The issue of class in the Green Party leadership contest

The concept of class is a notoriously slippery one - is it about parents' social class, current jobs, education or purely economic?  Whichever category is used however it is clear that there is a decline in working class representation in the leadership of the main three parties and in parliament. York University Young Greens LINK have explored the issue in  a survey of the candidate in the current Green Party leadership election.

I found the Q&A reproduced below particularly interesting:

Q&A

1.       What steps, if any, will you take to improve working-class recruitment, representation and election both inside and outside the party if you are elected? E.g. national recruitment strategy, shifting emphasis in interviews etc.

Caroline Allen: Local parties are at the core of this, talking to people from working class backgrounds is the best recruitment tool. We have great policies on social justice, which must be at the forefront of our media and campaigning work. But that’s not enough, we need to be embedded in communities and visibly working on the issues that affect those communities. I would want to develop a mentoring programme and advice to local parties and set up a body along the lines of Green Party Women, which has been successful in increasing women’s participation.

Natalie Bennett: As founding chair of Green Party Women, I’ve worked with others to improve the gender balance of GP structures and candidates. Advances were achieved by encouraging women to stand, and providing training and confidence-building sessions. This model could be extended to other under-represented groups, including working-class members.

We’ve also seen an encouraging shift, particularly in the West Midlands, towards targeting working class areas. Many join when they see we’re active locally – we must branch out.

Being politically effective, and speaking up for the most disadvantaged – benefit recipients, the disabled, asylum-seekers, is likely to more effective than any recruitment scheme.

Pippa Bartolotti:  The Green Party, as well we know, is a largely white, middle class organisation – despite most members wishing it to be otherwise. We spend too much time talking to each other in a white, middle class kind of way. How we change the way we communicate has to be a top priority, and I’m working on that now.

Greens have to be more outward facing, more involved in their communities, and step right outside their comfort zones in order to see why we recruit so few working class people. I like to roll up my sleeves and get involved, but a party leader; no matter how active and dedicated, cannot be everywhere.

However, the party leader does set the tone. I look forward to the day when I don’t have to continually speak to the party, but can speak beyond it. That, I believe is where I can make a difference – embracing working class concerns in honest language.

Peter Cranie: The fact that I grew up in council housing in a working class community will mean that my experience reflects that of many other people. It is crucial we have working class voices to represent the Greens, not just perceived middle class ones.

Will Duckworth: Yes. I do recognise this problem and only realised how bad it was when I attended my first conference and felt very uncomfortable.

I think that I am tackling the problem in my area. It is a deprived ward with predominantly social housing including high rise flats. We have stressed the party’s social policies and tackled many housing issues. We have promoted the importance of a living wage and the fight against cuts. When ordinary working people hear our social policies they like them and we have recruited a number of local people who could not be classified as middle class by any stretch of the imagination.

We need to grow more from these deprived areas and ensure that local parties are aware that we can work and win in working class wards and it increases the diversity of our membership. We also need to promote ordinary people within the party.

Richard Mallender: Reducing all of a person’s life, experience, expectations, education, etc. effectively to “Are you working class?” is incredibly simplistic.NonethelessI firmly believe that there are far too many MPs that have no real experience of working for a living, that have gone straight from university to political internships, to being paid party hacks and then, perhaps after a trial run at one general election, are handed a safe seat in an area they know nothing about and representing people they neither know nor understand.

I firmly believe that our policies can & will benefit the ordinary members of society. The citizens’ income, for example, benefits the least well off in society while eliminating the poverty trap caused by our current benefit system.

Alex Phillips: One of my key pledges in this campaign has been the need for local Green parties to embed themselves fully in their communities. This means relationship-building with groups outside of our typical demographic e.g. resident associations, Women’s Institutes, faith-groups and trade unions. We also have to bear in mind that for many working class people, political activity might be a luxury and they might be unable to become Green Party members. By becoming a better reflection of the communities Greens seek to represent, local parties should then endeavour to approach all known Green voters in their community and ask them to join the party. Recruitment has to be the first step of being able to then improve working class representation within the party and as public representatives. At the same time, we need to develop our relationship with trade unions and trade unionists. Joining striking workers on picket lines with a Green rosette is a big gesture. I hope to join Remploy workers in solidarity next week.

