Viewing Message #5
Time : Sun 06-May-2007
From :
Subject : Simpol-NZ Newsletter No 3
Message :
05/05/07
Dear Friends,
I’ll start with a press release from Simpol-UK – just to remind you where we are at and to display the progress that is being made elsewhere!
Incidentally, simpol-org – the international Simpol site is just about to be completely updated. I have seen the previews and it is far more professional and less cluttered. It also has a world map of locations of national Simpol organisations. This is quite impressive: the organisation has spread not just in the northern hemisphere but also it is very well represented in Latin America and Africa. All in such a short period
So much for the UK! Now for matters closer to home.
First of all I repeat the aim. Our success depends on our never losing sight of it.
In the last two months of initial activity, I have become convinced that our aim, of making New Zealand the first country in the world in which a majority of the MPs are pledged to SP, is perfectly achievable. From the reactions I have had to date, I would judge that this might even be possible within two elections – say by 2011. Should we achieve this, the boost it will give to the Simpol campaign around the world will be immeasurable – (and probably only in the nick of time!)
How we are approaching the campaign is as follows.
We are starting with an attempt to recruit the initial group of articulate Adopters from the NGOs. These people already know that there are things seriously wrong in the current system of global governance – they spend every working day combating its symptoms. I have a list of about an hundred or so such organisations and am sending each a personal letter and painstakingly following it up with a visit. I should be able to approach 80% of these organisations within the next six months.
So far, I’ve only had two put-downs, one from Greenpeace, who thought we were in competition with them for MPs’ attention, and the other from the Red Cross, who thought we’d compromise their neutrality. I blame myself for this – I hadn’t yet honed my approach to the extent that is required. It was the singer and not the song at fault.
Everywhere else I have been met with reactions ranging from interest, “We will watch how you get on and support you from the side-lines until you prove it’ll work” to proactive “Yes, I’ll sign on, let’s link sites, please write an article for our newsletter and how else can we help?” The leaders of the umbrella organisations/trade associations to which these NGO’s belong, have been particularly helpful.
Some of these NGOs are church linked and I am hoping that we will also, through this point of contact, enlist the support of some of the religious organisations themselves.
Our other target groups, who have to be approached by early next year, are academia and business. A lot more hard work!
We are not spending undue time on trying to recruit individual members; we wish to gain the support of opinion leaders within organisations that will in their turn, win for Simpol the support of their members at a time much closer to the election.
Likewise, at this stage, you are unlikely to see any MPs signing up. We have no plans to approach MPs or political parties directly until we are in a position to demonstrate our non-partisan status by approaching all parties simultaneously. That will best be done a few months before the election by as large a number of articulate Adopters as we can muster, writing or speaking to the candidates to the effect that “if you want my vote, then sign the SP pledge.”
Remember, our requirement is not to be a mass movement but to have sufficient Adopters to be able to persuade MPs that we can add a couple of percentage points of bias to the swing vote. That is closer to 2% of 10% of the electorate than it is to 2% of the electorate.
In the meantime, I would ask all readers of this newsletter to consider the various organisations and communities to which they belong and decide whether or not they might be capable of providing the sort of motivated and articulate Adopters we will be looking for when the time comes. I’m prepared to talk to anyone at any time.
Warm regards to you all,
Hugh.
Dear Friends,
I’ll start with a press release from Simpol-UK – just to remind you where we are at and to display the progress that is being made elsewhere!
Simultaneous Policy: Rediscovering the Sense of our Collective Humanity
PRESS RELEASE: 2nd April 2007
Cross-party support grows for citizens' global governance campaign
The Simultaneous Policy (SP) campaign, aimed at addressing global problems such as climate change, unfair trade, global poverty and unsustainability, gained further support in Parliament today with two MPs joining the campaign. Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton & Wallington, and Martin Linton, Labour MP for Battersea, joined twenty-one other MPs from all the main UK political parties who have signed a pledge to implement SP alongside other governments. (See website for full list).
To avoid the fear all governments have that the unilateral implementation of stringent environmental controls would see capital and jobs moving elsewhere, the Simultaneous Policy is to be implemented simultaneously, only when all or sufficient governments have signed up. In this way, supporting SP poses no-risk to any nation's international competitiveness and is helping to build international and cross-party support while opening the way
to far more robust measures being adopted than those presently envisaged under agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol.
