A budget for pointless austerity

 Commenting on today’s “budget for pointless austerity,” the UK’s first Green MP Caroline Lucas said:

“In spite of the Chancellor’s protestations, this budget was neither unavoidable nor fair. Instead it was a massively failed opportunity to shift the economy onto a fairer, greener pathway.

“Devastating public spending cuts of the sort announced today are not ‘unavoidable.’  They are not an economic inevitability – they are an ideological choice.

“Nor was this budget fair. A VAT rise, benefits cuts for all, a public sector freeze, and swingeing cuts in most government budgets of 25%, will all of them hit some of the poorest hardest.”

Cuts: the callous con trick - Caroline Lucas speaks out

New report proposes tax-based alternative to spending cuts – and calls for massive investment in job-creation

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP will this week tell the coalition government there is “no good reason for any cuts in public expenditure during the life of this parliament.” 

On Monday 21 June Britain’s first Green MP is to issue a new report – Cuts: the callous con trick  – in which she will make the case that cuts are unnecessary “because the economy could instead be rebalanced using additional tax revenues.”

The report, written jointly with tax expert Richard Murphy and Colin Hines of Finance for the Future, condemns the government “for failing to put to the electorate the option of fair tax instead of cuts,” and accuses ministers of increasing the likelihood of a double-dip recession.

Cuts “are not an economic inevitability but an ideological choice”

Caroline Lucas said today:

“Cuts are not an economic inevitability. They are an ideological choice. Politicians of all parties are now sharpening their axes to slash public spending, forcing those on lower incomes, who depend on public services the most, to pay the highest price for the recent excesses of the bankers.

“There is a choice. We should ask those best able to pay to foot the bill through fairer taxation. That’s the challenge I’m issuing: for that political choice to be made. It must be clearly asserted that we are not all in this together: that some had more responsibility for this crisis than others, and some benefited more from the boom that preceded it. Those who enjoyed the largest benefits must pay up now. For that to happen, fair taxes, not cuts, must become the new big idea to replace today’s callous and uncaring cuts fanaticism.”

Tax avoidance and evasion “truly staggering” – could be as high as £100bn a year

“The UK is currently one of the most unequal societies in Europe. But the financial crisis offers us an opportunity to rebalance the tax system. We could do it, for example, by applying the 50% tax rate to incomes above £100,000, abolishing the upper limit for national insurance contributions, raising capital gains tax to the recipient’s highest income tax rate, and helping lower earners by reintroducing the 10% tax band.  

“Moreover, the huge extent of tax avoidance, tax evasion and unpaid tax in the UK economy is truly staggering.  HM Revenue & Customs themselves admit that tax evasion and avoidance together come to at least £40 billion a year, whilst in November 2009 they also admitted there was £28 billion of unpaid tax owing to them. Shocking as these numbers are, some experts have suggested that tax evasion – that’s deliberately breaking the law to not pay tax – might be as high as £70 billion a year, and tax avoidance – in other words, exploiting loopholes in tax law – might be £25 billion a year. That would take the total target for necessary action to collect tax due and owing to more than £100 billion a year”

Cut tax abuse, not tax-collectors’ jobs

“Whilst these appalling losses to the nation’s coffers are occurring, HM Revenue & Customs are pursuing a programme of job cuts which will ultimately reduce their own staff by 20,000 – close to one quarter of the total. This makes absolutely no sense.  This programme should be reversed, staff re-employed, and local tax offices re-opened in order to tackle tax abuse. It has been calculated that at least £15 billion of extra tax could be collected each year as a result.  That could prevent a massive range of cuts”.

Richard Murphy, tax expert, chartered accountant and co-author of the report said :

“Our report sets out a range of additional options for changing the tax rules for the UK so that more than £40 billion of additional taxes could be raised each year by the end of the life of this parliament.   That, together with the tax collecting efficiency savings already noted, would together deliver more than £60 billion of tax revenues for the UK – so preventing the need for any cuts at all.”

“A government really can spend to save the economy when in a recession. During this one, borrowing has been smaller and unemployment lower than forecast because of the measures taken by the last government to stimulate the economy. This report argues that a Green New Deal involving public and private investment in a massive labour intensive UK wide energy saving programme and a rapid shift to renewables should be the basis for continuing that programme of support for our economy. This would ensure that we come out of the recession better equipped for the future we’re going to face.”

Caroline Lucas concluded:

“Fairer tax not cuts must become the real battleground of this new Parliament. It is the debate the Coalition and Labour alike must embrace. As the full ghastliness and unfairness of the cuts become ever clearer, the public clamour for fairer taxes rather than cuts can only grow.”

