Volunteer opportunity: Help grow organic #food for#Manchester 14th and 21st March @kindlingtrust

Posted on March 7, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

This comes to us from Kindling Trust.

Hello Land Armiers! (1)

We have two more Land Army dates for your diary – this time we’re going to Glebelands City Growers in Sale on Thursdays the 14th and 21st March.

We’ll meet in Hulme at the normal time of 9.30am and get you back for about 5.30pm.

SAM_0202There are two jobs that it would be great to get done. One is to resurface the areas around the polytunnels with mypex covering (a weed suppressant sheet), and the second is to renovate (digging, weeding, pruning, cutting, clearing etc.)an area that they want to use for experimenting with new crops. Then if there is the time/energy left over there is also maintenance of the rhubarb bed and other general digging over of beds.

SAM_0220Just as an advance warning the growers say that all these jobs would ideally be done in dry conditions so this trip is slightly weather dependent…but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!

We’ll provide the lunch and refreshments (and tools and gloves), you just need to come dressed for the job (wellies or sturdy boots, layers that you don’t mind getting a bid muddy and a bottle of water to have with you in the field), and ready for a good satisfying days work!

If you are interested in either of these dates please drop me an email and I’ll email you back to confirm your place.

Many thanks,

Helen

email at chloe@kindling.org.uk

(1) MCFly says: A long time ago we asked some tough questions of the “Land Army.”  Since then, one of the editors has been out – had a very good time.  And we’ve not heard of any deaths or dismemberments either!

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That “Stakeholder” “Conference” – a third account #Manchester #climate #macf2013

Posted on March 7, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Roger Griffiths, a long-time MCFly reader and contributor, attended the recent “Stakeholder” “Conference.” In the third – and probably final – attendee account to be published on MCFly, he makes some very astute points.  Read on!

Dear Marc,

Sorry to have taken so long to write this [Actually, less than 48 hours is very very speedy!! Ed]. After the meeting I could not understand what I had been to, or get my head round the details. I tried reading the reports they gave us but it got worse. It’s too vague for me. Like nailing a jelly to the wall as they say. So this is really a letter to you, with at least some of your questions answered. If you want to put some of it in the blog that’s fine. I saw David’s report which I thought was good.

The meeting was held at a shiny new building at 3 Piccadilly Place. On arriving at the 7th floor I entered a very large room with perhaps two dozen round tables covered in white table cloths. Was it a wedding breakfast I’d come to? Or symbolic; the mass nuptials of the great minds of Manchester ?

Then I saw two women trying not to notice me. So I went over to say hello which gave one of them the chance to leave. The remaining lady seemed quite pleasant. I looked at her badge and saw she was a member of the sub committee. What a chance I thought. “I see you are on the sub committee” I said, “is it still in existence ?” She nodded. “It’s just that some of us have be trying to get hold of the minutes of the meetings but we cannot.” She looked bewildered and replied “They are in ‘Drop Box’” she said, “anyone can see them there.” I asked how you access them but she didn’t know. She said she would have someone let me know but I have yet to hear. Edging to another question I said I was acquainted the the editors of ‘Manchester Climate Monthly’. At this her lips hardened. She didn’t quite stagger back on her heels and hold a cross to my face but said “They were here last year. They were very negative. They were very rude and kept disrupting the meeting.” (1) Supportive as ever I just said “That’s them!”

Before this Steve Connor started the proceedings. He talked about the 30 strong steering group, sustainable buildings and that more and more people were “getting” it. They are “getting it” and it makes a lot more sense – and it is good for business.

Sir Richard then spoke for a while. He talked about the “plan of action” and then the poetry flowed – only city using stakeholders, significant progress, Liverpool and Leeds Core City Groups, Low Carbon Hubs, Green Banks, Hydro Power, more fish and best, of all, “Memoranda of Understanding” He added that many changes were not obviously visible. Later there were more talks from visitors from Liverpool and Leeds.

As for us punters I guess there was about 100 of us. Most of us were white – I saw two black people. Again, at a guess 60% were men average age say 45 and probably mostly business men. The women were probably 10 years younger and perhaps more academic. As for unused badges there were about 30, mostly housing groups, research and university groups.

