Shahrar Ali publicly questions Mayor on HS2: Plus Answer

On 7 March 2012, People's Question Time took place in Hammersmith Town Hall (pictured). Hundreds were in attendance to hear the Mayor of London flanked by the London Assembly Members (including Greens Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson) answer questions from a packed hall.

I asked a question about HS2. Here is the sound:



Shahrar Ali: "What is the Mayor going to do to address, or impress upon his dear leader, the needs and wishes of tens of thousands of Londoners who are opposed to the tunneling under their houses as a result of the totally unaffordable, environmentally damaging and overall CO2 increasing high speed rail vanity project which is HS2? The country's broke!"

In his reply to me, Boris Johnson said he is in principle in favour of high speed rail, but what he said to the government is 1) that he wants to see a business case that really stacks up, 2) wants to see mitigation and real protection for people in West London, and 3) he cannot conceive of HS2 without a new tube line at Euston to take people beyond there.

Boris Johnson's answer is here:



A full transcript and professional video recording of the event will be made available on the City Hall website here.

MY Fourth Lib-Dem Leaflet

I got my fourth Lib Dem leaflet of the Dollis Hill by election today. The LD’s seem to throwing a shed load of money at this rather obscure little political competition, They also seem to be becoming strangely modest about who they are and what they want voters to do.

 I did not, at first, recognise it as as a Lib Dem leaflet. It was A4 single fold. One side has the slogan: "Who Can you Trust to STOP THE CUTS?" twice in a very large bold font coloured black and red. Inside are quotes from & pix of Ed Balls and Milliband plus quotes from Union leaders Bob Crow & Dave Prentice criticising Labour cuts.

No mention in the leaflet of who to vote for if not Labour, nor any prominent indication of who it is from.

On closer examination I found in tiny font (c2pt) a declaration that this was printed on behalf of "A.Hopkins (Liberal Democrats)" which was concealed by being printed along the fold in the page.

 This verges on a dirty trick Lib Dem bid for disillusioned Labour voters, whilst totally omitting any mention of Lib Dem involvement in coalition government cuts. I can at least say, as Green Party candidate in the Dollis Hill by-election, and Secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group that the Green Party nationally opposes cuts and supports Trade Union Opposition to them through its affiliation to the Coalition of Resistance and its support for the creation of at least one million jobs to build the infrastructure that the country needs for a low carbon economy that can help to combat climate change. What can the LD’s say? That they are part of a coalition imposing swingeing cuts to public services and initiating privatisation programs that are making ordinary people pay for a crisis of international finance? That is the truth. So, no wonder they don’t wish to acknowledge it by pushing leaflets through voters’ doors that seem almost ashamed to ask people to vote Lib Dem

Keep Willesden Green: Video

Dollis Hill By-election 22 March 2012: Local campaigner Pete Murry for the Greens

The Statement of Persons nominated for the Dollis Hill by-election will be posted to Brent's election site shortly. The candidates have been confirmed to Brent Greens as:

Parvez Ahmed, Labour
Samer Ahmedali, Conservative
Alison Hopkins, Liberal Democrat
PETE MURRY, The Green Party Candidate (pictured)

PRESS STATEMENT:

Pete Murry has lived in Dollis Hill and worked in Brent for over twenty years in the College of North West London, until he took early retirement for health reasons. He is now a pensioner, but he finds himself busier now than ever as he does a lot of work for the Green Party (currently as a London Rep on the Regional Council and Secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group). Locally he works for the Brent Campaign Against Climate Change, where he has helped to organise and video a series of talks by writers on ecological issues.

Although not as physically active as he would like, he supports the Brent Fightback organisation against local cuts and is a committee member of the Coalition of resistance which hopes to co-ordinate anti-cuts campaigns across the country.

Pete Murry, Green Party candidate for Dollis Hill said today: "I totally agree with Green MP Caroline Lucas when she says that current Coalition government austerity policies are almost the exact opposite to what is needed which is a programme of investment and job creation focussed on building the infrastructure that the country needs to combat climate change."

Mr Murry continued: "Alongside their cuts to services and privatisation of education, Brent's wasteful spending proposals to replace a perfectly good town hall in Wembley and demolish a perfectly good existing cultural centre in Willesden, deny popular cultural and other facilities whilst making the council taxpayer pay for these wanton vanity projects."

Environmental Writers Meetings; Derek Wall at Willesden Library 20/2/2012

One of a  series of meetings where writers on environmental subjects read from their books and discuss their ideas with the audience. Organised in conjunction with Brent Library Service. On 20/2/2012 the  speaker was Derek Wall, author of No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics and a forthcoming book on the history of the commons.The meeting was chaired by Martin Francis of Brent Green Party.


Derek Wall (part 1)

Derek Wall (part 2)

Derek Wall (part 3)

Derek Wall (part 4)