I thought we better have some political balance!
WEMBLEY MATTERS News and views on local politics, the environment, climate change, culture and local history
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Thinking of leaving Labour? Go Green
A timely article by Peter Cranie who has moved from the Greens to Labour and is now back with the Green Party LINK to his blog:
So the disappointment has begun. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, both in this together. We've been here before, or more specifically I have.
I was a member of the Greens from 1989 to 1991, but didn't renew my membership. Back then there was a lack of organisation or actual politics in what appeared to be a friendly, but slightly disorganised social club. It was my natural political home in terms of the global issues that faced us, but in the 1992 election, I reverted to the party I had been brought up to support, Labour.
In Scotland, supporting Celtic and Labour was seen as a constant. They were your team. Celtic represented your heritage, Irish Catholic. Labour represented you, as a member of the working class. Ignoring the fact that my mother was in fact, English and Protestant, I was pretty much expected to follow this tradition, and my membership of the Greens was a "youthful error".
Like most people, I went to bed on the 9th April 1992 expecting to wake up with a Labour government, the party I'd voted for. Like many others, I was stunned by the result. When John Smith became leader, I joined Labour. While my uncle disagreed profoundly with John Smith's politics, he essentially said he was a decent man. After the death of someone I believe would have made a good Labour leader, I didn't vote for Blair, but I stayed in the party.
As a young activist, working in a marginal constituency in London in the run up to the 1997 election, I met Blair and Brown. I listened as they explained how it would be different this time. While they pledged that they would match Tory spending plans in opposition, I convinced myself that when Labour did win the 1997 election they would look at the needs of everyday folk around the country and realise that we needed to transform our society. Once elected, with an overwhelming mandate, the timidity and the fear of change quickly left me disillusioned. I didn't renew my membership and I'm glad that I was not still in the Labour Party when a Labour leader decided to side with the most right wing American president in history to invade Iraq.
2010 was the closest election since 1992 and for me there are similarities. Many people who had left Labour in the previous 13 years, for a variety of reasons, were angry and frustrated by the return of a Conservative to 10 Downing Street. Some rejoined Labour, quickly forgeting the mistakes and the anguish of seeing what was once the party for working people. Just like in 1997, those good people are trying hard to ignore that the Labour Party increasingly takes for granted the very many good Labour activists, supporters and voters who still try to hold true to Labour's roots.
I rejoined the Greens in 1999 after returning from a year of travelling and seeing Greens elected in Scotland and to the European Parliament. It is the best decision I ever made. I became an activist after George Bush became US President. Since then I've put whatever I could into the party, in terms of my personal efforts in Liverpool, the North West and our national party, and I am proud of the progress we've made across the country.
While I recognise my party is far from perfect (nor am I), there is not a week that passes by that I don't look at the work done by our local Green councillors in Liverpool, the North West Green Party, our leader and first MP Caroline Lucas and by the very many Greens doing great things around the country.
The Greens are a party that is making progress. We stand for something different. We are the last party standing against the cuts and the last party that advocates radical redistribution of wealth in a country that grew increasingly unequal during 13 years of Labour government.
A few ex-Labour people are joining us. For now it is just a trickle, but there will be many more to come in the next decade. Leaving Labour is not an easy thing to do for people. There are feelings that you betraying your side or your corner, but for many people in Labour, it the party leadership that has left them as a residue from a previous era, taken for granted but no longer respected.
Leaving Labour is also hard because people who you have worked alongside and socialised with stop being your friends. If your whole life and your whole social network is tied to a political party, that makes it very hard. But it can be done and in fact, life after Labour can be even better. The Greens are the redistributionist social democratic party Labour used to be. We still have a way to go in finance and campaigning capability, but each additional activist makes our work easier.
Thinking of Leaving Labour? Then think about Going Green.
So the disappointment has begun. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, both in this together. We've been here before, or more specifically I have.
I was a member of the Greens from 1989 to 1991, but didn't renew my membership. Back then there was a lack of organisation or actual politics in what appeared to be a friendly, but slightly disorganised social club. It was my natural political home in terms of the global issues that faced us, but in the 1992 election, I reverted to the party I had been brought up to support, Labour.
In Scotland, supporting Celtic and Labour was seen as a constant. They were your team. Celtic represented your heritage, Irish Catholic. Labour represented you, as a member of the working class. Ignoring the fact that my mother was in fact, English and Protestant, I was pretty much expected to follow this tradition, and my membership of the Greens was a "youthful error".
Like most people, I went to bed on the 9th April 1992 expecting to wake up with a Labour government, the party I'd voted for. Like many others, I was stunned by the result. When John Smith became leader, I joined Labour. While my uncle disagreed profoundly with John Smith's politics, he essentially said he was a decent man. After the death of someone I believe would have made a good Labour leader, I didn't vote for Blair, but I stayed in the party.
