Carbon Literacy – 14 sessions, not a single elected member shows up…

Posted on June 7, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly


Yes, I know, there were elections. I know because I am a member of Climate Emergency Manchester and we were flat out trying to get candidates to say yea or nay to some simple climate commitments.

Meanwhile, Manchester City Council was running carbon literacy sessions. And not one of the more than-half-of-the-96 Councillors who have not yet started or finished their carbon literacy training could be bothered to show up. These are the Councillors who in July 2019 voted to declare a climate emergency, which included the statement that all 96 would have done their carbon literacy training by the end of 2020.

Oh, and the Council STILL isn’t planning to have a simple online register of which councillors are and are not carbon literate.

Because reasons.

That FOIA in full

Between 1st March 2021 and 21st April 2021
1. How many carbon literacy training sessions took place? How many staff and elected members attended each of them?

14 sessions took place, 123 staff attended with no elected members.


2. Did any sessions get cancelled? If so, why?

2 (Session 1 and session 2) merged the sessions with another planned one to do a bigger session


3. And again, that hardy perennial – “Is it still the case that, despite it being suggested repeatedly, and it being one way to a) save money and b) create trust, there is no plan to have an online register of which councillors have completed their training?

There are still no plans to have an online register, listing which councillors have completed the carbon literacy training.

Posted in carbon literacy training | Leave a comment

“Affordable” as the new “sustainable” – words mean whatever the powerful want them to mean.

Posted on June 2, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

I just sent this letter to the Manchester Evening News. If they publish it, I will add a photo of it in t’paper.

Update – they published it! 4th June 2021…

WE live in Alice’s wonderland, where our lords and masters tell us six impossible things before breakfast and expect us to believe them.I was at the first meeting of the new Manchester Council Executive today (once I could get into the locked Public Gallery). 

I heard Pat Karney say that Manchester City Council had a record on delivery of affordable housing that it could be proud of. I heard other Councillors making ritual incantations of this word “affordable.”

It seems “affordable” is going to be the new “sustainable” – a vague feel-good buzzword that is never defined and used to block both scrutiny and real action. Your report Steve Robson wrote about the Ancoats (“Council’s new ‘affordable’ apartments in Ancoats could cost up to £1,000 a month,” 29 May.) Humpty Dumpty would be proud.

For readers who don’t remember the classic exchange between him and Alice, here it is – “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

Dr Marc Hudson
editor Manchester Climate Monthly

Posted in Manchester City Council | 2 Comments

Why the enormous rhetoric-reality gap for #Manchester City Council on #climate? 1987 as the pivotal year… (video)

Posted on June 1, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

This video is rough as a badger’s arse. There will be a slicker version.

Comments very welcome…

Posted in academia, youtubes | 1 Comment

Letter in MEN (truncated) Council and #climate leadership

Posted on June 1, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly
Letter in MEN

We got none of that. The Council simply did more of the same drivel. It’s just thrown 50 thousand more pounds at consultants to do work its own bureaucrats had promised to do years previously.In September, the latest carbon emissions figures will come out. The target is a 13% reduction, but even with the COVID lockdown, the city will be nowhere near that. 

IN her letter (Viewpoints, 31st May) Margaret Brown asks exactly the right questions about life after lockdown, when she advises that we “to look at the wider picture we should think about what matters and what does not. Is a return to ‘normal’ desirable?”

Since 2018, when it announced its goal “city to be zero carbon by 2038” Manchester City Council has by and large continued with business-as-usual. It has hidden behind weasel words like “partnership” as an excuse for continuing to avoid leadership.  Last July it had to admit that a quarter of the carbon budget for the rest of the 21st century had been blown in just two years.

Real leadership would have involved emergency meetings about this, and then lots of real action.

In any case, as Ms Brown points out, there will be a bounce back in high-carbon activity, with the following year probably showing an increase in emissions.Without regular, detailed, relentless pressure from councillors and citizens, the dreadful failures of the last decade(s) will continue. Future generations will curse us.

Posted in Letters to the MEN | Leave a comment

In essence: “No, because that would discriminate against the Labour councillors who are drooling morons.”

