Citizen's Advice Bureau - Cuts and Protests

Bath and North-East Somerset Council are planning to cut the budget of the local Citizen's Advice Bureau by 55%. Many people rely on the services our local CAB provides, and we can't let the council cut the funding.

If you haven't already used the CAB, it's very possible that you or someone you know will need to at some point in their lives. These are some of the reasons why people have needed to use the Bath CAB in the past:

• Help! I've been diagnosed with a serious illness and I can't work any more - what am I entitled to?
• Help! I've got rent arrears and I've lost my job. What can I do?
• Help! My employer sacked me while I was pregnant - can they do this?
• Help! My landlord threatened to evict my family because I complained that the roof is leaking

The CAB is often the only thing that stands between a lot of people and families becoming "vulnerable and greatest in need".

So what can you do? Three actions have been planned to attempt to get the council to change their minds - if you can help with one or more of these then it will go a long way to helping the campaign.

1. A petition has been set up on the 38 Degrees website. Sign it and share it everywhere: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-cab-in-banes 
2. A demo will be taking place on the steps of the Guildhall at 1pm on Tuesday 5th November. If you can make it, please come along and show that you care, and tell your family and friends.
3. Local resident Lin Patterson has managed to get 3 mins to speak about the CAB at the full council meeting on Thursday 14th November. There will be a demonstration at 6pm outside the Guildhall, just prior to her slot. Please come along and support her!

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Foster Watch #4 - Don's Revised Opinion on the Badger Cull

FOSTER WATCH
is a new series of posts following Bath MP Foster, who is now Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Details of Don's voting record can be found at http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?id=uk.org.publicwhip/member/40062&showall=yes#divisions


Don's Revised Opinion on the Badger Cull
Foster Watch has been forwarded two separate e-mails from Don Foster, one from March this year, when he appeared to be against the cull, and one from this week,a reponse from Don to one of his concerned constituents who wrote to him asking why he voted for the badger cull last week:

Don's position in March 2013:

"Dear XXXX

Thank you for getting in touch about the proposed badger cull.

I fully recognise the sensitive nature of this issue. As you can, imagine many of my constituents have contacted me regarding the cull over recent months, and I take their concerns very seriously.

I have written to the Environment Minister a number of times to highlight the strong misgivings my constituents have about the cull, especially regarding the scientific evidence for its efficacy.

I have always had reservations about a cull, and gained permission to abstain from the vote had it gone ahead late last year. I would have been unable to vote against due to my role as a minister.

Like you, I was very disappointed to learn that 3 pilot culls are now due to go ahead following initial postponement. While it is now seems likely that these culls will now go ahead, I will continue to urge that a sustainable strategy to eradicate bovine TB is pursued.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,
Don"

And Don's position in June 2013: 

"Dear XXXX 
Many thanks for your email.
I recognise that the proposed badger cull is an emotive issue, and I appreciate that you, like so many of my constituents, feel passionately about this subject.

My party has long supported animal welfare and I previously have expressed my concerns about the cull. The idea of culling even a single badger is naturally deeply distressing; however, as a Government we have decided that we cannot stand by and do nothing to help the cattle which become infected by bovine TB every year. During last year alone, 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in England as a bovine TB control measure. It is a trend that cannot be allowed to continue.

The planned badger cull that is due to take place this summer is a trial only, and is designed to have a positive impact on the spread of bovine TB. Any decision to extend the cull to other parts of England will be wholly dependent upon the successful outcomes of the two pilot areas. Crucially, I now believe that results of the trials will help inform the scientific debate around the efficacy of a wider cull. Despite my initial concerns, I have been comforted by the fact that the British Veterinary Association believe that a trial cull is required in the fight against bovine TB.

Notwithstanding, I maintain that we need to consider all the current tools available to us to halt the spread of bovine TB and it is reassuring that the Government is equally aware of the need to apply other control measures alongside these cull trials. That is why from 1st January 2013, better controls on cattle movements as part of a new bovine TB surveillance testing regime have come into force.

Ideally, I would like a science-led vaccination programme to be implemented, provided that we were certain that this would have a credible and lasting impact on bovine TB. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has invested heavily in the development of effective cattle vaccines for over a decade, and over the next four years we plan to invest a further £9.3 million in this area. Unfortunately however, cattle vaccination is currently prohibited under EU law.

Although Defra is in discussion with the European Commission about the necessary steps for allowing TB cattle vaccines, it is likely that it will take several years, rather than months, for a change in the law. The vaccination of badgers meanwhile poses various practical challenges, as the badgers themselves must first be trapped and the process of injected vaccination must be repeated every year. An oral badger vaccine is also many years away. However, the Badger Vaccine Deployment Project, funded by Defra, is currently ongoing in Gloucestershire, and we remain hopeful this too will have an important impact in tackling the disease.

I hope this response helps to reassure you that the Government is considering every available option in our struggle against bovine TB.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Don"

So in the space of a few months, Don has gone from being disappointed that the cull is going to go ahead, to voting for it? Where was his engagement with the public to get their permission to vote against it? Most likely he was whipped into it - in which case he should have stuck by his principles and rebelled. We can't allow this man to change his mind without discussing it with us first. Who is he representing - the people of Bath or the Lib Dems (or even the Tories)?

More on the badger cull: The Badger Cull - What You Need to Know

Foster Watch
1. Badger Cull and Tuition Fees
2. Decarbonisation Targets and NHS Reforms 
3. Climate Change in the National Curriculum

4. Don's Revised Opinion on the Badger Cull

Disclaimer

Standing Stone's Blog and Foster Watch is an independent blog that is not affiliated with, nor endorses, any political party or general electoral candidate currently in existence. It maintains that all leadership and authority should be questioned and seeks to do just that.

