Candlelit vigil marks start of week of action to save our hospitals

Campaigners marked the beginning of the Week of Action to Defend London's NHS with a candle lit vigil outside Central Middlesex Hospital tonight. The Central Middlesex A&E is threatened with closure under the Shaping a Healthier Future proposals. People from Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham joined in the vigil. Sarah Cox from Brent said that it was important that people across the three boroughs stayed united to guard against any attempts at divide and rule.

On Tuesday February 19th NHS NW London will be meeting at Central Hall Westminster to make decisions on the closure of A&E departments and many other services at Central Middlesex, Ealing, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals. There will be a demonstration outside Central Hall from 8.30am.

Keep Willesden Green campaigners speak truth to power

Willesden residents in  the Keep Willesden Green campaign were able to question the developers and make comments on the plans for the new Willesden Green Cultural Centre today. The councillors who constitute the planning committee were on a site visit prior to the Committee's consideration of the planning application on Wednesday.

The residents were extremely well-informed and officers will be taking away some of the questions and evidence to consider before the  Planning Committee.

On Monday the Public Inquiry into the Town Square application will open at Willesden Green Library and is expected to continue meeting after the Planning Committee has made its decision - a fact that itself is puzzling as.  if successful, he Town Square application would stop the library development as currently planned.

More detail and videos of today's events can be found on the Keep Willesden Green blog HERE

Mary Seacole win was based on People Power - let's use it on forced academies

Readers may have missed another concession by Michael Gove this week.I wrote a piece a few weeks ago  LINK supporting Operation Black Vote's campaign to retain the study of Mary Seacole in the National Curriculum. The campaign succeeded to the extent that Mary Seacole is now in the main curriculum rather than just an option. This is a victory for the thousands who supported the campaign but we now need to turn our attention to other fundamentally problematic issues in Michael Gove's history proposals

Operation Black Vote wrote:

We’ve won ! - Mary Seacole, Olaudah Equiano

Thanks to nearly 36,000 signatories, letters to the Secretary of State for education, politicians, unions, writers and activist, today we celebrate the fact that our children and the next generation of children will be taught about the great exploits of both Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano. Furthermore, the importance of diversity within our education system, particularly in history will now be greatly valued.

Back in December a leaked document suggested that Equiano and Seacole be scrapped from the Curriculum.

Simon Woolley stated:

This is a great day for education, but also a great day for the Black community and many others who demanded greater racial justice within our education system. There are too many people to thank personally but, The Voice, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and Change.org all threw their considerable weight behind this campaign. Seacole and Equiano would both be saying our spirits fantastically live on with today's activist.  

Michael Gove wrote personally to OBV in response to the campaign:

We are lucky to be heirs to a very rich mix of exceptional thinkers, bold reformers and courageous political activists. I agree that is important that our children learn about difference that these figures have made, and it is right that we do more, not less to make subjects relevant to the lives of our children.

 Professor Elizabeth Anionwu, Emeritus Professor of Nursing, said:

Thanks to all 36,000 people who signed the Operation Black Vote Petition. Mary Seacole AND Olaudah Equiano & Florence Nightingale are all cited in Key Stage 3 of the proposed national curriculum. Brilliant, just brilliant!

Zita Holbourne of BARAC stated: 

This campaign just goes to show that if we stand our ground, stick together and assert our collective 'People Power' we succeed.

Let's now use People Power to defeat Michael Gove over forced academies. Yesterday's demonstration outside Gladstone Park Primary School was a great start.

'Wrong sort of parents' protest against Gove's diktat

I guess Michael Gove will think that these are the 'wrong sort of parents': passionately committed to their children's education;  strongly supportive of their children's school, teachers and headteacher; enthusiastic about the multi-cultural nature of the school's population, committed to equality and, worse of all, keen on the democratic accountability of the school via the local authority.

A group of middle class parents setting up a Free School for their children aimed at keeping out the riff-raff are clearly preferable, and why oh why can't these Gladstone Park parents realise that their school would be far better if it was run by a bloke who sells carpets?

There was a brilliant demonstration after school this afternoon by Gladstone Park Primary parents and children to oppose a forced academy.. A force to be reckoned with!