Park Royal fire reignites Harlesden's safety concerns

The bio-chemical fire earlier today at Midland Road, Park Royal, highlights residents' concerns about the issue of air quality in the area and the dangers posed by some of the local industrial facilities. The  Kilburn Times report is HERE  As the heavy smoke spread across parts of Ealing and Harlesden and residents were told to close their windows, questions were again being asked about the safety of plans for an incinerator in the Harlesden area. Ealing Council are due to consider the planning application again after postponing a decision in the summer. The plans have been opposed by Brent Council.

The photographs of the scene (below) were contributed by a local resident:

Labour also fail to grasp the significance of Gove's education revolution

Following the Green Party Conference's  failure to approve a full review of its education policy, in consultation with teacher organisations, parents' groups and students, it appears that the Labour Party has also failed to grasp the full extent of Michael Gove's neoliberal revolution.

The following account has appeared on the Left Futures website LINK

The debate on the education section of the NPF report, on the first day of Conference, was opened by Peter Wheeler (NEC). Six delegates spoke: three prospective parliamentary candidates and three union delegates (GMB, Unison, Unite). Stephen Twigg replied to ‘discussion’. No teachers, local authority councillors, educational campaigners or university educationalists took part. This session lasted 36 minutes.

Although the nominal purpose of the session was to debate the two sections of the NPF report devoted to education no one spoke for or against anything in the report. It was a debate in name only. Had the speakers read the education section of the NPF report? Did they approve its contents? We will never know.

An innocent observer could be forgiven for wondering why the party that came to power saying that its three priorities were education, education and education could only find 36 minutes of its annual conference for the subject. Such an observer might also be forgiven for wondering how it was that all the Labour Party’s complex policy-making machinery could result in educational material for conference that passes no comment on the transformation of education under the Coalition. Schools have been removed from local authorities and made into “independent” units – often under the aegis of powerful private sponsors. Local Authorities are being progressively removed from the sphere of education and private operators play an increasing role, but none of this seems to figure in Labour’s concerns.

How is it that Labour can present policies on education which do not deal with these problem? The answer has to be that Labour does not think that such things are problems. Labour policy differs from that of the Tories/Coalition on matters of detail (which is not to deny the importance of some of those details) but on basic principles it would not be possible to get a cigarette paper between Tory and Labour Policy.

In opening, Peter Wheeler for the NEC said that Labour wants cooperation in order to produce the best education while the Tories favour division and competition. And yet the reality is that Labour and Conservatives believe that the way forward is to make schools into independent units competing for parental choice. He said that only Labour authorities were resisting Coalition policy. Sadly this is quite untrue. Some Conservative Councils have put up more resistance to Gove’s reforms than some Labour Councils.

Of the three union speakers two spoke about the importance of teaching assistants and the Coalition cuts forcing a reduction in their numbers. This is a good point but there is nothing in the NPF report about this. One speaker called for the abolition of tuition fees in FE/HE but this point was simply ignored as if it had never been said – such was the nature of the ‘debate’.

The prospective parliamentary candidates tried to raise enthusiasm with talk of Labour as the “Party of Aspiration”, denunciations of the Tories on childcare and rising child poverty, the demand for quality apprenticeships and the claim that the economy “must be powered by the many and not the few”. However, this was all speech making to move conference along and none of it had the slightest implication for the NPF report which was supposed to be under consideration.

Stephen Twigg replied to the preceding non-discussion. He talked of growing child poverty and Labour’s plan to provide child care as of right from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm. He denounced the use of unqualified teachers and claimed that Labour’s “mission” was to “place power and wealth in the hands of the many not the few”. This radical sounding statement (which has no reality in Labour policy) was immediately offset by an elitist discussion of opportunity. Success for Stephen Twigg seems to be measured by getting to a “top university” (a phrase he used three times in his eleven minutes on the podium). It seems not to have occurred to him that if a small minority of universities are designated as “top”, then by definition the great majority will not go to them. Someone should tell him that if you focus obsessively on “the best” you forget the rest.

Finally Stephen Twigg repeated Labour’s commitment to providing high quality apprenticeships for all those who do not go to university although he did not tell us how this would be achieved beyond saying that firms with government contracts would be required to provide quality apprenticeships.

For anyone following the dramatic changes to the educational landscape in England the whole debate would have had a strange air of unreality. None of the major political issues of the Gove revolution in our schools were even hinted at. For the moment Labour is still set on the educational course and the educational philosophy set by New Labour. It is a path to fragmentation and division in education. Its basis is in neo-liberal ideology and as far from a democratic and socialist perspective it is possible to be.