Posted on May 21, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

With my Manchester Climate Monthly hat on:

The group I am part of, Climate Emergency Manchester, did its best during the election campaign to get candidates to say yes or no to three simple climate pledges

Most Labour candidates studiously ignored CEM (and again, am writing in a personal capacity here) on Twitter, and ignored the registered post letters we sent. Some are beginning to Tweet about green stuff again.

One Labour candidate said no to all three.

A bunch of Labour candidates said yes to all three.

A couple of said yes to numbers two and three but no to number one because it couldn’t be implemented. This was, of course, bullshit, but not completely laughable (If you can’t even get your own councillors and officers to tell the truth about something as simple as this, why do you think it’s credible to promise a “zero-carbon by 2038” city? Srsly.

But today, there was a new wrinkle. A re-elected Labour councillor was asked about the first commitment. Their scarcely believable answers was in essence that, to paraphrase, it would exclude elected members from engaging in discussions about progress on the city’s carbon budget because many of them are unfamiliar with the technical language, metrics etc used to measure emissions. Basically it would be counter-productive because council members would be “afraid to get things wrong” and which would prevent them from engaging in meetings…

Deep breath. Deeeeep breeaaaathhh… And breeaaathe….

Ah, fuck it.

Seriously. If you as so dumb that you cannot understand

a) the concept of a budget (a carbon budget is no different from a household budget, a calorie diet ) and

b) that this budgetis being used up too quickly,

then (shouting again)

HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO GET SELECTED AS A LABOUR CANDIDATE?  Oh, I forgot, they like drooling morons because they are more obedient.

The councillor is flailing around for plausible sounding excuses, but failing in their flailing. What the councillor is saying, in essence, is “no, we should be allowed to spout convenient talking points and aspirational bollocks without fear of having to have those compared with grim reality. Anything else would be an infringement on our human rights to be drooling morons who do whatever we are told because we like it that way and/or it is good for our careers.”

We’re totally toast.

Posted in Manchester City Council | Leave a comment

It’s official – elections where only the “ayes” get to speak are just fine! #Manchester

Posted on May 20, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Yesterday the Leader of Manchester City Council, who has been there since 1996, was re-elected again. What made the whole thing hilarious was that the presiding official, the Lord Mayor, forgot to ask how many people were opposed. I wrote to the City Solicitor. She has written back saying everything is fine, nothing to see here…

Because that is this City, where the rules are for suckers, and sometimes (often) they forget to pretend.

There’s that over-used expression “you couldn’t make it up.” Well, you could, but nobody would think it was either funny or plausible. They’d just think it was tawdry and demeaning…

Here’s my letter, and below it, the City Solicitor’s reply.

Dear Ms Ledden,

I am sure it did not escape your razor-sharp legal eye that there was a procedural error today at Annual Council.
There was only one nomination for Leader of the Council, so there did not have to be a formal tally of votes, it’s true.
However, the Lord Mayor, perhaps overcome with surprise at getting a second term, when conducting the election of the Leader, merely asked for an acclamation of the ayes. That is to say, he did not ALSO ask for those opposed to get the chance to give voice to their opposition.
This seems like 

a) a bracingly honest demonstration of how things actually work in this City, where democratic norms, conventions and rules are (dis)honoured in the breach.

b) one of those unfortunate “the curtain has slipped and everyone can see” moments

c) a senior moment

d) all of the above.

My question is this – what is the legal standing of the Leader of the Council, given that the Westminster-style procedural norms have not been adhered to at Annual Council on Weds 19th May?
Assuming that the Annual Council is not going to be reconvened to address this (and I have taken out a second mortgage to bet on this NOT happening),  and that your reply will be along the lines of 
“The Leader was elected in the usual manner as he has been these last 25 times”,
then does this now establish a legal precedent that future votes for Leader of the Council will proceed simply on a few people saying “aye” and there being no opportunity for those saying “no” to even speak? Are we moving into the truly post-political world that so many academics have told us about?
What an interesting precedent that will be!
Yours sincerely
Dr Marc Hudson

Ms Ledden’s reply

Thank you for your email, of yesterday, I note your concerns.