Romayne Phoenix: If elected I will put our party at the heart of the battle against austerity, privatisation, and ecological vandalism – addressing the concerns of millions within a realistic framework for a ‘jobs rich’ zero carbon future.

Working alongside others to create a mass movement against capitalist inequalities we will attract supporters, voters, members and candidates from a wider range of the population and then we can work to promote those who are least represented in politics.

Socialists, trade unionists, and environmentalists should see the Green Party as a natural home.

I am supporting a Membership Strategy motion to Autumn GPEW Conference.

2.       Do you agree with recent proposals (outside the party) for working-class shortlists/quotas to improve the representation of ordinary people in politics?

Caroline Allen: I believe that the steps above are key, my experience with Green Party Women shows there are a raft of measures that need to be used, of which quotas could be one aspect. Mentoring is vital. Without support and encouragement by others in the party I would never have taken that first step as a candidate, I didn’t think I was the sort of person who stood for election.

I can envisage some practical problems with definitions, is it about background, job, education? I don’t see this as insurmountable, but they would need to be carefully considered.

Natalie Bennett: No. What “working class” means is very wide open to interpretation, and can only be based on self-definition, so likely to cause endless controversy. I saw a motion to the Compass AGM along these lines fall because it defined working class in terms of manual labour, which was very male-biased, as well as inaccurate.

However, while quotas wouldn’t work for increasing working class representation, real political effort will. We can’t ignore this question. We have to do far more than pass motions or create rules – we have to change our culture and be conscious of how we come across.

Pippa Bartolotti: Wherever there is underrepresentation of a section of society, quota-type mechanisms are the best way yet of retrieving balance.

Peter Cranie: I think the main problem with this approach is definition. Am I now more middle class than working class? I’m a graduate, I’m a professional (a lecturer) and I live in a nice part of Liverpool. We should look at all options though.

Will Duckworth: A tough one! I am happy about targets for representation of women but class is a bit more tricky. We need to get more ordinary people into politics but we must do that by making it more relevant and understand that a lot of what we expect of our politicians is very middle class: We demand a strong grasp of the English language and grammar, the ability to get up and speak in front of groups of people and to give erudite answers to philosophical questions. We can’t change that but we do need to recognise it.

Richard Mallender : I would be far happier with an elected commons comprising members with at least 10 years experience of holding down a real job, whether that be as a postal worker, train driver, teacher, local authority planner, lawyer, business owner, charity worker or whatever. I don’t think it helps to go for a quota of “working class” – how are you going to decide who is working class and who isn’t?

Campaigning in areas where there are high numbers of unemployed, where people live in council (or former council) housing, does win us support and new members who can then stand for election themselves.

We also need to increase our reach to ethnic minorities who are also under-represented in parliament, and we also need to see equality in the number of women in parliament. Parliament should reflect the nation it seeks to rule.

Alex Phillips: Yes. However, what is more important to me, far more so than class, is someone’s politics. There are many working class Conservatives, in the same way there are plenty of middle managers who might describe themselves as ‘socialists.’ Parties should focus more on getting the politics right before making overtures. As Greens we need to broaden our appeal and package our messages so that they are accessible to more people. It is frustrating for me as an elected representative that by and large (but certainly not exclusively) those who are voting for us are middle class. Surveys have shown that our policies are the most liked out of all the parties, what we need to do now is frame them so that people know what they are and how they are relevant to them: our policies on jobs, the economy, pensions, the NHS and education as well on climate change, transport and animal welfare.

Romayne Phoenix: Until Parliament ‘looks’ more like the population of Britain we won’t have political priorities that reflect the genuine needs or concerns of the people.

The Power Enquiry investigated historic drops in voter participation, but the student demonstrations, and 500,000 marching 26/03/11, showed us that people are politically active.

We have to campaign alongside people in the struggles ahead, as Syriza worked alongside the people in Greece. There are many strong working class candidates that we can persuade to stand with us and for us.

The benefits of gender balance shortlists is accepted and we can develop models to create balanced representation for government.

3. What life experience do you have that you believe would make you appeal to ordinary people? E.g. working on the minimum wage, living in affordable/council housing, state education etc.