As a young activist, working in a marginal constituency in London in the run up to the 1997 election, I met Blair and Brown. I listened as they explained how it would be different this time. While they pledged that they would match Tory spending plans in opposition, I convinced myself that when Labour did win the 1997 election they would look at the needs of everyday folk around the country and realise that we needed to transform our society. Once elected, with an overwhelming mandate, the timidity and the fear of change quickly left me disillusioned. I didn't renew my membership and I'm glad that I was not still in the Labour Party when a Labour leader decided to side with the most right wing American president in history to invade Iraq.
2010 was the closest election since 1992 and for me there are similarities. Many people who had left Labour in the previous 13 years, for a variety of reasons, were angry and frustrated by the return of a Conservative to 10 Downing Street. Some rejoined Labour, quickly forgeting the mistakes and the anguish of seeing what was once the party for working people. Just like in 1997, those good people are trying hard to ignore that the Labour Party increasingly takes for granted the very many good Labour activists, supporters and voters who still try to hold true to Labour's roots.
I rejoined the Greens in 1999 after returning from a year of travelling and seeing Greens elected in Scotland and to the European Parliament. It is the best decision I ever made. I became an activist after George Bush became US President. Since then I've put whatever I could into the party, in terms of my personal efforts in Liverpool, the North West and our national party, and I am proud of the progress we've made across the country.
While I recognise my party is far from perfect (nor am I), there is not a week that passes by that I don't look at the work done by our local Green councillors in Liverpool, the North West Green Party, our leader and first MP Caroline Lucas and by the very many Greens doing great things around the country.
The Greens are a party that is making progress. We stand for something different. We are the last party standing against the cuts and the last party that advocates radical redistribution of wealth in a country that grew increasingly unequal during 13 years of Labour government.
A few ex-Labour people are joining us. For now it is just a trickle, but there will be many more to come in the next decade. Leaving Labour is not an easy thing to do for people. There are feelings that you betraying your side or your corner, but for many people in Labour, it the party leadership that has left them as a residue from a previous era, taken for granted but no longer respected.
Leaving Labour is also hard because people who you have worked alongside and socialised with stop being your friends. If your whole life and your whole social network is tied to a political party, that makes it very hard. But it can be done and in fact, life after Labour can be even better. The Greens are the redistributionist social democratic party Labour used to be. We still have a way to go in finance and campaigning capability, but each additional activist makes our work easier.
Thinking of Leaving Labour? Then think about Going Green.
Greens tell Unite, 'We are the alternative to Labour'
The Guardian article by Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the trade union Unite, has reaffirmed Labour's failure to stand up for ordinary people. Labour's biggest financial supporter has publicly acknowledged their party's abject failure to oppose neoliberal austerity.
All three main parties now seek to protect the vested interests of deregulated financial capitalism - and in doing so they endorse an economic model that squeezes the poorest in society to sustain their broken system.
The public sector pay freeze will strip £2,600 off the wages of a teaching assistant. Pension reforms will see the average pension for a female public sector worker slashed to just £4,000. And cuts to education force students to pay £9000 a year, placing an entire generation in systemic debt.
Opposition to unfair and economically illiterate austerity must now unite around a Green New Deal for Britain. Green Quantitative Easing is needed to act as a direct stimulus to fund the jobs that create long term assets in the real economy. The UK needs a plan to reverse the unemployment that is driving up the welfare bill, and which instead gets people back into work and paying taxes.
The Green Party calls on Trade Unions to back the Green alternative that is now the only voice standing up against an economic system designed to place the tab for 2008 on the UK's public services.
All three main parties now seek to protect the vested interests of deregulated financial capitalism - and in doing so they endorse an economic model that squeezes the poorest in society to sustain their broken system.
The public sector pay freeze will strip £2,600 off the wages of a teaching assistant. Pension reforms will see the average pension for a female public sector worker slashed to just £4,000. And cuts to education force students to pay £9000 a year, placing an entire generation in systemic debt.
Opposition to unfair and economically illiterate austerity must now unite around a Green New Deal for Britain. Green Quantitative Easing is needed to act as a direct stimulus to fund the jobs that create long term assets in the real economy. The UK needs a plan to reverse the unemployment that is driving up the welfare bill, and which instead gets people back into work and paying taxes.
The Green Party calls on Trade Unions to back the Green alternative that is now the only voice standing up against an economic system designed to place the tab for 2008 on the UK's public services.