I can confirm the election of the leader conformed with the necessary requirements.

There was, as pointed out by you no other nominations before the Council and the affirmative response from the chamber confirmed the election following both a nomination and a seconder.

You are not correct to say no opportunity of those with opposing comments or those wishing to express dissent to be heard indeed Councillor Leech made a speech in respect of nominations to Committees and the microphones were set up to enable that to take place.

Thank you for your continued interest in these matters.

Kind regards

Fiona Ledden

So, the precedent is now there, with the stamp of approval of the City’s chief law bod. At any given election, the Lord Mayor can say all those in favour say “aye”. Then, no matter if only a few people say “aye”, as long as there were no other nominations, it’s a done deal. Happy times.

Posted in humour, Manchester City Council | Leave a comment

Sometimes they forget to even pretend, aka more gruesome contempt for democratic norms and conventions in Manchester

Posted on May 19, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

He didn’t even pretend to try to defend the indefensible. Maybe he forgot to. Maybe he can’t. Maybe he is just beyond caring. Who knows? But those of us forced to watch it (95 councillors and a grand total of one member of the actual public) were not edified by Councillor Pat Karney’s display, nor were they under real (I’ll come back to that) illusions about power in this city, about whether the leadership give a damn about real action on climate change.

Forgetting to pretend #1 – of Karney, Leech and Nunney

At one point in today’s Annual Council, the Council’s sole Liberal Democrat, John Leech, got to make a speech (starts at 19mins 45 seconds). In response to the report of who was going to get onto which committee, he pointed out that the new Councillor Robert Nunney (Green Party, Woodhouse Park) had not been given his first pick of Scrutiny Committee (there is a long-standing convention that this happens). Leech suggested – entirely plausibly – that this is a sign of a Council that is actively seeking NOT to be criticised for its appalling under-achievement on climate change. Leech didn’t mention, but could have, that the City has burned through a quarter of its carbon budget for the 21st century in the last two years alone. See bottom of this post for a comment that Robert Nunney prepared yesterday about not being appointed to Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee. Nunney did not, by the way, know that Leech was going to raise the issue today).

In response, Labour’s Pat Karney did not even attempt to address the substance of what Leech said, nor even acknowledge it. He did not offer any justification for Nunney getting none of his top three picks. Instead he chose to dredge up and incoherently recount some ancient history about Leech and the Christie Hospital. While this garbled anecdote “worked” to distract, and perhaps remind some Labour councillors of past battles, it did nothing for Manchester, it did nothing for democracy. It was another nauseating display of brazen contempt for democratic norms. Another day in Manchester.

Forgetting to pretend #2 – of the Lord Mayor and the Leader of the Council

The Lord Mayor asked for nominations for Leader of the Council. To everyone’s shock and surprise, Pat Karney nominated Richard Leese. There were a few desultory yeses when the question of who would second the nomination. You could hear a pin drop and an angel weeping when the Lord Mayor asked if there were any other nominations.

Then the Lord Mayor asked for those in favour of Leese. There was a ragged broadside of yeses.

And… that was it.

He forgot to ask how many were opposed. There would have been some. We know this from the vote last night in Labour Group.

But the Lord Mayor forgot to ask. (clock it at 14 mins 50 seconds here.)

They’re forgetting to pretend to go through the rituals. I am not sure if this actually invalidates the election and they have to do the whole schemozzle again. I will ask the City Solicitor, just for the lulz. But the look, the look is not good…

Forgetting to pretend #3 – not all councillors are Labour and there is a difference between the Labour Party and the Council

Check out Pat Karney’s speech, which was a Labour Party announcement rather than a welcome to new councillors.

The work of pretending

After the meeting I was stood outside the Convention Centre. I raised the fact that Robert Nunney had not got any of his top three picks for Scrutiny Committees with various Labour councillors. The (non)responses fell into the following categories

Real versus fake illusions, aka “It’s all too complicated”

I got this from someone who is clearly used to being able to fly under the radar and when confronted with clear evidence that senior members of their tribe are behaving unforgivably, play the “oh, what would little old me know” card. The obvious response – which I didn’t give, because life is short and why waste my breathe is – if you find such a clear and easy-to-understand thing as this too complicated, then why on earth are you fit to deal with genuinely complex issues as a councillor? Should you not do the honourable thing and resign?

