Natalie Bennett spoke at a NUT Conference official fringe meeting yesterday about the Green Party's vision for education. Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, said that the union saw the Green Party as an ally. He said that although the NUT was not affiliated to any political party, and not likely to be, this did not mean that they could not see who their allies were. He said, 'We meet regularly with Caroline (Lucas) in Parliament and she puts questions down for us in the House of Commons.' The Greens were a force for helping to put the union's message across. Earlier in the Conference, Caroline Lucas received a warm reception at a 200 plus strong meeting on 'Building the Fightback'. Play the video to see what Natalie Bennett had to say. It is good to see the NUT and the Green Party working together for the future of our children.
Tuesday 22 April 2014
Greens describe their vision for education at official NUT fringe meeting
Natalie Bennett spoke at a NUT Conference official fringe meeting yesterday about the Green Party's vision for education. Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, said that the union saw the Green Party as an ally. He said that although the NUT was not affiliated to any political party, and not likely to be, this did not mean that they could not see who their allies were. He said, 'We meet regularly with Caroline (Lucas) in Parliament and she puts questions down for us in the House of Commons.' The Greens were a force for helping to put the union's message across. Earlier in the Conference, Caroline Lucas received a warm reception at a 200 plus strong meeting on 'Building the Fightback'. Play the video to see what Natalie Bennett had to say. It is good to see the NUT and the Green Party working together for the future of our children.
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Caroline Lucas backs parents fighting academisation
From Caroline Lucas' blog (posted last week):
Parents from Hove Park School, many of whom live in my constituency, have been in touch this week to ask for my support for their campaign to oppose plans for the school to become an Academy. I was happy to give it.
When the Academies Bill was being debated in Parliament I expressed my opposition to removing schools from the control of parents, teachers, the local authority and the local community.
I warned that one inevitable consequence of numbers of schools becoming Academies in a local area is that there will be less funding to support other, non-Academy schools for provisions such as special educational needs, free school meals, music services and library services. The risk being, that unless the Academies buy into the Local Authority Services, these could be become unsustainable.
The children’s author Michael Rosen has highlighted that asset stripping is also happening every time a school becomes an Academy. The local authority has to hand over the title deeds of a school to whoever runs sponsors or owns the Academy. Those title deeds are worth roughly £5 million per school - yet the Secretary of State has kept no central records and nobody has strategic oversight of who owns our nation’s schools.
The Secretary of State’s not keeping track of how many unqualified teachers are in free school or academy classrooms either. And if Hove Park School becomes an Academy it may not have to tell you, because a growing number of Academies are protected from Freedom of Information laws on the grounds of commercial interests. This also has implications for financial transparency. National education campaigner Fiona Miller reckons between £1-7 bn is being given to schools that are completely unaccountable.
There’s already a vast body of evidence that points to the ways in which Academies and other free schools are letting our children down. Academies are part of how this Government, building on the foundations laid by previous governments, is promoting a marketised model of education, pitching schools and colleges against one another as they compete for funds. This isn’t good for schools, their staff or local communities. It’s definitely not good for our children and I think those at Hove Park School deserve better.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference is taking place in Brighton this coming weekend and I am looking forward to speaking to teachers there. I know from my mailbag and inbox that huge numbers of them are also opposed to what’s happening to our schools in the name of choice. Teachers who, despite the changes foisted upon them, are getting on with inspiring their pupils.
So I’ll be saying a huge thank you to every single local teacher that’s still in the profession. That’s still committed to our children. That still believes in education as a force for change. And I’ll be standing alongside them, and alongside the parents and pupils of Hove Park School, to demand a fair, accountable education system that puts the best interests of children centre stage.
If you want to support Hove Park School staying within local authority control, please sign this petition.
Parents from Hove Park School, many of whom live in my constituency, have been in touch this week to ask for my support for their campaign to oppose plans for the school to become an Academy. I was happy to give it.
When the Academies Bill was being debated in Parliament I expressed my opposition to removing schools from the control of parents, teachers, the local authority and the local community.
