Concluding, with an amazing twist, the tale of greening Odanglesex - a report with added words for no extra price!!!
FROM: Sam Speed, Emergency Social Work Co-ordinator
TO: Silesia Jones, Equality and Diversity Beacon Consultant
Hi! Have all the kettles disappeared from your kitchen too?
FROM: Silesia Jones
TO: Sam Speed
Yes. It's a bummer. Terry's trying to find out what's happened.
FROM: Sam Speed
TO: Silesia Jones
Especially as I work nights and the water heater is set to go off at 5.
FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager
TO: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
Don Coggins, Hard Systems Manager (Core)
Colleagues:
People on B11 have been asking what happened overnight to the kettle in our kitchen. It was a new one twelve people clubbed together to buy three weeks ago. We thought it might have been stolen or accidentally taken out and not replaced, but then both Sam Speed in the Emergency Social Work Team and Caradoc MacNab in Finance contacted people in my team because their kettles had vanished. The only information I've been able to get so far is that Dale Brashcon said he understood it was a sub-milestone on the Green Odanglesex Strategy. Calandra - you're our green person, so are you in the know?
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
cc: Don Coggins
This is news to me. Don?
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Calandra Larkins
In pursuance of the Green Odanglesex Strategy, Safety Considerations and the Odanglesex Values Statement, all unauthorised hand-held electric water heating devices positioned in O.C.C. kitchens have been removed. A supply of hot water is accessible from the static water heaters situated in each kitchen.
The business case for this intervention is as follows:
1: The non-availability of hand-held electric water heating devices will reduce incidence of personal water heating activity and hence impact on our carbon footprint.
2: The static water heaters are more efficient.
3: A Safety Audit identified hand-held water heating devices as a health and safety risk because of the possibility of hot water product interacting with human extremities.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Don Coggins
Don: thanks.
As Green Odanglesex Champion (Core), I feel I should have been consulted, or at least warned, about action taken under the heading of the Green Odanglesex Strategy. By the way - is there a sound basis for stating that the static water heaters are more energy efficient? Also - where's our kettle gone? It's not OCC property.
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: All Directors and Heads of Unit
Please cascade the following water technology information. All unauthorised personal hand-held water heating devices seized from O.C.C. kitchens and marked with personal identification may be accessed for recovery at the O.C.C. Business Technology Pool at Ogden Hall (link to map). After this Wednesday they will be transited to the Odanglesex East Central Recycling Facility at Day's Grange for landfill.
FROM: Oliver Oldknoll, Innovatory Best Practice Exemplar Workforce Manager
TO: Anne Hathaway, Internal Finance Systems Development Officer
Anne:
As I hadn't heard anything about another meeting of the Green working group on which we're both champions, I e-mailed Calandra to find out what was going on. The e-mail bounced back. Apparently she's no longer with the council. I tried Chris Van Hummel. He's vanished too. I've e-mailed their boss, Brett, asking who's taken over their roles and had no reply. At least to my knowledge he hasn't vanished, though (forget it). Have you heard anything? Who's picking this up?
FROM: Anne Hathaway
TO: Oliver Oldknoll
No-one, apparently. Rob Methuen did suggest we wait a year or so until the next green initative and then ask again. LOL. I don't think.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF EDELBERTHA SPENGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ODANGLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL, TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXEMPLAR LEADERS
We are especially proud in Odanglesex with our transformational journey leading into a step change to become a Green County. In the last eighteen months we've embedded a Green Odanglesex Strategy, appointed external and internal Green Odanglesex champions and given our internal work pathways a thorough audit and shake-up through a volunteer Green Odanglesex Working Group. Of course the award of the title of Green Place of the Year was a triumph for all the people who have worked so hard to make our Strategy a reality. More innovatory still was our employee positive message tagging initiative...
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Odanglesex Revisited: Green Odanglesex (2)
Continuing the reposted, improved (hopefully) tale of Odanglesex's aspirational striving to be green.
