The role of education in preventing violence against women and girls

Caroline Lucas, Green MP, has written an interesting article regarding the issue of violence against women and girls. The full article can be found HERE but below is an extract focusing on he role of education:

All over the UK, women's organisations, many of which are struggling with funding in the face of the government's savage spending cuts and reductions in legal aid, are doing innovative work with young people to help change attitudes. For example, the Brighton and Hove based charity RISE delivers a PSHE (Personal Social Health and Economic) preventative education programme on healthy relationships to schools across the city.

Yet work to prevent violence against women and girls cannot be left to occasional campaigns or women’s organisations working in partnership with a few good schools. So in my debate in Parliament today, I want to discuss the role which schools can play as a primary forum for this work. Educational programmes about violence against women and girls, which challenge entrenched attitudes and highlight the gravity of the issue, must be an integral part of the curriculum in every school.

We must also do more to empower young people to cope with the sexual images they are bombarded with everyday. The announcement by the prime minister of a range of measures to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of children is a welcome sign that the government is prepared to tackle the kind of imagery which contributes to gendered violence. But it's important that any strategy goes beyond consumer and parent power and include young people from the outset.

If the government is really serious about addressing failing support for its policies amongst female voters, it should begin by doing far more to protect the organisations delivering crucial support for women and girls, and look to prevent gendered violence through education policy.

PR2 bus route to end on October 14th - replaced by changes to 206 and 224

This is Transport for London's response to the recent consultation:

Thank you to all who took part in our consultation. We have carefully considered all 573 responses. The changes were designed to provide some new passenger links, simplified routeings and increased frequencies in and around Wembley Park and along Brentfield Road. Some of the current direct links provided at low frequency are withdrawn.  

The majority of responses were in favour of the changes.  We believe they offer an overall enhancement for bus users in the Wembley and Park Royal areas, and so we intend to proceed as proposed.  The changes to routes 206 and 224 will commence on 15 October and route PR2 will cease operation on 14 October.
Bus route 223

Route 223 will also be changing from 15 October following a consultation with Boroughs, London TravelWatch and other stakeholders. This will improve access to the developing area around Wembley Stadium and the London Borough of Brent’s new Civic Centre on Engineers Way by diverting the service via Empire Way rather than Park Lane and Wembley Park Drive. Towards Wembley, there will be one additional stop, which is the stand itself. From Wembley, there will be three additional stops: the stand, plus two others on the manoeuvre from the stand back to Wembley High Road.

The proposed extension of route 223 to North Wembley via Harrowdene road is not being introduced at this stage, following discussions with Brent Council. We will consult again should a suitable way to deliver this become available.

We will be promoting the coming changes to the bus routes with further posters at affected stops.  These will clearly explain how it affects local bus stopping arrangements.  We will also send an email to those passengers with Oyster cards who have registered to receive email updates from us, as well as through our website and via a press release. When introduced all the changes will be kept under regular review.

Our full feedback and consultation summary can be found at the bottom of this page.

Files:

• 206, 224, PR2 Response to Issues Raised, 42.9 kB (PDF document)
• 206, 224, PR2 Summary of Responses, 884.9 kB (PDF document)

There are still concerns amongst PR2 users over the loss of a direct route to Central Middlesex Hospital and to Fawood Nursery.

Libraries judicial review ruling expected on Thursday

The judgement on the judicial review of Brent's libraries closure plans is expected to be handed down in Court on Thursday, October 13 at 10am

The Court room has yet to be notified. The outcome of the case will be stated at the hearing and then there are likely to be short arguments by the barristers about what should happen next. The hearing is expected to last no longer than 45 minutes

Please come to the High Court  on Thursday if you can. The Royal Courts of Justice entrance is on the Strand, London WC2A 2LL. See map at http://www.royalcourtsofjustice-events.co.uk/contact-us

Further news will be posted as soon as it is available..

