newbury. The main theme discussed was around the leadership debate (and why the Green Party was not represented); the impact of balanced parliament was raised many times – with people made more uncertain by the negative comments driven by the Tories. The interesting irony was that people were discussing Nick Clegg as someone they would vote for, but in West Berks they are also fed up with the bickering between Tory's and Lib Dems.

I had a good chat to Adam Osmond MYP around young people issues, the lack of funding to actually do anything and the limited drive from the local authorities. I discussed with him the £1bn of extra funding proposed by the Green Party and my own personal
thoughts abound providing a part-time salary for MYP members to ensure that they are not overcommitted with several jobs and to ensure that their role in the community is recognised.

We also discussed his main concerns for young people – the burden of the student fee's (the Green party have committed to abolish student tuition fee's); housing – how do young people get onto the property ladder (Green Party have committed to provide affordable and sustainable homes); and finding new jobs (Green Party would create 1 million new jobs through investment in green technology).

Clearly I'm recognised for my blogging, twittering and so on; and in my followers are a number of people from the opposition parties. This is great - it's always an opportunity for me to convince them that the Green Party has the best, the most sustainable and the most ethical policies.

So it was of great amusement to find the Lib Dem stooge in my Twitter list madly emailing last nights post "Just sped through Kintbury at 102 mph!" I assume without thinking about it, he went around madly telling anyone that would listen that "Adrian Hollister, Green Party representative admitting to outrageous speeding".

A bit too quick off the mark I think and with the realisation dawning on the Lib Dem crowd that this was on a train; they are now in a desperate spin cycle to turn it into a local speeding issue. How embarrassing for them and how embarrassing for their stooge - they were caught red handed digging for and spreading dirt that didn't actually exist.

Let's keep it simple stooges - try to win it on your policies.

Meet the Candidate

Come and meet ADRIAN HOLLISTER your Green party parliamentary candidate for Newbury

Saturday 17th April. 2-4pm. The stone building (Up stairs), The Wharf, Newbury
(In the Central Library car park, next to the canal.)

An informal meeting - just a short speech followed by questions and a chat over coffee.

Met up with the people from Newbury Sound yesterday - what a great bunch of people! There is a link on their site to the election coverage and a section on Adrian Hollister with a short sound clip. Do I really sound like that - gulp!

Newbury Weekly News also has entries for each of the candidates. You can find a bit on Adrian Hollister here.

If you find other local media links out there please forward to me: Adrian Hollister (adrian@westberksgreens.org.uk) - thanks!

I've been a bit lazy on the blogging front for a while now. Not much time has forced most of my blogging into Twitter and into very short hand. I am incensed enough today though to spend time putting some more words down. It's about the Digital Economy bill - an ill thought out rush job to push through a whole raft of changes that at the very least eats into our personal freedoms and at worst open some very private information up to unaccountable bodies and leaves our local businesses who offer free WiFi at risk of prosecution.

Our local MP Richard Benyon did attend the first reading on the bill, but failed to turn up to the second. No great surprise though for a Tory boy who just follows the party line all the time(1) ... and I thought he was there to represent us!?

Benyon votes against equal rights
Then again Richard Benyon voted against equal Gay rights (3) - something that clearly shows up the old and well know out-of-date Tory ideals in the recent Chris Grayling statement.

Benyon wants to keep the gentleman's club
He also didn't want the hereditary peers removed from the House of Lords (4). Clearly showing his 'keep the Tory Toffs in power' cards - something his Lord Ashcroft would I'm sure approve of.

Benyon is the bringer of war and conflict
His only work in the house appears to be either pre-prepared questions for his Shadow Minister, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs role; or to keep exporting weapons through his beloved DESO.

Clearly he likes to provision munitions for other peoples wars. The Green Party and others have consistently called for the dissolution of DESO as it is unclear the impact of arms sales on human rights or conflict. British weapons have for example been used by Israel to attack the largely unarmed Palestinian people (2).


Can you seriously vote for Richard Benyon?


Notes
1. Richard Benyon voted against his party only 10 times. Source http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?id=uk.org.publicwhip/member/1727&showall=yes#divisions
2. http://realisticbird.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/british-mps-slam-weapons-exports-to-%E2%80%9Cisrael%E2%80%9D/ is typical amongst many other references.
3. http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=1727&dmp=826
4. http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=1727&dmp=1079