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Colleagues:
I thought that was a fantastic meeting yesterday! I hope you felt the same. The first analyses of energy use across County Hall will be e-mailed to all employees next week, so please look out for them and in particular any hot-spots which show particular offices or work-stations have items such as printers or monitors left on overnight. The word is diplomacy, though. Fights are energy-intensive.
Sorry this e-mail comes from me apparently with my Spatial Diversification hat on. Internal Comms haven't been able yet to change my title on e-mails to include Green Odanglesex Champion (Core). They did say a new identity could be set up, but then apparently the system would insist on paying me twice.
Roll on the next meeting!
FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
TO: Dale Brashcon, Transformational Excellence Champion
Dale: Kelly's pointed out these maps of energy hot-spots to me. I understand a Green Odanglesex Champions' Working Group has been set up with all directorates represented. Who's our rep?
FROM: Dale Brashcon
TO: Kenneth Spotlessnob
Kenneth:
Apparently it's Reema Narlikar in Hamish's team.
FROM: Kelly Pattrick, PA to Kenneth Spotlessnob
TO: Reema Narlikar, Transformational Excellence Officer
Reema: Kenneth would like to see you tomorrow at 10 about Green Odanglesex.
FROM: Reema Narlikar
TO: ScottFitz29@nuncio.com.uk
Scottie:
I know you're in Moldova, but if I know u, checking your emails and losing your texts. So here goes. I'm spitting blood and want a shoulder to cry on. Yeah, OK, no-one really wants blood on their shoulder, but on your tshirts it won't show.
You remember I volunteered for TESV's Greek champion. Well, KSnob called me in and pointed out that everyone in the directorate could see on that map that he was leaving his monitor on and the printer in his office was being left on too. Of course, it was nothing to do with any embarrasment he might experience, but wasn't this kind of over-personal information likely to cause trouble? I pointed out that it was the same with all directorates and Calandra was in charge. He said he'd have a word with Brett and Simeon.
He also asked how much time I was giving to this role. I think if I'd said 0.1% of my time he'd have implied that was too much. Of course, he lost the turf battle to get Internally Greening Odanglesex into TESV.
Green, not Greek.
Beam me up Scotty.
COMMA!!!
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fellow champs:
Just to let you know that the maps of out-of-hours energy use will now not show individual workstations.
To be concluded...
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Colleagues:
I thought that was a fantastic meeting yesterday! I hope you felt the same. The first analyses of energy use across County Hall will be e-mailed to all employees next week, so please look out for them and in particular any hot-spots which show particular offices or work-stations have items such as printers or monitors left on overnight. The word is diplomacy, though. Fights are energy-intensive.
Sorry this e-mail comes from me apparently with my Spatial Diversification hat on. Internal Comms haven't been able yet to change my title on e-mails to include Green Odanglesex Champion (Core). They did say a new identity could be set up, but then apparently the system would insist on paying me twice.
Roll on the next meeting!
FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
TO: Dale Brashcon, Transformational Excellence Champion
Dale: Kelly's pointed out these maps of energy hot-spots to me. I understand a Green Odanglesex Champions' Working Group has been set up with all directorates represented. Who's our rep?
FROM: Dale Brashcon
TO: Kenneth Spotlessnob
Kenneth:
Apparently it's Reema Narlikar in Hamish's team.
FROM: Kelly Pattrick, PA to Kenneth Spotlessnob
TO: Reema Narlikar, Transformational Excellence Officer
Reema: Kenneth would like to see you tomorrow at 10 about Green Odanglesex.
FROM: Reema Narlikar
TO: ScottFitz29@nuncio.com.uk
Scottie:
I know you're in Moldova, but if I know u, checking your emails and losing your texts. So here goes. I'm spitting blood and want a shoulder to cry on. Yeah, OK, no-one really wants blood on their shoulder, but on your tshirts it won't show.
