Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

While millions are traipsing up and down the high street with plastic bags full of plastic gifts for their loved ones, are we all missing the bigger picture. Leaders of the world are tussling over the financial chaos affecting the richest countries while the poorest get poorer and children are still starving and dying this Christmas time….

…add your comments below.

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH TO PERFORM AT DEVON’S ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL

Exeter Corn Exchange, Market Street, Exeter, EX1 1BU

Sunday 27 November 2011

10am-4.30pm

FREE ENTRY

Benjamin Zephaniah, the nation’s favourite performance poet, will be the special guest at this year’s South West Christmas Without Cruelty Festival on November 27. Benjamin will be reading poems (at around midday), signing books and chatting with visitors.

The pioneering, eco-friendly Festival offers visitors the chance to buy Christmas cards and innovative, cruelty-free gifts in the sure knowledge that they are supporting good causes and creative local companies. Products will range from fairtrade clothes and jewellery to cosmetics and skin care products, handmade chocolates, games for children, pottery and oils made in Palestine and sold to provide poverty relief for the local population, wildlife photographs, and Devon grown olive trees.

Everything on sale will be free from animal products.

Charitable organisations taking part include Survival International, CND and the Palestine Solidarity Group, Devon Wildlife Trust, Sea Shepherd, the League Against Cruel Sports and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection – emphasizing the core message of non-violence to people, animals and the environment. The South West Green Party will also be there.

According to Mark Gold, who is organising the Festival for Animal Aid,

‘We’re particularly thrilled that Benjamin Zephaniah has kindly agreed to join us this year and add another great attraction to our popular festival. We’ve really built the event up over the last four years and it’s been wonderful to see increasing numbers of visitors seeking to buy imaginative and unique presents for their family and friends.

It’s part of the ethos of the Festival to keep admission free, so that people can spend everything they can afford at the stalls. At the same time, we want them to feel they’ve had a special and fun day out, so we also have a fabulous restaurant and great live music – as well as Benjamin’s guest appearance, of course.’ Photo from www.benjaminzephaniah.com

For further details of the South West Christmas Without Cruelty Festival contact Mark Gold on 01395 579353 (07796 581915) or email mark.54.gold@googlemail.com

Thank you to everyone who came to see the East Devon Green Party film screening of Food Inc. at the Broadclyst Victory Hall yesterday afternoon. We had a good turnout and lots of interesting comments afterwards. A positive reaction to the short film on local organic farming Henry commissioned which was shown beforehand.

Here’s a place to discuss the film itself, green party farming policies, the future of food production etc – please add your comments below and join in the discussion (whether you came to see the film or not).

Here’s a link to the Food Inc. website www.foodincmovie.com

The East Devon Green Party webpage

The Soil Association website

Bookings are now open for the Little Green Gathering, organised by Hampshire Green Parties members and held at the Sustainability Centre on the South Downs near Petersfield on 15-17 July.  Great for chilling out, green politics, music and arts and crafts – plus a wonderful setting with sustainable camping and all veggie food.  This far, confirmed attendees include: Seize the Day, a waggon load of Green Councillors; an MP, MEP, the Lord Major of Oxford and Professor Fiddlesticks – What’s not to like?

There are more than sixty activities in several places around the wooded site.  We have singing and drawing workshops, camp-fires, wildlife “safaris” and lessons on herbalism and Target-to-Win; a theatre group, artists, a harpist and poets in residence; performance music, theatre, art and poetry; games and teas for kids; banner-making in a yurt (come away with your new local party banner); debates on NVDA, carbon-counting, the “Left” and Trident; a real-nappy fashion show … and a man who is going to tell us how to design eco-domes.
Numbers are limited so book now.  See http://southeast.greenparty.org.uk/region/southeast/little-green-gathering.html for more details and a downloadable booking form or contact Tim Dawes at tim@nineveh.co.uk or 02392 470592

MEMBERS of East Devon Green Party have voted to support Hugh’s Fish Fight because it is in line with existing Green party policies.

At a meeting of the EDGP at Sidmouth on Saturday, January 15, Sharon Pavey, EDGP co-ordinator, members supported her suggestion they sign an on-line petition to support the Fish Fight.

