International Anti-War Conference this Saturday

ANTI-WAR CONFERENCE SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER

FULL TIMETABLE

The international anti-war conference on Saturday 30 November will address the key issues of the 'war on terror', and includes sessions on the history of British imperialism, drone warfare, the scramble for Africa and state attacks on civil liberties.

The discussions will be led by keynote speakers from across the world -- from the USA to Iraq, from Afghanistan to India, from Ireland to the Middle East. They include Jeremy Scahill, Owen Jones, Diane Abbot MP, Manik Mukherjee, Rachel Shabi, Lindsey German, Tariq Ali and Mitra Qayoom. (See full speaker list: http://bit.ly/1iTCGgE)

Advance booking here: http://bit.ly/1iTCGgE
• A student rate of £5 is available until Thursday 28 November
• Free entry for all Friends of Stop the War
• Tickets will also be available on the day of the conference

FULL TIMETABLE

10 - 11am Plenary: Imperialism, war and resistance
Jeremy Corbyn MP (chair), Jeremy Scahill, Diane Abbott MP, Tariq Ali, Lindsey German, Joan Humphreys, Peter Brierley, Andrew Murray.

11.15am - 12.15pm  Parallel sessions

• A very short history of British imperialism
with Seumas Milne, John Rees,
• Merchants of death: drones and the arms trade
with Ala'a Shehabi, Chris Cole, Jean Lambert MEP

12.30 - 1.30pm Lunch

1.30pm - 2.30pm Parallel Sessions

• The new scramble for Africa
with Explo Nani Kofi, Jeremy Corbyn MP

• Nato: expansion and war
with Edward Horgan, Steve Bell and others

2.30pm - 3.30pm Parallel Sessions

• The Syrian War in Context
with Sami Ramadani,  Jonathan Steele, Kevin Ovenden

• Taking liberties: surveillance, the state and Islamophobia
with Shazia Arzad, Shamiul Joarder

3.45 - 5pm Plenary Building the international movement
Manik Mukherjee, Owen Jones, Explo Nani Kofi, Chris Nineham, Mitra Qayoom, Tony Benn, Sami Ramadani, Sarah Colborne

Stop the War Coalition | office@stopwar.org.uk | 020 7561 4830

Queensbury Caption Comp: and the winner is....

After reviewing the very high standard of entries, the winner of the caption competition is Anonymous, who posted on Wembley Matters. The winning caption is:

" Right, that's the 'Green' bit deleted. Now for 'Willesden' "

Congratulations to the anonymous captioner. Please would they make themselves known and email savethequeensbury@gmail.com to claim their meal voucher for two, kindly donated by The Queensbury Pub. Please claim your prize within 14 days or it may be awarded to another entry.

Thanks to everyone who entered and we would particularly like to thank Councillor Butt for his sense of humour and taking this competition in the light hearted manner in which it was intended.

Below are some of the other entries which came in via Twitter and Facebook. The other comments are under 'Comments' on this blog HERE

No need for a caption. There are times when a picture is worth a thousand words. (Sarah Cox)

Maybe there is some mileage in introducing Butt Bikes, there's an app for that. (Sedley Bryden)

No library,no pub,evictions,impoverishment..and  lots of scary signs.Do I get the David Blunkett award ? (Graham Durham)

Beam me out Scotty. (Monika Hofman)

He is about to press the red button ! (@orfray)

The Queensbury? Now that rings a bell, let me google that..." (@JudithKerem)

23p, 2 Euros and a zloty! Busking is no substitute for council expenses! (@BartonBank)

Think Bungler (@pinemarten100)

Think Burglar - 'Burglary classes and tips from the pros (@MorganCannonDJ)

Always be careful when standing near these signs and a photo is being taken. IT can show you in a poor light! (@Dan_Filson)

Delete N, add R...delete E, add A...press return...sorted! (@BartonBank)

Oih! Someone's pinched me assets! (Martin)

Police investigate new lead in disappearance of books and muriels from local library (Ed)

The catch is the meal is with @CllrButt and @PukkahPunjabi is paying. (@CllrButt) [Ed's note - it's not, we promise]

Thanks to everyone who took part and especially to Cllr Muhammed Butt who took it in a good spirit.

