MIDLOTHIAN GREENS BRANCH NEWS Scottish Green Party September 2019 Calls to action! Our economic system is broken. We’ve had a decade of wage stagnation, rising inequality and poverty. ROADS ACTION Work is no longer a guarantee of security and being able to meet basic needs. Edgehead village is a At the same time, the reliance At the heart of a Scottish Green settlement on a long of our economy on fossil fuels New Deal is a belief that the is driving the breakdown of our Scottish Government can and straight road south- climate. must take a direct role, working east of Dalkeith where The Scottish Greens are in partnership with citizens, vehicles speeding calling for a Scottish Green communities, and companies to through the village has New Deal that uses every lever deliver the change Scotland and become an increasingly …the Scottish Government can and must serious problem. take a direct role, working in partnership Over the first six months of with citizens, communities, and companies the year, on average, 15% of to deliver the change Scotland and the the cars passing through the planet so urgently needs. middle of the village drive over 35 mph. The local community want to introduce traffic calming available to Scotland to respond the planet so urgently needs. measures and extend the current to this emergency with the The Scottish Greens have 20mph zone and are even transformational change that is proposed an outline for a Scottish willing to raise the funds to do needed. Green New Deal and over the this themselves. Scotland can: coming year will be developing The Edgehead Village • redirect massive investment this proposal further with our Committee has been in contact into low carbon industries members, stakeholders, the with the police, with council government and industry. • grow a world-leading low officers, their local councillors Please back our call for a carbon manufacturing sector and their local MSP numerous Scottish Green New Deal now! • restore our natural environment Sign up and support our online times over the last few years and • give everyone a warm home campaign at https://greens. have had no success. Midlothian • and provide access to cheap, scot/scottish-green-new-deal Council has completely rejected reliable and green transport. Or get in touch with Midlothian their proposals. But to do this we have to ditch Greens to sign up or ask for more neoliberal economics for good. information. Continued on next page Conference call EDGEFIELD VILLAGE ACTION The Scottish Green Party Continued from first page Autumn Conference is being held in Inverness on Saturday 12 The two main reasons for this contact: Peter Brouwer at peter. and Sunday 13 October 2019. outright rejection are; firstly, the [email protected] or James low rate of accident reports - it Aitken at jamesroyaitken@gmail. Autumn Conference is your seems that until there are several com. If speeding is a problem chance to shape party policy, serious accidents nothing will in your area and especially if priorities and rules. Book your be done. you live in Edgehead or the place at Conference Secondly, lack of funding. The surrounding villages then please #SGPConf2019 council has not support this The first agenda, which is even responded campaign by the full text of all submitted to the proposal The council has not emailing your and approved motions is now that the village even responded to local councillors available, as a member you can: would raise the proposal that and MSP Colin • view the first agenda online or funds to pay for Beattie. download a pdf file; the village would some or all of • submit an amendment to any raise funds to pay Colin Beattie MSP these proposals. Midlothian North of the motions. There are full It is well known for some or all of & Musselburgh instructions on how to do this that this approach, these proposals. colin.beattie.msp@ on the members site; grassroots parliament.scot • vote for the motions that you democracy feel are most important, this Local councillors: in action, is anathema to the will help determine the order Kenneth Baird Midlothian East council - it would just encourage in which they are heard. others to do the same! So, we [email protected] The deadline for submitting an would like to encourage any John Hackett Midlothian East amendment is noon on Thursday members who are a local or [email protected] 12th September. Book your place close to Edgehead or those who Peter Smaill Midlothian East at Conference #SGPConf2019. are just concerned about your [email protected] local roads becoming high speed Midlothian Council officers death traps, to please contact dealing with road safety issues: DEMOCRACY ACTION Peter Brouwer or James Aitken. Cllr Derek Milligan It would be great to bring local Leader of Midlothian Council European Movement in villages together to stand firm and [email protected] Scotland are planning a make the council take notice. Dave Kenny protest featuring Scottish If you’d like to know more