Some prickly characters seen in Wembley

I was cheered up on seeing these hedgehogs late last night on my way back from the Wembley Green Man. They were on the lawns in front of the flats on King's Drive, opposite the former Town Hall Library.

It is estimated that the population of hedgehogs in the UK has declined from an estimated 36 million to just 1 million affected by loss of habitat and increased traffic fatalities.


Readers of the BBC Wildlife magazine recently voted for the hedgehog to be the nation's wildlife symbol which the Green Party welcomed as appropriate as it represents the threat faced by many species.

Caroline Lucas will be leading a session at our forthcoming conference on the RSPB State of Nature report LINK

Hundreds urge Brent to exclude Veolia from Public Realm contract

Around 40 human rights demonstrators gathered outside Brent Civic Centre last night as a petition signed by hundred of Brent residents was presented to the Brent Executive calling for Veolia to be excluded from the Public Realm contract procurement process. The contract worth up to £250m over 16 years will be awarded by the Brent Executive at their October 14th meeting.

Exclusion is sought on the grounds that Veolia in its operations in the occupied territories of Palestine is colluding in the maintenance of illegal settlements and this infringing the human rights of Palestinians.

Veolia has been short-listed alongside Enterprise and Serco for the contract.

After hearing the speech from Liz Lindsay, Secretary of Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity and an activist in the Bin Veolia in Brent Campaign, the Executive referred the petition to FionaLedden, head of procurement for consideration.

Liz Lindsay's speech was warmly applauded from the crowded public gallery.

THE CASE AGAINST VEOLIA'S INCLUSION IN THE 

BRENT PUBLIC REALM PROCUREMENT

Just as pension funds are concerned about ethical investment we believe the council should be concerned about ethical procurement. 

The public would not want the council   to give contracts to companies involved in the exploitation of child labour or the arms trade.

Veolia who are bidding for the Public Realm contract are serving the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The UK Govt and UN do not recognise Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Veolia helps support Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land by

• Supporting the Jerusalem Light Rail between West Jerusalem and an illegal settlement
• Running bus routes along the Apartheid road 443 that link illegal Israeli  settlements .
• Owning  the Tovlan landfill site that takes refuse from illegal settlements and Israel.

Veoila therefore profits by actively supporting Israel’s continued violation of international humanitarian law

 

Under Public Contracts Regulations, a public body may exclude a bidder or reject a bid where it is found the organisation has ‘committed grave misconduct in the course of their business’

In 2009, the UN General Assembly called on Israel to cease the dumping of waste  in occupied Palestinian land.

In 2010, UK was one of countries that voted in support of the UNHR Council resolution that stated JLR operated by Veolia is in clear violation of International Law and relevant UN resolutions.

In 2012, Richard Falk UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT concludes that

– Veolia’s grave breaches of the UN Global Compact make it an inappropriate partner for any public institution, especially as a provider of public services.

Also, Veolia was forced to withdraw JLR recruitment advertisements because they discriminated against Palestinians.

Locally,  WLWA, Ealing, Harrow, Richmond did not select Veolia as the preferred bidder and all had been involved in discussions with anti-Veolia campaigners.

Veolia withdrew after 2 years from the final stages of the £4.5bn NLWA procurement when they were one of only two bidders left.

As Veolia has become the target of worldwide campaigns, Veolia  has tried to waive responsibility, claiming in 2011 for example that it had sold Tovlan. 

However,  on the 17^th Jan 2013, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection –in response to FOI by a Women's Peace Group in Tel Aviv confirmed that Veolia is the sole owner and operator of Tovlan.

We informed Brent Council of this on the 14^th March but Veolia repeated its claim on 21^st May 2013.

The Council does not appear to have challenged this misrepresentation. 

In June 2013, an Israeli Court fined Veolia 1.5 million shekels for burying mixed waste to avoid higher fees and for keeping inconsistent records.

Brent Council should seriously question any information that Veolia provides in its defence in its bid to win the contract.

One argument used against exclusion has been that Veolia in Israel and in the UK are separate entities. There is ample evidence available that Veolia is one commercial entity. 

Also, Justin Brazier, Tory MP, facilitated a meeting between Veolia Executive, Robert Hunt and Canterbury Campaigners at which Robert Hunt confirmed that Veolia was one commercial entity. 

Francis Maude on the 23^rd May, 2012 stated explicitly,  regarding illegal settlements that companies that have committed ‘an act of grave professional misconduct in the course of their business may be excluded from a tender exercise’

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR BRENT COUNCIL?

Brent Council is particularly proud of representing a diverse population and is committed to equality and opposed to racism as demonstrated recently by their stand against the 'racist van' and the UKBA raids. 

Human rights issues are at the core of the Council's values.

Our campaign has been supported by members from many religions and non-religious residents, by members of the Labour, Lib Dem and Green parties, by Brent TUC, trade unions,  GCs of Brent Central,  and Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Parties and local members of Jews for Justice for Palestinians.

We call on the Executive to take a principled stand on the issue of Veolia's collusion in the abuse of the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories and to take action by excluding Veolia from the £260m Public Realm contract.

Bishop Tutu said what he saw in occupied Palestine could describe apartheid South Africa.. Nelson Mandela, now a Freeman of Brent, said he would not be truly free until the Palestinian people are free. Respect them -  BIN VEOLIA!.

'Go to Hell!!!' councillor apologises

A Brent Labour group source informs me that Cllr Dhiraj Kataria has now apologised to Rendall Mallakee for the 'unacceptable language' employed in his email. The source adds that although as best as they can tell no one of that name lives in the borough Cllr Kataria believed Mallakee to be a Brent residnt at the time of the correspondence.

