The First One

hello!
so I was nominated to write the very first birmingham friends of the earth blog as i was ranting in our campaigns meeting, and in some danger of causing the meeting to go over the new strict half hour limit ( this is our new exciting format designed to stop us all getting tired and bored listening to each other rant, and instead get on with actually DOING things . . . . like writing blogs . . . . hmmmm) so anyway, we heard all about a stall that phil and nigel had done at the opening of the new Co-op bank in Solihull. Or was it Sutton Coldfield? somewhere begining with S on the edge of Birmingham? apparently the punters had form-filling fatigue due to all the bank accounts they were opening and couldn't be pursuaded to fill in Big Ask postcards about climate change
but still, its the Co-op bank innit? its good, its ethical, its miles better than all the other banks and half paid for the tindall report. We like to be associated with the Co-op bank, and they like us - with all our green integrity I guess. The ranting ensued when it was suggested that the goodness of the Co-op might actually extend the the quality of their service - which it doesn't, well certainly not smile anyway, who take ages to reply to emails *edits rant, as would be bad form to be boring here too*

but its not all about quality of service is it, its about that reflected Goodness, and making a responsible choice about what your tiny bit of cash is being used for, and just adding your tiny bit of support, saying 'i care about this', well, a bit anyway - all those tiny tiny choices that we try to make everyday, hoping they'll make a tinytiny bit of difference, maybe influence one other person to think again, maybe maybe

all feels a bit tenuous sometimes? a bit unlikely? but its what we do isn't it, and hope that our form-filling fatigue won't stop us responding to yet another consultation, or our ranting won't exhaust our energy for pursuading and cajoling our councillors and MPs into making braver choices, and we'll carry on emailing and writing even when we don't get much response

it is important . . . isn't it?

and now I feel the need to go and DO STUFF, true to our new plan, and will sign off - I hope this will be the first of many blogs from BFOE!

bye,

Alison