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Well, seems they're beginning to get a handle on the basic issue -- but can
they follow through with real and appropriate policy?

P.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/12/imf-world-risks-triple-
crisis-christine-lagarde

IMF chief Christine Lagarde warns world risks triple crisis

Lagarde says world risks falling incomes, environmental damage and social
unrest without more sustainable approach to growth

Phillip Inman, Guardian On-line, Tuesday 12th June 2012


Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has warned
that the world risks a triple crisis of declining incomes, environmental
damage and social unrest unless countries adopt a more sustainable approach
to economic growth.

Ahead of the Rio+20 Earth summit later this month, she said the rich should
restrain their demands for higher incomes while there are still 200 million
people worldwide looking for a job and poverty is on the rise.

Giving her clearest backing yet to green taxes and a range of measures to
protect the environment, she argued for taxes on petrol-guzzling cars among
a range of green measures to tackle climate change.

"It has been 20 years since world leaders first went to Rio to commit to the
noble goal of protecting the planet for future generations. And now, 20
years on, we will be journeying back to Rio to affirm our commitment to
sustainable development – the idea that we should strive for economic
growth, environmental protection and social progress at the same time," she
said in a speech in Washington on Tuesday.

"The idea that different economic, environmental and social objectives can
be seen as distinct aspects of a single vision, essential parts of a
connected whole."

But she said the current economic crisis in Europe and slowing growth
worldwide, coupled with the growing threat from climate change and social
tensions could wreck the efforts of leaders to chart a more sustainable
future.

"Over the past four years, we have been mired in the worst economic crisis
since the Great Depression. And we are not out of it yet.

"In fact, tensions are on the rise again, and financial stability risks have
once more moved front and centre. Great uncertainty hangs over global
prospects.

"Too many regions today are still stuck in a trap of low growth and high
unemployment," she said.

"Right now, 200 million people worldwide cannot find work, including 75
million young people trying to take their first step on the ladder of
success.

"So we need a strategy that is good for stability and good for growth –
where stability is conducive to growth and growth facilitates stability."

Lagarde, a right-wing former French finance minister, recently caused a
storm of controversy after she accused Europeans of blocking progress to
end the current financial crisis. Asked if she sympathised with Greeks
impoverished by austerity measurers demanded by Brussels, she said the
children of Niger were more her concern. It also emerged that Lagarde pays
no tax on her $467,940 (£298,675) a year salary.

Ahead of the summit, she said taxes on petrol and other carbon fuels could
raise billions of dollars for green investment projects. "Right now, less
than 10% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are covered by formal
pricing programmes. Only a handful of cities charge for the use of
gridlocked roads. Farmers in rich countries are undercharged – if charged
at all – for increasingly scarce water resources."

She added: "Many countries continue to subsidise polluting energy systems.
These subsidies are costly for the budget and costly for the planet.
Countries should reduce them. But in doing so, they must protect vulnerable
groups by tightly focusing subsidies on products used by poorer people, and
by strengthening social safety nets."


- --

.

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul's book, "Energy Beyond Oil", is out now!
For details see http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ebo/

Read my 'essay' weblog, "Ecolonomics", at:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ecolonomics/

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey@...
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey-2011.asc

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From: Ian

To: diggers350@yahoogroups.com ; theLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:21 PM

Subject: [TheLandIsOurs] Latest news from Windsor diggers

 

Latest news from Windsor diggers.

http://diggers2012.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/latest-from-windsor-diggers/

Alright TLIO folks,

We need you all to help mobilise folks to come and protest at the
agricultural investment summit on the 26th of June in London. Anyone
got time to help??? Mark is organising a samba band to come and there
are bound to be scythes... I can explain more and will send out a
proper call out- but we really need to get out for this.

Thanks,

Jyoti
<jyoti@...>

Latest news from Windsor diggers.

http://diggers2012.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/latest-from-windsor-diggers/



Latest from Windsor Diggers
by nettleship

Despite things not quite working out as planned at the weekend with the
hay-field incident, the rain, and one arrest for breach of an Olympic ASBO(!),
the camp is alive and well with a small group of dedicated Diggers in the
woodland near Runnymede (the birthplace of our supposed Democracy)  on Cooper’s
Hill in Surrey. The police did continue to follow us and have been present with
torches and harassment but Royal Holloway University who own the specific piece
of land on which the camp is currently situated have not yet attempted to serve
court papers, so for now we are staying put and ignoring any attempts at
intimidation. We invite everybody to join us, especially those who have become
dispossessed due to the unequal and cruel nature of our system of crises.

There is a map of our location below. You can call or text the site phone 07963
475 195 for more information.

Directions to the camp:
If walking up the mud track from Egham town look out for the orange cones on
your left – these mark the point at which to enter the woods and you’ll see the
camp. The nearest train station is Egham,about 25 mins walk. If you want to get
nearer the camp by public transport you can get on the Slough bus from Egham
town and get off at the stop before the top of Priest Hill, Englefield Green.
That saves you a walk up a steep hill and is ten mins from the camp.

(click to enlarge)


The group will be camped at this spot until Saturday 16th June.

On Saturday at 1pm we will have a meetup at the Magna Carta Monument to discuss
freedom, democracy and of course plans for the future. Please bring camping
equipment – tent, sleeping bag, cup, supplies etc… if you wish to join the camp.
Whilst scouting around the area we have discovered ample disused land on which
to grow food and communities. The site for the community is a secret for the
moment.

CLICK HERE FOR MAP OF MEET UP LOCATION
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Runnymede,+magma+carta+monument&hnear=Magna+Car\
ta+Monument,+Englefield+Green,+Surrey,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=15

21st century Diggers camped at Cooper's Hill, met on Saturday afternoon at the
nearby Runnymede monument where Magna Carta was signed on 15th June 1215 at to
discuss their ideas about freedom and the right of people around the world to
shelter and grow food on disused land.
Pictures and text on Demotix at:
http://www.demotix.com/news/1281879/runnymede-diggers-call-freedom-london

On June 9th, the group had travelled overnight to Windsor Great Park having
identified disused land on crown estate land. [See original report here:
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12379 ]. The intention, a weekend after the
Queen's Diamond Jubilee, was to grow food, live sustainably and restore and
build structures in a responsible way, rather like a re-intepretation of the
origin of the word Jubilee - returning land to it's orginal inhabitants.
Pre-emptive injunctions were served on them before they had even set off. They
had planned to set up an ecovillage camp on what had been identified as a
disused farm (confirmed by a local in a days prior to the occupation), but when
they settled on the site, the crown estate legal team produced a "farmer" who
said it was a hay meadow which was soon to be cropped for sileage (a comment
made was that there will be a lot of nettles in that sileage for sure)!