You remember I volunteered for TESV's Greek champion. Well, KSnob called me in and pointed out that everyone in the directorate could see on that map that he was leaving his monitor on and the printer in his office was being left on too. Of course, it was nothing to do with any embarrasment he might experience, but wasn't this kind of over-personal information likely to cause trouble? I pointed out that it was the same with all directorates and Calandra was in charge. He said he'd have a word with Brett and Simeon.
He also asked how much time I was giving to this role. I think if I'd said 0.1% of my time he'd have implied that was too much. Of course, he lost the turf battle to get Internally Greening Odanglesex into TESV.
Green, not Greek.
Beam me up Scotty.
COMMA!!!
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fellow champs:
Just to let you know that the maps of out-of-hours energy use will now not show individual workstations.
To be concluded...
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Odangflesex Revisited: Green Odanglesex (1)
Another reposted and improved Odanglesex adventure - this time greening the county!
FROM: Edelbertha Spengler, Chief Executive and Directional Excellence Champion
TO: Simeon Lascelles, Director of Spatial Exploration and Direction Management
Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
cc: Conor O'Connor, Director of Human Resources Development
Hi, both! I thought I should let you know that I've concluded the outward-facing and inward-facing functions of our Green Odanglesex journey should benefit from unified management. This means that both functions will be housed in the same directorate and as we previously agreed that the outward-facing officer should be in SEDM, it follows that the inward-facing function will be there too.
The consequences of this are the creation of one post of Outward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion in SEDM at NOAH(2) and the allocation of an 0.4 fte officer also at NOAH(2) from that directorate to the inward-facing role (to be achieved by internal efficiencies), this officer while acting in this role to be referenced as "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion".
Ed
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Brett West, Head of Modernisation and Business Practice
Brett: I was delighted to be given the remit for greening OCC internally and to learn that I'd be working with Chris Van Hummel so that our promotion work with partners and stakeholders will be dancing to the same tune as our internal work. If I can speak personally, it's so much more exciting than that personal waste recycling promotion work I was going to be taking on. You know how committed I am to green causes.
This is to let you know that if that's acceptable, I can start on the new reponsibilities next week - one week early.
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
Thanks for this, Calandra. Just to note that on reconsideration after a chat with Goneril Hayes, Simeon and I felt that the title of "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion" gave the wrong impression, as OCC is outward-facing and customer-focused at all times. You will therefore be referred to in this role as "Green Odanglesex Champion (Core!)".
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
That should of course read "(Core)".
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fantastic! I had almost no trouble at all getting volunteers to take on being Green Odanglesex Champions. It was a bit harder finding a suitable date, but the most popular was the morning of 3 May, so I've booked the Pond Conference Room for 10-11.30. Look forward to seeing you all! Well, nearly all.
ED'S JOB - THE BLOG OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDELBERTHA SPENGLER
Hi again!
Did you have a mother who kept urging you to eat your greens? I did. Now I urge her to do the same.
Eating more vegetables isn't only good for you (unless you eat huge amounts of them already, of course) but also good for the planet because growing vegetables uses up far less energy than growing meat. I thought I'd point that out because we're now making a major push to relaunch our Green Odanglesex Strategy and everyone should be thinking about how to contribute to greening the planet and in particular Odanglesex. Our aspiration is to be the greenest county in England.
If you have any bright ideas, please drop a line to Calandra Larkins, our new Geeen Odanglesex Champion (Core)!
Meanwhile I'll be making sure I re-use ALL my shoes!
Bye for now!
Ed
(The Green Odanglesex Strategy should just be plain sailing now, shouldn't it? To be continued)
FROM: Edelbertha Spengler, Chief Executive and Directional Excellence Champion
TO: Simeon Lascelles, Director of Spatial Exploration and Direction Management
Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision
cc: Conor O'Connor, Director of Human Resources Development
Hi, both! I thought I should let you know that I've concluded the outward-facing and inward-facing functions of our Green Odanglesex journey should benefit from unified management. This means that both functions will be housed in the same directorate and as we previously agreed that the outward-facing officer should be in SEDM, it follows that the inward-facing function will be there too.