Caroline Allen: My parents are both from working class backgrounds; as a child I spent a lot of time with my grandparents on Harold Hill, a council estate near Romford. One Grandfather worked for a garage door manufacturer until his pelvis was shattered in an industrial accident. Sadly he never really recovered, mentally or physically. I vividly remember the hospital visits. My father’s family were moved out of Islington when he was young because there was no decent housing, my Gran walked down four floors to get running water. I’m horrified that history is repeating itself.

Natalie Bennett: I’ve worked as a cleaner (including in a nightclub – not pleasant), as a farmhand (including in shearing sheds), on a factory production line (haven’t been able to stand raspberry jelly since), but I don’t think that talking about those experiences appeals to voters.
What we need to do is present our strong policies – the minimum wage a living wage, provision of generally affordable social housing for all who want it, decent benefits to support those who need help for as long as they need it – loudly, clearly and effectively, in language that is accessible to everyone.

Pippa Bartolotti: My education took place before I reached the age of 10, at a small, overcrowded village school. From there I went to Grammar School, and a year later became a victim of the new comprehensive mode of non-education…I left school at 15 and attended Art School; took all manner of jobs: barmaid, selling double glazing, driving spare parts around the country for garages etc to pay my way. I have worked full time since my 19^th birthday, starting my own businesses so that I could be with my children as they grew up. One of my sons is adopted. Whilst working full time I was a Samaritan 2 nights a week – an experience revealing unimaginable hardships. Latterly I have become an Amnesty schools speaker where my role is to introduce older teenagers from a myriad of backgrounds to human rights. I have driven a convoy of humanitarian aid across Europe to Gaza, and been wrongfully imprisoned.

Peter Cranie: I think that in addition to my personal experience, the fact that I worked with and advocated for some of the least privileged in society will help.

Will Duckworth: I do live in an ordinary semi in a poor urban area with a Syrian family seeking asylum living next door.

I am told by my daughter that as an ex-teacher I am middle class but I taught in the area that I live and have taught many of my neighbours or their children. I was sacked from my job (wrongly – I was later awarded damages) and spent 18 months on the dole before my wife managed to find a job. The experience of being out of work and not knowing how to survive on the pittance they provide after degrading and humiliating you is one that is difficult to ignore.

Alex Phillips: I am from Liverpool, grew up in a Labour household and was always educated at local, mixed, comprehensive schools. I have worked on the minimum wage where I worked in pubs and restaurants, whilst living in Liverpool. I now live in ex-council housing. My life experience is much broader than what I have experienced as an individual; it’s about what I’ve seen around me. My younger sister was the first person in our family to go on to postgraduate education. Despite health problems she gained a first in her undergraduate degree at Nottingham University, and she then gained a distinction in her Masters at Liverpool University. Now, aged 25, she lives at home with my parents in Liverpool. The only jobs on offer to her are unpaid internships in London which she cannot afford to do. I have two older brothers from my father’s first marriage, and they have both been long-term unemployed. Various people in my family: siblings and cousins do currently or have in the past lived in council housing and have had to claim benefits.

Romayne Phoenix: My parents migrated from India and Ireland, meeting in London in the 1950′s.

I’ve been a single parent for four years. I know what it is like to struggle on a very low income, ‘one bill away from disaster’.

For my last two years as an elected councillor I lived and raised my three children on my allowance of £9,700 plus child benefits.

My local state Primary School was the ‘lowest achieving’ school in our outer London borough. I was very happy there and unaware how many of us had free school meals.

4.       How would you define yourself in terms of class, and do you see this as important to your politics?

Caroline Allen: Middle class. Having benefited from a good state education and free further education I have been very fortunate to have been able to realise my dream of being a vet, a professional position. I work for someone else as an employee. It is important because I know that I have been lucky and had advantages that others, such as my parents, didn’t.  They pushed me for this very reason. Now even fewer people have these opportunities. I don’t like being judged based on my job and class, for me it’s about being empathetic and appreciating where you’re from.

Natalie Bennett: I’m middle class now, but my origins are working class. My parents were aged 19 and 18 when they had me, my father being an apprentice carpenter, and both left school with the equivalent of basic O Levels. My father worked three jobs at once at times during my childhood, including serving in a petrol station, while my mother did part-time secretarial/admin work. Those childhood experiences inform my politics, but I don’t think talking about them in the political arena
is particularly relevant.