Eventually we all sat down. We had all chosen two subject groups with whom we could have a round table session. These were reasonably well chaired and some useful ideas were discussed. Then we translated them into drawings or plaster scene models. Most of us cannot draw or model therefore our ideas were largely reduced to nonsense. I am not saying this was deliberate but it was quite clear that the event was micro-managed to perfection. There were no official windows to ask questions while I was there, but I did leave a few minutes early.

To be fair I think there is a genuine concern about climate change. They say they ‘get it’ but I suspect many of them ‘get it’ at the stage many of us were 10 years ago. Someone did say that we only have 4 years to turn it round but I feel they are trying to tackle it with standard business models. I suppose it’s easy for us to sit in the wings and crow and come up with ideas but it’s for them to implement them. Could we do better ? I don’t know. We really need to find a way to work with them. (2)

Kind regards,

Roger

Footnotes (by MCFly)

(1)  MCFly says – this is, of course, inaccurate and defamatory. We are used to this sort of thing though …

(2) We could try sending them a letter listing a series of cheap and implementable suggestions, like this one that the MCFly editors sent in January?  January 2012, that is.  No acknowledgement, no reply. We have started doing some of these items ourselves…

Posted in Climate Change Action Plan, Event reports, Manchester City Council | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Upcoming Event (and volunteers needed!!) Thu 7- Sat 9 March: Carbon Active!, #Manchester Arndale @Cooler_Projects

Posted on March 6, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

This below comes to us from Manchester Friends of the Earth.

As part of Climate Week, the Manchester Carbon Literacy Project [Winner of Best Community Initiative at the Climate Week 2013 awards] is presenting a series of interactive events called Carbon Active! in Manchester’s Arndale Centre.  The aim is to reach shoppers with a positive message and practical steps to reduce their carbon footprint, rather than the doom and gloom approach often related to climate change messaging.

There’s loads going on and it’s all interactive, including:

  • an eco-build house designed and built by architect Ric Frankland from Dwelle, with electricity generated by pedal power from Bike Right
  • a garden with raised beds, planting, and a bee hive
  • a kitchen with an interactive recycling activity
  • a giant carbon board game made and played by St Peter’s High School
  • a Victorian Carbon Classroom taught by primary school children from eight Manchester schools.

There will also be our ‘carbon lounge’ with experts on climate change for the public to talk to and Charlie Baker our Carbon House Doctor will be on hand with practical advice for anyone with damp, condensation, mould and other house problems. He’s brilliant! And there will be “happenings” and more.

Everyone taking part in the event is giving their time, expertise and great displays for free.

If you would like to help out with this event, either representing Manchester Friends of the Earth as a volunteer talking about climate change in the Carbon Lounge, or just as a general event volunteer (it needs LOTS of volunteers even if it’s only for a few hours!), then please enter your name followed by “MFOE” (e.g. Jane Smith MFOE) and tick the timeslots you are available on this volunteer Doodle poll: http://doodle.com/z6f56nr7ftatg78s

When: 8am – 8pm, Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 March
Where: Halle Square, Arndale Centre, Manchester
More info: Email info@coolerprojects.com

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PMT # 10: Please publicise new #Manchester #climate Monthly, and critique it

Posted on March 6, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

The new MCFly came out on Monday.

https://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/2013/03/04/manchester-climate-monthly-15-march-2013-out-now-mcc/

Paper copies will be available from this afternoon at Lush on Market St, and by asking the editors when you see ’em.

1) Please facebook/tweet/add to your group’s next email bulletin etc.

2) If you have ideas/critiques* of MCFly – both paper version and web, our email is mcmonthly@gmail.com.  Unless, that is,  your critique amounts to “why don’t you just ignore the cancellation of elections and general incompetence, and Be Positive.”  If that’s all you have to say, please don’t waste your breathe and our time.

 

pmtlogo

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That “Stakeholder” “Conference” – another attendee’s report #Manchester #climate #acertainfuture

Posted on March 6, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly reporter Laurence Menhinick attended the recent “conference”, and has this to say. See here for the first account we published)

Here is a quick roundup using the new five themes from the NESS1 themes:

Some changes:
First, it was much shorter [than previous years], but timekeeping was erratic (the second workshop suffered in that respect), and there were fewer opportunities to mingle and meet or indeed ask questions…

Second, I was actually pleased to sit at round tables for the workshops– no repeat of last years’ large groups scattered in corners and talking over each other’s noise, thank goodness.

