Max Wallis: newsletter editor;
items and comments to wallismk@cf.ac.uk
Special
Conference Cardiff, 11 May.
main purpose - a rule-change to allow
long-serving officers to stay on and on and on
Members have stayed on the Welsh Council for years
longer than the 5 years maximum allowed in the Constitution, rotating officer
posts between them. The 5-years limit on
the Council was adopted from the main E&W Green Party Constitution, whose
purpose is to ensure renewal and guard against an inner group of old
hands. The new Wales Elections Officer
(ERO) ruled at the last AGM that the 5-year limit does apply, but he was supplied
with only 4 previous years results.
Several current officers have stayed in post despite exceeding the 5
years. Now, with the prospect of 3 or 4
having to leave, they propose not to modify the limit but scrap it entirely.
One safeguard against an in-group is to maintain a
moderate-sized quorum against such rule-changes. This gives context for the further
rule-change to reduce the quorum of 7% to only 4%.
Selection
of Wales GP list for 2014 Euro-parliament campaign
There are 5 Nominees for the 4 places, to decide
by ballot of all Members in Wales
Their applications are on the website http://my.greenparty.org but the personal statements are buried in zipped
pdf-files - you can wait to view them as
circulated with the ballot forms. The
two non-WGP Council candidates are not expected to attend the ‘hustings’ at the
11 May Conference.
See below for related letter to the Editor.
What
happened to the anti-fracking petition?
The Petitions
Committee on 17th March
2013 considered correspondence on the
petition and agreed to write to: (1) the Minister for Minister for Housing and Regeneration
highlighting the Welsh Local Government Association’s concerns about a lack of
guidance in relation to fracking; and·(2) ask the Environment and
Sustainability Committee to keep them updated on their consideration of the
issue. www.senedd.assemblywales.org/ieIssueDetails.aspx?IId=4537&Opt=3
FROM
WALES TO GAZA - All Wales Anti-Drones Conference
You'll have heard on the news about the UK being
used as a control centre for military UAVs - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones - and about the protest march that was
held at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire last weekend. A contingent from Wales travelled to the RAF
base to participate in the 600-strong protest.
Drone wars are particularly relevant
to Wales as Parc Aberporth in West Wales is a UAV flight testing site. The
Israeli military and Israeli company Elbit Systems are linked to the
Watchkeeper drones tested here, which have been used to target civilians in
Gaza.
Come and find out more about this at a
conference on Saturday 25 May, 1.30–5.30 pm Wallace Lecture Theatre, Main
Building Cardiff University, Park
Place. Entry free but donations of £5 appreciated,
Caroline Lucas is a member of the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Drones who have a
Blog
Bee-pesticide ban survives “furious” commercial lobbying
Biotech and
pesticides giants Syngenta and Bayer lobbied furiously against the vote for a
limited ban on three of their pesticides (see The Observer of 28th April). Private letters and emails
sent by these two companies and allied lobby groups to the EC as well as EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) are published by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
Though the UK switched to vote no on 29th, the commercial lobby failed to get a majority of
Member States to reject EFSA’s partial ban, and the Commission will implement
it.
Senedd vote for nuclear power
At the debate in the Senedd 24th April on the building of a new nuclear power station in Ynys
Môn, only the Lib Dems voted against. Labour confirmed their reversal of Rhodri
Morgan/Jane Davidson policy. Plaid Cymru despite policy against nuclear energy, had
Lord Elis-Thomas to speak in support of nuclear power on Anglesey, while others
apart from Ieuan Wyn Jones abstained. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/wylfa-nuclear-power-station-plan-3002628 Plaid’s energy policy has been
turned into a shambles by short-term electoral considerations, says their
former chair, John Dixon, in his blog: http://borthlas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/never-mind-it-will-never-happen.html
GP Local Election Results Broadcast at
http://youtu.be/4BcCi7Xr06M
The broadcast features Caroline Lucas talking on
Nationalisation; Abolish tuition fees; Scrap Trident; Transaction (Tobin) tax;
Fighting the cruel bedroom tax. The only
Welsh local government elections were in Anglesey where we – the sole
anti-nuclear party in Wales unfortunately had no candidates. The Green Party as
a whole made a net gain of five councillors, giving us 141 principal authority
councillors in England and Northern Ireland.
