With the Big Tent being the theme of this edition what bigger tent could we have than the internet. In fact the growth of small bands of activists linking briefly and effectively to gain publicity for their common cause could be put down in the main to the internet and the messaging capacity of mobile phones. Yes the Big Tent 2009 (Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July) is Scotland ‘s largest eco-festival. Pitched next to Falkland Palace it offers what has been called ‘one of the most stunning festival locations in the UK ‘. It also has garnered an impressive list of sponsors.

For further information click on bigtentfestival.co.uk/festival.php. It is good to see support from Word Power Books www.word-power.co.uk a leading quality independent bookshop whose site offers you access to all books in print in the UK with a commitment to promoting literature out with the mainstream thereby making it more accessible and helping to support small presses and new writers.

Also spreading in the big tent will be scotland.wwf.org.uk/ amongst other campaigning organisations. My only reservation is that the comfort that comes from a variety of quangos sponsoring an event can be negated by the ever present threat of institutional capture. There again the ability of campaigning organisations to split and scatter then reform makes institutional capture more difficult.

Meanwhile lets not forget Honduras www.michelcollon.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2161:whats-behind-the-coup&catid=6:articles&Itemid=11 has a background to the official coverage of yet another coup in South America .