Green Party Party

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Life expectancy letter sent to the Advertiser

19.10.06

Dear Sir,

Figures recently released by the government* show a shocking variation of life expectancy within our borough. The residents of poorer wards like Waddon, New Addington, Broad Green and, my home ward, Selhurst are likely to die 6 years earlier than those in affluent wards to the South of the borough.
These remarkable disparities persist despite years of initiatives by successive governments supposedly aimed at the urban disadvantaged.
Educational opportunity is rightly seen as a way out of poverty, yet the evidence is that it has been the richer social groups who have taken advantage of the expansion in educational facilities since the 1980s**; hardly surprising as so much in education, for young and old alike has been effectively privatised and sold as a market commodity.
More than almost any developed country those born poor in the UK stay poor.***
Labour and Conservative governments have created a society in which those that ‘have’ live longer - and those that haven’t don’t.
When will our elected leaders adopt ‘joined up thinking’ policies that have knock on positive effects on other social problems? Areas with pockets of poverty and deprivation are synonymous with those with crime. Take people out of poverty and you can reduce crime as well as increase life expectancy.

Yours sincerely
Shasha Khan
Croydon Green Party
Windmill Road
Croydon

* From your article last week.

** Research published by the Department for Work and Pensions indicates educational achievement is a huge factor in helping those in poor backgrounds escape poverty in later life.

***London School of Economics have found that the expansion of higher education since the 1980’s, a key requisite for improving ones propensity to earn a greater income, have so far disproportionately benefited those from more affluent families. The poorest 20 per cent of society barely obtained more degrees, whereas the wealthiest 20 per cent more than doubled the number of degrees they obtained. Family income during childhood is linked with educational outcomes and this in turn affects social mobility. The findings placed the UK bottom of a social mobility league alongside the US

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Tags croydon, greenparty, life expectancy

Brussels visit coverage -18.10.06 Croydon Guardian

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Croydon Green visits European Parliament

Press Release – Shasha Khan visits Brussels


Shasha Khan visited Brussels last week in order to meet with London’s Green MEP, Jean Lambert.

After their meeting, Shasha Khan commented, “Despite being based in Brussels and Strasbourg, Jean has been at the fore in defending the rights of the people of Croydon.”

Amongst the issues that she has recently been active on are: air quality, older people and household chemicals.

With regard to air quality, she opposed an European Parliament report which sought to water down EU air quality standards. There are over 350,000 premature deaths from air pollution across the EU every year. The revised Air Quality Directive means that people of California, for example, enjoy pollution limits twice as strict, as those that are in Croydon.

On the issue of Older People, Jean has been instrumental in facilitating dialogue between policy makers and European non governmental organisations representing older people. She has called for a higher state pension and an end to pensioners’ poverty. Last month she hosted the London Mayor's reception in Brussels to launch his Strategy for Older People.

And on household chemicals, The REACH directive – which stands for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals – was adopted last week with MEP’s agreeing with the Green group. Essentially, the directive gives customers access to information about the ingredients of household products. It ensures that the most toxic cancer-causing and gender-bending chemicals on the planet must be replaced with safer alternatives, and that safety tests involving animal experiments should be scrapped.

Shasha Khan continued, “Electing Greens at all levels of government is the only way to protect the health, welfare and rights of the people of Croydon"

Ends

Notes: http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/


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Tags croydon, greenparty, European Parliament

Green Party Party

28th October 8pm – 2am

Please come along to our Green Party fundraiser at The Cartoon, 179/183 London Road, Croydon. Entry £7 on the door. Bands taking part are

Alex Lato - currently on course for £1.5 million record deal www.alexlato.com

Unloaded - Lead singer formerly an artist on Poodle Records www.unloaded.info

Deb Espace with David - X Factor contestant and has also appeared on Trisha.
www.myspace.com/debespace

Tim Eveleigh - Well known local artist and promoter www.evinsol.co.uk
Simon Chauke and friends - African music style. Played last years gig. www.myspace.com/timbamusic

Simon & Keith - Played their debut gig at last years Green Party Party. Now with a band.