I warned that one inevitable consequence of numbers of schools becoming Academies in a local area is that there will be less funding to support other, non-Academy schools for provisions such as special educational needs, free school meals, music services and library services. The risk being, that unless the Academies buy into the Local Authority Services, these could be become unsustainable.
The children’s author Michael Rosen has highlighted that asset stripping is also happening every time a school becomes an Academy. The local authority has to hand over the title deeds of a school to whoever runs sponsors or owns the Academy. Those title deeds are worth roughly £5 million per school - yet the Secretary of State has kept no central records and nobody has strategic oversight of who owns our nation’s schools.
The Secretary of State’s not keeping track of how many unqualified teachers are in free school or academy classrooms either. And if Hove Park School becomes an Academy it may not have to tell you, because a growing number of Academies are protected from Freedom of Information laws on the grounds of commercial interests. This also has implications for financial transparency. National education campaigner Fiona Miller reckons between £1-7 bn is being given to schools that are completely unaccountable.
There’s already a vast body of evidence that points to the ways in which Academies and other free schools are letting our children down. Academies are part of how this Government, building on the foundations laid by previous governments, is promoting a marketised model of education, pitching schools and colleges against one another as they compete for funds. This isn’t good for schools, their staff or local communities. It’s definitely not good for our children and I think those at Hove Park School deserve better.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference is taking place in Brighton this coming weekend and I am looking forward to speaking to teachers there. I know from my mailbag and inbox that huge numbers of them are also opposed to what’s happening to our schools in the name of choice. Teachers who, despite the changes foisted upon them, are getting on with inspiring their pupils.
So I’ll be saying a huge thank you to every single local teacher that’s still in the profession. That’s still committed to our children. That still believes in education as a force for change. And I’ll be standing alongside them, and alongside the parents and pupils of Hove Park School, to demand a fair, accountable education system that puts the best interests of children centre stage.
If you want to support Hove Park School staying within local authority control, please sign this petition.
Labels:
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Green MEP condemns 'xenophobic' UKIP poster campaign
LONDON'S Green MEP Jean Lambert has
pointed to the chasm between UKIP claiming to defend British workers
jobs, while doing nothing to defend their rights at work.
Speaking on the BBC today, she said:
Today an anti-EU poster campaign has been launched, suggesting that UK jobs are under threat from EU migrants.There is no fixed number of jobs so it is misleading to assume that a British worker loses out every time a non-UK national gets a job. We should also not assume that every vacant job has a local applicant with the necessary skills.We should be ensuring everyone in work has the same rights and earns a living wage. UKIP has not once defended workers' rights in the European Parliament and frequently speaks of such rights - to control working time, to parental leave, to equal treatment - as "barriers to business".
These posters represent crocodile tears for British workers.
She added:
This xenophobic campaign is just nasty: it is anti-foreigner and leaves many EU migrants - that's more than a million people in London alone, and British citizens from diverse backgrounds, wondering whether they should be here at all.The Green Party believes the UK should be at the heart of the EU, with a prime seat at the decision-making table: not only to boost employment and workers' rights, but to ensure we influence EU standards on air quality, its responses to climate change and that the UK has a voice on key decisions about how and where we get our energy from in future.
Labels:
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Saturday 19 April 2014
Wembley Matters is taking a break
Wembley Matters is taking an Easter break for a couple of days
Its break will only be interrupted by major news such as Cllr Muhammed Butt joining the SWP, Francis Henry ousting Paul Lorber as leader of Brent Liberal Democrats, Brent Conservative councillors becoming coherent, Brent Greens supporting Quintain's plans for a nuclear power station in the Civic Centre car park or Lorraine King organising a 'no shopping' boycott of the London Designer Outlet.
The break will also provide a ceasefire in the Kensal Rise 'Comment Wars' taking place on this blog. Time for reflection and relaxation...
Labels:
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Thursday 17 April 2014
Not Guilty Lucas vows to continue anti-fracking campaign
All five of the Balcombe anti-fracking campaigners on trial at
Brighton Magistrates’ Court were today found not guilty of obstructing
the public highway and failing to comply with conditions imposed by a
senior police officer.
All five vowed to continue their campaign against fracking and to stop the exploitation of shale gas and oil.