Or is it that you’re perfectly capable of understanding, but the cost of understanding would be too high, so you don’t?

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment”

This one came from someone with fear in their eyes. This one is by those people who haven’t yet fully lobotomised themselves in the service of Loyalty to the Party, who still can tell when bad things are happening, but also know they don’t (no longer have or never had) the spine to speak up or out about it. But still want to believe they would/will. At some point. Just not today, you understand.

“Show me where it is written down”

This is just legalistic nonsense. Conventions are not written down. The British constitution is famously, not written down. Everyone knows there are conventions, norms etc. It’s saying “well, if it isn’t actually actively excluded then we can do it and it’s fine.” It’s the cynical move of someone who knows that if they had to admit what other councillors admit – and that they themselves would normally admit – then they’d be on the spot.

I’m the real victim here (“everything is always about me”)

Which means “If someone else got something, it would mean I didn’t, and I am the hero/centre of the universe/most important person ever.” It was at this point I just gave up.

What it all means and what is to be done.


What it all means is that black is white, white black and nothing is true and everything is possible and everything is allowed. It means that the Labour Group is run by a small number of people who are willing and able to ride roughshed over democratic norms. It means that they remain committed to a failed policy of spin and perception management when it comes to climate change, that they are not interested in actual scrutiny by anyone they cannot maintain some level of control over.

While some (and the number is growing) Labour councillors feel mild or extreme unease or even displeasure, those in charge know that they are safe for a little while yet.

What is to be done? We who understand what democratic norms and conventions are, and what they do for all of us, have to try to defend them, to speak out when they are traduced. I know that sounds pompous, but there you have it.

We who understand just how perilous our species’ situation is need to do the hard work of watching, explaining, proposing, supporting each other, challenging.

Fwiw, I think we are completely screwed. I think we will go technofix-y fascist quite soon and that will “fail” and then it really all will fall apart. But I choose to use the heritage of the Enlightenment to keep doing pompous-sounding things. So sue me. Or join me/us.

That statement by Robert Nunney – Green Party councillor – from last night.

To my surprise I was elected today to a committee that wasn’t any of my three preferences that council asked me to choose.  However, future generations need a green voice and I will join Children and Young People Committee with enthusiasm. The opportunities this position presents will hopefully allow me to champion social and environmental justice issues. We need  to improve air quality around schools, help families choose active travel as well as prepare young people for green jobs of the future. I would like to see more provision in parks for children with accessibility challenges, more after school youth groups especially engaging in local environmental projects. 

Posted in Manchester City Council | Leave a comment

Hough End playing fields, #Manchester and Olympian levels of spin

Posted on May 10, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

If you think the Hough End “sports village” is about South Manchester softball teams having somewhere to play, well then, I have a bridge in Sydney to sell you.

This is about Manchester’s (inter)national sporting profile. Once you understand that, the lack of interest in local active travel slots into place. The disdain for wildlife (screw the hedgehogs, they don’t vote), slots into place.

The words to watch for are words like “regional” and “pathway”. These are code for “national and international”.

In the coming month(s) a lot of breath will be expended to convince local people who are opposed to the proposed enclosures, pavings and wildlife killing that they are being selfish NIMBYs who don’t understand what is going on. A lot of soothing words will be prattled about healthy lifestyles, physical activity.

But what will get glossed over is that this is not about south Manchester softball teams and their need for a new home. Few will point out that sport has been used as a way of putting Manchester “on the map” since the mid-1980s. It’s passed into folklore now, but the two bids to host the Olympic Games were the pathway (to use a term I heard repeatedly from Council officers at the consultation event this morning) by which elected politicians and business leaders came to a rapprochement after some seriously bad blood in the 70s and 80s.

Since successfully bidding to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester City Council has continued to use sport as a way of branding the City – think the Velodrome, the Aquatic Centre, various sporting extravaganzas.

Sport is money, sport is reputation.

