Paul Crossley

Whilst we here in the UK hold our election in peace and conduct our disagreements through debate and democracy the poor citizens of Zimbabwe are going through hell. It is interesting to see the video clips on the sokwanele link to the left or click here and see the peoples boycott of this sham poll.

At least the world seems to be finally waking up to the brutality of this regime and speaking out. This election result should not be recognised by the international community. Lets us pray that the thugs do not now go on the rampage against the non-voters.

Morgan, the MDC and the people have displayed dignity and real courage in the face of intimidation. In many ways it puts us to hame with our low turnouts. In Zimbabwe the grafitti V is vacation from voting not for vitory.

Well done to Stephen Kearney and all the helpers. If the key issue for people is the green belt it is strange that the people of Henley have elected a dedicated green belt developer. Still that's life. Our vote went up 2% despite the pressure from the Conservatives.

More detail on this result and speach from Stephen - click here 

Thursday 26

The Royal High School in Bath put on an excellent Climate Change Conference today with over a 100 young people attending from 6 schools. There were a range of presentations in the morning from an activist, a charity, an employer, an eco-entrpreneur and me as the local politician. My contribution was on the impact of our lifestyles through the waste we generate and I contrasted two solutions - the unsustainable, hugely costly and deeply unsound incineration route being pushed hard by the Government with the philosophy/policy of Zero Waste which we, in Bath, were the first local authority in the UK to adopt and pursue. However the star of the morning was a young South African poet from London called Bruce whose poetry was amazing.

The afternoon started with a group song led by a local community choir leader, Chris Samuels. We sang a tribute to Wangari Maathai who is a leading lady in the African Green Belt movement, and then had a series of workshops. I led two on reducing Carbon Footprint of schools, homes and individuals. I was impressed by the knowledge and ideas they generated and their commitment to take them back to their schools and homes.

Yesterday I heard that a national newspaper survey showed that a majority of the population are still not convinced about climate change and global warming!

I wonder what will convince the sceptics. We have less than 10 years to halt and reverse the CO2 damage to our planet. One thing is for sure Mother Earth will heal over time and adapt and survive but the more damage we inflict, the harder the recovery will be. The question is will the human race be there if the climate gets hotter and hotter? We already have all the solutions we need to solve the problem. Lets get on with it.

Wednesday 25

I attended my first meeting of the Youth Libraries Board today. An appointment I got through my LGA responsibilities. It was a very good and constructive meeting of professionals with me being the only elected representative on it. The main item of business was the future work, meetings structure and plans. I managed to get the committe to agree that as we were a Youth Libraries board it would be a good idea to have a young person on it (perhaps someone from the Youth Parliament) and that we should invite the IDEA to see if we could get a member from one of the growing band of young councillors being elected around the country. Lets see what happens.

This weekend several Liberal Democrats went up on both the Saturday and the Sunday to help Stephen Kearney in the Henley election campaign. I went up on Sunday. I had not been to Thame for many years since I lived in Chinnor betwen 1979 and 1982. I did not seem to have changed at all. Our team was sent out leafletting to the village of Benson. The standard of the literature is very good. But a lot has been going out from the parties. When we filled up with petrol in Thame the first comment was from a guy saying 'all us Labour voters is voting for you this time.' The village we went to was very Conservative though. It will be interesting to see the outcome.

From L to R Roger Crouch, Shirley Wilkins, me, Nathan Hartley and Ian Gilchrist

Today was the third and best todate Widcombe Rising Street Festival. I love street festivals. They bring communities together, reroute traffic and have a real buzz as local people create their own carnivals. Widcombe has a range of creative talent and lots of it was on show today. The Naturals and Lady Margaret are always great fun. The Widdicombe warblers had us dancing in the street and Grenville brought two of his choirs along - The Bath Male Voice Choir and the Stockingtops. Lots of other goodies and all the shops (except one national chain) participated and supported the day.

Our MP Don Foster was there too. In the Background is Mrs Willkins Shilling dancing.

More pictures available on photoblog. 

Morgan Tsvangirai' s bravery and that of all MDC activists and supporters in the face of the brutality of the Zimbabwe regime is truly inspirational for all people round the world who believe in democracy and the rule of law. It is absolutely tragic how quiet the world's leaders are in the face of the brutality facing the MDC. Mugabe has even said he will unleash civil war rather than concede to Morgan. What madness is it that lets him get away with this and that keeps the other Southern African leaders so quiet.

Yesterday in my own ward of Southdown I was talking to a Zimbabwean family and sharing the grief and horror they are living through. More details of the situation in Zimbabwe are at the Sokwanele blog link on the right.