Now, there were also significant shift to this conference: not only with the decision by the Steering Group to adapt the 5 themes from the Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy, but also to broaden our perspective by opening up to “The Northern Way”. Hmm, delegates were Mancunian stakeholders, here for a Mancunian effort and solutions, but this is not just about Manchester any more but also Liverpool and Leeds and their own visions and plans.

Some presentations:

*The slides from the presentations, together with transcript have already been uploaded here by the Chairman- I must admit this is very efficient! *

– Chairman Steve Connor and Sir Richard Leese (slides 1-65) introduced in turn the Refresh updated document and all good things Manchester (the MACF stakeholder approach, the Green Deal, the GMCA, the City Deal, the Low Carbon Hub Board, the GMCCS, the Carbon Literacy Project)

– Mark Knowles, Head of Low Carbon Economy Liverpool City Region, Local Enterprise Partnership, (slides 66 – 84) who introduced an impressive renewable energy emphasis in his area, including 4.2GW capacity offshore wind energy hub in the Irish sea, complete with skills development and job opportunities. Obviously Liverpool have found their niche as he also mentioned the untapped tidal and wave energy potential and potential hydrogen economy Runcorn could even play a part in.

– Melanie Taylor, Green Economy Lead, Leeds City Region (slides 84-end) on her region’s sustainable approach. This presentation was dealing with the challenges relating to such a widely spread out area with a 40% emission reduction target by 2020- she introduced the green economy agenda supporting retrofitting and low carbon agenda as well as the adaptation opportunities Leeds can develop. (see the Green Infrastructure Strategy for info)

Some news:

– The plan has been updated using the five GMCCS themes mentioned earlier: transport, green and blue infrastructure, sustainable consumption and production, buildings and energy with TCF ( total carbon footprint) interim targets set.

– On the Environment Agency’s Carbon Reduction Commitment performance league table, ranking Energy Efficiency Schemes in the UK, MCC has come #1 public sector organisation and 4th overall based on 2097 participants. (when the Department of Energy and Climate Change is in 153rd place…)

Some workshops:

The workshops themes were the same as above, and we were asked to answer a specific set of questions:

What are group members currently doing in this area?

What do they feel inspired to do in addition?

What barriers need to be overcome to achieve this?

A consideration of the resources available.

Followed a hands-on creative session ( read play dough, glue, pompons, pipe cleaners and feathers art set here) to demonstrate how overcoming barriers will be achieved.

“Buildings”, were I was, was full of really interesting people, we had a great presentation by Steve from Northwards Housing followed by interesting comments but overall we all knew the same barriers and struggled to find a vision beyond networking… Interestingly the second buildings workshop came up with a very similar same play dough model as we did. Coincidence? I wonder. Short of plagiarism, I am starting to wonder if our answers were not stirred in the same direction…

“Green and blue” was rushed as something along the way had taken too long; again good attendees (you must admit there were some really interesting people there) but discussions still inconclusive. At least we did create our artwork, which will be appearing in a gallery near you I’m sure.

Some… things missing:

– People disappeared between the first and second workshop session, there were a lot of empty chairs at each table (ours had 5/12 empty)

– Overall discussions of the whole group were missing2: we could have debated solutions to reach isolated communities, issues surrounding the airport and air transport emissions, re-localisation of the economy, even the actual process of the MACF. No Q&A session either.

– “The man on the 42 bus” ie the public, community groups (faith groups, health providers, citizen associations), students, manufacturers, bankers… or well known local environmental bloggers 3

Finally as I reflect on the day and write this summary, I am suddenly stricken with the vision of having to explain the relevance of our peculiar childish displays to islanders in the Maldives or other drought stricken poor souls facing the full force of climate change as I speak- trying to convey how on that day, that was how I made plans and discussed how to tackle the biggest threat to mankind with pipe cleaners.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question then4…

Laurence Menhinick

 Footnotes

1 New Events Summary Strategy
2 I left 8 minutes early so maybe all of this happened in the last 8 minutes.
3 Although I can’t check who was present as I didn’t seem to get the list of attendees in my plan pack, maybe others did?

4“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?” Martin Luther King Jr.