Pippa Bartolotti: I don’t see myself as belonging to any class. My father was a self-employed baker and shopkeeper, and my mother did not work. My grandfather was an immigrant – an escapee from fascism.

Being largely self-educated, and a late comer to politics, I am at home anywhere. I do not look down on anyone and consider myself above no-one. My chief concerns are inequality, climate change and human rights. These three issues transcend class.

Peter Cranie: I live a middle class lifestyle now, with enough to get by, and our children don’t miss out on things we make a choice on (e.g. organic milk for the youngest). But a working class background enables you to appreciate that a lot of people don’t have those choices.

Will Duckworth: Working-class [NB: Will received a version of the question which did not contain the second half of this question]

Richard Mallender : My mother was a teacher in both public and private sector schools, my father worked on the production line in a tractor factory, and I have worked in the public, private and charitable sectors and have twice been out of work for over a year; what class would that make me?

Alex Phillips: My politics reflect my upbringing and my community. I grew up in a Labour household in a city with a deep Labour tradition. Am I working class? Honestly, I don’t think I am. Whilst my gross income is less than £12,000 per year, I share a two-bedroomed flat with my partner; I’m a university graduate and a qualified Teacher. But, would I describe myself as socialist? Yes. Without a doubt this is the most accurate description of my politics. Everyone is aspirational, parents want to see their children do better than them and, at the same time, children want to do better than their parents. What we need is equality of opportunity. As Greens, our job is to make this a reality.

Romayne Phoenix: Academics might define me now as part of the economic ‘underclass’. I would say that I am working class and identify with all those who depend on a system that should operate for the benefit of the majority but is being skewed towards the benefits of the few. Many industries and employment opportunities disappeared from Britain as companies chased profit margins and the same capitalist values are causing economic, ecological and sociological destruction. The issue of class, wealth and power is central to the struggle for a better future.

5. Have you:

a) Ever attended a university that is now in the Russell Group, such as Oxford or Cambridge?

Caroline Allen: Yes. I decided at a young age I wanted to be a vet, no-one from my family had ever been to university, I attended a state school. I was told I had better think of something else, getting in to vet school was very hard. I got offers from Edinburgh and Cambridge vet schools. A freezing day and the thought of outdoor farm work put me off Edinburgh.

At Cambridge I was geek, not elite. I wasn’t invited to the drinking/debating societies but hung out with people like me, was taught by some inspiring people and became a vet.

Natalie Bennett: No

Pippa Bartolotti: No. University was not in the vocabulary of my family. I am largely self-educated.

Peter Cranie: No

Will Duckworth: No

Richard Mallender: No -As far as formal education goes I went to the Valley Comprehensive in Worksop, then North Nottinghamshire College of Further Education, on to Teesside Polytechnic graduating in 1990 and then studied for a year post-graduate at the University of Aberdeen.

Alex Phillips: No

Romayne Phoenix: No

b) Ever attended a private school?

Caroline Allen: No

Natalie Bennett: The system in Australia is slightly different than here but the bare bones are that I attended a state primary school then, due to good exam marks, I won a scholarship to attend a private secondary school.

Pippa Bartolotti: No

Peter Cranie: No. When we moved down to England I was given some tests and they sent me to the grammar school, but I don’t support that system of education.

Will Duckworth: No

Richard Mallender: No

Alex Phillips: No

Romayne Phoenix: From the lowest achieving primary school my verbal reasoning skills were seen as remarkable and, in 1971, I was ‘awarded’ a ‘free’ place at a very local non state secondary school – on the basis of an interview. Advised by colleagues and teachers not to accept the place for me, my mother rebelled.

Children being divided up and separated in this manner at this age cannot be positive for society.

Closing A&E first step to dismantling hospitals

Green Left LINK has published a valuable post by John Lister of Health Emergency on the background to the proposals on hospital reorganisations which include NW London NHS proposals which include an apparently non-negotiable decision to close Central Middlesex A&E:

The phony war is over. With Andrew Lansley's Bill now on the statute book, the gloves are off, and the extended standstill in the process of cuts in pursuit of the £20 billion "efficiency" target has come to an end.

