Elephants and Hippos

These brilliant animals made out of drinks cans have recently caught our eye. We have 2 animals visiting the office at the moment, a hippo made out of coke cans and an elephant made out of beer cans. We love them as they demonstrate an ingenious way to reuse litter, producing something that is attractive and a talking point for further environmental discussions.

Recycling has been a big issue for DEFRA at the moment as well, as part of the Waste Strategy 2007. In August, they launched a consultation on “Recycle on the go.” DEFRA has invited comments on a voluntary code of practice on recycling bins in public places and a good practice guide on recycling in public places. DEFRA expects a number of organisations will deploy recycling bins for public use, both indoors and outdoors. They hope this will reduce litter, increase recycling rates and contribute towards lasting behaviour change.

Out and About in Bournemouth...

Bournemouth, the end of September, rain, traffic, crowded restaurants, fully booked hotels and a lot of MPs – this all adds up to the Labour Party Conference 2007 . We were at the conference in full this year.

Fringe events were as varied as ever, from champagne tasting to a beer meeting, and from Oxfam Coffee Shops to the housing crisis to defending postal services.

All environment fringes were based in the ‘Climate Clinic’ this year, indicative of its increasing importance in the political sphere, indeed in the words of their own slogan; “Climate change isn’t on the fringe, it’s the main event.”

An environment fringe that I attended was the SERA (Labour's Environment Campaign) Question Time. Panellists were representing Wessex Water, the Energy Savings Trust, Natural England, Environment Agency and the Environmental Services Association. Discussion here centred on legislation and targets for carbon reduction, and how this will also be good for the economy.

Fringe events were held all through the day and continued into the late evening, although then they competed with various sponsored parties. The restaurants and hotels were also full with people, discussing Brown’s Leadership speech or a particular fringe or stand that they had visited.

The conference hall was always busy, and it was amazing to see the diverse range of charities and businesses that attended. At the time of Brown’s Leadership speech, the whole conference centre was quiet, crowded around watching the plasma screen dotted around the complex, which was an experience to say the least!

In fact, the atmosphere everywhere at Bournemouth was really friendly and dynamic. Someone compared it to a university Fresher’s fair and I can see the similarities - socialising until the early morning (although maybe these are not followed by early morning breakfast briefings at university); picking up freebies (from bags, to pens, to mints to a yoyo) and meeting an eclectic mix of people.

The question is, will it be the same without the seaside next year, as the Labour conference moves to Manchester again for 2008?

Fantastic Fringes

What an odd decision it was to condense the fringe meetings into three main slots, lunchtime and evening timeslots. http://www.labour.org.uk/images/uploads/200050/f02fb126-5ea6-0e74-1111-e0d9e76ee796.pdf
Perhaps it was easier for the hotels, certainly more profitable, as they seemed to be offering food at all fringes in all places. It was certainly much more challenging to get to as many fringes as usual, for delegates, lobbyists and more importantly MPs and Ministers, some of whom seem to have spread themselves so thinly there was never a chance of making even most of the promised appearances.

That said, the quality of contributions to the events I attended, on environment and sport, and the future direction of the party were really impressive. Where else other than at conference can you breakfast with Will Hutton, lunch with Tony Juniper and have pre-dinner drinks with Gerry Sutcliffe? Love or hate it, Labour conference http://www.labour.org.uk/conference/ is the place to be!

I will always stand up for you...

So, day two at Bournemouth, 9am at the Highcliffe, and you can get a seat and a coffee, and even hear what the person you are meeting is saying…..the sun is sparkling on the sea, and we’re looking good…

By 11am, the sky has darkened…ominous signs perhaps as Alistair Darling wanders around the bar, trying to find a place to sit… out onto the veranda, and still no-one will give up their seat for the second most important man in the country. Perhaps we were all putting the Brown pledge to always stand up for us to the test…

Moments after he conceded seat defeat and decided to conduct his meeting leaning against the wall of the hotel gardens, the heavens opened and down came the rain…beware the new chancellor… vengeance may well be his!