Hough End is not on that scale, of course, but it’s part of the bigger picture. Once you have some softball and baseball facilities, nicely placed near motorways and an airport, just watch the effort in turning it into a “destination facility”, with further development possible because the locals have become dispirited, apath-ised..

It may be the case that the various eloquent and informed folks who have very good grounds to object will be able to coalesce around a set of specific concerns. It may be that they are able to either significantly modify or completely push back the Council’s proposals. Or it may be that they are unable to co-ordinate, and cohere around some of the ecological impacts and local traffic impacts (or even, gasp, the climate impacts).

Regardless, Manchester City Council can be relied on to do what it has done previously, with sham consultations (Great Ancoats St, anyone?) and simply falsifying community feeling (Hyde Road widening, anyone?). We will see various local councillors agonise, wring their hands but mostly, ultimately, vote the way they are expected to. The calculation is that the majorities in the relevant wards are so enormous, the likelihood of a sustained political mobilisation against them that leads to electoral defeat so low, that decision-making that goes against a vocal minority (or even majority) of local residents’ wishes is a chance worth taking. Worst case scenario? A couple of councillors lose their seats. It’s just a risk they’ll have to take…

Dr Marc Hudson, 10th May, personal capacity.

Posted in Hough End | 1 Comment

What next for #climate action in #Manchester – never mind the ballots? #instapunditry #unsolicitedadvice #institutionalwork

Posted on May 7, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

TL:DR – it comes down to citizen action. It was always going to come down to citizen action, it will always come down to citizen action. Party politics is a) the shadow cast on society by big business (Dewey) and b) show business for ugly people. “Salvation” comes from citizen action. This article “analyses” (glibly glosses) the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, the Greens and Labour in #Manchester, speculates on what is coming up and closes out with that hardy perennial “what is to be done?” (Did I mention citizen action?).

First off, I suck at predictions. Take everything that follows with that in mind. I guessed plus two Lib Dems and plus zero Greens. What happened? Minus one Lib Dem and plus one Green.

Second, read the disclaimer at the end of this article.

Third, saddle up, mofos. If you want any sort of in-the-same-universe-as-adequacy response to the climate catastrophe, you ain’t getting it from our elected Lords and Masters. Nor from our unelected ones. As someone once said, we are the ones we have been waiting for…

Fun facts. There are 32 wards in Manchester – from Higher Blackely in the north to Woodhouse Park in the south. 3 councillors per ward. Each councillor gets a four year term. Elections usually take place 3 years out of 4.

Before today it was 92 Labour, 2 Lib Dem, two vacancies.

Now it is 94 Labour, 1 Lib Dem, 1 Green.

What does it mean for climate action? What role does each other parties play in this ecosystem? What next for each of them? What, more broadly, does the future look like for Manchester? What are “we” non-party-hack people of good-ish faith supposed to do? Also, that disclaimer.

Conservatives

The Tories are simply not a force here, and they know it. They run paper candidates, don’t bother to respond to invites to take part in hustings, don’t get their candidates to respond to climate commitments. They come a distant second in a handful of wards. Nationally they make a good (in several senses) excuse for the City Council’s inaction on a bunch of things that the City Council could be acting on. Beyond that, locally, fuggedaboutit.

Lib Dems

Oh my they will be disconsolate. In 2010 they had a third of the council seats in this city, chaired two scrutiny committees, thought they might take over in another 5 years with some luck. Then Nick Clegg did his deal to get a limo and some red boxes, thus enabling Cameron and Osborne and their vicious class war. Manchester voters did not forgive, and have not forgotten. The beachhead that they opened up in Didsbury West a few years ago, which saw John Leech followed by two other candidates, is now closing. One of the other two went to Labour, the other lost his seat this time round. The marginal-in-2019 seat of Withington is now safe Labour, and the City Centre did not turn out for them whatsoever.

