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When everything at the Gardens came up Roses

Steve
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When everything at the Gardens came up Roses

England’s women looked in a different class to the World Champions for the Black Ferns’ visit to the Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

A lot was riding on this game in different ways. For the visitors it was a chance to reclaim some pride after last week’s mauling at the hands of England.

For England and women’s rugby generally it was a chance to light a fire under the game in Northampton following the club’s recent adoption of Loughborough Lightning as the Saints’ women’s side.

And for the stadium itself it was the chance to show itself off as a great venue for games should England be successful in its bid for the 2025 Women’s World Cup.

Sadly for the visitors they were the only ones going home disappointed after nearly 10,000 effervescent home fans witnessed a champagne afternoon for England.

It is always a treat to see the Haka performed and the England women faced it respectfully before entering their own brief huddle before kick-off.

After that the gloves were off for something of a masterclass from the Roses whose near professional set-up has seen them soar in confidence and power in the four years since the last world cup.

Player of the Match was hooker Amy Cockayne who scored a hat-trick, reflecting a game where England had to use their muscle to overcome a spirited but ultimately futile resistance from the Ferns.

You have to feel some sympathy for the visitors who have come a long way to represent their game working with set-ups more akin to the days of the amateur code in which players are juggling jobs with training commitments. In no sense did they give up but today the English machine was far too powerful for them.

We need strong leadership at COP26, but we also need to play our part

Nene Quirer
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We need strong leadership at COP26, but we also need to play our part

Recent analysis by market researchers Demos has identified that the British public displays ‘overwhelming’ backing for strong climate action.  The opportunity now arises for our leaders to represent the nation’s mood at the fast approaching COP26 summit in Glasgow.  Unsurprisingly there have been critics already – the teen activist Greta Thunberg has criticized global leaders over their promises to address the climate emergency with the words “blah, blah, blah”, Claire O’Neill, sacked head of COP26, has said the UK was “miles off track globally where we are meant to be” and there has been a “huge lack of leadership and engagement” from the current government, and as for the actions of Insulate Britain…

So, should we have confidence in government?  Boris Johnson’s ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ gave us some hope.  He described it as an ambitious roadmap for making the UK the world’s ‘number one centre of green technology and finance’ with plans for a greener infrastructure, investment in low carbon hydrogen, and achieving ‘jet zero’.   This was a welcome ‘U-turn’ for the PM and his environmental credentials.  Between 2004 and 2020 he generally voted against measures to prevent climate change.  In 2019, he not only voted against a motion calling on the government to bring forward ‘a green industrial revolution to decarbonise the economy and boost economic growth’ (the irony!), but then introduced a new air traffic management bill that would lift practical limits on the number of planes British airspace can accommodate.  Whilst Mayor of London, Johnson wrote several climate-sceptic articles for publications such as the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator.  Now the main attraction of COP26 is to move away from acting alone towards collaborating internationally towards effectively addressing the huge global problem that is climate change.  There is a need to share ideas, experiences, plans and action about how we live, work, move around and use energy.  We must avoid this insidious flag-waving British exceptionalist narrative in which the world needs to learn from what we do because we are already doing it better.  

Staying within the 1.5oC threshold of the 2015 Paris Agreement will require carbon emissions to fall by 45% this decade yet greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise.  In fact, the increase in emissions this year is set to be the second biggest in history, second only to the ‘rebound’ from the Financial Crisis.  Despite new targets from the US, the UK, the EU and others, there will still be a 16% rise in emissions this year.   The United Nations Environment Programme refer to the so called ‘emissions gap’ as the difference between “where we are likely to be and where we need to be” with respect to progress  and current commitments made by governments  (NDCs) remain seriously inadequate to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and would lead to a temperature increase of at least 3oC by the end of the century.  Themes of COP26 are mitigation, adaptation and resilience, but leaders need to keep prioritising emissions reductions.  Yes, adapting to the problem that already exists is critical but we need to prevent the problem growing and ultimately becoming impossible to adapt to. 