Posted in Climate Change Action Plan, Manchester City Council | Tagged | 3 Comments

Beacons: short stories and #climate. Launched in #Manchester on Thurs 7th March.

Posted on March 5, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly talks to local writer Gregory Norminton about a new collection of short stories which is being launched on Thursday 7th March at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, in Manchester. Please see disclaimer!

What is Beacons?
Beacons - final fianl flierSix years in the making, Beacons – stories for our not so distant future is a collection of original fiction by such established names as A.L. Kennedy, Alasdair Gray, Lawrence Norfolk, Janice Galloway, Liz Jensen and Toby Litt, as well as rising talents like James Miller, Adam Marek and Rodge Glass. Each of the stories responds to a brief: put simply, how does literature engage with the enormity if our ecological crisis? How do we root what we are failing to imagine in psychological narrative? How do we make a story out of a predicament?

The book is above all a literary project, but also a campaigning one, with all author royalties going to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

Where did the idea come from?
It began at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where early in 2007 I attended a public lecture about the impacts of man-made climate change on Scotland’s wildlife. After a
display of alarming graphs and hair-raising statistics, my head was in my hands. It takes a strong mental constitution to look into the abyss, and I found myself wondering how on
earth, as a novelist, I could hope to approach a topic so enormous, so daunting and inescapable.

Thankfully Mike Robinson, then chairman of Stop Climate Chaos-Scotland, stood up to speak my mind. Mike is a lean, wry and tenacious man, a straight-talker who isn’t embarrassed to show his passion. The science is clear, he said, the stories that accompany it less so. When a society faces upheaval, it looks for fresh narratives to help makes sense of events. Statistics cannot motivate us as stories can, yet where are the George Orwells, the Aldous Huxleys and William Morrises of the ecological crisis?

I stopped Mike after the event and introduced myself. How about a book of specially commissioned short stories – a charity project to raise funds for, and awareness of, the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition? It would be, I said, a metaphorical gauntlet thrown down to challenge authors to imagine our worst and best possible futures.

Why does the world need another book on climate change? (What impact do you hope it has?)
I often ask myself that question, and have no convincing defence. I am a writer of stories. I am also a citizen, and as a citizen I am, to be blunt, scared shitless by global warming and our collective refusal to act on it. Being a writer, what else can I do – be it ever so futile – if not write?

Perhaps I can do better than the last paragraph. Every value system has its narratives. Communism offered us hell now for heaven later; hyper-capitalism threatens to reverse the formula. We come unstuck when we live by narratives which, under a semblance of serving us, require our servitude – stories which conceal their identity as stories in order to impose themselves as dogma. The notion that we can live beyond our ecological means is one such dogma. The politics of limitless growth is another. So unpalatable is this truth that any politician who utters it (any politician who aspires to influence) will at once be denounced as an ideologue or fantasist. It is a crippling predicament for a civilisation
which, however wearily, looks to its politicians to save it.

Lord Stern has called climate change “the greatest market failure the world has seen”. It is also a failure of the imagination. Because we do not want to look at what we’re doing, we retreat into various forms of denial, we cling to hopes of a technofix or minimise the dangers of exceeding our planetary limits. These are zombie stories: undead narratives
that have failed us. Our only hope, a thin one, lies in countering them with living stories: fictions that empower us to look our predicament in the face.

In Beacons – stories for our not so distant future, some of Britain’s finest authors have attempted to do just that.

Are there any laughs?
Plenty. What is more demotivating, or less alert to the wonder of life, than a book without a laugh in it? Several of the stories (from A.L. Kennedy to Rodge Glass) offer laughter in the dark but at least one, Adam Marek’s ‘The Great Consumer’, is positively playful. I can say this, being the editor and not its author: Beacons is not a depressing book! The inventiveness, eloquence and sheer talent of its contributors make it a real celebration of the creative spirit. And that’s something we’re going to need plenty of in the years to come.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Please buy lots of copies.

Copyright © Gregory Norminton 2013

Disclaimer: MCFly is running a short story contest (it will be launched at the Beacons event). This has only turned from yet another idea scrawled on a bit of paper and stuffed in a document wallet into a real thing thanks to the hard work, intelligence and professionalism of Gregory Norminton, who is a top bloke.