Note

The report can be read  HERE

Save OUR College - Kilburn unites against closure

The community and the generations unite to save Kilburn Centre

A bustling Kilburn High Road, thick with Saturday traffic and shoppers, witnessed early resistance to the cuts when lecturers, students and their children, trades unionists, Brent Trades Council and local supporters marched to demonstrate against the closure of Kilburn Centre. The College of North West London is closing the £5.5m centre only three years after it opened in order to save money.  At the same time it has an unused building in Wembley Park worth £4m that it is refusing to sell off because it is waiting for the property market to recover.

Sarah Cox of Brent Trades Council, addressing the open air meeting in Kilburn Square rightly said that the CNWL should be educators, not property speculators. She emphasised the importance of the Centre as a local resource and the necessity for a building within easy walking distance for parents with young children.She remarked that the political parties had been vocal at the public meeting in support of the Centre during the General Election campaign but only the Green Party were present today.

Alf Filer of the UCU and Harrow College delivered a message of support and spoke about how the impact of cuts and recession had hit his own family. Hank Roberts of the NUT spoke about education cuts in general and called for direct action citing the occupation of Wembley Playing Fields in opposition to the building of the Wembley Academy. 

 

Not speaking, but evident from the posters - and very welcome, was the support of the Kilburn Times for the battle to save the Centre.

Standing in for Pete Murry, ex-CNWL  lecturer and Secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group, who had a meeting elsewhere, I pledged the support of Brent Green Party for the campaign.  I said that Further Education was particularly important to me because as an '11+ failure' who had left school at 16, attending FE evening classes in my 20s had enabled me to get the qualifications to enter teacher training.

Further Education is a lifeline, a second chance, and has the capacity to change lives. That is why we must defend it. At the same time at the other end of the age spectrum Children's Centres, which are geared to improving life chances in the early years, are facing an uncertain future. Funding is only guaranteed for one year and with 20 Centres on stream, Brent may be faced with mothballing new buildings.

These buildings in our borough have been paid for by our taxes. They are OUR buildings and as such rather than letting them be mothballed and useless, we should take them over for community use. I could have added that with the policy on so-called 'free schools' we should be wary that they might be the target for private companies or charities to set up their own schools, funded by us, but outside any democratic accountability.

If we are to fight climate change and create a low carbon economy, we need to invest in education and training. It will be a scandal if the people of Brent, with its high unemployment rate, should miss out on such opportunities.

Sign the Campaign Petition HERE   Contact the campaign to offer help at cnwlkilburn@googlemail.com

Latest on UAF Wembley Mobilisation against EDL

Following Theresa May's decision to ban the entry of Zakir Naik, one of the main speakers at next Saturday's Peace Convention, it is not clear whether the Convention will go ahead. It may be postponed until Naik's entry is secured or may go ahead with a video link.

Meanwhile the EDL have claimed the ban as a victory and said they are switching their action on the 26th to Barking where there is a council by-election.

The Muslim Council of Britain and the Convention organisers have issued statements condemning the Home Secretary's ban on Naik who has been pilloried for being a 'hate preacher' on various blogs using various quotations attributed to him. The Islamic Research Foundation today issued a long press release taking each quotation in turn and giving the full context. I have reprinted this as a page on this site so that readers can make their own judgement.

However, for me the main issue is that whatever the pretext, it is important that we make it clear that the English Defence League are not welcome in Wembley. We have a successful multicultural community that of course is not perfect, but where people get along with friends, neighbours and work colleagues of all sorts of backgrounds. We do not want to see that community disrupted and divided by people who thrive on feeding prejudice, stereotypes and discontent.

Brent and Harrow UAF will be holding an organising meeting next week to discuss developments and I will post any further news on this site.

Private sector backed - public sector hacked

A monster, squatting in the north west London suburbs, spewing out pollution and noxious fumes... the proposed Brent Cross Cricklewood Plan gets the government go ahead. Simultaneously the same government announces cuts to hospitals and schools and thousands face unemployment and wage reductions.

Welcome to the Land of the ConDems!

Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary, has announced via the doomed Government Office for London, that he is not going to call in the Brent Cross Development for a Public Inquiry. Having considered the matter he believes that despite the massive opposition locally, increased traffic pollution,  the impact on neighbouring boroughs, the health threat posed by unproven incinerator technology, and the fact that the Westfield Shopping Centre has been built since the initial application, that his 'intervention would not be justified'!

Co-ordinator Lia Colacicco of the Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Plans spoke for many of us when she said, "This ill-conceived decision by the secretary of state does not bode well for future planning decisions, and is completely at odds with new Conservative Party policies on planning, and the recent Coalition Government planning statement.

"We will continue to fight this regressive, unpopular scheme, to replace it with a sustainable development that meets both 21st century standards and the needs and aspirations of the whole community."

