Category: Uncategorized

[Introduction including details about my own air source heat pump install, and mention of the ending of the RHI funding in April 2022.]

After I have installed an air source heat pump, I will pay more money to heat my home, even though I am using less energy, because electricity is more expensive than gas. So this change will hurt me financially over both the short and longer terms.

Do you agree with me that climate emergency is the most important issue the government is now facing?

Do you also agree with me that we urgently need people to switch their heating and home insulation to reduce our dependence on burning gas?

Please do all you can to persuade the Prime Minister to introduce initiatives before COP26 that make it financially viable for families without spare cash to insulate their home and heat them with renewable energy.

Please pass my letter on to the Prime Minister and any government departments you consider relevant.

Thank you very much for your time.

Sent via WriteToThem on Monday 1 March 2021.

Dear Ben Spencer,

Your experience on the front line in medicine means you are probably much more able than I to imagine the human impact of the situation in Yemen.

On Sunday OCHA stated that 16 million people will go hungry this year, and nearly 50,000 are already living in famine-like conditions.

How can the UK government throw away its position of leadership on this matter by cutting funding at such a desperate time? I share the urgent concern expressed by Andrew Mitchell this morning.

I would be grateful if you would pass my concerns on to the FCDO.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Balaam

References:

• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/un-warns-of-mass-famine-in-yemen-ahead-of-donor-conference-yemen-un-people-people-rebels-b1808777.html
• https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210228-war-turning-yemen-into-broken-state-beyond-repair-un
• BBC Today Programme 2021-03-01

Letter I sent to my MP today on the overseas aid budget. Let’s not be foolish.

Dear Ben Spencer,

Please use your influence to persuade the government to maintain our overseas aid budget commitment at 0.7% of national income.
I believe that changing this policy would be a mistake, increasing the risks of extremism and forced migration around the world.

The policy was established when the budget was very tight, and I think the reasons for it remain compelling: to prevent selfishness and short-termism from hurting our own and others’ interests.

Please pass my letter on to the Chancellor.

Yours sincerely,
Andy Balaam

Feel free to re-use some or all of this.

To write to your MP, try writetothem.com.

Here is the text of a letter I wrote to my MP today via writetothem.com:

Dear [],

I am writing to you to express my growing horror at the ongoing police violence and brutality Black protesters are facing in the US, and the UK’s disturbing silence on the matter.

These protests, begun as peaceful demonstrations against the state-enabled murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, have been escalated by the US police, who are using excessive force against protesters practising their civic rights. If this were a non-white country, Western countries would have denounced this brutality; instead, the UK has elected to remain silent.

I am painfully aware that the UK itself suffers from many racist structures. Thanks to systematic injustice, the recent pandemic has impacted BAME people at a vastly higher rate than white people. The death of Belly Mujinga, caused by a racist attack and by her presence at work despite underlying conditions that should have resulted in paid leave, was horrifying and preventable, and the dropped inquiry utterly disgraceful.

I ask you personally to:
– write to the Foreign Secretary asking for a strong statement of condemnation of police brutality in the US,
– make it a personal priority to address the systematic injustice of unfair outcomes for BAME people in the UK,
– ensure that the government responds materially to the report on BAME COVID-19 deaths,
– insist on a full enquiry into the circumstances surrounding Belly Mujinga’s death.

Yours sincerely,
[]

Inspired by: @anahitrooz.

After years of getting around to it, I have redesigned my home page at artificialworlds.net.

It’s basically intended to make me look clever or productive or interesting or something. Alternatively, it gives you somewhere to find that thing you know I made but can’t find the link:

The background image is “Read where you are” by delaram bayat.

I am pleased with the page’s responsive design, clarity, fast page-load, and colourfulness.

What do you think?