International collaboration at COP26 means recognising climate change is a shared problem.   We live in a world characterised by gross inequality, in terms of impacts of climate change, the means by which impacts are lessened but also with respect to current and historical responsibilities for the problem.  Swissre, for instance, identifies India as the most vulnerable nation to the effects of climate change (there will be excessively high temperatures and extreme drought) yet India, despite its huge population, has only contributed 3% of the carbon dioxide that has ever been emitted.  The UK is more responsible for global warming than any other country – if global carbon dioxide emissions are allocated using per capita calculations.  There will be much talk of all types of responsibility at COP26.

The UK has cut its emissions by more than two-fifths since 1990, however the majority of the reduction has been in the power sector, where people have not witnessed it directly affect their day-to-day lives.  We can to some extent rely on  green technological solutions, but very few of us can claim to have personally contributed to their development. 

If we really care about our planet and everybody on it, much of the action needed now involves our own personal behaviour, such as eating far less meat or leaving the car at home.   Well supported ‘soft’ government policy, like increasing education and awareness and making large corporations pay carbon taxes is one thing – we don’t actually have to do anything ourselves- but less popular and more uncomfortable options like restricting our casual hyper mobility by increasing fuel duties, introducing road pricing, and ending our love affair with flying is another. 

We need strong leadership to represent our concerns on the international stage of COP26 but we need bold government at home that that doesn’t surrender to popular, vote winning but slow change but recognises that dealing with climate change is not going to be easy for anyone.

What do we need to achieve a sustainable lifestyle in the future?

Nene Quirer
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What do we need to achieve a sustainable lifestyle in the future?

Dear COP26 Leaders, we need strong International laws, national and local natural environment rescue plans and more importantly, funding to help us to adapt and be more resilient with Nature Based Solutions.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been criticised for missed opportunities in providing leadership and setting an example in regulating and adapting to our changing climate this his Autumn Budget.   Sir David Attenborough is pleading with governments to listen to the science and act now, because we are not progressing fast enough and there is little sense of urgency from our politicians.  Covid-19 showed us how governments around the World could collaborate in a state of emergency.  The pandemic is not over, but we are also in widespread climate change crisis and biodiversity crisis.  I am not such a great age as Sir David, but in my life time and during 28year academic career I can confidently say we have learned a lot about the damaging human activities that have degraded our natural environment.  Many of us know what needs to be done; we need our governments to lead the way forward, stop exporting our waste and pollution, stop importing immense amounts of short lifespan products and consuming produce that have a have a significant carbon foot print and environmental impact. 

People who grow, buy, sell or manufacture cheap unsustainable imports are supporting practices where workers are living in poverty in often unbearable living and working conditions. We need to lobby businesses to help employers create healthier, cleaner products, with higher wages and working conditions within a clean environment.  Yes, those imports will cost more but we will need relearn to value where the quality of our purchases and what they are made from.    Climate change is going to have the biggest impact on these poorer countries. Countries that we depend on for cheaper food and textiles will be devastated by floods, storms and drought with little infrastructure to protect lives and livelihoods.   We have all witnessed how, over the past few years, flooding events seem to be more extreme, wildfires too have destroyed whole communities, habitats and wildlife populations.  Much of this destruction is caused by significant changes to land use and loss of natural vegetation cover because of our unsustainable consumer demand.  Our habitats and water catchments are not in a fit state to withstand catastrophic events.   We need to use Nature based solutions now.

This Autumn semester, with a group of final year students, we are learning about the 6th Extinction. The last five extinction events were way back in geological time.  Our period of time is called the Anthropocene, starting 8,000 years ago where first human impact was detected.  In the past 500 years, the rate of extinction increased and by the 1970s, birds, mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles and the other taxonomic groups found in our oceans and soils have been lost all around the World.  Extinction rates headed towards full steam with the introduction of intensive farming methods to meet growing consumer demands from sprawling cities.  Today, 67% of surviving wildlife populations are experiencing significant drop in numbers (on average almost 50%).  Wild bees are now an iconic group of insects (indicators) that are now commonly accepted as being vitally important for us as a human society.  Our visiting Professor Jeff Ollerton is a significant voice on the international stage spreading the message the importance of conserving wild bees.  As many as 87.5% of plants cannot produce seeds, berries, fruits or nuts without a pollinator (Ollerton et al. 2010).  However, pollination is just one of many ecological interactions (or Ecosystem Service) that occur in multi-networks of organisms within ecosystems.  When connections within networks get broken a whole network can collapse.  Ecological collapse is real danger to our food security and our natural environment and climate change will push hard on that accelerator of species extinctions.

