French attempt to ban Saturday's Convoy to Calais

From the People's Assembly Against Austerity

The Convoy to Calais this Saturday is now facing a last minute ban by the French authorities. Thousands of people have collected aid from across the county and over 200 vehicles have booked to come on the convoy.

Last night we were contacted by the Metropolitan Police who informed us that the French authorities have decided to ban the Convoy to Calais from entering France and we will not be granted permission to cross the border.

We are doing all in our power to get this overturned. It is more important than ever that we go ahead and show the strength of feeling and support for refugees. If the authorities still refuse to let us cross the channel we will be holding a protest in Dover.

We will still assemble the convoy on Whitehall at 8:30am and will drive to Dover
We are in negotiations to get the ban lifted and are putting political pressure here and in France to allow the convoy to cross the French boarder

How you can help:

Sign and share the petition

Calling for a reversal of the ban and demanding that our Government get involved. Sign the petition here

Come to the London Rally - Friday 17 June
We will be holding a public rally the evening before the convoy leaves in London. We'll give a full update about the situation. Details: Refugees Welcome, Convoy to Calais London Rally - Friday 17 June, 6:30pm, Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, SW1.

Speakers include: John McDonnell MP, Gary Younge, Rufus Hound, Kate Osamor MP, Roger McKenzie & more. Please register your place here

Come on the convoy, join the demonstration - Saturday 18 June
Even if you haven't booked a place on the ferry, we now need to make sure maximum pressure is put on Governments to let the convoy through to make sure the aid can be delivered and solidarity can be shown to the refugees. We need every last vehicle possible to assemble on Whitehall at 8:30am.

If you don't have a vehicle come down and see the convoy off - speeches in Parliament Square will start at 9:30am and will be followed by an hours silence from 12pm - 1pm in solidarity with refugees.

If you have booked to come on the convoy please keep checking your emails - we will be sending out regular updates.

If you have any questions contact calaisconvoy@gmail.com

Spread the word!


The People's Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

'I have been put up for sale by NHS England' - Amazing Grace petitions David Cameron

Grace demonstrates outside Monitor/NHS Improvement

Grace Balogun is seeking support for her petition LINK to save her Sudbury (Vale Farm) GP Practice from the market. She tells David Cameron why he should intervene below.

Let me introduce myself .My name is Grace and I need urgent help. I am a National Health Service patient and, along with my fellow patients of the fantastic Sudbury GP surgery in Wembley. I have been put up for sale by NHS England. The same NHS England that loves to talk about "patient choice" but all NHS England really care about is "the market in healthcare". BUT I TALK - AND CARE - ABOUT MY FAMILY DOCTORS WHO KEEP ME WELL AND GIVE ME THE CARE MY COUNTRY PROMISED ME FOR WORKING AND LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY - FOR LIFE, CRADLE TO GRAVE.

I live in the London Borough of Brent, an area where we already have a shortage of GPs, more GPs retiring , and a largely deprived population which is expected to expand over the next 5 years by about 80,000 people. I suffer from a range of major health issues which means that I live my life in a wheelchair. Don't get me wrong. I have a good and happy life – or I did until NHS England decided – without asking me – that it would be a good idea to take away from me the Family Doctors who have cared for me for the last 14 years. GP's who I would follow ,if they moved halfway across the country – but my wheelchair bound status makes that pretty tricky. To add insult to injury, I have already had one fight - alongside my fellow patients - lasting 9 years, and including threatened legal action against the NHS, to keep my Doctors from being tendered out for sale before. That fight - I thought - ended in 2013. 

 

Patients make a stand against marketisation

So WHY is Sudbury Surgery Patient List again "up for sale", and my fragile care threatened?

NOT TO SAVE MONEY. THE NEW CONTRACT WILL COST NHS ENGLAND £70,0000 A YEAR MORE. NOT BECAUSE OUR GPS AND THEIR TEAM ARE NO GOOD – although senior officials in NHS England London region (including the Boss) wrote telling my MP, my local councillors and a Brent patient group that they were not "performing" - ridiculous allegations they have since had to withdraw.

 NOT BECAUSE IT IS HARD FOR ME TO GET AN APPOINTMENT WITH MY GP – no, we are known in Brent for having fantastic service from our surgery.

NOT BECAUSE OF INADEQUATE SERVICES -We have EXTRA SERVICES, like in-house professional counselling sessions every week, a GP specially trained in mental health services, a specialist diabetic clinic and diabetic nurse, methadone prescribing service, minor surgery, acupuncture and were just about to start the practice as a GP training practice. Our practice also hosts a walk-in blood testing clinic, and the out of hours "overflow" GP appointments for our locality. Sudbury Surgery does a fantastic service for the community, IN the community. It is run by a not for profit social enterprise.

