The Times They Are A Changin' [Part 1...]

The Bob Dylan song from the early 1960s sprang to mind earlier when I was thinking about coronavirus and its consequences, many of which are unprecedented.

Unprecedented… so, I looked this word up on a word analyser and discovered it was thought to be the 7,753^rd most common word in the English language, but I am guessing its position will have changed recently, jumping a few hundred positions lately in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Free and Open Source software used for GLD Challenge magazine 2019-20 was Scribus (for DTP), LibreOffice (for wordprocessing), Gimp (for editing photos) and Inkscape (for editing line diagrams). ( Kdenlive edits videos, Audacity edits sound. )

They can all be downloaded free for Macs, Windows and Linux. They are opensource: users can suggest and code improvements. Popular programs like these have many youtube tutorials.

The Case for Emergency Universal Basic Income: NOW

As I started writing this article my intention was to start from the general economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic and work my way towards my conclusion, but it was feeling too slow! So I am just going to dive in and say "NOW is the time to start with a Universal Basic Income (*UBI) and we can work out a more nuanced approach as we learn from experience"

The observant internal election "nerds" amongst you will perhaps recall that, although I did not quite manage to make it onto the Federal Conference Committee in the 2019 Party elections, I was actually "Last Man Standing" in the single transferable vote as the counts progressed!

I am happy to report that the FCC have reached out to me (prompted, kindly, by Duncan Brack, I gather) because they have decided to set up a subgroup to look at the issues that need to be addressed to make the Federal Conferences more environmentally responsible. The sub-group is chaired by the FCC Vice Chair Cara Williams and in a January email exchange we agreed that I should write a short piece inviting ideas from GLD members about changes that should be considered to progress the greening process. The original piece appeared on our website…

From the chair - 2020 vision

Hello all.

This is my first article for the GLD website as newly elected Chair of the Green Liberal Democrats. So, my first happy task is to say a big `thank you` to all of you who voted for me. My second task is to say `thank you` to Peter Bruce for a friendly `campaign` and an even bigger `thank you` to him for all the sterling work he has done over a considerable time as Vice Chair, Organisation.

The Proceedings of the 'How to Go Greener Day'

Organized by Beverley Methodist Circuit Social Responsibility Group

At Toll Gavel United Church Beverley, HU17 9AA

Saturday 30th March 2019 10.00am - 4.00pm

By Lara S H Blythe

Psalm 24: "The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it"

Putting the 'How to Go Greener Day' into perspective

Calling out Carbon Neutral target dates is pretty Meaningless Gesture Politics.

Background
Despite large demonstrations and media coverage, the general public's awareness of the seriousness of climate change had been developing only slowly, limiting public support for serious measures to tackle it.

Green Heroes Campaign

The General Election was a busy time for all of us, so you may have missed our Green Heroes Campaign on the GLD website?! We have no sure way of telling if it made any difference to votes, but we do know it was noticed (if anyone out there is ready to do a Ph.D. in political activism, there's a research project right there!) If you did not see it at the time visit our website and have a look at how we tried to boost our Green Heroes, from Pippa Heylings, our GLD exec member, through MP Wera Hobhouse, to Sir Ed Davey, MP, now our Party`s acting leader. And many, many, more!

No Bristol Airport Expansion

Bristol Council turned down planning permission for expansion of bristol airport after a campaign by Libdems and others Mary Page, the Bristol Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate, said: "The expansion plans seemed to be about running a car parking business, not one promoting connectivity and global business. "If Bristol is serious about tackling the climate emergency, then that means we need to be a good neighbour and take an interest in the activities of businesses in the next door council. Air pollution, CO2 emissions, and ecological interferences are all impacts of the expansion plans and we should, quite rightly, be concerned as these do not respect the arbitrary and artificial local authority borders.