Notes from North Brent

It is a strange old election.  Barry Gardiner is running a campaign that at first glance makes him look like an Independent candidate relying on a personality cult to get himself elected. This pamphlet bears no red colour and you have to search for the sole mention of the Labour Party embedded in the text. It is all about Gardiner's family life.

Children leaving Fryent Primary School who were upset when Barry's red balloons ran out were bemused to be offered large stickers of Barry's smiling face instead. One boy angrily demanded where he could find a blue balloon...

The Liberal Democrats are conspicuous by their absence - presumably they are all concentrating on Teather's campaign in Brent Central. Harsh Patel is saturating the constituency with a plethora of leaflets which are distributed by an army of teenagers.  This could be counterproductive as residents have started complaining about the junk coming through their letter boxes. It is noteworthy that this effort hasn't resulted in a forest of Tory posters.

It may be straws in the wind, or deliberate misinformation, but a senior Tory encountered whilst leafleting said that 'It was turning out better than I thought it would be', while a Labour Party member, charged with telephoning supporters said he had found it hard to motivate people.

Atik Maliq, erstwhile Conservative and Democratic Consertvative councillor, seems to be concentrating on getting his posters into shop windows, though a barbers in Preston Road has both Conservatives, Patel and Malik, in their window.  Malik faced a front page blast from the Willesden and Brent Times last week which reported an unspecified allegation against him and revived comments he made about Sharia law and the whipping of unmarried women who engaged in sexual activity. Any publicity is good publicity?

Meanwhile the demise of the Democratic Conservative Group remains a mystery. They were apparently set up to contest five wards and had collected all the requisite signatures. One version has it that their leader Robert Dunwell, deciding at the last minute that he could use his time and skills better elsewhere; the other that their nominations were deemed inadmissable because of the use of Conservative in the title and there was no time left to redo the nomination forms.

I was leafleting outside Kingsbury Green Primary School with the Independent candidate,  Jannen Vamadeva and witnessed a wonderful encounter. A mum came running up to collect her child and paused to look the tall, Obama-esque figure up and down. She took in his full glory and said, 'Gaawah! I'm goin' to vote for you anytime!' On the way out I tried to interest her in some policies even though I could not match Jannen's appearance.

Canvassing in Brent North reminds you that Wembley is built on hills and my calf muscles are developing well. Traversing the hills you can imagine what the countryside was like before Metroland was built but you also see how the original suburban concept has been vandalised. I lived on the Vally Farm estate (the area between Kingsbury Road and Fryent Way) as a child  and remember the treelined roads and front gardens full of scented flowers.  On the whole estate I could find only a handful of intact front gardens. Most had been turned into car parks without a blade of grass, flower or shrub in sight. The rowan trees that used to line Crundale Avenue have all gone.  On Barn Hill someone who had retained their garden told me that residents had been complaining about the cherry trees spilling their blossom on cars and wanted to rid of them!

Meanwhile I am finding a positive reception amongst many voters and the TV debates seem to have revived interest, albeit in personalities rather than policies. They seem to have turned every other person into a political pundit. One voter, who lives in a house called Camelot, claimed the media were ignoring the fact that governments were made in marginal constitiuencies rather than the percentage vote and predeicted a small Tory majority.

Discussions about 'wasted votes' are coming up regularly but I urge people to vote Green on the basis of their principles, because every party has to start somewhere, that local Green councillors could make an enormous impact, and to demonstrate after the General Election that a high Green vote emphasises the need for a proportional voting system.

We are a small party with no big business backers and need all the practical help we can get.  If you can volunteer in the last couple of days please get in  touch.

Greens Support Kilburn College

Last night's meeting about the closure of Kilburn College was crowded, angry and militant. Lecturers, students and local residents came together to denouce the closure plans and put forward ideas for active resistance. The main political party candidates for Hampstead and Kilburn spoke platitudes from the platform and soon disappeared.