After a game of cat and mouse with Thames Valley Police who followed the
intrepid diggers where-ever they walked (they attempted to settle on another
site close by, but police were already waiting for them there and stopped them),
the group spent the night on a site near Runnymede.

By Monday 11th, the group found a spot of woodland belonging on Coopers Hill
near Runnymede where they settled down. The site is owned by Royal Holloway
University. However, on Monday, Simon Moore was arrested at the site. Simon was
involved earlier this year in
trying to protect Leyton Marsh from a development ordered by the Olympic
Delivery Authority, given planning consent by the Authority as the developer due
to their sancrosanct planning powers, and which was a development which would
ordinarily have failed planning consent on principle, but which was passed
purely because of the Olympics. (see
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12042).

Simon was part of the occupy camp at the leyton Marsh occupation and was one of
several people arrested on the eviction day - he was imprisoned for five days as
a result (http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12049).

On his release from prison, he was served an ASBO by a police officer
(http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12092). among many draconian terms mainly
designed to stop his interfering with any Olympic or Jubilee events, there was
also a clause preventing him from entering any building or land without the
owner's permission. It was this section that was cited in his arrest.

On Thursday 14th June, a full hearing on Simon's currently 'interim' ASBO was
held at the new Westminster Magistrates Court in Marylebone. A report and a full
statementof what happened at: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12408

Westminster Magistrates Court District Judge Purdy announced his verdict on
Monday morning, deciding to authorise the ASBO. Report here:
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12434

As of today (18th June), the camp at Coopers Hill near Runnymede remains.

Directions to the camp:
If walking up the mud track from Egham town look out for the orange cones on
your left - these mark the point at which to enter the woods and you'll see the
camp. The nearest train station is Egham,about 25 mins walk. If you want to get
nearer the camp by public transport you can get on the Slough bus from Egham
town and get off at the stop before the top of Priest Hill, Englefield Green.
That saves you a walk up a steep hill and is ten mins from the camp.

Historical significance of Runnymede:

The Witan, Witenagemot or Council of the Anglo-Saxon Kings (composed of the most
important noblemen in England including ealdormen, thegns and senior clergy) of
the 7th to 11th centuries was held from time to time at Runnymede during the
reign of Alfred the Great. The Council met usually in the open air, and
established rights for commoners in a period thought to have been one of the
most harmonious in the history of the British Isles. After the Norman conquest
when William the Conqueror restored the Imperial Roman principle of all land
belonging to the monarch and carved up the British Isles among his family and
allies, this council of noblemen which existed to inform as much as regulate the
power of the King, was usurped. In 1215, under pressure from noblemen, King John
sealed the Magna Carta after pressure from the country's noblemen was reasserted
to write down in law many of the freedoms which existed before 1066 (it is
thought popular rebellion and mass pressure not so well highlighted by
historians of this period forced nobelmen to assert these changes to the King).
It is said the political organ of the council of nobelmen was also transformed,
influencing the creation of England's 13th century parliament.

BBC London & South East News report copied below (pics available on BBC report
url).

The Grow Heathrow land occupation is in court in the latest leg of a legal
battle to fight eviction. The hearing, taking place at Central London County
Court, will run over 2 days concluding Tuesday 19th June. Grow Heathrow want to
purchase the plot through a Community Land Trust (CTL), and keep it in the hands
of local people. The derelict site, in Vineries Close, was taken over in March
2010 by Transition Heathrow, a group of activists fighting proposals for a third
runway.

This hearing is the latest part of a legal battle which started in September
2010 and has been adjourned 3 times. At the last hearing at Uxbridge County
Court in November 2011, the judge referred the case to a senior district judge,
accepting that the group had squatters rights, and heed should be paid to their
right to respect for their home, under Article 8 of the European Convention on
Human Rights (ECHR).

The Central London County Court is located directly south of Regents Park; just
off Marylebone Road.



Grow Heathrow: Green-fingered squatters' eviction fight
By Andy Dangerfield BBC News, London
Mon 18 June 2012
Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18460865

Squatters are rarely the most popular residents in a neighbourhood.

But on Vineries Close in Sipson, west London, resides a group of squatters many
of the local people are keen to see stay.

Residents say they like the occupants because they have turned what was once a
"derelict mess", into a thriving market garden.

The squatters have renovated greenhouses and grow lettuces, courgettes and
squashes that would raise the eyebrow of many an organic greengrocer.

They also happen to be on a site that sits directly in the path of where
Heathrow Airport's third runway was to be built - a location in many of their
neighbours' interests to protect.

But the squatters - who call themselves Grow Heathrow - face possible eviction
as the owner of the land wants to remove them from the site.

Imran Malik solicitor's Stephen Phillips said: "Mr Malik is the legal owner of
the land and, as such, is entitled to possession of it."

A hearing at Central London County Court begins on Monday.

It is expected to weigh up the human rights and hard work of those who have
moved in against the simple fact the land is not theirs.
'Scrapped cars'

Grow Heathrow claims the land had "previously been problematic for the local
community and was often a site of anti-social behaviour before it was virtually
abandoned".

It says it cleared "30 tonnes of rubbish" when squatters moved onto the land.
Grow Heathrow, Photo by Jonathan Goldberg Grow Heathrow says it cleared "30
tonnes of rubbish" when it moved onto the site

"There were needles, there was broken glass, there were scrapped cars, and we
found a whole tank of diesel," said Olive Morris from Grow Heathrow.

But the landowner's solicitor responded: "Mr Malik was not himself responsible
for the state of the site prior to its occupation by Grow Heathrow."

"It was caused by a tenant of his."

But even if the land has been tidied up, is this not a bit like getting into
someone else's house, redecorating it, and then saying because you have done
that you are entitled to it?

"We were asked by the community residents to come here and to make it something
they could be proud of," responded Ms Morris.

Grow Heathrow also claims to share practical skills such as permaculture design,
bicycle maintenance and wood and metal work with the community.

Joe Rake, also from Grow Heathrow, said: "We want to continue the work we do
with schools, youth clubs and the residents' association."

A Harmondsworth and Sipson Residents' Association (HASRA) spokesperson said:
"Their tireless efforts and support have regenerated enthusiasm for community
working that inspires the many people who visit."
'Attempted negotiation'

Meanwhile, local Labour MP John McDonnell said: "Grow Heathrow have taken a
derelict site that has caused local residents numerous problems and transformed
it into a beautiful area, serving the whole community."

But Mr Malik's solicitor responded: "Whilst no doubt Grow Heathrow have put in a
lot of work in clearing up and improving the site, at the end of the day this
gives them no legal right to continue trespassing on the land.

"As for the future, Mr Malik has his own plans to utilise the site in ways that
he considers will be of benefit to the local community."

The squatters said "during months of attempted negotiations" they have tried to
purchase the land as part of a community land trust.