Fight the Cuts, Fight for Services Worth Defending

Last night's 'Fightback' meeting couldn't have been better timed as the Coalition announced another tranche of cuts. It was a small beginning to a movement that is bound to grow as the cuts begin to really bite.

Rather than report on every speech I will concentrate on some of the themes that emerged from a wide range of speakers and contributors:

• Although the bankers caused the crisis; the costs have been shifted to the public sector, ordinary people and the vulnerable - while the bankers continue to get their bonuses.

• Pete Murry, of the Green Party Trades Union Group (pictured) said it is important to make the connection between the cuts and climate change. To create a low carbon economy, we need massive investment in green jobs and technologies, not cuts. We shouldn't lose sight of the survival of the planet.
• The important role played by privatisation which drives down wages and results in poor quality services and insecure employment. 
• The government expects the voluntary sector to take up the slack when cuts bite but the voluntary organisations won't have the capacity to do so because they are also suffering cuts.
• The need for the campaign to bring together providers and users of services - examples are the Whittington Hospital Campaign and the campaign to save Kilburn College. Right to Work and Can't Pay-Won't Pay are good examples of broad-based campaigns involving lots of people.
• The possibility of looking at occupations and other imaginative actions as well as strikes. Kilburn College is our building and we should occupy it rather than let it be moth-balled. The Tent City and other actions on opposition to the Wembley Academy are a good model.
• People need to be spoken to in a way that engages with them and is readily understandable, rather than ranted at.
• Under Thatcher the attacks on the public sector were more gradual, salami sliced, but the Coalition seems to be taking everything on at once. This might provoke a bigger and more unified reaction.

As I said above, this was a small beginning, but the range of contributions from the public sector and the voluntary sector, as well as services users, was a cause for optimism.  We face an enormous task, but as someone said, if we don't believe we can win, we won't win.

Council turns down Vodophone telecom mast in conservation area

Brent Council has turned down an application by Vodophone to erect a 13.8 metre high pole with 3 antennas and ground based equipment cabinets at the junction of The Avenue and West Hill in Wembley. The Council is not allowed to take possible health issues into consideration although local people were concerned about the proximity of children's activities at the nearby church. The Council received 46 letters of objection.

The Council report states:

The proposed siting of the mast and equipment cabinets is adjacent to the pedestrian footway, on an area of green open space on the prominent corner of The Avenue and West Hill. The Wealdstone Brook passes beneath the site, and green space adjacent to this waterway and the nearby railway corridor further enhance setting of the site. The Avenue is a Local Distributor Road, and the pedestrian footways either side of the open space are well used by local residents accessing shops on Preston Road. The site is also visible from properties within the Barn Hill Conservation Area, which are elevated further up West Hill. The existing streetscape installations include approximately 6m high streetlight posts, and smaller posts displaying parking restriction information.

The siting of the development would be considered inappropriate to this existing setting. The resultant clutter of equipment would be considered to harm the visual amenity value of this site, which as described above has an open and green character. The proposed mast would be an incongruous feature in the streetscene, and would be harmful to views out of the nearby Barn Hill Conservation Area. The proposed equipment cabinets would also be located within the root protection area of a mature tree, which currently makes a significant contribution to the street scene, and could be damaged by foundation works of the proposed installations. In terms of appearance, the proposal would be considered out of scale with existing streetscape installations, being at least twice the height of the existing streetlight columns.

Council calls on government to retain school rebuilding funds

The leader of Brent Council has written to the Secretary of State for Education to urge the government to continue its investment for Brent's schools.

Whilst the Department for Education has yet to make an announcement on the future of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, Brent's councillors are keen to ensure that their allocation of funding is protected from the current government spending review.

The £80 million investment which was allocated to the borough last November, will allow Brent to deliver much needed extra capacity to cope with growing pupil numbers and proceed with a major re-building and renovation scheme that will start to transform secondary schools throughout the borough.

Councillor Ann John, OBE, Leader of Brent Council said: "We need to improve our school buildings and increase places to accommodate an expanding population and therefore feel it's important for the Secretary of State for Education to know why the investment for Brent is so vital. If funding is withdrawn we will not be able to meet the demand for new secondary school places in the future.

"We are confident that we have a strong case and continue to develop detailed plans with phase one schools, partners and the wider community on the programme which is desperately needed in the borough."

Another area of concern that arose at the recent Brent Governors' Conference was the future of Children's Centres. Brent is now on track to have 20 such multi-agency centres but funding is safeguarded for only one year.  There is a real possibility that new buildings  will have to be moth-balled due to lack of funds.

Children's Centres are really vital for early intervention to overcome the impact of deprivation on the development of young children.