What can we do about it?  We can lobby our politicians for more Wildlife protection. Only 14% of the World surface is protected.  We can afford to protect larger and connected areas of coastline, freshwater and terrestrial land because that protection is going to pay us back in a healthier environment, jobs, sustainable produce and resilience to the impact of climate change.    Governments need to be tougher on those damaging the environment. Our government urgently needs to provide strong leadership to help more businesses to lead the way.  Together we need to have a plan to fix, or, restore those broken biodiversity networks at home and abroad.  We need to halt the loss of species and repair habitats, so that those species that have survived us so far, can build their numbers back up again.  The University was awarded The Hedgehog Society Silver Award in 2021 and we are working towards earning the Gold.  With small actions we are all contributing to the welfare of this newly designated red data species.  University of Northampton is also in the process of producing a Biodiversity Plan for Net Gain to demonstrate how we can continue to improve habitats and increase populations of species found on the Waterside Campus and our other University sites.

There are many great initiatives happening, such as the Lottery Fund that is helping local communities act to reverse damage to our natural environment and adapt to climate change.   Street trees provide us services such capture carbon, cooling shade, interception of rainwater to slow run off and making our streets a healthier place to be.    Planting Trees, is a popular idea and seems a relatively easy step to make but it can be quite complex with multiple stakeholders involved. University of Northampton is supporting local Save our Street Trees Community Action group in partnership with Far Cotton and Delapre Community Council looking for ways to find small patches of land for community gardens and more street trees.  

Individually, you can help by joining a community group, start wild bee friendly garden or volunteer for a wildlife organisation.  Every step forward counts but remember, we need to do it now!

Ecocide: it’s time to get serious about environmental justice

Nene Quirer
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Ecocide: it’s time to get serious about environmental justice

Before Oil was discovered in its underbelly by British Petroleum and Shell in 1956, the Niger Delta was a lush and fertile landscape consisting of mangroves and swamps which supported a complex aquatic ecosystem.

The local peoples living within the Delta were farmers and fishermen who benefitted from its rich ecosystem which supported their own economic livelihoods through farming and fishing. It was often said back then that the waters of the Delta were so teeming with fish, that one could leave a fish trap on a river bank and come to find it bursting with trapped fish after the high tide had retreated.

Today, the Niger Delta is unfortunately a place of environmental tragedy, broken promises, shattered dreams and decimated economic livelihoods. The hundreds of oil spills and decades of gas flaring, which have occurred in the Delta since the extraction of oil began in the late 1950’s, have turned it into one of the most polluted places on earth.

The sheer scale of the environmental damage done to the Niger Delta came into plain and naked focus in 2011 when there was an oil spill at Shell’s Bonga oil fields. The spill caused 40,000 barrels worth of crude oil to be released into surrounding water bodies. Hundreds of farming communities were affected, and tens of thousands of fishermen were forced to abandon their livelihoods as the heavily polluted water bodies could no longer support fish and the ecosystem upon which they rely. Today the Niger Delta stands as a warning to all of humanity; an example of what happens when multinational corporations – especially those who operate in countries with low regulatory effect – are not held to account for the damage they cause to the environment.  

The Crucial Law That Never Was

Much like in the Niger Delta, there are various areas around the globe where we have seen high profile cases of environmental pollution and damage over the years. With such events remaining common place – and often with increased regularity – and with the need to take better care of our environment having become clearer in the face of climate change, the question now arises as to whether it is time, to recognise and adopt within International Criminal Law, the crime of Ecocide; a crime against the environment.

 The idea of adopting and prosecuting a crime against the environment, much like we prosecute crimes against humanity, has been discussed within international circles for decades. Much of the UN’s environmental conference in Stockholm, in 1972, was devoted to this subject. Even then, world leaders acknowledged the damage being done to the environment by the commercial activities of multi-nationals and the urgent need to address this with a legal remedy which would compel multi-nationals to do more to protect the environment from the damaging consequences of their commercial activities.