Natalie Bennett stated:
“in many cases local issues played a big part in our gains. But across the
country strong campaigning on the need to make the minimum wage a living wage,
to abolish zero-hours contracts and to build strong local economies centred on
small businesses and cooperatives that provides jobs workers can build a life
on have played a big part.”
Natalie added: “Energy and waste policies were also major
issues. The need to start a major energy conservation drive – particularly to
insulate homes to cut fuel poverty, provide jobs and cut carbon emissions – is
obvious, as is the need to provide a secure investment environment for
renewable energy, on and off-shore wind and solar, and eventually tidal.
“And Green campaigns against incinerators – a potential
millstone around councils’ necks for decades, as well as a waste of valuable
resources and destroyer of potential jobs - also won us many votes.
“The Green victories across the country are the product of
years of hard work and community campaigning. Our new councillors are embedded
in their communities, supported by strong local parties, with a track record of
achievement. They will ask the hard questions of council administrations,
scrutinise their activities and spending.”
Pippa
Bartolotti promoting Monetary Reform petition
Pippa is asking people to sign a petition on
Monetary Reform in Wales sponsored by Cymru Sofren / Sovereign Wales http://sovereignwales.com/ and asking for a new Bank of Wales. Their
petition is here https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=851
Lively
and up to the minute news and views from Bridgend Greens website.
News
of a survey for both Green Party activists and non-members to give some
concrete feedback on the performance of all our elected politicians and
Executive Officers. I’m hoping we’ll get a snapshot on the visibility of our
elected representatives and the perceptions the public have on their
effectiveness.
Chris Were, Wales Green Party deputy
leader on The Ideas of the Political Left and Right
A short video with Chris talking about concepts of the far left and the
right. General thoughts and ideals only,
he says, and would welcome comments at http://christopherwere.com/
Green
Left in Wales
Green Left is the ecosocialist, anti-capitalist group
within the Green Party of England & Wales. Andy Chyba
writes: given the strong socialist traditions in Wales, you may want to find
out more and join us. See http://www.thegreenleft.org and http://greenleftblog.blogspot.co.uk
Damning report on
Euro-list selection in London: 29th April
A GP special European Elections Tribunal on London region’s Euro-selection
processes and misuse of lists - my.greenparty.org.uk/files/European
Elections Tribunal Final Report 290413_0.pdf
Editor’s Note
The previous Newsletter in March provoked some
indignant reactions to my re-printing an item on GPRC secret court, which reported the expulsion of two GP
activists; also to my printing a tweet
from #GreenLeaksUK. A Cardiff Branch
meeting even demanded that I be expelled, ignoring the GP procedure on
complaints that the Branch itself had adopted.
As Editor, I listen to responses, but make no apologies for editorial
decisions within the remit laid down for the post.
The GPRC co-chairs under pressure agreed to reconsider the expulsions
at their meeting in June
Letter to the
Editor questions to Pippa Bartolotti
The Green Party tries to ensure our candidates for public office
have no skeletons that might come out later. Can
I pose questions on Pippa Bartolotti's explanations
given during the GP leadership campaign, for her responsibility as director of
Toucan Systems of Abertillery in supplying Thales military weapons company
(UK’s second largest defence electronics supplier)?
She wrote of “one replacement keyboard for Thales... a nuclear
establishment... equipment in a reactor environment”. That doesn't ring true -
one keyboard for an nuclear weapons company!
Another company, Encrypta Electronics had AB Electronics of
Abercynon as their major subcontractor, who in recent years assisted Thales in
equiping the new Warthog tanks for use in Afghanistan. Pippa was
director/manager and also part owner of Encrypta, and described it as:
“I worked for Encrypta Electronics, a Newport–based company which
manufactured and sold electronic devices which were to be fitted to the backs
of lorries... a miniaturised version was used on ballot boxes... AWRE (had) one
of these on trial... I left the company soon afterwards”.
AWRE, the UK's atomic weapons (research) establishment, say they
engaged Encrypta as consultant on security tags and seals for atomic weapons.
If this was for the nuclear weapons control treaty, could she be up-front and
proud of it?
How does Pippa describe the sale of half or more of the family
company Encrypta, then it going bankrupt in 2003, but the security locks business
continuing under new ownership (Unisto)?
