Croydon Radio interview

Guesting on Green Croydon

Andrew Dickinson, the man behind Croydon Green Fair, hosts a radio show called, funnily enough, Green Croydon on Croydon Radio. I had the pleasure of appearing on his latest show as a guest. The show is available on Listen Again or can be downloaded on the www.croydonradio.com web site.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Greens pledge £2000 to the incinerator fund

Cutting from Croydon Advertiser

To be honest, nearly everyone in our local party is amazed that we have pledged £2000 to Stop The Incinerator to fund a legal fight. When Gordon Ross sent an email around to members asking for donations, I was thinking £500 if we were lucky, but we forgot that local members have also been following this stitch up at close quarters over the last four years.

The Stop The Incinerator web site carries a press release detailing our pledge. However, apart from the article in the Advertiser (top), knowledge of our pledge was fairly limited, that is until a newsletter from the Croydon Communists landed on our doormat. They have been leafleting areas in north Croydon.  The newsletter (above) rightly criticises Labour in Merton for supporting the planned incinerator and suggests that Labour's opposition in Croydon is "clearly electioneering". There is also a piece on their local web site by John Eden covering the issue. In it he criticises Labour's focus on Waddon and New Addington, leaving working class people vulnerable to the incinerator in north Croydon.

It is true, Labour in Croydon need to prove that they haven't just jumped on the issue to win votes. They ought to pledge money to the Stop The Incinerator campaign. In the recent GLA elections their candidate Louisa Woodley spent 10 times more than our candidate Gordon Ross on the campaign. They are clearly not short of money.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Summer festivals

For our local party, summer is a busy time for putting on stalls at the local festivals. Things were a bit easier this year, the tory council has dropped the Croydon Summer Festival at Lloyd Park, and the Addiscombe Festival was cancelled due to heavy rain. The new Croydon Green Fair, organised by the industrious Andrew Dickinson, gives green groups, such as ours, a chance to get our message out there, especially as Croydon Summer Festival is no more.

For the fifth year running we were at the Thornton Heath Festival. This year, we were very close to main stage, which does no favours for my tinnitus!

As usual the Carshalton Environmental Fair was a great success for us. It takes all the activists in Sutton and Croydon Green Party to put this on.

Well done to everyone who has a helped on our stalls this year.

My favourite free festy is the Lambeth Country Show (over 2 days). This years headliner on Sunday was Dennis Bovall and his dub band, featuring amongst others Janet Kay. Have a listen to Silly Games.

Sadly I didn't spot the Lambeth Greens at the show, but I did spot the hilarious Lib Dem stall!!

Good way to raise money

Sun shining on the The Sutton Green Party Cafe/Info Stall at the Carshalton Environmental Fair (27.08.12)

Some of the gang who helped with successful stall at the Carshalton Environmental Fair (27.08.12)

 

The self deprecating Lib Dem 'Throw Things at Nick Clegg' stall at Lambeth Country Show (15.09.12)

The Croydon Green Party stall at the Thornton Heath Festival (16.09.12)

Tags croydon, greenparty

Bennett Duckworth not Duckworth-Lewis

Congratulations to Natalie Bennett and Will Duckworth for winning their respective ballots. Newspapers have already picked up the news story. I know that Natalie impressed our local party members when she came to visit.

Natalie Bennett is the new leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.

Natalie is a former journalist. She has written for The Independent, The Times in London and the Bangkok Post and is a former editor of Guardian Weekly, which she left to concentrate more on writing and politics. Read more about her at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19465606.

Cllr Will Duckworth has been appointed Deputy Leader.

Ballot results:

Leader

3,127 ballot papers were returned (a turnout of 25.1%), of which 16 were spoilt, giving a total valid vote of 3,111.

The quota required for election is therefore 1,555.6

First preference votes were distributed as follows:

Bartolotti - 389
Bennett - 1,300
Cranie - 902
Phoenix - 492
RON - 28

No candidate achieved quota and so Bartolotti is eliminated and her votes redistributed as follows:

Bennett - 187
Cranie - 74
Phoenix - 93
RON - 7
Not transferable - 28

The totals for the second round are therefore:

Bartolotti - eliminated
Bennett - 1,487
Cranie - 976
Phoenix - 585
RON - 35

No candidate achieved quota and so Phoenix is eliminated and her votes redistributed as follows:

Bennett - 270
Cranie - 228
RON - 27
Not transferable - 60

The totals for the third round are therefore:

Bartolotti - eliminated
Bennett - 1,757
Cranie - 1,204
Phoenix - eliminated
RON - 62 

Natalie Bennett is therefore elected as Leader.