The consequences of this are the creation of one post of Outward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion in SEDM at NOAH(2) and the allocation of an 0.4 fte officer also at NOAH(2) from that directorate to the inward-facing role (to be achieved by internal efficiencies), this officer while acting in this role to be referenced as "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion".
Ed
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
TO: Brett West, Head of Modernisation and Business Practice
Brett: I was delighted to be given the remit for greening OCC internally and to learn that I'd be working with Chris Van Hummel so that our promotion work with partners and stakeholders will be dancing to the same tune as our internal work. If I can speak personally, it's so much more exciting than that personal waste recycling promotion work I was going to be taking on. You know how committed I am to green causes.
This is to let you know that if that's acceptable, I can start on the new reponsibilities next week - one week early.
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
Thanks for this, Calandra. Just to note that on reconsideration after a chat with Goneril Hayes, Simeon and I felt that the title of "Inward-facing Green Odanglesex Champion" gave the wrong impression, as OCC is outward-facing and customer-focused at all times. You will therefore be referred to in this role as "Green Odanglesex Champion (Core!)".
FROM: Brett West
TO: Calandra Larkins
That should of course read "(Core)".
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel
Fantastic! I had almost no trouble at all getting volunteers to take on being Green Odanglesex Champions. It was a bit harder finding a suitable date, but the most popular was the morning of 3 May, so I've booked the Pond Conference Room for 10-11.30. Look forward to seeing you all! Well, nearly all.
ED'S JOB - THE BLOG OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDELBERTHA SPENGLER
Hi again!
Did you have a mother who kept urging you to eat your greens? I did. Now I urge her to do the same.
Eating more vegetables isn't only good for you (unless you eat huge amounts of them already, of course) but also good for the planet because growing vegetables uses up far less energy than growing meat. I thought I'd point that out because we're now making a major push to relaunch our Green Odanglesex Strategy and everyone should be thinking about how to contribute to greening the planet and in particular Odanglesex. Our aspiration is to be the greenest county in England.
If you have any bright ideas, please drop a line to Calandra Larkins, our new Geeen Odanglesex Champion (Core)!
Meanwhile I'll be making sure I re-use ALL my shoes!
Bye for now!
Ed
(The Green Odanglesex Strategy should just be plain sailing now, shouldn't it? To be continued)
Thursday, 19 April 2012
What is a Liberal - to me?
When I last posted I described how the term "Liberal" has come to mean different things in different places, its roots, and how it evolved in Britain. I ended by describing the party I joined at the end of 1966 as I saw it then.
So if I told someone I was a Liberal and they didn't understand, roughly what would I say?
The constitution of the Liberal Party (before merger with the Social Democratic Party) said Liberals "put freedom first". All other political creeds have at best a conditional adherence to freedom. Nationalism, for example, can be advanced along with freedom or at its expense. Many early social democrats in the Labour movement supported free expression and democracy in Britain because they were the established culture and convenient channels for creating a fairer, more rational and better planned society: elsewhere, as in the Soviet Union, they saw these things as disposable if the end result was their kind of society. But "freedom" means almost as varied things to different people as "Liberal" does.
At its most basic it indicates an absence of control. That can't be absolute, or society would disintegrate, but if I am prevented by law from drinking alcohol, criticising the founder of the state or painting my house in vivid, clashing colours, those are limitations of my freedom. Some limitations are justified to protect the interests of other people or life forms, such as limitations on late night noise or on killing rare animals. But it isn't only the law that stops me doing things. If I'm blind and paraplegic, for example, a mere absence of help will profoundly limit what I can do. In a profoundly poor, disadvantaged community, I may not need a legal ban to tell me I won't be a judge or conduct an orchestra or sail in the Olympics. This leads to a concept of freedom as maximising people's potential. The term "potential" is loaded with hidden value-judgements (what if my potential is to be a brilliant serial killer?), However, I support the idea that maximising people's opportunities is an aspect of freedom and Liberalism. Where I disagree with the "economic Liberals" who have gained leading positions in the British Liberal Party in recent years is that I see opportunities closed off by poverty, by hatred and discrimination and by the actions of big business more than by the legal restrictions imposed by a democratic state.