The SP's range of global policies is being designed, not by political parties, but by thousands of citizens around the world who support SP, known as Adopters. To ensure sufficient international support for SP, Adopters undertake to vote in their respective national elections for any candidate, within reason, who has signed the pledge to implement SP alongside other governments, or to encourage their preferred party to support SP. In this way, politicians who fail to support SP risk losing their seats to those who do. With more parliamentary seats and even entire national elections being won or lost on fine margins, only a relatively small number of Adopters may be needed to make it in the vital interests of the main politicians and parties to support SP.
The fear of competitive disadvantage is rapidly being recognised as the key barrier to solving global warming and many other global problems. In the wake of the Stern report, which urged all governments to act decisively to curb carbon emissions, the Financial Times (6th Dec. 06) noted that "governments remain reluctant to address this threat because any country acting alone to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, without similar commitments by other governments, risks damaging the competitiveness of its industries." As David Miliband, UK environment minister, confirmed: "There is a collective action problem internationally."
Recognising the inability of governments to act, citizens around the world are adopting SP as a way to seize the political initiative and to drive even uncooperative governments towards the internationally co-operative solution that SP provides. Apart from the UK, support for SP extends to the EU and Australian parliaments and progress is being made in many other countries. SP is also supported by the prime minister of East Timor, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, by Eva Quistorp, co-founder of the German Green Party, and by many ecologists, activists and economists.
For further information visit www.simpol.org (global site) and/or
www.simpol.org.uk (UK site) or contact Diana Trimble on the numbers below.
Simpol-UK 27 London Road, Bromley, BR1 1DF, UK
info@simpol.org.uk Tel +44 (0)20-8464 4141 Fax +44 (0)20-8460 2035
Incidentally, simpol-org – the international Simpol site is just about to be completely updated. I have seen the previews and it is far more professional and less cluttered. It also has a world map of locations of national Simpol organisations. This is quite impressive: the organisation has spread not just in the northern hemisphere but also it is very well represented in Latin America and Africa. All in such a short period
So much for the UK! Now for matters closer to home.
First of all I repeat the aim. Our success depends on our never losing sight of it.
In the last two months of initial activity, I have become convinced that our aim, of making New Zealand the first country in the world in which a majority of the MPs are pledged to SP, is perfectly achievable. From the reactions I have had to date, I would judge that this might even be possible within two elections – say by 2011. Should we achieve this, the boost it will give to the Simpol campaign around the world will be immeasurable – (and probably only in the nick of time!)
How we are approaching the campaign is as follows.
We are starting with an attempt to recruit the initial group of articulate Adopters from the NGOs. These people already know that there are things seriously wrong in the current system of global governance – they spend every working day combating its symptoms. I have a list of about an hundred or so such organisations and am sending each a personal letter and painstakingly following it up with a visit. I should be able to approach 80% of these organisations within the next six months.
So far, I’ve only had two put-downs, one from Greenpeace, who thought we were in competition with them for MPs’ attention, and the other from the Red Cross, who thought we’d compromise their neutrality. I blame myself for this – I hadn’t yet honed my approach to the extent that is required. It was the singer and not the song at fault.
Everywhere else I have been met with reactions ranging from interest, “We will watch how you get on and support you from the side-lines until you prove it’ll work” to proactive “Yes, I’ll sign on, let’s link sites, please write an article for our newsletter and how else can we help?” The leaders of the umbrella organisations/trade associations to which these NGO’s belong, have been particularly helpful.
Some of these NGOs are church linked and I am hoping that we will also, through this point of contact, enlist the support of some of the religious organisations themselves.
Our other target groups, who have to be approached by early next year, are academia and business. A lot more hard work!
We are not spending undue time on trying to recruit individual members; we wish to gain the support of opinion leaders within organisations that will in their turn, win for Simpol the support of their members at a time much closer to the election.
Likewise, at this stage, you are unlikely to see any MPs signing up. We have no plans to approach MPs or political parties directly until we are in a position to demonstrate our non-partisan status by approaching all parties simultaneously. That will best be done a few months before the election by as large a number of articulate Adopters as we can muster, writing or speaking to the candidates to the effect that “if you want my vote, then sign the SP pledge.”
Remember, our requirement is not to be a mass movement but to have sufficient Adopters to be able to persuade MPs that we can add a couple of percentage points of bias to the swing vote. That is closer to 2% of 10% of the electorate than it is to 2% of the electorate.
In the meantime, I would ask all readers of this newsletter to consider the various organisations and communities to which they belong and decide whether or not they might be capable of providing the sort of motivated and articulate Adopters we will be looking for when the time comes. I’m prepared to talk to anyone at any time.
Warm regards to you all,
Hugh.