WEMBLEY MATTERS News and views on local politics, the environment, climate change, culture and local history
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Shahrar Ali: UK must not add to suffering of those fleeing war
Shahrar Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, is to speak at the Stop the War Coalition’s Conference ‘Confronting a World at War’ this afternoon. He will speak on the subject of war and migration
The conference brings together writers, activists and politicians from around the world to analyse recent conflicts and current foreign policy approaches.
Shahrar Ali said:
The Green Party will contribute to this important debate about conflict resolution with an analysis of unjust war as a major cause of displacement of peoples. Too often governments fail to recognise the long-term impact of foreign policy disasters on the lives of untold families, forced to flee from persecution or from the destructive power of arms these governments have sold abroad or used themselves.The Green Party has opposed recent UK interventions in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, and holds that the UK needs to rethink its current defence policy. In particular, the Green Party advocates the abolition of Trident.
The UK must not add to the suffering of those fleeing from war with the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on movement, which often have inhumane consequences. We must hold to our collective obligations as a common humanity and take joint responsibility for instability we have directly caused or are implicated in.
We have clear policies on dialogue, peace, diplomacy and international cooperation which aim to tackle forced migration at source, to grant communities both the capability to live in peace and also the right of return.
Friday, 5 June 2015
Chair invites topics for Brent Scrutiny Committee perusal
 |
| Will it roar? |
All councillors
The members of Scrutiny Committee and I are considering what subjects should be the subject of scrutiny over the forthcoming year and beyond. Needless to say the number is already large and growing.
Nonetheless, it is open to any member of the council, or the public, to suggest an item for scrutiny. Whether it gets picked will be a matter of human resources. Clearly the Scrutiny Committee, even with 10 meetings a year, won't be able to do justice to a very large number, so we will need to prioritise and use dedicated task groups for some issues. To this end, I want all members of the Council outside the Cabinet to consider whether they would be willing to serve on a Scrutiny Committee task group. If you have specific areas of interest or concern, please say as it may help fit horses to courses.
Issues for scrutiny might fall into:-
- pre-decision, where a decision will be needed or made in the futureIssues for scrutiny may cover the workings of the Council or those of partnership bodies like:-
- post-decision reviews, whether of a policy or its implementation,
and
- subjects where the Council should get a handle on the problem even if not yet identifying, at this stage, the solution.
- the NHS,I am anxious Scrutiny Committee should, whilst looking at issues pertinent to the general wellbeing of Brent residents, get the balance right between looking at issues outside the council and the workings of the council itself, not neglecting the one through excessive focus on the other.
- Brent Housing Partnership and local Housing Associations,
- Transport for London
- the local Department of Work and Pension offices
- Voluntary and Community Sector bodies
Scrutiny Committee has the power to require lead members and council officers to attend and give evidence, and has some powers in respect of the NHS (there is a good deal of guidance on scrutiny in respect of NHS functions), and can invite, though not require, attendance by others.
The aim of scrutiny should be to investigate, find facts and express judgements. Our mission should be to create transparency on issues where transparency will aid public comprehension of the issues and why decisions have been made the way they were and whether those decisions, and how they were implemented were wrong or mishandled.
For this reason we will aim to give greater publicity to what Scrutiny Committee does and how it operates. To this end, I will be endeavouring to speak at each Brent Connects meeting to explain how we will operate, and conceivably other fora too.Dan Filson's email: Cllr.Dan.Filson@brent.gov.uk
I can assure councillors that I will consider all submissions.
I can also say that scrutiny, despite being in operation since the Local Government Act 2000, is still evolving and developing. We haven't yet got it right. It has been described as "the Lion that failed to roar" but my brief is to get scrutiny working, and I hope you will work with me on that.
The next meeting of Scrutiny Committee is at 7pm, June 16th Brent Civic Centre
Confronting a World at War Conference speakers tomorrow includes Green's Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali
Shahrar Ali, Green party deputy leader, is among the
speakers at this conference. He will speak on migration and war.
Confronting a World at War conference
TUC • Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS
hahrar Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England
and Wales, is to speak at the Stop the War Coalition’s Conference ‘Confronting
a World at War’ on Saturday 6 June.
The conference brings together writers, activists and
politicians from around the world to analyse recent conflicts and current
foreign policy approaches.
Shahrar Ali said:
“The Green Party will contribute to this important debate
about conflict resolution with an analysis of unjust war as a major cause of
displacement of peoples. Too often governments fail to recognise the long-term
impact of foreign policy disasters on the lives of untold families, forced to
flee from persecution or from the destructive power of arms these governments
have sold abroad or used themselves.
“The UK must not add to the suffering of those fleeing
from war with the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on movement, which often
have inhumane consequences. We must hold to our collective obligations as a
common humanity and take joint responsibility for instability we have directly
caused or are implicated in.
“We have clear policies on dialogue, peace, diplomacy and
international cooperation which aim to tackle forced migration at source, to
grant communities both the capability to live in peace and also the right of
return.”
The Green Party has opposed recent UK interventions in
Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, and holds that the UK needs to rethink its current
defence policy. In particular, the Green Party advocates the abolition of
Trident.
