Defending Kilburn High Road: Billionaire-Backed Media Slurs Won’t Hide the Real Pressures Destroying Our High Streets

 

Fresh Poms, 227 Kilburn High Road

       

Guest post from the five newly elected Green Party councillors for Kilburn Ward: Cllr Ash Atkinson, Cllr Andr Lopez Turner, Cllr Suzanne Gallagher, Cllr Paul Ryan, and Cllr Stephen Malonga

 

GB News presenter Patrick Christys recently targeted an independent pomegranate juice shop on Kilburn High Road. In a video clip circulated online, Christys used dog-whistle rhetoric to baselessly imply that this small business was "dodgy" or operating as an illicit front.

This is a complete fabrication. We have been on the ground, met the operators, and tasted the juice (which is excellent, rich in vitamins, and highly anti-inflammatory!). They are pleasant, hard-working people who have invested heavily in a beautiful storefront. They deserve our community's support, not xenophobic tropes masquerading as current affairs journalism.

We have written a formal letter of complaint (please see below) directly to Ofcom and the editorial board of GB News. While it remains unclear whether this segment was broadcast on traditional linear TV or exclusively via podcasts and YouTube shorts, we wish to call out this behaviour. Although this may fall outside Ofcom’s linear broadcasting code, we have placed this on record to highlight the severe, real-world economic harm that irresponsible media commentary inflicts on independent traders.

The Real Threat: Corporate Greed, Not Independent Shops

The right-wing media wants to manufacture a culture war out of thin air because they want to blind people to the structural economic pressures destroying our high streets. If these journalists actually cared about Kilburn, they would look at the real damage being done by landlord greed and corporate extraction.

Across Kilburn, we are losing much-loved, family-run independent food businesses. These heartbreaking closures are not caused by right-wing conspiracy theories; they are caused by the brutal, unchecked realities of the modern economy:

Commercial Rent Squeezes: Landlords are placing an impossible burden on small traders by demanding aggressive, two-yearly rent reviews. These frequent and steep hikes offer local businesses zero long-term security, forcing viable shops to the brink or driving them out of our community entirely when the financial damage becomes too much to bear.

Silicon Valley Wealth Extraction: Independent food businesses are being squeezed to breaking point by tech intermediaries like Uber Eats, which extracts an extortionate 35% commission on local deliveries. This model bleeds wealth directly out of Kilburn and sends it straight to California. Local business owners have told us they often feel like they are working primarily to line the pockets of Uber Eats, rather than building their own livelihoods.

Hyper-Inflation: Skyrocketing utility bills, particularly punitive commercial electricity rates, have made running independent commercial kitchens completely unsustainable for small operators.

While independent shops face these immense struggles, corporate entities, including predatory gambling shops owned by offshore billionaires with zero connection to our community, are thriving. They extract profit from our neighbourhoods while contributing nothing to our social fabric.

It is the peak of hypocrisy that these factless attacks on Kilburn’s diverse traders are broadcast by a network owned by a tax-exiled, Reform UK-donating billionaire living in Dubai. Wealthy media moguls have no right to dictate what is "viable" or "legitimate" on a working-class London high street.

Building a Fairer, Circular Economy

In the Green Party, we passionately support independent businesses. Unlike multi-national corporations, independent traders keep wealth circulating within our local economy. They buy from local suppliers, employ local people, and build genuine community wealth rather than extracting it to offshore tax havens.

We support collaborative initiatives like One Kilburn, where our community is working incredibly hard to bring residents, independent businesses, and local partners together to build a resilient, supportive, and sustainable high street economy.

We will not sit idly by while so-called journalists working for billionaire-backed media outlets attempt to trash the reputation of small traders to feed a divisive political agenda. We stand with our high street, we stand with our independent businesses, and we will keep fighting for an economy that puts people and planet ahead of corporate profit.

Is an electoral alliance to beat the Tories possible in Hampstead and Kilburn?

 Above from Electoral Calculus website LINK the ward prediction is based on estimates the working for which can be found HERE

Green Party members in Hampstead & Kilburn have mandated an approach to Hampstead & Kilburn's current Labour MP, Tulip Siddiq, with a view to a possible electoral alliance, given her narrow majority and Parliamentary voting record on important Green issues such as opposing Brexit and opposing the renewal of Trident LINK.

The Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency covers 7 wards in Camden and three in Brent. Brent wards are Brondesbury Park, Kilburn and Queens Park.
 
Green Party members will ask Tulip Siddiq for support and commitments on key Green issues in order to consider withdrawing their Hampstead & Kilburn candidate, including but not limited to:

• Campaigning for electoral reform and proportional representation for Westminster.
• Lobbying Brent and Camden Councils for divestment of their pension funds from fossil fuels.
• Urging leader the Labour leader and Labour colleagues to support electoral alliances where appropriate, in particular to stand down and support Green candidates in the Isle of Wight and Brighton Pavilion.
• Regular contact after the election with Green Party members.

Tulip Siddiq has been invited to speak at a Green Party meeting of local members that will take place next week. At this meeting a final decision will be put to Green Party members for a vote.
 
The Greens will also contact the Liberal Democrats in Hampstead & Kilburn with a view to them joining any electoral alliance.
 
John Holmes, Co-Chair of Camden Green Party, explained:

There are a variety of views within Brent and Camden Green Parties on the issue of electoral alliances, and we've had a very healthy debate. We've a terrific Hampstead & Kilburn candidate in John Mansook, and so any decision to stand down won't be taken lightly. We've created a process whereby Green Party members get a say on any final decision, and they will want commitments from Tulip on key Green issues in order to make this a true alliance.