But don't be fooled: this is no cock-up. It is all planned to happen.

One after another, desperate hospital trusts are revealing glimpses of their real financial situation. And accident and emergency units are at the top of their list as they start to close and cut - not because much can be saved by simply closing them - but as a crucial first step to dismantling and closing whole hospitals.

With A&E goes maternity, paediatrics, ITU, High Dependency Units and Coronary Care. With maternity goes women's care. With the loss of trauma goes orthopaedics. Emergency surgery is pronounced "unsafe" or "unsustainable" and removed.

Each element takes a range of supporting services with it, until the hospital is allowed to wither away: and each cutback also makes it harder to recruit medical staff and qualified nurses, opening up arguments that further cuts are required because staffing levels are "unsafe".

To cap it all, trendy arguments are wheeled out by the King's Fund, McKinsey and other hired hands suggesting that new "settings" can deliver services more efficiently and effectively than hospitals: the only snag is that these "settings" and services exist only on paper, lacking evidence they work, and of course the funds, facilities, staff and any political commitment to make them a reality.

Each A&E closure is dressed up and presented as a "clinical" decision: but we know they're being cynical. Vague promises of services "closer to home" end up with the closure of local hospitals that local people value and depend upon, but nothing to replace them.

The reason we know this is because, alongside A&E units, they're also cutting community services and cutting mental health - and the consultation documents on the closures keep referring to the "cash gap", the level of savings they say they need to make.

The list of cuts is growing longer week by week. In London we know that four A&E units - Ealing, Central Middlesex, Charing Cross and Hammersmith - face the axe in northwest London, St Helier hospital in Southwest London is to be run down, King George's hospital in Ilford, and of course Chase Farm in Enfield.

Across the country there are more: hospitals in Stafford, Rugby, Kidderminster, Redditch, Trafford General in Greater Manchester, Newark, Northallerton and Hartlepool. Among the A&E casualties are some brand new units built with the Private Finance Initiative [PFI]: Central Middlesex cost £62m less than 10 years ago: Bishop Auckland hospital, another PFI, is also to lose its A&E. But also on the hit list are hospitals unlucky enough to have been merged with PFI hospitals, or run by them.

Best known of these is Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup. It has already been largely dismembered in a futile attempt to balance the books of the South London healthcare trust, which is wrestling with ruinous bills for two hospitals, which cost about £210m to build, have been on the brink of bankruptcy for years, and are now dragging down health services for a million people in southeast London. After paying over £500m, there's another £2 billion still to pay.

Administrators have now been brought in to drive through rapid and drastic cuts, although it's still not clear what could be done to tackle such massive debt. Even if all services closed and all clinical staff were sacked, the Trust would still have a massive PFI bill to pay for 20 years: and no nearby hospitals have any spare capacity to treat the tens of thousands of patients displaced from Bromley, Greenwich and Bexley.

The curse of PFI is also driving cuts in Dewsbury in Yorkshire, which was unlucky enough to be merged into the Mid-Yorkshire hospitals trust, whose a newly completed £320m PFI deal fell immediately and deeply into crisis. Dewsbury could lose its A&E, while Pontefract's brand new urgent care centre has already been scaled back, and the main hospital in Wakefield, short of beds, struggles to cope.

But for managers these cuts are too small, and take too long to meet the massive £20 billion cuts target, which is ridiculously being called the 'Nicholson Challenge', when in reality it should be called the Banker's Bonus, the Lansley Bequest, or the Tax Dodgers' Legacy. The cuts were triggered by the banking crisis, deepened by Lansley as part of his plan to run down public sector provision in health and make room for private sector providers, and continue despite the fact that uncollected tax alone adds up to £120bn a year, six times the £20 billion target for cuts by 2014.

So bosses are looking to cut jobs - and even going beyond the current pay freeze to cut pay, with Trusts in the South West seeking to tear up the national Agenda for Change pay scales and threatening heavy tactics to impose pay cuts, and other bosses looking to downgrade staff to cut wages - in some cases by over £2,000 a year.