But Mr Phillips said: "Although there have been offers to buy the site from Mr
Malik, they have been for sums that are too low to even consider."

To remain on the land, the squatters have a tough battle on their hands, but if
they win the case could set a precedent for land use elsewhere.

A previous court case for possession of the land at Uxbridge County Court in
November 2011 was adjourned because the judge accepted some of the defendants'
arguments which were based upon Article 8 of the European Convention on Human
Rights - the right to respect for private and family life - meaning a higher
authority was needed to rule on the case.

Mr Phillips said: "As regards the Human Rights Act issues that have been raised
in the defence, and that Article 8 applies to the claim, if the Court were to
uphold this it would fundamentally transform the law on possession actions, even
against private tenants."

The coalition government has ruled out building a third runway at Heathrow. An
aviation consultation will publish its findings this summer.

The hearing over Vineries Close is expected to last for two days.

The West Aims to Turn the Entire Global South into a Failed State
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/12/the-west-aims-to-turn-the-entire-global-south-\
into-a-failed-state/
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=161346#161346
by Dan Glazebrook / December 8th, 2011

The economic collapse that began in 2008, that
was duly declared unpredictable and thoroughly
unforeseen across the entire Western media, was,
in fact, anything but. Indeed, the capitalist
cycle of expansion and collapse has repeated
itself so often, over hundreds of years, that its
existence is openly accepted across the whole
spectrum of economic thought, including in the
mainstream – which refers to it, in deliberately
understated terms, as the “business cycle”. Only
those who profit from our ignorance of this
dynamic – the billionaire profiteers and their
paid stooges in media and government – try to deny it.

A slump occurs when “capacity outstrips demand” –
that is to say, when people can no longer afford
to buy all that is being produced. This is
inevitable in a capitalist system, where
productive capacity is privately owned, because
the global working class as a whole are never
paid enough to purchase all that they
collectively produce. As a result, unsold goods
begin to pile up, and production facilities –
factories and the like – are closed down. People
are thrown out of work as a result, their incomes
decline, and the problem gets worse. This is
exactly what we are seeing happen today.

In these circumstances, avenues for profitable
investment dry up – the holders of capital can
find nowhere safe to invest their money. For
them, this is the crisis – not the unemployment,
the famine, the poverty etc (which, after all,
remain an endemic feature of the global
capitalist economy even during the ‘boom times’,
albeit on a somewhat reduced scale). The
governments under their control – through
ownership of the media, currency manipulation and
control of the economy – must then set to work
creating new profitable investment opportunities.

One way they do this is by killing off public
services, and thus creating opportunities for
investment in the private companies that replace
them. In 1980s Britain, Margaret Thatcher
privatised steel, coal, gas, electricity, water,
and much else besides. In the short term, this
plunged millions into unemployment, as factories
and mines were closed down, and in the long term
it resulted in massive price rises for basic
services. But it had its intended effect – it
provided valuable investment opportunities (for
those with capital to spare) at a time when such
opportunities were scarce, and created a long
term source of fabulous profits. This summer, for
example, saw the formerly publicly owned gas
company Centrica hiking its prices by another 18%
to bring in a £1.3billion profit. The raised
prices will see many thousands more pensioners
than usual die from the cold this winter as a
result, but gas – like all commodities in
capitalist society – is not there to provide heat, but to increase capital.

In the global South, privatisation was harsher
still. Bodies like the IMF and the World Bank
used the leverage provided by the debt-extortion
mechanism (whereby interest rates were hiked on
unpayable loans that had rarely benefited the
population, often taken out by corrupt rulers
imposed by Western governments in the first
place) to force governments across Asia, Africa
and Latin America to cut public spending on even
basics such as health and education, along with
agricultural subsidies. This contributed
massively to the staggering rates of infant
mortality and deaths from preventable disease, as
well as to the AIDS epidemic now raging across
Africa. But again the desired end for those
imposing the policies was achieved, as new
markets were created and holders of giant capital
reserves could now invest in private companies to
provide the services no longer available from the
state. The profit system was given a new lease of
life, its collapse staved off once again.

The World Bank’s closure of the Indian
government’s grain rationing and distribution
service, for example, meant that a scheme
providing affordable grain to all Indian citizens
was closed down, allowing private companies to
come in and sell grain at massively increased
prices (sometimes up to ten times higher). Whilst
this has led to huge numbers of Indians being
priced out of the market, and a resulting 200
million people now facing starvation in India, it
has also led to record profits for the giant
private companies now holding the world’s grain
stocks – which is the whole point.

This round of global privatisation from the 1980s
onwards, however, was so thorough that when the
2008 crisis hit, there were few state functions
left to privatise. Creating investment
opportunities now is much trickier than it was
thirty years ago, because so much of what is
potentially profitable is already being thoroughly exploited as it is.

In Europe, what is left of public services is
hastily being dismantled, as right wing political
leaders happily privatise what is left of the
public sector, and currency speculators use their
firepower to pick off any country that attempts
to resist. David Cameron, following the path
forced on the global South over recent decades,
for example, is busy opening up Britain’s
National Health Service to private companies, and
massively cutting back on public service
provision for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the jobless.

In the global South, however, there is little
left for the West to privatise, as successive IMF
policies have long ago forced those countries in
their grip to strip their public services to the bone (and beyond) already.

But there is one state function which, if fully
privatised across the world, would make the
profits made even from essentials such as health
care and education look like peanuts. That is the
most basic and essential state function of all,
indeed the whole raison d’etre for the state: security.

Private security companies are one of the few
growth areas during times of global recession, as
growing unemployment and poverty leads to
increased social unrest and chaos, and those with
wealth become more nervous about protecting both
themselves, and their assets. Furthermore, as the
Chinese economy advances at a rate of knots,
military superiority is fast becoming the West’s
only “competitive advantage” – the one area in
which it’s expertise remains significantly ahead
of its rivals. Turning this advantage, therefore,
into an opportunity for investment and profit on
a large-scale is now one of the chief tasks
facing the rulers of Western economies.

A recent article in the Guardian noted that
British private security firm Group 4 is now
“Europe’s largest private sector employer”,
employing 600,000 people – 50% more than make up
the total armed forces of Britain and France
combined. With growth last year of 9% in their
“new markets” division, the company have “already
benefited from the unrest in north Africa and the
Middle East.” Group 4 are set to make a killing
in Libya, following the total breakdown of
security, likely to last for decades, resulting
from NATO’s incineration of the country’s armed
forces and wholesale destruction of its state
apparatus. With the rule of law replaced by
warfare between rival gangs of rebels, and no
realistic prospect of a functioning police force
for the foreseeable future, those Libyans able to
manoeuvre themselves into positions of wealth and
power will likely have to rely on private security for many years to come.