Speaking from the floor, Peter Murry, an ex-lecturer at Kilburn and a council candidate for  the Brent Kilburn ward spoke passionately of this attack on local people who face challenges such as learning English and getting into employment. He outlined how further education could transform their lives and said that the removal of their access to education was a crime. He supported calls for non-violent direct action and remarked that such tactics were a proud Green Party tradition. He called for further education colleges to be brought back under local authority control.

Bea Campbell, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, spoke about how further education had improved her parents' life chances and suggested that another dimension to the campaign should be a legal route.  She urged the campaign to seek legal assistance to use the recent Equalities legislation to show that the community had not been properly consulted on the proposals, (now a statutory requirement).

Students from the ethnic minority communites spoke movingly of their attachment to their local college and the difference it had made and was making in their lives. There were accounts of the shock they had felt when the announcement was made and their feelings of being completed disregarded by the college governors.

A large number of people, including Green Party members, volunteered to be part of a delegation to the college governors, to try and persuade then to reverse their decision.

Kilburn - Blame Privatisation

Peter Murry, Green Party candidate for Kilburn ward, looks ahead to Friday's Save Kilburn College meeting at the Kingsgate Community Centre, Kingsgate Road, NW6 (7pm).

As a Green Party candidate for Kilburn ward in the council elections and a former lecturer at the College of North West London’s old Kilburn site and retired member of the college’s UCU branch, I am obviously concerned about the closure of the new Kilburn building and its impact on students and staff. This will drastically reduce educational provision for adults in the Kilburn area, many of who are BME communities and women.

However, although I support the campaign against closure the present funding current management arrangements limit the power of any local council or MP to reverse the decision.

The root of the problem lies in earlier government policies of the quasi-privatisation of Further Education that took place in the 1990's. This took the control of Colleges out of the control of local government, which whatever its faults, had some democratic accountability. Now colleges with large budgets are controlled by governing bodies which are in effect self perpetuating quangos that often just rubber-stamp management decisions

Debate Afghanistan and the War on Terror? Er, sorry..important engagement....whips won't allow...can't speak because we're elected...can't be bothered

With the UK bogged down in an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, the mounting death toll of British soldiers, the realisation of the corrupt nature of the Afghan government, and the impact on many local people of the 'war on terror',  you would think that the politicians who support the war would stand up and defend their policies in front of the voters of Brent.

Far from it. Dawn Butler had pleaded another important  engagement weeks ago but there didn't appear to be any more important election activity anywhere else in Brent that evening. The Metro reports today that just as the hustings were about to begin she tweeted that she 'was sitting in a cafe in Kensal Green resting after door knocking'.

To make matters worse she had nominated local councillors Van Kalwala and Butt to speak on her behalf at the meeting but they withdrew at the last minute. In a message to organisers they said that the Labour Group whip had advised them that due to this being a national issue and the fact that they were local councillors they 'would not be best placed to speak on the topic.' They also said that as elected members they would not be able to speak in a personal capacity either.

The Conservative candidate for Brent Central, Sachin Rajput, had also said he could not make the meeting but would find a replacement. Despite frequent reminders he submitted no names and there was no Tory speaker.

My personal opinion is that this failure to debate with the public one of the most pressing issues of the day, involving national security, the deaths of British troops, not to mention the enormous economic cost, shows a complete contempt for the people of Brent.

Despite the Labour and Conservative absence the 80-90 people present, the local press and a Middle Eastern TV station, heard passionate and informed presentations from experts on Afghanistan, the 'war on terror', Palestine and Guantanomno.  Shahrar Ali, the Green Party candidate and Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat candidate made considered and detailed responses to the questions from the experts and the audience. 

The main differences that emerged between the parties were on Afghanistan and Trident. The Green Party are for immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan accompanied by a regional peace process and for the scrapping of Trident. The Liberal Democrats are for a review of the Afghanistan commitment and were challenged that their desire to maintain stability though the use of troops would inevitably mean a long term presence. Sarah Teather wanted to retain options on the nuclear deterrent whilst being opposed to the renewal of Trident. On Palestine Shahrar Ali said the Green Party supported all of the PSC's pledges while Sarah Teather wanted to consult with legal experts on trade before commiting to a ban on settlement goods.