For Liberals, freedom is freedom of the individual. The freedom of a nation or people from a wider state - of Scotland from Britain, Corsica from France or the Tamils of Sri Lanka from Sri Lanka - should be valued if it contributes to individual freedom, but not otherwise. But stress on individual freedom can lead to an atomistic view of society, again seen among "economic liberals" and Thatcherites, viewing society as separate individuals pursuing individual goals and impeded by government. In fact, we achieve freedom and awareness collectively through relationships. Political freedom is protected by a web of free organisations, universities, trade unions, political parties, residents' associations, pressure groups and charities, churches and other religious groups. When we join and get involved in something like this we are not buying something in the market - we're sharing in common action for something we judge to be valuable.
Promoting such activity is for me essential to Liberalism. We are more free if we can influence our human environment (laws, institutions, roads, buildings, education, social care) and do so by such free association. A passive society getting on with its economic activity and voting every few years for a centralised government might satisfy a social democrat (no intention to refer to the SDP here) because it might be relatively fair and benign economically, but it should not satisfy a Liberal. Hence Liberal support for all kinds of devolution of power aimed at bringing power nearer to people.
The more unequal society is, the more freedom is restricted because masses of people have little choice and little influence on what is done in their name. An academic Liberal when I was a student argued that Liberals and (democratic) Socialists both valued freedom and equality, but the Liberals put freedom first when the two conflicted. I'd add, or amend, that Liberals and Socialists both want equality, but Socialists are more interested in equality of wealth and Liberals in equality of power. Centralised command socialism tries to achieve a degree of equality of wealth and creates profound inequalities of power. Liberals pursue political reforms and local activism to redistribute power, but in an extremely economically unequal society, the rich will always use the power much more effectively than the poor.
There is one last aspect of modern Liberalism very important to me. When I joined the party, raising environmental issues (as I did) made you seem a bit odd in any political party. The business-first economic Liberal parties of some European states are not greatly interested in green issues, but the Liberal Democrats in Britain have pursued them harder than the other mainstream parties (unless you're Welsh, as Plaid Cymru (Welsh nationalists) seems to me to have much better environmental credentials than the SNP (Scottish nationalists). It isn't very obvious to me how this dovetails with the rest of Liberalism, but I suggest seeing the rest of creation as having value and rights independent of human interests (a "deep green" position) is a logical extension of Liberal internationalism and opposition to narrow hatreds and fears such as in racism.
Now someone might point out the Liberal Democrats of Britain are currently in a Conservative-led coalition which is doing some not very Liberal things by the criteria I've suggested. True - and it's doing some Liberal things (stopping I.D. cards, abolishing the default retirement age, tax reductions targeted at the lowest-paid). But the experience of power and of coalition have led to soul and mind searching by Liberals, revisiting questions like "What is a Liberal?". I think that's healthy - and I'll never accept the answer is just "Someone wanting a weak state and an absence of government restriction on civil liberties plus more freedom for business and for individuals to buy what they want in the market".
I'm a Social Liberal. I want a Liberal society.
So if I told someone I was a Liberal and they didn't understand, roughly what would I say?
The constitution of the Liberal Party (before merger with the Social Democratic Party) said Liberals "put freedom first". All other political creeds have at best a conditional adherence to freedom. Nationalism, for example, can be advanced along with freedom or at its expense. Many early social democrats in the Labour movement supported free expression and democracy in Britain because they were the established culture and convenient channels for creating a fairer, more rational and better planned society: elsewhere, as in the Soviet Union, they saw these things as disposable if the end result was their kind of society. But "freedom" means almost as varied things to different people as "Liberal" does.
