Category Archives: Politics

Issues which will decide my local election vote: Gaza twinning and fossil fuel divestment

Posted on April 3, 2022 by biowrite

I just sent an email along the following lines to several of the council election candidates in my ward (Edinburgh: Sighthill/Gorgie). When I receive replies I’ll post these as comments below. Dear ______ I am considering voting for you in … Continue reading →

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Please do whatever you can to defend the human rights of Palestinians (letter to my MP)

Posted on May 14, 2021 by biowrite

Dear Ms Cherry I struggle to express how upset I am at the horrific ongoing events in Israel-Palestine. I was born in Scotland but grew up in erstwhile white-majority-rule Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and apartheid South Africa, and am aware of … Continue reading →

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There’s no such thing as sustainable palm oil. Cut it out of your diet, yes, but there’s more to be done.

Posted on July 31, 2019 by biowrite

Update 3 (afternoon, 24 April 2021): I still don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘sustainable’ palm oil If you search ‘palm oil you’ll find a plethora of articles arguing that boycotting palm oil is bad and that we should … Continue reading →

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Two simple ideas for combating climate change

Posted on July 27, 2019 by biowrite

These ideas won’t save the biosphere, but they might make some difference… Several times a day I am distressed to see drivers sitting in their stationary, fossil fuel-powered vehicles, with the engines idling. It’s one thing to do this while … Continue reading →

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Do Rich People Deserve to Be Rich?

Posted on July 26, 2019 by biowrite

Originally posted on Forgot About Keynes:
One of our abiding modern myths, as Russell Brand and George Monbiot explained in a recent episode of the Trews is: “that if you’re rich, you deserve to be rich and that story means that…

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A friend’s Brexit project

Posted on March 29, 2019 by biowrite

I had the honour of participating in a friend’s Brexit project, featuring portraits of people displaying their distress over Brexit and transcripts of what they have to say. Click on the image below to visit the site (and scroll down … Continue reading →

Posted in People I know (not directly connected with my writing), Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

BBC fails to mention anti-Semitism interviewee is Friend of Israel

Posted on March 2, 2019 by biowrite

This morning BBC Radio 4 featured a long interview with Catherine McKinnell MP about the Labour Party’s supposed mishandling of the supposed crisis of anti-Semitism within it. (The real crisis, of course, is one of infiltration by hard-line Zionism.) As … Continue reading →

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I support the new HAIR definition of racism. Do you?

Posted on October 3, 2018 by biowrite

I support the new HAIR definition of racism in full, including the examples. #HAIRdef Racism is defined as: The belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority. … Continue reading →

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GMB and Unison leaders betray trade union values and urge Labour Party to adopt pro-Israel antisemitism definition

Posted on August 11, 2018 by biowrite

I am extremely distressed to hear that the leaders of both Unison and GMB – large UK trade unions – have joined the pro-Israel bandwagon and urged the Labour Party to adopt the pro-Israel IHRA definition of antisemitism in full … Continue reading →

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Kill the ‘natural capital’ approach before it kills us.

Posted on May 24, 2018 by biowrite

[Update, September 2022: The September/October 2022 issue of Resurgence and Ecologist featured an article by Adrienne Buller criticising ‘ecosystems services and natural capital accounting’. I post a short extract at the bottom of the page. [Update, April 2021: This Russell … Continue reading →

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