Tuesday:
Apparently, I already have a CAMPAIGN TEAM, running my LEADERSHIP BID.
Oops!
I had better address the TROOPS…
Fluffy Friends,
Liberal Democrats are the FUTURE.
We already have BETTER ANSWERS: cut back the Labour's excessive and intrusive burden of laws (setting you FREE); reduce your Income Tax and abolish your Council Tax (making it FAIR); make the Green Tax Switch, invest in technology, and get the railways REALLY working (turning Britain GREEN).
But a NEW LEADER should bring a NEW VISION, so here is MINE: in 2012 there will be the London Olympics. Let that be our TARGET.
Let us try and get ZERO EMISSION CARS on the roads before then – let's try and make them the GREEN GAMES, and show the world our commitment to saving the planet.
And they shouldn't be JUST the London Olympics, they should be the BRITISH Olympics, and that means that EVERY ticket to the games should include FREE, yes FREE, railway (and tube) travel from ANYWHERE in Great Britain (and a Free Ferry if you live in Northern Ireland or the Scottish Isles or the Isle of Wight and so on).
And the Olympics should be the INSPIRATIONAL EVENT for a generation. That means they must be the Olympics for SCHOOLS – and not just the sporty kids: we should also invest in OLYMPIC SCIENCE and OLYMPIC ARTS prizes. That doesn't have to be nationwide: that can be LOCAL initiatives, down to communities what they want to do to reach for the Olympic Spirit. A Brass Band Competition or a Beach Clean-Up; Community Art Programmes or Local History Groups tracing their sporting family trees: let's really push that brand.
And what an opportunity to reach out to other nations across the world but especially in the European Community: exchange programmes – with added Olympic Tickets – so that the young people of our continent can mingle and learn from each other.
It's a campaign with several crucial steps along the way – the London Mayoral race next year, the European elections the year after, local elections and ultimately the General Election, whenever Mr Frown dares to call it.
My idea is for a campaign that BRINGS TOGETHER all parts of our Party, and reaches out to every region of our country. Together we can succeed! Together we can WIN!
This has been my SIX HUNDREDTH diary, brought to you by the miracle of FACEBOOK.
Showing posts with label Millennium's Manifesto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Millennium's Manifesto. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Day 2390: MILLENNIUM'S MANIFESTO: Let's Build Rocket Ships
Wednesday:
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has warned that Great Britain needs a clear space strategy or we will risk FALLING BEHIND other countries!
Fortunately, I happen to have one about my fluffy person!
It's every child's dream: ride on the footplate of a steam train, drive a fire engine, or be an astronaut.
We shouldn't ever lose those dreams.
The aims of a British Space programme – which OBVIOUSLY should be called the British Rocket Group, and shame on you if you don't know why – should be
The Space Shuttle is still based on 1970s technology, and the Orion replacement is, if anything, a step backwards to Apollo and away from reusability. We need a vehicle for the twenty-first century that is based on twenty-first century technology.
The project should also co-ordinate with NASA and the European, Japanese, Russian and Chinese space programmes to further the exploration of the Solar System by robotic spacecraft and to improve our ability to observe extra-Solar stars and planets.
In the medium term, we should plan for the construction of not one but several International Lunar bases (either together with the Americans or in parallel – multiple bases reduces the chance of a single catastrophic accident wiping out the entire project).
And, within say a twenty-year horizon, we should draw up plans for manned missions to colonise Mars.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has warned that Great Britain needs a clear space strategy or we will risk FALLING BEHIND other countries!
Fortunately, I happen to have one about my fluffy person!
It's every child's dream: ride on the footplate of a steam train, drive a fire engine, or be an astronaut.
We shouldn't ever lose those dreams.
The aims of a British Space programme – which OBVIOUSLY should be called the British Rocket Group, and shame on you if you don't know why – should be
- Release our natural creativity and aspirations. Get people excited about the future.
- Encourage schools to participate in science, engineering and mathematics in the way that the Olympics is supposed to encourage them to participate in sport.
- Benefit from the opportunities on offer, such as selling launch slots to companies and governments that want commercial (not military) satellites putting in space; the opportunities for medical research; the possibility of mining; and the other spin-off benefits of improving our technology.
- Maximise the opportunities for gaining new knowledge, and impress upon people that knowledge and discovery are good in and of themselves.
- Improve ourselves by, over time, shifting more and more of the resources of those companies currently devoted to making weapons into making civilian spacecraft. We shouldn't be selling so many guns to the world already, but we need to have an alternative for all those jobs.
