New GP deputy leader Will Duckworth targets the working class vote

Will Duckworth has been elected Deputy Green Party leader. The results (after elimination of the women candidates - see below) was:

Will Duckworth 1329 votes (52%), Richard Mallender 1245 votes (48%)

Will is a Green councillor in the Black Country who won a traditionally Labour ward. He comes from a working class background and was a trade union activist in  the NASUWT during a 30 year teaching career.

His campaign literature said:

If ever there was someone who understands how to communicate the Green Party message to working class people and win seats in wards like this then it is Will Duckworth.

I his election as a powerful corrective to the middle class image of a party that too often is seen as a green hued alternative to the Lib Dems.

Natalie Bennett elected as new Green leader

Natalie Bennett has been elected the new leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.  Bennet is a former journalist, most recently editing the Guardian Weekly and is a member of Camden Green Party.  She is founding chair of Green Parry Women.

Her election statement included the following:

Our current economic model is broken. It doesn't work even in its own terms, and is built on treating the planets as a mine and a dumping ground, while treating the poor like rubbish.

We have a vision for a balanced sustainable;e society, with a living wage and decent benefits, fair taxes, and a restructured, low-carbon economy.  It's a radical, distinct vision.

3,127 ballot papers were returned (a turnout of 25.1%), of which 16 were spoilt, giving a total valid vote of 3,111.
The quota required for election is therefore 1,555.6
First preference votes were distributed as follows:
Bartolotti - 389
Bennett - 1,300
Cranie - 902
Phoenix - 492
RON - 28
No candidate achieved quota and so Bartolotti is eliminated and her votes redistributed as follows:
Bennett - 187
Cranie - 74
Phoenix - 93
RON - 7
Not transferable - 28
The totals for the second round are therefore:
Bartolotti - eliminated
Bennett - 1,487
Cranie - 976
Phoenix - 585
RON - 35
No candidate achieved quota and so Phoenix is eliminated and her votes redistributed as follows:
Bennett - 270
Cranie - 228
RON - 27
Not transferable - 60
The totals for the third round are therefore:
Bartolotti - eliminated
Bennett - 1,757
Cranie - 1,204
Phoenix - eliminated
RON - 62

 I will publish the deputy leadership result a soon as I can. To retain gender equality it must go to a male candidate (or RON - who is possibly male!)

Economic democracy motion highlights the Green Party's radicalism

Later this morning the results of the Green Party leadership ballot will be announced. Whoever wins the campaign has been a success, stimulating genuine debate and participation of rank and file members, and attracting coverage of the Green Party in mainstream media. Whatever the outcome the campaign of Romayne Phoenix and Will Duckworth has firmly put the battle against cuts and austerity and the necessity of working  with trade unions on the Green Party's agenda.

The results for the non-leadership positions have already been announced with the left of the Green Party well represented in the election of Derek Wall as International Co-ordinator and Howard Thorp as Campaigns Co-ordinator.

Howard has tabled a motion on Economic Democracy for the upcoming Conference which positions the Green Party firmly to the left of Labour on the economy:

Economic Democracy presents a package of resilient and community-based measures to help prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. Four key remedies will produce greater transparency, decentralisation of economic power, and accountability from corporations.

1.       Accountability will improve by requiring companies to include employee-elected directors and independent directors on to their management board. Not being drive by the profit-motive, they will act to ensure that company policies are taken with the interests of employees and consumers at heart.

2.       Decision making can be decentralised and democratised by giving employees a majority stake in the management of their companies pension funds.

3.       Create a Green National Investment Bank out of one or more of the currently ‘nationalised’ banks to aid funding investment in green technologies, renewable, and energy efficiency programmes.  A Green Bank would serve its customers and not its owners.

4.       Economic decision making can be further localised by granting employees the legal right to buy out their companies and turn them into workers co-operatives. Buy outs would be funded by the Green National Investment Bank.

For those interested in the detail of our elections it is worth noting that the Green Party ensures gender balance  in the leadership. Men and women must both be represented in the leadership team. If Peter Cranie wins the leadership, the deputy must be the top female candidate. If Natalie Bennett or Romayne Phoenix   win the leadership, then the deputy will be the top male candidate.

With voters at local and national elections often spoiling their papers with the equivalent of 'none of the above', readers may be interested to know that the Green Party also caters for them. Every internal election at national and local elections has a candidate called RON. RON stands for 'Re-open nominations' and is an important option, particularly when only one candidate stands for a post.

Squaring up for a battle in Willesden Green

Campaigning in the 'Town Square' (Photo: Kilburn Times)

The battle over the application to designate the open space outside the Willesden Green Library Centre as a Town Square is hotting up.

If the space is so designated it could torpedo the plans to build over 90 unaffordable flats on the present car park.  These plans require that the new building be moved close to the High Road roadside to make room for the flats. The present open space would be built over.  If the space is designated a Town Square, it cannot be built on and this would mean the former car park space available for the flats would be much less. The project depends on the developer making money from the land given to it by Brent Council to build the Cultural Centre at 'no cost' to the council. Fewer flats, less profit, no money for the Cultural Centre.

Not surprisingly the developer, Galliford Try-Linden Homes has put in an objection to the Town Square application. Rather more surprisingly, as Brent Council decides to approve or reject the application, the Council itself has also put in an objection.

In the meantime local historian Philip Grant has revealed that back in 1984 Brent Council itself supported the idea of an open space here:

In a document produced by Brent's Development Department (the forerunner of the present "Regeneration and Major Projects") in December 1983, an annotated plan of the site stated: 'The Council intend to preserve the little building on the corner with its turret and decoration - the wings behind are later additions, and these will be removed to provide some much-needed open space.'

 

Some councillors wanted to save money on the project, and demolish the whole of the old (Victorian) Willesden Green Library, replacing it with a public square which would run from the new Library Centre right down to the High Road. In a Council debate, reported in the "Kilburn Times" on 20 April 1984, Councillor Len Snow said that this 'would be a sad mistake', leaving 'a gap here, which will be open to wind and traffic noise'. He went on to say: 'If the square was protected by an interesting frontage it would be a haven of peace and on a sunny day a delight to sit in.' 

 

Len Snow's view, and that of like-minded Councillors, eventually prevailed, giving Willesden Green the public square that local people have enjoyed for more than 25 years, and still enjoy.

Philip's article and the response by Martin Redston to the developer's objection can all be found on the Keep Willesden Green blog HERE