Keith Taylor MEP: 'Airport expansion remains a climate-wrecking decision that is bad for the British people and the planet'

The World Meteorological Organization's findings that concentrations of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere surged to a record high in 2016 must rule out any airport expansion, according to Keith Taylor, Green MEP and a member of the European Parliament's Environment and Transport Committees.

Responding to the news that last year's increase in CO₂ emissions was 50% higher than the average of the past 10 years, Mr Taylor, the European Chair of the Climate Parliament, said, in light of the Government's relaunched Heathrow expansion consultation: 

"The Government's analysis on air pollution alone must rule out a third runway at Heathrow. But before the Gatwick airport PR machine leaps into action, today's shocking news about the levels of CO₂ pollution in our atmosphere is a timely reminder that the only climate-viable option is no new runways."

"Aviation is a top ten global polluter and emissions from the heavily subsidised industry are set to balloon by 300% if action is not taken sooner rather than later. Not accounting for any airport expansion, emissions from aviation are already expected to use up more than two-thirds of the UK's carbon budget by 2050. At the same time, the Government's so-called 'Clean' Growth Strategy just this month revealed that the UK is already set to miss its legally-binding carbon targets under the Climate Change Act. Again, without building any new runways."

"Despite what the exceedingly what well-funded PR machines of Heathrow and Gatwick airports would have politicians believe, the UK doesn't have an airport capacity crisis. Britain is already amongst the most frequent flyers in the world, in fact, more passengers fly in and out of London than any other city in the world. Every airport but one is operating under capacity. And the cases put forward by Gatwick and Heathrow to solve the manufactured 'crisis' rely on vastly inflated job creation predictions and hinge on a dubious demand assumptions."

"Nine of the ten most popular destinations from Heathrow involve short-haul flights. In fact, almost half of all flights in Europe are 300 miles or less. Existing rail services could offer genuinely workable alternatives on most of these routes. As trains are less polluting than planes, by a factor ten, this would help reduce aviation emissions, and free up landing slots for longer haul flights."

"Three-quarters of international passengers are disproportionately wealthy and travel for leisure. The vast majority of the UK’s airport capacity, 70% of flights, is used by a minority of frequent flyers, 15% of passengers. The current taxation system means those who don’t fly and those who fly even just once a year are subsidising the jet-setting lifestyles of a privileged few. We must, instead, reject the ‘crisis’ myth, and work to reduce demand while making the industry fairer."

"Airport expansion remains a climate-wrecking decision that is bad for the British people and the planet. By continuing to back a new runway, the Government is displaying a shocking disregard for the UK’s legal and moral obligation to tackle the very worst effects of climate change. Expansion will breach Britain’s carbon budgets and make a mockery of Theresa May’s legal-binding commitments under the Paris Agreement.”

"As Greens, we support a fairer frequent flyer levy that would help reduce demand driven by the privileged few and reduce costs for the average UK holidaymaker."

Update on Stop Haringey Development Vehicle court case

Photo from Inside Housing

Update from Gordon Peters first published on the HDV fundraiser page LINK

Heartfelt thanks to all supporters who have contributed to this campaign so far and you will see that we have surpassed our current target for funds. This allows us to cover fees and court costs to date, and be ready for any appeal should that be needed.

The Judicial Review concluded on Thursday 26 October with David Wolfe,QC, summing up after the three barristers representing Haringey Council and Lendlease had opposed our four grounds of the HDV being unlawful - that it was a commercial venture and should be a company not a LLP, that public consultation had been lacking, that the Public Sector Equality Duty had not been upheld, and that as a plan or strategy it should have gone to a full Council. They further opposed the granting of Relief [a cap on awards] and said the claim was out of time. They took up the detail of expert advice given to the Council's Housing Regeneration Scrutiny Panel and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendations which were strongly critical of the HDV as if to say how open and consultative the Cabinet had been, although the Cabinet had gone ahead despite these.

David Wolfe was then able to show, through their own documents and business plans - much of which, over 700 pages in fact, had been redacted from any public view - that the HDV was indeed a major commercial venture, that it put social as well as affordable housing at risk, that poorer and vulnerable people in households both in estates scheduled for demolition and in leaseholds were not protected, and that this could not be called anything other than a strategy. He asked that the HDV be declared unlawful and relief on costs granted, rejecting the defence claim of being out of time as the whole process had been left undecided and kept changing its terms until the July 2017 Cabinet decision was made.

