The Labour purge is become absurd - and poisonous

I have not got involved in the internal battle in the Labour Party but speaking to friends during the Refugees Welcome demonstration today, and reading some posts on Facebook this evening, I am actually quite shocked and upset about what is going on.

Today Alan Gibbons, the author, wrote on Facebook that his daughter had been expelled from the Labpur Party retweeting the Green Party's message of support for the NUT strike - she is a teacher. A further reason was that she had shared that Green Party Political Broadcast (which I personally did not like) featuring children as politicians.  She cannot re-apply for membership for 5 years.

I wrote a message of solidarity on Alan's Facebook page about the expulsion:

This is beyond ridiculous. Solidarity from a Green Party member who believes that there are overlaps between Labour Left and Green Left where we can work together for the benefit of the wider movement. Today on the Refugees Welcome March I spoke with, and walked with, many Labour Party comrades as well as Greens. Beneath the jokes about being photographed walking with the Greens there was also something more worrying - a recognition that despite it seeming absurd, that this really could be used against them. Poisonous.

 Harrow West CLP recently passed this resolution for the upcoming Labour Party Conference:

For a democratic pluralist Labour Party

Conference notes in late August expulsions and suspensions rose significantly. At time of writing the number is unknown, but on 20th August the Daily Telegraph reported "thousands of labour members....could be suspended or expelled".

This included many long standing members, among them, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union general secretary Ronnie Draper; this suspension has now been lifted after a timely hearing, something denied thousands of ordinary party members.

We believe we should ensure our rules are carried out in a spirit consistent with a democratic culture. As the Chakrabarti report argues, "the Labour Party should seek to uphold the strongest principles of natural justice", "due process" and "proportionality".

Expulsions and suspensions must not be used as a factional weapon by members. Accusations must be in writing and must be evidenced by named witnesses. A hearing must take place before any sanction is imposed. There must be an appeals system for all suspensions and expulsions.

Anyone willing to genuinely support labour should be welcome, subject to our rules. Previous political activity should be of no relevance; neither should membership or support of labour supporting socialist organisations or currents. Deal with differences politically; discussion not expulsion.

Conference resolves:

• to call on all party officials and bodies to act in the spirit of democracy and plurality
• to call on the NEC to carry out Chakrabarti reports recommendations
• All those expelled or suspended who have been denied an appeal should be given one

'Speak Up for Libraries' Lobby of Parliament Tuesday February 9th

Brent residents have put up one hell of a fight for their libraries having seen half of them closed by Brent Council. Their determination is underlined by the number of campaigns that are still going strong and the community libraries that have been set up.

There is a national lobby of Parliament organised by Speak Up for Librarues and supported by Unison on Tuesday February 9th.

Details:
Aldersgate Room, Central Hall, Storey's Gate, SW1H 9NH
10am Registration, with tea, coffee and biscuits provided and the chance to network.
11am The rally with speeches, music, videos and information on how to lobby your MP.
The full line up of speakers is:

• Eve Ainsworth (Seven Days, The Blog of Maisy Malone) – just launching her latest novel Crush with Scholastic (‘Love hurts… but should it hurt this much?’).
• Philip Ardagh, multiple award-winning comic writer and dramatist (the Grubtown Tales, Eddie Dickens & The Grunts series) – Guardian book reviewer and the loudest beard in literature.
• Jake Arnott (The Long Firm, He Kills Coppers, truecrime, Johnny Come Home, The Devil’s Paintbrush, The House of Rumour) – the first two made into successful TV serials.
• Cathy Cassidy, million selling Queen of Teen award winner (the Chocolate Box Girls series, Looking-Glass Girl) – breaking off from a schools and libraries tour to promote her new paperbacks (Penguin Random House).
• John Dougherty, irrepressible children’s writer (the Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face series) – singing by special request his classic lament ‘What’s Wrong with [libraries minister] Ed Vaizey?’
• Dawn Finch, librarian, literacy consultant and best-selling author (Skara Brae, Brotherhood of Shades, The Book of Worth) – speaking here as President of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals)
• Alan Gibbons, million-selling, multiple award-winning children’s writer (Shadow of the Minotaur, End Game, Hate) – tireless campaigner and international speaker.
• Laura Swaffield and Elizabeth Ash, The Library Campaign.
• Heather Wakefield, head of local government, UNISON.
• Alan Wylie, Voices for the Library.
1pm onwards Delegates will make their way from Central Hall Westminster to the House of Commons to meet with their MPs.  