In her concluding remarks Sarah Teather said that the Brent Central contest would be a too close to call two horse race and if the audience largely agreed with her that was the way they should vote. She promised that she would be prepared to challenge the Lib Dem whips on issues of principle.

Shahrar Ali said that the Green Party was founded on firm principles of justice and equality. He challenged the the two horse race concept and said that voters should vote in terms of their beliefs and principles. He quoted the 9% plus local vote Greens received in the 2008 GLA elections and said that there was no better time than now than to cast a Green vote.

The Spring Election in Brent

Springtime in Brent: trees in blossom, bird song and nest building....and fly-tipping

Campaigning has brought the practical importance of Green policies into focus, rather than the personality politics encouraged by the TV debates. Although there were signs of a Lib Dem bandwagon in the on the hoof comments of voters whenI leafleted outside Wembley Park stations, it became clear when they were pressed that their comments were light-hearted and with little substance.



However, extended conversations while canvassing have underlined the key issues to do with equality, jobs, housing, education and accountability. Our policy to increase the minimum wage received strong support with people saying the present wage is just not enough to live on. One claimant, feeling depressed after making numerous job applications said our policy to allow claimants to work for more hours before benefits are cut would make a real difference to him.  He said it would ease people back into a work pattern and counter the low self-esteem caused by unemployment.


Employment and training opportunities are fundamental. Our commitment to a massive investment in the creation of green training and jobs, dwarves the promises made by the Lib Dems.  We recognise the revolution that will be needed to create a low carbon economy, providing socially useful jobs. The UK must again begin making things, rather than cashing in on what has been called casino capitalism, but the things made must actually improve people's lives.  For those already in work, but having to work long hours to the detriment of family life, our policy to move towards a 35 hour week will make a significant impact - and allow work to be shared out amongst a greater number of people.  



A period of recession always means that more people move into education and training to prepare for the upturn.  It is scandalous then that the College of North West London is closing its new Kilburn site and courses are under threat from funding cuts. The current management and funding system for further education is fundamentally flawed and we would return further education to the management of local authorities who are able to respond to the specific needs of local people.  As with academies there is a need to return education to local democratic control - we must reclaim our schools and colleges.



The extremes of riches and poverty in Brent North are very evident when leafleting. On one evening you can be squeezing through gas guzzlers parked on a paved over garden outside a 6 bedroomed house and on the next stepping over rubbish and climbing fire escapes to dilapidated flats over high road shops. Some of the pre-war blocks in Wembley, managed by private property companies, are in a very bad state of repair with rotting windows, damp walls and moth-eaten carpeting on communal staircases.



Our commitment to renewed direct investment in council and social housing, including refurbishment of empty properties, will begin to tackle the massive Brent housing waiting list.  Equally important will be taking enforcement action on private landlords who fail to keep their properties properly maintained. In addition we would make sure that affordable housing was built to a high specification rather than the tiny rooms provided in many current cost-cutting schemes.  I am particularly concerned that good quality and secure play facilities are provided in new developments.  Too often the promises made for improvements in infrastructure and community facilities by developers such as Quintain, responsible for Wembley 'City, ' are not fulfilled or are forgotten in the rush to develop. We would make sure that developers really deliver for the community.

Finally, we need to care much more for our communities. People all over the constituency are concerned about fly-tipping and the dumping of rubbish.  Some of this is clearly by individuals wanting to avoid the bulky collection charge but there is also dumping by cowboy builders and house clearers. The scene above is from St Davids Close on Chalkhill and Chalkhill also suffers from massive dumping of furniture and mattresses on the open ground near the Health Centre which has been ear-marked for a new public park and children's playspace. Residents on Birchen Grove pointed to a mountain of  dumped house clearance rubbish near the Welsh Harp carpark as merely the latest in a series of dumpings.  Greens would make clearining up the local environment and combating 'public squalour' a major priority.

