Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Yorkshire Party

Yorkshire First has been renamed the Yorkshire Party


From the website - www.yorkshireparty.org.uk

The Yorkshire Party is a progressive political party made up of autonomous local groups and individuals who are united by a shared belief that Yorkshire needs a voice at European, national and regional level.

The Yorkshire Party believes it is time to do politics differently. Across our region there are 1,225 elected councillors, who on average, only have a say over 1.5% of their budget. That means we are electing people who do not have the power make necessary change happen. Instead, the majority of decisions that affect Yorkshire are being made in Westminster.
We call for a Yorkshire Assembly (with real powers similar to Scotland) so that decisions that affect our region can be made in our region. We also call for more powers to be handed to local and parish councils.










Sunday, 17 April 2016

Yorkshire pound

Yorkshire is full of very interesting people. Today I meet two amazing young men who are beginning to understand the extent of the toxicity in the food we eat - from salt (ie the refined stuff that they sell as salt is actually a mixture of sand, glass and salt. This toxic mixture is in so much of our food. When digested it can cause extensive damage to the blood artery system, which the body tries to repair with cholesterol - which of course the doctors think is the problem, but the real cause is the salt and other poisons that we are ingesting.)

We both agreed the quality of water is very important - and we in Yorkshire are blessed with good quality water. I will write another blog on this, but for today I want to explore another subject - the Yorkshire pound.

Other cities such as Bristol and Lewes have set the ball rolling with the creation of their own currencies. The local currency is fully exchangeable with The Bank of England issued version of currency, but can only be used in shops that have signed up to receive payment with the local money.

Both schemes are working well in retaining local businesses - I am sure a similar idea would work for the City of York and even for the whole of Yorkshire, but it would take a lot to organise unless it was done on a unified basis (ie all counties, Sheffield and South Yorkshire, Leeds and West Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire along with Hull and East Yorkshire. We need all to pull together and maybe the new political party - Yorkshire First will be the enabler for this to happen>

Once all counties come together to celebrate the unification of God's Own Country with perhaps a citizen's assembly, then lots of great ideas could be introduced - like Yorkshire Water, Yorkshire Real Milk and Cheese, Yorkshire Beer and so on - but I am getting ahead of myself - these ideas will be left to another time.

For now just imagine the benefits of having your own currency which can be spent into existence rather than created through debt. So hospitals, schools and other public institutions can be properly funded using Yorkshire pounds and they can be created to pay for infrastructure spend and other items.

This will create such prosperity that very soon Yorkshire pounds will be worth more that BOE pounds - and Yorkshire pounds will be backed by some gold, but mainly by the land, water and other resources that this great place is blessed with. For more about this idea, please read Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein.




Sunday, 20 March 2016

Yorkshire Real Milk


When I lived "Down South", I saw a film called the Moo Man. It portrays a diary farmer that loves his cows. He explains that raw milk contains enzymes that allow humans to digest lactose. When milk is "pasteurised" (killed), all bacteria and enzymes are destroyed, so pasteurized milk becomes toxic to humans. I believe this is one of the main causes of the current obesity crisis.

http://trufflepigfilms.com/the-mooman/

This is also confirmed by the Real Milk Campaign

Another consequence of pasteurisation is that milk can be kept for longer. So pasteurisation allows milk to be shipped over long distances.

My believe is that supermarkets in a search for the lowest price commodity, buy milk from low cost economies in Europe and ship it to the UK,, which has effectively wiped out our local diary industry. I am not arguing against globalisation, but I believe that this situation can be reversed.

1. Consumers need to be made aware of the dangers of drinking pasteurized milk (Obesity due to lactose intolerance).
2. A strong marketing campaign to drink real milk.
3. Real milk can only be stored for a few days, so needs to be sourced locally.
4. Sign up one of the supermarket chains (like Waitrose) to sell Real Milk sourced locally - in Yorkshire this would be from cows pastured in Yorkshire, eating grass grown here.

This would need a co-ordinated approach - Milk Marketing Board, Supermarkets, Dairy Farmers, and consumers.





Plan for blog

Picture  - Joseph Mallord William Turner - Evening Landscape with Castle and Bridge in Yorkshire

I received a "download" of the topics for a blog on Yorkshire, God's Own Country - its challenges and some solutions. Here is an initial list of topics, in no particular order:

  • Yorkshire Raw Milk
  • Yorkshire First
  • Yorkshire Water
  • Yorkshire Fair Tax Town
  • Yorkshire Education
  • Yorkshire Flood Defences
  • Yorkshire Quality
  • Yorkshire Pound

That is quite a list and I will endeavour to cover each one of the coming weeks.