The judge, Mr.Justice Ouseley, then straightaway concluded the hearing and said that he would make his decision as soon as he could. We understand that this could still take some weeks.

Meanwhile I am very glad to say that the HDV is going nowhere right now, and it increasingly looks like this fundamentally flawed joint venture should not proceed.

To the HDV 'we say not so'.

Blooming marvellous! Double award for Barn Hill Conservation Group



Barn Hill Conservation Group are celebrating a double award from London in Bloom.

The Roe Green Walled Garden won Gold in the small Conservation Area category.

The garden is one of the gems of Brent, lovingly tended by volunteers, and replete with vegetables and flowers and fascinating installations dedicated to giving a home to wildlife.

You can visit on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays between 10.30am and 2.30pm.







The second award, also a Gold, went to Fryent Country Park and was the overall winner in the Best Country Park Category.

The Conservation Group worked with Brent Council and Barn Hill Residents Association to clear rubbish and the remains of camps from the 250 acre park deposited about 2 years ago.

There is now a dedicated team of residents who collect litter whilst working in the park and leave it a collection points for the Council to collect.

The Conservation Group work in the park every Sunday not only clearing litter and flytips but undertaking conservation work including keeping footpaths clear,  carrying out new planting and surveying the park's wildlife.

Further information can be found on their website HERE

Brent Tories sink their differences ahead of May 2018 local elections and trigger Extraordinary Council Meeting

The long running feud between the two rival Conservative groups on Brent Council appears to be over with Councillors Colwill and Kansagra (formerly the Conservative Group) joining the Brent Conservative Group. Councillors Maurice and Davidson had already joined the Brent Conservatives, led by Cllr John Warren.  Carol Shaw remains deputy leader of the group.

The move necessitates the revision of committee places and as the next Council Meeting is not scheduled until the new year an Extraordinary Council Meeting has been arranged for Monday November 6th  to allocate places.  Who serves on which committee will be a test of the solidarity of the expanded group.

This is the new distribution of the main committees (Details:LINK)

I wonder how much this extra meeting will cost?

Avoid Wembley during November! Deep excavation works will close High Road east bound and have severe impact on wider area

Hot on the heels of my story about concrete blocking the main sewer in Wembley High Road LINK  comes a warning about major works resulting from the blockage circulated by Rubie Charalambous, Wembley and Ealing Road Town Centre Manager.

Click on image to enlarge

URGENT WORKS -High Road, Wembley - Blocked Sewer - Eastbound Road Closure 2/11/17 to 30/11/17

The Sewer on High Road, Wembley is blocked near the junction of Ecclestone Place and unfortunately deep excavation works are required to rectify the problem. 

High Road, Wembley will be closed to eastbound traffic from the junction of Park Lane. Traffic will be diverted via Park Lane and Wembley Hill Road, a signed diversion will be in place for the duration of the works.

Westbound traffic will continue to use High Road, Wembley as normal.

The impact to the road network in the Wembley area is expected to be severe, especially in peak times. Where possible please avoid the area.

Unfortunately this period coincides with a number of events at Wembley Stadium although Spur's Real Madrid fixture at 90,000 capacity just squeezes in the day before the works start:
 

-->

Wednesday  1/11/2017     19.45  Tottenham Hotspur v Real Madrid (UEFA Group Stage)

Sunday         05/11/2017   12:00 Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace

Friday           10/11/2017   20.00  England v Germany (Friendly)

Tuesday        14/11/2017   20.00  England v Brazil (Friendly)

Saturday        25/11/2017   15:00 Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion

Wembley Park: The Money Under Our Feet

There have been many postings on this website about Quintain's Wembley Park 'regeneration' and even more comments, particularly as the development has accelerated recently eating up warehouse and industrial units and apparently squeezing tower blocks into any spare space. In this guest posting Dilan Tulsiani stands back and considers the implications for local people as well as the locality itself.
 

