Looking back at the Green Movement

For the past couple of weeks I've been reading the Silent Spring. Rachel Carson wrote this book in 1962. It therefore celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It is often cited as the work that kick started the ecology movement.

Carson controversially at the time spoke out about the impact of pesticides upon the wider environment. In short the killing of bad bugs by the use of DDT and other chemicals, killed much more besides. I can only imagine the reaction in the industrial world to her research and the wave of publicity unleashed when her work was serialised in the New Yorker in June '62. Here was a woman challenging the dominant view of science and industry at a time when women were expected to conform and not be heard.

The dominant theme of the Silent Spring is that man can not control nature, she regards the assertion that they can as arrogant and the attempt as futile. In short science is turning deadly weapons not only against insects but upon the earth itself.

Carson explains using applied Darwinism, that nature will fight back. She accurately predicted that insects would become resistant to the very chemicals being sprayed. Nature will always fight back.

Books can change the world, or rather the ideas contained within them can.
Marx, Darwin , it is no exaggeration to put Carson with such company. Tragically Rachel Carson died of cancer shortly after the book's publication. Her legacy however is an international movement with many strands determined to defend the planet and ensure its survival for future generations.

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Another day and another book, and I've turned to the Life and Death of Petra Kelly (by Sara Parkin). Kelly was in many ways the first Green politician I became aware of during the late 1980's.

Ironically today I find myself sitting and writing in a cafe in Surbiton in Surrey. In the 1970s in Britain going green was synominous with the TV programme "The Good Life". The central characters Tom & Barbara Good have abandonned the rat race and materialism and have decided to become self sufficient, converting their garden into a small holding. The setting for this experiment is Surbiton, the epitomy of middle class surburbia, a part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.. Ironically today this is the parliamentary constituency of Ed Davey,the minister responsible for Climate Change.

In its own way the Good Life poses an interesting question for Greens, to what extent can a person opt out of materialism and the industrial age. What impact do individual acts such as abandonning consumerism help in tackling the environmental problems facing the world.

On a July morning the chance of meeting a Tom Good in Surbiton seemed as likely as meeting Tom Joad in Oklahoma; yet the ghost of Tom Good set my mind wondering over two pots of tea and a piece of flapjack as I passed the morning away.

Laura Marling at RAH

Saturday night and I'm heading to the Albert Hall to watch Laura Marling in concert. The building looks spectacular as I approach it. The facade has been cleaned and it looks every inch a London landmark. On the inside of the building are a number of photos,prints and displays that reveal the history of the building and the variety of events it has staged over the past century or more.

Over the years I've been there for a number of concerts and sporting events. After a bit of memory jogging I remember back to my first visit to see Chicago Transit Authority in concert in 1969 ( still have the album, must play it sometime). I take my place in the stalls which now benefit from swivell chairs. Tonight's concert will be in the round, which allows a fair few people to stand around the stage.

It's the 3rd time that I've seen Laura Marling in the last year. I admit that I really only became familiar with her work following the release of her 3rd album, A Creature I don't know. . Tonight is in many ways both a homecoming and a coming of age. She's toured the world behind the album, that tour is officially ending tonight. As far as the Uk goes, the Albert Hall is a step up in venue status, and reflects her growing popularity and importance.

On stage she rotates ensuring that each quarter of the audience see her from all angles. The sound seems a little astray in the opening numbers, the Albert Hall plays tricks and the acoustics have always been a tricky beast. Any doubts however are soon quashed as she performs a number of tracks from the "Creature" album. Midway through the opening set, the band leave the stage leaving Laura alone. Accompanied by just her acoustic guitar she performs the Cohenesque " Night after Night". It's a flawless performance that confirms just how much she has matured as a performer. The song itself always stuns me, I've constantly wondered how it could have been written by someone now in her early 20's.

At times she seems shy almost reclusive on stage, banter is kept to a minimum, but for two hours the audience are treated to the talents of one of the UK's most talented songwriter-performers. As usual there are no encores, Laura tells the audiance that this is the penultimate song, and if you want an encore treat the song after this as it. If you don't you can leave after this song. At the end the audience rise to offer a standing ovation, yes this was undoubtedly a "step up" and I now await the fourth album.

