Gove has gone but we must widen the battle to take on the GERM

There was delight in Brent schools yesterday when the news of Michael Gove's demotion filtered through to staffrooms and classrooms.

It soon became clear that his replacement might well be 'more of the same' but there is no doubt of the personal antipathy that Michael Gove has engendered amongst teachers and many parents.

Now the campaign must move on to challenging the Global Education Reform Movement, more or less supported by the three main parties, which is responsible for the marketisation of schooling. This is a vehicle for the privatisation of schools, giving away public assets to private companies for profit; the harnessing of education to the needs of the market; the conversion of pedagogy into an industrial process of delivery, testing and grading;  teachers' loss of professional autonomy and creativity and the robbing of children of their childhood.

The Green Party understands this and will be part of that campaign.

Natalie Bennett's New Year video message

'EU measures aimed at deflecting attention from benefit cuts'-Lambert

Information you don't often see

London’s Green MEP Jean Lambert has accused Tory PM David Cameron of trying to deflect attention from his own government’s benefit cuts by announcing measures to reduce benefit payments to nationals of other EU countries - over a million of whom live in London.

“This is all about deflecting attention from benefit cuts, and not really about protecting UK benefits and public services at all,” she said.

“People should bear in mind the principle that EU nationals are entitled to treatment on the same basis as a national, including access to social security- so what is Cameron’s message to us, if he’s planning to change the rules? That you will lose your right to benefits if you have no realistic chance (defined by whom?) of finding work after six months? That if you are homeless, you cannot be looking for work and will be punished accordingly?

“’Benefit Tourism’ is a myth - not borne out by the facts at all, as the EU Commission and the OECD have made clear. In fact, those born outside the UK tend to pay more tax, and claim fewer benefits, than those born here – they are, as a group, net contributors to the public purse.

“Overwhelmingly, people come here to work and some come because they feel safer here than in their home-country: both of these say very positive things about the UK. David Cameron prefers not to recognise that - he’s too busy looking for the next set of benefit cuts.”

Lucas: PM's 'green crap' comment betrays his contempt

Commenting on reports that the Prime Minister has dismissed fuel bill levies that fund energy efficiency measures, as “green crap”, Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

“These levies include funding for energy efficiency measures which help low income households cope with soaring energy prices.

“Whatever language the Prime Minister has used to describe them, his determination to roll them back says everything about his contempt for the most vulnerable, and his lack of interest in serious action to tackle climate change, or to bring down fuel prices in the long term

“By focusing the debate on green levies, which represent only a fraction of energy bills, the Government is obscuring the real reason for rising costs – which is the increasing wholesale price of gas, and the profits of the Big Six energy companies.

“If the Prime Minister really wanted to help families with their fuel bills, he’d be investing in a major energy efficiency programme to super-insulate the country’s housing stock.  This would bring nine out of ten homes out of fuel poverty, quadruple carbon savings, and create up to 200,000 jobs.”

London Green MEP Jean Lambert also  added her voice to the debate.

Ms Lambert has challenged the Prime Minster to set out some alternative proposals for reducing energy use and helping fund the next generation of clean, renewable power generation.

She said: "Given that the green taxes Mr Cameron is today reported to have described as 'green crap' are designed to reduce energy use and help pay for the next generation of power through clean renewable sources, the question is: how will he achieve those goals by other means?

"As over 60% of the rise in bills is due a rise in wholesale prices of energy from 2010 to 2012, how will bills be reduced if there is no comprehensive effort to reduce energy consumption and provide alternative, domestic renewable resources?

"There is much the Government could do to improve the way in which this money is spent in order to reduce the amount of energy people use and they should concentrate their attention there, not on cutting revenue for essential measures - unless they plan to pay for them in other ways, in which case - let's hear those proposals, if they exist."

Obama, Cameron and HMRC take their hats off to our Dawn

I met a Brent Labour Party member on Saturday who was having to build an extension to house all the communications from candidates for the nomination for Brent Central parliamentary - OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but the contest is predicted to increase recycling rates in the borough significantly.

Several candidates have put up campaign blogs including ex-Brent South MP Dawn Butler. LINK

She is the only candidate to boast testimonials from Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Rev Jesse Jackson, David Cameron, The Metro and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs amongst many others.  It is going to be hard for Tony McNulty to match that!

She states:

Taken as a whole, I believe nobody else matches my combination of: a Brent resident, an experienced MP for the area, my track record of local engagement, community contacts, working with local party members and a tireless campaigner both during and after elections.

