Dawn Butler's 'Liar' speech in full

 Via They Work for You

The last 18 months have been a tale of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good is that the people of Brent and elsewhere have joined together to form mutual aid groups, religions have come together to find common ground, and strangers are now firm friends. The bad is this Government’s catastrophic handling of the pandemic, the mixed messages, the corruption in plain sight, the authoritarian laws and the erosion of our democracy. And the ugly is that racism in society has reared its ugly head, spurred on by Government reports and the hyping up of the culture war and the war on woke.

While the NHS was coping with 130,000 people dying from the pandemic, the Prime Minister was making his mates rich. Cronyism is rife and old chums are given jobs regardless of their skillset—some a little bit on the side. This has been one big experiment for this corrupt, authoritarian, racism-laden Government, and I am not scared of saying it like it is.

The Government said we need to talk about class, so let us do it. Let us call out this toxic elitism once and for all. Byline Times, the Good Law Project, Novara Media, openDemocracy, Amnesty and Liberty have all exposed the Government, and the Government’s response is to spend public money defending the indefensible.

It is funny how there is no money for NHS staff, yet £1 billion of covid contracts have been awarded to Conservative donors. We were told that Ministers were not involved, but then the Good Law Project exposed emails from the Prime Minister’s advisers and the Home Secretary lobbying for money. The corrupt, authoritarian approach of this Government would be condemned and investigated if it were happening anywhere else in the world.

The 1% believe they owe nothing to society. They do not believe in the NHS, and they do not support it. This week I spoke to Orwell Foundation youth writer Manal Nadeem. She wrote:

“Let anti-racism be both common logic and law. May we have more accountability than apologies. May performative, placeholder posts be followed by policy… When the future arrives, let the minimum wage be a liveable wage… Let survival be a birthright... When the poor cannot pay with anything else, let us not ask them to pay with their lives.”

Poor people in our country have paid with their lives because the Prime Minister spent the last 18 months misleading this House and the country.

Peter Stefanovic from the Communication Workers Union has a video with more than 27 million views online. In it he highlights that the Prime Minister says: that the economy has grown by 73%—it is just not true; that he has reinstated nursing bursaries—just not true; that there is not a covid app working anywhere in the world—just not true; and that the Tories invested £34 billion in the NHS—not true. The Prime Minister said

“we have severed the link between infection and serious disease and death.”

Not only is that not true but it is dangerous.

It is dangerous to lie during a pandemic, and I am disappointed that the Prime Minister has not come to the House to correct the record and correct the fact that he has lied to this House and the country over and over again.

International Busking Day at Wembley Park Sunday July 25th

 Press release from 'Wembley Park'

For the third year, Wembley Park will host International Busking Day, on Sunday 25 July. The free, family-friendly, day-long celebration of busking and street performance - supported by the Mayor of London – will feature performances by international and home-grown talent. The event is a highlight of Wembley Park’s Summer of Play programme of events, featuring a line-up of the best UK based buskers and exciting new local talent, plus a few surprises along the way. It’s part of the latest phase of the Mayor of London's #LetsDoLondon campaign, the biggest domestic tourism campaign the capital has ever seen, the ‘Family Fun’ season will see London burst back to life with an unprecedented range of family-friendly events and activities.

 

Committed to nurturing creative talent and the performing arts industry, Wembley Park has launched the Wembley Park Live Academy, an educational scheme for emerging musicians, which involves teaching and mentorship for 10 North West London musicians, culminating in paid performances at Wembley Park’s International Busking Day.

 

Selected applicants of the Live Academy scheme had the opportunity to attend an ‘Academy Day’ at The Yellow, Wembley Park’s community centre, events space, and learning hub, where they were given performance training, personalised coaching, and taught key industry skills, all in the lead up to their debut performances at International Busking Day. The successful trainees will be represented by Busk in London and paid to perform at Wembley Park for the special day-long International Busking Day event, as well as other Wembley Park locations throughout the summer.

 

The Wembley Park Live Academy graduates come from a variety of musical backgrounds, including folk, pop and rock, perfectly complimenting Busk in London’s stellar line-up on musical talent. Many of the Academy graduates are North-West London locals, with two performers living right in the heart of Wembley Park itself.

 

As well as watching home-grown talent take centre stage at International Busking Day, guests can expect to see street dancers, walkabout artists such as the Human Hedges, roller skate dancers, and more. Busk in London’s seasoned artists will also play an integral part in the day’s proceedings, with performances taking place across Wembley Park and the iconic Arena Square.

