Invest council pension funds in our communities not fossil fuel corporations
Dec 14, 2016
Do you want to get more active on fossil fuel divestment? On 4 May 2017, local elections will be held across much of the UK. These elections are a great opportunity to build local support and see more local councils divest their pensions from fossil fuels and re-invest in our communities. Whilst many of us are...
Demand a Public Energy Company for London!
Dec 8, 2016
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has just published his four year vision for London, A City For All Londoners. During his election campaign Sadiq pledged to set up London’s very own public energy company to give us clean, affordable energy. Now we need to keep the pressure up to make sure he delivers on...
‘Art – Possibility – Action’ – creating spaces that are equal, democratic, free and luminous.
Dec 5, 2016
The storm of political events tosses us this way and that – first the election of Trump in the wake of Brexit, then the rejection of the far right Presidential candidate in the Austrian elections and the inspiring victory at Standing Rock in Dakota. Somewhat becalmed in the midst of the roaring gale, my mind...
“Art is direct, it challenges the authorities, the power structure” Ken Saro-Wiwa jr, 1968 – 2016
Nov 29, 2016
Yesterday at All Saints Church in Fulham, London, we attended a celebration of the life of journalist, government special advisor, and digital tech innovator Ken Saro-Wiwa jr. His life was suddenly cut short at the age of 47. We are sorrowed by this profound loss to the Saro-Wiwa family, and of a talented man invested in...
We took the stage for jailed Egyptian activists at British Museum’s BP-branded big lecture
Nov 24, 2016
Today, at the BP sponsored British Museum, we remembered political prisoners and friends jailed in Egypt. In particular, we remembered Alaa Abd El Fattah, Aya Hejazi, Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma, Yousef Shabaan, Mahmoud Shawkan, and Abdullah Al Fakhrani, who are amongst the tens of thousands of dissidents imprisoned by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime. Holding larger-than-life...
We are still feeling the aftershocks of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s murder 21 years later
Nov 16, 2016
November 10th marked the 21st anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s murder by Nigeria’s military dictatorship for challenging Shell’s devastation of his home – Ogoniland. His only remaining son died a few weeks before this terrible anniversary. His funeral was this week. Last year, at the request of allies in the Niger Delta still resisting Shell’s oil...
Paradigm shift in the House of the North – reflecting on ‘The Sky’s Limit’
Nov 15, 2016
I’m trudging towards the top of Am Faochagach following my dear friend Greg Muttitt, who was for a long time central to Platform and is now part of the wider family. The smooth crest of this mountain rises like a whale’s back. Its lack of crags must have led to its name – Am...
So Switched On – The dream of London’s energy democracy
Nov 4, 2016
The train hurries south on the main line towards Brighton, carrying me away from the event I have just attended, ‘Power to Us’ organised by Switched on London at Myatt’s Fields in Brixton. Looking out from the carriage, over the roofs of the houses of Purley stacked up this steep sided North Downs valley at...
Today’s oil drilling round could bust us through UK’s climate limits
Oct 26, 2016
The UK government is pushing a massive new offshore drilling programme, that will take the UK beyond its climate limits. Oil companies had until 2pm today to bid for 1200 blocks covering large swathes of the sea off North-west and North-east Scotland and England. This is the the 29th Offshore Licensing Round, and it aims to identify hundreds of millions in...
Subsidising spills – British public pays BP $300 million to drill and spill
Oct 7, 2016
BP came under criticism this week when it caused a 95 tonne oil leak from its Clair Field into the North Sea. The company decided not to clear up the spill, and wait for the oil to wash further out to sea. The new spill comes as BP no longer pays net taxes to the...
For Lucy Fairley, founder of Helix Arts and Crossings
Sep 30, 2016
My friend and Platform ally Lucy Fairley has died, aged 70. We’ve known her and her work for nearly 25 years and worked especially closely with her in the late 1990s. She founded Artists Agency in Sunderland in 1983, and in 1987 appointed Esther Salamon to join her initially as Placement Officer, then as in...
First UK Pension Fund divests 100% from fossil fuels
Sep 28, 2016
We won! Last week the pension fund committee of London Borough of Waltham Forest became the first UK public authority to announce its commitment to go 100% fossil free. The decision to divest was unanimously agreed by both Labour and Tory councillors. Why is this important? Exactly a year ago, we published our data, showing...