Greens debate whether local councils should act as the Coalition's bailiffs

There was a lively and passionate debate at the Green Party Conference on 'Greens in Local Government' in which a position  that Green Councils should propose budgets that do not entails cuts, and another  recognising that the reputational damage to an anti-cuts party of Green Councils carrying out cuts on behalf of central government, may outweigh the benefits of trying to make cuts in a 'caring and consultative manner', were defeated.

Despite this setback a Green Left fringe meeting attended by some Brighton and Hove councillors carried on the debate, demonstrating that this issue remains live. The recent undermining of local government through financial cuts and the unexpectedly large cuts that will take place next year make this a genuine issue for all local councils of whatever political complexion. Are we content to be the Coalition's bailiffs?

These videos are  a record of that fringe meeting:

Boris's Housing Horror: The Video

There was consternation when I revealed that the new flats at Willesen Green Library were being marketed in Singapore with the unique selling point implying that they contain no riffraff because there were no affordable homes or key workers on site.

The redevelopment at West Hendon on the Welsh Harp includes tower blocks of luxury flats clearly aimed at the international market rather than Londoners.

Darren Johnsons's report BELOW set out how this is part of the London Mayor's policy. The video puts the message over succinctly.  How many more Brent developments will be aimed at overseas investors or buy-to-let landlords?

Cheeky Caroline greets Labour in Brighton with 'Greens are the REAL opposition' message

Labour Party members attending their conference in Brighton this weekend, in the constituency of the UK’s first Green MP, will be welcomed by a billboard making the case that it is Caroline Lucas who is offering the real opposition in parliament.

The digital advert will be on display prominently on Queen’s Road – one of Brighton’s main thoroughfares. The street is the main route down which Labour delegates and lobbyists who arrive by train will travel to reach the conference at the sea-front Metropole Hotel.

The ad starts with a check list, against a red backdrop, reading: “Saving the NHS, Fighting Austerity, Railways in Public Hands, Scrapping Trident.” As the screen turns green, the billboard says “Brought to you by the Green Party.”

The final screen displays a photo of Caroline Lucas MP and reads: “Welcome to Brighton – Home of the True Opposition in Parliament. p.s. Labour is down the hill on the right.”

Rob Shepherd, Chair of Brighton and Hove Green Party, said, “We know a lot of Labour members want their party leadership to stand up to austerity and NHS privatisation, and to support progressive policies such as public ownership of the railways.

“We wanted to remind them that there’s an MP already fighting for these causes in Parliament. It would be great to see Labour members using their conference to encourage Ed Miliband to follow Caroline’s lead on standing up for these causes, and bring together a powerful coalition of voices to reverse the consensus that austerity and privatisation are the only game in town.”

The Green Party’s own autumn conference took place last weekend, also in Brighton.  In her conference speech Caroline Lucas criticised cuts to welfare and local services, and argued that it is the Green Party, rather than Labour, that is offering the real opposition to the Government's agenda of austerity and privatisation.

She is speaking at two events at Labour’s conference – a Compass panel discussion called ‘Labour – an open tribe?’ and an Institute for Public Policy Research event titled ‘The Condition of Britain’.

Her Private Member’s Bill to bring the railways back into public hands is due its second reading next month.

Crumbs for Londoners - Darren Johnson on the Mayor's housing policy

The Mayor expects 80% of new housing to be in these 33 regeneration areas

 Darren Johnson, the Green Assembly Member,  has published a thoroughly researched report on the London Mayor's approach to the housing crisis and the construction of  luxury blocks, such as those at Willesden Green Library, which Boris Johnson  supports as part of the solution.  The full report is available HERE

The Willesden Green apartments are being advertised in Singapore with the selling point that they have no affordable housing or key workers on site. Yesterday it was revealed that flats in Stratford are being adverised in a similar way.

Darren Johnson writes:

It is much easier for the big developers behind these projects to get the finance from banks if they can sell lots of housing off-plan (before it is built). Investor landlords are quite happy to buy off-plan and have little difficulty in securing the cash or mortgage.By putting the money in up front they have, in the Mayor’s words,“helped bring forward housing development”. The Mayor estimates that one third of all buyers of new homes are from overseas, and that two thirds of all new homes are sold to investors

.

Whether it is a Londoner looking for a buy-to-let investment,a pension fund investing in new private rented housing,or an overseas investor exploiting the exchange rates, the Mayor is a champion of anything that gets housing built.

After looking at a series of case studies and examination of the evidence Johnson concludes:

National government policy has put local councillors, planning officers and residents in a difficult spot. They are constrained by a free market dogma that says we just need developers to build more homes, and that ignores the potential for other approaches.