NO, I have been put up for sale because MY DOCTORS ARE JUST TOO GOOD. Since their social enterprise got the contract 3 short years ago, the patient list has grown from 5000 to 8600, and is still growing. How I wish it had stayed at less than 6000! Why, you ask me? Because, at less than 6000 patients, apparently, according to NHSE England, a "patient list" is "unattractive to the market" . Market, what market ? The market to which my surgery and the 15 other practices in "Tranche 4 London GP practices" NHS England gleefully advertised as the "greatest number of opportunities to potential providers yet" -when it held a "market engagement event" helpfully timed when our GPs were serving their patients in surgery. Bulk sale opportunity! Does it sound as though NHS England is interested in keeping the practice with our ordinary, caring, hardworking GPs?

Those companies who attended the "event" included (off-shore) Virgin Healthcare (who wanted us last time), Care UK, and The Practice Group (who have just "bulk" handed back 5 GP practices in Sussex to the NHS (meaning of course the patients in their patient lists) after taking them over, when their funding was cut - there's a reassuring precedent).

When we realised what was happening, Sudbury Surgery's patients got together, had meetings, wrote many long letters to NHSE, and to NHS (so-called) Improvement who is supposed to regulate "competition" in the NHS, demonstrated outside the Department of Health, NHS England, attracted newspaper attention and explained to and collected the signatures of over 3700 INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS to a petition saying "NHS ENGLAND PLEASE GO AWAY AND LEAVE US WITH THE GPS WHO HAVE CARED FOR US FOR OVER 14 YEARS".

We have struggled for 9 months using every avenue open to us. HAS IT MADE ANY DIFFERENCE? NO. So now I am calling on David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt and The Queen to intervene and ask NHS England to take my Doctors 'practice out of the tender NOW. I was promised cradle to grave care in the NHS - not to be a commodity patient - attractive to a "market". Not that I think a patient like me with complex health needs will be very attractive to a "provider" interested in "markets" PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME AND MY FELLOW SUDBURY SURGERY PATIENTS KEEP THE DOCTORS THEY LOVE, and save the NHS £70,000 a year .

Sign Grace's petition HERE

Barry Gardiner seeks constituents' views on Referendum - Public Meeting on Monday

From Barry Gardiner MP (Brent North)

Public Meeting on EU Referendum

On Thursday, 23rd June 2017 the British public have the opportunity to determine the future of the United Kingdom and whether or not we play a part in the future of Europe. This may well be the most important vote that many of us will face in our lifetime and will, undoubtedly, have a profound impact on future generations.

Many of my constituents will not yet have decided how they intend to vote or may not have had an opportunity to consider the arguments for and against remaining in the European Union. With this in mind, I will be holding a public meeting to allow residents of Brent North1 to question me and so that I can listen to their views before any such vote.

The meeting will take place as follows:

Time: 7:30pm
Date: Monday, 20th June 2016
Venue: St Cuthbert’s Church2, 214 Carlton Avenue West, North Wembley, Middlesex HA0 3QY (just off the Watford Road)
 

Refugees Welcome Here - Convoy to Calais Rally - Friday London

Refugees Welcome Here - London Rally
6:30pm, Friday 17 June
Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, Marsham Street, London, SW1P 3DW

REGISTER FOR THE RALLY

Speakers include:
John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor
Gary Younge, Guardian Columnist
Rufus Hound, Comedian and Actor
Kate Osamor MP
Roger McKenzie, Unison
Plus People's Assembly, Stand Up to Racism, Stop the War Coalition


More info about the Convoy to Calais can be found at convoytocalais.org.

The People's Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

The People's Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

Don't let Harrow School steal glorious local views and Metropolitan Open Land

From the Harrow Hill Trust

Quality open Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) will be lost if the Harrow School replacement Sports Hall is relocated, and enlarged to include a conference suite, as proposed.  Residents and visitors access to appreciate the current wonderful views is restricted to footpaths and London's Capital Ring walking route and they will be blocked or blighted by the proposed positioning. This includes the views of our only Grade II Listed Park which was set out by Capability Brown in 1768.

The solution is to redevelop the existing brown field site, use more subterranean construction and a green roof/ walls. Also to use a temporary sports 'Bubble' and the nearby John Lyon swimming pool, during construction.

The conditions for developing on MOL have not been met and the public have not been consulted on the MOL aspects. If we can’t protect a site which is MOL, in a Conservation Area, an Area of Special Character and alongside a Grade II listed Park then what can we protect?  Please also help us to reject application P/1940/16 on the Harrow Council planning portal http://www.harrow.gov.uk There is a better location and design. 

Urgent - Please help the closing date is now 20 June but best to get your comments in earlier so that there is time to include them. Thank you.
 
Sign the petition HERE

Temporary Project Manager wanted for Grunwick 40 Exhibition

We're recruiting!

Grunwick 40 has an exciting opportunity – we're recruiting a temporary Curator/Project Manager to help us develop our exhibition about the Grunwick Strike. We're looking for someone with experience of researching and developing displays and exhibitions which include both audio-visual and interactive material. A record of engaging young people in similar projects would be welcome.

Click here to download the job description, you've got until 27th June to apply!

