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It’s funny how often people agree with you when you suggest that bankers aren’t perfect. Now all we need to do is keep the pressure on the politicians to understand this basic point…

Dressing up as a Barclays banker in Argyle St certainly attracts some attention – from shoppers and the press… Let’s just hope the politicians take some notice too.

WDM Glasgow members went on the anti-cuts march in London to join the mass protest against cuts here in the UK. Along with other WDM Groups, we wanted to highlight the links between austerity measures here and similar policies being imposed on poorer countries around the world.

Ayrshire Power have now submitted their planning application for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire. This is a mad plan and we need to stop it now!

• It’s completely unnecessary – ‘The Power of Scotland Renewed’ showed that Scotland can meet 60-143% of its energy needs from renewables by 2030. See http://bit.ly/cQtqC9 for the full report
• It will completely undermine Scotland’s world-leading climate change legislation – even Ayrshire Power are only claiming that 15% of the CO2 will be removed from day one with Carbon Capture and Storage. And they haven’t even said how they will do this!
• The proposal is being handled in an anti-democratic way – it was shoe-horned into the National Planning Framework after the public consultation period, Ayrshire Power are doing everything they can to avoid proper consultation, and the Scottish Parliament has already voted by 66 to 26 calling on the Scottish Government to throw the plan out.

Take just a couple of minutes to send in an objection and stop this madness  – http://www.wdm.org.uk/scotland-campaign-actions or go to the Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston website for lots more info and a sample objection letter – www.conchcampaign.org/

A late rally from Spain led them to victory in the West End Festival mini-football World Cup. Thanks to the ingeniously designed ‘moving goalposts of justice’, the trophy was always more likely to go to a country with a better social justice record. And Spain’s position at number 9 in the ‘Who Should I Cheer For?’ league table ensured them plenty of support, although there were strong challenges from Brazil and Cameroon.

Despite strong support on the day (who said Glaswegians would rather support anyone but…) England only managed a parlous 3 wins, hampered by their position at number 27, whilst the USA at number 31 only  managed one win all day.

Now all we need is for FIFA to recognise the result…

 

If you didn’t get a chance to come and join the action on the day of the RBS AGM, here’s a glimpse of us on Reporting Scotland on the BBC…

http://bit.ly/ct6uf3

And here’s Claire talking about the campaign on Radio Scotland…

http://bit.ly/cLkdHy

Those lovely people at RBS called the police about us, but unfortunately we don’t have a picture of the two very friendly PCs who came to tell us we weren’t doing anything illegal. We’re planning to do this stunt again elsewhere in Glasgow, so watch this space or contact us to get involved.