Budget discussion at Area Forums tonight and tomorrow
Ann John, leader of Brent Council and Muhammed Butt, deputy leader and lead member for resources, will be speaking on the 2012-13 budget at Area Consultative Forums this evening and tomorrow. Their appearance takes place against the background of Labour's U-turn on cuts, the council's determination to 'consider all options' including privatisation, the Audit Commission's strictures on council reserves and the likely shrinking of the council to offer only the minimum of statutory public services.
The Wembley Forum is this evening at Patidar House, 22 London Road (off Wembley High Road) at 7pm and the Willesden Forum tomorrow at the College of North West London, Denzil Road, NW10
You can speak at the Forums on budgets, Willesden Green Library Redevelopment, Willesden Bookshop, street litter or any other relevant topic. Get there early and fill in a Soapbox Form or book on-line LINK You will get 3/5 minutes to speak early on the agenda.
The Wembley Forum is this evening at Patidar House, 22 London Road (off Wembley High Road) at 7pm and the Willesden Forum tomorrow at the College of North West London, Denzil Road, NW10
You can speak at the Forums on budgets, Willesden Green Library Redevelopment, Willesden Bookshop, street litter or any other relevant topic. Get there early and fill in a Soapbox Form or book on-line LINK You will get 3/5 minutes to speak early on the agenda.
Democracy Village removal won't stop the movement for democracy
 |
| The late Brian Haw at his Anti-War protest |
Police last night removed the tents of the 'Democracy Village' from Parliament Square LINK. It is a symbolic move in this 'Decade of Democracy' which has seen the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement.
However pristine the Square will now be it cannot conceal the cockroaches that inhabit the area.
Monday, 16 January 2012
The February 2011 Willesden Green Library consultatation that you missed!
The furore over the Willesden Green Library Regeneration had led many people to ask me about the earlier consultation on the proposals. The Council discussed the proposals on February 15th 2011 and then consulted two focus groups on February 21st and February 28th. Blink and you missed it!
We were all busy with the library closures, budget meeting and academies at the time but I did put a short post about the plans on Wembley Matters HERE
Details of the February 2011 consultation process can be found here HERE
We were all busy with the library closures, budget meeting and academies at the time but I did put a short post about the plans on Wembley Matters HERE
Details of the February 2011 consultation process can be found here HERE
Executive approve Willesden Green Regeneration Report but plenty to fight for
Brent Executive unanimously passed the Willesden Library Regeneration Report this evening. Representations had been made on the lack of consultation, particularly over the Brent Archive; a suggestion that the Cricklewood and Kensal Rise libraries should be reopened during the rebuilding; a plea for more study spaces to be opened up during rebuilding; and my request that the Willesden Bookshop be allocated space in the new Cultural Centre that will replace the Willesden Green Library Centre.
The first two representations were not responded to by Cllr Crane who leads on regeneration. Cllr Powney said that council officers were actively looking for more interim study space for students in the area. Cllr Ann John, sidestepping the demand for allocation of retail space in the new development, tried to prompt Cllr Crane into making a response, 'I am right in saying aren't I that the bookshop is being helped to find new premises?' She was assured there were a large number of empty properties in the High Road and the officers would be helping the bookshop. She pressed further, 'The bookshop isn't under any long-term threat then is it?' Apparently satisfied by the grunted response she said, 'We do want the bookshop to continue.'
The issue is of course that we want the bookshop allocated space in the Cultural Centre if it goes ahead and that the high rents in the High Road and not very suitable premises, may mean the Willesden Bookshop will have to close if this is not done.
The first two representations were not responded to by Cllr Crane who leads on regeneration. Cllr Powney said that council officers were actively looking for more interim study space for students in the area. Cllr Ann John, sidestepping the demand for allocation of retail space in the new development, tried to prompt Cllr Crane into making a response, 'I am right in saying aren't I that the bookshop is being helped to find new premises?' She was assured there were a large number of empty properties in the High Road and the officers would be helping the bookshop. She pressed further, 'The bookshop isn't under any long-term threat then is it?' Apparently satisfied by the grunted response she said, 'We do want the bookshop to continue.'
The issue is of course that we want the bookshop allocated space in the Cultural Centre if it goes ahead and that the high rents in the High Road and not very suitable premises, may mean the Willesden Bookshop will have to close if this is not done.
I print below the speech I prepared for this evening which sets out the case for the Bookshop. The sections in italics were not delivered in order that I meet the 3 minute speaking limit. I retain them because they strengthen the argument with other voices.
I am speaking to you as a Brent resident and as someone who, working in Brent schools, has been a literacy coordinator, children’s librarian, class teacher, reading recovery teacher and a headteacher and is now a school governor who volunteers to help children gain pleasure from their reading.