At its most basic it indicates an absence of control. That can't be absolute, or society would disintegrate, but if I am prevented by law from drinking alcohol, criticising the founder of the state or painting my house in vivid, clashing colours, those are limitations of my freedom. Some limitations are justified to protect the interests of other people or life forms, such as limitations on late night noise or on killing rare animals. But it isn't only the law that stops me doing things. If I'm blind and paraplegic, for example, a mere absence of help will profoundly limit what I can do. In a profoundly poor, disadvantaged community, I may not need a legal ban to tell me I won't be a judge or conduct an orchestra or sail in the Olympics. This leads to a concept of freedom as maximising people's potential. The term "potential" is loaded with hidden value-judgements (what if my potential is to be a brilliant serial killer?), However, I support the idea that maximising people's opportunities is an aspect of freedom and Liberalism. Where I disagree with the "economic Liberals" who have gained leading positions in the British Liberal Party in recent years is that I see opportunities closed off by poverty, by hatred and discrimination and by the actions of big business more than by the legal restrictions imposed by a democratic state.
For Liberals, freedom is freedom of the individual. The freedom of a nation or people from a wider state - of Scotland from Britain, Corsica from France or the Tamils of Sri Lanka from Sri Lanka - should be valued if it contributes to individual freedom, but not otherwise. But stress on individual freedom can lead to an atomistic view of society, again seen among "economic liberals" and Thatcherites, viewing society as separate individuals pursuing individual goals and impeded by government. In fact, we achieve freedom and awareness collectively through relationships. Political freedom is protected by a web of free organisations, universities, trade unions, political parties, residents' associations, pressure groups and charities, churches and other religious groups. When we join and get involved in something like this we are not buying something in the market - we're sharing in common action for something we judge to be valuable.
Promoting such activity is for me essential to Liberalism. We are more free if we can influence our human environment (laws, institutions, roads, buildings, education, social care) and do so by such free association. A passive society getting on with its economic activity and voting every few years for a centralised government might satisfy a social democrat (no intention to refer to the SDP here) because it might be relatively fair and benign economically, but it should not satisfy a Liberal. Hence Liberal support for all kinds of devolution of power aimed at bringing power nearer to people.
The more unequal society is, the more freedom is restricted because masses of people have little choice and little influence on what is done in their name. An academic Liberal when I was a student argued that Liberals and (democratic) Socialists both valued freedom and equality, but the Liberals put freedom first when the two conflicted. I'd add, or amend, that Liberals and Socialists both want equality, but Socialists are more interested in equality of wealth and Liberals in equality of power. Centralised command socialism tries to achieve a degree of equality of wealth and creates profound inequalities of power. Liberals pursue political reforms and local activism to redistribute power, but in an extremely economically unequal society, the rich will always use the power much more effectively than the poor.
There is one last aspect of modern Liberalism very important to me. When I joined the party, raising environmental issues (as I did) made you seem a bit odd in any political party. The business-first economic Liberal parties of some European states are not greatly interested in green issues, but the Liberal Democrats in Britain have pursued them harder than the other mainstream parties (unless you're Welsh, as Plaid Cymru (Welsh nationalists) seems to me to have much better environmental credentials than the SNP (Scottish nationalists). It isn't very obvious to me how this dovetails with the rest of Liberalism, but I suggest seeing the rest of creation as having value and rights independent of human interests (a "deep green" position) is a logical extension of Liberal internationalism and opposition to narrow hatreds and fears such as in racism.
