Blog


Supporting the UK’s Single Most Effective Parliamentarian

So here’s a rather harsh irony: because of the fall in the Green Party vote compared to the 2015 General Election, Caroline Lucas (as the Green Party’s sole MP and Co-Leader) will see her support in Parliament halved – by around £8k a month. That ‘short money’ is calculated on the number of votes…

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Green Stars in a Sea of Mediocrity

I have to be honest: the whole idea of building a Progressive Alliance to take on the Tories in this Election (or ‘ABC: Anyone But the Conservatives’, as some of my friends put it!) is looking a little bedraggled. I was in Bristol West on Saturday, supporting the Green Party candidate, Molly Scott…

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Unilever versus Kraft/Heinz: Competing Models of Capitalism

For all sorts of reasons, the way people feel about corporate sustainability is influenced disproportionately by how well Unilever is seen to be doing through its Sustainable Living Plan. You can see why. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) is one of the most ambitious, one of the most…

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The Campaign to Save Wicklesham Quarry: Now or Never

When I was Director of Friends of the Earth, many, many years ago, I picked up a lot of knowledge from someone called Andrew Lees, who died, tragically, out in Madagascar in 1994. Andrew was a serious scientist (a zoologist, I think) but he was also very big on instinct. Before taking on the role…

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Why the Wonderful Wendell Berry Should Still be on Your Reading List!

I’m just reading ‘Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist’, Paul Kingsnorth’s collection of essays written over the last 15 years or so. It’s a good read – and very challenging for someone like me as a fully signed-up, still enlisted environmentalist. Or, rather, sustainable development…

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Take Courage! – O Ye of Little Faith! – from Earth Day

I can’t say I’ve been the biggest supporter of Earth Day over the years. Not really into formulaic anniversaries, especially when every day should be a bloody Earth Day as far as I’m concerned! But the most recent Earth Day (on Saturday) offered up a rich feast of hopeful signals! 1. DRAWDOWN…

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