Whilst all attending parties equally recognised the scale of the challenge, and the need for a legal remedy within International Criminal Law to address it, the political will to act was lacking, and the incorporation of a crime of Ecocide remained a matter of lip service for decades. In the process of time, a potentially defining moment arrived in 1998 when the option of including a crime of Ecocide within the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute. Ultimately, the political will was lacking to turn the promise of this moment into reality, and the idea of incorporating a law Ecocide into the Rome Statute was shelved.  

A New Defining Moment

With the COP26 climate summit soon to commence in Glasgow, and with world leaders in full agreement about the need for us to do more to tackle climate change and environmental pollution, another defining moment is upon us. The fact of the matter remains today, as it did at the UN environmental conference in 1972, that our efforts – however strongly willed they may be – to protect our environment, will only succeed if our good intentions are supported by a concrete remedy within International Criminal Law by which we can hold to account, those who do damage to our environment.

This assessment was echoed by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, at the ‘Convention Citoyenne pour le Cimat’ (CCC) in the summer of 2020. At the CCC, the idea of adopting a new crime of Ecocide within France’s own Laws was supported by 99% of attending delegates. In response to such overwhelming support, the French President promised to work on agenda which would aim to begin to explore how a crime of Ecocide could be incorporated within French Law. Furthermore, Macron committed to champion and encourage his fellow International leaders towards a framework which would result in the enshrining of the crime of Ecocide within International Criminal Law.

With this commitment, Emmanuel Macron became the first leader of a wealthy industrial nation, and the first amongst the G7 leaders to support the adoption of a crime on Ecocide within International Criminal Law. His enthusiasm sparked a global debate amongst experts within International Criminal Law, who for the first time, recently drew up a historic definition of the crime of Ecocide. The definition states that the ‘unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts, would amount to the punishable crime of Ecocide’.

Questions about the suitability of this draft Law will be asked, and discussions will be had over whether the constituent parts of it go far enough, and whether the threshold it sets is much too high. Nevertheless, the draft Law represents the furthest we have ever come to doing what should have been done long ago to protect the environment and deter those acts which damage it.

With this draft Law in place, we find ourselves at another crossroads – another defining moment – just as with the UN environmental conference in 1972 and the Rome Statute in 1998. The question before us today is whether world leaders will finally get serious about environmental justice and look beyond the politics of what’s needed to find the will to do it, by agreeing the makings of a  process at Glasgow which will result in the incorporation of the crime of Ecocide within International Criminal Law. The Niger Delta and the many environmentally damaged places like it around the world are dark monuments which attest to our failure as a global society to use the necessary mechanisms and remedies of International Law to hold multinational corporations to account when they undertake actions which cause damage to the environment. Now is the time for us to get more serious about environmental justice and push to succeed where others have failed, if our hope to do better by the environment and prevent the occurrence of many more Niger Delta’s is to be realised. History has given us another opportunity – I say we seize it!

I changed career to fight for the environment

Nene Quirer
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I changed career to fight for the environment

In 2017, I gave up a career in project management in the events sector and made the decision to return to education in the hopes of starting an entirely new career related to the environment. I had always loved nature, being outdoors, even things like cloud spotting and I longed to learn more about it. The more I learnt about the environment, the more I realised that we needed to do more to protect it and I could, in some way, help to address serious problems such as air quality and climate change. Enrolling at the University of Northampton to study Environmental Science was a big step, but I had already spent ten years feeling disconnected in my work, so, why not give it a go?

Whilst it was daunting (sat in a class of school leavers and not having studied or written an essay in a decade), it was also brilliant. I could not believe just how broad the subject was and how studying the various modules, from waste management, to ecology to meteorology, was so interesting.  Throughout the degree, I was often shocked as I learnt more about the impacts of climate change and unsustainable resource management. This made me more determined to study harder and get the results that would help me start this new career which I now knew was more important than ever.

