People's Chilcot Tribunal June 8th

From Stop the War Coalition

There is a growing sense of anticipation in relation to the publication of the Chilcot report. However, after years of lies and obfuscation, it is reasonable to be sceptical about the recent media claims that the soon to be released Chilcot report will provide a genuinely scathing critique of the process that led us into the Iraq War.

Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond has already called for Tony Blair to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. It is well documented that Blair was committed to regime change (which is entirely illegal under international law) over a year before the invasion actually started.

It is also well documented that the intelligence dossiers which were used by the government to justify going into war were highly misleading. As Professor Steven Kettell noted, the weapons expert Dr David Kelly, who died in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, revealed that members of the intelligence community were alarmed about the way in which their opinion was ignored by Tony Blair's war-mongering clique.

Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for the catastrophes of the Iraq War, including over a million deaths and millions of refugees who are still fleeing the devastated country. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident Sami Ramadani, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND chair Kate Hudson, Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War, and former MP Alice Mahon.

You can book your place here. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released

8th June 3pm-8pm Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre. 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EAJ
 

Find out about the new Call 111 service (non-emergency NHS phone line)

From Brent Clinical Commissioning Group

We are ready to update local people on our plans for a new NHS 111 service in the borough. We would like to invite local people to a public event where we can set out how the new system is going to work across North West London and get your views about our plans.

This event is part of a series of events North West London CCGs have held to develop the specification for the new service and find out how the service should be accessed by patients.

14 June (5pm - 9pm)

Sattavis Patidar Centre

Forty Avenue, (Junction with The Avenue)

Wembley Park,

Middlesex,

HA9 9PE.

Book  your place HERE

Character building FEAT on a concrete slab in Colindale

The concrete slab viewed through perspex window

Purple marks the proposed school site

Brent's new Cabinet will tomorrow  consider a proposed new free school to be built at the back of the new Morrisons Supermarket on the Oriental City regeneration site in the Edgware Road.

Both the design of the school and the chosen free school provider are likely to be controversial.  The Cabinet papers state:

The site comprises a concrete slab at first floor level with parking beneath.

It is proposed that the Council have a 999 lease interest in the land which it will then lease to the free school provider for 125 years at a peppercorn rent on the basis of the 'template' lease which the Secretary of State is empowered to grant.

The site is physically 'constrained' so it is proposed that the school will be on two levels (on top of the slab) with a roof top playspace for the 420 pupils as there is no space for a playground.  Add to this that fact that the school is very close to the traffic pollution of the Edgware Road and it is not exactly ideal.

The free school provider is Floreat Education Academies Trust (FEAT) of which more later. To enable them to take pupils from September 2016 the Council wish to grant FEAT a 3 year lease on the former Kingsbury Pupil Referral Unit in Church Lane, Kingsbury. This was refurbished to provide additional temporary infant class places but the Cabinet paper states 'but has not been used for classes to date as demand has not required it.' I also understand existing primary schools were relectant to take on the additional unit as a 'satellite'.

The fact that 'demand has not required it' but somehow there will be a demand when it opens as a free school  is a little strange.  It is very close to Fryent Primary School but a long way from the Oriental City site so it is difficult to see how there will be continuity between the two sites in terms of actual pupils. Pupils who live in Church Lane will have to take two buses or a bus (302) and a walk to get to the Morrisons site.

The Church Lane site

Never mind. Floreat seem to have assumed that the Brent Cabinet will deliver the goods. They have already set up a website for the Church Lane school LINK

So why do I sound a note of caution about FEAT?

It was founded by James O'Shaughnessy, (now Lord) former Director of Policy for  David Cameron. He was a visting fellow at the Govite Policy Exchange, consultant to Pearson, and an Honorary Senior Research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtue.  LINK

He has described current education 'reforms' as a 'huge battle in an already very long war.'

Thanks to Powerbase for the following information.

Ian Moore, Director of Education, was seconded from PwC to the prime minister's education delivery team in 2006 and a senior adviser to the Conservative Party's 'Implementation Team' 2008-10,

And then there is Annaliese Briggs, who at 27 survived for just 6 months at Pimlico Primary School (one of Education Minister John Nash's chain) having no teaching qualification. Nevertheless she is in charge of FEAT's curriculum delivery!

See Powerbase for more but you get the picture.

So what is all this 'character building' stuff?