A week of cricket

I can't remember when since my crickethood I have spent as much time travelling to the Oval to watch cricket. I remember, almost in humour, saying to people at work, that when I retired I planned to become a professional cricket watcher. Well I came close to accomplishing the mission last week .

Through circumstance Surrey found themselves having four home fixtures of T20 cricket in a week. The day before this scheduled commenced, at the Oval England played Australia in a ODI. The chance to see England take on the "old enemy" in any form of the game was not to be missed. Finally two days after the home schedule was complete Surrey travelled to Hove to take on Sussex, and again a trip to the coast was a grand way to complete the T20 calendar.

I concluded with so many games in quick succession it made sense to buy a rail season ticket. I became a "cricket commuter". On Sunday we setr off early for England v Australia. For the second time in three days, England's ODI squad did a thoroughly professional job in defeating the Aussies. The England ODI team, now minus Kevin Pietersen are staggering efficient ( a term usually used to describe German football teams). Alastair Cook and Ian Bell  are not the first names one would think of when talking one day cricket. Both are primarily stroke players rather than hitters, but once bedded in, they are hard to dislodge and both are run gatherers. Similarly at present England are blessed with a quantity of pace bowlers who have speed, accuracy and the ability to swing the ball. Finally in Graeme Swann, England have what was for so long lacking, a top quality spin bowler who not only can take wickets but can bowl ten overs economically in this form of the game.

The weeks T20 games proved to be the bad, ugly and good. The four home games produced no victories, with defeats v Hampshie and Sussex, a capitulation v Kent and finally something of a comeback against Middlesex.

The week was billed as bowlers beware Kevin Pietersen is back. Sadly in the first part of the week KP failed to trouble the bowlers or indeed the scorers. Out 1st bowl against Hampshire.  The Kent game took place the day after the team travelled to Wales for the funeral of TM55. It was I sense expecting too much for a group of young men to perform to the best of their ability the day after experiencing something that most people of their age have never had to deal with, the sudden death of a contemporary.

By Friday the team appeared to be more settled, although the selection policy was at time baffling. A crowd of around 15,000 came to the Oval and were entertained by a close game that the team from North london won on the penultimate ball. At the change of innings, the crowd were entertained by a London mascot race, that featured among others, Haydon the Womble from AFC Wimbledon.

On the Thursday, it was officially announced that Mark Ramprakash was retiring from 1st class cricket. Although not a surprise, the timing and circumstance of the announcement, was perplexing from the outside. It is now apparent that Ramps had been informed that he would no longer be considered for first team selection, and rather than kicking his heels around 2nd eleven grounds, Mark decided to call it a day.

The retirement of Ramps seems to bring down the curtain on an era of cricket. A batsman who has accumulated 114 first class centuries, many achieved after he decided to switch from Middlesex to Surrey. Bizarrely to the wider public Ramps is better known for his exploits on the dance floor rather than his time at the crease. He has been without doubt the outstanding county cricketer of his generation, sadly his reputation is affected by at best a modest teat average. However for years he carried the Surrey batting order.

I remember fondly the expectation as he got closer to 100 centuries and then the excitement of the achievement as he reached the milestone. It is entirely possible that he will be the last batsman to achieve the 100 hundreds. That's not to say there aren't player of sufficient talent, Cook, Pietersen,Gayle, Ponting all great batsmen, but today so much time is taken up with one day and T20 competitions, that the modern batsman simply does get the necessary number of innings.

As Ramps has explained young batsman today do not get the time to build innings, today's cricket culture denies them that. It's hit out or get out. He may be right when he says that the modern player has more than one eye on the IPL, Big Bash League, and T20 where money can be earned, rather than the traditional forms of the game that lead to the development of test match players.

The week ended with the trip to Hove. In the past umpires,players and groundsmen would have abandonned the day; but this is T20 and a near capacity crowd had paid to be entertained. At 3pm after a rain delay, Sussex batted for 9 overs and raced to 104 runs through a mixture of lusty slogs, slashes through the empty slip area and some ill thought out short pitch bowling that was rightly punished. The rain then arrived in tropical proportions, and a prolonged period of mopping up, Surrey were asked courtesy of the Duckworth/Lewis formula to make 62 in 5 overs.