Despite opposition from their respective leaderships Labour and Liberal Democrat members have reached electoral agreements in several constituencies where the non-Tory vote combined would beat Conservatives. UKIP have withdrawn in favour of Brexit Tories in a 'regressive alliance'.

Brent Green Party adopted the following position at their own meeting prior to the joint meeting which selected John Mansook, their Chair, as  Green Party candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn:

Our principled position is that we stand a candidate.  We believe that Green voters are entitled to have the opportunity to vote for their party of choice and a Green General Election campaign will help us build support in our strongest wards for the May 2018 Council elections when we  hope our first Green councillors will be elected. We recognise that some Green voters, faced with the prospect of another Conservative government will none the less make a tactical decision to vote Labour.

Tulip Siddiq signed a letter to the Guardian on Monday calling for the Labour party to stand aside of Brighton Pavilion and the Isle of Wight:

With the progressive vote split, the danger of a Tory landslide and all it means for our country now looms darkly on June 8. It is therefore important to maximise progressive votes and campaigning in some key seats.

She told the Camden New Journal LINK:

It can’t be denied that Caroline Lucas has been a good MP, and I’ve worked with her on several issues including lowering the voting age to 16.

Note: My personal comment would be that there is a danger of voters thinking that electoral alliance deals are a 'fix' by the political parties which are made without reference to them, and that they themselves can make their own tactical voting decisions in constituencies where the parties are finely balanced.

Continuing the climate change struggle after Paris - a red-green perspective

This article was first published on the London Green Left blog LINK 

Socialist Resistance organised a forum to talk about the recent Paris Climate Agreement in Kings Cross, London.

Below is Camden Green Party and Green Left supporter Dee Searle's presentation at the forum, where she reflects on what was achieved and where the climate movement goes here, and more broadly on red green matters.

THE ECONOMY FOR THE 99% - SHARE IDEAS & TOOLS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

The Million Climate Jobs is an international campaign (South Africa campaign)

The Alliance for Jobs and Climate have been working closely with Camden Green Party and the Transition Movement in Camden and are organising a great all-day event on Saturday the 24^th of November at Camden Town Hall. “THE ECONOMY FOR THE 99% - SHARE IDEAS & TOOLS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN”. Ticket sales for the event can now be booked online. The web address is http://economy-99-percent-camden.eventbrite.co.uk and you can see further details there.

Speakers include the environmentalist and green economist Charles Secrett, the new leader of the Green Party  Natalie Bennett, George Barda from the Occupy and the Shift campaign and Chris Baugh (tbc) from PCS and the Million Climate Jobs campaign. We have organised this meeting at really short notice but as it was possible, and similar meetings in other parts of the country have shown that there is a real hunger, we have decided to go for it.

PLEASE PUBLICISE  AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE USING EVERY NETWORK THAT YOU CAN THINK OF.

If you can make it buy a ticket. We are also planning  to organise similar events elsewhere and if you are interested let us know; best to email alliance@jobsandclimate.org    


More on the South African Campaign and downloadable booklets HERE

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Former Lib Dem to stand for Greens in Camden by-election

In a surprise move, which is likely to send shockwaves across Camden politics, the Green Party has chosen former Liberal Democrat councillor and Camden Eco Champion, Alexis Rowell, as their candidate for the Highgate by-election on Thursday 15th September.

Alexis was a leading Lib Dem councillor in Camden from 2006 to 2010, and is widely credited with having significantly raised the profile of environmental issues in the council and across the borough.
But, shortly after winning a national Sustainability Councillor of the Year award, he stood down at the May 2010 elections saying he'd done 80% of what he'd set out to do.

After his selection on Tuesday night by the Camden Greens, Alexis said: "I have been growing increasingly disillusioned with the Lib Dems since the party joined the coalition government. My principal reason for leaving was Chris Huhne's support for nuclear power, but I have also been completely unimpressed with the coalition's overall environmental record and appalled by what their policies and cuts are doing to the social fabric."

Alexis formally resigned from the Lib Dems on Monday, paving the way for his selection by the Greens on Tuesday night.

In his resignation letter to Nick Clegg, he said:

I recognise that any government would have had to make difficult decisions, but I'm still shocked by the fact that you signed the foreword to the bill to privatise the NHS, by the draconian frontloaded cuts to local government, by the free schools policy, by the virtual abandonment of state-funded higher education, by the lack of any action on banker bonuses and exorbitant pay in general, by the decision to fully privatise the Royal Mail, and by a host of other free market or libertarian policies which I didn't vote for and which I can't support.

 The Greens currently have one councillor in Camden, Highgate's Cllr Maya de Souza. In the past the Greens held all three seats in Highgate and are widely seen as the principal challengers to Labour in this by-election.
Cllr de Souza said: "We are delighted to have such an experienced and energetic candidate standing for us in Highgate. It is largely thanks to the work Alexis did last time he was a councillor that sustainability is such a key concern at Camden Council. But he's also got a great track record as a ward councillor responding to residents' concerns. His energy, enthusiasm and hard work will be a great asset to Highgate."

The Chair of the Camden Green Party, Natalie Bennett, said: "At a time when the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are creating havoc nationally, and Camden Council's Labour administration is closing libraries and playgroups, Alexis is a strong candidate for anyone who cares about the environment and progressive issues generally."

The leader of the national Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP, said: "Alexis's move from the Lib Dems to the Greens shows that it is the Greens who are leading the way on progressive and environmental politics in the UK. I encourage all Lib Dems to take a long hard look at what the coalition is doing and to ask themselves whether they really support what's happening."