The last week I have despaired somewhat as I watch the government dismantle the renewables industry in the name of shaving a quid off people’s energy bills, whilst simultaneously propping up the oil and gas industry to the tune of £1 billion and shamelessly promoting the fracking industry. All the major players – the Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, Chancellor George Osborne, and of course Mr Cameron, have significant links and vested interests in oil, gas and nuclear. They or their families will make yet more money if these industries continue to thrive.  I’ve also watched as elements within the environmental and permaculture worlds realise that whatever they have been doing for the last 20 plus years, isn’t really changing things at the top. The machine ploughs on regardless. It is tempting to see the situation as hopeless.

And yet, although the country is run by a pack of over privileged, corrupt and short sighted fools, there is plenty to be optimistic about. The first thing to do, of course, is say a massive ‘fuck you’ to the idiots who comprise the UK government, and our local brand of throwbacks in the NI Assembly. Say ‘fuck you’, and get on with the business of installing solar that shouldn’t be there, wind that you didn’t ask permission for, and energy saving improvements to your home that tell the building control rules to go and take a running jump. They only want the fees, anyway.

Out there is a thirst for knowledge, driven partly by a growing realisation that we are on our own – that the rule makers are looking out for themselves, and partly by the result of the artificial austerity foisted on us as a result of propping up a banking system that doesn’t deserve to be alive.  A really powerful ‘fuck you’ would be a national month of loan non-payments. It’s all created out of nothing on a bank computer anyway, so you wouldn’t have to lose sleep over it.

People want to know how to do things for themselves. To make their own power, to heat their own homes, to get their own water that hasn’t been accidentally poisoned, and to grow their own food that isn’t full of the toxic result of EU directives and powerful farming lobbyists.

They yearn to live more simply, without the endless crap that is sold to them in between mind numbing, look-at-me television programmes, and to live in homes that won’t cost them the best years of their lives as they work in jobs that defy description for increasingly long hours and low pay.

That’s what we do here – give people the knowledge and skills to do these things for themselves, and every time a person becomes just a little more empowered, it says ‘fuck you’ to the established system that would happily keep everyone in a permanent state of fear.  And that cheers me up no end.

For those of you who are also a bit despairing, take heart. There are many who are doing great things – amazing things, and many more who want change, and are taking positive steps to bring that into their lives. I know this because they visit, they write, and they tell me. A constant stream of people who care, who are doing something – right now, to make some difference. It might be a small difference, but that is not what is important.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead