Edited picks from the grassroots

I'm speaking at the annual general meeting of the Eastern branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS (1)) on Thursday December 4th. I will be addressing the event in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Peterborough (at the John Clare Theatre, on Broadway, at 1.30pm) as a plenary speaker. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />  I've been a Trades Union activist for 20 years inclu

In general I'm withholding judgement on Obama's new Presidency, at least until starts. Otherwise I'll get very confused, each news scrap given a significance beyond the sweep of events. Partly this is because I believe policy matters more than the personnel, but also because I need to ensure I've got enough distance not to retrospectively justify my decision to support Obama.

Large numbers of protestors again lobbied the council on their plans to 'Academise' three schools in Croydon. Following successful public meetings in Ashburton, large number of parents and pupils voiced their anger outside the town hall and in the public gallery.
It was announced last night that the preferred sponsor for Ashburton is Oasis Academy and for Haling Manor it's Harris (again).

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Wensum ward Councillor and Green Party candidate for Eastern Region in the 2009 European elections Rupert Read will join a protest on December 6th against the proposed destruction of Bintree Woods. In February 2008 Norfolk County Council, in partnership with the Forestry Commission and local landowners, proposed the conversion of 1.7 square miles of land around and including Bintree Woods into the largest combined gravel extraction works and landfill site in Europe.

My friend Barbara Panvel posts weekly at The Stirrer: 'campaigns that count in Birmingham, the black country and beyond'. Her latest post is addressed to Helicopter Ben - Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve who is now following up on Milton Friedman's suggestion that dropping money from helicopters might be a way to deal with deflation.

So far the voting is going 2:1 in favour of this image being used in the next election. But only 13 peeps have voted. Please help us to get statistical significance by voting here

PS it won't work for you if you have already voted.

More trouble for the beleagured Lib Dems. Nick Clegg has put his foot in it by talking about his colleagues during an internal flight and within earshot of a journalist. He apparently was also talking about a coalition with the Tories, like many I am convinced he is Cameron's twin brother. He even seems to have taken to internal flights - when will he be calling for airport expansion?

Rumours abound about compulsive vaccinations for children. There is a number 10 petition which closes today. Compulsory vacinations are completely wrong. While I think that every effort should be to promote vaccinations, forcing them on people is immoral. It is a fundamental infringement on our civil liberties and yet another step towards the medicalisation of life.

The European Commission have slated Big Pharma for blocking cheap medicines by using legal action and multiple patents. But who can blame them, they are in the business to make a profit and they are clearly good doing this.

Dear Editor,

Now that another informal consultation on Croydon Schools Secondary Review is under way, followed by the statutory equivalent in the new year; I sincerely hope that parents and pupils are able to have access to all the facts in order to participate in the consultations. The formation of ‘Croydon SOS’, a couple of months back, seeks to achieve just that.