The Space Shuttle is still based on 1970s technology, and the Orion replacement is, if anything, a step backwards to Apollo and away from reusability. We need a vehicle for the twenty-first century that is based on twenty-first century technology.
The project should also co-ordinate with NASA and the European, Japanese, Russian and Chinese space programmes to further the exploration of the Solar System by robotic spacecraft and to improve our ability to observe extra-Solar stars and planets.
In the medium term, we should plan for the construction of not one but several International Lunar bases (either together with the Americans or in parallel – multiple bases reduces the chance of a single catastrophic accident wiping out the entire project).
And, within say a twenty-year horizon, we should draw up plans for manned missions to colonise Mars.
PS:
Daddy Alex informs me that Wednesday the 18th of July is the 54th anniversary of the founding of the British Experimental Rocket Group!Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Day 2248: MILLENNIUM'S MANIFESTO: Green Power – It's The Future
Monday:
Mr Tristan asks – with some justification – that I make sure that my plan is for PROPER green power, not just power stations painted green!
He is RIGHT.
We should stop being all DOOM MONGERS too. We do not want people to be put off!
The ability to take advantage of naturally renewed sources of energy shouldn't be a burden heaped upon us by the fear of climate change, but the most exciting new opportunity in a hundred years!
We should seize this opportunity right now to get a head start on THE industry of the new millennium.
We need to have a plan that will lead the world and transform the way we make our power.
This means both direct government investment in some of the really big projects, and also using the tax system to give people incentives to go green. Yes, that means skewing the market a bit – tilting the table towards our favoured outcome.
People can get too excited about things like CARBON CAPTURE – which is one way of painting our current power stations green – but that is really just burying the problem. Literally. It is a very typical solution – hide the problem somewhere a long way away and hope it disappears. Like building taller chimneys for clean air or dumping sewage further out at sea for clean beaches, it is a problem that will come back to haunt us in the end.
Instead, the twenty-first century is when it all has to change – the industrial revolution was the CARBON revolution, the age of power from coal and oil. We have to leave the carbon economy behind now, and start a new revolution, a HYDROGEN revolution, generating power no longer from finite resources but from elemental powers of the wind and the sun.
People's main complaints about wind power are that the wind doesn't always blow when you want the power; the machinery is expensive and not as efficient as comparable conventional power stations; and they are an ugly blight on the landscape.
In the first place, the wind is not nearly so unpredictable as people suggest, particularly at sea, and anyway the answer is obvious: storage.
Storage: 1 large scale - Hydroelectric
As for the aesthetic argument… Anyone who has seen a field of majestic wind turbines turning on the horizon must realise that they are far more attractive than the alternative. No, I don't mean a nuclear power station, hideous dangerous concrete cubes though they are, I mean huddling around a candle in the dark because President Putin is in a bad mood with us this week and has turned the gas taps off.
But there are large parts of the Earth where that isn't true, particularly Saharan regions of North Africa, and – especially if global warming carries on – much of Southern Europe.
Looking to create partnerships for investment in those countries where sunlight is abundant should be a top priority, enabling them to turn unproductive land into a valuable "cash crop" of electricity.
Work and trade have always been the Liberal answer to poverty around the world – and it works! Access to the markets of the European Union has transformed the likes of Spain and Greece not just into vibrant modern economies but also free, open, democratic societies, and is already having the same effects in Poland and the Baltic.
A fair trade means both sides benefit, and means that we have an investment in supporting each other. Rather than seeking to barricade out the people of Africa, we should be giving them the opportunity to make their own countries as rich and free as we are in Europe. Africa should be the richest continent in the world, not the poorest.
And diversifying our suppliers of energy has got to be good for security too – if one breaks down, then not only do we have a back-up but hopefully they can help each other too. And strengthening the ties of trade and support between different countries helps with another sort of security too.
Entrenched poverty is a breeding ground for the terrorists who plague our world; limited resources make it easy for dictatorships to control those resources. We can give people the opportunities to get themselves out of poverty, rather than relying on our handouts forever. It is the "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" principle on a larger scale.
We should not forget all of the things that we can do personally and locally, from low-energy light bulbs to recycling to improving cycle paths.
Now go and put some GREEN ACTION on a Focus Leaflet!
Mr Tristan asks – with some justification – that I make sure that my plan is for PROPER green power, not just power stations painted green!
He is RIGHT.
We should stop being all DOOM MONGERS too. We do not want people to be put off!
