New Nation speaks to Sutton Green Stan Prokop

Green Party supporter Paul Macey and local party member Dr Stan Prokop interviewed in New Nation.

Climate Change March 2008

Approaching Parliament Square



Earlier in the day, reaching the end of the pre-march bike ride.



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Tags greenparty

Sympathy for the devil?

Among all the furore about the arrest of Damian Green, I was gobsmacked that Radio 4 chose to interview, of all people, Michael Howard, one of the most intolerant Home Secretaries ever and architect of the so-called Criminal Justice Act. To hear his sanctimonious whingeing was entertaining and the thought did cross my mind that perhaps someone Machiavellian in the Beeb had brought him on to satisfy their sense of irony. Anyway if (s)he did it went right over Howard's head. Outrageous as the arrest was, and in particular the use of the notorious anti-terror cops, it's been happening to the rest of us for some time, for example the arrest of Maya Evans three years ago after reciting the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq outside the gates of Downing Street.
And then there is the Tory threat of a vote of no confidence in the speaker. Anyone with a brain might have deduced that Gorbals Mick was not fit for the office long before now. Remember that last year Martin spent £20,000 of taxpayers' money on libel firm Carter-Fuck to represent him following articles querying his conduct. Martin also exempted his wife, Mary, from security checks in the Palace of Westminster, where they live, and for trying to block details of MPs' £5m-a-year travel expenses being published under the Freedom of Information Act. It suited the Tories to back him then, so who are they kidding now when they try to present themselves as defenders of democracy??

National Climate March

Saturday December 6th 2008

March on Parliament to demand that the government acts on climate now !
Part of a Global Day of Action - see www.globalclimatecampaign.org
- last year 70+ countries were involved !

The march this year goes to Parliament Square to demand that the government act now on climate. The march will now start at Grosvenor Square (5 mins from Speakers Corner, Hyde Park - Bond Street or Marble Arch tube. Apologies for any confusion over starting point see more here) - assemble 12 noon. Full schedule here

Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).

The march will be preceeded by a climate protest bike ride starting from Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10.30 am:

see more here.

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Tags sutton, greenparty

A welcome U-turn on garden waste

So the LibDem council has finally capitulated over the garden waste collection. If they weren't prepared to listen to a wide spectrum of local opinion including the Greens, they had their minds concentrated by the high-profile condemnation by their own local MPs who are keenly aware thet they are in the firing line at the next election. A bit more listening to local groups and individuals before rushing into future mistakes, and showing a bit more humiltiy, would be welcome. That said, we applaud the decision to reintroduce the collections although we hope that this will go hand in hand with vigorous attempts to encourage those who can compost to do so.

Caroline Lucas is first Green Party Leader

Caroline Lucas has won the Green Party's first ever leadership election.
Lucas defeated her rival for the leadership, Ashley Gunstock, by a margin of 2559 votes to 210 - 90%.
Lucas, who is the party's candidate for the target constituency of Brighton Pavillion, said:
"I am deeply honoured to have been elected as the first leader of the Green Party.
"I am also delighted to have Adrian Ramsay elected alongside me as our party's first Deputy. His
work for the past ten years in Norwich, transforming an inactive party into the largest group of Green councillors in Britain is truly inspirational."Britain needs Green leadership now. None of the other parties has the vision or the courage to tackle the real challenges we face today - the accelerating climate crisis, and Victorian levels of inequality.
"We need a Green New Deal to tackle the impact of rising prices and increased unemployment.We need to invest the proceeds of a Windfall tax on massive energy company profits into making the homes of ordinary people warmer and fuel bills more affordable.
"As Leader I will work tirelessly to get our positive Green message across to the public, and to see more Greens elected to deliver social and environmental justice in towns and cities across the country.
"Adrian Ramsay, who supported Lucas for leader, was elected unopposed.
Councillor Ramsay, who heads the Green opposition group on Norwich Council, said:
"I'm honoured to be elected the first Deputy Leader of the Green Party. It's a crucial time for the Greens as we build towards winning our first seats at Westminster in the next General Election. At a time of rising fuel prices growing concern about the effects of climate change, Green polices offer real solutions for the country."
For more information about Caroline click here