Amongst the photos on the blog header (see above) is one for the Brent Fightback banner. It will be interesting to see of she shares Fightback's views on fighting Coalition AND local council cuts.

A round up of messages to the 'racist van'

Some of the recent messages to the 'racist van':

 

Get the 'racist van' off the road for good this weekend

The campaign against the 'racist' vans is proceeding on several fronts as the Home Office pilot project comes to an end. The PCS has taken up the issue with the senior civil servant at the Home Office. A 'letter of intent' on legal action, probably under the Equalities Act,  has been sent by a refugee group in East London LINK and similar action is being contemplated by activists in Brent. It appears that the Home Office may not have sought planning permission for the van hoardings which raises questions of   their legality.

The Twitter campaign against the Home Office and the Promovans group has been supported widely and the trolling of the Home Office 'help line' has produced some hilarious interchanges which expose the 'Go Home' message to ridicule.

David Cameron as the head of the country's first PR government (public relations not proportional representation) as a former PR man may count the Home Office campaign as a success in getting the Coalition's 'tough stance' on immigration into the headlines but it has also served to alienate his Lib Dem Coalition partners.

Back in 1964 as a raw 16 year old I went for a job in the PR department of an advertising agency. I naively told the interviewer 'I like people'.  He instantly replied, 'That is no good. To be a success in PR you must utterly despise people'. I didn't get the job - some years later David Cameron did!

Meanwhile Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has added her voice to the debate in the Guardian:

I don't often agree with Nigel Farage, but he is right that the billboards being driven around some areas with high immigrant populations are "nasty" and "unpleasant" (Anger at 'go home' message to illegal immigrants, 26 July). The government's choice to adopt a slogan similar to that used by racists in the 70s is deeply disturbing, particularly at a time when the Muslim Council of Britain has expressed fears about a "dramatic escalation" of attacks against British Muslims. However, it is predominantly the rhetoric of Ukip that has caused immigrants to be so causally demonised by the government and other political parties. Mr Farage has spoken of "opening up our borders" to 28 million Romanians and Bulgarians, as though the entire populations of those nations were about to uproot themselves and move to the UK.

The government is clearly guilty of scapegoating immigrants for Britain's problems with housing shortages, low wages and unemployment. The fault clearly lies with its own policies, and those of the former Labour government.

A political slant on Gladstonbury Festival

The only time these politicians are popular

Cllrs Butt, Mashari and Hirani do the rounds

A run up to pelt Cameron with wet sponges

An unnatural political relationship

Weekend of action over Guantánamo's 100 Days of Shame

Guest blog from Aisha Maniar, courtesy of 'one small window' where it was first published

What does a person have to do to get noticed nowadays? In the twenty first century, enduring more than a decade of torture and arbitrary detention without charge, trial or any prospect of release is not enough. A mass hunger strike, involving the use of torturous force feeding methods, the firing of plastic bullets, and intrusive body searches, such as that currently taking place at Guantánamo Bay, entering its 100^th day on Friday 17^th May, might get you a little further. A life-and-death scenario is what it takes to remind the world of the injustice that is Guantánamo Bay.

The US military has yet to admit the full scale of the situation, with the current numbers reported to be on hunger strike at around 100 of the 166 remaining prisoners and over 30 reported to be force fed, including British residents Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha. This follows weeks of denial by both the US authorities and the mainstream media, only becoming newsworthy when violence entered the scene on 13 April.

The use of force to quell a hunger strike that arose on 6 February in response to the deteriorating treatment of prisoners, including the use of rubber bullets against them in January, appears to be a counterproductive method of dealing with the issue at hand. There has been no effort whatsoever to engage with or respond to the demands of the hunger strikers or to bring it to an end.

The hunger strike has undoubtedly brought Guantánamo Bay back into the public eye, even prompting Barack Obama to state “I’m going to go back at it [closing Guantánamo] because I think it’s important.” One of the triggers for the mass hunger strike was despair at his failure to keep his promise to close Guantánamo, and the prisoners’ fear that the only real way out is in a coffin.

Perhaps the latest political rhetoric is just a test to see who has been paying attention. In the past few months, Barack Obama has authorised the use of force feeding rather than end the hunger strike, and plastic bullets, which can be fatal. Furthermore, just one week before the hunger strike started, the newly re-elected president closed the office he had opened to work on closing Guantánamo.