Imported from the US (there is a statement from the US Secretary of State for Defense on the  Jubilee Centre's website LINK) it is rapidly becoming a government supported industry penetrating into our schools. This is their rather dull film about the programme:



 

An article by Matthew Bennett on the Local Schools Network website LINK explains some of the background:

‘No excuses’ charter schools are a product of the test-based accountability systems that have dominated American public education since George W. Bush’s first term.  In the same way, English academy chains like ARK Schools and the Harris Federation developed within the culture of ‘hyper-accountability’ – to use Warwick Mansell’s term – created by the Education Act of 1988.  The ARK Schools chain is, in fact, closely modelled on the KIPP ‘network’ of charter schools.  Both target the inner cities.  Both argue that severe economic and social deprivation is ‘no excuse’ for educational underperformance.  Both aim to demonstrate – by dramatically boosting test and exam scores – that privatisation can be the miracle cure for decades of failure by state or public schools.  Both have a surprising number of financiers on their boards (of the eight trustees on the ARK Schools board, five are hedge fund managers;  none has any background in education). 

The new character education cannot really be understood without looking at the methods of behaviour management used in ‘no excuses’ schools and their English imitators.  These schools love mnemonics – displayed in every classroom, chanted by students – and their mnemonics are quite revealing.  SLANT:  Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod, Track the speaker.  SMARTS:  Stand and sit straight, Make good choices, Always 100% on task, Respect, Track the speaker, Shine.  HALL:  Hallway heads and eyes forward, Arms with finger on lips, Legs straight, Lips sealed.  The rules cover the smallest details of students’ behaviour, and the slightest infraction of the rules – for example, failing to maintain eye contact with the teacher at all times – meets with immediate punishment (this is what one defender of the model calls ‘sweating the small stuff’).  Sanctions include detentions, a period wearing a special ‘miscreant’s shirt’, or a deduction from the student’s account of ‘KIPP dollars’.  (In a training video aimed at teachers in charter schools, a student is told at one point:  ‘Laughing is ten dollars’.)  Some charter schools push the principle to insane extremes.  A list of complaints made by parents against a ‘no excuses’ charter in Texas, Nashville Prep, includes the following:  ‘One student received a demerit for saying, “bless you” when a classmate sneezed.  He also received detention (1) for saying “excuse me” while stepping over another child’s backpack and (2) for picking up a pencil for a classmate’.

James O'Shaughnessy is an advisor to the US Character Lab, co-founded by Dave Levin who also co-founded the KIPP network of charter schools.

It looks as if Katharine Birbalsingh will soon have a rival in the Brent 'scariest teacher' league.

Meanwhile I hear that Gladstone School's Maria Evans and Jim Gatten LINK are to move to Oxford in July.  Gladstone has announced that it is now not in a position to open to year 7 pupils in September as no site has been found.

Paul Phillips, in post since January 2014 as Principal Designate continues in his role.  Accounts have not been filed since 2014 and there have been recent changes in directorships.

Gladstone has yet to educate a single child but has spent £175,000 on 'educational operations'.

Click on image to enlarge

Future safety concerns overshadow today's Wembley Cup Final

Impression of Wembley Stadium surrounded by flats

As fans pour into Wembley for today's Cup Final Greg Dyke, FA Chairman, has warned of the dangers posed by Quintain's plans for new tower blocks close to the stadium. The £2.5bn scheme was approved by Brent Planning Committee in  controversial circumstances. LINK

The Standard LINK said:

FA  chairman Greg Dyke has warned that a planned £2.5 billion development around Wembley Stadium will have “terrible consequences” for the safety of fans on match days.

The former Manchester United director said the attack on the team’s bus by West Ham fans was “an important reminder that ensuring public order and safety in and around football stadia requires careful planning, good preparation and partnership working between all concerned

Mr Dyke, who steps down as FA chairman this summer, said Quintain’s proposals “as currently planned ... will have some terrible consequences for the public safety and traffic management around the stadium on event days. 

“We will continue to work with Brent, the Greater London Authority and the developer to ensure the problems are addressed, but fan management should not be an afterthought.

We will not drop our responsibility for ensuring that Wembley’s ability to inspire generations with its magical moments is not damaged by a lack of care for our visiting fans and local residents. We hope others will make the same commitment.”

Previously the Standard had reported on the FA's presentation to the Planning Committee:

Julie Harrington, operations director at the FA, told the council’s planning committee the location of the car parks off South Way “created genuine public order and safety concerns which would serve as a retrograde step for the stadium.”

She said: “Tuesday night’s disturbing scenes at West Ham’s Boleyn Ground only go to show that we absolutely cannot be complacent when it comes to fan management around the stadium.”

She said developer Quintain was ”working from a position to maximise profits” rather than to “protect fan safety”.

She said: “The holding of fans, the kettling of fans, that’s a return to the 1970s in my view.

“Even a short amount of time holding people, irate fans from teams that have lost, or rival fans mixing together is too much.”

Transport consultants working for the FA presented analysis showing fans could have to wait for up to three hours to board coaches under the new layout.

