Vestas Fundraiser

After a particularly stressful meeting at Castle Greyskull (don't ask, but you can read all about some of it in the next MCFly, out this Sunday), your intrepid reporter cycled down to the People's Republic of Chorlton for the Vestas fundraiser. (Background: There was a factory on the Isle of Wight that made wind turbine blades, until the Danish owners Vestas shut it down (600 jobs down the toilet) and went off to make more money in the States. The factory was occupied by some of its workers, and supported by an alliance of "red" and "green" protestors. There is an ongoing blockade to prevent the final lot of kit being removed.

The fundraiser event was organised by Manchester Green Party and was rather impressive. Given the short notice, turn out was v. good (50? 70?) , the front of house staff welcoming and the acts... well, Al Baker of Al Baker and the Dole Queue was his usual brilliant self, with a mix of pop and politics and philiosophy. He's a hard act to follow, but Ben Mellor and "Leonie Kate" carried it off with aplomb. Nobody has the right to be that talented, frankly; just hope they can all play the launch of Call to Real Action's Additional Action Plan in the second half of November...

Can't say what the other acts were like, since you gotta sleep sometime, and there was a haloumi kebab from Panico's with my name on it...

PS On off-shore wind turbines- a very interesting piece in the Financial Times on Monday 14th Sept "GE looks to offshore wind turbines for growth"