This online event will follow the BBC Question Time format, but all questions will be about the climate and the environment. Ollie More from Sustrans and Ian Saville from Brent Friends of the Earth will join Cllr Krupa Sheth (Leadmember for the Environment, Labour Party), Cllr Kansagra (Conservative Party), and Cllr Georgiou (Liberal Democrats) to form a panel to discuss environmental issues raised by you. Register via Eventbrite (linked provided above) and submit a question by emailing localdemocracyweek@brent.gov.uk
My dodgy blood pressure may not be up to it but if you are keen to be in the audience for BBC Question Time, scheduled to be in Wembley on September 17th, this is how to get tickets: LINK
The next round of Brent Connects local forums are starting next week. This is an opportunity to hear about the latest developments in council policy but also to make your voice heard. You can do this by arranging to speak at a Soapbox. Book on-line or just before the meeting begins.
The format varies between meetings with some having a Question Time style section and others consisting of mainly presentations from council officers, which can be rather tedious. All would be much improved by a higher attendance of young people ands a wider cross-section of the local community.
Cllr James Powney will be giving an update on his brief at the Wembley meeting. Some of the meetings will discuss the priorities for the spending of ward working money,
The links below take you to venue details and the agenda. WEMBLEY Tues 16th April 7pm, Patidar House, London Road, Wembley KILBURN AND KENSAL Wed 17th April 7pm, Gaumont State, Kilburn High Road KINGSBURY AND KENTON Tues 23rd April 7pm, Kingsbury High School, Prices Avenue, Kingsbury
HARLESDEN Wed 24th April 7pm, All Souls Church, Station Road, Harlesden
WILLESDEN Tues 30th April 7pm, College of North West London, Denzil Road, Willesden
Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP, will appear on BBC Question Time at 10.35pm this evening, alongside Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Stephen Twigg MP, Labour's shadow education secretary, Germaine Greer, feminist writer and academic, and Charles Moore, columnist and former editor at the Telegraph and the Spectator.
The programme will be available to watch again here once it has been broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b3cdw
The Chancellor’s strategy is to “close his eyes, cross his fingers, and hope that the private sector will manage to produce the jobs that have been destroyed in the public sector”, says Green MP on flagship current affairs show
Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP made a powerful contribution to last night’s BBC Question Time programme, in which she condemned the government spending cuts as unfair and unnecessary.
The first question from the audience was put to Caroline first. Audience member Michael Teague asked: “Can the government really talk about fairness when it is talking about cuts that will devastate the unemployed, the sick and the poor?”
Caroline Lucas responded: “No, absolutely not. This reckless gamble with the future of this country and this economy is deeply unfair.
“And it doesn’t need us to say that, we’ve got people like the IFS – the Institute for Fiscal Studies – and many others, who are repeatedly saying that the poorest 10% are going to be paying at least more than the average when it comes to who actually pays the price for this.
“When you see what is being done, it is an absolutely wicked targeting of the most vulnerable.”
The Brighton Pavilion MP argued later in the programme:
“I do not think that the best way of getting the deficit down is through cuts, and I appreciate that sounds counter-intuitive, so let me explain.
“We do need to get the deficit down, but there is every risk that if we try to do that through throwing more and more people out of work, we will simply lose their tax revenues, we will have to pay out their redundancies, we will have to pay out benefits, and actually that’s going to make matters worse, that is more likely to tip us into that double-dip recession.
“George Osborne’s strategy is basically to close his eyes, cross his fingers, and hope that the private sector will manage to produce the jobs that have been destroyed in the public sector.”
She concluded:
“What this government should be doing is things like tackling tax evasion and tax avoidance in a serious way, not in the pitiful way they are doing at the moment, and use that money for investment, for example, in energy efficiency and renewable energies.
“This is the best way to get people back to work, it would also address the issue of climate change, getting our emissions down. There is an environmental crisis, there is an economic crisis: we can tackle them both at the same time.”
Caroline Lucas’s responses were greeted with applause and cheering from the studio audience.
At the end of the programme, “Caroline Lucas” was the most mentioned phrase in the UK on Twitter, and 7th most mentioned worldwide.
Caroline Lucas appeared on the panel alongside Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond; Shadow Business Secretary, John Denham; former head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt; former political editor of The Sun, George Pascoe-Watson and journalist Polly Toynbee of The Guardian.