Some half a million people have already signed the petition backing Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaign to get people to petition against the throwing back of nearly half the fish caught in the North Sea, to contact MPs asking for their support of a Fish Fight early day motion and to try eating lesser-known species of fish.

Mother of two Sharon, from Honiton, said: “Like many people, I watched Hugh’s Fish Fight on television and was appalled to see so many dead fish being thrown away as the quotas did not allow them to be landed.

“I was particularly struck by the images of so many sharks being tossed into a heap to die, the unfortunate victims of intensive tuna fishing.”

Henry Gent, a Green Party member from Broadclyst, said the party wanted radical reform of agricultural and fisheries policies.

He said: “I think many people are concerned about the way food production is going, on land and on sea.

“Family farms are driven out of business by competition from factory farms, and those who fish with sustainable methods cannot compete on price with more intensive harvesting and farming of fish.”

The East Devon Greens meet monthly in different towns in East Devon, and will be holding a coffee morning at Christ Church Hall, North Street, Exmouth, from 10am to noon on Saturday, February 19. Contact Sharon sdpavey@googlemail.com for more details.

Think of your favourite recipe, perhaps an old favourite, something you (or a friend/relative has) invented or a delicious recipe passed down through the family. (Please do not copy from a cookbook as we could be in all sorts of trouble with copyright!)

Email me the recipe to sdpavey@googlemail.com as a word document.

Please make sure you include:

Your name

Your local green party in the south west

Add a few lines about the recipe – where it came from, why you enjoy it, how it’s best served etc. Any funny anecdotes are great too. Recipes from around the world would be great.

Title of recipe

Ingredients list

Instructions

Optional – photo of you making it, or you and your family eating it.

There you go, easy as pie. If you have a favourite local veggie/vegan cafe or eatery you can recommend, please email me their details as we will be looking for sponsorship for the cookbooks.

Sharon Pavey – Coordinator for the east devon greens & south west regional fundraiser

Click here for the south west green party site

We are having an Open Mic Night to celebrate our first Christmas & 11 months together as a local Green Party here in East Devon.

We very much hope you can come and celebrate with us on Saturday 4th December (from 8pm) at Twyford House in Sidmouth. This is also an opportunity for us to raise much needed funds to enable us to get Green councillors elected at the local elections next May, so we hope you can support the event.

Tickets are £5 which includes a delicious buffet meal with a range of veggie, vegan & non-veggie options. Please bring your own drinks. The mic will be open to anyone who wants to entertain us with music, song, dance, poetry & humour. There is no pressure to join in, sit back, relax & enjoy if the limelight is not for you! We’ll also be running a raffle on the night.

We welcome, members & non-members. Come and meet some like-minded souls! Please contact me for your ticket today – you can pay quickly, easily & safely online or send a cheque. sdpavey@googlemail.com or tel/text 07740973990. You can also add a comment here if you’re coming to party with us!

“Today is a dark day for the students of the future – and for Lib Dem voters who have seen, yet again, their Party’s leader make a shameful u-turn on a key election pledge. The Greens are now the only main political party that support free education for all. A cap of £9,000 is simply unacceptable for a country that values social mobility and inclusiveness. This announcement will mean our public degrees will be among the most costly in the world. Many people will be priced out of going to university – and those who do go will be saddled with huge debt. All this at a time when our young people are facing increasing unemployment and anxiety about the future.

“A more progressive policy to address the challenge of funding our higher education would be a business education tax levied on the top 4% of UK companies, which would generate enough annually to abolish tuition fees and take our public investment in higher education up to the average in other comparable countries. As MP for Brighton Pavilion, I am determined to work hard to protect students and staff at Sussex University from creeping privatisation and devastating cuts.”

Tess Green – Bristol

Paula Black – Devon County Council

Sarah Lunnon – Gloucestershire County Council

Tom Leimdorfer – North Somerset

Gwen Belcher – Stroud

Philip Booth – Stroud

Sarah Lunnon – Stroud

Fiona Macmillan – Stroud

John Marjoram – Stroud

Martin Whiteside – Stroud

Peter Christie – Torridge

Miranda Cox - Torridge

Alan Gorman – Totnes

Jacqui Hodgson – Totnes

Please add your comments below & thank you.