Job cuts are also on the way - even as we wait to hear the outcome of the inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire hospitals, where trust managers cut too deeply into nurse and medical staffing - with notoriously lethal results. And many trusts are now making cuts much bigger than the £10m that destabilised Mid Staffs.

While savage cuts undermine local services and the quality of care in those services which survive, the rush for private contracts is hotting up, in a new bonanza for the likes of Virgin Healthcare, Serco and other companies looking to cash in - slicing off attractive portions of NHS funded services, while leaving all the complex, costly and risky tasks to what remains of the public sector.

Virgin has now picked up lucrative contracts in community health care, and primary care, and even sexual health services and child health in Devon. Serco, too, is moving in anything they can get their hands on. That company's conspicuous failure to deliver on its contract to deliver out of hours primary care in Cornwall raises questions not only about Serco (pocketing the difference from chronic under-staffing) but also about completely ineffectual regulation and monitoring of private sector contracts by PCTs now, and by CCGs from next year .

Behind the scenes profitable consultancy firms like McKinsey and Ernst & Young are helping themselves to lavish contracts and lining up to take over a growing share of the work running the new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and their £60 billion budgets.

And while NHS budgets are frozen and falling against inflation, with less money each year for each treatment they deliver, NHS Foundation Trusts are also being freed to boost their budgets with private medicine: up to 49% of income can come from private sources .

While the private contracts are awarded behind the scenes, angry people up and down the country are beginning to mobilize to challenge the closures of local services. They may not really understand privatisation in the NHS or anything about Lansley's Bill, but Mr and Mrs Middle England do know and care about the loss of local emergency services and how long it would take them to go to the next hospital across if their local A&E is closed. This offers a basis of common ground for campaigns to link the issues of cuts privatisation and Lansley's Act.

Campaigns are cranking up. Consultations already just beginning on the cuts, and already public opinion is hardening against them. Some ministers with endangered hospitals in their constituencies are running for cover.

Campaigners have to press their local MPs, councillors, community organizations and CCGs to take a firm stand against these cuts.

Take every chance to challenge, block and delay every cut: they are all driven by a cash squeeze the coalition could resolve tomorrow if they collected the tax that's owed from their rich friends. Some are also driven by PFI: and ministers could sort this out as well, but prefer to leave the gravy train running for their friends in the private sector and watch the NHS squirm.

The cuts are deliberate, the crisis consciously created to open up our most popular public service to profiteers. Don't let them get away with it.

It's time to take a stand, reject the specious "clinical" case for cash-driven closures, and fight for our hospitals. Remember once it's gone, it's gone.

Poor turnout at NHS hospitals consultation

August is a curious month to have consultations, especially an exceptional August when the borough is hosting an Olympics. I was not expecting an enormous turnout at the 'Shaping a Healthier Future' road show on Tuesday but the 6-8 members of the public (some may have been from the PR company or local GPs) who had turned up by 2.45pm at the Patidar Centre was disappointing to say the least. Advertised variously as starting at 1pm or 2pm there were no NW London NHS people at the 2-4pm Q&A until one arrived at 2.45pm. Although a table had been set up for speakers at the back of the room the public chairs were arranged around the edge of the room like a school dance. There were half a dozen laptops on a table in the corner and some panel displays about the proposals. The room arrangement served to split people off from each other.

Because I had to catch a train from Wembley Central shortly after 3pm I button-holed the clinician with my questions. I first asked about the differencee between what the Urgent Care Centre offered and the service provided by A&E. I noted that the consultation document said that most UCCs were housed alongside A&E but that Central Middlesex would not have an A&E.

I was told that UCCs would deal with most cases - it could deal with broken arms but not broken legs! I was assured that cases that had gone to Central Middlesex UCC but could not be treated there would be transferred to Northwick Park by ambulance. Clearly this poses dangers for urgent cases.

I asked how school or work place first aiders would know whether cases should go to Central Middlesex UCC or Northwick Park A&E (would there be a 'menu'?) and was told that people would soon get used to the services offered by both as the changes would not be implemented for 3 or 4 years. Ambulance usage was only expected to rise by 5% (!) and NW London NHS supported the extension of the 18 bus route to Northwick Park to serve the people of Harlesden and Stonebridge.

