Dr Who tackles climate change, corporate power and the world food crisis

The Green Death screened in 1973 was a slice of effective Green Party politics, very enjoyable (other than the dodgy hair cuts).

Evil corporation, illegal waste dumping, insane computer (who quotes Nietzsche and hums to Wagner), hippie heros and giant killer maggots.

In short perfect viewing.

The BFI notes:

Unusually, the hazard in The Green Death comes not from extraterrestrials, but from the greed and callousness of a large company, Global Chemicals. Its manager is unmoved by the deaths of miners caused by crude oil waste from his plant. He even obstructs an investigation, fearing the plant will be closed down. By ruthlessly pursuing profit at the expense of human lives and the local environment, he represents the audience's worst fears about scientific progress and 'big business'.
The early 1970s saw a gradual undermining of public faith in the industrial and technological programmes of the 1960s, alongside mounting social unrest. The protesting miners depicted in The Green Death foreshadow their real-life counterparts in the 1974 miners' strike. Most of the chemical plant staff, however, are brainwashed into obeying orders without question, and when one resists, he is forced by the plant computer to kill himself. These mindless, dehumanised workers refuse to take responsibility for the deaths and environmental damage their company is causing: they are simply 'obeying orders'.
By contrast, the free-thinking Nobel-prize winner Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan) is an advocate of moral and ecological responsibility in science, warning of the dangers of industrial waste and cultivating rare mushrooms in an attempt to solve the world's food shortage.

Increasingly confident Cameron's Christmas message celebrates Mrs Thatcher

Early Christmas present for students everywhere Lib Dem vote shredded to 45 votes

Westbourne ward by-election result in full from Brighton and Hove is worth a look, a Tory ward where little has changed but look at the Lib Dem wipe out, the European Citizens Party will soon be ahead of them.

Con 1027 39.2% +0.7%

Lab 826 31.5% +3.2%

Green 645 24.6% +0.6%

Lib-Dem 45 1.7% -5.5%

UKIP 36 1.4% +1.4%

TUSC 26 1% +1%

EC 13 0.5% -0.7%

Turnout 2618 35.1%

Swing 1.3% Con to Lab

Shame we didn't win but Lib Dems look unlikely to recover from the coalition.

Westbourne by-election result

Sorry that we didn't win but an encouraging result in a non target ward, Greens in Brighton and Hove continue to do well.

#westbourne by-election result Brighton and Hove #Conservative1,027, #labour 826, #greenparty 645 #greenparty

Occupy London tank on the streets of London!

Occupy London are preparing if necessary to ship out of St Paul's I am told and have occupied an old magistrates court.

Occupy inspire, it was great to get down a couple of times including giving an economics chat and I was also pleased to talk to Occupy Newcastle after an invite in October.

Great resource, great resistance.  The structures of a failed economy need transforming and these people have shown great leadership.

As Occupy London Stock Exchange occupation prepares to present its case at the High Court today, Occupy London supporters have liberated a disused court house – Old Street Magistrate’s Court – in London‘s East End alongside a group of military veterans, Occupy Veterans.
The opening of Occupy London’s fourth occupation, will see the movement conducting “trials of the one per cent” in the abandoned magistrate’s court building which has lain empty since 1996, despite its prime location and grade II listing.
More information about this abandoned magistrate’s court can be found at http://www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/mpa/2005/050224/10/.
To the one per cent – see you soon at Occupy Justice, formerly Old Street Magistrate’s Court, Old Street London EC1.

Ha ha nice video as well,

'Blood of the Amazon' must see film!

Indigenous defence of the world is so important!  Please spread the word about Nicola Peel's film Blood of the Amazon.

It charts the journey of a women from Pulborough, Sussex down the Amazon from Ecuador looking at the damage oil companies are doing.

The Amazon is us, indigenous people are in the frontline of action to challenge the destruction of the planet.

Must significantly they are winning victories, please support them and support the film. There is a showing on 29th December, 8pm - 10.30pm at the Fire Station Arts Centre in Windsor with a Q and A with Nicola.

If you want to arrange a film showing you can contact Nicola on nicolapeel@eyesofgaia.com  


Th

Keith Thomas trashes the Research Excellence Framework

University research in the UK is an increasingly absurd pursuit, all about government targets that discourage publishing substantial pieces of work according to Keith Thomas:

We must press for changes to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), formerly the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). In my experience, this operation, though initially a stimulus, has in the longer run had appalling effects. It has generated a vast amount of premature publication and an even larger amount of unnecessary publication by those who have nothing new to say at that particular moment, but are forced to lay eggs, however addled. In the social sciences, it has discouraged the writing of books, as opposed to specialist articles, and by making peer review the ultimate arbiter it has very probably enshrined orthodoxies and acted as a curb on intellectual risk-taking and innovation. Everywhere, it has led to an unwelcome shift in academic priorities, for younger faculty have been encouraged to do all they can to secure outside research grants which will allow them to escape from teaching, which they now regard as a vastly inferior activity; and it has induced vice-chancellors to emulate football clubs by buying in outside ‘stars’ on special terms and conditions.
The RAE has also been absurdly rigid in its requirements. A few years ago, a colleague in another university published a huge book, based on a vast amount of archival research, meticulously documented, beautifully written and offering a new and formidably argued reinterpretation of a major historical event. I remarked to a friend in that university that this great work would certainly help their prospects in the RAE. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘We can’t enter him. He needs four items and that book is all he’s got.’ At a recent meeting of the editorial board of a multi-volume historical project, the question arose of what should be done if some of the chapters submitted proved to be unsatisfactory. The obvious answer was to delay publication until they had been properly revised. But it was at once pointed out that this would be very hard on the other contributors, who were relying on their work appearing in time to be included in the REF. So if the worst happens, we shall face an intolerable choice: should we meet the REF deadline at all costs? Or is our primary obligation to ensure the quality of the completed work? There must be hundreds of scholars who are currently confronting the same dilemma

MORE HERE