Archive for the ‘Letters’ Category

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Letter to The Guardian re autism as a “distressing illness”

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Published in the Guardian today here.

Sir,

I must take exception to your recent reference to autism as a “distressing illness” (Andrew Wakefield case highlights the importance of ethics in science, 24th May). I am autistic, and I am not ill, sick, or retarded – I merely think differently to other people, and subsequently find it harder to understand how other people think. All autistic spectrum disorders may be summed up thus to a greater or lesser extent. If others find that distressing, that is their problem, not mine. But I am not ill.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah McCulloch

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Posted in Letters, Personal | 18 Comments »

Letter from Justine Hall, Green Party candidate for Manchester Gorton

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Last month I wrote a letter (republished here) to all the Manchester Gorton Constituency candidates regarding civil liberties and more specifically the recently passed Digital Economy Bill. To date, only Justine Hall of the Green Party has replied, although the Press Officer of the Pirate Party has been in touch offering to have Tim Dobson call me personally (I have asked for a letter).

Here is Justine Hall’s letter:

“Dear Ms McCulloch

Thank you for your email. I am very supportive of the 5 points raised by the Power2010 pledge. I joined the campaign some time ago as an individual and have now signed the pledge as a candidate – currently the only candidate for Gorton who has!

http://www.power2010.org.uk/pages/north-west1

All 5 of the points are Green Party policy and have been for some time. We believe that a written constitution is important for citizens and lawmakers to understand what our rights are, and it would make it more difficult for the government to take rights away from us.

ID cards must be stopped, and the registering of every child in the UK is ID cards by the back door. I cannot believe that MPs children may be ‘shielded’ from this database – the fact they vote for an abhorrent database and protect themselves is truly a mark of how out of touch they are.

I am appalled that the Digital Economy Bill was pushed through at the last minute. Even more appalling was the low number of MPs that actually bothered to turn up to vote. A small ray of sunshine is that the law sems unworkable and looks very unlikely to survive any legal challenge against it, particularly as even the MPs that drafted it got rather confused about what they were asking for, with one convinced that IP meant ‘intellectual property’, not ‘internet protocol’ as it actually does.

Some more information about the Green Party view is here:

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/19-04-2010-greens-debill-opposition.html

MPs MUST be subject to the laws they pass, as every other citizen is. The Green Party will continue to press for any exceptions to be made public and repealed immediately.

A vote for the Green Party is a vote against politics as usual, a vote for transparent politics and against shady lobbyists and MPs self interest.

You can learn more on our website www.greenparty.org.uk/policies.

Thanks
Justine Hall
Green Party candidate, Manchester Gorton”

Thank you very much to Justine. :)

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Letter to Manchester Gorton candidates re civil liberties

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Sent to Qassim Afzal, Caroline Healy, Gerald Kaufman, Karen Reisseman and Justine Hall.

Dear candidate,

my name is Sarah McCulloch and I am a constituent of Manchester Gorton, whom you wish to represent in Parliament. I thought I would write to you with my concerns regarding the past few decades of curtailment of civil liberties in this country.

I have been appalled by how so many MPs in the last Parliament seemed to think there should be one rule for them and another for everyone else, especially when it comes to how government treats our personal information. When the government can just lose the personal details of 25 million parents and children from the child benefit database with barely an apology, to send our confidential medical data overseas for transcription, as we have discovered local hospital trusts are doing this week, is utterly absurd.

Though I don’t suppose such privacy violations will happen to any MPs. All our children are now documented on the government’s ContactPoint database, whereas the children of MPs can be “shielded” to protect their privacy and security – outright recognition that the database is available to anyone willing to pay for it.

Similarly, hundreds of MPs voted in favour of ID cards. Very few MPs, however, have chosen to get one themselves, even though they’re now available to those who volunteer. Many of these same MPs voted to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act, all in the name of their “privacy”, whilst passing laws that erode our privacy. Need I mention the Communications Data Bill which would have required ISPs to keep details of every phone call and email made in this country, a dream which was only dropped as unworkable as opposed to GROSSLY intrusive?

This is terrible, and the hypocrisy has to end.

I would therefore ask that you commit to saying that if you are elected you will vote to repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006 and will defend my privacy as fiercely as you would defend your own and that of your family.

Should you be elected, your own internet connection is just at risk of disconnection as mine should anyone allege you (or your children) have infringed their copyright to your ISP due to the Digital Economy Act 2010 – this, I have no doubt, is what will lead the the bill’s repeal as MP after MP is disconnected because of such allegations. When we live under the same rules, as my MP, I know you will ensure those rules are actually fair. This is why it is important that you support a fair system across the board by which MPs must abide as well as myself and my fellow voters.