On the 29^th of August 2017, Quintain, a property investment and development business, announced via its website that it was ‘spending £1m a day on construction making Wembley Park one of the UK’s biggest construction sites’. According to Quintain, there will be over 8,500 jobs created, with a further 3,000 homes under construction ‘delivered at a pace not seen at any other London development site’. The construction framework consists of six contractors, the notables being: McLaren, Wates, Sisk and Carillion. Quintain have recently shifted their construction policy from ‘build to buy’ to ‘build to rent’. They aim to build over 7,000 new homes, with 5,000 labelled as ‘build to rent’, and a further 2,300 as “affordable”.

 

Quintain and Brent Council have both resisted using the term ‘gentrification’ to describe their partnership in transforming the area. Instead, you’ll see ‘regeneration’ on practically every website or poster promoting the ongoing process. This is understandable, as the critics of any form of gentrification, are quick to label the selective description by property developers as deceptive and dishonest. Technically speaking, regeneration is embedded within the process of gentrification. The Cambridge Dictionary defines regeneration: ‘to improve a place or system, especially by making it more active or successful’. Gentrification is defined as: ‘the process by which a place, especially part of a city, changes from a being poor to being a richer one, where people from a higher social class live’. Wembley Park’s ‘regeneration’ process factually falls under both definitions (for the remainder of this article I will use the term ‘gentrification’ instead of ‘regeneration’, as it is more accurate to my subject matter). Although, to prevent an ethical breakdown, new tenants would probably cling to ‘regeneration’ as an ontological justification for staying in Wembley.

 

Residents who have lived in Brent for more than a decade will remember the industrial abyss that used to exist just a short walk from the station. In this sense, the gleaming metallic towers, illusory designer outlet and newly placed pavement are well relished. However, there are a few fundamental concerns that have simply been swept aside. Firstly, the effect on the surrounding areas. There is no surprise, that most, if not all the flats in Wembley are not “affordable”. In fact, that term is usually used to provoke a narrative of relativity concerning financial status. Quintain has invested £900 million into Wembley Park, without careful consideration and evaluation from the residents of Brent, this could lead to some serious socio-economic disparities. David Fell, a research analyst at Hamptons International states that property prices in HA9 “have risen by 14% in the last year [2016], compared to a London average of 10%.” Just down the road from Wembley Park, a two-bedroom flat is valued around £335,000. A flat of the same size, less than 10 minutes’ walk away, is valued at £450,000 - £500,000. Recently, Alto has sold two-bedroom flats in Wembley Park for £800,000.

 

A similar problem was highlighted in 2014 during gentrification processes in South Kilburn, where a member of the Residents’ Association claimed: “Those who have been living in the area are essentially being driven out. This all amounts to a social cleansing of South Kilburn.” Moreover, Alpha, Gorefield and Canterbury Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations emphasised that the residents who have lived in South Kilburn for generations could no longer afford to live in their homes. These are not trivial or isolated matters. They’re simply the effects of gentrification. Wealth concentrated in one single area in this manner, will have drastic consequences. The surrounding populations will be allowed to use facilities, shops and walk the newly paved streets, but there is a cap on their indulgence of this ideology. Consider what the residents of Chalkhill think when their homes are (literally and metaphorically) overshadowed by the new apartment towers. When they, like so many other communities, have a lack of funding within their own neighbourhoods, along with other serious social issues. To name one, in Brent and Hounslow 34 high-rise buildings failed fire cladding tests issued after the horrendous disaster at Grenfell Tower. In contrast, I think it would be perfectly safe to assume that the newly built apartments in Wembley Park have some of the best fire safety systems available.

 

 Attached to this disparity of wealth is the subsequent problem of crime. There is no doubt that the new properties will have a well-maintained police presence, due to the proximity of the stadium, along with security guards for each building. Due to the disparity, crimes in the surrounding areas may increase. Let’s take some of surrounding areas as examples (take these as approximate averages): From January - August 2017, Alperton has had the average total crime rate of 118/month, Dollis Hill’s average total crime rate was 137/month, and Tokyngton stands at an average of 188/month. Tokyngton is the closest of the three areas to Wembley Park, and in recent years it has had a subsequent increase in total crimes committed. If the investment in selective industries and areas remains or increases in the next decade, there should be no surprise at the increase in crime. This correlation was well represented in gentrification processes in New York, especially Harlem. As living standards get higher, the price of property increases, more people will forcibly turn to crime – both petty and serious. The socio-cultural divide will only widen.

