If I was a poet, then this is what I would write: –
I did try to tell you, to warn you, to tell you, but you were shopping at the time.
I did try to tell you, to warn you, to tell you, but you were partying at the time.
Now I keep trying to tell you,
to warn you, to tell you,
but fear it might be too late.
One of the reasons why I have not been writing that much of late is because I’ve been doing a major spring cleaning, buying new furniture and replacing a lot of my bookshelves.
As with all such projects it takes a while to get it all completed.
Three questions.
I’ve also been going through all of my books, resorting, and weeding out the ones which I can no longer use.
In order to simplify this process I asked myself three questions, and If I got the following answers, then out they went.
Are they related to my key interest? No.
Will I ever get around to reading them again? No.
Can I get hold of them should I ever want them again? Yes.
Some of them I’m giving to fellow activists who can use then.
Some I’m giving to a specialist library.
While the rest of them I’m donating to my local radical bookshop as a way of supporting the work it does.
If I was still living in London they would of gone to Housmans bookshop.
Sorted.
Having almost completed this whole process I’m now better able to find all of the references which are needed for my campaigning work, and for anything else which I might use in my writings over the coming years.
I’ve been putting all of my books together by subject and Authors, & my CDs by type, composer, band, or singer.
The same kind of thing has been done with my DVDs.
Though in some cases I’ve put both books by specific Authors together with the DVD films of their works.
e.g. Those of J.R.R. Tolkien, H.G.Wells and Jules Verne.
A Great Advantage.
So now to take advantage of it all – – – – – – –
I get really tired of the argument about pensioners deserving better, as they were soldiers during World War Two.
Well for my generation of pensioners it was a case of working to stop wars. Be it in Vietnam, Biafra, & later on in the Falklands.
I am tired of those references by the young to rich pensioners, even though the state pension is so low that many pensioners have to survive on Housing benefit. 10% of all pensioners live below the poverty line.
I am tired of the young moaning about a later retirement age, even though they will be joining the work force many years after my generation did so.
I am tired on the many moans about student loans, when most of my and earlier generations were just not able to go to university. That was something which was well out of the reach of anyone who came from the working class.
Neither did we have the luxury of a gap year.
In contract almost all of the adult education courses have now been cut, and so our only option is self education. That’s something we have been engaged upon most of our lives.
I am tired of hearing moans about young people not being able to afford to buy a house to live in. Exactly the same applies to my generation.
They also have to remember just how bad some of the housing conditions were during an earlier age.
Though the real scandal is that there are very few places being built to facilitate independent living for older citizens. That’s the real housing crisis which we now need to address.
This might seem like me moaning, but we all have very different issues to face.
With just so few anti-nukilller power activists and groups there is always a very large amount of campaigning work which needs to be done.
Here is an account of just one aspect of this work, and why we need more people campaigning right now.
On the 15th of July the County’s Development Control and Regulatory Committee took the “delegated decision” to approve a plan on behalf of Cumbria to stack shipping containers of nuclear wastes ever higher and then to cap them and walk away.
Now for the follow up campaigning work, for which we will need much more help in the coming months, years, and decades.
Activist and Information worker.
The best library & Information worker share many of the same skills as good political activist.
For in order to do a little you have to know a lot.
Activism & Information work.
I never wanted to become a specialist or expert on any subject.
All I ever wanted to do was be a good all rounder,
and have a good working knowledge about just what does on in the work.
It took me a while to do it, but now I know and can chat about almost everything except for Celebs, current pop stars, various aspects of sport and what was or will be shown on television.
That’s the joy of all that !
Study and conclusions.
So I read a lot about various issues, which are political, economic, scientific, sociological, geological, and always highly technical in nature.
You just can’t work on these issues without doing so. Continue reading Activism & Information Work.
The way in which the nukiller power industry views any potential future ‘accidents’ or potential natural disasters, is based upon some very short term thinking.
Much of what forms such risk assessments is based upon the Historical Record.
Yet people have short memories, or think ‘it will never happen here’.
That would seem to be the line which is taken by the nukiller power industry.
Yet consider the following historical events.
– The East Midlands earthquake – 1185
– The Dover Straits earthquake – 1580
– The Great English earthquake – 1884
– The Swansea earthquake – 1906
&
– The Dogger Bank earthquake – 1931
For the nukiller industry it comes down to some very shaky thinking.
Flooding
Now consider the risk of flooding & rising tides at the Sizewell, Dungeness, Hinkley, and Heysham reactor sites. This is going to be a major problem to deal with over the next few years,
So lets go back to the Historical record, and the risk of Flooding on Romney Marsh.
400 BC the Dungeness area was under the sea.
It could well happen again.
Yet the Nukiller industry continues to take very short term view of such dangers, even thought the waste they produce will last thousands of years.
Sellafield
The thinking about what might happen to nukiller reactors is scary enough, but the prospects of what might happen to all of the radioactive waste make for a much more frightening scenario.
Here is just one industry report which illustrates what might happen at at sellafield, and how they plan to deal with it.
