SOME excellent comments and suggestions were made during our “round-table” session on Saturday (January 18).
The discussion revolved around the practicalities and difficulties in setting up a citizens’ assembly, people’s assembly or citizens’ jury to influence the decisions of local politicians.
People from several different walks of life contributed to the debate, leaving us with much to ponder over.
They were helping us decide how to continue the series of discussions on important topics that are of interest to Woking and the wider community.
Attendance at our debates has declined since the Covid pandemic, and the number of us organising the events has shrunk. We are exploring how we can continue in a different format, involving more people from across our diverse community.
We still believe that providing an opportunity to hear differing viewpoints can open each of us to a new vision and hope for the future and change us all.
We have avoided taking votes or pushing one direction, but there has been interest expressed in having a more visible outcome from our meetings, on topics that are vital to our community.
If you were unable to attend on Saturday you can contribute via Zoom this Saturday, from 11am to 12.30pm. Those who came to the in-person event are also welcome to contribute again, to expand their views and listen to new comments.
We will be welcoming people on Zoom from 10.45am. To receive the link, email Keith Scott, at keithsc_2000@yahoo.com, or call him on 01483 824980.
MEMBERS of Woking Action for Peace – the local branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – and their friends in Woking Debates commemorated the first use of nuclear weapons in war last August.
The 2024 event was be on the actual anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in Japan, Tuesday, August 6. People gathered in the evening on the towpath of the Wey Navigation at Send to remember the hundreds of thousands of people who died in Hiroshima and then Nagasaki in 1945.
Estimates of total deaths in Hiroshima range from 100,000 to 180,000, out of a population of 350,000. Casualties from Nagasaki are thought to be between 50,000 and 100,000. By 1950, more than 340,000 people had died as a result and generations were poisoned by radiation.
It is important to remind people of the horrors of nuclear weapons – and the thousands of weapons that exist today that are many times more powerful than the bombs that fell on the Japanese cities.
Evidence is mounting that the United States Air Force is preparing to site some of its nuclear weapons in the UK, specifically at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The airbase previously hosted US nuclear weapons for more than five decades, from 1954. Following years of protests by CND and others, the weapons were removed in 2008, but not before nuclear accidents endangered the local community.
During our commemoration, tealights in half grapefruit and orange skins were floated on the canal, in a traditional Japanese ceremony that commemorates the dead. We will be holding a similar ceremony in August 2025.