Details of how to lobby your MP will be recapped on the day but do write to your MP to try to arrange a meeting with them and please check the security requirements also. Full details of how to lobby your MP, including a link to security requirements and a sample letter, can be found here

Please book to let organisers have an idea of numbers and to receive updates 

Brent got a mention in a poem by Alan Gibbons who set up the National Libraries Day.

This is the real value of libraries:

When you open a book
You open a mind.
If there are many open books
Then minds open
Like flowers,
Tremulous, contrary,
Rebellious, enquiring,
Reckless, wise.

If there are many open books
People kick at doors
That are closed,
They tug at cases that are shut,
Ask questions about laws
That are unquestionable.

For that reason some people
Would rather a book
Stays closed
Like a door.

In Brent they came
With boards
To turn a door
Into a wall,
A wall
Into a final chapter

But people
Arrived with open minds
Instead of hammers and nails,
With angler’s chairs
Instead of hammers and crowbars,
With questions
Like flowers,
Tremulous, contrary,
Rebellious, enquiring,
Reckless, wise.

While the libraries stay open,
The books stay open,
The minds stay open,
The final chapter
Is still to be written
And the first chapter
Is still to be thought.

Alan Gibbons

Speaking Up For Libraries today

I filled in at the last minute as a Green Party speaker at the Speak Up for Libraries Conference in Bloomsbury today. It was inspiring to see so many people passionately committed to the survival of libraries in the teeth of local council cuts, privatisation and volunteer solutions. Barnet library campaigners were there who have a particularly hard job on their hands. LINK

I made the link between developments in libraries, education and health - all public assets being handed over to the private sector for profit.

I quoted the Green Party core value that should be the basis of  our libraries policy as well as our other polices:

The success of a society cannot be measured by narrow economic indicators, but should take account of factors affecting the quality of life for all people: personal freedom, social equity, health, happiness and human fulfilment.

I went on to  support locally accessible, professionally staffed, adequately funded, democratically accountable local libraries.

I stressed their importance as shared public spaces contributing to social cohesion in addition to their primary role.

The other people on the panel were  Helen Goodman MP (Labour, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport) and Justin Tomlinson MP (Conservative). Liberal Democrats were invited but did not send a speaker. Author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons chaired the panel.

There was a discussion about the need for clearer national standards for library provision but delegates pointed out that these were not being enforced by the current Secretary of State despite Lincolnshire campaigners win in the High Court LINK.

I said that I had no faith in Ed Vaizey intervening in the Barnet case as that council was the Tory flagship after Hammersmith went Labour at the local elections.  He would hardly interfere with a council that was the pathbreaker for other Tory councils wanting to shed services. I suggested that there was no substitute for a mass national campaign in defence of libraries.

Non-intervention reflected underlying assumptions about the library service and contrasts with Michael Gove's many interventions in education.

On national standards I agreed that broad standards were important but how they were implemented was a matter for local decision making. However, they would mean nothing if there was not adequate funding for local government and at present there were indications that many council may fail financially and be unable to deliver even core services.

This is how Speak Up for Libraries told the story of the panel on Storify:
(first slide should be 'professionally staffed')

Children's authors slam phonics tests

A item from the Guardian to give teachers heart over the holidays. Three cheers for our children's authors!

More than 90 of Britain's best-known children's authors and illustrators have called on the government to abandon its plans to introduce early-year reading tests, warning that they pose a threat to reading for pleasure in primary schools.

The former children's laureate Michael Rosen is leading the writers' charge against a phonics-intensive approach to teaching young children how to read.