The 5 overs saw two excellent catches and some good ground fielding, perhaps the great advance in the modern game. The game was finally decided by Kevin Pietersen who dispatched three balls for six and reduced what had seemed like a difficult target to a manageable total. When he crashed the 4th ball of the final over into the window of the commentary box, Surrey had won the game. Whether or not the 14 overs in the afternoon represented good value for £25 is reallyt debateable. However in the defence of Sussex CCC , they like all other counties cannot control the weather, and although I'm sure many felt cheated at the end, the rain fell agaib within minutes of the players exiting the field.

My final memory of our day at Hove, the seagull that deposited on me twice, hitting my head, jacket and jeans, however as I was told this is a sign of luck, which Surrey most definately needed.

Cricket - all emotions included

It's been three weeks since I've written. Three weeks that have been busy and amazing, following the birth of my grandson. It's also from a work standpoint been the busiest three weeks of my year, incorporating the exam paper marking period and my delivery of a conference for politics teachers' in London.

However as I took a tea break in London last Monday, I looked at my phone and received a text message from a friend of mine who is also a member of Surrey CCC. I had to read the message twice and then look back again, it told me of the death of Tom Maynard.

It was only later in the day, on my journey home that reading the free newspaper I learned that Tom had died in what could be described as unusual circumstances in the early morning. If I was stunned I wondered how his family and his friends, especially the players at Surrey, were coping. Later in the week it was announced that Tom had died of electricution before being struck by an Underground train.

The next day England played the West Indies at the Oval in a ODI. Before the match the players and the crowd at this stage around 15,000 stood in total silence for "a minute's silence".  At times throughout the day I thought about Tom, a life and a cricketing future cut short. At the Oval the crowd witnessed an innings of brutality from Chris Gayle, who launched five sixes to all parts of the ground, including the roof of the pavilion before being given out lbw to Graeme Swann.
In the afternoon in contrast we witnessed Alastair Cook, for a period not deemed a one day player, construct a match winning century.

The West Indies this summer have been deprived of the services of Gayle, Pollard, and Bravo batsman who could have gone some say to even up the contest between England and the tourists. Of course test cricket in a cold May -June in England can't compete with the rewards of the IPL. For purists like myself, that's yet another tragedy. Gayle's loss to test cricket has tilted the cricket world towards the shoter forms of the game.





But on the day, it was enough to enjoy Gayle's cameo which for a short time, took my mind away from the events in SW19 the morning before.


Some days later , Tom Maynard's Surrey colleague, Matthew Spreigel published a fitting tribute to Tom on the Surrey website, I copy it below:

Surrey all-rounder Matthew Spriegel has paid tribute to the late Tom Maynard, writing a moving tribute for kiaoval.com.