 

One last fundamental issue is an assessment by The FA (for those like myself who are not sport literate: The Football Association). In May 2016, The FA complained that Brent Council was considering those who visit the stadium “an afterthought”. The recent constructions sites, which appear directly outside the stadium, could present potential hazards to fans, according to the FA. In fact, these new apartments would present the highest, and thus the most expensive flats, with their own personalised view of the games below them. Wembley is already set to be overcrowded, yet with ongoing construction, and busy venues/rush hour, there should be an effective policy by the council to counter this.

 

Ultimately, I see no realistic counter-movement to what seems to be an unchecked gentrification process at Wembley. In the next decade, Wembley, just as many other towns in Greater London, will be injected with huge sums of money, none of which will aid ingrained social issues, but will make these issues less noticeable for those living in the newly ‘regenerated’ areas. In the meanwhile, surrounding populations will attempt to readjust and comfort themselves from their high price of living with the luxurious shopping outlets built on the borders between their areas and the ‘newly regenerated Wembley Park’.

 

Ark Pioneer school gets planning permission despite massive local opposition

Artist's impression of the new school (Barnet Times)

Wednesday's Barnet Planning Committee approved the building of a new school on the former Underhill Stadium despite 500 objections to building on the undeveloped Green Belt of the former football ground and opposition from Andrew Dismore, Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden. Around 150 local people attended the Planning Committee.

All six members of the Committee, including the chair, voted for the proposal. Observers commented on the low level of questioning by councillors and their reluctance to engage with objectors. At least two were said to be disparaging towards the improving nearby Totteridge Academy which may well be detrimentally affected by the new school.

Objectors had argued that Totteridge could have been expanded on its current footprint for any increase in secondary pupil numbers as an alternative to building a new school. They felt, in any case, that misleading figures had been given on future need. New housing was mainly one and two bedroomed rather than family three bedroomed and that any bulge in the eight wards surrounding the Green Belt site would peak by 2025 at the latest.  Local children who attend faith primary schools tend to move on to faith secondary schools and a significant number go to private or selective schools. Saracens is opening a new all-through school in Colindale in Graham Park.

All this means that the new school's intake is likely to come from further away and there will be increased traffic congestion as public transport to the site is poor.

Perhaps most galling was that the CEO of Ark was allowed to give a promotional speech extolling the merits of the proposed Ark Pioneer with its controversial methods.

Save Our Job Centres - protest November 6th

Via Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

Monday November 6^th 3-4pm

Department of Work and Pensions, Caxton House, 12 Tothill St, Westminster, SW1H

The government has already closed 24 jobcentres since August this year. They plan to close a further 78 Jobcentres by April of 2018.

16 of these Jobcentres are in London.

The poor and vulnerable need local jobcentres, not some superhub that they have to walk miles to reach.

Benefit money is too little to cover regular trips on public transport. People will have to walk. And don't be late or too ill to walk over a mile each way as often as the jobcentre demands– you'll be up for a sanction!

The Tories say that much of the jobcentres' work is now done online, but 5.3 million people in Britain have never used the internet, and 10 million lack the basic digital skills. And millions of these people will be in receipt of benefits.

You can't use the internet if you are learning disabled.

You can't use the internet if you can't afford a computer or a mobile phone contract or or the fee for using library or internet cafe

You can't use the internet if you are illiterate (and six to eight million Britons are borderline or fully illiterate)

Our local Jobcentres, Kilburn and Neasden, serve one of the most deprived areas in the country. If they are closed then over half of the borough of Camden and around two thirds of Brent will be more than half a mile from the nearest jobcentre, i.e. more than a mile round trip. These areas contain heavily populated areas: a lot of people are going to be affected.

In amongst the people who can't use the internet are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their disability benefit because they aren't disabled enough for the Tories. They may be able to walk just 200 metres, or sometimes panic when out and get lost, or nor be able to plan a journey to places they don’t know, or have epilepsy. They may be seriously depressed or suffering from brain fog brought on by medication or illnesses like Fibromyalgia. They may be recovering from cancer or waiting for a heart operation. They may have variable conditions that mean that they can't guarantee being able to go out at all on any particular day.

But if you miss an appointment, or are simply late, you'll be considered for a sanction!