As part of the POWER2010 campaign I have joined a number of local people in writing a joint letter to our local paper with the same message and encourage you to write a response. You can read the letter here: http://www.power2010.org.uk/page/s/outrage

I won’t ask you to sign up to the Power2010 Pledge because I personally think parts of it are stupid – allowing any of the corrupt and self-serving politicians we currently have and are likely to have at the highest levels of our government to lay down in stone in a written constitution what we, and they, are entitled to strikes me as the height of idiocy. However, I would strongly recommend that you at least read it and make up your own minds: http://www.power2010.org.uk/page/s/powerpledge

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah McCulloch

Write to your MP here.

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Posted in Activism, Letters | 2 Comments »

Letter to Gerald Kaufman re the digital economy bill

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Dear Mr. Kaufman,

thank you for your recent letter in reply to mine on the Early Day Motion on the labelling of products containing battery hen eggs. I’m writing to you today because I’m very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate or really thinking about its consequences.

The law is controversial and contains many measures that concern me and many other voters, including removing people’s internet access on the allegation of a copyright holder – this is an absolute travesty of justice and civil liberties. The controversial Bill deserves proper scrutiny so please don’t let the government rush it through. Many people think it will damage schools and businesses as well as innocent people who rely on the internet because it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement with virtually no evidence at all.

Industry experts, internet service providers (like Talk Talk and BT) and huge internet companies like Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill – yet the Government seems intent on forcing it through without a real debate. If this bill passes the Government will lose the goodwill and votes of tens of thousands of young people and those involved in the IT industry. As a constituent I am writing to you today to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn’t just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate. I hope you will agree with my points and add your voice to the increasing clamor against this bill’s truly horrifying measures.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah McCulloch

If you would like more information on why the Digital Economy Bill is a terrible idea, please visit Why should You Care About the Digital Economy Bill?.

Go write to your MP.

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Letter to Chris Davies MEP re battery hen welfare

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Hi Chris,

I’m a member of your constituency and a Liberal Democrat Member, and I am seeking your support for an amendment within the current regulations for the European Parliament and the council on the provision of food information to consumers COM(2008) 40.

ENV Committee Vice-Chair Carl Schylter MEP has proposed commission amendment (No 362) for the inclusion of farming production method for all multi-ingredient foods containing eggs or egg products. This proposal supports an identified need for animal welfare labelling resulting from a significant number of consumers being interested in high-quality products across the European Union. For these consumers, high quality often includes higher animal welfare standards. In 2012 the EU bans the conventional ‘battery’ cage; following the ban the EU is likely to see increased imports of conventionally caged hens eggs produced outside the EU to supply food processing companies and the foodservice sector.

Egg packs containing shell eggs have to be labelled with the farming method, therefore consumers can (and are) choosing to purchase eggs raised by higher welfare standards. Processed food which contains egg/egg derivatives does not need to be labelled with farming method making it difficult for consumers to choose higher welfare products produced on EU farms.  To uphold EU welfare standards it is vital that consumers are able to distinguish between processed food containing eggs produced by hens in conventional cages and those produced by higher welfare standards in the EU.

I would like to see clear labelling on food products containing eggs from caged hens and would like to see greater incentives for British free range and barn farmers through Government aid. I’ve already written to my MP Gerald Kaufman to ask him to support EDM 234: PRODUCTION METHOD LABELLING ON PROCESSED FOODS CONTAINING EGG AND EGG DERIVATIVES,which supports the barren cage ban and the provision of such labelling. He signed the motion, and I hope that you will agree with the sentiment and on March 16th please vote in support of amendment No 362.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah McCulloch

Visit the Battery Hen Welfare Trust for more information.

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Letter to Student Direct re: Israeli Deputy Ambassador

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Dear Student Direct,

Joe Sheffer writes last week that “the Executive… should remember
that they were elected on an extremely limited Mandate” and for that
reason the Israeli Deputy Ambassador should have been allowed to
speak in our union. While I agree entirely with this statement, the
Constitution outlines that the mandate of the Executive is, first and
foremost, to uphold Union policy, policies that are chosen and passed
by us, the student body. The Union policy that bans Israeli diplomats
from our union was passed by an overwhelming majority at the largest
General Meeting in living memory, with nearly 1200 people in
attendance. However, as it has been discovered, it would have been
against the law to cancel the talk (but not to have refused to let it
happen in the first place).