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Having read some of the moving tributes to Tom over the last few days, I feel under huge pressure to make sure I do him justice in the next few paragraphs. Then I thought about it, there is nothing about Tommy I could write that could make him sound other than fantastic, as a player, a teammate, a friend but above all as a bloke.
When I got the awful news, soon after waking up on Monday, I went numb. I couldn’t comprehend the news, if I’m honest I still can’t. Then it hit me, sitting in a café in Clapham, I burst into tears.
My phone had run out of battery so asked them to charge it up, when I got it back, the news was publicly announced and it was going crazy. He had died. For a moment I looked around with blurred vision and couldn’t understand how people were getting on with their life, did they not know?
I can’t even imagine what his family have been through over these past few days. I have never properly been introduced to Matt, Sue or Ceri and I’m not going to claim I know them. However what I do know is how close they were as a family, I only hope they can draw comfort from the unbelievable response of the public. I have read so many messages from friends, fans and people who had never even met him which shows what an impact he had in his 23 years.
When he arrived at Surrey 18 months ago we headed into pre-season as rivals, we were both competing to try and get into the Championship side. I had played against him a few times, but we didn’t know each other that well so it was always going to be an interesting battle.
On the first day of pre-season he pulled me to one side and said: “Listen bud, we are very similar players and I can see myself competing with you for that middle order spot, whatever happens lets work hard together and be happy for each other no matter what happens.”
I was blown away, and of course he went on to play every game for us and have a fantastic year. I will never forget what he said to me that day.
Tommy had an unmistakable presence. Even the first two T20 games this season he missed because of an injury, you could tell he wasn’t there. I can’t bear to think about what it’s going to be like walking into the changing room without him being there.
Despite him being two years younger than me I would always turn to him for advice about anything, he was so approachable. I have to walk past his spot to get to mine and to listen to another one of his stories and hear his infectious laugh was always a great way to start the day.
We will never know how far he could have gone in the game, but what I know is that he had the hunger, desire and commitment to go with his undoubted god given talent to go all the way to the top. I was lucky enough to see him play the sort of innings that would turn games on their head and play shots that I could only dream of.
Surrey are no strangers to tragedy, with Graham Kersey, Ben Hollioake and now Tom being taken away from us. I have to take this opportunity to mention how good both Surrey and the PCA have been in the past week in assisting us in this terrible time.
Saying its going to be an emotional few weeks, months and years is a ridiculous understatement. The guys are hurting, and why wouldn’t they be we have lost our mate, role model and the life and soul of the party! But, its not just us, he has brought the cricketing world to its knees. The guys at Glamorgan will be in the same position as us, as will so many players around the country because of the person he was.
Yesterday I was looking through my phone to see if I had any pictures of us together, nothing. All I found was the video of our team song after winning the CB40 final last year, that’s all I need. He was on the table, conducting the boys, belting out our team song into an empty Champagne bottle whilst throwing out some of his trademark dance moves.
Everyone will have there own memories of Tommy to treasure and I feel so lucky to have so many. You will be sorely missed.
Rest in peace mate x

2nd June - Born Day

On 2nd June at around 8pm, our grandson Matthew was born. I must admit my initial thoughts were focussed on the health and welfare of our daughter who had not experienced  a pleasant day up to the birth.

I'm not what you call natural grandparent material; anyone who knows me from my work life will know that I do not naturally bond with young children. However my immediate thoughts were that my family had its first 21st Century man.

Birth reminds us of our own mortality, something that we really need no reminding about, so inevitably we try to shuffle such thoughts to the back of our minds.

Drifting off to sleep some time around midnight, I received a call from my son in law to say that our daughter was losing too much blood and might need a blood tranfusion. In minutes we were heading to the hospital, me driving. The rain lashed down as we made our way through a near deserted Chelmsford.

Fortunately my daughter didn't require the transfusion. We were able to talk and see our grandson for the first time. After what had been a traumatic day for him too. He slept soundly, just turning occasionally to stretch out his arms.

Here was a new born baby only 5 hours old. After a stay of about a hour I drove home my eyes on the road, but my mind very much returning to an issue that I'd reconsidered only a couple of days earlier.

When my mother was born in 1925 the world's population stood at 2 billion, last year it reached 7 billion, projections suggest that by the time Matthew is an adult it will be heading towards 9 billion.
My mind turned to the type of world Matthew will inherit, the problems his generation will face.
Will "his people" be able to feed themselves, by that I mean everyone across the world. Will poverty and starvation be a thing of the past or a recurring curse ? Will there be enough water to drink ? How will they light and heat their homes ? How will they learn ?

Recent talk of "future people" hit me between the eyes last night, as future became present. Those of us capable of ensuring that there are necessary resources for future generations need to make them a priority. My grandson Matthew should inherit a world not beset with the problems that mine and previous generations have created.

Utopianism and Green Politics

I travelled to Norwich for the second time during May. This time it's not for political campaigning, instead I headed to UEA to listen to Jonathan Porritt deliver a lecture in a series called Philosopher Kings. porritt's theme was "Utopianism and Green Politics"

In the late 1980s when I started researching environmental policies and politics while working for a MEP on the European parliament's Environment Committee, Jonathan Porritt was very much the public face of the English Greens.

While the German Greens were making electoral headway in a country with a proportional system, Porritt appeared to plough fallow land back home. In 1989 in the Euro elections the greens polled 15% of the vote, but with the UK still rooted to FPTP for Euro elections at this time, they won no seats.