Plush Baby - welcome return - played last years gig http://www.myspace.com/pwushbaby



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Tags croydon, greenparty

Can one person make a difference?

Becca Thackray was elected Green Party Councillor for Herne Hill Ward in Lambeth (our neighbouring borough) in this year's local elections in May. Here she exclusively tells us more about her work since she was elected.
"As Lambeth's first and only Green Party Councillor my personal profile has risen dramatically in the Borough, because I represent something very different to the other three main political parties.
Raising awareness of the Green Party with a variety of very different groups in Lambeth is important. So I have attended meetings with local business forums, transport and neighbourhood groups and liased with organisations like the Metropolitan Police. As well as this I have been getting involved with a variety of different campaigns to stop cuts in mental health services, adult education and the proposed privatisation of Lambeth's council housing stock.
I have also been tackling other core Green Party issues: this includes joining Lambeth's first Climate Change Scrutiny Committee and lobbying for better recycling facilities in the Borough.
A very important part of my work and one I really enjoy is holding weekly surgeries so that the residents of Herne Hill can meet me and get help and advice. As a Councillor I can sort out things like getting house repairs organised on people's council housing to putting people who are in debt in touch with agencies who can help them.
Its been tremendously exciting and busy and yes one person can make a very big difference indeed."
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Tags croydon, greenparty

Rhinocycle goes to Critical Mass by Andy Lindsay

September's Critical Mass wasn't as big as August's - around 450 riders as opposed to nearly 800 last month and sadly there was no hypnotic 'jungle' music to bop to, but none of that seemed to matter because we were riding the RHINOCYCLE!

We were one person short - she actually seats four - but dedicated and determined fellow cyclists, Mike Armstrong and Jeremy Rickard helped power Bridget the Rhinocycle from her base in Coulsdon to Waterloo Bridge in record time.

After a heavy downpour passing through Croydon the weather turned warm and humid for the rest of the evening and we soaked up loads of positive support from bystanders all the way. Bridget stole the show and as we passed swarms of tourists along RegentStreet, Oxford Street and Oxford Circus she not only pushed the message of the need for Green Alternative Transport but also got people thinking about Conservation of Endangered Species and threatened environments.

Around 8.30 pm we peeled off from the main bunch as they headed northalong Park Lane but we still had a long journey home and were getting quite tired. All in all it was a very positive and successful outing. I would recommend joining Critical Mass (last Friday of every month) to anyone for the sheer buzz and thrill of zooming through all those red lights surrounded by like-minded pushbiking mates. It really is the best way to see London! Thanks again to Mike and Jeremy for a tremendous effort.

Andy Lindsay Director: Rhinocycle2007

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Tags croydon, greenparty, Rhinocycle, Critical Mass

October Meeting

The next meeting of the Sutton and Croydon Green Party will be on Tuesday 10th October at 8pm at the Centre for Environmental Initiatives Carshalton, map here.

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Tags sutton,croydon, greenparty

Signatures collected for campaign

Jim Duffy from Carshalton joined Croydon Greens yesterday in the town centre. Jim is coordinator of the Stop Hinkley campaign (www.stophinkley.org). The nuclear power station at Hinkley Point (near Bristol) is one being considered by the government for expansion. The purpose of the stall was to inform shoppers of the issues covering nuclear power and to collect signatures for Million Against Nuclear.

Jim made submissions to the infamous 'energy review ' and has written articles for The Guardian newspaper on the dangers of nuclear power (http://www.stophinkley.org/News%20Pages/news060705Grd.htm). He advised Croydonians that the government's committee that recommended deep geological disposal as the UK's method for dealing with nuclear waste, did so knowing that it would break UK and European laws!

He also advised locals that stainless steel containing early nuclear waste at Harwell, has almost completely disintegrated after just 45 years.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Continued Beulah Hill demo coverage

More coverage in the Croydon Post - Wednesday, September 27, 2006
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Tags croydon, greenparty