Cynthia Mckinney US Green Party's presidential candidate

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

A small victory!

After sending letters to the local papers and campaigning at the Thornton Heath festival, Labour have now removed the offending NHS birthday card. :-)

We are now blessed with a picture of Malcolm Wicks MP!

Extract from the original letter:

"......multinationals will only pick off the profitable services on offer. As a result care for mental health and the elderly are now severely lacking.

We are sleepwalking towards an American system where huge chunks of health expenditure are wasted on the costs of operating in the market, i.e., making and monitoring contracts, marketing, invoicing and even tackling fraud.

If the Croydon Labour Party has any self respect they should remove the card from the window of their constituency office immediately."

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

Rejoinder to Labour's reply re NHS birthday card

Passer-by signs the petiton at the Thornton Heath Festival

7th September

Dear Editor,

I’d like to thank Cllr Mansell for her commentary on the Labour government’s response upon taking office in 1997. There is no doubt that NHS was starved of investment when the Tories were last in power.

However, Cllr Mansell regrettably fails to recognise that the guiding rule, namely the NHS must be ‘publically owned, publically funded and publically accountable’ has been broken by Labour; and with that the model national health service which was once the envy of the world is now reduced to a national health business.

Labour has failed to recognise that there is very little appetite for this rush to embrace multinational corporations who profiteer from the ill health of people in this country.

This strength of feeling to oppose the privatisation of the NHS was made clear to me today at the Thornton Heath Festival (Sunday 7th). On our Green party stall we had a couple of placards saying, “Keep the NHS public” on display. Early on in the day, a lady came up to our table and asked where she could sign? My colleague and I looked at each other quizzically and hurriedly started a petition on a pad I had brought along. We had simply expected to hand out leaflets to revellers who passed our stall.

Astonishingly, within four hours we had two and half pages of signatures under the handwritten statement: ‘We the undersigned would like to see the NHS remain in public hands’. People from all backgrounds were signing the petition, including former and current employees of the NHS. I will submit the petition to Labour’s Croydon North constituency office as soon as possible.

I wonder if Cllr Mansell would too have signed the petition if she still worked in the NHS and was not, as she is now, a Labour spokesperson on health.

Yours sincerely

Shasha Khan
Croydon Green Party

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

Letters in the paper re NHS birthday card

The letter/s I sent out regarding the NHS birthday card in Labour's constituency office window were published. The intention was to highlight Labour's use of spin to convey that they alone are the 'defenders' of the NHS with this sort of imagery. My letter has prompted a reply (below) from Labour's Health spokesperson: -


**************************************************

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

Media coverage on the changes to Croypost

BBC online coverage here

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

The Green New Deal

Tony Juniper speaking at the Green party conference.

At the recent conference Greens were advised about the new report called the "Green New Deal". This has been written by a panel which includes Caroline Lucas (Green MEP and leader), 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.

Essentially, the report acknowledges the triple whammy of credit crunch, energy prices/security and climate change and then sets out practical steps to deal with the problems.

Broadly speaking, the solution is a massive investment in energy efficiency and renewables funded by local authority bonds and cheap finance, which in turn creates tens of thousands of new jobs.

More can be found here.

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

Caroline Lucas elected Green Party leader

Many Croydon Greens attended the annual conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies this weekend. The highlight of the conference was the election of Caroline Lucas to the post of first ever Green Party Leader. Congratulations Caroline! She received 90% of the vote. Hopefully, many will have found her excellent acceptance speech inspiring. The auditorium was packed to the rafters for this historic occasion. She has always maintained that the Green Party needed a leader so that the party's message could be effectively communicated and there can be no doubt Caroline is an effective communicator.

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

Nilanthan Murddi

Dotted around West Croydon currently are eulogies to Nilanthan Murddi, the teenager who was stabbed to death on Sumner Road. As I only live a couple of roads away from where the incident took place, it is noticeable that the vibrant local Tamil community is unsurprisingly in a sombre mood, mourning the death of one of their sons. When you read all the messages and see all the flowers on Sumner Road, one only feels sadness. My deepest sympathies go to Nilanthan’s family and friends.

--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty

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.
--------------------------------------------------
Tags croydon, greenparty