Now someone might point out the Liberal Democrats of Britain are currently in a Conservative-led coalition which is doing some not very Liberal things by the criteria I've suggested. True - and it's doing some Liberal things (stopping I.D. cards, abolishing the default retirement age, tax reductions targeted at the lowest-paid). But the experience of power and of coalition have led to soul and mind searching by Liberals, revisiting questions like "What is a Liberal?". I think that's healthy - and I'll never accept the answer is just "Someone wanting a weak state and an absence of government restriction on civil liberties plus more freedom for business and for individuals to buy what they want in the market".
I'm a Social Liberal. I want a Liberal society.
Friday, 16 March 2012
The Odanglesex Chronicles: Green Odanglesex (3)
FROM: Sam Speed, Emergency Social Work Co-ordinator
TO: Silesia Jones, Equality and Diversity Beacon Consultant
Hi! Have all the kettles disappeared from your kitchen too?
FROM: Silesia Jones
TO: Sam Speed
Yes. It's a bummer. Terry's trying to find out what's happened.
FROM: Sam Speed
TO: Silesia Jones
Especially as I work nights and the water heater is set to go off at 5.
FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager
TO: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
Don Coggins, Hard Systems Manager (Core)
Colleagues:
People on B11 have been asking what happened overnight to the kettle in our kitchen. It was a new one twelve people clubbed together to buy three weeks ago. We thought it might have been stolen or accidentally taken out and not replaced, but then both Sam Speed in the Emergency Social Work Team and Caradoc MacNab in Finance contacted people in my team because their kettles had vanished. The only information I've been able to get so far is that Dale Brashcon said he understood it was a sub-milestone on the Green Odanglesex Strategy. Calandra - you're our green person, so are you in the know?
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
cc: Don Coggins
This is news to me. Don?
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Calandra Larkins
In pursuance of the Green Odanglesex Strategy, Safety Considerations and the Odanglesex Values Statement, all unauthorised hand-held electric water heating devices positioned in O.C.C. kitchens have been removed. A supply of hot water is accessible from the static water heaters situated in each kitchen.
The business case for this intervention is as follows:
1: The non-availability of hand-held electric water heating devices will reduce incidence of personal water heating activity and hence impact on our carbon footprint.
2: The static water heaters are more efficient.
3: A Safety Audit identified hand-held water heating devices as a health and safety risk because of the possibility of hot water product interacting with human extremities.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Don Coggins
Don: thanks.
As Green Odanglesex Champion (Core), I feel I should have been consulted, or at least warned, about action taken under the heading of the Green Odanglesex Strategy. By the way - is there a sound basis for stating that the static water heaters are more energy efficient? Also - where's our kettle gone? It's not OCC property.
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: All Directors and Heads of Unit
Please cascade the following water technology information. All unauthorised personal hand-held water heating devices seized from O.C.C. kitchens and marked with personal identification may be accessed for recovery at the O.C.C. Business Technology Pool at Ogden Hall (link to map). After this Wednesday they will be transited to the Odanglesex East Central Recycling Facility at Day's Grange for landfill.
FROM: Oliver Oldknoll, Innovatory Best Practice Exemplar Workforce Manager
TO: Anne Hathaway, Internal Finance Systems Development Officer
Anne:
As I hadn't heard anything about another meeting of the Green working group on which we're both champions, I e-mailed Calandra to find out what was going on. The e-mail bounced back. Apparently she's no longer with the council. I tried Chris Van Hummel. He's vanished too. I've e-mailed their boss, Brett, asking who's taken over their roles and had no reply. At least to my knowledge he hasn't vanished, though (forget it). Have you heard anything? Who's picking this up?
FROM: Anne Hathaway
TO: Oliver Oldknoll
No-one, apparently. Rob Methuen did suggest we wait a year or so until the next green initative and then ask again. LOL.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF EDELBERTHA SPENGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ODANGLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL, TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXEMPLAR LEADERS
We are especially proud in Odanglesex with our transformation into a Green County. In the last eighteen months we've embedded a Green Odanglesex Strategy, appointed external and internal Green Odanglesex champions and given our internal work pathways a thorough audit and shake-up through a volunteer Green Odanglesex Working Group. Of course the award of the title of Green Place of the Year was a triumph for all the people who have worked so hard to make our Strategy a reality. More innovatory still was our employee positive message tagging initiative...