The peaceful protest highlighted widespread opposition to fracking - a controversial process where a mixture of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground, under high pressure, to force gas and oil from rock layers.
Cuadrilla has been carrying on exploratory drilling at Balcombe to see if the area has oil and gas bearing rocks.
Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion said:
We were peacefully protesting outside Cuadrilla’s site in Balcombe to highlight the environmental impact of fracking, particularly its role in accelerating climate change.
We are pleased that the court upheld our right to peacefully protest against fracking, but this judgement is not a victory or cause for celebration.
We will continue to campaign to end fracking and will only celebrate when that has been achieved.
In the light of the UN’s latest report on climate change, it is clearer than ever that exploiting new sources of fossil fuels such as shale gas is fatally undermining the Government’s stated ambition to protect Britain from the worst impacts of climate change. The only safe and responsible thing to do with shale gas is to leave it in the ground.
Drilling for shale gas could also cause severe harm to our water resources, countryside and wildlife. The current regulatory framework is simply not fit for purpose - putting communities and our environment at serious risk.
Now, more than ever, the government must show some leadership.
As a first step, David Cameron must announce an immediate end to fracking and redouble efforts to make the most of the UK’s rich renewable energy resources.
Public support for shale gas drilling is falling, whilst support for clean energy such as wind and solar is growing. The Government should listen to the public and to climate scientists and stop letting oil and gas industry lobbyists dictate UK energy policy.The trial coincided with the release of two major UN studies on climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report warned that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels were rising faster than ever and highlighted that we can still avoid the worst impacts of climate change but only by urgently switching to renewable energy, reducing energy demand and phasing out our use of fossil fuels.
An earlier IPCC report concluded that climate change is already happening and examined the impacts of climate change such as storms, droughts and flooding as well as the risks of inaction on health, food security and water supplies.
Climate scientists agree that delaying action to cut carbon emissions is dangerous and will increase the costs of tackling climate change significantly. Experts are clear that around 80 per cent of unexploited fossil fuels will have to remain in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change .
Caroline Lucas said that the way forward was being shown by initiatives like REPOWER Balcombe, a new community cooperative set up by local residents with the aim to generate the equivalent of 100% of the village’s electricity usage from clean, renewable energy sources.
REPOWER Balcombe’s spokesperson Joe Nixon said:
We all need energy, but buying dirty fossil power from giant utilities is no longer the only option.Caroline concluded:
Advances in renewable technology mean that communities like ours can now generate the energy we need ourselves, locally, in a way that benefits us directly instead of big power companies - and helps the environment instead of harming it. This is win-win for Balcombe and for the planet.
I know that this is very important to a large number of my constituents, because so many of them have written to me about the environmental risks posed by fracking, and the urgency of tackling climate change.Caroline Lucas did not have any recourse to public funds in order to fight her case.
All five of us would like to thank all of the supporters who have turned up to support us today and thank the thousands of people who have sent letters, emails and tweets to express their support.
Labels:
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Horses to return to Bush Farm, Kingsbury
I am able to reassure the children who are regular visitors to the donkey, Shetland pony, ponies and horses at Bush Farm in Kingsbury that they have not disappeared for good.
The animals who graze the paddocks on the edge of Fryent Country Park have been missing for some time. Kellie, who rents the fields from Brent Council told me this morning that they were moved to other grazing when the paddocks deteriorated during the record wet weather in the winter and became extremely muddy and bare of grass..
The fields which were left to recover are now drying out and there is a healthy crop of grass. Kellie told me that the popular animals will return later in the year.
Wednesday 16 April 2014
Blunt speaking in favour of Friends of Kensal Rise Library
Guest post by Gaynor Lloyd
Two
women who truly deserve accolades for the extraordinary position that
FKRL has got itself to. (With many apologies to those who have doubtless
also worked very hard in the campaign!)