When Philip Hammond, Britain’s new Defence
Secretary and a multi-millionaire businessman
himself, suggested that British companies “pack
their suitcases and head to Libya”, it was not
only oil and construction companies he had in
mind, but private security companies.

Private military companies are also becoming huge
business – most famously, the US company
Blackwater, renamed Xe Services after its
original name became synonymous with the
massacres committed by its forces in Iraq. In the
USA, Blackwater has already taken over many of
the security functions of the state – charging
the Department of Homeland Security $1000 per day
per head in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,
for example. “When you ship overnight, do you use
the postal service or do you use FedEx?” asked
Erik Prince, founder and chairman of Blackwater.
“Our corporate goal is to do for the national
security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal
service”. Another Blackwater official commented
that “None of us loves the idea that devastation
became a business opportunity. It’s a distasteful
fact. But that’s what it is. Doctors, lawyers,
funeral directors, even newspapers – they all
make a living off of bad things happening. So do
we, because somebody’s got to handle it.”

The danger comes when the economic climate is
such that the world’s most powerful governments
feel they must do all they can to create such
business opportunities. During the Cold War, the
US military acted (as indeed it still does) to
keep the global South in a state of poverty by
attacking any government that seriously sought to
challenge this poverty, and imposing governments
that would crush trade unions and keep the
population cowed. This created investment
opportunities because it kept the majority of the
world’s labour force in conditions so desperate
they were willing to work for peanuts. But now
this is not enough. In slump conditions, it
doesn’t matter how cheap your workforce is if
nobody is buying your products. To create the
requisite business opportunities today – a large
global market for its military expertise –
Western governments must impose not only poverty,
but also devastation. Devastation is the quickest
route to converting the West’s military prowess
into a genuine business opportunity that can
create a huge new avenue for investment when all
others are drying up. And this is precisely what
is happening.  David Cameron is, for once,
telling the truth, when he says “Whatever it
takes to help our businesses take on the world – we’ll do it.”

As The Times put it recently, “In Iraq, the
postwar business boom is not oil. It is
security.” In both Iraq and Afghanistan, a
situation of chronic and enduring instability and
civil war has been created by a very precise
method. Firstly, the existing state power is
totally destroyed. Next, the possibility of
utilising the country’s domestic expertise to
rebuild state capacity is undermined against by
barring former officials from working for the new
government (a process known in Iraq as
“de-Ba’athification”). Linked to this, the former
ruling party is banned from playing any part in
the political process, effectively ensuring that
the largest and most organised political
formation in each country has no option but to
resort to armed struggle to gain influence, and
thereby condemning the country to civil war.
Next, vicious sectarianism is encouraged along
whatever religious, ethnic and tribal divisions
are available, often goaded by the covert actions
of Western intelligence services. Finally, the
wholesale privatisation of resources ensures
chronically destabilising levels of unemployment
and inequality.  The whole process is
self-perpetuating, as the skilled and
professional sections of the workforce – those
with the means and connections – emigrate,
leaving behind a dire skills shortage and even
less chance of a functioning society emerging from the chaos.

This instability is not confined to the borders
of the state which has been destroyed. In a
masterfully cynical domino effect, for example,
the aggression against Iraq has also helped to
destabilise Syria. Three quarters of the 2
million Iraqi refugees fleeing the war in their
own country have ended up in Syria, thus
contributing to the pressure on the Syrian
economy which is a major factor in the current unrest there.

The destruction of Libya will also have far
reaching destabilising consequences across the
region. As the recent United Nations Support
Mission in Libya stated, “Libya had accumulated
the largest known stockpile of Manpads
[surface-to-air missiles] of any
non-Manpad-producing country. Although thousands
were destroyed during the seven-month Nato
operations, there are increasing concerns over
the looting and likely proliferation of these
portable defence systems, as well as munitions
and mines, highlighting the potential risk to
local and regional stability.” Furthermore, a
large number of volatile African countries are
currently experiencing a fragile peace secured by
peacekeeping forces in which Libyan troops had
been playing a vital role. The withdrawal of
these troops may well be damaging to the
maintenance of the peace. Similarly, Libya, under
Gaddafi’s rule, had contributed generously to
African development projects; a policy which will
certainly be ended under the NTC – again, with
potentially destabilising consequences.

Clearly, a policy of devastation and
destabilisation fuels not only the market for
private security, but also for arms sales –
where, again, the US, Britain and France remain
market leaders. And a policy of devastation
through blitzkrieg fits in clearly with the big
three current long term strategic objectives of Western policy planners:
To corner as large a share as possible of the
world’s diminishing resources, most importantly
oil, gas and water. A government of a devastated
country is at the mercy of the occupying country
when it comes to contracts. Gaddafi’s Libya, for
example, drove a notoriously hard bargain with
the Western powers over oil contracts – acting as
a key force in the 1973 oil price spike, and
still in 2009 being accused by the Financial
Times of “resource nationalism”. But the new NTC
government in Libya have been hand picked for
their subservience to foreign interests – and
know that their continued positions depend on
their willingness to continue in this role.
To prevent the rise of the global South,
primarily through the destruction of any
independent regional powers (such as Iran, Libya,
Syria etc) and the destabilisation, isolation and
encirclement of the rising global powers (in particular China and Russia).
To overcome or limit the impact of economic
collapse by using superior military force to
create and conquer new markets through the
destruction and rebuilding of infrastructure and
the elimination of competition.

This policy of total devastation represents a
departure from the Cold War policies of the
Western powers. During the Cold War, whilst the
major strategic aims remained the same, the
methods were different. Independent regional
powers in the global South were still
destabilised and invaded – and regularly – but
generally with the aim of installing ‘compliant
dictatorships’. Thus, Lumumba was overthrown and
replaced with Mobutu; Sukarno with Suharto;
Allende with Pinochet; etc, etc. But the danger
with this ‘imposed strongmen’ policy was that
strongmen can become defiant. Saddam Hussein
illustrated this perfectly. After having been
backed for over a decade by the West, he turned
on their stooge monarchy in Kuwait. Governments
that are in control can easily get out of
control. However, for as long as these strongmen
were needed for the services provided by their
armies (protecting investments, repressing
workers struggles, etc), they were supported. The
crisis now underway in the economies of the West,
however, calls for more drastic measures. And the
development of private security and private
mercenary companies mean that the armies provided
by these strongmen are starting to be deemed no longer necessary.