Senior Consultant Engineer Greens co-leader Lorna about this campaign please [email protected] Slater, SNP MP Joanna Cherry, Labour MP Ian Murray and Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole- Our next branch meeting is Hamilton on September 21 between 2pm and 4pm on Tuesday 10 September at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. at Penicuik Town Hall, Information for September 21 protest can be found at 7.00pm — 9.00pm, www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ march-to-remain-in- you’re very welcome, there’s the-eu-for-peace-and- loads to talk about! climate-action-tickets- 67487128819?ref=eios News Brief Amazonia being plundered for the profit of a few As Greta Thunberg docked at the North Cove Marina in New York to protest at the UN Climate Action Summit never more did her words ring true: ‘I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is’. Whilst Greta was making her two-week journey minister in Brazil last week, negotiating a post- across the Atlantic the raging forest fires in Brexit trade deal with Bolsonaro’s government. the Amazon were headline news. MSP Alison While Ireland, France and others showed EU Johnstone wrote in the Evening News solidarity by suspending trade talks, Boris ‘Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro Johnson’s Brexit project was participating in a has denied climate science and promoted the race to the bottom by looking for deregulated opening of the Amazon to mining, farming and deals with Bolsonaro and his ally Donald Trump. logging. This has given Brazil’s agricultural lobby UK minister Conor Burns should have been free reign on this global resource, which has recalled from Brazil immediately. Instead, already been in decline since the 1990s. The first Johnson’s response contained no sense of eight months of Bolsonaro’s rule has been an urgency, no recognition of the Amazon’s vital environmental disaster on a global scale. life-giving role and its significance in tackling That’s why it was appalling to see the UK trade the climate emergency’. Read Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnstone’s full article in the Edinburgh Evening News, 27 August 2019. In August our branch heard about the proposed rocket- SPACEPORT ACTION launch facility in North Uist. Later in the month UN House Scotland held its second Green Court event. On Monday, August 26, UN House certain members of the North The Petitioners were Scotland held its second Green Uist community have urged represented by Hannah Barrett Court event — an interactive the council to withdraw their of UN House Scotland and environmental court that planning application, since the Ian Cowan, an independent discusses issues in environmental Council purchased the land on consultant on environmental and law based on real life examples. Scolpaig Farm without consulting planning law. The Respondents The case in question tackled the the constituency and submitted were represented by Caitlin Mills, environmental controversies the planning proposal without a current law student at the surrounding the construction conducting an environmental University of Dundee, and Luke of a rocket-launch facility in impact assessment. Two teams Padfield of UN House Scotland. North Uist, an island in the Outer of two counselors each took Professor James Harrison of Hebrides. Spaceport 1 is intended the floor to address 4 central Edinburgh Law School presided to be the first ever UK-based points at issue: First, is the over the moot court and launching point for satellites and local council legally required helped to guide an engaging sounding rockets. This planning to hold a pre-application group discussion following the proposal was submitted by the consultation for the public? debate. This event was made Western Isles Council to the Second, is an environmental possible with the support of UN planning office of the council impact assessment a legal House Scotland, Artlink, the UK itself. The council is in fact requirement in this case? Third, Environmental Law Association, part of a larger consortium of will the proposed Spaceport and the University of Edinburgh. investors on this project, which development ‘affect’ nearby Keep an eye out for a follow-up includes the UK Space Agency, conservation areas? And fourth, ‘moot court report’ on the UN Highlands and Islands Enterprise, will the proposed Spaceport House Scotland website and QinetiQ, and Commercial development have a significant further announcements about Space Technologies. However, impact on human rights? our next Green Court event! COMMUNITY ACTION Blooming marvellous! A new Facebook group set up on the 15th of August has seen the local community come together and get their shears and shovels out to clean up their local town centre! Dalkeith Guerrilla Gardeners was children who will grow up created by Denise McKenzie who and inherit the space and our has lived in Dalkeith/Woodburn natural environment.’ her whole life.