Whilst a People & Planeter in UCL, I was always rather oblivious to the way that People & Planet was run nationally. Partially this was because I didn’t really know much about the network (we had just started a group the year that I joined) and partially it was because the idea of taking part in a national decision-making group was rather daunting. Luckily, in my final year, I decided to take a little of a risk and ended up going along to the Forum in Manchester.

Read the rest of this entry »

Like most eighteen year olds I am waiting for my A-level exam results. There is so much anticipation and worry of waiting for exam results, but the most worrying thing is not if I have done enough, well maybe part of it, but it is the exam grade boundaries because the labour government are trying to cut down on people gaining A/B’s because A-level’s have become ‘too easy’. Tell that to any student “Your grade A or B is not worth as much because it is so easy to get that grade.” Yeah right. How much effort and tears are put into A-levels hoping you get the grade? In any case A-levels are getting more difficult. Read the rest of this entry »

Who doesn’t enjoy music? If your one to listen to Radio 1 or a hardcore delver of the vinyl dustbins, we all have favourite bands, artists and musicians who we love to listen to, to go see, to buy merchandise of and wear. Music is much part of our culture as it is any other, it creates social groups, friendships can be grown and broken by music, it can evoke memories good and bad and lastly music is one of the artistic mediums that can be used to show how social and political viewpoints are shaping the world. Music allows us to party and shout our deepest desires all in the same song. But at what cost? Read the rest of this entry »

There is no doubt that power is held in the hands of the few rather than the many; it is also beyond doubt that this power is largely held by large corporations fuelling their wealth and power at the expense of those poorer. Yet as a lowly campaigner who wishes to seek international justice, there can either seem to be no way in which to pull these companies into ethical rein, or there can be too many. Since I seem to have stumbled across the latter, I thought I might make a little comparison between those that I can think of:

1. Fairtrade  (Bottom-Up)
2. Worker Rights Consortium (Top-Down)
3. The Forest Trust (Cleaning the System)
4. RBS and Ditch Dirty Development  (Legal & Financial Pressure)

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the link of the news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8551122.stm Actually it was two adults, who were parents of a South Korean baby! The parents (father: 41 years old, mother: 25 years old) lost their jobs earlier and were then addicted to an online game on raising a virtual baby, while their real baby was dead by prolonged malnutrition! Read the rest of this entry »

Everyday that I go college, there would always be that 1 person who would be moaning about EMA, and how they didnt get their £30 this week or just becuase they havent recieved it for so long! I think its ridiculous the amount of benefits that the goverment give out… Especially as going to further education (college) is already free for students to go to.. so exactly what is the need for EMA…?

Read the rest of this entry »

As part of 10:10 week at Edinburgh University, Transition Edinburgh University collaborated with the University of Edinburgh and the World Development Movement Scotland to put on a panel discussion entitled 'The Role of Civil Society after Copenhagen'. It was definitely a valid question to bring up. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting your University signed up to the Workers’ Rights Consortium is a issue that can unite students across campus, from all backgrounds and all groups, as Deborah Bazeley a second year Political Science student, women’s rights activist and women’s association member said at the protest “I have never seen such a diverse range of people come together on one issue in a fight against discrimination”, The Workers’ Rights Consortium is not just about ending sweatshops and child labour  it protects against all forms of discrimination against workers; gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion, or social or ethnic origin and encourages and protects via solidarity, liberation movements.

Read the rest of this entry »

I apologise for not blogging for so long, I have been very busy with University and have been ill a fair few times. So a little bit of background info about me first, I am very conscious about my weight and have been for a fair few years now. When I was about 14 I decided I was going to lose weight after being bullied for being fat, now looking back I wasn't morbidly obese, I was just a bit on the chubby side. Read the rest of this entry »

WDM's Julian Oram explains why P&P, WDM and PLATFORM are taking the Treasury to court - again. This piece first appeared on www.leftfootforward.org/ Here’s a puzzler: what is the UK’s biggest contributor to climate change? Did you answer coal? Good guess, but no. Transport? It’s a biggy for sure, but not the largest. Farming? A distant fourth. Read the rest of this entry »