Solidarity with Barnet Library Workers starting a 3 day strike today

UNISON members working in Barnet Libraries are taking industrial action today. tomorrow and Wednesday  in opposition to the Council’s plan to outsource the Library Service.

What Barnet Council intends for Barnet Libraries

▪   Library posts will be cut by 46%, a loss of 52 full time equivalent posts

▪   Staffed hours will be reduced by 70% (despite overwhelming opposition to this from respondents to the Council’s Library consultations)

▪   Under 15 year olds unaccompanied by an adult will not be able to use libraries during unstaffed hours, which will be for most of the time libraries are open

▪   Library space to be reduced, thus cutting study space and book stock

▪   Four libraries to be run by “community groups”

▪   Phase 3 alternative delivery model to be identified for this section.

More detailed analysis of the destruction of the Library service can be found in Barnet Unison's report entitled “Directand Collateral Damage to the Future of Barnet Libraries” 

UNISON Picket Lines will be at the following Barnet Libraries:

▪   Monday 13th June – Mill Hill Library (Hartley Avenue, Mill Hill, London NW7 2HX) from 8.30 am

▪   Tuesday 14th June – North Finchley(Ravensdale Ave, North Finchley N12 9HP) from 8.30 am followed by a demonstration outside Barnet House 12-1 pm

▪   Wednesday 15th June – Chipping Barnet Library (3 Stapylton Road, Barnet, EN5 4QT) from 8.30 am

UNISON Library Convenor, Hugh Jordan said:

 Barnet UNISON calls for the current plan to decimate our Library Service to be stopped now before further damage is done. Our members are angry at proposals which look to sack half of them and then outsource them to another employer. Every day we hear of another Library closing due to cuts, handing over the service to volunteers or outsourcing. Enough is enough, there needs to be a national response to the systemic destruction of the national library service. Our Borough needs real libraries and real library professionals and para-professional, only this year our service was given a 96% customer satisfaction rating. If theLibrary staff less plan is implemented and staff sacked their absence will see Barnet pay a heavy price in the coming years as literacy levels fall, accessibility to information is reduced, and social mobility is further curtailed. Lastly, whilst we appreciate the current support from Library volunteers we are asking volunteers not to take our jobs away which is the part of the Barnet Libraries Plan

Remain for change: Building European solidarity for a democratic alternative - June 15th

I, like I am sure many readers, have felt manipulated by the EU Referendum debate: manipulated into taking sides into what is basically a dispute within the Conservative Party (and a leadership contest), and within British neoliberalism.  The manipulation of the media by the two main camps has meant that the left alternatives for Remain and for Exit have been scarcely heard. In the process the debate has licensed the expression of openly racist views seldom heard since the 60s and 70s - albeit directed against Eastern Europeans rather than East African Asians or people from the Caribbean.

Economists for Rational Economic Policies sum up the problem in the introduction to their new report due to be discussed at a launch on June 15th.   I think the report makes an important contribution to the debate so have posted it at the end of the article.

The economic arguments over the UK’s EU Referendum have generally followed the Conservative government’s own philosophical lines of deregulation and freedom for globalised finance, in which the only true imperatives are the removal of all barriers to trade and capital flows, and the weakening of social and employment protection. This has been the main thrust of the economic arguments put forward by the Conservative “Remain” campaign, in particular the Treasury’s two reports on the long-term and immediate impacts of Brexit

Since much of the leadership of the “Leave” campaign shares the same economic philosophy, but wishes to deregulate still further (save on the issue of immigration), the choice often resembles that between tweedledum and tweedledee. In consequence, many who believe in a more managed economy which looks after the interests of working people and offers decent social protection, and who instinctively consider themselves to be European and internationalist, have felt excluded from the debate.

And alas, the European Union itself has in recent years adopted disastrous economic policies, in particular in relation to the single currency and Eurozone, which have severely damaged working people across much of the continent. Unemployment in the Eurozone has been above 10% since mid-2009, save for one solitary month. Worse, these policies are legally embedded in the EU’s Treaties, making democratic choice for change extremely difficult.

So the natural supporters of the European Union from a politically progressive perspective find themselves faced with a difficult dilemma, notably in relation to economic policy.

Economists for Rational Economic Policies (EREP) has therefore put together this series of articles which, in different ways and from differing perspectives, unite in arguing that for the UK to vote to leave the EU would be a serious mistake – both in economic and political terms. It would tend strengthen right-wing forces both in the UK and across Europe, and weaken the rights of working people. It risks a fragmentation of Europe along nationalist grounds which could even ultimately threaten the peaceful cooperation we have enjoyed across most of our continent for 70 years.

We need a strong EU for the future on a wide range of issues – not least climate change. But we also need to work in solidarity with all those across Europe who can see that Europe has to change the basis of its economic ideology and strategy if it is to fulfil its Treaty commitment to the peoples of Europe to work for “full employment and social progress.. a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment”.

I have posted the full report below:

The free launch event takes place at the University of Greenwich on June 15th. Follow this LINK for speaker details and to book your free tickets.