They now have just the one councillor, Leech (will he sit on any scrutiny committees? We shall see). Labour will come for him at the next election. They will choose an energetic young campaigner (the demographics can be speculated on) and go hard. It’s not like they are defending any marginals elsewhere – they can afford to redirect people and money. Without a phalanx of other Lib Dem councillors who have been getting stuff done, getting name recognition, building morale, Leech will be exquisitely vulnerable. Obviously anything can happen, but the chances of a Lib Dem presence, let alone aresurgence, well… this was a good year to challenge Labour, and it’s not clear future years will be any easier… Some supporters and candidates will head for the exits (others of course will stick around, new ones may show up). Once you lose momentum though, it’s hard to attract and retain new folks (as various environmental groups have found/will find – the dynamics are the same.)

Personal prediction – Labour will take Didsbury West next year, the Lib Dems will not pick up any other seats and it will be 2013 to 2017 all over again…


Greens

I misunderestimated the Greens this year. Partly because I live so far from Woodhouse Park, partly because I was relying on now-outdated knowledge (like everyone else only maybe moreso, I can be intellectually lazy.)

The Greens now have a councillor again, for the first time since 2008.

Which scrutiny commmittee(s) will he sit on? What else will he do? He will obviously want to work very hard on local-to-Woodhouse Park issues, but will he also come out swinging on climate change (he signed up to the 3 climate commitments of Climate Emergency Manchester.

Will the Green Party of today (see above – a different beast to that of 15 years ago) be able to support him effectively in his ward?
What other target wards can the Greens seriously look at? They would need a two or three year strategy (at least!) given the size of Labour’s majorities everywhere else. Three options seem to be Whalley Range (their last target ward – they came unstuck in the all-out election in 2018), Fallowfield (too many students, who don’t vote? too close to the Withington and Moss Side strongholds?) and Piccadilly, where their paper candidate did very nicely indeed. This third option would allow them to talk about air quality but also the skyscraper-itis/developer-friendly ideology of Manchester Labour. They’d need a solid, media-friendly local-to-ward candidate who was definitely up for a minimum of 24 months of back-breaking slog to have even the faintest whiff of a chance…

The Greens will also have to find meaningful work for their new members (they will pick up some new members from this – nothing succeeds like success) and maybe some disaffected Lib Dems, and be (much much) better at retaining them than they were in that green surge of the mid 2010s. Do they have those skills and capacities? We shall see.


Labour

While all around (insert Hartlepool reference, insert Oldham reference blah de blah) Labour strongholds were falling, Manchester is still full of bast…ions of red.

Why? Oh, Brexit/Leave resentment not a thing here. Metropolitan/cosmopolitan. Habit. Inertia. It ain’t that tens of thousands have been lifted out of poverty by well-paid retail and service industry jobs, and the City Council’s ambitious redistributive and social justice efforts, it really isn’t.

What does this mean for climate action? It means that the forces of delay, derision and spin are as strong as ever, if not stronger. If Labour had gotten a bloody nose here (lost 4 seats to Lib Dems, and 1 to the Green), then those who think that a change should come would have had the wind in their sails. That ship has sailed/sunk (as has the image). The Glorious Leader MAY still step down next March (as some unsubstantiated rumour had it). And maybe it is in fact more rather than less likely, now that it would more clearly be his choice. Or maybe TGL will try to go on and on like a certain M. Thatcher. It’s unclear who the Heseltine is though…

Labour will continue to be wedded to the inward investment at all costs model that it has had since the 1987 election defeat of Kinnock. Climate and green issues will be thought of through that prism. The fact that they have suffered precisely zero electoral consequences for either the Great Ancoats St debacle or the Central Retail Park will massively strengthen the hand of the “smear the dirty hippies” brigade. Fun times.

Obviously some Labour councillors (old and new) “get it” and both know and act like it is an emergency (yes, I am in fact saying #NotAllLabourCouncillors). But they remain relatively few, relatively isolated. Others who were in that category have instead decided… well, there are very nasty libel laws in this country, so Imma move on…

What is coming up?

Oh, so a helluva lot is coming up before the actual apocalypse (pencilled in for 2030, since you ask). But of this we shall not speak in depth (because there is an official Climate Emergency Manchester post on this very topic on Monday. But this – the Manchester Climate Change “Agency” is now literally a headless chicken – they’ve failed to appoint a director twice already, and an employee who has been there since it was invented to replace the laughable “Stakeholder Steering Group” of 2010-2015, is moving on to pastures … well, different pastures. They are supposed to be putting together yet another wretched “framework” for the years 2022-5 (everyone’s lost count of how many relaunches, refreshes we are up to now).

