Andrew Dakers's Blog (10)

The League Against Cruel Sports (www.league.org.uk) is compiling a database of the position of parliamentary candidates of all main parties in relation to repeal of the Hunting Act. They emailed me today asking whether if elected to parliament and the opportunity arose, I would vote in favour of repeal of the Hunting Act? By reply I explained that despite being a pescatarian and aspiring vegetarian (ie not pro consuming meat for ethical and environmental reasons), I am very doubtful about the e… Continue

I would very much agree with Mike Smithson's and Mark Littlewood's postings that the Party has been slow to admit that Afghanistan is unwinnable. Hounslow Liberal Democrats has submitted motions twice this year to Conference Commi… Continue

In April 2009 I wrote to Jonathan Porrit (Forum for the Future) and Paul King (UK Green Building Council) who are both advisors/ members to the Igloo Socially Responsible Investment Committee regarding concerns an ISIS project in Brentford. Igloo are major investors in ISIS and are in part owned by The Environment Agency Pension Fund.

The original scheme proposed by ISIS (illustrated on the Igloo website), to whi

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Having listened to (hopefully!) all the issues raised on internet forums and meetings, visited the museum the week before last, and then spoken to Richard Gill and James Wisdom here is a summary of my views and top concerns.... The proposals The work of the two Councils over the past year is to be broadly welcomed. After decades of inaction a comprehensive vision for the park has been brought together by nationally recognised consultants, backed up by the local appointed Development Mana… Continue

A letter in The Hounslow & Brentford Times from Tory Zac Goldsmith attacking the Lib Dems on the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) prompted me to hone and take a closer look at the issues. Just like Zac, environmental sustainability has been a long standing personal and professional interest. My conclusion is that yet again, the Tories have got it wrong on a key environmental issue of our age. There are of course serious fears over the impact on food production, and the effect of… Continue

The worst fall out from the lack of an effective global agreement on how to address climate change -- and alongside this establish a global strategy on biofuels production -- is the recent fast rise in wheat prices.

The impacts on the Palestinian people is explained in this TV interview last week with an old friend Kirstie Campbell. Kirstie spent the first years of her life in Brentford, and is now a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):

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Offsetting most of my CO2 emissions for the past year has been on my to do list for several months and today I finally got round to it. Its a crude fix to the climate change problem, but its better than no action at all.

This has been a bad year for me CO2-wise as I booked to go to the February wedding in New Zealand of an old friend, Sol Harris, just before watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth last

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Much of my first year on the Council has been spent sitting on a scrutiny review panel looking at the current and future state of leisure and culture services in Hounslow. Given that a huge amount of this service area is outsourced to the CIP Group this became the focus of the panel's investigation.

The report has a raft of recommendations including the need for CIP to overhaul its corporate governance and build a membership base to hold trustees accou

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My January report on Sustainable Food in Hounslow is now available online. Please let me know your thoughts on the ideas in this report - I hope to start an online discussion on this soon. A revised version of the report will be produced in the next few months taking on board your feedback. Continue

Well its been a few days getting the basics working of my new website, powered by "Ning". I hope all the dynamic features of the site will allow folk to get a better understanding of the work I am doing for a greener Brentford, Hounslow and Britain! Continue