The Final Report to ONR on the application of the ENSREG Stress Tests to the Sellafield Site.
In this report there is a lot written about the various safeguards which have been, or will be put in place, but just look at the condition of the plant right now: –
Leaked Sellafield photos reveal “massive radioactive release” threat
Not Good !
Though the reality of what might happen can be seen by looking a the flood map for the area.
I might well be accused on banging on & on & on & on & on about these issues, but there are a very good set of reasons for doing so.
If anyone thinks EDF will find the money to build a new nukiller reactor at Hinkley, then they should start to look at the companies financial situation.
In last decade the share price has fallen from around 85 Euro to that of between 9 & 10 Euro.
Meanwhile the guestimated costs of the plant continue to rise.
It is because of these costs that the nukiller industry is now starting to push for smaller and what they say are cheaper reactors.
In the meanwhile UK energy consumption has dropped, and 25% of it is produced by wind turbines and other renewables.
To quote the quote: –
Just Do The Maths.
I keep reading about just how we need to prioritise various aspects of our campaigning to stop nukiller power, but it is not as simple as that.
The nukiller industry presents us with a series of related issues, and that’s why we do need to engage in some joined-up-campaigning.
Old ones in place of new build
Much of the current anti-nukiller-power campaigning work centres round stopping new build.
All the delays in stopping EDF building a new reactor at Hinkley might be considered something of a success, but it comes at a cost.
Now they want to extend the working life of their existing plants, such as the one at Heysham, by another five years.
This is on top of the previous operating extensions.
That could be very dangerous as these plants are already in a very unsound condition.
Nukiller Waste: – A Catch 22 problem.
Nukiller waste is one of the most difficult of issues which the industry faces, and thus one of the greatest arguments in terms of closing down all reactors now, and stopping new build.
It also presents something of a catch 22 situation.
Waste can not be kept at any of the coastal plants which are going to be subject to rising tides, and that’s something which we have as an immediate problem. Neither should it go to Sellafield which is highly polluted, and also has a potential flooding problem within the next few years.
What we don’t want is for any of this waste to be stored in any area which is geologically unstable, The industry talks about what to do with the waste in the short term, or at least until all they have to deal with is long term radioactive waste.
They are now looking for an ‘engineering solution’ by which the waste is isolated from the area in which it is stored. Though that would be very costly to do. It is of note that the guestimated cost of just cleaning up Sellafield will be circa £110 Billion over the next 100 year.
All of which makes for a series of complicated issues which we also need to consider.
I don’t have any solution to offer.
Though I do know that we do have to consider all of the above in terms of any campaigning we might be doing.
Next Problem – No thanks !
What the nukiller industry now is considering to do is build a lot of small scale, off the shelves, and therefore cheaper nukiller reactors.
They have still be be designed, will still produce a lot of radioactive waste, and take money away from sounder ecologically sounder methods of producing energy.
1916 – 2016
Military Service Act came in to force on March 2nd 1916. As a result many brave conscientious objectors ended up in Jail.
Next Wednesday [ March 2nd at 11.00. ] there will be an event to honour these men outside of Walton Jail in Liverpool.
That is where many of those brave men were incarcerated.
This includes people such as Fenner Brockway.
The event will involve a reading of the names of COs who were held in Walton jail, and some of the many WW1 COs from the Merseyside area.
After that there will be a brief name reading of just a few of the many COs who are currently held in prison throughout the world
This will be a unique event.
Please lets others know about it and come to it if you can.
The job of a political activist is to keep raising questions and alerting others to the various dangerous we all face.
After that it is on to the next question, and then the next question, until there are no more questions which need asking.
That’s fine for most issues,
but it only works when the issues are very clear,
or when it is very easy to put together all the information that’s to be found.
Yet what if information is being deliberately held back from us all?
Then much of the campaigning will revolve around finding out just what the facts might be.
This is very much so when it comes to campaigning about nukiller power, and undercover policing.
The lines which keep coming up include:-
– Commercial confidentiality.
– The Official secrets act.
&
All of which slow one down in terms of active campaigning.
That is why I am one of the 133 individuals who are calling for a list of all the political groups which were infiltrated by the police spies to be made public.
It’s a good just that the Undercover Research Group keeps working away to find out about the activities of former undercover police.
&
There is a very good network of anti-nukiller activists who share information with each other.
Mapping it out.
One of the most useful tools which I’ve discover in terms of looking at the nukiller issue are OS [ Ordinance survey ] maps, for they clearly show low lying lands near current the nukiller reactors.
After that I cross reference then with the UK flood maps
These maps clearly show what might well take place at these plants within the next 10 to 30 years.
The one for Dungeness is particularly interesting as it shows all the moorland to the north of the reactor site,
Many areas to the north and west are marked as: – Danger Area.
I’ll just keep looking at these maps, and keep asking just how new build can be justified while many of the existing reactors are going to be effected by rising tides.
There is no such thing as a fixed coast line.