See original story HERE

Caroline Lucas appeals to unhappy Labour voters

From yesterday's Guardian

I've been reading with interest the recent correspondence on these pages about the kind of Labour party people would like to vote for. As I read through the list of John Walton's initial policy proposals (Suggestions for a Labour manifesto, 14 August), it struck me that they all sounded very familiar. And that's for the very good reason that, almost without exception, they are long-standing Green party policies. Whether it's repealing the coalition's disastrous NHS legislation, bringing rail back into public ownership (the subject of my current private member's bill), abandoning PFI and ending the privatising of public services, or scrapping Trident and ending fracking, these are all policies the Greens have long espoused.

Although imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, I can't help thinking that the best way to see these policies realised would be for the people who support them to vote for the party that is already signed up to them.

Over a million people voted for the Green party in the last European elections (the last time the UK had a nationwide vote under a proportional system), and a recent YouGov poll for the Electoral Reform Society put us at 12%, ahead of the Lib Dems, and on course to win four more seats at the Euro elections next year, taking our tally to six.

We don't need a new radical and progressive political party: we need a fairer electoral system to allow the one we've got, the Green party, to break through in the general election, and give louder voice to these views. Under proportional representation, there would be no need for "splits on the left", as some of your correspondents feared – progressive parties could work together in the best interests of everyone who wants to see a socially just and environmentally sustainable future.

Caroline Lucas MP
Green, Brighton Pavilion

Democratic deficit necessitates peaceful direct action says Lucas after her fracking arrest

After her arrest today at Balcombe anti-fracking protest, Caroline Lucas MP said:

“Along with everyone else who took action today, I’m trying to stop a process which could cause enormous damage for decades to come. The evidence is clear that fracking undermines efforts to tackle the climate crisis and poses potential risks to the local environment.

 “People today, myself included, took peaceful non-violent direct action only after exhausting every other means of protest available to us.  I’m in the privileged position of being able to put questions to the Government directly and arrange debates in Parliament, but still ministers have refused to listen.

“Despite the opposition to fracking being abundantly clear, the Government has completely ignored the views of those they are supposed to represent.  When the democratic deficit is so enormous, people are left with very little option but to take peaceful, non-violent direct action.”

Thanks to Steve Hynd for this statement which appears on his blog LINK

Making sure unemployed workers are no 'push over' or 'sanctions fodder'

Spreading the word

Guest blog by Alan Wheatley of the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

One of our statements/slogans is 'Benefiting Brent & Camden & Beyond'. The major focus in our weekly business meetings is casework. It's a great 'crowd gatherer' to the point that our meetings attract as many as 12 on a regular basis, with some coming from as far away as Hackney, Wandsworth and Bromley though our core is predominantly from the boroughs of Brent and Camden. We are also very ethnically diverse, with African-Caribbean, Indian/White British mixed race, Serbian and Greek representation. We are also well-balanced by gender, and while most are disabled we also have people not applying for disability benefits. In more of an andragogy  LINK of the oppressed than a pedagogy LINK, our casework sessions reflect the fact that we've 'all been there' and can pool our knowledge and expertise in response to what is thrown at us by increasingly oppressive jobcentre workers and privatised contractors.

ARE THEY TAKING THE PISS OR TRYING TO DRAW BLOOD?

 The armoury of tactics and strategies that jobcentre and privatised contractor staff throw at JSA, Work Programme and ex-Work Programme clients to make them sanctions fodder include the entrapment of getting them to fill in their personal details and signature on forms before whatever they are supposed to be agreeing to has been written yet, or the staff member obscuring everything but the signature space. Yet another ploy that is becoming more and more the norm for people who have been parked on the Work Programme for a year is to be told to apply for as many as 14 jobs per week and to sign on at the jobcentre not just fortnightly but five days a week!

How many hours per week would a quality processing of one job application per week take? Multiply that by even 7 and add the practicalities of signing on five days per week and would you not be working more than a 48 hour EU Working Time Directive week? And people re-registering at the jobcentre after being 'parked' on the Work Programme for a year are also told to show their last six months bank statements.(1)

Yet this is abuse that follows on from a year of neglect. Consider the bargaining power issues in the fact that the claimant has no real bargaining power and their 'client adviser' at the Work Programme company can have as many as 250 people on their caseload.(2) But a counter-response that the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is finding increasingly effective is to make sure that a person going for, say, a re-registration interview at the jobcentre does not go alone. We reckon that that kind of 'first aid' makes whatever follow-up tribunal action less taxing or even unnecessary. The oppressor — who has probably been threatened with being sanctioned themselves if they do not meet targets — realises that the person in front of them is not 'a push over'.(3)

Notes:
(1) See reference to 'payment-by-results' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_Programme_%28United_Kingdom
 (2) http://indusdelta.co.uk/discussion/work_programme_case_loads/6453
(3) Some abusers arguably do not need to be threatened with sanctions to collude in the sanctioning of benefit claimants. Perhaps what Transline are more concerned about in the case of their worker Kelly Stone is that she broke 'commercial confidentiality' rather than that she delighted in a sense of the negative influence she could have on others' lives? http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/recruitment-worker-kelly-stone-suspended-2162766

Brent Town Hall plaques to be replicated for Civic Centre gardens

In an earlier posting LINK I asked about the future of the memorial plaques and trees currently standing in the gardens outside Brent Town Hall. They include memorials to post-war European Peace, Hiroshima and the abolition of the Slave Trade.

The Town Hall has now been fully vacated on the move to the Civic Centre and is closed to the public.

The Brent Parks Department have now told me the welcome news that the plaques will be replicated and placed within the memorial area of the Civic Centre gardens.

'Don't believe you can't make a difference' Lucas tells Balcombe protesters