So the problem that our Executive faced was not simply whether to act
in their own interests or those of the student body. It was whether to
break the law and obey the will of hundreds of students who cared
sufficiently about a cause to mandate our officers to act on it,
something virtually unseen in UMSU for years, but which left those
officers personally liable for a potential multi-million pound lawsuit
as Trustees; or to keep the law and disregard their responsibilities
as members of the Union’s Executive to uphold Union policy, which is
ultimately the reason for their existence. This was a decision that
caused many of the Exec deep angst, and their votes were recorded
accordingly in Student Direct last week. I have my own opinions on
that decision and I’m sure that many do too.

This is all in hindsight – as Co-Chair of myUMSU I have spent nearly
10 hours cumulatively trying to get hold of all the relevant
documents, policies, and laws, and looking through them to try and
work out whether the Israeli Deputy Ambassador was allowed in our
union or not – could we expect sabbs who have actual jobs to do the
same? Our Executive had to make a decision under pressure and facing a
large number of students liable to be disappointed with them whatever
they decided.

This issue simply wasn’t a case of Action Palestine vs. All Other
Students. It was, and is, an issue of union democracy and what to do
if the policies that are passed by a democratic majority of the
student membership conflict with the law. If our Exec take it upon
themselves to claim they have no mandate to uphold the explicit wishes
of the student body because a belief they hold that some other
students, who have remained silent, disagree with that policy, we may
as well just stop pretending that Union listens to us at all.

So Joe simplifies the issue far too simply as “students wanted to hear
someone from Israel speak and our Exec wouldn’t let them”: try “the
Politics Society accidentally arranged a talk against union policy on
Israel and all hell broke loose when the Exec believed they couldn’t
cancel it”. I would suggest the solution is to sit down and work out
how to prevent such situations happening again, or I do fear Gabriel’s
beard will fall out from stress. And then where would we be?

Yours,

Sarah McCulloch

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Miffed Letter: re “Fife woman dies after taking ‘bubbles’”

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Sent to The Courier after the publication of this article about a Fife resident who died in connection with mephedrone:

“Dear Sir/Madam,

the recent spate of hospitalisations of people who have suffered medical emergencies after taking mephedrone, also known as mcat or bubbles, is a matter of great concern. However, I was troubled by the comment from Chief Superintendent Alistair McKeen that people should not try legal highs because they are unresearched. Indeed, there is very little, if any scientific research done on mephedrone and no-one has any idea of its long-term effects on the human body, although early signs suggest it is worse than ketamine or MDMA. But the reason people are taking mephedrone over ketamine and MDMA is because our government has made those two drugs illegal.

So instead of encouraging people to take care of their health and to ensure that whatever they do to their own bodies they do so in as safe a manner as possible, our drugs laws are actively encouraging people to take untested, unknown substances over well-researched chemicals that are objectively less lethal than horse-riding. This is a ludicrous situation to be in. We must cease our moralising as a nation and treat drug use as the health issue that it is instead of an excuse to lock up hedonists and the emotionally vulnerable.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah McCulloch

External Relations Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK
http://www.ssdp.org.uk”

See also this very interesting analysis from Liberalconspiracy.org about the media frenzy on mephedrone and how it’s factually dodgy: “The press and impossibility of legal highs“. Keep watching the press on this issue.

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Posted in Drugs, Letters | 11 Comments »

Letter to Gerald Kaufman MP re battery hen welfare

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Dear Mr. Kaufman,

As I am sure you are aware, the barren battery cage is due to be banned across the UK and the EU from 2012. This is an excellent move in the right direction for greater laying hen welfare.

However, I write to express my concern about the enriched caged system which offers birds only fractional more room. Most of these eggs end up in processed food products and it is therefore difficult for consumers to clearly see that they are purchasing eggs from caged birds. I would like to see clear labelling on food products containing eggs from caged hens and would like to see greater incentives for British free range and barn farmers through Government aid. EDM 234: PRODUCTION METHOD LABELLING ON PROCESSED FOODS CONTAINING EGG AND EGG DERIVATIVES supports the barren cage ban and the provision of such labelling.

I notice that you are not a signatory to this motion. I would appreciate it if you could please take a moment to sign it, and if you could please advise me if you are doing anything to improve labelling and support British free range and barn egg producers.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah McCulloch

Visit the Battery Hen Welfare Trust for more information.

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