Congo is a case in point. For three decades, the
Western powers had supported Mobutu Sese-Seko’s
iron rule of the Congo. But then, in the mid-90s,
they allowed him to be overthrown. However,
rather than allowing the Congolese resistance
forces to take power and establish an effective
government, they then sponsored an invasion of
the country by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Although these countries have now largely
withdrawn their militias, they continue to
sponsor proxy militias which have prevented the
country seeing a moment’s peace for nearly
fifteen years, resulting in the biggest slaughter
since the end of the Second World War, with over
5 million killed. One result of this total
breakdown of functioning government has been that
the Western companies that loot Congo’s resources
have been able to do so virtually for free.
Despite being the world’s largest supplier of
both coltan and copper, amongst many other
precious minerals, the total tax revenue on these
products in 2006-7 amounted to a puny £32
million. This is surely far less than what even
the most useless neo-colonial puppet would have demanded.

This completely changes the meaning of the word
‘government’. In the Congo, the government’s best
efforts to stabilise and develop the country have
so far proved no match for the destabilisation
strategies of the West and its stooges. In
Afghanistan, it is well known that the
government’s writ has no authority outside of
Kabul, if there. But then, that is the point. The
role of the governments imposed on Afghanistan,
Iraq and Libya, like the one they are trying to
impose on Syria, is not to govern or provide for
the population at all – even that most basic of
functions, security. It is simply to provide a
fig leaf of legitimacy for the occupation of the
country and to award business contracts to the
colonial powers. They literally have no other
function, as far as their sponsors are concerned.

It goes without saying that this policy of
devastation is turning the victimised countries
into a living hell. After now more than thirty
years of Western destabilisation, and ten years
of outright occupation, Afghanistan is at or very
hear the bottom of nearly every human development
indicator available, with life expectancy at 44
years and an under-five mortality rate of over
one in four. Mathew White, a history professor
who has recently completed a detailed survey of
the humanity’s worst atrocities throughout
history, concluded that, without doubt, “chaos is
far deadlier than tyranny”. It is a truth to which many Iraqis can testify.
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"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic
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<https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>https://217.72.179.7/me\
mbers/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that
shall not be made known. What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27

Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice.
Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise.
Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end;
Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.
http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6

Community land trusts held back by complex GLA red tape

Requiring community groups to bid against the
private sector for land is slowing the progress of London's first CLT
Liam Kelly - Guardian Professional, Monday 18 June 2012 14.39 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2012/jun/18/community-land-trusts-red-\
tape

Boris Johnson promised a network of community
land trusts in his London mayoral election
campaign in 2008. Four years and two elections
later London still does not have a single CLT,
let alone the promised network of them. But when
the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) put a
2.4-hectare (six-acre) plot of land previously
home to a psychiatric unit up for sale, hopes
were high that London's first community trust was imminent.

CLTs are not-for-profit community organisations
which develop permanently affordable housing on
land owned and controlled by the community. They
work with residents to ensure local housing needs
are met, both in cost and design. The land is
owned by the trust and the homes are let or sold at affordable rates.

In London, the East London Community Land Trust –
a group committed to providing permanently
affordable housing in the East End – has its
sights set on the St Clement's hospital site in
Tower Hamlets. It plans to develop 300 private
properties to subsidise 28 affordable family
homes which would be let at reduced rates or sold
for 25% of market value. The CLT has already held
over 300 one-to-one meetings and 11 public
meetings to canvass local opinion and more than
1,000 local people have purchased shares in the trust.

Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived area in
the UK. Half of the children in the borough live
in households receiving benefits or tax credits
insufficient to lift them out of poverty, and
figures compiled by Save the Children show the
borough to have the joint highest rate of
children living in severe poverty in the UK. Yet
market pressures mean the average home in the borough costs £370,000.

The HCA's competitive tender process forced the
East London CLT to align with a developer and bid
for the site against private sector rivals. Its
bid was rejected in February. The preferred
bidder has not yet been announced, although the
Greater London Authority that now controls the
site claims a CLT will be involved and a
community group will eventually own the freehold.

The decision to make the East London CLT bid for
the land against competition perplexed project
director Dave Smith. "If you've got a community
group who are interested in a particular site, it
doesn't really make sense to make them compete
against other developers," he said. "Why can't
you acknowledge the role they hold within that
place? Why can't you say 'OK, let's recognise
these guys and have them on the procurement side
of the contract and then they can help choose who
is going to redevelop the site and work with whoever wins'."

Fiona Duncan, head of area at the GLA, said it
the decision was the "best route" to identify a
development partner for the site. "It would be
potentially too onerous a process for the CLT to
engage with all the bidders," she argued.

A missed opportunity, according to Smith. "We had
to align ourselves [with particular partners to
make a bid] and this meant that nobody else could
have early access to the huge pool of local
talent and resources we brought with us," he
said. "Our concern was always the future of this
site and our particular neighbourhood, not one
specific deal. We wanted local people to have a
say, whoever was chosen. We could have been a
resource for every bidder – and the tender process as a whole."

Smith also raises fears about the impact the
costs associated with GLA procurement processes
could have on small community groups. "There's a
huge cost for a group going through the tender
process and potentially there's a real problem
with these small independent community groups with no real funding."

The GLA said it would be inappropriate to reveal
the winning bidder, as discussions about how that
developer would deliver a CLT are ongoing. The
National CLT Network is excited about the
prospect of London's first CLT: "As far as I know
negotiations are going well and it's great that
we're going to see the UK's first urban CLT in St
Clement's," said Catherine Harrington, the network's national co-ordinator.

But some are afraid the process may lead to a
"watered down" final scheme. "It remains a
concern," said John Biggs, Labour London assembly
member for the city and east. "It's difficult to
see how it quite works without additional
funding. Most of these schemes use the land value
to help make the sums work but a CLT requires the
land value to be sacrificed and donated to the
trust, so I remain to be persuaded that this will actually work."

So is the vision of the local people lost? East
London CLT remains "absolutely confident" the
site will deliver permanently affordable homes at
25% of market rent. "There's always compromise in
these things, in looking at the design and costs
involved, because it's a different scheme to the
one we proposed," Smith said. "But I'm confident
there'll be no compromise on the core principles
of what a CLT is in terms of its own freehold and
providing permanently affordable homes."

A GLA spokesperson confirmed the authority is
considering a presumption in favour of CLTs on
certain London sites in future: "That may be one
of the things that is considered in terms of how
we promote them and how we can best use them for London."

On a national scale, the HCA is more steadfast.
Strategy manager Anthony Brand said: "At this
stage we are unlikely to develop a specific set
of guidance for sites where there is a local
desire for a CLT, though of course we are able to
tailor our approach to that if appropriate."

With more CLT homes promised as part of the
Olympic legacy, and at the Chobham Manor site
earmarked in the mayor's Olympic manifesto, those
involved feel the procurement process has to be
improved if the promise of a network of CLTs can be realised.

"This is good news for London and good news for
CLTs. But we need to make sure that lessons are
learned from St Clement's," said Harrington.
"We're confident of a good result there, but a
greater result still would be if St Clement's
paved the way for a simpler and more encouraging
approach to procurement that sees CLTs really flourish in our cities."