The ability to take advantage of naturally renewed sources of energy shouldn't be a burden heaped upon us by the fear of climate change, but the most exciting new opportunity in a hundred years!
We should seize this opportunity right now to get a head start on THE industry of the new millennium.
We need to have a plan that will lead the world and transform the way we make our power.
This means both direct government investment in some of the really big projects, and also using the tax system to give people incentives to go green. Yes, that means skewing the market a bit – tilting the table towards our favoured outcome.
People can get too excited about things like CARBON CAPTURE – which is one way of painting our current power stations green – but that is really just burying the problem. Literally. It is a very typical solution – hide the problem somewhere a long way away and hope it disappears. Like building taller chimneys for clean air or dumping sewage further out at sea for clean beaches, it is a problem that will come back to haunt us in the end.
Instead, the twenty-first century is when it all has to change – the industrial revolution was the CARBON revolution, the age of power from coal and oil. We have to leave the carbon economy behind now, and start a new revolution, a HYDROGEN revolution, generating power no longer from finite resources but from elemental powers of the wind and the sun.
WIND POWER
Britain is exceptionally lucky in that we are amply provided with open windy landscapes and seas well able to support extensive wind farming. Why should we even be thinking about buying in gas from Russia or nuclear power from France when we have it within our grasp to generate limitless free clean green electricity?People's main complaints about wind power are that the wind doesn't always blow when you want the power; the machinery is expensive and not as efficient as comparable conventional power stations; and they are an ugly blight on the landscape.
In the first place, the wind is not nearly so unpredictable as people suggest, particularly at sea, and anyway the answer is obvious: storage.
Storage: 1 large scale - Hydroelectric
- Use off-peak electricity to pump water up to higher reservoirs where it can quickly be released to drive turbines to create extra power for additional demand at peak times, like Dinowig Power Station, Llanberis, Wales.
These are huge scale projects, requiring government investment, but the rewards in jobs and energy security will last for lifetimes. There are plenty of mountains in Wales and Scotland where additional energy reservoirs could be built, with the additional benefit of seeing the government invest in the regions.
- Use platforms floating out at sea, no longer to mine for oil but to gather wind energy and use it to split sea water into oxygen and hydrogen.
Liquid Hydrogen is no more dangerous than the petrol that we use at the moment, and when used in a hydrogen fuel cell (or even just burnt) gives off clean water as the only by-product. (It doesn't even use up extra oxygen, because you released an equivalent amount of oxygen when you made the hydrogen in the first place!)
Hydrogen powered cars already exist and even if they are not yet as efficient or convenient as conventional petrol driven ones it can only be a matter of time and investment. We need to make hydrogen refuelling available with the convenience of petrol refuelling so that people who want to buy hydrogen cars will have that choice. Once we have overcome the "barrier to entry" of the hydrogen car it will compete with the petrol car and then the market will drive the industry to produce better more efficient models.
And remember, if we are making OUR OWN Hydrogen in the North Sea, then we aren't paying a fortune for our petrol to some barely post mediaeval Middle Eastern dictatorship in the middle of the Monkey-in-Chief's war zone.
As for the aesthetic argument… Anyone who has seen a field of majestic wind turbines turning on the horizon must realise that they are far more attractive than the alternative. No, I don't mean a nuclear power station, hideous dangerous concrete cubes though they are, I mean huddling around a candle in the dark because President Putin is in a bad mood with us this week and has turned the gas taps off.
SUN POWER
While modern solar cells are so much more efficient that it makes investment in micro-generation a serious possibility for houses up and down the country, we have to admit we just don't get enough sunshine in Britain to make large scale solar generation worthwhile.But there are large parts of the Earth where that isn't true, particularly Saharan regions of North Africa, and – especially if global warming carries on – much of Southern Europe.
Looking to create partnerships for investment in those countries where sunlight is abundant should be a top priority, enabling them to turn unproductive land into a valuable "cash crop" of electricity.
Work and trade have always been the Liberal answer to poverty around the world – and it works! Access to the markets of the European Union has transformed the likes of Spain and Greece not just into vibrant modern economies but also free, open, democratic societies, and is already having the same effects in Poland and the Baltic.
A fair trade means both sides benefit, and means that we have an investment in supporting each other. Rather than seeking to barricade out the people of Africa, we should be giving them the opportunity to make their own countries as rich and free as we are in Europe. Africa should be the richest continent in the world, not the poorest.
And diversifying our suppliers of energy has got to be good for security too – if one breaks down, then not only do we have a back-up but hopefully they can help each other too. And strengthening the ties of trade and support between different countries helps with another sort of security too.
