Local shops leave posters up!

During the Bensham Manor election campaign many local

shops supported the Green Party. They put posters up in

their shop windows to demonstrate their support. Some

shops still have their poster up! These supporters recognise

the need for a genuine opppostion to Conservative and Labour pandering to the whims of big business.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Press release: Local Greens budget response

BROWN'S BUDGET: COMPLACENT IN A MOMENT OF CRISIS BROWN IS GAMBLING WITH THE CLIMATE

Bernice Golberg, from Croydon Green party, today responded to Brown's budget, deeming it a failure to tackle climate change: "

It is not prudent to gamble with the climate - Brown's failure to act now on tackling climate change means we will pay later - as the Stern review has shown. "

After 6 months of rhetoric on climate change, there is a shocking absence of substance in this budget. Brown is being complacent in a moment of crisis."Brown needs a new golden rule - carbon cutting.”

Bernice Golberg went on to criticise the specific measures and targets outlined in the budget with regard to the environment: "

An additional 50 per cent for green grants for homes equates to just £6 >million - peanuts.

"A 30% increase for top band vehicles to £300 this year and £400 next year flies in the face of the governments’ own research about the price difference required to change behaviour.

“We need to see a rise to at least £1800 tax for the worst gas guzzlers to ensure people switch to greener cars.

"Exempting zero carbon homes from stamp duty sounds good but means little it will not incentivise installation of micro generation and insulation measures on existing homes.

"If he had raised fuel duty by 19p that would have cut carbon more than the rest of this budget put together - some 19 million tonnes over the next year. "Brown was right to reject VAT on domestic flights as having limited impact. But he has lost an opportunity copped out - Greens would have slapped an additional £100 on Air Passenger Duty on all flights to reduce CO2 emissions by 5 million tonnes.

"Cutting corporation tax is another step towards reducing the tax burden on big business - a step in the wrong direction."? The abolition of the lower tax band will be a blow for the lowest paid workers. Although tax credits may offset this for those with children what about those people and in poorly paid jobs without children?

Ends

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Letter to the editor - "Vote Labour - get Tory policies"

Picture taken from Answers.com

20.03.07

Dear Editor,


Isn’t it amazing? One week, Labour MP Malcolm Wicks warns Bensham Manor voters that, if they don’t vote Labour, the Tories will get in then, the next, he happily joins forces with those same Tories to push through policies that the electorate don’t want!

The most recent example is last week’s Commons vote to spend billions on unwanted, unnecessary and illegal nuclear weapons; strongly opposed by the general public but pushed through by a willing alliance of Labour and Tory MPs.

Of course, it’s far from the first time; this cosy marriage has also been used to push through everything from University top-up fees to the attack on Iraq. Little wonder that Labour’s support is plummeting – at present it’s ‘vote Labour - get Tory policies’.

Yours sincerely


Shasha Khan
Croydon Green Party

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Croydon Green news - Croydon Guardian 07.03.07

Croydon Green News Online

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Tags croydon, greenparty

New Croydon Meetings

We are now starting regular monthly meetings in Croydon, beginning on Monday 26th March.

The meetings will take place on the last Monday of each month at the Spreadeagle 39, High St, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 1QD - map.

The meetings will start at 7.30pm, upstairs in the function room which faces the Town Hall.



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Tags croydon, greenparty

Wicks goes to the South 2

Michael Prior-Jones in his blog Random Writings gives this version of events when Malcolm Wicks went to Antarctica -

We also had a brief visit from Malcolm Wicks, who’s Minister for Science and MP for North Croydon. He came, looked around, gave a *lot* of media interviews over the phone and then went again. He did host quite an interesting Q&A on the value of Antarctic science, although it degenerated into a set of harsh questions and defensive answers on why the previous day his department had announced cuts in the Research Council’s budgets despite these being supposedly “ring-fenced”…

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Tags Antarctica

March Meeting - Carshalton

The next meeting of the Sutton and Croydon Green Party will be on Tuesday 13th March at 8pm at the Centre for Environmental Initiatives Carshalton, map here.

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Tags sutton,croydon, greenparty

Frant Road casework

Before....















......and after
















A resident on Frant Road advised me about some fly tipped rubbish
that had accumulated since December. I went along to see it for
myself. The council had previously refused residents requests to
remove the rubbish on grounds that it was on private land and not
on a public highway. The problem was that Fortidec Ltd, who owned
the land, had become insolvent.

