Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all our supporters! The Xmas social was very convivial, and the Isaac Wilson a good venue.

Our thoughts are with some of our members who are ill or awaiting operations, get well soon.

2011 promises to be a good year but a challenging one; the new domestic thermal tariff comes into play, there are a number of biofuel power stations that have planning permission to be built on Teesside that use waste wood or managed forest and we hope they will use CHP (Combined Heat and Power) to get the most from this resource.

The UK with its ingenuity is looking at wave, tidal and offshore wind power. The north sea is a challenging environment but we have expertise from the oil, gas and fishing industries in the NE. It would be good to export tidal & wind turbines and we could build them here!

Daylight savings Bill goes through!!

So on tenderhooks we waited to hear if the Bill had got through this bizarre voting system for Early Day motions - would it get talked out by opposing MPs? Would the snow and far flung MPs who had to get back to their constituencies make a difference? the count was quite close but we won!!

Legislation that could lead to a trial shift of the UK clocks forward by an hour cleared an important parliamentary hurdle today. . .
guardian article

Pakistan Flood Relief Benefit - the Results

Well the snow that started on Wednesday, just before the benefit, has settled in and as I look outside my window a transit van is having some problems . . . Despite snow, other events and perhaps the flood fading from memory we made £150 and I would like to thank everyone involved in what was a wonderful event. The Avenue church's acoustics and setting were perfect for the brilliant, talented "Pieces of Eight" A Copella choir. To sing well without musical accompaniment is the ultimate vocal challenge and the audience were not disappointed. Richard Massaras MCing guided us through and his comedy with Harry was entertaining. Lee Kyle's flags of the nations met with real approval and he tailored it for the audience he had rather than a student one! I think we had some comic geniuses in the making (perhaps a new Peter Kaye!) and we saw it here in Middlesbrough :-)

We had plugs, notices and posters in/on Radio Tees, the Echo, the Gazette, the Roman Catholic website and church, Anglican church, quakers, methodists, the co-op and interestingly on Regional TV news where one of our colourful posters was spotted in a Nunthorpe snow report!

Why did Friends of the Earth do this event for Pakistan? Well we felt we could and had to do something and could not sit idly by. Floods like this one are more likely to happen with climate change.

Our efforts have paid for a heavy-duty family tent that will get them through winter and food for a couple of months, I think saving lives, sent to Pakistan with our love. Well done everyone.

The video link I had planned to play is below and only 3 minutes long, explaining things so well, please have a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apXfJyq3D5Y Angelina Jolie's UNHCR reports were also well informed - not just a pretty face is Angelina.