The recent debate on Guantánamo Bay has largely recycled old, circular arguments. Congress is allegedly a sticking point, blocking progress on the closure of Guantánamo but may agree to a $200 million renovation of the prison.

The debate on force feeding hunger strikers is non-existent; medical and legal ethics do not allow it. The UN has described the practice at Guantánamo as “torture”. This has not prevented the US from force feeding hunger striking Connecticut prisoner Bill Coleman in the same manner for five years. The issue of possible recidivism in releasing cleared prisoners, a favourite of proponents of Guantánamo, is also moot; one has to have offended in order to reoffend.

Barack Obama once described Guantánamo Bay as a “misguided experiment”, except that on so many levels he knows that is not the case. A successful social experiment in peddling the politics of mistrust and fear, it is perhaps the greatest symbol of the abuse of power this century. The US keeps Guantánamo open because it is expedient, because it can, because it is a two-finger salute to the rest of the world: “screw with us, and you will be next”.

A legal monstrosity exists, yet Barack Obama has long known what he has to do to close Guantánamo. The question is not so much how, but when? Will it take further fatalities of innocent men to come closer to an answer? The situation at Guantánamo has been an emergency for far longer than 100 days. There is no place for rhetoric: there are no popularity contests or elections to be won, just lives to be saved.

If there is a debate to be had, it does not appear to be happening. The same applies to the US’ allies, such as the British government. In a backbench debate in Parliament last month on the case of British resident Shaker Aamer, the Foreign Office gave the same noncommittal answers to relevant questions by MPs it has given for years. It is highly unlikely that Mr Aamer’s case, or the hunger strike, were raised during David Cameron’s visit to Washington earlier this week, in spite of government assurances it is actively pursuing his case.

Hunger strikes are an ultimate act of desperation by those who have no other means to protest injustice. It is a reflection of the clear failure of all those who could make a difference and have not over the past 11 years. Former Guantánamo military prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis stated “A large part of [the] Obama legacy depends on how this issue breaks. It’s his choice to lead or lose.”

The hunger strike has not missed the attention of everyone, and for the past three months, campaigns such as the London Guantánamo Campaign in the UK and organisations such as Witness Against Torture and World Can’t Wait have been holding protests and solidarity actions about an emergency the world would still rather ignore. The hunger strike will enter its 100^th day on 17^th May and shows no sign of ending. Six prisoners have been on hunger strike and force fed for over one year; left to their own devices, they prefer death over indefinite detention. Hunger strikes can be fatal in the longer term; seven of the nine deaths at Guantánamo Bay, allegedly suicides, were prisoners who had previously taken part in hunger strikes.

To mark this 100^th day milestone and given the emergency of this situation, individuals and groups from around the world have come together to organise a weekend of protest on 17-19 May, calling on people to take action and fast for 24 hours if they can. A successful petition with more than 200,000 signatures gathered in around a fortnight put together by Colonel Morris Davis will be delivered to the White House on Friday 17 May. Protests will be held in various cities and towns across the world, with at least five planned across the UK, including a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London. The hacktivist group

Anonymous is also planning online actions over the weekend and others have Twitter storms planned over the three days using the hashtag #OpGTMO. Citizen actions around the world are an opportunity to show solidarity with the hunger strikers in different ways in different places. With lawyers visiting the prisoners reporting their worsening health and physical conditions, later may be too late.

Lucas: Shaker Aamer has to come home

12 year old student gets national coverage on poor state of Copland's building

In a piece recorded the day before the recent Ofsted, Copland High School 12 year old student Khadija was on the World at One today. She had raised the issue of the school's crumbling build with David Cameron a year ago in a face to face meeting and he had promised to investigate. Little has happened since.

The DfE were unable to supply a spokesman to answer her criticisms.

There are pictures on the World at One Facebook HERE You do not have to have a Facebook account to see them,

Green's '3 yeses' on Europe: referendum, reform, remaining

 Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said today that the Green Party stood for "Three Yeses - yes to a referendum, yes to major EU reform and yes to staying in a reformed Europe".

Natalie urged people to consider the first "Yes" in a different context to David Cameron's promise of a referendum - only if the Conservatives win a majority in the 2015 election - which has more to do with political game-playing and trying to hold together a deeply divided party that is failing in government.

The Green leader said: "The Green Party believes in democracy and self-determination. On important issues like this, voters should be given the opportunity to express a clear view."