Hands off Copland School - Public Meeting Thursday

The Copland Action Committee, supported by ATL, GMB, NASUWT and NUT have organised the public meeting below as Copland faces forced academisation. This will leave NO local authority secondary schools in the London Borough of Brent.

STOP GOVE'S PRIVATISATION OF

 SCHOOLS FOR PROFIT

HANDS OFF COPLAND SCHOOL

 THURSDAY NOVEMBER 28TH 7PM

 Holiday Inn, Empire Way, Wembley, HA9 8DS

Map LINK

A public meeting for staff, parents, pupils and the community

 

Brent's cycling hopes punctured by Mayor's Office

The Brent Highways Committee, which meets on December 10th, will hear disappointing news about the prospects for cycling highways in Brent. Brent Council was not chosen for the Mayor's 'mini-Holland' scheme and it now appears that secondary projects are also encountering problems.

Brent's initial proposals to the GLA included:

• ·  The Jubilee/Metropolitan Superhighway - a direct route between Wembley and Willesden to include a “green bridge” crossing over the North Circular.
• ·  The Jubilee/Metropolitan Quietway - to run parallel to the Jubilee line between Northwick Park and Wembley Park, and again between Dollis Hill station and Kilburn station.
• ·  The Bakerloo Superhighway - along the Harrow Road between Wembley and Kensal Green towards central London; and
• An Orbital Quietway - to run along the canal between Alperton and Stonebridge Park, and also along the River Brent 

Despite an initial favourable response Andrew Gilligan the Mayor's Cycling Commissioner,  later supported just two routes. The first was a route following the Jubilee Line  linking Wembley ith Neasden, Willesden and Kilburn and an orbital route paralleling the North Circular, linking to Brent Cross.

Brent Council was interested in promoting local routes while Gilligan wanted routes into Central London.  Brent Council believe the latter would be of only limited benefit to Brent residents.

Officers summarise their reservations over content and progress of the proposals: LINK

Brent officers are very supportive of the Mayor’s cycle initiative. It complements sustainable transport, employment opportunities, public health and regeneration objectives for the Borough as well as contributing to improving cycle safety. At the same time we have some concerns about its delivery. These concerns are as follows:

a)      Officers are concerned that there is a focus on strategic routes into central London rather than more local cycle routes, which is where the greatest growth in cycling is likely to be achieved – only a certain population of our residents work in central London and we believe that the proportion that could be persuaded to cycle to central London would not be as great as the number of local cycle trips that we could encourage through local infrastructure investment;

b)      Selection of routes and local priorities does not appear to be as collaborative as expected, with priorities being set and defined by the Mayor’s office rather than being discussed and agreed in partnership with Brent;

c)      TfL have appointed consultants to develop the feasibility and design of local cycle routes, which intimates that Boroughs will not have the freedom and flexibility to commission and develop cycle projects on Borough roads – Brent has recently entered into the London Highways Alliance contract, which has the flexibility to enable delivery of consultancy services and we are concerned as to why alternate consultants are being used outside of the LoHAC framework;

d)      We are also concerned about decision making powers and processes by which local councillors and communities will be engaged given that design consultants are being employed by TfL to develop schemes on local roads; and

e)      At present, none of the boroughs have received any of the published funding and there is no indication of how and when any funding will be made available and what the role of Boroughs will be in utilising and receiving this funding. To date all development costs have been borne by the Boroughs and we have been given no indication as to when funding will be made available.

Queensbury revised application pros and cons

Fairview's new planning application contains space for a pub or wine bar as well as for community use. The latter details are set out in this statement LINK and Busy Rascals (and any sub groups) are named. A minimum of 15 hours weekly is given and rents will be comparable to similar local facilities. The table below shows the amount of non-residential floor space.