Ms Harrington warned that the FA “would not be able to attract major events to Wembley if fan’s can’t leave the car park.”

She said: “If fans can’t get to their coaches and can’t get to their vehicles, if up to 9,000 fans are pooled behind the stadium with nowhere to go, if 15,000 fans are pushed down back streets to their coaches, it’s a recipe for disaster, a public order disaster, and the FA will not stand by and see fans treated in this way.

“We cannot be complacent about the huge steps forward made in stadium safety in the past two decades. No-one should believe that its acceptable to herd fans like cattle. We must learn from past mistakes.”

The FA are in the difficult position of seeking to protect both fans and the Stadium's status  and maintaining a positive long-term working relationship with Quintain and Brent Council. 

 Quintain while retaining its name has been taken over by Lone Star, a Texas based company, and has  adopted a more aggressive approach to Wembley regeneration  as a result, building  higher and more closely packed blocks to maximise profits. Eventually they will complete the development and move on, leaving the FA, football fans, Brent Council and local people to cope with the consequences.

The FA could ask Sadiq Khan, the new London mayor, to call in the plans but there may be opportunities to have further talks about their concerns with the new Brent Cabinet.

Possible bid to make Bowls Club Pavilion a community hub for Wembley

Friends of King Eddie's Park are holding a meeting to discuss making an application for a community hub at the Bowls Pavilion in King Edward VII Park, Park Lane, Wembley.

The future of the disused pavilion was the cause of consideral local controversy when the Welsh School, expelled from its Stonebridge Primary School site as a result of redevelopment proposals, applied to runs its school in the park. The bid failed.

Meeting details from Friends of King Eddies:

When: 7pm Tuesday 24th May 2016

Where: Ujima House, 388 High Road Wembley (above Honey Pot Nursery)

Why: Brent Council have put the Bowls Pavilion back on the market with end of May deadline for submissions.

This is our last chance to create a Community Hub in King Eddie's Park for park goers, the people of Wembley and Brent

We submitted a proposal in December 2015 that was rejected.

'Britain In or Out' debate Sunday Brent Cross

Click on image to enlarge

Full text of Brent Council CEO's statement on death of former councillor Tayo Oladapo

Statement about the death of former Cllr Tayo Oladapo by Carolyn Downs, Chief Executive Officer, Brent Council made at AGM of Council on May 18th 2016

As Chief Executive of Brent council, I have received numerous enquiries about the sad death of former Cllr Tayo Oladapo. The matter has also been the subject of press coverage. I feel it to be very important for me to put on record the facts as they are known to me. I do this as a matter arising from the minutes of the last meeting which recorded both Cllr Oladapo’s absence and agreed his continued absence due to his ill health.

My aim is to clarify the Council’s understanding of events surrounding his death, and specifically the timing of when the Council received official notification of his death.

To be absolutely clear, I believe that the report considered by Full Council on 22 February was written in good faith on the understanding that Cllr Oladapo’s ill health was ongoing. It was submitted to Council as the previous report received in January required that this happen. You will all remember that Cllr Oladapo, according to the report, was expected to return to his work at the Council for that meeting in January following his release from hospital. In fact, there had been a deterioration to his health which resulted in his return to hospital and by the time of the council meeting in February it was believed that he had returned to his family in Nigeria to pass away. This was not, however, confirmed and so would have been inappropriate to put in a public report. I believe, therefore, that the Full Council considered and approved Cllr Oladapo’s ongoing absence in all good faith based on what was known on that date and what was included in the report.

At the beginning of March 2016, I became aware of concerns that Cllr Oladapo had in fact passed away. I sought confirmation and despite best efforts to confirm his death, no formal confirmation was forthcoming, which would have left me able to call a by-election.

As we were unable to obtain clarification, on 8 March, I asked Registrar colleagues to make enquiries in Camden. They were unable to confirm if Cllr Oladapo had indeed died as no death had been registered.

Additionally, I wrote to his family but the only address held by the Council was an address in Harlesden and I doubt that they have ever received the letter.  We made all reasonable enquiries possible, including trying to contact family members in both Nigeria and the USA. We were not able to get official confirmation of his death. 

On 9^th March I contacted the Police to request their help.

In the early evening of 10 March 2016, I received police confirmation that Cllr Oladapo had indeed sadly passed away on 29 January 2016 but that his death had not been registered. 

On 11 March, the Council issued a statement about his death, lowered the flags and issued tributes from the Mayor of Brent and the Leader of the Council.

Just last week, on 11^th May, Mrs Oladapo, Cllr Oladapo’s mother, registered his death at Camden Council.  She subsequently came to see myself and the Leader and I was able to pass on the Council’s sincerest condolences for her tragic loss. Councillor Oladapo’s funeral will take place soon. 