This content is brought to you by Guardian
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"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
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2003.pdf

"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic
poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
<https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>https://217.72.179.7/me\
mbers/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that
shall not be made known. What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27

Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice.
Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise.
Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end;
Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.
http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6

A Case for Land Redistribution in the UK
http://www.reclaimthejubilee.org/node/12

All the key transformational episodes in the
recent history of rural Britain such as the
foundation of the nature conservation movement,
the formation of the Council for the Preservation
of Rural England and later-on, the National
Parks, have been vested in the patronage of the
landowning regime of the countryside. The Society
for the Promotion of Nature Reserves (founded in
1912) was composed of just 50 members drawn from
the ranks of the establishment. Its great
achievement was the acquisition of nature
reserves, as opposed to the preservation of
landscapes for their amenity value – the
objective of the National Trust founded in 1895.
The legacy of these historical events and
processes have resulted in the protection of over
430,000 hectares of wildlife and amenity value,
including 1,650 Areas or Sites of Special
Scientific Interest, managed between the National
Trust, the RSPB and the County Wildlife Trusts.
However, the impact of intensive farming on the
wider countryside has resulted in the destruction
of over 90% of the UK’s habitats.

These underlying trends of environmental damage
on account of industrial-scale agriculture both
gives credence to the rural consensus that large
areas of the countryside and its management are
in safe hands, while also betraying this
consensus in that this privileged elite continue
to practice intensive agricultural methods within part of their vast estates.

Today, only 0.26% of the population (around
158,000 families) own 41 million acres – 2/3rds
of the land area of the British-Isles. Of that,
the vast majority is owned by the even more
startlingly small number of just 1200
individuals. This extended family of cousins and
relatives are “the aristocracy”, who have
consolidated their hold over vast swathes of the
land through a history of influence and control
originally via parliament (up until the end of
the 19th century, most parliamentarians were all
major landowners), and then within the House of
Lords. They continue to preserve their historic
privilege through the Common Agricultural Policy,
from which they are the beneficiaries of £3.9 billion a year.

With the production subsidy system having been
overhauled by the new EU Single Farm Payment
Scheme (SFPS), the underlying fundamental of
large landowners gaining a largess of European
subsidy enabling them to retain very expensive
assets is now even more explicit since within the
new system, flat-rate payments are dished out per
hectare of land. So, our largest landowners now
receive their money purely for the privilege of owning acres.

Some Receivers of CAP £millions  -    from www.farmsubidy.org

Under the 'Single-Farm Payment' system of
distributing agricultural subsidies, in the UK in
the last financial year, huge annual C.A.P.
payments and other financial aid went out
to:  Duke of Buccleuch  - £549,000, the Duke of
Westminster  - £527,000, Lord Carrington -
£149,000, the estate of Richard Drax M.P. -
£417,000, H.M. The Queen-( world’s richest
woman)  - £1.2 billion  for privately owning Sandringham and Windsor Farms

The current CAP system is geared up to
encouraging good environmental management of the
land. Elements of conservation land management
are now meant to exist alongside more
environmentally benign farming systems. Up until
now, lowland England has been a countryside of
agri-desolation - subject to the deleterious
effects of industrial agriculture such as use of
pesticides and other chemicals and the vast
monoculture prairies – sterile environments which
prevent the colonisation of species. Conservation
in the UK has been largely conducted on the
margins of the British landscape. The vast
majority of nature reserves in the British Isles
are ‘semi-natural’ – in that they are partly
human made, and need constant human management to
ensure their survival. These include lowland wood
pastures and parkland, boundary features, lowland heathland and grazing marsh.

The rural ruling class - our self-proclaimed
custodians of England’s green and pleasant land -
have conspired to exploit Britain’s historic
class divide and ideologically fashion the
cultural landscape of the British Isles based
upon the exclusion of the vast marauding legions
of city dwellers whose “unsophistication” and
lack of appreciation for the “ways of the
countryside” are assumed to the point of serfdom
by the masses. However, the foxhunting debate has
been the exception to the rule, as mass civil
society has rejected the self-adjudicated rights
of a small number of people who own the vast
majority of land in Britain. This occurred after
the first event that marked a change in the
landowners’ fortunes – when the Blair government
took away the rights of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.

While pensioners defy paying inflation-busting
annual increases in council tax, part of the 62
million in the British Isles who live on just 4.4
million acres of land who pay an average £600 a
year in council tax, the major landowners enjoy
subsidy handouts to the tune of £3.9 billion –
which works out at approx £12,150 for each of the
158, 000 landowning families every year. The
richest landowners hold onto their vast estates
underpinned by the guaranteed financial flow of
CAP cash, pushing up the price of land, in-part
also a consequence of greater speculation in land
and also an underlying byproduct of upward trends
in property value which transfers a mean rise in
value across all land. Property values are
afforded such high values as a result of a
combination of factors, principally the long-term
expansion of credit within the banking sector and
free-market economy as the key function of the
mortgage-property-market collateral treadmill and
increased speculation in property with market
exploitation of planning gain by developers,
itself a byproduct of the institutional workings
of the planning system - the foundation of which
was the 1947 Town & Country Planning Act. The
Council for the Protection of Rural England
rightly maintains a consistent argument against
the “concreting over of the countryside”  as well
as further development of the green belt.
However, the contradiction within this policy has
seen decades of planning exceptions granted to
farmers for industrial-size sheds, justified by
the post-war policy drive for over-production in
food, which probably outstayed it’s welcome by
about 30 years. Meanwhile, large landowners and
increasing trends towards greater land
concentration have exploited these long-term
trends in increasing land value, using land as an
increasing store of wealth. Landowning benefits
are obvious - farmland is exempt from inheritance
tax so it pays to buy up farms to avoid tax.
General trends show that the 1,000 richest
persons in the UK have increased their wealth in
the last 3 years by £155bn; their total wealth
now stands at more than £414bn, equivalent to
more than a third of Britain’s entire GDP ,
whilst their wealth in 1997 amounted to £99bn. [Michael Meacher from his blog].

All-in-all, there remains a suspicion that the
rural ruling class maintains their hold over the
countryside through an overt propaganda campaign
about preserving the rural aesthetic of rural
England, whilst having been party to the
long-term sterilisation of rural activity and the
rural economy brought about by supermarket power
and increased land concentration due to the
subsidy treadmill. The big landowners have always
been protected from the aggressive machinations
of the market, which has dealt smaller farmers
such a harsh deal in recent years. With their
guaranteed subsidy payment, they have been
bought-off and compliant to the vertical
integration of the food production process as
part of the market concentration of the
supermarket and agribusiness sector. In the words
of South Downs landrights activist Dave Bangs,
“hereditary landowners have been adept at
protecting their interests – making plentiful
land look scarce, and being paid from the public
purse to keep it that way. They perpetuate
exclusion, while bolstering the cultural power of
landed wealth by their constant engendering of
images of continuity and tradition (as though
only ruling class people had such
things).”  Their interpretation of a beautiful
rural scene is one empty of people working the
land, but rather one of serene inactivity – a
resurgent biodiversity of wildlife prairie – a
management style they have up until now seemed
averse to executing yet one they have been keen
to accredit themselves with bestowing upon the rest of us.

