A progressive analysis of politics and the arts.
Around 400 workers, previously employed by (Conservative-run) Norfolk County Council-owned company Norse, are threatening strike action due to a dispute about pay and conditions. Environmental service workers, responsible for street-cleaning and park maintenance, are due to transfer from Norse to an arms-lengths company run by Labour-controlled Norwich City Council.
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The concept of a local currency is one way to encourage people to go to the high street through a creative use of supply side economics. A local currency would enable towns and cities across the country to stimulate economic activity in their floundering high streets. We need to encourage small business activity during this time of economic uncertainty, as small and micro businesses encourage entrepreneurship and form the backbone of our economy. Independent shops give our high street character and provide an incentive for people to visit our historic towns. The so-called ‘Death of the High-street’ is not just about national chains relocating, but the closure of small businesses. The use of a local currency would help reinvigorate it.Continue Reading
by Joe Burns
Radioactive waste is the solid, liquid, or gaseous waste produced by nuclear power stations, fuel production, weapons manufacturing and nuclear plant decommissioning. Small volumes of radioactive waste products are also created by industrial, research and medical institutions.
This waste has been constantly produced in this country since the 1950s, and the debate about what to do with the radioactive waste products from military, civil, medical, and scientific uses has caused frustration and fear for an equally long time.Continue Reading
I never thought I’d start off a serious article by writing about talking during sex, but here we are. It’s a slightly awkward subject, and one that the world of comedy is not afraid to touch upon. Specifically, I’m referring to everyone’s favourite fictional radio presenter, Alan Partridge, who is no stranger to the delicate topic of conversations mid-intercourse. I’m Alan Partridge brought to British comedy a very memorable line, during a less than steamy sex scene, in which Alan asks his partner just what she thinks of the pedestrianisation of Norwich City Centre.
Aside from being a line used as a sure-fire way to detect a fellow Partridge fan, those outside of Norwich may not realise that we recently celebrated fifty years since the first high street in the city became pedestrianised, and that the debate around the motorist vs pedestrian issue continues to rage on. It is very much to this day – as Alan himself would say – a ‘hot topic’.Continue Reading
In March this year the Evening News reported that Generation Park Norwich (GPN) had run out of money, leaving its backers (Norwich (NPH) LLP) with debts of £3M. The ‘green’ credentials of UEA, the leading advocate of the scheme, had been further undermined by the complete failure of their own biomass project, at a cost of £10M, and were first reported in the Norwich Radical in August 2015.
Norwich City Council (NCC) seemed to be back to square one after spending 12 years and £700k of public funds trying to come up with a viable use for the Utilities Site, to the east of the city centre. To quote Clive Lewis, the Norwich South MP, the whole scheme seemed to be ‘dead in the water’ before it had even got off the drawing board.
Yet now, like a phoenix from the incinerator’s ashes, it has miraculously risen again; ‘mysterious’ new backers have emerged, and things are back on track for the planning application to finally be heard in July or August. How is it that proposals which have been dogged by controversy, bankruptcy and delay refuse to die? Are there reasons why Generation Park Norwich (GPN) is just too big to fail?Continue Reading
by Josh Wilson
Dear Richard, Andrew, Elizabeth & Adrian,
I joined the Green Party 6 years ago, just before the 2010 General Election. Previously I hadn’t been all that interested in party politics, but when looking through the manifestos for various political parties I was immediately drawn to the Greens. The joining together of economic, social and environmental justice made sense to me.
On Friday at the County Council Annual General Meeting (AGM) you all abstained from the leadership vote, knowingly handing power from a Labour-led rainbow coalition to the Conservative Party.Continue Reading
The Norwich Radical is embedded in our home city. We seek to be a platform for debate and discussion of progressive and radical politics within Norwich. We know that the ballot box is only one of many ways of making change, but that elections play a major role in shaping and determining the future of our political landscape. In light of this, we got in touch with candidates standing in the Norwich City Council elections on May 5th, asking for their views on the biggest problems facing Norwich, and their vision for what the Council can do.
by Gunnar Eigener, Green Party candidate for Sewell Ward
I joined the Green Party just prior to the last General Election. I’m not sure why it took me so long to do so. Like many people, I spent years on the sidelines watching government after government cultivate a financial system in their favour, allowing their corporate financiers and allies to get away with crimes that the ordinary person on the street would be charged and imprisoned for. I’ve seen inquiries cover up the misdeeds of establishment figures. Like others, I have stood by and listened to the devastation caused by unbalanced political policies and seen the gradual loss of frontline services. I think part of the problem was I didn’t know where to turn. It’s hard to find optimism in the sordid world of politics.
I read the Green Party manifesto for the last election. I was almost sure that they had read my mind when compiling it. It spoke to me of a desire to make the world a better place without the need to bring down and rebuild society. It examined what’s wrong and proposed ways to fix the many problems we are faced with. It wasn’t perfect. Some of it seemed almost a bit outlandish, a bit leftfield at times. But thinking about it, I realise that the problems we have are not new and neither are the solutions that are put forward to resolve them. Continue Reading
The Norwich Radical is embedded in our home city. We seek to be a platform for debate and discussion of progressive and radical politics within Norwich. We know that the ballot box is only one of many ways of making change, but that elections play a major role in shaping and determining the future of our political landscape. In light of this, we got in touch with candidates standing in the Norwich City Council elections on May 5th, asking for their views on the biggest problems facing Norwich, and their vision for what the Council can do.
by James Anthony, Liberal Democrat candidate for Town Close.
I’m James Anthony, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Town Close. I’ve always been interested in politics and how ordinary people can make extraordinary changes to the world around them. I believe that any level of government, local or national, should always work for the people and never the other way round. Individuals need to be free to live their lives and government should only interfere with that right when the rights of others are at risk. This is why I became a Liberal Democrat.
As I have paid close attention to the workings of Norwich City Council and attended a number of council meetings, it has become clear that more of the city needs an increased liberal voice in local government to stand up for the interests of residents. I believe I have what it takes to be that voice. This is why I jumped at the opportunity of standing to be a city councillor for Town Close.Continue Reading
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