Usually, winning a campaign is good enough in itself but winning an award on top of that has to be the cherry on the cake. Or, in this case, the sesame seeds on top of a squishy white bun.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had been nominated by the good listeners of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme as part of their annual Food and Farming Awards for our Amazon soya campaign, of which the giant chickens running around McDonald's were a part. The judges agreed and at a swish awards dinner in Birmingham last Friday, we won the Derek Cooper Award for "a great model of how to research food issues across continents".

Our senior forests campaigner Pat Venditti was there to collect the gong but was unusually coy when the presenter asked if tracking soya imports into the UK meant a lot of hanging about in lay-bys. And the food? Apparently, it was "not bad".

Posted by Jamie at 9:13 AM | Permalink

© Greenpeace

Hundreds of citizen weapons inspectors have just spent this morning patrolling through the muddy fields of England. They came from all over the UK, converging on the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) facility at Aldermaston. They arrived from all directions, by bus, train, bicycle and on foot.

Their mission? To carry out the world's largest ever inspection of a nuclear weapons factory, following reports that Tony Blair is building a new nuclear weapon.

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Posted by Dave at 2:08 PM | Permalink

The news that the UN moratorium on bottom trawling has sunk to the metaphorical, erm, bottom is grim enough but when you hear that it was all down to one country, it's just bloody depressing. And the culprit? Step forward Iceland, proud whaling nation and now ocean floor destroyer. Thanks guys.

But I can't put it better than Adele over on the Making Waves blog. There's real rage for you.

Posted by Jamie at 9:35 AM | Permalink

Bottom trawling - it's not big and it's not clever. An upcoming UN vote could see a moratorium on this fishing method which is destroying life on the ocean bed, but Canada and Spain are opposing it. If the video below doesn't inspire you to take action, you've misplaced your funny bone.

Posted by Jamie at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Who'd have thunk it? The latest wheeze to help the PM get closer to his people is to have online petitions on the Number 10 website. Anyone can create a petition and encourage people to sign, and with the people from the excellent theyworkforyou.com and writetothem.com behind it, it could actually be worthwhile.

Tempting as it would be to sign the one calling for a resignation, there is a key petition already set up calling on Blair to champion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by not replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system. An excellent suggestion and it's currently the second most popular petition on the site. Can it make pole position?

Posted by Jamie at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

When our volunteers set out in their chicken suits to invade McDonald's branches earlier this year, I'm fairly certain the last thing on their minds was any kind of public accolade for their efforts. The global campaign to highlight how food companies were complicit in destroying the Amazon rainforest through their use of Amazon-grown soya made headlines around the world and clearly touched the hearts of Radio 4 listeners because we've been nominated for a gong in their Food and Farming Awards.

Most of the categories are turned over to shops and producers who go that extra mile in provide quality grub but we come under the Derek Cooper Special Award for, and I quote, "their work raising awareness of the ethical and environmental dimensions of food production, in particular their soya campaign". It was a public vote that got us into the nominations but it's the steely minds of the judging panel that will make the final decision, and with distinguished competition in the form of the Caroline Walker Trust and the Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP, it'll be tough. Tune in Sunday 26 November to see if we win.

Posted by Jamie at 10:54 AM | Permalink

© Greenpeace/Dave Walsh

Here in London, we're all recovering from a hectic day at the Count in the Square - 25,000 people packed into London's Trafalgar Square. We were gathered to make a call for action on climate change - everyone from the Women's Institute to the rock band Razorlight. Quite a mixture.

On the bus into central London, I spotted people making their way towards Trafalgar Square. Near Islington, a mother and two daughters boarded, carrying a fantastic handmade placard - on one side was a sad face and the words "do nothing". When they flipped it around, it the other side showed a smiley face, and the words "do something!".

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Posted by Dave at 6:54 PM | Permalink

© Greenpeace/Kate Davison

Twenty-five of our climate campaigners were arrested at 5.30pm, after spending two days occupying Didcot, Britain's dirtiest power station, succesfully cutting Co2 emissions by stopping coal from being fed into the facility. Their point? To show that there's cleaner, more efficient ways of generating energy - like decentralised energy.

Oddly enough, Tony Blair happened to be in the area, and was in a local ITV studio during the Didcot occupation. Greenpeace UK's chief media officer, Ben Stewart - on top of a smoke stack at Didcot Power Station, managed to question Blair on the government's stance on climate change and carbon emissions! And we've got a video of it...

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Posted by Dave at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This morning 30 of our volunteers envaded the UK's second largest coal power station. One group stopped the coal conveyor belt and chained themselves to machinery, while a second group made their way up 1052 stairs to the top of the chimney.

After all those stairs, it was time for a cuppa.

We shut down the facity because - like most of the Britain’s power stations – two-thirds of the energy it generates is wasted, making a massive contribution to climate change.

Later the volunteers set to work painting "Blair's Legacy" down the side of the chimney. We hear a lot of fine talk from Tony Blair, but in reality C02 emissions have gone up under Labour while the climate crisis deepens. His legacy will be climate chaos. Our volunteers will leave the power station when he pledges to ditch these dinosaurs and start investing in cutting edge decentralised energy.

Find out more on the Greenpeace UK site

Posted by tracy at 4:34 PM | Permalink