While thousands of children and adults attended the Climate Strike protest in Edinburgh this afternoon according to a friend of mine, Dorchester saw roughly 70 attend.
In a Tory / blue Lib Dem town that’s a good turnout. There are some notable exceptions though that need highlighting.
Thomas Hardye’s School – all students to remain on campus
There was one envoy from the school who had an exceptional reason not to be at school today and I applaud them for having the cojones to use that reason to attend.
The order came down from senior management at the school that all pupils had to remain on campus for lunchtime on Friday. This is disingenuous and authoritarian in the extreme.
I was a 6th Former when I learned of climate change in 1992. It has become an ever-pressing concern and children of this generation finally are speaking out. Repressing their urge to protest just isn’t on.
Where were Damer’s kids?
I didn’t see one child attend from Damer’s. Why not? The school made itself famous for its protest to then Environment Secretary Micael Gove. It talks loudly and proudly of its compositing food, its growing much of its food on campus, of little children being read stories in a wildflower meadow.
It loves to shout its environmental credentials.
So what happened? All the parents’ Audis in for service today?
As a parent myself, albeit separated from the mother of that child, I want to know what’s going on here.
Certain Trades Unions
I write only as a Trades Unionist myself and not from any formal role I may hold. Even so the news filtered through that Unison would not email its local members telling them that the TUC had countenanced workers taking half an hour from their lunch break to attend the meeting today.
The excuse was that some Unison members are working in ‘politically sensitive environments’ to include the police and other roles. That is no excuse in my book.
As a Labour member I am appalled that we have taken a pro nuclear weapons stance largely due to the big union players like Unite and Unison. That makes the unions borderline climate change denying and certainly about as militant as my nervous cat.
Conclusions
We will see more climate actions in the coming months and years. You don’t have to be an Extinction Rebellion member to be out on the streets. Most of us aren’t, even as that great body attracts ever more people who have never been activists in their lives.
Hopefully we will see more of you at the barricades next time. ALL OUT!
Richard Shrubb