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That “Stakeholder” “Conference” – first report #manchester #climate #acertainfuture #acretinfuture

Posted on March 5, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

There was a casual air about the event. Steve Connor said we were looking at ‘How to deliver the Plan’, but no one did, really. It was more a question – yes, you’ve guessed – of rallying speeches and over-burdened & inconclusive workshop sessions.

Richard Leese celebrated ‘stakeholder involvement’ as a distinguishing characteristic of Manchester: A Certain Future. But there are serious issues about the capacity of the Steering Group to function. So the jury’s out on that, then.

The man from Liverpool told us it’s all happening off-shore, in the Irish Sea, with £18 billion invested in wind farms by 2030. Not much about Liverpool itself, though.

But the main feeling from the day is that this was – once again – a comfortable corporate event for professionals making a living in the low carbon world, mainly men (of course), well-intentioned, some fruitful conversations on the edges of the event, but in real terms not going anywhere

The workshops combined being too broad and ill-focused with being unhelpfully compartmentalised (‘Transport’, ‘Culture’?). I’d be intrigued if anyone could write up a report from the workshops which identified any significant contribution to the theme ‘How do we deliver the Plan?’. And did we really have to play with plasticine, glitter, coloured shapes, and pipe cleaners to produce our workshop ‘vision’? Dreadful. And someone told me he’d run into turbulence mentioning the Airport – well, you would, wouldn’t you?

What shouted out was that voices from the neighbourhoods and communities of Manchester were missing (again). This process simply does not touch the overwhelming majority of people in this city. It is invisible. We are encouraged as participants to feel that we are the evangelists, and that we can change the world. We can’t. On this evidence I’m not convinced that Manchester’s climate change action plan is going anywhere.

In a sense you don’t want to go to these meetings, but you can’t not go.  Perhaps I feel more critical about the meeting than some because no one was paying me to be there. It makes a difference – I really don’t like wasting my time.

David Mottram is the secretary of Manchester Green Party, but the opinions expressed are his own, and do not constitute Manchester Green Party’s position

Editor’s note. We did chuckle at the phrase “you can’t not go.” We MCFly editors were, of course, banned from attending – with no reason ever given by the individual who took (or merely passed on?) that decision. For that reason and many many others (which we will mention soon), we say “so much for ‘stakeholder engagement.'”

Posted in Climate Change Action Plan, Manchester City Council | Tagged , | 4 Comments

#Manchester #Climate Monthly #15, March 2013 out now! #mcc

Posted on March 4, 2013 by arwafreelance


mcmonthlyFebruary2013draft-page001Want to help revive democracy in Manchester City Council? Want to the opportunity to win a cash prize in a climate-related short story competition? Want to find out how climate activists can learnt to be more emotionally and psychologically resilient? What can the movement do to help us maintain morale? All this and loads more in the latest edition Manchester Climate Monthly #15

PLEASE retweet this/put it on facebook, tell your friends. And please tell us what you do and don’t like in this issue.

With special thanks to our new graphic designer, Bridget Hines, for her excellent logo!
And also with special thanks to Marc Roberts, our enslaved cartoonist.

You can also download the issue here.

Posted in print editions | Tagged | 1 Comment

Upcoming Event: “No Dash for … Activists” Weds 6th march Nexus Art Cafe #manchester #climate #democracy

Posted on March 4, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly #15 is at the printers, but not – yet – on the website.  Sorry for the delay, and it will be up today (of all days…) !  [See next post!]

Meanwhile, this. (Nexus Art Cafe is on Dale Street, in the Northern Quarter).

edf

There are a number of ways you can support the campaign. Could you encourage your supporters to:

1. *Sign the petition* change.org/edf21 Make sure you write a comment as they get sent to EDF to read.
2. *Write on EDF’s facebook page* – EDF Energy. Tell them what you think of their claims against us! It makes entertaining reading even if you don’t
comment 🙂
3. *Same goes for twitter* – use @edfenergy @edfenergycomms and #iamnodashforgas so we can see what you’ve posted
4. *’Like’ our facebook page – *EDF have just under 8000 ‘likes’, and we want to have MORE. Click
hereand
‘like’ us.
4.* Pledge to switch suppliers from EDF* and tell us you’ve done so by posting here.
5. *Send EDF a pressie? *(your comments, objections to their damages claims, energy bills, rocks…) To their freepost address
EDF Energy, FREEPOST RRYZ-BRTT-CBJS, Osprey House, Osprey Road, EXETER, EX2 7WN
6. *Share the above* with anyone and everyone you know!