After tracking down the receivers, I urged the council to serve a
streetscene notice upon them. I am happy to report
that a few days later the rubbish was removed.

Shasha Khan
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Tags croydon, greenparty

Cameron conquered the North Pole so Wicks goes to the South!

MP flies to the end of the earth. Taken from the Croydon Guardian
By Graham Moody

Mp Malcolm Wicks during his trip to Antarctica
Croydon MP and energy minister Malcolm Wicks has been accused of environmental hypocrisy after a five-day trip to a British research station in Antarctica to see the effects of climate change.
Shasha Khan, Croydon Green Party member, questioned why the Croydon North MP had to visit the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research Station last week - given that more than four tonnes of carbon dioxide was produced by his 18,216-mile round trip.
Mr Khan said: "Why has he got to fly out to Antarctica to find out how human impact is affecting our planet's climate?
"I am sure modern telecommunications allow the research station to convey their work and findings without the science minister making a five-day trip to Antarctica.
"Our principal speaker, Derek Wall, is invited to many conferences around the world but he refuses to fly to them. He does everything by video conferencing which greatly reduces the production of carbon dioxide. This was a publicity stunt and a waste of time and public money."
Climatecare, a company which helps people off-set their carbon dioxide output, said Mr Wicks' carbon footprint - a trace of how much CO2 was generated by the trip - was more than four tonnes for the return flight. That is more than 800 times the average car driver produces over the same five-day period.
“You just cannot sit in an office all day and find out the importance of things happening in the world, you have to see for yourself."
Malcolm Wicks MP
The Government pays to have carbon emissions from ministerial trips off-set so the environmental impact is reduced.
Mr Wicks said: "I don't need to be lectured by the Green Party on these things. As minister for energy I understand the critical importance of reducing carbon emissions.
"My flights were on planes that were already going and were full of other passengers. The plane taking me from the Falkland Islands to the station was scheduled to take workers out to the base. There was not one leg of my trip that was not already happening.
"You just cannot sit in an office all day and find out the importance of things happening in the world, you have to see for yourself. I learnt a great deal on the trip. The Green Party is just trying to make a cheap local point."
Professor Chris Rapley CBE, British Antarctic Survey Director, said: "It is important that the minister should be fully briefed on the current state of the polar regions and see for himself the work under way."
A spokesman for Mr Wicks' department refused to reveal how many people accompanied the MP on the trip.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Letter to the editor: Labour spinning around again

Dear Editor

Could I just point out that only 15% of the electorate voted Labour in the recent Bensham Manor by election? Given that this is supposedly a safe Labour seat, it raises serious questions as to why Labour councillors continue to claim it as a great result – particularly at a time when the Tories are, indeed, cutting budgets.

In fact, I’d suggest their artificial merriment is merely part of yet another Labour Party spin campaign. It’s been 25 years since a Tory was elected in Bensham Manor. Yet, long before the official campaign got underway, Labour had decided to claim that their victory in Bensham Manor was a protest by the local electorate at the Conservative Council’s budget cuts. .

But why stop there? Why not produce truckloads of election material suggesting that a vote for any other party or not voting at all could let the Tories slip in. Then get Malcolm Wicks MP and Labour councillors to ring local people with the same message. Older residents of the area tell me they’ve never witnessed a campaign like it.

To top it all of why not send a media release to the BBC plus letters to the local paper predicting a huge Labour victory as a damning indictment of the Tories. (Conveniently omit the fact that Bensham Manor has been a safe Labour seat for donkey’s years, of course).

Then, on election night, carefully position every Labour guest and official by the BBC cameraman to whoop with joy and amazement when the unsurprising result is read out by the Returning Officer at the town hall. Encourage the BBC to speculate that the electorate has voted with its feet and shown their disgust at all the cuts.

And the spin still hasn’t ended. Just in case people realise what a dismal result it really was for Labour, why not blitz the local media with letters and statements reiterating the ‘great victory’ theme. After all, if they say it often enough, someone might believe it.

Sadly, all of this goes to show what a circus Labour has made of the democratic process. Rather than simply recognise that voters want real solutions to the problems they face, Labour continues to throw vast resources into denying reality then expect voters to believe them.

Yours sincerely

Shasha Khan
Croydon Green Party

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Tags croydon, greenparty