Let's meet outside the DWP's headquarters at Caxton House and let them know what we think about this.

Save our Jobcentres!

The 16 London jobcentres that are closing are:
Highgate, 24 November 2017
Edgware, 8 December 2017
Finchley, 12 January 2018
Dagenham, 19 January 2018
Southall, January 2018
Kingston, February 2018
Brixton,- 9 February 2018
Neasden 16 February 2018
Clapham 23 February 2018
Kilburn, March 2018
Hammersmith 9 March 2018
Croydon, 16 March 2018
Wandsworth, 23 March 2018
Leytonstone,- 30 March 2018
Hounslow, 10 Montague Road,

An account of a recent meeting on the issue can be found on the Brent Green Party blog HERE

Alice in the Cuckoo's Nest and October 1917 at Preston Community Library

From Preston Community Library

 We are delighted to welcome Librarian Theatre for the first time in Preston Library. On Tuesday 14th November & Tuesday 19th December at 7.30, as part of a national tour, they will be performing their new play Alice in the Cuckoo's Nest, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Thanks to generous support from the Arts Council, tickets are only £10 [£5 concs.].  This company has performed at Barham Library in previous years and are absolutely excellent.   Tickets from the library, or reply to prestoncommunitylibrary.gmail.com to book a seat More info, and tickets online from the company's own website: https://www.librariantheatre.com/

Please note this production involves adult mental health themes. Children over 11 only.

This Saturday 28th October we are showing October 1917.  Commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Sergei Eisenstein's film depicts events of the Bolshevik uprising in 1917.

Harrow Council for Justice support call for Bob Blackman's suspension while investigation carried out

From Harrow Council for Justice

Open letter to honourable Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd for their action and response

We would like to draw your attention to a very recent article in the Times:’Tory MP Bob Blackman hosts anti-Muslim nationalist Tapan Ghosh’.

An Indian extremist Tapan Ghosh, the keynote speaker at the meeting on 18 October 2017 hosted by your MP Bob Blackman in the Commons, has been reported making inflammatory statements like ‘he had created a “Hindu Defence Force” in his state to protect Hindu communities against Muslim violence’ and that ‘Your girls and daughters are threatened by grooming but in our country our land is threatened and our existence is threatened’.

Before this, Mr Ghosh was pictured with the UK far-right leader Tommy Robinson at a meeting in London on Monday. Also some of Mr Ghosh tweets are widely known:

Considering your position on dealing with extremists, hate-preachers and hate crimes, it is unbelievable that you allowed Mr Ghosh, an Indian Hindu-nationalist with extreme attitudes, to enter in the UK!

Not only Mr Ghosh smoothly entered the UK but Mr Blackman, a Conservative member of the communities and local government committee, hosted him in the Commons during an event called “Tolerating the Intolerant”.

We are concerned that if such a hosting at the Commons is not meaningfully dealt with, then inviting and promoting extremists at the Parliament would have no limits – it could be an anti-Semitic guest next!

We have nothing about MPs using the Parliament resources to support community events but holding any divisive/ hateful activities, especially with religious overtone, could only reflect badly on our graceful Parliament.

We don’t wish to draw political party parallel here but the Labour has set good example in dealing even with any allegations of negative comments (past or present) about any communities by its members/ MPs.  For example, it would be unthinkable for a Labour MP to host an anti-Jew speaker at the Parliament (or anywhere) and getting away with it.

We need to have one standard in confronting extremism and MP actions.

We would like you to appreciate that socio-political contradictions play a great part in triggering ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalism‘ and the state enforcement arrangements without the community cooperation and support are not enough to effectively address these.

We support the call to Suspend & investigate Blackman for inviting extremists to Parliament   from Mr Blackman’s highly marginal Harrow East constituency.

We look forward for your action and response!

Jaiya Shah
Chairman
Harrow Council for Justice

Controversial Bridge Park regeneration consultation - November sessions

Readers will remember the controversy over the Bridge Park (Stonebridge) development when Brent Council entered agreements with what some felt were rather dodgy overseas registered property companies. LINK

In particular concern centred around General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH)  and its Chairman Sir Nadhmi Avichi who had faced fraud allegations in 2003. Cllr John Warren in January tried to get a debate on the issue, and in particular Avichi's links with the Labour Party LINK but his motion was defeated by the overwhelming majority of the Labour Group.

