George Webley 29 May 1957 - 07 May 2011

Today is George Webley's birthday!!! Big George, as he is more affectionately known, died earlier this month at his family home in Milton Keynes. He was a radio presenter on BBC London. When I first listened to his show, I was gobsmacked that someone with such an "in yer face" or rather "in yer ear" maverick style could be allowed to broadcast on the Beeb. In my opinion, his shows were nearly always engrossing. Many a time he would sail close to the wind, a consequence of allowing extreme views expressed by callers.

One particular show was very heated, with some very ugly views being expressed by homophobes. Big George just about kept it together, but it seemed like hard work, challenging the views of narrow minded ignoramuses. I was sufficiently moved to email George the following morning commending him on his good work. To my surprise I received the following reply:

I truly appreciate you taking the time not just for emailing me but being part of the solution. We have a beautiful world but we treat it so dreadfully. YOU keep up the good work too

Big George

The Croydon Green Party web site and this blog are tagged at the bottom of my email messages and George must have noticed it, and maybe had a root around. I always got the feeling he was 'green' minded.
Anyway, I continued to email him and also text his show. I also called his show live once:



I spent many hours listening to Big George's show, either live or on iplayer.

I remember him saying live on his radio show that he felt he would probably be remembered for writing the theme tune for a topical news quiz programme. George Webley composed/arranged the theme for Have I Got News For You........ How wrong he is.

He will be missed by so many Londoners. My thoughts go out to his family.
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Tags croydon, greenparty

Listen to: The City of London and its Tax Haven Empire

The love of money is the root of all evil

I must thank Muriel Passmore, our candidate in Croham, for advising me about this podcast. This is the most enlightening podcast I've heard for many a year.

Its on the LSE web site. Look down the list of February 2011 - its the one at the bottom


The City of London and its Tax Haven Empire

Speakers: Dr Maurice Glasman, Nicholas Shaxson
Chair: Dr Ian Roxan

This event was recorded on 1 February 2011 in Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
The City of London is an offshore island inside the British nation state, floating partly free from the democratic rules and restraints that bind the rest of us and fed by a network of tax havens around the world. Nicholas Shaxson and Maurice Glasman look at how this secretive network emerged and came to underpin the City's fearsome political and economic powers today. Maurice Glasman, recently appointed Labour Peer and Reader in Political Theory at London Metropolitan University. He is the author of Unnecessary Suffering. Nicholas Shaxson is the author of Treasure Islands: tax havens and the men who stole the world (Bodley Head) and Poisoned Wells, the Dirty Politics of African Oil, an associate fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and an experienced journalist. Dr Ian Roxan is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Department of Law at LSE.

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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