When I reported the difficulties that a friend had with treatment at what appeared to be an overloaded A&E at Northwick Park I was told that £20m would be spent on expanding the ward, staff would be transferred from Central Middlesex A&E and additional doctors and nurses hired.

I would be interested to hear whether there was better attendance at the evening session and hear about any discussions that took place,

The roadshow is next in Brent on Saturday September 29th at Harlesden Methodist Church, 25 High Street, NW10 from 10am-4pm.

Find out more about Green Party leadership candidates

Please find below a list of the candidates for leader and deputy leader of the Green Party. Click on each name to link to their campaign website and find out about their election platform.  We are lucky in the Greens to have some excellent candidates.

Voting information can be found in the current edition of Green World which should be delivered this week.

Party Leader
Natalie Bennett
Pippa Bartolotti
Peter Cranie
Romayne Phoenix

Deputy Leader
Caroline Allen
Will Duckworth
Richard Mallender
Alexandra Phillips

Kensal Rise Library petition: don't delay, sign today

 Kensal Rise Library campaigners are meeting with All Souls College today about the future of the building. They urgently need more signatories for their petition below to reach the 3,000 target and thus  strengthen their hand. Sign HERE
 

Kensal Rise is a melting-pot of culture, faith, and class, and the Library has been at the heart of this community ever since Mark Twain opened its doors 111 years ago. The Library was created for the betterment of the working class residents, and while the land was gifted by All Souls College, Oxford, the local community and local taxes financed the building itself.

Kensal Rise Library has survived two World Wars and the Great Depression; but sadly it was not able to fend off Brent Council’s closure threats, and the Library was brutally shut in October last year when Brent shamefully disposed of six of its 12 libraries (brentsoslibraries.org.uk/sos).

The local community is determined to save Kensal Rise Library and has established a campaign (savekensalriselibrary.org) as well as a charity, the Friends of Kensal Rise Library (friendsofkensalriselibrary.org), to oversee the running of the Library. The Friends are ready and able to take over the Library at a moments notice, but there is one significant hurdle before this can be achieved - All Souls needs to RESTORE THE BUILDING TO THE COMMUNITY.

All Souls has previously stated that they are “happy for the Friends to run the Library”, but they are preparing KENSAL RISE LIBRARY for an OPEN BIDDING PROCESS. All Souls current plans are in contrast to their previous commitments to the community and their long history in Kensal Rise. Surely this cannot be what the Fellows intend?

We therefore ask All Souls to revert their current course and transfer the freehold of the building to the Friends of Kensal Rise Library so that it can be restored to the community.

Brent Council joins the 'cloud' - what are the risks?

Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing

In its recent Corporate Risk register Brent Council recognised that there was a possibility of an IT failure in its move to the Civic Centre in the summer of 2013.  Brent Council has reached an agreement with other London councils to share services via a 'cloud' computing company, Capgemini which put out the following statement:

Six London borough councils have signed a four-year contract with Capgemini that will see them move their finance, procurement, HR and payroll services to the cloud.
The shared services project involves Lambeth, Lewisham, Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Croydon and Havering councils.

It is the first programme to be announced under Project Athena, which will lay the foundations for a single ICT platform for use by all London-based public sector organisations.
Capgemini claims the deal is the most ambitious IT programme ever undertaken by local government and will pave the way for similar initiatives across the UK.

The councils' new systems are scheduled to go live in July 2013 and will be managed by Capgemini for a further three years.

Mike Suarez, executive director for finance and resources for Lambeth Council, who led the bid for the transformation contract, said:

All councils share common support functions - like HR, finance and procurement - but we have our own ways of doing them. If we can use the same system, we will streamline our processes and save money without cutting services.

Managers will have access to budgets in real time and not need to complete endless paperwork for the simplest of tasks – making real savings for the tax payer.

Suzy Foster, head of local government of Capgemini UK, said:

We have helped many public sector bodies improve services to the public and save money by streamlining their IT and business processes. We are now delighted to have the opportunity to deliver these same benefits in the greatest city in the world.

I hope that officers and councillors have addressed the issues of security, lock-in (to contract), lack of control and reliability that the diagram above identifies as possible drawbacks to such a system. Clearly these pose risks for both residents and council services. It is not clear what the move will mean eventually in terms of job losses.