In all these roles I have found the Willesden Bookshop’s wide range of books tailored to Brent’s diverse population, and their amazingly knowledgeable staff, hugely useful.
I am not the only one. There has been consternation in Brent’s educational community at the potential loss of the bookshop. Last year they dealt with 1,000 orders (invoices not individual books) from Brent schools that get a 10% discount and free delivery.
A review in PaperTigers (Children’s International Book Review) said:
I have been a frequent visitor to the Willesden Bookshop over the years. It's a veritable honey-pot for anyone looking for "Children's Books from Around the World": they stock many books it is difficult to find elsewhere in the UK.
Local author of children's books, Odette Elliot says:
Willesden Bookshop 'celebrates the rich cultures and languages of its community'
The Bookshop has been invited to provide bookstalls for three Spring events at the Centre for Staff Development which unfortunately coincide with when they have to pack up and quit their premises. So that will be another loss to education. The Runnymede Trust and National Literacy Campaign recommend the Willesden Bookshop and the Guardian said:
A wonderful bookshop, great selection including large stock of children's books, and really friendly and helpful staff.
The Report before you on the Willesden Green Library Centre redevelopment states categorically that space will not be provided in the new Willesden Cultural Centre but gives absolutely no reason for this. At the same time space is allocated to a café when there are lots available on the High Road.
A well-established local bookshop would add to the ‘offer’ at the Cultural Centre, in the same way as bookshops add to the attractiveness of the much larger offer at the South Bank.
As well as contributing to the education of our children, the bookshop with its wide stock, reflecting the many cultures of Brent, helps with community cohesion and its support and promotion of local authors raises local aspirations.
The mother of a now internationally famous local author sent me this message:
If they close the bookshop and the library, they will effectively rip the heart out of Willesden. Both serve people right across our communities. We need a hell of lot of signatures. What about standing in the street, outside supermarket etc and getting people's signature I am happy to stand there for entire Saturdays or Sundays if that is what it takes.
Yvonne Bailey Smith (Zadie Smith’s mother)
Nicolette McKenzie wrote to me:
I am most concerned about the proposed redevelopment of the Willesden library. When six libraries were closed last year it was not made clear at all that the main library would be closed for two years. This is unacceptable.
Also, the lack of provision for the bookshop, a real local asset, is scandalous.
The lack of publicity about this, and the 'unfortunate' lack of access to the e-petition all over this past weekend, I consider appalling.
Please do what you can to have this disaster pulled back from the brink of a planning abyss.
Always on the lookout for ‘below the line’ reasons for Council policies I have checked with the Bookshop and they tell me that they have always paid the rent required by the Council and paid it on time – so that’s not the issue. It can’t be that you can’t cope with businesses on the site as you are planning a café here and the new Civic Centre has retail space -and anyway, shouldn’t the Council be championing successful small local businesses that add value to the community?
I call on the Brent Executive, at this early stage in the development of the Cultural Centre, to ensure that Willesden’s Wonderful Bookshop has a place there,
Loss of Willesden Bookshop would be a 'tragedy'
Before tonight's meeting a Willesden Bookshop customer sent this message to Brent Executive members:
Dear Councillor,
As a member of the Executive who will be attending this evening's meeting I am writing to you to register my dismay at the proposed redevelopment plans for Willesden Green, which currently do not accommodate The Willesden Bookshop.
As a Brent resident for the last ten years I have valued this establishment and with each year I use it more and more.
I am not sure if you are aware of the invaluable resource that the bookshop provides, supplying stock to countless individuals and schools in the borough and beyond, cognizant of the diverse cultural community which it serves and reflecting those needs in the books that it sells. The depth of knowledge of the staff there is comprehensive impressive and provides a great service for those of us who prefer to browse and have a face to face conversation about a title or genre with someone whom we know will help us. It is efficient in ordering books for customers when they do not carry the titles on their own shelves, and are always courteous and helpful. My primary school aged children and secondary school aged son spend hours selecting books there and would be devastated not to be able to couple their visits to the library with one to the bookshop. There are numerous local authors whose work is regularly and prominently displayed. It's one of the few beacons of cultural success in Willesden Green and is a successful small business that we as individuals as well as local and central government should be championing.
The current cafe space in the Library Centre area has always been unsuccessful. This may be down to the fact that there is a great deal of competition when it comes to cafes in the High Road and yet the redevelopment has plans for one. Willesden doesn't need another cafe. It needs to keep its only general bookshop, and I would like the developers to explain to Brent residents how one can have a Cultural Centre without having a bookshop, reflecting the culture of the area and the needs of its residents, at the heart of it.
I would please ask you to reconsider the plans in order to accommodate the Willesden Bookshop. It would be a tragedy for it to be lost.
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