Brent People's Assembly - Give Our Kids A Chance

With the economy in the doldrums, public sector redundancies, wage cuts affecting many residents and the housing benefit cap hitting families soon, it is imperative that we work together to defend out living conditions, our schools and our health service.  At the same time the cut in council funding has meant that we face closures of libraries and reductions in street sweeping and school crossing patrols. The People's Assembly is sub-titled 'Give Our Kids A Chance. Defending Our Jobs and Services'.

Brent Fightback, the local anti-cuts movement, is inviting campaigns, trade unions, voluntary organisations and community groups to a Brent People's Assembly on Saturday 12th November at Harlesden Methodist Church. The aim is to give local people a voice so that they can say how the cuts and increased charges are affecting them. We will be sharing information and ideas on how we can join together more effectively and ensure that everyone has a decent standard of living and our children have a future.

Marking 10 years of Brent Stop the War

Many thanks to Brent News Company TV for this report:

Evidence accumulating on impact of street sweeping cuts

When I suggested that the street sweeping cuts would make Brent 'London's dirtiest Olympic borough' I was accused of exaggerating. Cllr Moher claimed recently that Brent residents would not notice any difference and standards would be maintained. The cuts in sweeping regularity and weekend sweeping have been in place for just a week. This is what I noticed, along with guests attending a wedding at Brent Town Hall, along King's Drive in Wembley and outside Wembley ASDA at 10.30am this morning:

King's Drive, opposite Town Hall library

King's Drive, corner with Forty Lane

Bus stop outside ASDA, Wembley

Asda bus stop

Beside Kwik Fit, Wembley

 I would be interested to hear how things are looking in other parts of Brent.

Go for Green QE - not a banking black hole

The Bank of England has announced that it is to inject a further £75bn into the economy through quantitative easing. Responding to the decision, Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said: 

While it's clear that quantitative easing is one of the only options left to get our ailing economy off its knees, the Bank of England's decision to usher in £75bn worth of unregulated QE is problematic.

Unless we impose constraints on private banks to ensure the money reaches the real economy, we're effectively throwing money into a banking black hole - a recipe for systemic economic failure and further social inequality.

What we need is properly regulated quantitative easing directed towards actually creating jobs, increasing lending to small businesses and facilitating the move towards a green economy.

A job creation strategy like the Green New Deal, for example, would ultimately pay for itself by generating incomes and boosting emerging green industries.

As the average annual energy bill reaches a shocking new high of around £1,000 per household, surely now is the time to consider a green quantitative easing programme to help fund energy efficiency solutions such as home insulation to help keep people's bills down, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.

The challenge of climate change with China Miéville

China Miéville, award-winning fantasy fiction writer and author of the young adults' novel, “Un Lun Dun” will be appearing at the Willesden Green Library Centre on Monday 17^th October at 7.30pm to talk about creative fiction writing and the challenge of climate change.

In the light of recent reports on the rapid thawing of polar ice-caps, China will discuss whether fiction writers ought to amend their creative output to address climate change, the most serious long-term issue facing the world today.

The author is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award (Perdido Street Station, Iron Council and The City & The City) and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice (Perdido Street Station and The Scar). The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published in 2009 to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell (The Times) and Phillip K. Dick (The Guardian). The City & The City recently won the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was also short listed for the Nebula and Hugo prizes.  His fifth novel, Un Lun Dun, won the 2008 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book. He has also published extensively on international law.

Ken Montague, Secretary of the Brent Campaign against Climate Change says, “China really is one of the most exciting young writers in Britain today and as one of the originators of ‘weird fiction’ will bring a fresh and challenging perspective to the discussion of climate change and how we should respond to it.”

This event is the third in a series of “Environmental Writers” meetings at the Willesden Green Library Centre, where authors read from their books with environmental themes and discuss them with the audience. The series is organised by the Brent Campaign against Climate Change in liaison with the Brent Library Service.

The reading and discussion will take place at 7.30pm on Monday 17^th October 2011 at the Willesden Green Library Centre, 95 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2SF. This is a free event and all are welcome.