Over 20 years have passed, and I spent the two hour train journey reading Porritt's "Going Green". Obviously the book is to an extent time framed, but it is a readable account with sharp observation.
Before the evening I sense that Porritt while maintaining his membership of the party seemed rather tangential to it, and its leftward path under the leadership of Caroline Lucas.

Porritt's talk was always thought provoking, never allowing the listener to settle into their comfort zone. He challenged a largely green sympathetic audience of approaching 300 , to ask why their message had not created a positive narrative with the electorate. He argued that as a party we failed to appreciate or accept the aspirations of the people. It was no good simply blaming FPTP.

He said that the bulk of the population accept the environmental problems that the earth faces, but not our solutions.He challenged orthodox views on technology. Could technology be the friends of the Greens ? All to often he said we appeared either technosceptic or worse technophobic.

Of course from a green perspective technology can't resolve all environmental problems unless consumption is tackled as well. In reply Rupert Reed argued that it wasn't greens who were utopian, it was those who thought we could continue on with the "business as usual" approach. He talked of "unspeak", the development of language and concepts that imply that it is possible to tackle issues such as climate change without drastic action, the term "sustainability" he argued was a perfect example of "unspeak". While accepting that Greens are often seen as foretellers of doom,he said we needed to raise the alarm, rather than simply being alarmist.

Rupert Reed  pursued the view that growth offered no solutions, that more stuff was no solution.
As I travelled back to Essex, this theme held my attention. I tried to think through the contradiction. At first glance people do want more stuff, especially in the field of technology, how can the Greens sell their message when coming up against what seemed a huge barrier ?

The more I thought, the underlying issue seemed to be the reduction in the size of public as opposed to private provision. Today culturally we've accepted that the public provision won't be there, so we seek out private solutions. In the days before the Porritt lecture I wanted to prepare myself by reading some of his writing. Did I go to the local library ? No, I bought the book (admittedly second hand). On our allotment I had a discussion regarding grass strimmers. The ones the allotment holders buy are next to useless, and are anyway underused. Why don't we club together and buy a quality tool, that we can all access ? As I got off the late night train  people left public transport that was both efficient and clean, and jumped into their private cars. Why ? Because the idea of late night rural public transport would be considered unrealistic in the UK.

Until we tackled the lack of community and public provision, together with the distribution of wealth in our society, our hopes of opening the electorates' eyes to the limits of growth will be a utopian dream.

!0 years after

The past and future of AFC Wimbledon

This week has marked the 10th anniversary of the birth of AFC Wimbledon. On 28th May 2002, the FA killed Wimbledon FC and sanctioned the franchising of football. The decision to allow Milton Keynes Dons defied the concept of clubs having roots in a local community. Wimbledon was to be uprooted and thrown 60 miles away up the M1. Not surprisingly Dons fans adopted the mantra " never forgive,never forget".

The three man commission who presided over the execution of Wimbledon FC declared that the formation of a club such as Wimbledon Town would "not be in the wider interests of football."

Two days later hundreds of us, angry and frustrated, crowded into the Community Centre in St Georges Road SW19 determined to fight the move to Milton Keynes and also to build an alternative. Within days trials were being arranged and a place in a football league was being secured. It's ten years ago and now I'm so pleased that I wrote a book to remind myself of that first year. My book, "A unique solution," is I hope a fans book, the story of a Wimbledon fan who threw himself into AFC Wimbledon.
In the those months I travelled around the counties to the south and west of London to clubs barely known in their own localities. I watched as journeymen non league footballers became our heroes, playing in front of gates of around 300.

Naturally as the club secured promotion after promotion we have grown and evolved. Arguably we've become more professional. Nevertheless I still feel there's something of the village store as opposed to the supermarket about AFC Wimbledon.

How appropriate therefore that just days before the 10th anniversary about 70 of us gathered at the same community centre to discuss how we could raise up to £2 million to help develop the ground to ensure our survival in the football league. At that moment I'm reminded that as well as negtiating several promotions in the last ten years we have also bought a football ground, extended the main stand and roofed and extended the home terrace.

In many ways it's been an amazing journey that I wouldn't have missed being a small part of, and one that has of course not ended. In fact possibly the most difficult parts still lay ahead.