After returning from the supermarket yesterday, I reflected on what I had bought. It is not good enough simply to pat yourself on the back for walking to the supermarket and re-using old carrier bags. I realised I should be ashamed of the number of miles my food had travelled and the amount of packaging that was needed. So I decided that today ( Read more... )

I am no foreign policy expert, and my views of the Middle East Crisis are based on my analysis of news reports from the newspapers I choose to buy and the websites I choose to browse. I appreciate that the situation is complex. Nevertheless, I feel that there is something very wrong about what is happening ( Read more... )

Apparently the average carbon footprint (CO2 emitted) in the UK is about 10 tonnes per person (woman, man and child). Environmentalists believe this needs to be reduced to 2.5 tonnes per person. It occurred to me the other day that I had no idea what my own footprint is and how easy it would be for me to achieve this.

( So I set off to calculate it ... )

Here is an energy saving tip for the Summer that I suspect is little known ( Read more... )

Menzies Campbell's speech on Thursday caught my attention. Although I don't agree with all of it, the broad thrust on taxation policy is the most encouraging thing I've heard from the Liberal Democrat party for some time ( Read more... )

I haven't been posting for a while, mainly to avoid falling foul of any accusation of using this Livejournal as a means of promoting my candidacy in the District Council Elections (something which I might have to account for in the election expenditure if I had). However, now it's all over, I can comment on some of what I've learnt about local ( Read more... )

... is what I should be doing round about now.

While I ponder, here is a site that might prove very useful to anyone else who wants to travel in Europe, but avoid flying wherever possible. It is called 'Seat 61' and is run by an enthusiast, Mark Smith, who provides free advice on travelling by train and ship. The site was recommended in an article ( Read more... )

I have been meaning to sign up for green electricity for months and finally got round to it tonight. If I had previously been aware that by doing so I (a single person household) would reduce my annual carbon dioxide emissions by 721 kg then I would have done so sooner ( Read more... )

This is, at least on first reading, a worrying article about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

The full bill is here. It's not actually that long and if anyone is concerned about this, I suggest they read it ( Read more... )

There were several quotes in the Times today about free speech and the publications of cartoons depicting Muhammad. I thought there were some very wise words amongst them which help put the matter into perspective. I have edited them into soundbites:

"... An apology is not about caving into terrorism or threats. It is a simple, respectful ( Read more... )