The Daily Pages

Today I sat down on the phone to help out a friendly journalist look through a few news stories. To be honest, I don't watch much TV so most of what I have seen about calls to sack whoever from BBC are unsubstantiated. I did however read a very good article on Vice called "How to spot when a political meme is bullshit". It certainly brightened up my day imagining what 100,000 could have been spent on, that the government blew on fighting against environmental lawyers who were calling them out on air pollution. I think most people want change. For example most pollution comes from roads but a lot more could be done to plant trees near roads to lessen the noise and air pollution. It's a public health crisis and the tree planting programme would also improve peoples state of mind. I think one of the biggest non-stories is the Tory who raised the terror threat level from moderate or something. It seems to me from what's going on in Ireland that there isn't much to worry about. The Troubles are behind us, and no one looks back. I'm really encouraged by the strong showing of the Greens and People Before Profit in the Assembly elections. In Ireland, Greens have done well in PR elections to both houses of parliament. But what makes me "mad" about this story is the language of terrorist nowadays only seems to be pinned on Muslims: Catholics are called militants. An other thing is it's a year since the General Elections and the battle bus is under investigation of failing to declare election expenses. This is where it all gets a bit technical. I would be happy to talk over the details with people, as an experienced battle bus campaigner myself. However at the time what went through my mind was be polite, congratulate graciously, stay positive, and whilst it's likely there was cheating involved including in Hendon, they haven't been caught and now they are in government it's too late to do anything that will meaningfully change the result. There's a saying that the most important poll is election day. If people want to investigate and persue the issue further be my guest but I am just too tired at the end of 3 big election campaigns - local, general, and London - and I know most of us are. A final point: What the government is doing to disabled people is inexcusable!