Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding continues to be a great tool for many Greens to raise money.

Not wanting to miss out, I've got a project too:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/green-party-mp-for-croydon-north

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Tags croydon, greenparty

The A5 flyer

I have been circulating the above flyer as much as possible with fellow activists recently. The reaction has been quite good. I received the following message via Facebook:

Hi Shasha, I'm a long time Labour voter who's just got your flyer through the door (Maberley Rd), and I've stopped dithering about who to vote for. I'm going to vote for you, and I will be telling everyone I know about you too. Good luck!

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Tags croydon, greenparty

SELL OFF - The Abolition of the NHS

Photo of Peter Bach taken whilst watching Sell Off

Last month I was invited to the Croydon screening of Sell Off at Stanley Halls. It's powerful movie featuring doctors and GPs who are described as NHS "insiders". I was invited to say a few words after the movie alongside one of the "insiders", Dr Bob Gill.

The film can be viewed here. Please watch it.

There are many revelations in the film. The most telling section for me is when Peter Bach, the narrator, talks about the 200 parliamentarians who have recent past or present financial links to companies involved in healthcare.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

30 second pitch

It seems like the number of opportunities to promote ones candidacy is manifold this time around. Simple Politics have thought up one of the more novel promotional tools - a 30 second video. I noticed that Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP leading a unit to halt the Green Party threat, had filmed a #30secondpitch, so I thought I'd match my namesake.

Not easy to promote yourself in 30 seconds, so I went for a leftfield approach. It was shot after a leafleting session in Upper Norwood. I figured the top of Biggin Hill, off Beulah Hill, would offer an eyecatching location, with central Croydon's skyline in the background.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Angel Di Maria and the nursery key worker.

A friend of mine gave me the current copy of FourFourTwo for my birthday. I love football so I enjoyed flicking through it. There was an interesting article on how much top footballers earn per week.

Lionel Messi

The highest paid footballer in the world is Lionel Messi. He is on a cool  £512,835 a week. He beats Ronaldo's £502,863. The highest paid English Premier League player is Angel Di Maria who is on a rather modest £250,000 a week.

Angel Di Maria

Some other notable weekly pay packets:

Gareth Bale,  Real Madrid & Wales, £324,795

Wayne Rooney, Man Utd & England £235,000

Radamel Falcao, Monaco & Man Utd, Colombia £217,840

Robin Van Persie, Man Utd & Holland £210,000

Eden Hazard, Chelsea & Belgium £200,000

Yaya Toure, Man City & Ivory Coast £190,000

John Terry, Chelsea & England, £175,000

Steven Gerrard, Liverpool & England, £140,000

I am thinking about wages this week because my daughter's excellent key worker at nursery is leaving her position for a career change: a telesales operative for a multinational company. I spoke to her about this briefly and she said had no chance to save money to buy a house with the salary she was on. Looking online, a key worker/ nursery practitioner could be on around £15,000-£17,000 which works out at about £288 per week (£7.70 p/h).

If a parent sends their son or daughter to nursery, the role of the key worker is almost like a second mother or father. Due to the long working hours culture that we all have to contend with, in many cases the key worker will see more of the child than the parent(s). However, leaving this important role to market forces means that parents tend to find child care expensive, child care workers find the pay too low and the proprietors of nurseries are probably barely making an average salary as their profit.

I assume if Angel Di Maria's agent is ever asked if his client is worth a weekly pay packet, which observed as a ratio, is 870:1 more than a Trafford nursery key worker he would probably reply these inflated prices are what clubs are prepared to pay.

Green Party policy is 10:1 ratio 

The Green party stands for fair pay and that is why we believe in a 10:1 ratio for wages. On Brighton and Hove council the Chief Executive has actually taken a pay cut in order for Greens to move in the direction of 10:1 ratio.


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Tags croydon, greenparty