Fast forward three years, my degree complete (albeit during a global pandemic!), I am fortunate to be working as the Energy Officer at the University. It has been an incredible start into my new career. During my first year, the University submitted and achieved fantastic rankings for the UN SDGs and committed to being Net Zero Carbon by 2030. I am so proud to be involved with, and support the efforts, in making these achievements become a reality. As the Energy Officer, the pledge to Net Zero Carbon in Scope 1 & 2 emissions is a target which I will be working on with the wider team as these emissions are generated from energy production and use. Globally, the whole energy sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 73% as per the most recent data in 2016 (Ritchie, 2020). 

First and foremost, reduction in energy use and demand is key. This is a goal I continue to work on and hope to achieve through close monitoring, data management and engagement with staff and students. This is one example of the ways my role can help to improve the environment. If we can reduce our energy demand, we reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

Awareness of climate change has increased significantly over recent years. Most notable since the school strikes initiated by Greta Thunberg in 2018. This has sparked debate about the younger ‘green generation’ vs the older generation, “Young people must hold older generations accountable…”. Personally, I feel that we all have a responsibility to tackle climate change, no matter how old we are. Climate change is a global problem, but not only should there be unity between countries and government, we need to come together and not blame each other. I strongly feel it is down to all of us to make a difference, big or small, if we are really going to help improve the environment. Previous societies burnt more fossil fuel because they were cheap, abundant and they hadn’t yet heard of climate change.  We now have full access to the science and evidence that this is a serious issue that is of our creation. It is not about old versus young, but about the choices and actions we all make now. We cannot change the past. Education is an important step that we can take. It certainly helped me to improve my lifestyle choices and understand how I can personally have less impact on the environment. Sure, it may not solve it, but if everybody did something, it would all add up!

Climate Change is not going to go away. According to the latest report by the United Nations ‘The Production Gap’ we are still not on target to reach the 1.5 degree warming limit as agreed in Paris, 2015. There is much work that needs to be done now and, in the future, much of which concerns energy generation and use and renewable technologies. The need for world-wide graduates with knowledge and skills in this topic is vital for the future and how we can work towards building a more sustainable way of living. The new Climate Change degree at UON demonstrates positive and forward thinking action. We need future climate scientists, researchers, policy makers who have a greater understanding of the impacts of national and international decisions relating to climate change. This is also open to all ages and it is never too late to make a difference!

Blah Blah Blah. Will the Glasgow COP lead to actions not words?

Nene Quirer
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Blah Blah Blah. Will the Glasgow COP lead to actions not words?

This week is COP26 – or, more accurately, the 26th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). The FCCC was signed in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1992, and came into force in 1994. It was a remarkable step forward in its own right, as it was the first time that the majority of the nations of the world had agreed that “something” ought to be done about the high, and rising, levels of airborne pollution – particularly CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases (GHG).

Under the Kyoto protocol (COP4) States agreed to reduce GHG emissions to 18% below 1990 levels. In 1990, the OECD states produced 153 gigatonnes (GT) of CO2. Instead of the target drop of 18%, OECD emissions actually rose by around 7%, and had still not hit the target in 2019 (154 GT). Within these overall figures, there are some successes – the UK dropped from 794m tonnes in 1990 to 453m tonnes in 2019, but individual state accomplishments are rendered meaningless by global failures.

Winston Churchill is mis-quoted as saying “jaw, jaw is better than war, war” (it was actually Harold MacMillan) and while that may be true in the context of warfare, it is less helpful in trying to deal with the climate emergency. In September this year, Greta Thunberg accused world leaders of “thirty years of blah blah blah” while speaking at a Youth4 Climate summit in Milan. Two weeks later, in a BBC interview, HRH the Prince of Wales said about the same leaders “They just talk, and the problem is to get action on the ground.” HM the Queen was also filmed in Cardiff in October saying how irritated she was with world leaders who “talk but don’t do.”

How then do we, ordinary citizens, make a difference, influence the discussions that the politicians take to COP26, or get ‘action on the ground’?

Good COP, Bad COP?

To be fair, it is far too late to make any changes to COP26, and presumably it will result in more political rhetoric around meeting targets that have been missed for more than two decades. As a result, there will undoubtedly be protests, and these protests might generate some media attention. If the Home Secretary has her way, of course, protests that cause the slightest annoyance to anyone will no longer be legitimate, and anyone who takes part will be jailed for a decade or so.