 

Not only can visitors listen to great musical talent but take part, too; pre-bookable cajon workshops are on offer, where guests can master those basic beats in an easy to follow, all-ages-welcome session. Drumming not your thing? Visitors can grab a spray can and let their street art juices flow with artist Sophy Robson guiding guests every spray of the way.

 

International Busking Day will take place on Sunday 25^th July, from 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

 

Key Locations and Timings

 

Through Booby Moore Bridge

What: Wembley Park Live Graduates give visitors a warm welcome at the gateway to International Busking Day.

When: 1400 – 18:20

 

Opposite Black Sheep Coffee

What: From homegrown musical talent to mesmerising Street Dancers, guests can catch both Busk in London artists and a street dance crew in this location throughout the day.

When: 14:40 – 18:40

 

Olympic Way South & North

What: Olympic Way will play host to several intriguing artist performances, including the Human Hedges and roller skate dancer, hula artists, jugglers, and more. 

When: 1400 – 19:45

 

Arena Square

What: Spectators in Arena Square can expect to see a variety of acts, including classical, funk/flamenco fusion, folk, Jazz, and Afrobeat artists.

Also in Arena Square, guests can enjoy pre-bookable participatory Cajon workshops; participants will have a 45-minute energising session to learn the basic drumming patterns associated with Cajon playing.

When: 14:15 – 18:50

 

London Designer Outlet - Town Square

What: The London Designer Outlet will be playing host to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra it’s Town Square, where the renowned musical body will perform an intimate set of classics. 

When: 1200 – 18:30

 

Arena Square

 

What: Guests will be treated to a pre-bookable, participatory workshop with street artist Sophy Robson. The public can get to grips with their creative talents, by crafting works using spray paint as the medium, with the artist. Sophy will use the themes of Wembley Park to help participants devise original artwork, ensuring creativity is in no short supply.

When: 14:15 – 18:50

 

Royal Route Bridge

The Yellow will host a stage in front of the Royal Route, curated by a volunteer team from The Yellow.

 

Barry Gardiner raises St Modwen (Wembley Central) scandal in House of Commons debate on the Building Safety Bill

 

Barry Gardiner MP (Labour Brent North) in a welcome intervention yesterday raised the issue of the St Modwen development in Wembley Central Square in the House of Commons debate of the Building Safety Bill.  SEE LINK to previous post

I am not sure what is worse for leaseholders: the fact that they are in constant fear because their homes are not safe, the fact that they cannot afford to make them safe and are being harassed by greedy managing agents, or the fact that they are trapped in their flats without any easy option to sell and move on with their lives. Today’s statement and the Bill do not fundamentally change that for all the reasons the Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley, set out in his brief but excellent speech.

During the passage of the Fire Safety Bill, Ministers promised that these issues would be addressed in the Building Safety Bill. Lord Greenhalgh said:

“it is unacceptable for leaseholders to have to worry about costs of fixing historic safety defects in their buildings that they did not cause” and that

“building owners are responsible for ensuring the safety of residents”, and he said that they should

“protect leaseholders from the costs of remediating historic building defects.”

I do not know what the correct term in Parliament is for someone who make promises that they do not keep, but I know what they call them on the streets of Brent North: they call them a Government Minister.

Extending the scope and duration of the Defective Premises Act 1972 in the Building Safety Bill shows that the Government do not understand the extent of the problem. I ask the Minister to explain to my constituents who live in the Wembley Central development how it will help them. The original developer of their homes, St Modwen, has washed its hands of these defective properties. It sold them to an offshore company in Jersey in 2018, following the introduction of the new building regulations. It was in partnership with Sowcrest, which is now in a very convenient liquidation. So who exactly does the Minister think my constituents can chase here? What are the Government prepared to do about buildings with obscure corporate ownership?

I first contacted St Modwen in 2017, immediately after the Grenfell tragedy. It repeatedly assured me that the buildings were safe and in 2018 confirmed in writing that no fire safety defects had been identified. I am now told that the cladding on this building is the same as that used in Grenfell Tower and the fire safety report has identified fire stopping defects throughout the construction process. In May this year, St Modwen agreed to a takeover bid of £1.2 billion from Blackstone. Can the Minister tell me how this Bill will make them accountable for their actions? It was not the leaseholders who decided to use flammable cladding or to leave out fire stopping in voids or cut corners—developers made those decisions. My constituents have neither the deep pockets nor the legal expertise to fight these corporate chameleons, who start off in London and end up in Jersey as a different company. This Bill shows that the Government either do not understand or do not care. The companies can afford lengthy litigation; leaseholders cannot.