The proposals include a new hotel and housing that  is unlikely to be truly affordable for local people.  There will be no space for the small businesses that are currently housed on site and apart from the added swimming pool at the Leisure Centre  I understand overall space is smaller as function rooms will not be provided.  The question arises about whether the replacement will be a public facility or run by a private company.

Now the proposals are coming up for public consultation  (two for Lead Members, ward councillors and local residents took place earlier this week)  This is the consultation notice as it appears on Brent Council's website:

2 November 2017, 6.30pm to 9pm, Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre

See events in: Public consultations

Top of Form

Public Consultation on the redevelopment of Bridge Park

• Update residents on progress with the sale of the land
• Share information on the wider Bridge Park redevelopment proposals
• Seek input on the emerging design for the new leisure centre

Date: Thursday 2 November

Location: Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre

Time: 6.30pm -7pm (Presentation) 7pm - 9pm (Drop-in session)

Have your say on the Bridge Park redevelopment, complete our online consultation survey before 3 December 2017.

Bridge Park redevelopment

Brent Council is working with the owners of the Unisys site situated adjacent to the Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre in Stonebridge on exciting proposals to regenerate the site for new homes, businesses and a brand new leisure centre with improved facilities.

Background

In June 2013, Brent Council looked at options for developing the Unisys and Bridge Park sites for residential and commercial development to fund a new sports centre. In February 2014, council consulted with the public on four options for the layout of the new facility. Option three was chosen and includes:

• four court sports hall     
• 65 station gym
• Smaller separate gym
• Children’s soft play area and party room      
• Sauna and steam rooms
• Studios
• Spin studio
• Small meeting room
• 50 car parking spaces      
• Four lane swimming pool with moveable floor

In June 2017, the Council entered into a Conditional Land Sale Agreement (CLSA) with the purchaser.

What’s next?

• Progress plans for the new leisure centre and re-development proposals
• Further consultation events with the public 
• Purchase additional land

Information about public consultation dates will be publicised widely.

Contact

For further information about the project contact

• Project Manager- Tanveer Ghani 
• Email- Tanveer.ghani@brent.gov.uk

FAQs

What is the Conditional Land Sale Agreement (CLSA)?    

The CLSA is a time-limited contract between the Council and the developer. The CLSA includes a range of terms and conditions that need to be met in order to complete the sale of Council land to the developer. Please refer to the reports highlighted in the ‘Things to Read’ section for further information about the CLSA.

When will the current Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre (BPCLC) close?  

The Council’s plan is to keep the current Bridge Park Leisure Centre open until the CLSA is completed. We expect BPCLC to be kept open until the Summer of 2019 and further communications will be provided in due course.

Will BPCLC close once the CLSA is completed? 

Yes, the current facility will have to close for redevelopment to start.

When is the redevelopment expected to begin and how long will it last?  

 It is too early to say at this stage although we don’t expect anything to happen on the site until 2019 at the earliest. The immediate target is satisfy the terms and conditions for completing the CLSA. At key milestones of the project, the Council will continue to publish updates online and through local press.

What will the new leisure centre, hotel and housing look like?

Architects Roberts Limbrick will consult with members of the public on design proposals for the new leisure centre.

Detailed consultation plans are below (Click bottom right to enlarge):

Bob Blackman MP condemned over invite to anti-Muslim Hindu nationalist Tapan Ghosh

Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East has been condemned for hosting a visit by Hindu nationalist Tapan Ghosh to the House of Commons last week. (See previous post)

According to Middle East Eye LINK : 

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain,  said it was "astounding" that Ghosh was "welcomed with open arms" to parliament given that he "trades in propagating hatred against Muslims in India.

It added: "Ghosh is a founder of a far-right party in that country and in this year we have heard of shocking murders against Muslims, very often linked to the kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric emanating from people like Ghosh.

"If we are to tackle extremism as the government has stated it wants to, then we should not see it emanating on its own doorstep and apparently condoned by its own MPs."

TellMAMA the organisation that monitors anti-Muslim attacks made the following demands LINK:

We are calling for the following:

·       That Parliament’s Sergeant-at-Arms open up a formal investigation into how Ghosh came to be in Parliament and that some serious questions be asked of Bob Blackman MP. The investigation should then be published as a learning tool for other MP’s.