The level of affordable housing in the development is tiny (14% of the total housing) and appears to be little more than a gesture. It is set out in the application LINK

Here is the table indicating the floor space:

Campaigners will need to consider whether this revised planning application meets the aims of their campaign. On the one hand there will be a public house or wine bar on the site, although its precise size will need to be looked at, and some community use is retained. On the other hand the original building will be lost and there will be ten storey block/s and very little social housing.

Celebrate Teaching Assistants on Friday

Developer submits new Queensbury pub plans

Fairview Homes have submitted their new plans to demolish The Queensbury. See them HERE

The proposals still involve a tower block but also include a space for a  drinking establishment (A4 in planning jargon) on the ground floor.

The Save The Queensbury Campaign is meeting next Wednesday, 4 December at 7.30pm at the pub to discuss a response. All welcome.

Gauntlet thrown down for councils implementing Coalition cuts

As local councils across the country devise their budgets for 2014-15, with some such as Brent expecting an even worse outlook for 2015-16, they are faced once again with the extent to which they should do the Coalition's dirty work for them. When is the breaking point when you know that by making cuts you are hurting the most vulnerable and contributing to child poverty and homelessness? Can the mantra that our cuts are somehow more humane than if they were implemented by the opposition or council officers continue to hold water, and more importantly convince those at the receiving end?

It's an issue faced by councils regardless of political complexion and of course include the minority Green adminstration in Brighton.

This weekend the Labour Councillors Against the Cuts issued an updated statement which sets out their position and I wonder if any of our local Brent Labour councillors will get behind it. It would also be worth hearing from  the short-listed candidates for Brent Central for their position on the issue: It will be a live issue at the Green Party Spring Conference in Liverpool in February.

Here is the statement LINK

The cuts that will be demanded of local government over the next 2 years will be “the end of local government as we know it.” says Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham City Council. Sir Merrick Cockell, Tory Chairman of the Local Government Association, reveals that the latest round of budget cuts would lead to some councils going bankrupt. But what do the proposed cuts mean in human terms?
They mean:

• Misery for the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost or are losing their jobs.
• Anguish for the elderly, children and their carers, the poor, the undernourished, the educationally deprived who will lose the right to a dignified life.
• The loss of democratically accountable services run for the public good to private institutions overwhelmingly motivated by profit-making.

We believe that what the government is doing to our communities is immoral. But we cannot denounce their actions without doing our utmost to stop them.

For years councils have claimed that if they didn’t implement cuts then Pickles’ underlings would come in and take control of the council services. But it is compliance with government cuts and the under resourcing of staff in Birmingham that is giving the Tories the excuse to take control of the Council’s child care services.

We do not accept that the local government cuts are necessary. Not in this era of increasing inequalities of wealth, low tax rates on the super-rich and huge profits for the banking sector and their senior staff.

We cannot simply wait for the general election. Implementing cuts will not help Labour beat the Tories. Instead it will make it harder to mobilise working class votes if Labour-led councils are:

• handing out masses of redundancy notices and
• cutting services or implementing charges that make it even harder for ordinary people to make ends meet.

We pledge

• To fight the cuts demanded by the Tories and not just criticise them
• To campaign alongside unions and the rank and file of local government workers in explaining to the public why these cuts are unjustified and to mobilise in opposition to them.
• To support local government workers in their fight for jobs and for the protection of local government services.
• To defend the living standards of working class communities by refusing increased charges or taxes.
• To refuse to vote for budgets that will lead to an attack on jobs or reduce services.

We call on trade unions and the Labour Party nationally to support both councillors in the council chamber or workers in the workplace that oppose these cuts.

We call on the Labour Party to pledge that if successful at the next general election they will restore local government funding so that councils can do the job that was expected from them – providing care, education, housing, and other services for our people regardless of income and outside the grasping hands of companies driven by profit.