Meet the speakers
·
Mustafa Barghouti is an activist and the
General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative. He has been a member of
the Palestinian Legislative Council and was Minister of Information in the
Palestinian unity government.
·
Medea Benjamin is a leading US peace
activist. She is the co-founder of Code Pink and one of the best-known
progressive figures in the United States.
·
Tariq Ali is a noted writer and
filmmaker. A veteran of the movement against the war in Vietnam, he has for
decades been one of the most prominent critics of Western militarism and
imperialism.
·
Lindsey German is the convenor of the
Stop the War Coalition and one of its founders. She is the author of a number
of books, including How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women (2013). She
regularly appears in the media.
·
David Edgar is one of Britain’s most
prominent writers and playwrights. He is the President of the Writers’ Guild of
Great Britain and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, as well as a
Professor of Playwriting Studies.
·
Richard Sakwa is a Professor of Russian
and European Politics at the University of Kent and an Associate Fellow at
Chatham House. His book Frontline Ukraine (December 2014) offers a powerful
critique of Western propaganda surrounding the crisis in Ukraine.
·
Victoria Brittain is a prominent author
and journalist. She is a former associate foreign editor of the Guardian. She
wrote a play about the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp and has co-authored
Moazzam Begg’s book Enemy Combatant. She is on the Council of the Institute of
Race Relations and is a Patron of Palestine Solidarity.
·
Seumas Milne is a distinguished journalist
and writer. He is a columnist and associate editor at The Guardian and the
author of the best-selling book The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the
Miners.
·
Mark Weisbrot is a writer for peace and
social justice. He is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research in Washington, D.C. He has written for publications such as New York
Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian etc. He is the co-writer of the
screenplay for Oliver Stone’s film South of the Border.
·
Jeremy Corbyn is a Labour MP and a
leading British campaigner for peace and social justice. He is the chair of the
Stop the War Coalition.
·
Andrew Murray is the Chief-of-Staff at
UNITE the Union. He is the former chair of the Stop the War Coalition and is
now its Deputy President. He is co-author of the book Stop the War: The Story
of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement (2005).
·
Chris Nineham is the vice chair and
founding member of the Stop the War Coalition. He is the author of a number of
books including People vs. Tony Blair: Politics, the media and the anti-war
movement (2013).
·
John Rees is a national officer and a
founding member of the Stop the War Coalition. He is the author of a number of
books including Imperialism and Resistance (2010) and A People’s History of
London (2012).
·
Explo Nani-Kofi is a Ghanaian-born social
researcher and a campaigner for social justice. He coordinates the Campaign
against Proxy War in Africa and is the Director of the Kilombo Centre for Civil
Society and African Self-Determination.
·
Kate Hudson is the General Secretary of
CND and an officer of the Stop the War Coalition. She was Head of Social and
Policy Studies at London South Bank University and is now a Visiting Research
Fellow.
·
Bruce Kent is a famous peace activist. He
was the General Secretary of CND from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to
1990. He was also the President of the International Peace Bureau. He is a
member of Pax Christi.
·
Lee Jasper is an anti-racist activist and
politician who served as Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the former
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
·
Jonathan Steele is a distinguished
journalist and author. He was Foreign News Editor and Chief Foreign
Correspondent for The Guardian. A recipient of several journalism awards, he is
a broadcaster on the BBC and a writer for the London Review of Books.
·
Sami Ramadani is a noted Iraqi dissident.
He was an exile from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and founder of Iraqi Democrats
against the Occupation. He was for many years a lecturer in sociology at London
Metropolitan University. He is a member of the steering committee of the Stop
the War Coalition.
·
George Galloway was a most prominent
campaigner against the Iraq War in 2003. He is famous for his appearance at the
US Senate in defence of his anti war stance. He was Respect MP for Bradford
West until May this year. He is also a broadcaster of the current affairs
programme Sputnik on RT.
·
Jenny Clegg is a lecturer in Asia Pacific
Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. She is the author of several
books, including China’s Global Strategy: Towards a Multipolar World (2009).
·
Hamja Ahsan is a curator and human rights
activist. He leads the Free Talha Ahsan campaign. His brother, Talha Ahsan is a
British-born award-winning poet with Asperger’s syndrome who was extradited to
the US.
·
Chris Cole is a peace activist and the
founder of Drone Wars UK. He is a former Director of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation and co-ordinator of Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
·
Steve Bell is treasurer of the Stop
the War Coalition and a campaigner for Palestine, and against racism and war.
·
Ahmed Al-Ashaf is a political activist,
Director Yemenis Culture Centre.
·
Sabby Dhalu is a campaigner, the secretary
of Unite Against Fascism and an organiser for Stand up to Racism.
·
Malia Bouattia is the NUS Black Students’
Officer who has been at the forefront of opposing Islamophobia and the
heavy-handed policing of British universities.
·
Judith Orr is a writer and campaigner.
She is the editor of the Socialist Worker and a national officer of the Stop
the War Coalition.