Clearly this whole episode raises issues regarding the noting of absences when councillors cannot attend meetings along with the frequency of reports to Council requesting leave of absence for Council. I shall arrange for an independent person to urgently review the whole episode, going back to the start of Councillor Oladapo's illness and his absences from council meetings and will ensure that their report to me is submitted to the Constitutional Working Group for their consideration. They in turn will be able to make any relevant recommendations to full Council.  I sincerely apologise on behalf of the Council for any misunderstanding which has arisen out of our actions which I repeat I believe were undertaken in good faith.

Finally it is important to remember that this all relates to the very distressing story of a young man, elected to serve his community and who died tragically from a long illness. Although I had never met Tayo, I have only ever heard positive things about how warm, kind and conscientious he was. 

As is customary, I would encourage members to use the opportunity of the first full council meeting since his sad death, when requested by the Mayor, to pay tribute to Cllr Oladapo.

UPDATED: Labour rebellion over Principal Opposition designation

Brent Council's  CEO, Carolyn Downs, announced tonight at the Brent Council AGM that  she will be commissioning an independent person to review the whole episode of Cllr Tayo Oladapo's death going back to January 2016.  (This is not the same person as the Council's Independent Person. The reviewer's identity wil be made known in due course.) Any recommendations arising from the review would be brought to Full Council.

Downs  outlined the sequence of events that included reports earlier in the year that Cllr Oladapo had gone back to Nigeria, his country of origin.   These had not been reported to Council on February 22nd  because there was no confirmation that this was the case. There were then reports of his death that could not be confirmed as the Registrar said the death had not been registered.   Letters to his address in Harlesden got no response and attempts to contact relatives in Nigeria and the USA also drew a blank.

On the 9th March police were contacted and on 10th March they had confirmed the councillor had died on January 29th. On March  11th his death was announced by the Council. LINK  (WM note -The announcement posted by Brent Council on March 11th did not mention the earlier date of death).

Cllr Oladapo's death was not officially registered by his mother until May 11th.  Carolyn Downs had then been able to convey her and the Council's condolences.

Councillors from all sides of the chamber paid tribute to Cllr Oladapo. Cllr Stopp was not called but his tribute appears HERE .

Later in the meeting some Labour councillors abstained on a vote to recognise the Conservative Group as the official opposition. This is the group based in Kenton now led by Cllr Reg Colwill. Earlier the Brondesbury Park Brent Conservatives  had failed in a bid to occupy the front  bench seats currently occupied by the Conservative Group.

A senior councillor told me that  the Brondesbury Park Conservatives would make a better, and much needed, Opposition. Apparently some felt that it was an abuse of Labour's huge  majority to use it to install a tame opposition that would give the ruling group an easy ride. It was better to leave the seven opposition councillors to decide between themselves. That would of course have Cllr Helen Carr wielding the casting vote..

Abstainers were Cllrs Perrin, Nerva, Collier, Chan, Marquis, Stopp, Long, Thomas, Tatler, Kelcher, Duffy  and Ramesh Patel.

Cabinet posts approved were:

Butt (Leader), McLennan (Deputy). Farah (Housing) Hirani (Community Wellbeing), Mashari (Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills, Mitchell Murray (Children and Young People), Pavey (Stronger Communities) Southwood (Environment).

Mashari adds Regeneration to her portfolio while Pavey's post is a clear demotion after his leadership challenge.  It is not clear whether McLennan will take on the Finance and Human Resources responsibilities previously led by Pavey.

The key Planning Committee,  is still chaired by Cllr Marquis but the membership is relatively inexperienced with the exception of Cllrs Long and Moher. Other members of the Committee are Agha, Hylton, J Mitchell Murray and newly elected Kilburn councillor Pitruzzella.

Joining the controversial Cllr Allie on Standards are Collier, Kabir (former whip) and Krupa Sheth. Collier will have his work cut out to persuade his colleagues to adopt a strong stance in dealing with any referrals. Mandip Johal was recommended for appointment as an Independent Person.  The recommendation said that Mandip had over 10 years experience of dealing with professional misconduct complaints within the legal profession.

In an almost one-party Council strong Scrutiny Committees are essential and the memberships announced this evening slightly better than I feared.

The Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee is chaired by Ketan Sheth and other members are Hoda-Benn, Conneely, Hector, Jones, Nerva and Shahzad.

Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny is chaired by Cllr Kelcher. Committee members are Aden, Choudhary, Ezeajughi. Miller, Tatler and M Patel.

Cllr Stopp, previously on the Scrutiny Committee has now relegated to Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing  (with Cllr Perrin) and the  Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board.  Duffy remains out in the cold.