Whatever the outcome of COP26, here will be those who declare it a great success (the participants), those who declare it a missed opportunity (the observers) and those who declare it a failure (the protest groups).

Influencing Politicians

The time is ripe for influencing policy though – environmental and climate issues are more important now than they have been in decades, primarily through the awareness-raising of individuals and protest groups like Greta Thunberg, School Strike for Climate, XR, Insulate Britain and other groups dismissed by the Prime Minister as “‘uncooperative crusties’ who should stop blocking the streets of the capital with their ‘heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs’” (Rawlinson, 2019).

In 2019, the polling organisation YouGov asked what people considered to be the most pressing global or national problem. The number of 18-24 year olds responding ‘environmental concerns’ rose from 17% to 45% in under a year (YouGov, 2019), whilst only 17% of the same age group consider the government to be handling environmental issues well (YouGov, 2021). There is no age group where more than half of the respondents thought the government is doing a ‘good’ job.

Given that most people don’t think the government is doing a good job, what can we do about it?

The first (and perhaps least glamorous) option is to vote in an election. If you live in Scotland or Wales, you can vote at 16, but in England, Northern Ireland and for the General Election, you have to be 18. Like it or not, laws are generally made by the government of the day – the larger the majority in Parliament, the more the government gets to plough its own furrow.

About 2/3 of those registered to vote do so – 32.7 per cent did not vote in the 2019 election, and turnout has not topped 70 per cent since the 1997 election. To put this into hard numbers, that means that just over 15.5m voters did not exercise their democratic right to vote.

Of the 30m people who took part in the election, just under 14m voted for the Government – yep, that’s right, 43.6% of those who cast a vote voted for the Conservative Party, which nonetheless ended up with 56% of the seats in Parliament. Hmm. By voting, you are probably supporting a slightly flawed political system – but the irony is that by not voting, you ensure that the flawed political system never changes.

Voting will be enough for a lot of people, but there are other things that you can do as well. If you see the list of candidates at a general election, and genuinely feel that none of them is likely to speak for you, or people like you, then you can stand as a candidate. It will cost you a £500 deposit, and there are steps to go through (Parliament, 2021), but if you get 5% of the votes cast, you get your deposit back. You never know, if you get 43% you might end up as Prime Minister!

Or, if standing for office is not your thing, you can campaign for someone who is standing, or for an issue that you believe in. You can do this as part of an organisation, or form your own organisation, but it is important to have a clear message so that you can bring people with you. You can campaign in many different ways – for example:

Online (by signing petitions on social media) or in person;

On your own (in the same way as Greta Thunberg) or as part of an existing group (the Community Planning Alliance is a good place to find a group); or

By writing letters and leafletting, or more direct action type protesting (make sure you familiarise yourself with your rights (and responsibilities) first – https://nationallegalservice.co.uk/uk-protest-rights/)

You could also write to your MP and ask them to raise a particular issue in Parliament on your behalf (if you aren’t sure who your MP is, the Parliament website has a “Find MPs” section). They may or may not do this, and are under no obligation to do so.

The most important thing to do is to Do Something. I am in no way whatsoever advocating that you break the law, of course, but the fact remains that we are facing an unprecedented climate crisis. Most of the UK population do not consider that the current government is handling environmental issues well, and I can suggest examples to demonstrate this such as oil and gas (Toogood, 2021; Dunne, 2021), trains and trees (Taylor, 2021), or coal in Cumbria (Greene, 2021). However, most people are either unable or unwilling to do anything about it, and so nothing will change.

I will be talking about the stages of law making (and what you can legally do to influence these stages) in an event on Wednesday 3rd November as part of the University’s COP26 week. [Holly – can you add the specifics once the schedule is finalised?]

In the meantime, remember that to change anything, you first need to do something.

