Every year in Tamworth we have elections whether that be Borough/District, County, General or in recent times referendums and this means for me delivering leaflets and knocking doors. This year during April I walked 100.1 miles on the 'campaign trail', and as in every year on polling day I spoke to a voter who told me they had not had a leaflet of anyone (I delivered that street myself so I know they did). This and seeing many variations of signage on doors stating 'No cold callers', 'we do not need...', 'No junk Mail', 'posted mail only' etc made me think more and more about how people in 2017 decide who to vote for?
(This is not a politically motivated way of improving my campaigning its a genuine thing I've pondered.)
The picture has changed so much in a relatively short time, I remember electrons when some areas always returned councillors from a particular party and some parties even stopped producing leaflets for these areas. Now I feel society seems to be engaging again in politics and as a result campaigning has changed. It's not only society becoming more engaged there have also been some significant changes, the onset of 24 hour news and of course social media.
24 hour news is a great thing, well I say that. Recently I had a job where I worked nights and slept very little this exposed me to many hours of BBC and Sky news, the repetition was mind numbing and then in a way to stretch the news further there's the whole raft of opinion or editorial pieces thrown in often without clear identification. So no we have opinion and discussion drip feeding into the news and of course discussion and opinion is to an extent reliant on speculation.
Let's not forget the influence of social media!!!! Social media can be a great tool to get a message out to a large number of people. What social media doesn't do is discriminate, anyone can post anything they like via a variety of platforms and once that has been shared a couple of times it's difficult to control and becomes perpetuating, we saw so much incorrect information during the with referrendum and the US presidential election the messages of the conpaigns were often lost but this still influences people's vote.
Just 2 more points I'd like to share before finishing for now.
It is said that parents influence the vote of their offspring until on average the age of 24 where the offspring will decide for themselves.
I saw a news stand/box containing The Sun newspaper last year, on this was printed "The Sun, for Entertainment,gossip,sport". It never mention news anywhere!
I don't want to go into solution mode as I would like to know what other people's thoughts are on voting influence. What makes you vote a particular way?
Leaflets ?
A knock at the door ?
Ever read a manifesto ?
National papers ?
Radio & TV ?
Friends?
Family?
Social media?
Showing posts with label sky news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sky news. Show all posts
Friday, 4 August 2017
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Plastic in the ocean PT2
When I wrote my previous entry on the sky campaign to reduce plastic going into the worlds seas and oceans I didn't expect to be returning so quickly but a story today on the link below made me think and pick it back up again.
http://news.sky.com/story/sick-whale-found-to-have-30-plastic-bags-blocking-its-stomach-10754077
In brief the whale had repeatedly beached prior to death and at post-mortem it was found that the whale had swallowed 30 plus plastic bags. Again this got me thinking about our plastic usage. Now the sky story does hold some provocative details such as English writing on some of the bags and the fact that a whale has died as a direct result, tragically I do not believe for a second that this is the first instance and I agree with the journalist for including this detail.
It was no very long ago, less than 2 years, that the UK was up in arms at the suggestion that we should pay 5 pence for a plastic bag. the uproar was amazing when you consider the other issues of the day. I am really pleased to see that this charge has actually lead to a reducing in plastic bag litter on our beaches. So the charge seems to have had the desired effect in reducing the increase.
It's not often that i hold McDonald's up as a good example (and we probably should for their community sponsorships, Ronald McDonald house etc etc) but I remember one of my first visits to a McDonald in the 1980's in Tamworth town centre with one of my neighbours and his mother Pauline. Whilst passing the wrapped burgers around the table Pauline exclaimed "look at all this paper, the Americans must have a lot of litter". Now 30+ years later i am remembering that statement and thinking "yes but paper doesn't last in the ocean as long as plastic, even waxed paper breaks down"
Maybe just maybe many of our answers have been staring at us for years? my last blog on this referred to battery/electric milk floats and washable glass bottles, now i am talking paper bags for takeaway and hey why not supermarkets like the Americans. Sustainable forestry and recycling techniques are improving all the time so maybe we should have more food or shopping packaged in paper. I'm happy to buy fruit on a market in a paper bag why cant i select loose fruit and veg in a supermarket and weight it into a paper bag or just like the accusations from the self check out tills we are more obsessed that everyone is a shoplifter and trying to scam the machine or hide something in an opaque paper bag that we must use clear plastic.