Name and address supplied
Pippa Bartolotti's nomination form says nothing on the
above - as Editor, I asked Pippa if she’d supply a response. She declined with: I will
not answer questions from those hiding behind anonymity. My statements on all
these issues and more are in the public domain. Why not refer the member in
question to those? Pippa circulated
it to the WGP Council, who asked that her previous answer be reproduced in full
(Annex below). Other unverified information at http:/pippabartolotti.info/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bartolotti.
ANNEX
Answers 3rd July 2012 by Pippa Bartolotti
Answer to the Thales question
The world is not a perfect place, and we have to work with reality, not some
precious fantasy that there even exists a squeaky clean world. Toucan design
man-machine interfaces - the main business was in catering and hospital
equipment. Keeping good quality jobs in the valleys community of Abertillery
was something I was proud to do. In my time the company made one replacement
keyboard for Thales. You might think it would have been better to let a
nuclear establishment carry on with faulty equipment, but as Toucan was the
only company with the expertise to do the job, we erred on the side of
safety. Yes, between a rock and a hard place - but life is full of hard
decisions and no time to prevaricate. Would we have been right to allow
unsafe equipment in a reactor environment ? Of course not.
Answer to Encrypta question
I worked for Encrypta Electronics, which was set up in the recession of 1984.
The world is not a perfect place, and we have to work with reality, not some
precious fantasy that there even exists a squeaky clean world. Toucan design
man-machine interfaces - the main business was in catering and hospital
equipment. Keeping good quality jobs in the valleys community of Abertillery
was something I was proud to do. In my time the company made one replacement
keyboard for Thales. You might think it would have been better to let a
nuclear establishment carry on with faulty equipment, but as Toucan was the
only company with the expertise to do the job, we erred on the side of
safety. Yes, between a rock and a hard place - but life is full of hard
decisions and no time to prevaricate. Would we have been right to allow
unsafe equipment in a reactor environment ? Of course not.
Answer to Encrypta question
I worked for Encrypta Electronics, which was set up in the recession of 1984.
It was a Newport–based company which
employed 25 people, had a profit
sharing scheme and a turnover of about £2M. The business manufactured and
sold electronic devices which were to be fitted to the backs of lorries for the
sharing scheme and a turnover of about £2M. The business manufactured and
sold electronic devices which were to be fitted to the backs of lorries for the
avoidance of ‘shrinkage’(stuff falling
off the backs of lorries). Customers were
Marks and Spencer, Mothercare and
similar.
Over time we brought out a miniaturised version which was used on ballot
boxes in Spain. A request from AWRE to the sales dept resulted in them
having one of these on trial. It did not stand up to the conditions(whatever
Over time we brought out a miniaturised version which was used on ballot
boxes in Spain. A request from AWRE to the sales dept resulted in them
having one of these on trial. It did not stand up to the conditions(whatever
they were) . The story ended there,
and I left the company soon afterwards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inviting interest - WGP
deputyTreasurer
The
current treasurer, Chris Simpson, will have completed his five years in post at
the end of 2013. Wales Green Party Council would like to appoint a deputy
treasurer before Chris steps down, in order to make a smooth transfer. It takes
a few months to get new signatories and a new postal address agreed for the
bank account.
The
Treasurer is a full member of the WGP Council - responsibilities shown on the
website. Minimum requirements of the
treasurer:
1)
Undertake a workload
1 - 5 hours per week; contactable by telephone and email
2)
Able to use Word +
Excel, or equivalent open-source programmes.
3)
Provide a written
report to the AGM and each WGPC meeting (3 or 4 pa)
4)
Take overall
responsibility for the Party's financial management and share responsibility
for the running of Wales Green Party
5)
Approve and
countersign cheques on behalf of the Party
All
the information about the legal side of being the treasurer is available on the
Electoral Commission website; and
they always post any changes relating to any specific election well before the
election date. Their advice is comprehensive, well written and contains plentiful
examples to make it easy for those of us who are not trained in accountancy or
book-keeping.
Chris says he rarely spends more than 2
hours per week on treasurer duties, apart from one weekend in January when
preparing the annual accounts – the job is easier than people imagine! If you are interested in possibly taking
over as the new treasurer, please contact him at: christopher_s@btinternet.com.
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