The law of supply and demand works with things we consume. If the price of TVs is high, produce more TVs to meet demand and prices will fall. But private developers are very unlikely to meet the demand for housing. If the supply of TVs doesn’t increase and prices stay high then demand should fall off.


But when house prices rise people see an opportunity to make money so demand can keep rising, especially if investors from around the world join the feast.


The Government is encouraging buy-to-let mortgages with tax breaks; helping people take out unaffordable mortgages with Help to Buy; encouraging overseas investors to buy new homes off plan.


The Mayor supports these policies because he says they increase supply, but of course they are also increasing demand.In fact, they are probably more successful at increasing demand than they are at increasing supply, so they are actually making the problem worse.


Councils and residents can’t do very much about this.


But the Mayor of London is in a unique position to advocate bold changes to housing policy. He has recently argued that stamp duty revenue in London should be devolved to City Hall, giving him a large budget for affordable housing.


He could go further and call for a housing policy that:


1. constrains demand by putting controls or extra taxes on overseas investors and second home owners, or by putting a tax on all land values to dampen speculation and stop developers sitting on large, unused land banks
2. gives councils, housing associations and co-operatives the money and powers to build affordable homes that stay affordable forever whatever the market is doing, instead of expecting the private market to build them
3. puts ordinary people in a better position to weather the crisis while it is tackled, for example with continental-style stabilising rent controls and protections for private tenants, ideas backed by the majority of the Assembly in its own reviews of housing and its majority support for the Let Down campaign

Comments can be sent to: darren.johnson@london.gov.uk or the researcher tom.chance@london.gov.uk

Brent Beats with Simon Mole on Thursday at Wembley Library

In association with Spread the Word, spoken word poet and MC Simon Mole leads this taster workshop on Thursday 26th September at Wembley Library (Civic Centre) opposite Wembley Arena. 4pm to 6pm

Try your hand at Freestyling and Spoken Word… and create a piece of your own that you can perform along with Simon and other poets such as Raymund Antrobus, Adam Kammerling and Deanna Rodger at the Chill Pill Open Mic at the Brent Civic Centre Opening Ceremony on Sunday 6 October.

Simon will also be running workshops on Sunday 6 October at 12.30pm and 2.30pm, where you can create more poems and raps, and prepare for your Chill Pill moment….
www.simonmole.com
www.chill-pill.co.uk

Rally and rhetoric at WL People's Assembly but strategy needed

Owen Jones gets into his stride (Photo: Simerjit Gill)

 

About 100 attended the Assembly (Photo: Simerjit Gill)

Last night's West London People's Assembly was certainly a lively affair with many passionate speeches but I was a little concerned when I saw the chair of the meeting and 5 speakers on the platform. There was some anxiety at the main People's Assembly at Central Hall that it would be more of a rally than an organising meeting. In the event it was a bit of both. I was concerned that this local assembly, covering Brent, Hammersmith  & Fulham and Ealing, would also be more of a rally, although surely that must be where we  analyse and prioritise  local issues and our strategy?

Although speakers were keen to say they would not just describe how awful things are it inevitably becomes the main theme topped off with rousing calls for action and unity. This certainly raises morale but doesn't get down to the nitty gritty. Advertising trains and coaches for the Tory Party demonstration on September 29th is important but what are the next steps in keeping our local A&Es open or fighting the privatisation of our schools? How relevant is it to organise across boroughs when local councils, even of the same political complexion, are dealing with the cuts in such different ways?

 Next month there will be a founding meeting of the West London People's Assembly where its structure will be decided and officers elected and perhaps these issues will be discussed then.

As a common issue across the boroughs, and of course a national issues, the future of the NHS was prominent in the speeches and contributions as was the general theme of the poor being made to pay for the bankers' crisis, and the demonising of the poor by politicians and media in an effort to divide and rule. The focus on the real human stories behind austerity made us both more angry and more determined.

It was good that the Campaign Against Climate Change shared the platform with UK Uncut, hospital campaigners and trade unionists. Suzanne Jeffrey for CaCC made some telling points comparing  the economic and climate crises.

She said government and bankers knew the system was a sham but pretended there was no problem  or indeed that they were creating the problem, and when the crisis broke blamed it on over spending in the public sector and making the poor pay. Government and industry similarly pretended  there was no problem with climate change, denying their role in creating and increasing the problem, and then shifted the responsibility on to ordinary people and their life styles, or even worse on to people in developing countries.

Having just returned from the Green Party it was interesting to note that many of the solutions that Owen Jones proposed in his summing up are in fact Green Party policy.