A letter to the Guardian signed by 91 names including Meg Rosoff, Philip Ardagh and Alan Gibbons says millions is being spent on "systematic synthetic phonics programmes" even though there is "no evidence that such programmes help children understand what they are reading".

Rosen told the Guardian: "It does not produce reading for understanding, it produces people who can read phonically."

The letter calls on the government to abandon plans for reading tests, specifically the phonics screening check at the end of year one and the spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag) test at the end of year six.
The former requires five- and six-year-olds to sound out the letters of a short word or nonsense word and blend them to make the word (for example: emp, sheb, shelf, splok, blow, pine).

Rosen claimed schools were coaching children through the process and at least half were still failing. Many were failing because they were trying to correct the nonsense words, he said, for example saying "strom" as "storm".

"It is incredibly baffling to most parents because it sounds as if they are being told that their child has failed at reading, which is not the case," he said.

The proposed Spag test is to be sat by children at the end of primary school as a way of addressing what the government sees as a lack of attention given to spelling and grammar in recent years.

Rosen said it would mean teachers spending months on a "drill, skill and kill" programme, "trying to get them to pass this thing. It's bad enough with Sats. Anyone who has a year six child will know that for the past six months up until the Sats test, our children have been drilled and drilled, doing paper after paper, when they could have been writing, reading and playing with language in all kinds of ways.

"They have no evidence that any of this stuff they've imposed will actually improve children's writing. If they produced it, perhaps we'd have to shut up, but they don't."

The letter highlights a recent Ofsted report, Moving English Forward, which recommended that the government should call on schools to develop policies on reading for enjoyment. "To date there has been no such move by government," it says.

Instead the government has concentrated on phonics programmes. "As a result, more school time will be devoted to reading as an academic, test-driven exercise; less time will be available for reading and writing enjoyment.

"We deplore this state of affairs and consider that the quality of children's school lives is about to be altered for the worse."

Authors round on Butt and Brent Council

The Guardian reports Muhammed Butt's comments at yesterday's meeting with Kensal Rise campaigners:

The leader of Brent council, Mohammed Butt, told campaigners he did not order the overnight removals and was not informed the clearance was happening until a couple of hours before council workers moved in.

"The decision to empty the building had been made before I took over the leadership and the go ahead was made by the police at that time on the basis of public safety concerns," he said. He added that his IT system had failed at home and that he had not found out about the removal until midnight last night.

But he stood by the decision to remove the items, saying they had been left in the building for months and would have begun to deteriorate had they remained.

He said the council's solicitors and those acting for All Souls College, Oxford, said the library building had now reverted to the college. He hoped All Souls would return the building to the use for which it was intended.

 Brent Council's action has been widely condemned:

Alan Gibbons, author said:

I grew up in an area where you didn’t vote Labour- you were Labour. As I became politically aware in the mid to late nineteen sixties, for all its flaws, we had an idea what Labour was about. It meant public service. It meant hospitals and schools that were free at the point of use. It meant libraries and swimming pools and municipal socialism.

Compare this hard-won, long-fashioned identity with the actions of Brent’s Labour council, skulking into Kensal Rise library in the early hours of the morning to strip it bare. I have written to Labour leader Ed Miliband asking him to condemn the council’s actions.

The shadow Culture Secretary Dan Jarvis was well received at the Speak up for Libraries rally in March for asking failed Culture Minister Ed Vaizey if he was a champion for libraries. That question will look like double standards if the Labour leadership fails to distance itself from this irresponsible act of cultural vandalism.

The removal was denounced as “wanton destruction” by the biographer Sir Michael Holroyd. And author Maggie Gee called the move “cowardice”. She said:

The philistinism of unscrewing the brass plaque remembering Mark Twain from its wall in the middle of the night, would horrify anyone who still recalls Labour’s founding mission to share education, knowledge and hope with the people. We will continue to fight for our library.

Fellow writer Michael Frayn said: 

The library is now an unlibrary, in the way that people became unpersons in the darkest days of the Soviet Union. I hope they took the titles of the books off as well. Removing unbooks from an unlibrary – who could possibly object?