Right hold on I've just had another rant come into my head.
The bottom line is we need to do something about the plastic we use and simply recycling is not going to be enough we need a fundamental shift away from plastics. I haven't gone into any of the arguments about use of petrochemicals and the origins of plastics that's a whole section on its own and supports many countries in its trade.
So my suggestions so far
Electric milk floats
Bring back glass milk bottles
Start using paper food packaging where possible.
http://jeremysnewsthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/plastics-in-ocean-skys-ocean-rescue.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34346309
Update !!!! 6th February 2017
Ooh just been thinking about this issue.
Why the **** does my toilet roll, kitchen roll and other paper products come packaged in plastic!!
Come on that's just taking the biscuit!!!!
http://news.sky.com/story/sick-whale-found-to-have-30-plastic-bags-blocking-its-stomach-10754077
 |
| Whale dies with 30 plastic bags in it's stomach By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent, Sky News |
It was no very long ago, less than 2 years, that the UK was up in arms at the suggestion that we should pay 5 pence for a plastic bag. the uproar was amazing when you consider the other issues of the day. I am really pleased to see that this charge has actually lead to a reducing in plastic bag litter on our beaches. So the charge seems to have had the desired effect in reducing the increase.
It's not often that i hold McDonald's up as a good example (and we probably should for their community sponsorships, Ronald McDonald house etc etc) but I remember one of my first visits to a McDonald in the 1980's in Tamworth town centre with one of my neighbours and his mother Pauline. Whilst passing the wrapped burgers around the table Pauline exclaimed "look at all this paper, the Americans must have a lot of litter". Now 30+ years later i am remembering that statement and thinking "yes but paper doesn't last in the ocean as long as plastic, even waxed paper breaks down"
Maybe just maybe many of our answers have been staring at us for years? my last blog on this referred to battery/electric milk floats and washable glass bottles, now i am talking paper bags for takeaway and hey why not supermarkets like the Americans. Sustainable forestry and recycling techniques are improving all the time so maybe we should have more food or shopping packaged in paper. I'm happy to buy fruit on a market in a paper bag why cant i select loose fruit and veg in a supermarket and weight it into a paper bag or just like the accusations from the self check out tills we are more obsessed that everyone is a shoplifter and trying to scam the machine or hide something in an opaque paper bag that we must use clear plastic.
Right hold on I've just had another rant come into my head.
Who's idea was it to start putting eggs in thin plastic trays/boxes/cartons that lock together so well its an art to open them without firing a ballistic egg in some direction. Not only are these difficult to open especially using one had during baking etc but they also do not protect the egg from anything stronger than a light breeze and as mentioned throughout this subject they do not break down in the environment. although my eggs do in these awful packets. Just use traditional card egg boxes and stop ruining my eggs through neglectful packaging.
The bottom line is we need to do something about the plastic we use and simply recycling is not going to be enough we need a fundamental shift away from plastics. I haven't gone into any of the arguments about use of petrochemicals and the origins of plastics that's a whole section on its own and supports many countries in its trade.
So my suggestions so far
Electric milk floats
Bring back glass milk bottles
Start using paper food packaging where possible.
http://jeremysnewsthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/plastics-in-ocean-skys-ocean-rescue.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34346309
Update !!!! 6th February 2017
Ooh just been thinking about this issue.
Why the **** does my toilet roll, kitchen roll and other paper products come packaged in plastic!!
Come on that's just taking the biscuit!!!!
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