Vote on EU letter

Letter from Ross in the Croydon Guardian (9th November). Can also be read here .
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Tags croydon, greenparty

Greens riding high in Croydon

Thanks Rob and David for knocking up this chart which certainly makes for interesting viewing. The chart depicts the percentage gains or losses made in Croydon by the seat winning parties for the London region. In Croydon, the Green Party vote rose by 39%. The BNP vote also rose, but only by 33% (it could have been a lot worse). But the Lib Dems (-24%), Labour (-21%), UKIP (-9%) and the Conservatives (-1%) all experienced a negative sensation. HOORAH!

For me, our positive experience was already materialising at the count - even before the serious number crunching. Thoughtfully, the Green Party's London Coordinator Noel Lynch had the 2004 results in his pocket. After I had managed to collate the results for Croydon, I called them out to Noel who responded by approximating whether they were "up" or "down", taking into consideration the lower turnout. We realised the Green vote was up but then one by one it became apparent, apart from the BNP, that all the other parties had seen their polling fall. The only one we were not sure of was the Tory vote.

THANK YOU FOR VOTING GREEN!

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Euro votes for London region at City Hall

I joined fellow London candidates last night at City Hall for the European Parliamentary Election 2009: London Region Consolidation of votes, allocation of seats and declaration of results. The event just like the title of the event itself could have been organised more efficiently. The TV screens that showed the rolling total as final numbers were being returned by the boroughs was inadequate in size. I reckon some of the front rooms around where I live possess TV screens larger in size. When I did get a chance to view the monitor in between armpits and over shoulders, I noticed we had finished second in a couple of boroughs. From memory, Hackney and Lewisham - possibly more.

From what I was able to note from the screen, below is the (unconfirmed) result from the Croydon jury. Full regional and national results can be seen on the BBC web site.

It is little disappointing that such a fantastic increase in vote share didn't translate to more seats but I guess thats down to the reduction from nine to eight seats in the region AND the rather disproportionate D'Hondt proportional representation system which is used. I heard Caroline Lucas say in an interview that we would have done a lot better if the UK used the same method used in Germany.

CROYDON

BNP 3898 (5%)
Christian 3501 (4%)
Conservative 25608 (32%)
Jury Team 293 (0%)
Lib Dem 7957 (10%)
No 2 EU (1%)
Libertas 380 (0%)
Socialist Labour 547 (1%)
Green 7092 (9%) ---- up from 6%
Labour 14813 (19%)
Socialist GB 138 (0%)
UKIP 10921 (14%)
Yes to Europe 154 (0%)
Ind. Alacantara 51 (0%)
Ind. Cheung 173 (0%)
Ind. Jananayagam 3128 (4%)
Ind. Rahman 93 (0%)
Ind Saad 65 (0%)

Turnout = 34%

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Letter on incineration in the local paper

Dear Editor,

On June 4th voters here and across Europe will be electing representatives for the European parliament. Thanks to some parts of our news media the British view of the EU is of an institution which seeks to erode the British way of life by banning curved bananas or outlawing the traditional measurement of pizzas in inches.

The fact of the matter is that the EU is here to stay, and more importantly decisions which are taken in Brussels have a direct influence on the quality of life in Croydon.

For instance, both Labour and Conservative MEP’s recently voted to allow waste incinerators to be rebranded as ‘energy from waste plants' in an attempt to persuade people that burning rubbish is environmentally-friendly.

Apparently the main political parties now see incineration as a viable alternative to landfill. But Green MEP’s vigorously opposed this blatant spin, showing that it was misleading and did not put the interests of people first.

‘Energy from waste plants’ will burn anything you put in them - from your own household rubbish to hazardous industrial waste. However, they also emit dioxins and other harmful pollutants into the air all of which have a negative impact on public health, local economies, the climate and the environment.

Furthermore, the private contractors that build these incinerators need a ready flow of waste to ensure set up costs are met and that the whole operation is profitable - and this is when we realise the consequences of failing to offer a comprehensive doorstep recycling service for all by successive councils: In spite of all the health risks and adverse affects on quality of life, recyclable and hazardous waste will now have to be burnt to avoid paying fines for burying it in landfills.

Studies show that for every job created by burying waste in landfills and burning it in incinerators, ten jobs could be created if we instead chose to recycle or reuse our resources, surely a much better solution for everyone in Croydon?

Croydon council is already involved in a consultation with neighbouring boroughs to build a so-called ‘energy from waste plant’ and my concern is that the likely outcome of this will be the building of such a plant in Beddington, resulting in emissions polluting the whole northern half of Croydon. This begs the question: Are Labour and Conservative MEP’s deliberately seeking to mislead the people of Croydon?

Yours sincerely

Shasha Khan,
Green Party European Parliament candidate for London

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Tags croydon, greenparty