Kate Robinson, Green Party Candidate for Headington Hill & Northway

What we need to do now, by Chris Goodall.

June's Book will be "What we need to do now" by Chris Goodall. The session will be online, and Chris Goodall, the writer, will be there to present his ideas, and take questions from you, the readers.

 Chris Goodall sets out the ways the UK can become carbon neutral by 2050. His proposals include:

• Building a huge over-capacity of wind and solar energy, storing the excess as hydrogen.
• Using hydrogen to fuel our trains, shipping, boilers and heavy industry, while electrifying buses, trucks and cars.
• Farming - and eating - differently, encouraging plant-based alternatives to meat
• Paying farmers to plant and maintain woodlands.
• Making fashion sustainable and aviation pay its way, funding synthetic fuels and genuine offsets.
• Using technical solutions to capture CO2 from the air, and biochar to lock carbon in the soil.

Order the book from Amazon or Blackwells.

What We Need To Do Now is a short hardback book that offers a set of solutions to each of the main challenges posed by global heating. Of course it covers energy supply but also has chapters on housing, food, clothing and the main manufacturing problem areas, such as cement and steel. It finishes by looking briefly at the opportunities for direct capture of CO2 from air and the possible benefits and costs of tinkering with the reflectivity of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Let us know how you can best help on election day, 7 May 2020. Tasks include:

1. Reminding people to vote:
   • Knocking on the doors of people who said they will vote Green (“knocking up”).
   • Telephoning people who said they would vote green.
2. Helping in a committee room.
3. Giving lifts to voters with mobility difficulties who are otherwise unable to travel their polling station
4. Taking voter numbers at polling stations (“telling”)—many voters don’t make up their minds until they are in the polling booth. A Green rosette and a welcoming face can help persuade them. Key times include 7am-9.30am, and 5pm-8pm.
5. Tallying the votes at the count, so we know where in the county there are more Green voters.

Please tick the ways you can help below, and where you can help.

This is a call for candidates to stand for the Green Party at the 2021 elections to councils in Oxfordshire.

We need more Green councillors in Oxfordshire. Could you follow in the footsteps of our Green Party councillors in Oxford, and stand for election? You could improve the quality of our councils by representing the people and views that the governing parties ignore.

Act now

If you are at all interested in standing as a candidate, or helping organise a campaign for a candidate, please complete the form below, and the Elections Committee will get back to you with more details.

If you want any more information on what is involved in standing as candidate, please contact the Elections Co-ordinator, David Newman.

We are looking for both target candidates, who will work hard to win in May 2021, and non-target candidates who need to do as little as getting their name on the ballot paper so that people can vote everywhere for a Green Party candidate.

Would you like to help welcome newly-joined members into your area? Not everyone feels confident enough to immediately come to a big meeting or join in a campaign team. So we are looking for members who can talk to them about local issues and the things we are doing as a party.

If you are willing to be a local link person who will make that extra bit of effort to get to know new local members, please let me know and I will ensure you are provided with details of people who join in your area. In cities this area might be a few streets, in the countryside a village. I will divide up the areas once all the volunteers have signed up. Let me know which area you would like to handle.

How you welcome new members and supporters is up to you. Below are some suggestions. Tick the ones that you think might work in your area. Some are more suited to a rural village, other in towns. Or you may have better ideas.

The Labour-run City Council have seized direct control of East Oxford Community Centre (EOCC) on the Cowley Road) and plan to sell off half the Community Centre site and 'improve' the rest (funded by further sell-offs; East Oxford Games Hall and the Film Oxford building).

The Centre was run by the East Oxford Community Association before the Council power-grab. The Centre is home to many local groups (including Fusion Arts & Oxford Action Resource Centre) and most nights all available rooms are booked out. Both the Games Hall and Film Oxford are also well used.

The Greens are contesting claims by Labour that they can re-provide 'improved' facilities on a site half the current size whilst incorporating those activities previously carried out in the Film Oxford building and East Oxford Games Hall. 

The Greens have put forward an alternative solution - to instead develop land in nearby Cave Street for housing and instead redevelop the Community Centre land for use by social and community enterprises.  This will provide MORE housing and retain the integrity of the EOCC site.