OK,
I had decided to hold back from comment on this. I am "just" a Brent
SOS library campaigner from the other end of the Borough. I have been
involved more or less from the beginning but "my" library is Barham -
which Brent Council and its Labour councillors treat somewhat
differently from Kensal Rise. However, I am not bitter! I rejoice at the return
of ANY library to the Brent library circuit and look forward to Kensal Rise
re-opening even if it is “only” on the ground floor. I apologise if that
offends some people and can take being told to butt out..
But
I claim some right to comment from a position of knowledge. In my
working life up to retirement last year, I was a commercial property
lawyer, experienced in development, sales and landlord and tenant
matters in a Central London firm for over 33 years – including “against”
the solicitors All Souls use – Farrers. I acted for P&O,
Chelsfield, Laing, Sun Life Assurance and many developers and investors
small and large.
I
was “lucky” enough to be allowed to go to some of Cricklewood ‘s
meetings - including at Savills with the Cricklewood team, where I met
the (in)famous Mr Seaman and his advisers, and also – in a separate
meeting – the legendary Mr Gillick.
The
day that All Souls exchanged contracts with Andrew Gillick’s property
company in respect of the Kensal Rise Library, the die was cast in terms of what
bargain could be made for the library. People may not like it but that
is the position at law. Nobody at Kensal Rise – the Friends of Kensal Rise (FKRL) or
otherwise – nor at Brent Council had any control whatsoever. The legal
position is what it is. All Souls sold to Andrew Gillick’s company. The
contract was not subject to planning, and Gillick could buy, with the
only protection for the library as set out in the Option Agreement.
Thanks to the campaigners’ persistence, that Option Agreement has become
public – but only just. FKRL had no knowledge of what protective
provisions there might be to preserve their beloved library. They had no
power whatsoever to impose anything, or change what All Souls and
Gillick had agreed.
However,
thanks, in my view, to the fantastic campaigning by FKRL, through its
Trustees and the community– it turns out that – All Souls kept back a
provision for community space in that Option Agreement – essentially the
binding contract for the disposal (as Gillick exercised his option).
The Trustees – from the sight I have had as a member of Brent SOS
steering group from the beginning have, in my opinion, played an
absolute blinder with constant risks and with essentially a blooming
awful hand once Brent was daft enough to trigger the reverter. What they
have achieved thus far was against impossible odds
The
provisions as to space and terms on which it can be obtained for
community are set in the contract. It simply was not possible for anyone
to improve on that position. All Souls and Gillick entered into their
Option Agreement . FKRL was not and could not be at the table for that
agreement. Essentially, that was that. All that hard work to get Kensal Rise
classified as an Asset of Community Value was defeated. FKRL had no
position from which legally to negotiate.
So
– sorry for my bluntness – but the Trustees of FKRL couldn’t change
that. Anyone who thinks that it was in the legal control of FKRL to get
any better position is plainly wrong. The contract between All Souls and
Gillick’s company is enforceable in law, and FKRL has no standing in
that contract.
If
people want to object to the planning application, that is up to them.
There may be tactical considerations but it is hardly my place to
comment on that – I don’t know all the facts nor am I a Kensal Rise campaigner
nor resident in Kensal Rise. But – from the (involved and caring) outsider’s
position, forgive me for saying this. The Brent SOS campaign has brought
so many magnificent hard working people together, forged alliances
across party lines and worked very hard for the public of Brent .
Because of that, Kensal Rise MAY well actually get a library. Can people
celebrate that? I am sure that they will work together to ensure that
will happen.
But
may I personally pay a huge tribute to my chief contacts – firstly, the
truly magnificent, totally committed, fearsome and fearless - and hard
working beyond all measure - Margaret Bailey Apart from all her
physical work along with others “manning” the much lamented and iconic
pop-up library, I have been in contact with her, as she sat up all night
for days getting documents drafted and in , e.g. on the planning)
.And - let us not forget – it was Margaret. who took the risk on the
court case in her name. As a lawyer, I understand the courage and
genuine risk of that - however much she may minimise it, in her
inimitable fashion. And, of course, Laura Collignon , who has in
addition to all her work in the complex, lengthy and multi-layered
campaign for Kensal Rise, marshalled the mixed , feisty and totally committed
members of the Brent SOS overall steering group in some of the best
run meetings I have ever witnessed .
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