The combination of both a physical move and a digital one presents a major challenge,

More on cloud computing services HERE

Cllr Allie's new allies have questions to answer on health and libraries

Guest blog by library campaigner Gaynor Lloyd

I refer to the “open letter” from James Allie published on Martin Francis’ required reading Wembley Matters blog.

Speaking as a Labour supporter of the “Old” variety - and so heartsick at understanding this - Mr Allie will forgive my saying that he displays a woeful lack of understanding of New Labour’s role in the impending car crash of the NHS currently being accelerated by the Coalition Government.

Thatcher may have started the bridgehead of the private sector into the NHS – of which our Shaping a Healthier Future – Brent/Ealing plans are just the latest manifestation - but Blair, his assistant and his Ministers of Health pushed it into pole position. 

·        Simon Stevens walked out of Blair’s private office to a senior position in the British arm of United Health (an American healthcare company) which was keen to bid for my doctors’ surgery, amongst many other NHS facilities. 

·      Alan Milburn left the Health Ministry to walk into a£30,000 a year post as adviser to Bridgepoint Capital which is a private equity company investing in Care UK – on your front page last week as “managing” the Urgent Care Centre at Central Middlesex - which is all we’ll have left if the consultation goes through and A&E goes. 

·        Patricia Hewitt came from McKinsey (American management consultants) into Blair’s Health Minister’s job and promptly set off introducing the necessary means to get the American health model here, with its opportunities to take profit from our marketised health service. McKinsey have a role in drafting the very constitution of the Clinical Care Commissioning Group that will take over the responsibility for commissioning health services in our Borough (just like many other Boroughs) – so many thanks to New Labour, Mr Allie, for facilitating that. I would just say – be very careful, Mr Allie who you jump into bed with on the grounds of their “Labour values”.

Tory Andrew Lansley has to take prime liability for the latest reforms, of course but, as far as I can see, whilst the Lib Dems may have been useless in stopping the recent legislation, they do seem to be the only one of the three main parties without some “high up” compromised by his/her role in this debacle.

Why I really needed to burst into print was to rebut Mr Allie’s disgraceful comments about Paul Lorber and his alleged “posturing” in relation to the library campaign. Has Mr Allie had any sort of clue about the facts behind these cuts and the Library campaign in particular, he might have amended the script of his open letter. 

I have been involved in Brent SOS campaign virtually from inception. I am no Lib Dem but at least I keep my political points to facts. If you feel like getting a few facts, try asking the Council’s officers, Mr Allie, about what appears to be their gross mismanagement by the Council of their trusteeship of the Barham Charity resulting in losses over the years while the Officers treated our building in Barham Park as though it was the Council’s own. Perhaps if the Council had paid the rent it ought to have done to the Charity for the use of its buildings, the alleged losses that the Council based its closure of Barham on, might have disappeared!

I cannot speak for other members of Brent SOS campaign but, in so far as Barham Library is concerned, without Paul we would be nowhere. He works unceasingly for the disadvantaged people of his Ward – crucially affected by the closure of “our library” at Barham. Mr Allie, ask the 210 members – mostly children – who have joined the Barham Library in exile. Ask their parents whether their children love coming to our Volunteer Library for the fun we have, the educational quizzes and activities we do, and the number of books we issue, as Paul devotes time week after week after week. He is an inspiration to us volunteers. He does all of this, because he cares about the effect of the closures – not for the purpose of political point scoring but for the disadvantaged of Brent. 

I sat in the Council Chamber (as I can only think you did but perhaps you had dropped off) while your new colleagues laughed as they acclaimed the closure of our libraries. Some of them have had the grace to come and look at the work we are doing – even commending it. I still have enough naivety to believe they meant it and you just aren’t up to speed, being a new recruit. Please, Councillor Allie, remember that comments like yours may win you a few friends in your new “safe” home with Brent Labour Group – but they don’t cut much ice with anyone who knows anything about Brent’s unique policy on library closures, or the figures behind it.

My choice for the Green Party leadership: Romayne and Will

Campaigning is hotting up for the Green Party leadership. In this video my personal choices for Leader and Deputy, Romayne Phoenix and Will Duckworth explain their policies.