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#Manchester #climate Stakeholder Steering Group: those unanswered questions again. #acertainfuture #acretinfuture

Posted on March 4, 2013 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Sigh.  Very basic questions about democracy and accountability have still not been answered. And we have been told that asking these questions is “really unhelpful” and that expecting people to keep promises they make about holding elections is to have “exacting standards.”  Perhaps people who are attending the “Stakeholder” “Conference” (three and a half hours) would like to ask some of these questions below.  Heck, knock yourselves out and ask all of them…

UPDATE – on 3rd March, the day before this blog post went up, a short blog post appeared on the MACF website. My bad – I should have checked (as I do pretty much every day).  You can read that first and then decide if you are satisfied.  It DOESN’T explain why the answers to these questions have had to be dragged out of a stone. And the blog post claims that no promise was made at the 2012 conference to hold elections.  Well, read the first link below… Marc Hudson

Attention Mr Steve Connor, Chair of the Stakeholder Steering Group on Climate Change.

On March 17 2012 you promised attendees at the Stakeholder Conference on Climate Change that elections to the Steering Group would be held at the 2013 conference. You assured everyone that details of this would be announced in November 2012. That promise has not been kept.

june26On June 26th 2012  you promised members of the Manchester A Certain Future “Linked In” group that you would start to post the notes of the Steering Group’s meetings.  That promise has not been kept. (1)

On January 7 2013 you promised to  post answers to questions about the [lack of appointed] chairs to the new “sub-groups” on the Steering Group. That promise has not been kept.

We really could go on, at great length.  But we have questions instead.

Given the track record above, and the established fact that your idea of media management is to hang up on journalists, we don’t really expect you to answer the following questions. But nonetheless, we think you should. Why? For the sake of whoever has the poisoned chalice of Steering Group chair after you. For the sake of all those Steering Group members whose credibility is damaged by what you have done (see above).  And, as citizens of a city that desperately needs courage and transparency in its climate preparations, we hope against hope that you will answer.

1) Has anyone else besides the two editors of Manchester Climate Monthly been banned (2) from attending the Stakeholder “conference” on Monday March 4th? What are the criteria for becoming an un-person anyway?

2) Why have we been banned?

3) What were the mechanics of this decision to ban us? Were you told by someone to do it? If so, who, and why?Or did you decide this entirely on your own? You certainly did not consult the entire 30 member Steering Group, which would have been the only even-vaguely democratic means by which we could have been excluded. You emailed us last Thursday several hours BEFORE the Steering Group met. Members we spoke to said they had not been consulted.
So, was it you alone or was it you and small coterie of like-minded people on the Steering Group? Who are these other people?

4) Will elections ever be held to the Steering Group?

5) Will its meetings ever be open to the public?

6) Will you ever release the minutes of its meetings?

UPDATE at 6.42 on 4/2/13:  Very recently (within the last week or so), the “action points” of the 2012 meetings have been published.  Without any announcement.  You can read them here.

The final question is rhetorical, so feel free to ignore it even more strenuously than you will doubtless ignore all the others;

7) Will the Steering Group ever actually DO anything?

yours “regretfully” and with “regards”

Marc Hudson and Arwa Aburawa
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Readers; Mr Connor has, as you can see above, a less than exemplary track record in responding to us. We hope you have more luck. His email is steve@creativeconcern.com. The phone number of Creative Concern is 0161 236 0600.

Footnotes

(1) People ask us why the minutes haven’t been released. We tell them that to get the official version they should ask you. But if we were forced to speculate we would say that the minutes would reveal that attendance at the meetings is poor, with many SG members simply turning up about once a year, and that the actions that get agreed at meetings never quite materialise. A bit like the Environment Commission, the Environmental Strategy Programme Board and the many other keep-the-bureaucrats-busy farragos that infest this city. When we tried to ask you about the minutes, you hung up on us.

(2) Yes, banned. We have not been put on a waiting list. We have been told we are not welcome. And we suspect that if we took up the offer that several people have made since reading our post – of using their tickets – we would be denied entry by security.

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