Economics: Greens back New Green Deal plan

New Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas, took to the stage today for her first speech to the party's annual conference to call for a windfall tax on energy profits to kickstart a "Green New Deal" to help people deal with the credit crunch and rising fuel prices.Dr Lucas, who became the Greens' first ever leader in a landslide result announced on the first day of the conference, yesterday, began the calls for a windfall tax months ago; more recently, MPs, anti-poverty campaigners and environmentalists have joined the campaign.The "Green New Deal" report, authored by a panel including Dr Lucas, Co-director of Finance For The Future Colin Hines, SolarCentury boss Jeremy Leggett, Guardian Economic Editor Larry Elliot, and former Friends of the Earth chief Tony Juniper, calls for public investment in green-collar jobs in areas including renewable energy. Lucas also backed a programme of free insulation for every home in Britian to create jobs, cut fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions."Just three companies – BP, Centrica, and Shell – together made £1000 profit every second over the first 6 months of this year. "These corporations are robbing from the poor to give to the rich and they know it. And it's about time they learned that in a progressive democracy, there is no place for robber barons." Proposing a Green New Deal in response, Dr Lucas said: "When the world faced economic depression back in the early 1930s, it was President Roosevelt's New Deal that got people back to work with a massive investment in infrastructure. "Today we stand on the brink of a triple crisis – a combination of a credit-fuelled financial meltdown, accelerating climate change, and soaring energy prices."We need a Green New Deal in response."The core would be a 21st century project to make the nation's buildings truly energy efficient, with local authority bonds being issued to raise the necessary funds for a major investment in insulation, efficiency and renewables, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process."

Green Party stall at Carshalton Green Fair

Thanks George for forwarding this photo taken at the Carshalton Green Fair. During a spare few seconds in between taking orders, washing up and waiting for the kettle to boil - the Sutton and Croydon Green Party gang had time to pose for this photo. Well done to everyone that helped run the stall.

What is the point of the Liberal Democrats?

It would be easier to take the LibDems more seriously if they didn't insist on picking anyone they can pin a rosette on to stand for them, and actually showed soemthing approaching integrity and/or consistency just now and again. After numerous faux pas including selecting Brian 'gas guzzler' Paddick to contest the London mayoralty, despite apparently being at odds with his party's policy on all sorts of issues, now this classic from Maidstone where local LibDems have selected a road fuel protester and local road haulage magnate as their Parliamentary candidate. Links here:-
http://www.kentmessenger.co.uk/paper/default.asp?article_id=22242
http://www.kentmessenger.co.uk/paper/default.asp?article_id=20235
http://www.kentmessenger.co.uk/paper/default.asp?article_id=13722

Maybe someone who purports to understand what LibDems stand for could explain what it is about Mr Peter Carroll that makes him a Liberal Democrat? And while they're at it, why the party apparently supports congestion charging but opposes it wherever local people apear top be against such as West london and Edinburgh, has differing views on waste incineration from city to city, supports the M74 motorway, condemned by official enquiry, waited until public opinion was well against the Iraq war before coming off the fence, etc etc ad nauseam...

Shan Oakes - The real civil liberties candidate

Shan Oakes has been selected as the Green Party's candidate standing against the Conservatives' David Davis for the seat of Haltemprice and Howden on July 10th 2008.

Any offers of campaigning help can be directed to Martin Dean at sokuto12 'at' sokuto12.karoo.co.uk

Read Shan's new blog at http://shanoakes.blogspot.com/

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Tags greenparty

Stop the 3rd runway!

Of all the insane proposals put forward by this increasingly wretched government their plans for airport expansion must be some where near the top of the league. That’s why I was happy to be there at the weekend supporting the action against the proposed third runway which will demolish about 1200 homes as well as making lives of tens of thousands of people a misery. The new runway will increase the airport capacity by 50% from 480,000 flights a year to 720,000; and BAA also wants to end the “alternation agreement” which regulates flights at Heathrow’s existing runways: planes leaving the airport currently switch directions at 3pm in order to give the people of West London a break from the noise. If the policy changes, the airport could take a further 72,000 flights a year on top as well as condemning thousands of local people to non stop noise.

What about the wider issues- of climate change? Depending on whether you believe the government’s figures or those produced by academic researchers, by 2050 the greenhouse gases produced by the UK’s air passengers will equate to between 91% and 258% of the carbon dioxide the government says the whole economy should be producing. Its airport expansion plans, in conjunction with those of other nations, will cause runaway climate change even if we were to spend the rest of our lives shivering in the dark. So much for the economic benefits of new runways.

Don’t think that it will be any better with the Tories who are predictably just as committed to run(a)way climate change via increased air travel. The LibDems too like to sit on the fence and proclaim that we should be expanding regional airports like Lydd (as if these are somehow more cuddly and their emissions less toxic). Pathetic cop out as usual. If the position of political parties on airport expansion isn’t touchstone of their real commitment to ‘sustainability’ then I don’t know what is.

Green waste- another hastily rolled out mistake.

copy of letter sent to Sutton Guardian:

Dear Editor

As chair of the Greens you’d expect me to be an enthusiastic composter and indeed I am but it only servers to reinforce my perception that if anyone in the LibDems is a gardener they can’t be very good at talking to each other, for there is so much garden waste that isn’t suitable for the compost heap. Leaving aside all the woody material which I’m not sure what to do with now, even large quantities of grass cuttings don’t rot down as correspondents to the Guardian have already pointed out. I’m all in favour of encouraging more composting- maybe the teams of smart travel people could have been recycled into compost consultants? – but the best that can be said for this fiasco is that it’s a well meaning but wrong headed approach. If Cllr Hall and his team had thought about consulting with gardeners, it seems they could have avoided looking like monkeys whilst only paying peanuts, to paraphrase recent comments by another councillor to justify another dubious decision. Bonfire anyone?