They will try to

a) spin their way out of a carbon budget blow-out in September by going on and on and ON about COP26 and Glasgow (climate as opportunity to talk about Manchester on world stage, example 2353)

b) minimise the attack surface by treating the new Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee as shabbily as possible, and then some.

What is to be done?

  • Don’t expect the “parties” to do the heavy lifting (though the Greens will do the best they can).
  • Get involved in a group that is taking the acquisition, sharing and keeping-up-to-date of skills, knowledge and relationships seriously.
  • Get involved in a group that has the stomach, spine, feet, hands, mouth and brains for a prolonged, forensic, granular engagement with these issues, that can hold the Council to account, that can contribute to making a bigger, ever-more-densely-connected network of citizens, residents and organisations so that the truth is both told and acted upon.
  • On climate – and I am obviously entirely biased – I only know one group that comes close to fulfilling all those criteria (though in a year’s time, maybe there will be more).

Which brings us, diminuendo, to the disclaimer…

Disclaimer: The author of this piece, Dr Marc Hudson, is not a member of any political party. Never has been. IS a core group member of the infamous Climate Emergency Manchester. This above is his personal view, has not been seen before publication by any other CEM core grouper, does not represent blah blah etc All rights reserved. Cocker Protocol blah blah.

Posted in Unsolicited advice | Leave a comment

‘Historic moment’ as Green Party win first seat on Manchester City council since 2008

Posted on May 7, 2021 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Fun fact – the editor of this website was in Manchester Town Hall for the election count in May 2008 wen the Greens lost their Hulme seat by 50 votes (or may have heard gripping accounts and conflated them. A decade is a long time in politics.) Here below is a press release from the Green Party…

The Green Party has secured its first seat on Manchester City Council in 13 years, after unseating a long-standing Labour incumbent in the local elections on 6 May.

Councillor Rob Nunney was duly elected in the Wythenshawe ward of Woodhouse Park with 1,355 votes, taking the seat from Councillor Brian O’Neil, who has been a councillor in the ward for the last 17 years and received 1,180 votes.

Councillor Nunney and Green Party members have been campaigning in Woodhouse Park for the last three years and hoped to win a seat at the local elections in 2020, but missed out due to the Covid-19 pandemic which postponed all elections.

Winning the ward with 48% of the vote, Rob will now work to put in place his pledges to improve the Woodhouse Park area. 

Councillor Rob Nunney, newly elected member for Woodhouse Park ward in Manchester, said: “This is a historic moment locally for the Green Party as our first seat on the council since 2008, and I’m proud to be representing the residents of Woodhouse Park. I’m grateful to everyone who put their faith in me at the ballot box, and I promise to work hard for them to put pride back into Wythenshawe.

“It is clear that Woodhouse Park residents are tired of the status quo and are ready for a change. I hope not only to listen to their concerns and make sure that local voices are heard on the council, but to provide a fresh Green voice for all of Manchester.”

Rob Nunney will serve the residents of Woodhouse Park on a three-year term until 2024. He joins a small group of councillors who make up the opposition at Manchester City Council.

Manchester Green Party recently launched their local manifesto Our Vision for Manchester, which outlines the pledges Cllr Nunney will be pushing for in the council chamber, including ensuring Manchester meets its carbon-neutral target, creating affordable public transport, and protecting green spaces.

Chris Ogden and Stacey Wright, Co-Chairs of Manchester Green Party, said: “Rob has worked incredibly hard for the residents of Woodhouse Park for several years and we are delighted that his hard work has been rewarded. We have no doubt that Rob will be a fantastic servant for the ward.

“We are absolutely ecstatic to take our first seat once more on Manchester City Council, which is the first step to the Green Party’s growth in Manchester.”

Cllr Nunney will join other Green councillors across Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs including one in Stockport, with further results still awaiting announcement.

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