On a reformed EU, the Green Party believes that decisions should be made at the lowest possible appropriate level, closest to the lives of the people it affects. It supports democratic decision-making - not the imposition of dictats from above, such as the austerity that has been forced on the people of many states in south Europe.

Natalie added: "'Yes to the EU' does not mean we are content with the union continuing to operate as it has in the past. There is a huge democratic deficit in its functioning, a serious bias towards the interests of neoliberalism and 'the market', and central institutions have been overbuilt. But to achieve those reforms we need to work with fellow EU members, not try to dictate high handedly to them, as David Cameron has done."

On 'yes to staying in a reformed Europe', the Green Party believes Great Britain should not abandon the European Union, but instead work from inside to make it into a fair and democratic union rather than just a vehicle for international trade.

The European Union is well placed to enact policies on crucial issues such as human and workers' rights, climate change and international crime. It is through EU regulation that our renewable energy targets have been set and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created.

European action on air pollution, meanwhile, is forcing the British government to take the issue seriously, and the EU is leading the way on a financial transactions tax while Britain, in the grip of the City, resists.

Natalie concluded: "We need to continue to work with our European partners to build strong, locally democratic communities that decide their own way within the framework of minimum standards on workers' and consumer rights, the environment, and on human rights - and which work together to build a more peaceful and sustainable world."

Teather says why she will vote against the Government on welfare tomorrow

Sarah Teather, Lib Dem MP for Brent Central who was sacked by David Cameron from her government position, explained on the World at One today why she will rebel on the Welfare Benefit vote in the House of Commons tomorrow.

listen to ‘Sarah Teather explains on The World at One why she will rebel on government benefits vote’ on Audioboo

Gove's Olympic legacy in a nutshell

Brace yourselves for visits to Brent by cabinet ministers

David Cameron at the Swaminarayan Temple

If the Independent  LINK is to be believed Brent residents need to brace themselves for visits from Tory cabinet ministers looking for the ethnic vote.   Learning from the 'success' of the Conservative Canadian government  they are seeking to build on what they claim is a fit between Conservative values on the family and law and order in an effort to prise them away from Labour. In the 2010 General Election only 6% of BME (black and minority ethnic) voters voted Conservative against 37% of white voters.

Action is now seen as urgent following the collapse of the Conservative vote in Bradford West. Conservative co-chairman, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said:

We need to learn from centre-right parties in other countries how to attract votes who share our values but haven't traditionally voted Conservative. And we need to go out and persuade those voters that a Conservative government is the best way of fulfilling their aspirations for themselves, their families and their communities.

However this strategy may not be welcomed by all Tories. Warsi herself has been under attack from the party's right-wing.  An article in the current New Statesman LINK states:

Judged by the intensity and sheer volume of the anti-Warsi vitriol, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion that her critics don't like her because she ticks three very un-Tory boxes: she is female, Asian and Muslim. Since it is 2012 and they can't say as much in public, her right-wing opponents target instead her alleged lack of 'competence' and 'ability'.

Interestingly in the same edition of the New Statesman Salma Yaqoob, reviewing the Bradford West result, remarks that the Labour Party has for generations 'relied on and reinforced the corrupting influence of biraderi - clan networks - that so disfigure south Asian politics'. The by-election result marks the community's break with Labour.

Although the Conservatives will have their eye on Brent North, held years ago by right-wing Tory Rhodes Boyson, the reality is that the local Conservative Party is very weak, with just a rump left on the council, and Barry Gardiner, helped by boundary changes, strengthened his grip on the constituency against the trend at the General Election. At 62.3% Brent North has the 4th highest BME population and Brent Central is 7th at 53%.

There are pitfalls in this strategy, not least the reaction of right-wingers. The YouTube videos of Cameron's 2008 visit to the Swaminarayna Temple attracted many racist comments as well as, somewhat oddly, anti-Muslim rants. The Daily Mail, even more bizarrely, for the April 2010 visit by the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, focused on the poor state of Mrs Brown's feet, revealed when she took her shoes off to enter the temple! LINK

Doing less for those who have least

A striking phrase from  Adrian Ramsay (Deputy Green Party leader) in his speech this morning. He asked, "Does David Cameron mean, whenn he speaks about doing 'More for less' that we should be doing less for those who have least?"

This morning Peter Murry of Brent Green Party moved a motion calling for the Green Party to support the Campaign Against Climate Change pamphlet "One million green jobs" by encouraging sales of the publication and signatures for the petition. The motion was passed unanimously. Yesterday emergency resolutions were passed on the cuts in legal aid and support for the Justice for All campaign, and support for a Robin Hood Tax.