A rural renaissance awaits sorely needed land
reform - specifically a legislative bill
sanctioning the redistribution of the largest
landed estates to a new constituency of persons
with skills in land management and farming
befitting the objective of striking the balance
between agricultural or horticultural
productivity and ecological sustainability, as
well as a liberalisation of rural planning policy
across the board for the many who seek to live and work on the land.

Tasty protest outside Brussels Stock Exchange

Brussels Residents Picnic to Reclaim the Streets
http://www.thepolisblog.org/2012/06/brussels-residents-picnic-to-reclaim.html
At least 2,000 residents of Brussels took to the streets last Sunday to demand
more room for pedestrians and cyclists in the city center. With a picnic on one
of the central avenues, they blocked car traffic for a couple of hours.
The open space in front of the Stock Exchange, right in the heart of Brussels,
is officially called a square (plein or place). In reality, people only have a
sidewalk a bit wider than average to stroll beside a four-lane thoroughfare that
bisects the city center north to south.
The "square" is usually unpleasant because of car exhaust and engine roars. Last
Sunday at noon, however, residents — mostly families — invaded the public space
with a picnic.
"We want to give the city back to the people," said a young woman from her
deckchair.
The idea for the picnic was kick-started by Philippe Van Parijs, a philosophy
professor connected to the universities of Louvain-La-Neuve and Oxford, who
published an opinion piece in several local media outlets.
"It will suffice to explain politely to motorists that for once is not for them
to impose their rule," Van Parijs wrote. "To shake off an irresponsible
lethargy, a bit of gentle civil disobedience is more than legitimate."
The organizers want to make the picnic into a regular event to keep pressure on
the city authorities. Freddy Thielemans, who has been the mayor of Brussels for
almost 12 years, has a history of not living up to promises when it comes to
reorganizing public space to reduce motorized traffic. A 2004 plan to
drastically diminish traffic on central avenues has not resulted in significant
changes.
The idea to hold a picnic did not come out of the blue. In the early 1970s, a
similar event helped to ban cars from the Grand Place, the historic town square
two blocks from the Stock Exchange.
Laurent Vermeersch is a Brussels-based historian and journalist who writes
mainly about urbanism.
Credits: Photos by Laurent Vermeersch.

Duchy of Lancaster registers historic land rights
June 22, 2012 | Filed under: Harrogate
http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2012/06/22/duchy-lancaster-registers-historic-la\
nd-rights/

Emacs!

CEO and Clerk of the Duchy Council, Paul Clarke

The Duchy of Lancaster is in the process of registering its historic
manorial mineral ownership following a change to the law governing
land registration.
The Land Registration Act of 2002 set a deadline of October 2013 for
the owners of centuries-old rights to minerals beneath the ground to
register them officially.
The change in legislation has prompted The Duchy of Lancaster, a
portfolio of land, property and assets held by Her Majesty the Queen
in Right of Her Duchy of Lancaster, to register these historic rights
to underground minerals with the Land Registry.
The Duchy is currently working on registering the manorial minerals
in the Knaresborough and Harrogate areas. CEO and Clerk of the Duchy
Council, Paul Clarke, today reassured owners with properties on the
affected land, explaining that registration was a formality.
Paul Clarke said: The Duchy of Lancaster is having to register its
manorial mineral rights with the Land Registry in order to preserve
them for the future because of the change in legislation. The Duchy
has owned these rights for many centuries and this registration
doesn't mean that we have any immediate intention to work the minerals.
We understand that some homeowners may be concerned at having our
mineral ownership shown on their title however, the possible sale and
transfer of the Duchy mineral rights to them would not be ruled out
in certain circumstances.
Home owners whose property is already registered at the Land Registry
will receive postal notification of the registration from the Land
Registry. Mr Clarke went on to say that anyone who believes they may
be affected and is worried should contact the Duchy at
minerals.registration@....

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"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
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type=1
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2003.pdf

"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which
alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
<https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>https://217.72.179.7/me\
mbers/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered that shall not be
revealed; and nothing hid that shall not be made known. What I tell
you in darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27

Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice.
Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise.
Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end;
Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.
http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6

Changes afoot for public rights of way
May 15, 2012 | Filed under: News | Posted by: Editor
http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2012/05/15/changes-afoot-for-public-rights-of-wa\
y/
New proposals to modernise the process of
recording rights of way, developed in
consultation with groups such as the Ramblers and
Country Land and Business Association, have been
unveiled by Environment Minister, Richard Benyon.
Plans are expected to cut the time taken to
record a right of way by as much as several
years, so that routes set to be lost in 2026 can
be preserved. All unrecorded footpaths and
bridleways created before 1949 cannot be recorded
after 1 January 2026. This ‘cut off’ date by
which to claim these historical rights of way was
set in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
As well as making it easier for walkers, horse
riders and cyclists to protect unrecorded rights
of way, the proposed system is expected to save
almost £20 million a year by cutting needless bureaucracy.
No changes are being made to the protections for
rights of way; rather proposals have been made to
make the process of recording or changing them more efficient.
Landowners’ applications to move a right of way
will continue to be approved only if they do not
affect the public’s enjoyment of it, in which
case it will be more straightforward for landowners to see them through.
Under logical new plans, paths and trails that
are used by the public will be easier to protect,
whilst redundant routes and unsubstantiated
rights of way claims will be prevented from
getting in the way of farming and business interests.
Environment Minister, Richard Benyon said:
Footpaths, bridleways and trails are the
life-blood for many rural communities, providing
access to our world-renowned landscapes. Our
changes will help protect access for the
thousands of people who walk, ride and cycle in the countryside every week.
Protecting and improving access to the
countryside is the latest in a programme of
Government measures to grow the rural economy.
These routes have huge benefits to the health and
wellbeing of those that use them and can help
stimulate the local economy, bringing in more visitors to enjoy rural areas.
A £2 million grant fund has opened for
applications from local communities today to
improve access to rural areas in ways that will grow the regional economy.
The Paths for Communities initiative is part of
the Government’s £165 million Rural Economy
Growth Review announced in November 2011. Local
volunteer groups are invited to bid for funding
to create new rights of way or increase the
accessibility of existing ones. This may include
making rights of way accessible for horses and
bikes, improving way marking, creating maps and
making better links with local transport services and tourist destinations.
The proposals in the rights of way consultation
are based on recommendations from a Stakeholder
Working Group, which issued the following statement:
We welcome this consultation package, which
builds on the Stakeholder Working Group
recommendations, and are keen to continue to work
constructively with the Government throughout the
consultation and implementation process.
Andrew Willoughby of the Harrogate and
Knaresborough ramblers associated commented:
As Ramblers footpath secretary for Harrogate and
Knaresborough I will now have to study this legislation in detail.
But legislation is not the problem. There are big
problems with public rights of way, and we need
action to improve the thousands of paths
obstructed by fences, crops and lots of other obstructions.
Putting time and money into this legislation does
not overcome the real problem of obstructed
paths, which is due to a lack of commitment and
funds at County Council level, not due to legislation.
--
+44 (0)7786 952037
http://groups.google.com/group/uk-911-truth
http://www.youtube.com/user/PublicEnquiry
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Diggers350/
http://www.reinvestigate911.org/
http://www.thisweek.org.uk/
http://www.911forum.org.uk/
"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
www.abolishwar.org.uk
www.globalresearch.ca
www.public-interest.co.uk
www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Bristol+Broadband+Co-operative
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1407615751783.2051663.1274106225&l=90330c0ba5&\
type=1
<http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media\
2003.pdf