 

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Bath Drones Conference

Bath Stop War Coalition are leading a campaign to stop the forthcoming drones conference in Bath in June, and have asked for the following message to be spread as widely as possible. If you don't want this conference to go ahead, please sign the petition:

http://democracy.bathnes.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=9&RPID=5224890&HPID=5224890&$LO$=1

Stay tuned for updates on this campaign.

JOIN BATH DRONES PROTEST

Groups in Bath led by Bath Stop War Coalition are mobilising to stop the conference and exhibition booked for June 25 – 28 in Bath’s historic Assembly Rooms to promote and market drones – unmanned aerial vehicles. Although the event is billed as covering the military and civilian use of drones, a visit to the organisers’ website will soon convince you of its overriding military purpose.  In recent years there has been a huge increase in the military use of drones in state surveillance and bombing in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa; they are widely implicated in terrible civilian casualties and in extra-judicial killings (executions).  

Specialist conferences for drones procurement represent rich opportunities to profit from suffering – we don’t think there should be such a conference here.

The Assembly Rooms are owned by the National Trust, which has no legal say in their use, since they are under long-term lease to the Heritage department of Bath & North East Somerset Council. Our current aim is to mobilise to convince the Council to cancel the letting. We also want to persuade the National Trust to play its part by requesting the Council to re-think this particular commercial transaction, which is unethical and liable to bring the NT’s name into disrepute.

We ask B&NES residents to write to their councillors and to sign the on-line petition here to convince them that the event will be seen as an outrage by its electorate, making them complicit in encouraging this sinister new direction for the arms race and arms trade. (You can also sign the paper petition at the regular Bath Stop War weekly peace vigil outside Bath Abbey, 11.30 to 12.30 every Saturday).

The petition calls on the Council to hold a public debate on the matter. If we get 1000 signatures on the petition, a public debate will be granted automatically.

Our first and most urgent request is for support in these and other moves to stop this ugly event from going ahead. We think that with enough publicity it is possible to get it cancelled, especially if we can make it a national issue and give it all the publicity and notoriety it deserves. Please pass this email on!

If … in spite of all our persuasive powers this event goes ahead, we hope that the protests will be so loud and so eloquent that all Local Authorities and owners of buildings get the message for the future: such events are an affront to human decency and will inevitably excite such levels of protest that they become unviable

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Do the right thing - Move Your Money!

It pains me to say it, but I've been inspired by our PM, David Cameron. He talks a lot about "doing the right thing", whether it's on the NHS, RBS, Libya, Afghanistan, hard-working families or the EU veto. It's his favourite phrase. I don't necessarily think he has done "the right thing" on these issues. What is "the right thing" anyway? Is it letting the government and the banks walk all over you while they pay each other a fortune in bonuses on top of their extortionate salaries, and not making a fuss about it? Is it staring at a TV screen watching endless reality TV and soap operas while neglecting the bigger (and even smaller) issues going on in the world? Is it shouting at someone for attempting to make a positive difference - even if you think they are doomed to fail and possibly going about it the wrong way? Maybe, if your name is David Cameron, George Osborne or Boris Johnson.

In my view, "doing the right thing" is not a simple matter, and sometimes personal sacrifices have to be made. I've only got so much time, and the day is never long enough to fit in everything I want or need to do, or spend time with the people I want to spend time with. Sometimes by doing "the right thing" I end up neglecting other "right things". Sometimes by trying too hard to do "the right thing", I've ended up doing the wrong thing. 

"Doing the right thing" is subjective - certainly Mr Cameron and myself do not see eye-to-eye on his proposed NHS reforms and the economic and environmental policies of the coalition government. To me, "doing the right thing" involves standing up for yourself and your fellow humans and other animals. It involves finding the path of least harm - or most benefit - to all concerned. I occupied Bristol, Bath and London because I did not think our government was "doing the right thing". I still don't. 

RBS, Barclays, NatWest and all of those other high street banks that the public have grown to hate due to their risky investments, investments in unethical businesses and huge bonuses have, by my definition, not done "the right thing". They have created inequality, funded arms dealers and companies involved in environmental devastation - and then the people responsible have rewarded themselves for doing well. Definitely, definitely, definitely not "doing the right thing". But banks such as the Co-operative/Britannia and Triodos and many credit unions have done "the right thing" (or at least not nearly as many "wrong things"). They invest in ethical businesses and put money towards environmental initiatives and community projects. They share profits with their customers. They don't fund wars. So this blogger salutes those banks that have done "the right thing" - and is going to reward them moving their money to one of them. At least, what little money I have. It all counts.

Meanwhile, The Bath People's Assembly, with the support of Occupy Bath, have got on board with the national Move Your Money campaign and organised a petition to try and persuade Bath and North East Somerset Council to Move their Money from NatWest (owned by RBS) to an ethical bank. The petition can be found here - do "the right thing" and sign it! Or, if you're not from Bath, set up your own campaign.


The petition: http://democracy.bathnes.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=5&RPID=4813932&HPID=4813932

Previous post on Occupy Bath: Occupy Bath and Bristol - January 2012
Next Post on Occupy Bath: Moving Beyond this Representative Democracy

Further Reading

More info on the Move Your Money campaign can be found here: http://moveyourmoney.org.uk/

Indymedia article on the B&NES Council Move Your Money campaign: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/707610

Now Bath article on the B&NES Council Move Your Money campaign: http://www.nowbath.co.uk/local-news/call-for-council-to-bank-ethically-42630/

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