A Day in Brighton

After being up to an hour late I didn't really know what to expect when I entered Brighton. A group of activists from South London had met Cllr Simon Williams at the station already, I managed to make my way to the Brighton Green Party headquarters and as soon as I entered the office I was immediately hit by the scale of the operation, the professionalism of the party and just how organised the campaign was.
A couple of friendly activists helped me sort myself out and took me to where I was supposed to be, firstly helping to hand out the local Green Party newspaper, "GreenLeaf". I was lucky enough to meet the hard working MEP Caroline Lucas who was down to give her support to the Brighton campaign.

After handing out a few newspapers I met up with local activist Dave Walsh and a fellow traveler, Andrea Hughes, down from Lewisham for the day to deliver GreenLeafs. I spoke to a couple of residents who seemed very happy to be getting Green Party literature and wished the party well.
The Brighton Greens are a beacon of what a successful Green Party grouping is capable of, the candidates at last General Election in all 3 Brighton seats saved there deposits, with Cllr Keith Taylor taking 22% of the vote. Currently they have 6 local councilors and significant gains are expected by the party and independent onlookers (yet Labour leaflets still insist the Greens can't win!). With only 6 councilors they have still been able to put a lot of pressure on the Labour council, such pressure has led to the greening of developments, fairer secondary school admissions process, ensuring children from poorer families get the chance to go to the best schools in the local area and much work has been done to help protect small and independent traders in the town.
The Brighton Greens show that a Green vote is not a wasted vote, this is why I urge all voters disillusioned with Blair's Britain in Croydon to vote for real progressive and positive change in your local community. Help us elect YOUR first Green Councilor in Croydon... Lewisham and neighbouring Lambeth have both done it and so can you. Next time anyone from Labour tells you a Green vote is a waste, point out to them the success of the Greens in Brighton!
I also urge all local Green Party members to make the journey down to Brighton for an afternoon and help out with some leafleting or canvassing.... I assure you it will not be a wasted afternoon!


Martyn Post

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Tags brighton, greenparty

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