Deputy Leader

3,127 ballot papers were returned (a turnout of 25.1%).

In line with the election rules set out in the Green Party constitution, the Deputy Leader cannot be of the same gender as the Leader and so Caroline Allen and Alexandra Phillips are eliminated and their first preference votes will be redistributed to the highest expressed preference for an eligible candidate.

There were 353 spoilt papers (including papers expressing a preference only for a feemale candidate or candidates), giving a total valid vote of 2774 and the quota required for election is therefore 1,387.1

First preference votes were distributed as follows:

Allen - not eligible
Duckworth - 1,329
Mallender - 1,245
Phillips - not eligible
RON - 200

No candidate achieved quota, but Green Party rules require that RON not be eliminated, so the candidate with the highest vote is elected.

Will Duckworth is therefore elected as Deputy Leader.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

No. 66220 please don't come in.

Its been four years in the making. This blog does not welcome application no.66220, submitted a couple of weeks ago with Sutton Council.
 To view Viridor's incinerator application visit:
http://213.122.180.105/FASTWEB/welcome.asp and type in 66220 in the search field.   Note: If you plan to print the application, I recommend buying a new toner and another ream of paper.

Ken Burgess at the STI stall at the Carshalton Environmental Fair

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Green Party leader candidates grilled by Croydon members

Skype used in the q and a  with Peter Cranie and Pippa Bartolotti (August meeting)

Romayne Phoenix at July's meeting

Natalie Bennett at June's meeting.

Over the last couple of months the four candidates for the post of Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales have been touring the country visiting local parties and attending hustings. There was even an hour long special on Iain Dale's show on LBC (link here).

We in Croydon have had the pleasure of hearing from all four of the candidates at our local party meetings. Both London based candidates, Natalie Bennett and Romayne Phoenix came to see us in person, and due to difficulties in scheduling we heard from Pippa Bartolotti and Peter Cranie using skype.

Filling the shoes of the multi-award winning politician Caroline Lucas MP is not going to be easy, but through our guest visits, we got to learn more about the vision, talents and attributes of the respective candidates.

I deliberately asked the same question to each of the candidates in order to gauge their thinking!?:

I recently heard a radio presenter assert that the average lunch break is now 15 minutes*. How would you explain, in laypersons terms, to a resident of Croydon why their average lunch break is 15 minutes? What has happened over the years for this situation to develop?

*Only today did I try and search for the source of this statistic.

[In order of their guest visit]

Natalie's answer mentioned the fact that in years gone by, employees that wanted to stand out from their colleagues, with a view to progressing up the career ladder, would work more of the lunch hours. But workers now are a having to work through most of the lunch hours just to retain their current position.

Romayne's answer referred to the importance of Trade Union membership linking this with the fact that terms and conditions were not protected. She also stated that emails meant that work was coming in at all times. She concluded by saying that she would ask the Croydon resident to check their contract.

Peter's answer noted the changing culture of the working environment and the important role that unions play in the workplace. He also talked about the responsibility of employers to their employees.

Pippa's answer compared Germany's workplace with the UK's. In Germany people aren't worked as hard and they end up being more productive. In reality, an employee is actually only productive for two hours in their working day. She also spoke how companies too often try to ring out every shred of work out of their workers.

All the candidates handled the question excellently, focusing on what could be argued their particular viewpoint.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

New Communal Hall in Bensham Manor

I've been involved with a the Bensham Manor Community Association for over 5 years now, first as a member, then secretary and now secretary and trustee. The group has been working with two Labour councillors to deliver a community centre as part of a section 106 agreement.

After years of effort, the building is now ready for use. It is available for hire as a function room.

Above is a picture I took at the last meeting.

Full address: Communal Hall, Little Court, 2 Turner Crescent, West Croydon, CRO 2NP

Satellite maplink

Tags croydon, greenparty

8/8 Anniversary

On Inside Croydon, local figures have been invited to submit accounts of their experiences on 8th August 2012. There is so much elation in London due to the Olympic Games at the moment. A year ago it was dejection. The contrast couldn't be more stark.

My submission can be found here.

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Tags croydon, greenparty