Entrenched poverty is a breeding ground for the terrorists who plague our world; limited resources make it easy for dictatorships to control those resources. We can give people the opportunities to get themselves out of poverty, rather than relying on our handouts forever. It is the "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" principle on a larger scale.
PEDAL POWER
These should be by no means the limit of our green policies. These are "big ticket" items, eye-catching initiatives to get people excited and get people thinking, they are "what is a Liberal Democrat Government for" answers.We should not forget all of the things that we can do personally and locally, from low-energy light bulbs to recycling to improving cycle paths.
Now go and put some GREEN ACTION on a Focus Leaflet!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Day 2246: Sir Mr the Merciless in Naughty Anniversary Shock!
Saturday:
I hope THAT got your attention!
I've been writing my diary for one whole year now.
I have learned many things.
I've learned the definition of the words VACUOUS and BALLOON, and the words MENDACIOUS and BLAIRIMORT. And IRONY.
And I've learned that the best way to get to the top of the Lib Dem Blogregator is to mention Sir Mr the Merciless AND/OR something smutty in your title.
(Daddy says I should look up the word CUNNING!)
Because what I REALLY want you to read is this:
MILLENNIUM'S MANIFESTO
FREE, FAIR and FLUFFY
I have said several times that we need to have some BETTER ANSWERS.
So, I have put all of my fluffy brainpower into coming up with some suggestions, things that I think would be JOLLY GOOD IDEAS.
But I am NOT SURE. After all, I am only a fluffy soft toy and NOT on the Federal Policy Committee (unlike certain Daddies I could mention).
My idea is to come up with some actual "to do" things – not vague woolly feel-good aspirations like Mr Balloon, and not target-setting nannying like Lord Blairimort. Just things to say: "we would like to go out and do this".
I do not think that we could do ALL of them: they are probably lots too expensive. And I may have got some things WRONG or forgotten something REALLY IMPORTANT.
Please, please tell me.
(But please do not be too harsh or you may make Daddy Richard CRY!)
The Liberal Democrats exist to build a free, fair and open society… in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
Your government should only be there to serve you. We exist only at your sufferance and neither you nor we should ever forget that. Our job is to do only the things you need and leave you free to live your life for yourself.
I hope THAT got your attention!
I've been writing my diary for one whole year now.
I have learned many things.
I've learned the definition of the words VACUOUS and BALLOON, and the words MENDACIOUS and BLAIRIMORT. And IRONY.
And I've learned that the best way to get to the top of the Lib Dem Blogregator is to mention Sir Mr the Merciless AND/OR something smutty in your title.
(Daddy says I should look up the word CUNNING!)
Because what I REALLY want you to read is this:
MILLENNIUM'S MANIFESTO
FREE, FAIR and FLUFFY
I have said several times that we need to have some BETTER ANSWERS.
So, I have put all of my fluffy brainpower into coming up with some suggestions, things that I think would be JOLLY GOOD IDEAS.
But I am NOT SURE. After all, I am only a fluffy soft toy and NOT on the Federal Policy Committee (unlike certain Daddies I could mention).
My idea is to come up with some actual "to do" things – not vague woolly feel-good aspirations like Mr Balloon, and not target-setting nannying like Lord Blairimort. Just things to say: "we would like to go out and do this".
I do not think that we could do ALL of them: they are probably lots too expensive. And I may have got some things WRONG or forgotten something REALLY IMPORTANT.
Please, please tell me.
(But please do not be too harsh or you may make Daddy Richard CRY!)
The Liberal Democrats exist to build a free, fair and open society… in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
Your government should only be there to serve you. We exist only at your sufferance and neither you nor we should ever forget that. Our job is to do only the things you need and leave you free to live your life for yourself.
- You need – food, shelter, warmth
- Green Power: it's the future
- More Houses and Better Houses
- A health check at the doctor's and an appointment you can get to
- Reduce the levels of debt
- Police Stations: Keep them open all night
- End the War on Terror
- Raise the minimum wage so working families aren't on benefits (and cut taxes on business in return)
- Just STOP telling people how to live their lives
- Lower Taxes, you should decide how you spend your money
- Fewer Laws: you don't need us to make something else illegal every single day
- No I.D.iot cards!
- Everyone deserves a free education
- Let's Build Rocket Ships
You need – security: protection from ill-health; from poverty; from crime
You need – your family
You need – to be trusted
You need – to be the best you can be
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