Bob Steel, Sutton Green party

GLA Results

The Ken versus Boris show certainly boosted the turnout in Croydon and Sutton. Occasional CONSERVATIVE and LABOUR voters came out to back their party. This caused the LIB DEM vote to squeeze but not the GREEN PARTY'S! Our vote share actually increased to 5.17% -which meant the deposit was also saved!

Under the London-wide proportional system: again our vote held firm returning our 2 Green Assembly members (AM's). The LIB DEM's again experienced the squeeze and now only have 3 AM's!

In the Mayoral election, Sian Berry's vote also bucked the Red/Purple V Blue squeeze, resulting in the GREEN PARTY's share actually increasing.

A big thank you to all those that voted Green and contributed to the campaign. Onward and Upwards!!!

Croydon and Sutton
Steve O'Connell (C) 76,477 (44.08%, +7.30%)
Shafi Khan (Lab) 33,812 (19.49%, +1.31%)
Abigail Lock (LD) 32,335 (18.64%, -1.49%)
David Pickles (UKIP) 9,440 (5.44%, -5.25%)
Shasha Khan (Green) 8,969 (5.17%, +0.83%)
David Campanale (CPA) 6,910 (3.98%, +1.00%)
Richard Castle (Eng Dem) 4,186 (2.41%)
Zana Hussain (Left List) 1,361 (0.78%)

C maj 42,665 (24.59%)


2.53% swing Lab to C Electorate 384,162;

Turnout 173,490 (45.16%, +9.13%)

Siân and the Giant Peach

Observer Backs Greens

From today's Observer Editorial

There is a stronger case to be made for casting 'first preference' votes for Siân Berry, the Green candidate. The party has already used its toehold on the London Assembly to wring green concessions worth millions of pounds out of the mayoral budget. A respectable score for Ms Berry, an intelligent and articulate advocate of her cause, would send a clear signal to whoever wins the mayoralty that London cares about environmental policy.

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Tags greenparty

Green Tory Tactical Voting Tip

Did you know that a vote cast for the Tory Party in the London-wide List is a wasted vote? This is because the Tory Party will inevitably win more than their fair share of constituency members, so none of their list will get elected.

This means that Tory voters can vote both Blue and Green in the same election, by voting Tory in the constituency and voting for the Green Party in the London-wide list.

Meanwhile Real Greens in Sutton should vote Green Party in the London list and for Green Party candidate Shasha Khan in the constituency vote.

London Election Broadcast

National Election Broadcast

Green Party Manifesto for London

Key Green policies include:

* 20p off all bus and off-peak tube fares - cancel £500 million east London roadbuilding scheme and invest in public transport instead
* Free insulation available to everyone;
* Insist all employers pay a Living Wage of least £7.20 an hour
* More affordable housing with a 60% target for all new homes
* Cheap loans for renewable energy generation
* Support for small business, against big retailers, with 50% of space in new developments to be small units for local businesses, at affordable rents
* People-friendly speed limits - 20 mph everywhere except a small number of major routes
* Tube PPPs and rail services in London brought back into public control
* No airport expansion
Download the full manifesto (pdf)

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Tags sutton, greenparty

Green waste- where we stand

Copy of letter sent to local media:

The level of debate on the current spat over garden waste collections has been disappointingly negative and perhaps over-simplistic.

The Green party agrees with Councillor Hall that ‘free’ waste collections are nothing of the sort, and that it’s a good idea to encourage people to take more responsibility for their own waste where possible. It might not be politically popular but global events should make it clear to us that we cannot rely on politicians to deliver everything for us- people have to take a lead too. He’s also right to remind us that throwing rubbish in landfill sites is not just wasteful but very expensive. We are producing a lot more waste these days and it makes sense to refuse excess packaging, and and re-use whatever we can, before we recycle, or put material into the waste stream. Composting is easy and makes good sense, returning organic matter to the soil system. There may be a risk of increased fly-tipping but the last time Sutton Council dabbled with home composting they made a terrible hash of it, delivering unwanted bins - most of which themselves went to waste, to everyone. The relatively small charge for green waste collections this time might encourage people to think more positively about composting.

Sutton Council haven’t made their task of selling this scheme any easier by the huge salary hikes for senior officers – that’s a policy I would not like to defend. Also as an active composter myself I do have some concerns about the woody waste from shrubs and trees which don’t compost easily. This one needs more thinking about perhaps. We do however need some more imaginative thinking on waste- and encouraging more home composting is part of that thinking.