VOTE – CAMPAIGN – WRITE – JOIN – DO – CHANGE

Sources:

BBC, 2021, Prince Charles and his Battle for Our  Planet, BBC iPlayer, https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09y7bzx/prince-charles-and-his-battle-for-our-planet  @7m20s

Carrington, C., 2021, ‘Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/28/blah-greta-thunberg-leaders-climate-crisis-co2-emissions

Dunne, D., 2021, Cop26: 70 climate scientists urge PM to end new oil and gas investment ahead of Glasgow summit, The Independent, 18/10/21 https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/cop26-oil-gas-climate-scientists-b1937749.html,

Greene, T., 2021, Cumbria coalmine would hit global decarbonisation efforts, inquiry hears, the Guardian, 01/10/21, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/01/cumbria-coalmine-global-decarbonisation-inquiry

OECD, 2021, Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Source, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AIR_GHG

Parliament, 2021a, Standing for Parliament, https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/vote-in-general-elections/standing/

Parliament, 2021b, Find MPs, https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

Rawlinson, K., 2019, Extinction Rebellion: Johnson calls climate crisis activists ‘uncooperative crusties’ Guardian, 7 October 2019, at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/07/uncooperative-crusties-boris-johnson-attacks-extinction-rebellion-activists

Taylor, Di, 2021, Euston tunnel HS2 protesters walk free from court, The Guardian, 06/10/21, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/06/anti-hs2-protesters-who-occupied-euston-tunnel-walk-free-from-court

Toogood, D., 2021, 4,400-STRONG PETITION AGAINST OIL DRILLING HANDED TO COUNTY HALL, Island Echo, 15/10/21 https://www.islandecho.co.uk/4400-strong-petition-against-oil-drilling-handed-to-county-hall/ YouGov, 2021, How the government is handling the issue of the environment in the UK? https://yougov.co.uk/topics/science/trackers/how-the-government-is-handling-the-issue-of-the-environment-in-the-uk?crossBreak=1824

Is Northampton the Cinderella City finally going to be recognised?

Steve
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Is Northampton the Cinderella City finally going to be recognised?

Many, many, years ago when I was a wild-eyed, hare-brained journalist on the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, I became emotionally invested in the town’s stop-start aspirations for city status.

The idea is being discussed again. The same reasoning as before prevails. Northampton is a town that is already bigger than many of the cities in England and is doomed to ‘grow’ further (by this we really mean ‘become denser’ although there is likely to be some compromising of the space left for fox hunting, golfing and mountain biking). It is a cultural, administrative and sporting centre. It is the headquarters of many famous industries. Historically and spiritually it has made pivotal contributions to the nation’s history.

Northampton is a town that is being a city already without admitting it. Geographically the character of one part of town can be very different to another. Upton has a Euro-urban vibe. Abington is Victorian gothic to 30s glamour via atomic age optimism. Everbody thinks they are in Abington. There’s all these cool arty people living on boats at the marina and there is a kind of hospital quarter the stretches from the General Hospital up to the last gate of St Andrew’s Healthcare. Semilong is Bishop’s Palace’s and bail hostels.

Richard III was born in Northamptonshire (and probably hung out in Northampton a lot). Day to day I bet he barely thought about Leicester (a city) and the unseemly enthusiasm for him from the current residents of the town only adds insult to the injury of having had him buried under a car park for the past few hundred years. Is this what not being a city really means for the residents of Northampton and by association Northamptonshire?

Are we doomed to have our awkward Royals stolen from us by predatory neighbouring cities until we get that Royal seal of city status approval? Is Milton Keynes going to lay claim to Althorp?

Support the city status bid here

For a long time the innately un-impressable nature of the Northampton citizenry has seen us toil through life as a ‘town’ despite our ever increasing size. Hundreds of thousands of us doing the whole needing transport, life space and using up resources thing while the rest of the country puts us in the same administrative fruit bowl as Bedford, Dunstable and Aylesbury. The chances to upgrade to city status have come and gone. We’ve been able to fight our corner on things through sheer weight of numbers but overall the population of Northampton has not grasped eagerly for promotion. It’s as though we take some perverse pleasure in our perennial mis-classification. We’re the elephant in the reptile house and we seem to be content with that.

Over the years there has been investment coming in, things like the gleaming new University of Northampton campus happen against all odds but are we reaching a point where Northampton can no longer afford to be the Cinderella city? Milton Keynes stole our Ikea, Leicester stole our Richard III and Peterborough (formerly part of Northamptonshire but now Northamptonshire doesn’t exist and Peterborough believes it is in Cambridgeshire) hasn’t stolen anything worth having but gets a mention as the ugliest of our three higher ranking sisters.