Finally, the Minister must explain why there is so little progress on the building safety fund. I wrote to St Modwen on 23 June. I still await a response. I have written to Fidum, the new managing agent for the new owners. I asked it about its application to the building safety fund for the removal of unsafe cladding. I have received no response, but Fidum now tells residents that it missed the closing date of 30 June for the second application because it is still waiting to have eligibility—

TOMORROW: BOOK LAUNCH: Selma James’ new anthology Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, & Caring for People and Planet - OffSide Books, Willesden Lane 6.30pm

 

Kilburn is packed with hidden treasures, one of them is Selma James, a local writer, well-known anti-racist campaigner and feminist icon, recently honoured with the Sheila McKechnie Long-term Achievement Award.  

 

On Friday 23 July OffSide Books, a cozy community space in NW6 hosts a book launch to celebrate Ms James’ new anthology, Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, & Caring for People and Planet. 

 

Selma James defined and identified unwaged caring work as a core issue for the women’s movement and launched the Wages for Housework Campaign (WFH) in 1972.

This much-anticipated follow-up to her first anthology (Sex, Race, and Class – The Perspective of Winning), compiles decades of James’s work with a focus on more recent writings, including a ground-breaking analysis of CLR James’s masterpieces, The Black Jacobins and Beyond a Boundary, and an account of her formative partnership with him. Her experience in the movement for Caribbean federation and independence is reflected in her introduction to Ujamaa, the socialism that Tanzanian villagers built and in her work with Guyana, Haiti and Venezuela. 

Selma James turns 91 this year, her work spans 60 years, including founding the Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town. Her writing shines, inspires and sheds light on every corner of the movement for justice and change.  

At OffSide Books, Selma will be discussing her work with a Q&A, and signing her new book. All welcome!

---

Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, & Caring for People and Planet is available HERE.

Sex, Race, and Class – The Perspective of Winning is available HERE.

WHERE: OffSide Books, 92 Willesden Lane, Kilburn NW6 7TQ

WHEN: Friday 23 July 2021, 6.30-8 pm

Free open air summer screenings at Wembley Park begin next Thursday with 'Bend it Like Beckham'

 

Wembley Park's response to my query re Covid19 precautions at these events:

Public safety is Wembley Park’s highest priority and Wembley Park continues to follow the government guidance for COVID-19.

 

All events, as part of the Summer of Play programme, are set within a spacious, outdoor setting and some measures will remain in the public realm for the public to use whenever they want to.

SUMMER ON SCREEN 

 

29^th JULY – 5^th SEPTEMBER

 

North-West London’s Free Open-Air Cinema.

 

From Thursday 29 July, Wembley Park’s popularfree outdoor cinema, Summer on Screen, will return for five weeks in the Events Pad, across from the London Designer Outlet, on Wembley Park Boulevard. 

 

 

Visit Summer on Screen for an exceptional outdoor cinematic experience of hand-picked films under the summer night sky, with a choice of socially distant deckchairs or beanbags for a comfortable experience. 

 

 

Choose from 18 cinema gems including cult classics, magical musicals, and family favourites. Guests can see smash hits like the acclaimed play Hamilton, or for those in the sporting spirit, Bend it Like Beckham will show on the launch night of July 29, when the Olympics fever will be in full swing. 

 

 

An array of Bollywood classics will also be shown, including Manmarziyaan as well as educational and popular documentaries from National Geographic which will be screened in the day. 

 

 

Best of all, screenings are completely free, so be sure to arrive early for pre-show entertainment, food, drink, and to secure seats.

 

 

Film Schedule (with more dates to be confirmed in due course):

 

Thursday 29^th July: Bend It Like Beckham 

 

Friday 30^th July: Hamilton

 

Saturday 31^st July: Frozen

 

Sunday 1^st August: Manmarziyaan 

 

Sunday 8^th August: Lion King 

 

Thursday 12^th August: Dodgeball 

 

Saturday 14^th August: Ratatouille

 

Sunday 15^th August: India’s Indpendence Day, screening presented by UK Asian Film Festival – showing ‘Khape’.

 

Thursday 19^th August: Cool Runnings

 

Friday 20^th August: Bohemian Rhapsody 

 

Saturday 21^st August: Tom and Jerry (2021)

 

Sunday 22^nd August: Batti Gul Meter Chalu 

 

Thursday 26^th August: Eddie the Eagle 

 

Friday 27^th August: Yesterday

 

Saturday 28^th August: Paddington 

 

Sunday 29^th August: Happy Endings 

 

Thursday 2^nd September: Happy Gilmore

 

Friday 3^rd September: A Star is Born 

 

 

When:            

 

Thursday 29 July – Sunday 5 September.

 

Where:          

 

Events Pad, Wembley Park Boulevard.

 

Price:            

   

Free.