·
Carol Turner is a national officer of the
Stop the War Coalition and a member of the national council of CND. She is
author of a forthcoming book on Labour and foreign policy.
·
Matt Willgress is a prominent anti-war
and social justice campaigner. He is the national coordinator of the Venezuela
Solidarity Campaign.
·
Daniel Jakopovich is a writer and
anti-war campaigner. He was a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge and
at several other universities, and is a member of the Council of the
International Peace Bureau. His forthcoming book is entitled Essays in Defence
of Human Dignity.
·
Anas al Tikriti is from the British
Muslim Initiative. He is of Iraqi origin, was one of the chairs on the demo on
February 15th 2003 and is a well known campaigner and speaker
against the war.
·
Kevin Ovenden is a writer and campaigner
around Palestine and the Middle East. He helped to found Viva Palestina.
·
Sarah Colborne is the director of
Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
·
Erdelan Baran is a member of the foreign
affairs committee of the Kurdish organisation, KNK.
·
Shahrar Ali was elected deputy leader of
the Green Party in 2014, becoming in the process the first BME deputy of a UK
parliamentary party. He has been a vocal critic of successive government’s
failed foreign policy and anti-terror legislation.
·
Malia Bouattia is the NUS Black Students’
officer.
·
Akinola Davies Jr is a London-born
videographer and activist with the organization Nigerian Lives Matter.
·
Barbara Ntumy is an anti-war, anti-racism
and anti-austerity campaigner.
·
Laura Avarez is a Mexican activist. She
has been active in several NGOs in Mexico and in London, and has worked for the
National Commission for Human Rights in Mexico.
·
Rania Khan is an ex-councillor, teacher
and anti-war activist.
·
Kim Sharif is a human rights activist,
solicitor, and Director of Yemeni Human Rights.
Confronting a World at War conference
TUC • Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS
Wembley Stadium area road closures on Sunday for 'Color Run'
The 5k Color Run is being held around Wembley on Sunday 7 June.
There will be some road closures in the area between 12pm to 8pm.
Engineers Way – Closed from Civic Centre to First Way
South Way – Closed from Ibis Hotel to its junction with Great Central Way/Fourth Way
Second Way
Third Way – Second Way to Fifth Way
Fifth Way
Fourth Way – Fifth Way to Great Central Way
Great Central Way – South Way to Hannah Close
Hannah Close
Atlas Road
First Way
For more information go to http://www.thecolorrun.co.uk/London
Route map: http://www.thecolorrun.co.uk/London#map
Wembly Central petition Brent Council for more action on rubbish and flytipping
The Green Party and Brent Fightback long ago forecast dirty streets LINK as a result of cuts to street cleaning and other services and the decision to make the contractor Veolia responsible for monitoring its own performance. More recently I have also had comments regarding the maintenance of parks which is also part of Veolia's empire. As a result of the Veolia taking over Brent's Public Realm the Environment Department of the Council has been severely cut LINK.
Wembley Central residents have now launched a public online petition to Brent Council and Muhammed Butt calling for action LINK
The petition reads:
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We the undersigned petition Brent Council to resolve the issue of
unacceptable amounts of rubbish being dumped on our streets. The dumped
rubbish is anti-social, it causes potential health hazards by attracting rats
and other vermin to our streets and it affects the well-being of responsible
residents, whilst making the area unwelcoming to visitors.Wembley Central residents have now launched a public online petition to Brent Council and Muhammed Butt calling for action LINK
The petition reads:
We call on Brent Council to implement the following 6 point plan to clean up Wembley Central:
1. We call on Brent Council to put in place measures which prevent rubbish being dumped on our streets and to fully publicise what these measures are.
2. We call on Brent Council to strongly enforce existing laws and regulations against those who litter, those who dump rubbish/fly-tip and those who do not manage their waste properly on private land.
3. We call on Brent Council to raise awareness of this problem, stressing that it will no longer be tolerated, through an education program including posters and leafleting, whilst engaging with local landlords, businesses, schools, colleges and places of worship.
4. We call on Brent Council to respond to genuine complaints from residents in a timely and respectful manner.
5. We call on Brent Council to pro-actively combat the effects of recent multi-occupancy housing on the existing local community. Each landlord licence would generate £400 per property. This income must be invested to regulate and enforce regulations.
6. We call on Brent Council to issue financial penalties against Veolia where the service fails to meet the required standard.
For too long the Council have ignored our complaints about rubbish in our area and they need to take immediate and long term action to solve this problem.
On the petition sight Cllr Sam Stopp (Labour, Brent Central) writes:
The cleanliness of our streets is the measure of our community spirit.
To rebuild community spirit, we must first remove the blight of dumping from our streets.
Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill produces record 14,000 page views on Wembley Matters
Unique page views on Wembley Matters topped 11,000 yesterday mostly reflecting interest in the story on the 1,000 pupil French School in London opening in Wembley at the former Brent Town Hall. LINK Hits are normally between 1,500-2,000 a day. More than 14,000 have read the article.
What this means in terms of applications for places at the school remains to be seen.
What this means in terms of applications for places at the school remains to be seen.
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