TO: Silesia Jones, Equality and Diversity Beacon Consultant
Hi! Have all the kettles disappeared from your kitchen too?
FROM: Silesia Jones
TO: Sam Speed
Yes. It's a bummer. Terry's trying to find out what's happened.
FROM: Sam Speed
TO: Silesia Jones
Especially as I work nights and the water heater is set to go off at 5.
FROM: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager
TO: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper)
Don Coggins, Hard Systems Manager (Core)
Colleagues:
People on B11 have been asking what happened overnight to the kettle in our kitchen. It was a new one twelve people clubbed together to buy three weeks ago. We thought it might have been stolen or accidentally taken out and not replaced, but then both Sam Speed in the Emergency Social Work Team and Caradoc MacNab in Finance contacted people in my team because their kettles had vanished. The only information I've been able to get so far is that Dale Brashcon said he understood it was a sub-milestone on the Green Odanglesex Strategy. Calandra - you're our green person, so are you in the know?
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
cc: Don Coggins
This is news to me. Don?
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: Hamish Carpenter
Calandra Larkins
In pursuance of the Green Odanglesex Strategy, Safety Considerations and the Odanglesex Values Statement, all unauthorised hand-held electric water heating devices positioned in O.C.C. kitchens have been removed. A supply of hot water is accessible from the static water heaters situated in each kitchen.
The business case for this intervention is as follows:
1: The non-availability of hand-held electric water heating devices will reduce incidence of personal water heating activity and hence impact on our carbon footprint.
2: The static water heaters are more efficient.
3: A Safety Audit identified hand-held water heating devices as a health and safety risk because of the possibility of hot water product interacting with human extremities.
FROM: Calandra Larkins
TO: Don Coggins
Don: thanks.
As Green Odanglesex Champion (Core), I feel I should have been consulted, or at least warned, about action taken under the heading of the Green Odanglesex Strategy. By the way - is there a sound basis for stating that the static water heaters are more energy efficient? Also - where's our kettle gone? It's not OCC property.
FROM: Don Coggins
TO: All Directors and Heads of Unit
Please cascade the following water technology information. All unauthorised personal hand-held water heating devices seized from O.C.C. kitchens and marked with personal identification may be accessed for recovery at the O.C.C. Business Technology Pool at Ogden Hall (link to map). After this Wednesday they will be transited to the Odanglesex East Central Recycling Facility at Day's Grange for landfill.
FROM: Oliver Oldknoll, Innovatory Best Practice Exemplar Workforce Manager
TO: Anne Hathaway, Internal Finance Systems Development Officer
Anne:
As I hadn't heard anything about another meeting of the Green working group on which we're both champions, I e-mailed Calandra to find out what was going on. The e-mail bounced back. Apparently she's no longer with the council. I tried Chris Van Hummel. He's vanished too. I've e-mailed their boss, Brett, asking who's taken over their roles and had no reply. At least to my knowledge he hasn't vanished, though (forget it). Have you heard anything? Who's picking this up?
FROM: Anne Hathaway
TO: Oliver Oldknoll
No-one, apparently. Rob Methuen did suggest we wait a year or so until the next green initative and then ask again. LOL.
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF EDELBERTHA SPENGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ODANGLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL, TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXEMPLAR LEADERS
We are especially proud in Odanglesex with our transformation into a Green County. In the last eighteen months we've embedded a Green Odanglesex Strategy, appointed external and internal Green Odanglesex champions and given our internal work pathways a thorough audit and shake-up through a volunteer Green Odanglesex Working Group. Of course the award of the title of Green Place of the Year was a triumph for all the people who have worked so hard to make our Strategy a reality. More innovatory still was our employee positive message tagging initiative...
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