News and other Busyness

Briefs

Squall 13, Summer 1996, pp. 9-11.

Photo: Julia Guest

FIFTY GREEN ACTIVISTS released eighty balloons carrying “a gift from nature” from the top of Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath - one of the highest points in London - in May to draw attention to the absurdities of cannabis prohibition.

The biodegradable balloons, filled with hemp seeds, were intended to drift across the countryside and, when they burst, scatter their cargo.

David Taylor, of the Green Party, organisers of the action, said cannabis should be an alternative crop for farmers as it needed neither pesticides nor herbicides and can be used for the manufacture of paper, linen, textiles, oil, plastics, ropes, paint and other agro-chemical products.

Shareholders Urged To Vote Against Shell

A MAJOR SHARE CONSULTANT, PIRC, urged its Shell shareholding clients to vote against Shell’s annual report and accounts at its AGM last May.

The company’s managing director, Alan MacDougall said: “We have serious reservations about Shell’s policies in relation to the environment and human rights.” PIRC’s stance follows concerns expressed by its pension-fund clients over Shell’s pollution and human rights record in the Ogoniland region of Nigeria.

MPs Demand More Protection From Investigation

AN AMENDMENT to the Defamation Bill currently making its way through parliament would allow MPs and peers to sue newspapers over reports of their parliamentary acitivities.

The Government have said they are neutral on the subject, although it is widely recognised that the “cash for questions” scandal implicating Tory MPs in parliamentary bribes, raised some MPs’ fears about the power of the press to expose their activities.

Scientists Criticise Government Support For Shell

A PANEL OF EXPERTS commissioned by Energy Secretary Tim Eggar, has said Government approval for Shell’s intention to dump the Brent Spar oil platform was wrong. The 14 top scientists say that government support for the dumping of the 14,500 ton contaminated platform failed to take into account the “unacceptably large overall impact” of dumping redundant oil rigs.

Corporate Campaign Against Dissent

SHELL AND WIMPEY have begun a campaign to create a specific number of shares below which shareholders are disqualified from speaking at Annual General Meetings.

The move is designed to thwart people who obtain a small amount of shares in order to call the board of directors to account for environmental and human rights abuses.