·       That Blackman be removed from the DCLG Committee that he sits on, until he can explain his actions and apologise for hosting an anti-Muslim extremist in our country’s Parliament.

·       That all MP’s and their offices receive a notice from the Sergeant-at-Arms regarding undertaking due diligence checks on speakers whom they invite in.

·       That Blackman contact us and meet with a Rohingya refugee, to listen first hand at the appalling genocide that has been conducted against this defenceless people by Burma’s military junta, which itself has been legitimised by Aung Saan Su Kyi.

At a local level Harrow East Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Harrow East, Adam Bernard,  condemned the invitation as 'unacceptable and dangerous'  LINK:

“An area as religiously diverse as Harrow East deserves better than an MP who invites hatemongers to inflame tensions between communities.

“Mr Blackman needs to realise that his job is to represent people from all communities and of all faiths and nationalities.

 “If he can’t get the hang of that, perhaps he should consider a change of career?“

In a tweet, Navin Shah, Labour AM for Brent and Harrow said:

 “Hardly surprising to see Bob Blackman rubbing shoulders with Tapan Ghosh &Tommy Robinson. Most appalling & disgusting. Deserves condemnation“.

Emma Wallace, The Green Party's General Election candidiate in 2017 said:

'Whilst I am saddened to read that the MP for Harrow East hosted such a divisive figure in parliament I am not particularly surprised.  As we have seen previously with Mr Blackman, he seems more concerned to court certain electorate groups that will keep him in power, rather than represent his diverse constitutents. At a time when the UK appears increasingly divided, with religious hate crime has increasing considerably it seems particularly important that MPs try to unite and form cohesive communities rather than divide.  It is unacceptable that Tapan Ghosh was invited to Parliament, there should be no platform for him to spread his false or harmful views in this country or anywhere else.'

 Meanwhile the Home Office moved to distance Home Secretary Amber Rudd from Ghosh:

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary fundamentally disagrees with Mr Ghosh’s views on Islam.

“The Home Secretary accepted an invitation from the Hindu Forum of Britain to attend an event in Parliament last week to celebrate Diwali. She did not speak to Mr Ghosh and was not present when he spoke.”

There is this Hope Not Hate petition people can sign to condemn Bob Blackman for hosting Mr Ghosh:

We condemn MPs for hosting Tapan Ghosh in Parliament '

Bob Blackman accused of hosting Islamophobic speaker at House of Commons event

Tapan Ghosh and Bob Blackman at the House of Commons meeting

Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East and former leader of Brent Conservatives has been accused of hosting an Islamophobic speaker at a House of Commons meeting.

Blackman courted controversy at the General Election by supporting Hindu nationalist opposition to making discrimination against Dalots ('untouchables') unlawful under the Equalities Act. LINK

The Zelo Street blog LINK commenting on Tapan Ghosh claims:

Tapan Ghosh frightens his supporters by repeatedly talking about the Muslim “reproduction rate” - the same tactics as those talking about “breeding”. For him, “moderate” Muslims are “really very small in number”. He endorses wacko fringe websites, which naturally includes Breitbart, Voice of Europe, and of course anything from Hindus who share his worldview. He has endorsed Stephen Yaxley Lennon’s Islamophobic agenda.

All of this is not difficult to discover. Yet Blackman has been happy to host Tapan Ghosh, who dressed up his bigotry in his talk “Tolerating the intolerant” as “800 years of defending human rights”. And that is not all: this talk not only took aim at “800 years of Arabic Islamic aggression” (Muslims in Bengal are not Arabs), but also “200 years of European Christian aggression”. Tapan Ghosh is as anti-Christian as he is anti-Islam.

A few days after the House of Commons meeting, according to Buzz Feed's Aisha Gani LINK, Ghosh met up with Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League and tweeted:

Other Tories at the meeting included Amber Rudd, Damien Green, Priti Patel and Sajid Javid. They might argue that they did not know Ghosh's reputation and their attendance did not mean they endorsed his views and that it was a wider event to celebrate Diwali but Blackman has no such excuse.

This compilation of tweets demonstrates Ghosh's beliefs:

Click to enlarge

This is much more serious than some of the current controversies surrounding other Members of Parliament.