But we are moving into the age of the algorithm: the little computational routines that filter and evaluate the never ending streams of data that everything generates now are the new kingmakers. Deep within the brains of computers that compare like with like, or organise hierarchies of need, or predict the future, algorithms are making decisions that get churned out as advice in reports and computer models. In the real world Northampton is not a city *wink*wink*. In algorithm world Northampton is not a city *full* stop*.

Northamptonshire’s cricket team are The Steelbacks – a nickname derived from the Northamptonshire Regiment that earned it by being the most flogged regiment back in the day. Presenting the people of Northampton with city status now is a bit like offering not to flog the Steelbacks any more. That’s great but the people of Northampton have just got on with being the biggest town in the country. It is too late to save the skin off their backs.

City status yes. Obviously. The Cinderella City. City of the eternal unrecognised princess. I’m not going to say it but some of you can work it out for yourselves. We know what we are. But if it needs a great upswell of public gratitude and joy to drive it along, if we need to grovel cravenly to have this administrative reality recognised, then it might just pass us by again.

Trees snap as violent storm passes over Northampton

Steve
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Trees snap as violent storm passes over Northampton

A violent storm passed over Northamptonshire today breaking trees like kindling and blocking roads.

Police urged people to stay indoors as hundreds of wind related incidents, mainly blocked roads, were reported in the aftermath.

Farmers went into action across the county clearing the roads while volunteers assisted dragging branches out of the way in towns. There was damage across Northampton’s many tree-lined parkspaces.

Slides of tree damage on Racecourse

Social media reaction to the weather

Stirring Saints rally is not enough to halt Leicester Tigers juggernaut

Steve
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Stirring Saints rally is not enough to halt Leicester Tigers juggernaut

We knew a storm was coming. We knew we had a rickety ship. However, a doing over is a doing over and this was a doing over.

Maybe Dan Biggar wasn’t fully fit for this one, maybe this was the wrong firepit in which to baptise Hutchinson at full back maybe Alex Mitchell should do the unthinkable for a scrum-half from time to time and take a breath.

I’m not sure it would have made any difference against the overwhelming forces of narrative that were accumulating in this fixture.

Steve Borthwick’s big plan for the Tigers is coming together this season and the rugby nation’s eyes were on Northampton, their ancient foe, to end their unbeaten run. This defeat rings out across the land like an ominous warning bell about the man-eating potential of resurgent Tigers.

In many ways Francois Van Wyk’s new haircut summed it up.

When he was a Saint, van Wyk had a raffish quiff on the go like a naughty uncle at a wedding but back at the Gardens as a Tiger van Wyk’s head was shaved to a menacing layer of space marine stubble. And he plonked the ball down for a try in the first half.

As soon as he scored you knew what kind of day it was going to be. One of those humble pie days. One of those ‘what were you really thinking?’ days.

If anything Saints comeback in the third quarter was more than I expected. Overall I’ve felt that Saints slow down in games as the opposition works out their threats and the arrival of James Grayson for an injured Biggar was a revitalising influence. Tigers rocked on their heels with two in the sin bin and Saints threatening their line for a score that would bring them more or less level.

Somehow Saints never found a dull but effective way of turning that two man advantage into the necessary number of points. There was too much good honest lung-busting effort going on and we used up our time trying to kick down the door instead of climbing through the window of opportunity.

It’s meaningless to pick out individual errors which will always happen are never intentional and cannot be planned for. An upgrade in herd wisdom would be welcome.

George Ford had his midfield general’s medals on. Steve Borthwick glowered with contentment like a Star Wars baddie. Maybe, ironically, we lost this one last week with the injuries we picked up smashing Worcester.

It is part of our beautiful pact with Leicester, the best of all our enemies, that whatever else happens in the season the loser of this game must hurt unconditionally and so we must do that for now. We shouldn’t let this result overshadow the potential of what Saints can achieve this season and it will be interesting to see what is at stake in terms of the league when the return fixture comes round. We might be the only team that still believes Tigers can be beaten by then.

Pictures by Dave Ikin

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