Unite Against the BNP in Brent

Brent residents will be dismayed to hear that the British National Party is standing a candidate in Fryent ward in the council election.

Brent and Harrow Unite Against Fascism have circulated a statement inviting candidates, residents, community groups and religious organisations to pledge their opposition to the BNP and all that it stands for. I have signed as the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brent North. Fryent is one of the Brent North wards.

THE STATEMENT

We are shocked to learn that the Nazi British National Party is standing a candidate in Fryent Ward for the Brent Council elections. Brent is a borough where people from across the world work side by side and live together as good neighbours. Their children grow up and go to school together. It is a united community.  We welcome and celebrate this unity. The British National Party wants to destroy it.

The BNP stands for racism, intolerance and hatred. Its ideas echo those of Hitler’s Nazis and Oswald Mosley’s Fascist Blackshirts. Leading members of the BNP are on record publicly denying that the Holocaust happened, celebrating Hitler’s birthday, saying that women should not complain about rape, and that there is “not a great deal of point” in keeping people with disabilities alive.

There is no room for racism, hatred and division in our multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious community. We call on all the voters in Fryent Ward to use their votes on Thursday May 6^th, but NOT  for the Nazi BNP

If you would like to sign the statement e-mail: uafbrentandharrow@googlemail.com

  

Dinosaur Battles Toxic Chimney

Yesterday, Brent, Barnet & Enfield and Camden Friends of the Earth local groups flew an inflatable flying dinosaur, the "Brentcrossasaurus", and released balloons at Clitterhouse Playing fields in Cricklewood.  An attempt was also made to fly a kite to the height of the 140metre incinerator chimney proposed for the Brent Cross Cricklewood development.  The groups were warning of UFD: not unidentified flying dinosaurs, but Unidentified Flying Discharges.

The stunt was part of an event organised by Barnet Green party, supported by members of the Brent Cross Coalition, of which local Friends of the Earth groups are members.

Jim Roland, Friends of the Earth member and Golders Green resident said, "Waste gasification, like conventional incineration, emits toxic nanoparticles we can't see.  Just as volcanic ash damages jet engines unlike normal fire ash, so the nanoparticles that the gasifier will emit are far more toxic than regular car exhaust soot and tyre dust.  Nanoparticles from municipal waste gasification can transmit heavy metals and other toxins into delicate organs like the brain, as with conventional incineration.

"Municipal waste gasification is actually a dinosaur technology: it's still turning the products of oil extraction into global warming gases and pollution, it requires that recyclable material such as plastic is burnt to help provide a heat source, and it leaves large quantities of toxic ash."

Lia Colacicco, Brent Friends of the Earth member, Brent Cross Coalition Co-ordinator, and Mapesbury resident said, “If anyone has seen any of our five balloons released, then they will also receive emissions from the proposed chimney.  We would love to know where the chimney products are blowing to! 

“I used to think that it would be a good idea to get heat from vapourising rubbish. But after hearing the evidence from a world leading environmental chemist, Professor Paul Connett, I was shocked. Apparently the nanoparticles produced are so small they can’t be regulated, and can travel for miles.  Rather than getting stuck in your lungs they pass through into your blood then brain. The scientific evidence is so clear.  He told us that it would be stupid to site a gasifier near any community”

 “We think that district heating and power stations are a good thing, but this is incineration in disguise; the developer is misleading people.  It is not the gasifier that provides heating to local homes- it’s the combined heat and power station.  It is perfectly feasible to run that with natural gas or other safe fuels not produced by incineration techniques, which as the professor states are not proven for domestic waste.  In fact plants in Karlsruhe and Woollongong were unsafe and had to be closed.”

If anyone finds a Brent Cross balloon please email bxc@brentfoe.com.

Eco Hustings: Will the Environment Get Your Vote?