An emergency motion for later discussion has been drafted calling for elected Greens at all levels  of government to campaign  vigorously against the National Policy Planning Framework. The Framework gives priority to economic development in planning decisions at the expense of environmental and social issues. The Framework could threaten our precious open spaces such as the Welsh Harp and Fryent Country Park.

Daily Mail Rules Dave

David Cameron today: "Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline.* Reward without effort. Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control. Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged - sometimes even incentivised - by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally de-moralised."

Gang members possibly should, Duncan Smith suggested, receive a knock on the door once a day from the police and arms of government such as the TV licensing offices, tax authorities and DVLA.

Children out late at night would be offered places at newly created young offenders' academies to "take the anger out of their lives".

From today's Guardian LINK 

So the Daily Mail is  running the UK now that Murdoch is in the dog house. Melanie Phillips for Home Secretary? We can't create jobs for youth but we can create jobs to control them. 'Offenders' Academies'- brilliant! I did research back in the 80s into Units for Disruptive Children where all the disruptive kids in an area were gathered in one institution. They learnt brilliant new ways of being disruptive from each other in a competitive environment and some ended up being expelled before they all burnt the place down.

"Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences."......Bankers?

* "Government without brains"?

Barry Gardiner's interventions in yesterday's Disorder Debate

Barry Gardiner intervened several times in the debate to question the Prime Minister and Michael Gove.  Has anyone heard anything from Sarah Teather?

 

Deferred Division: Public Disorder

Barry Gardiner: Despite what the right hon. Gentleman has just said, does he understand the concern not just in the House but across the nation that a public inquiry should be held into the events that have gone on? This has been a national event; it has affected people in every part of the country, and if it is simply left to a Select Committee, they will not feel that it has been properly addressed.

Deferred Division: Public Disorder 

Barry Gardiner: Does my right hon. Friend share my hope that when Parliament resumes, those hon. Members whose constituencies have been affected but who have not been able to engage in this debate due simply to lack of time today will have a chance to revisit the issue and put on record their constituents’ concerns, including about their livelihoods, which have been threatened?

Public Disorder 

Barry Gardiner: Does the Prime Minister accept that the events of the past five nights in London have changed the nature and context of the debate about police cuts? If he persists with them, the people of London will not understand and they will not forgive. Even his own party’s Mayor now opposes him on that policy.

Teather lobbies Lansley, Cameron and Clegg on NHS Changes

Safe in her hands?

In a letter to constituent Sarah Cox, Sarah Teather MP has recognised the concerns of local residents on the proposed NHS changes:

I have received letters from an overwhelming number of constituents on this issue and I am well aware of the strength of feeling. I believe our National Health Service is a major part of this country's history and something to be proud of.

As I am sure you are aware, the Department of Health are taking the opportunity to pause and review the plans and allow for more consultation with GPs and the public.

I have already written to Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, outlining the concerns that many of my constituents have raised. I have today written to both David Cameron and Nick Clegg to make them fully aware of the views of the people of Brent on the proposed NHS reforms. I will be sure to write again as soon as I received a response.

Sarah Cox responded by saying, "We don't just want the NHS to be part of our history but part of our present and future too!"

Barry Gardiner Questions UK Libya Involvement

Brent North MP, Barry Gardiner, had the following exchange with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Friday:

Barry Gardiner (Brent North, Labour)

I welcome the UN resolution, but I oppose Britain's military involvement in implementing it. The UN resolution is not to secure a no-fly zone for humanitarian protection, but an extraordinary authorisation of regime change. Unless the Prime Minister believes that Libya's Arab and African neighbours lack the capacity or the compassion for their Libyan brothers and sisters to act independently, why does he insist on putting British military personnel at risk?

David Cameron (Prime Minister; Witney, Conservative)

Obviously I respect the hon. Gentleman's view, but it seems to me that if we will the end, we should also will the means to that end. We should never overestimate Britain's size or capabilities, but neither should we underestimate them. We have one of the finest armed services in the world. We are one of the world's leading military powers, and we also have huge strength in diplomacy, soft power and development. We should not play a disproportionate part, but I think that we should play a proportionate part alongside allies such as France, America and the Arab world. To say that we should pass such a resolution but then just stand back and hope that someone, somewhere in the Arab world will bring it about is profoundly wrong.