"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic
poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
<https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>https://217.72.179.7/me\
mbers/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that
shall not be made known. What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27

Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice.
Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise.
Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end;
Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.
http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6

Hi Brendan,

I agree with Dave and Beck; the Enclosures aren't a good target. The only reason they have any relevance today is because inheritance law operates for private benefit rather than the public good, in violation of a fundamental principle of law. I've pointed this out in previous posts (which I don't think you've ever responded to) on this list and the Diggers350 list, and it's something which most people recognise is wrong .... but currently don't seem inclined to challenge.

This is something which can be changed through the courts as well as through Parliament, and it would lead to rapid change. Why don't you try and get people stirred up about that?

Malcolm

From: Brendan Boal <b_m_boal@...>

To: "TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com" <TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, 24 June 2012, 13:15

Subject: Re: [TheLandIsOurs] ACTS OF ENCLOSURE: Proposed TLIO C.A.P./Land Ownership leaflet

 

Hi Beck,

Thanks for your contribution.

If anyone can come up with a succinct way of pointing out that most of the land in the country has been stolen, we'd like it back and "this is how" we'd like to get it back, I'd be more than happy to take the input.

If you want to have a go, please bear in mind that this is a leaflet not an article and, therefore, we cannot go into detailed political arguments or use obscure polysyables. In fact, if anyone can do this in a way which is brief, to the point and perhaps even a little elegant, I'll be very chuffed.  

Also remember that whereas TLIO is radical, we are not to be party-political, having as we do, a variety of political stances within our ranks, so solutions need to be credible but not to prescriptive.

Brendan.

From: Beck Woodrow <beck.woodrow@...>

To: TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com

Cc: david bangs <dave.bangs@...>

Sent: Sunday, 24 June 2012, 11:45

Subject: Re: [TheLandIsOurs] ACTS OF ENCLOSURE: Proposed TLIO C.A.P./Land Ownership leaflet

Cautiously joining in for the first time here, but I agree that (although it could be good fun!) no good and no chance to rewrite old history - so maybe mention some new ideas like community land trusts?

all the best

Beck

On 24/06/2012 00:28, david bangs wrote:

 

 

 

If TLIO core group put forward one version of a draft leaflet for approval/critique to the wider TLIO supporters then they ought also to put forward at least the other main texts critical of it, so's folk can see how the debate has gone. That is a democratic norm, I would argue.

 

Apart from the other comments I have made to the core group on this draft leaflet there's one further anachronism that strikes me as especially bizarre...that is, the leaflet's statement that "An ideal place to start would be by overturning the many, blatantly corrupt, 'Acts of Enclosure' that are the legal basis for much of this continuing (land) theft".

 

The acts of enclosure referred to constitute more than 200 years pre-1900 of private and public legislation on an extremely detailed basis...parish by parish, manor by manor, common and open field by common and open field...

 

The landscapes that the enclosure acts refer to have changed, then changed and changed again since the political conflicts which engendered these acts.

 

The issues which were fought over during the centuries of enclosure are long redundant...rights and systems of pasturage, wood, turf and furze collecting, mineral rights and timber and fishing rights, and ancient systems of open field cultivation. These issues - in those forms - are as dead as the dodo.

 

There is no other collective demand being made for this anywhere else in the labour movement, the land justice movement, or the environmental movement.

 

I think we must do better than re-hashing the dead politics of two centuries ago.

 

...And I write as someone who has attempted to register a major lost common, opposed encroachments upon common land, and is actively defending commons...

 

Dave Bangs

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Brendan Boal

To: TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2012 12:22 AM

Subject: Re: [TheLandIsOurs] Re: Proposed TLIO C.A.P./Land Ownership leaflet

 

Thanks for the feedback, especially about small farms.Maybe I'll expunge an adjective or two. The target audience is people attending the Tolpuddle festival, so not exactly the general public but not TLIO crew either. Some people think it's a little wordy and whereas I think it could be trimmed a little, the complete message just won't go in 5/600 words.

Brendan.

 

From: "bewcastleminster@..." <bewcastleminster@...>

To: TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, 22 June 2012, 17:35

Subject: [TheLandIsOurs] Re: Proposed TLIO C.A.P./Land Ownership leaflet

Who is the target audience for this leaflet? If it is the general public the overuse of heavily emotive language (unconscionable, monstrous, dreadful etc) will not win sympathy, and will end up detracting from the otherwise extremely powerful message. If just TLIO folk, then its playing to the gallery.

Also, statements like "Yet in productivity per acre, small, mixed farms beat big-scale mono-cultures hands-down" are highly contentious without evidence or support in a document about European (British) agriculture. And to say 75% of the world is fed by indigenous farmers begs the question "but is it?" given there are such high numbers who remain malnourished. But I'm not sure dropping in statistics about indigenous agriculture in the 3rd world (sorry about lack of PC) helps in any case. I thoroughly agree with the point about small farms, I just don't think it's well made in this paragraph.

The actual business of returning land to smallholders and commons should reference the work pioneered in Scotland by McIntosh et al. showing that, astonishingly, it actually can be achieved in an even more entrenched country than England.

Otherwise, some really powerful points in there. Thank you.

Rob

--- In TheLandIsOurs@yahoogroups.com, Brendan Boal <b_m_boal@...> wrote:

>

> Hi Folks,

>

> I've been working on a proposed TLIO leaflet dealing with how Common Agricultural Policy payments support land monopoly in the UK. Comments please!

>

> Brendan.

>

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