Say no to ripping the heart out of the Holly Lodge community

Cllr Maya de Souza and I visited the Holly Lodge Community Centre last week to hear firsthand about the extraordinary range of activities that take place there. From art classes to meditation, from film-making workshops to laundry services, from luncheon clubs to internet access - the community centre is widely used by all age groups and is a critical pillar of the Holly Lodge community.

Yet Labour-led Camden Council is proposing to slash its funding, which could force it to close. I condemn this unreservedly.

The Holly Lodge estate is an excellent example of a successful mixed tenure estate with low rise blocks, green spaces, communal facilities and a strong neighbourhood spirit. We should seek to replicate this model of how to make community work, not rip its heart out.

Brighton & Hove Council, which is run by the Greens, isn’t cutting community centres, libraries and youth services. It doesn’t have to be this way.

The council will be discussing the funding for Holly Lodge Community Centre at 7pm on Wednesday 7th September at Camden Town Hall. I urge everyone who can to attend this meeting and to register your concern in the strongest terms possible.

When we lose our community we have nothing left.

NHS still under threat from US-style privatisation

I'm one of half a million people who signed the 38 Degrees online petition to stop the privatisation of the NHS.

38 Degrees have since sought independent legal advice about the changes the coalition government is proposing. That advice is sobering. Despite David Cameron's “listening exercise”, the government’s changes to the NHS plans could still pave the way for a shift towards a US-style health system, where private companies profit at the expense of patient care.

Barrister Rebecca Haynes found that the government's plans could mean private healthcare companies and their lawyers benefit most from changes, not patients. Another barrister, Stephen Cragg, found that we were right to be worried that the Health Secretary’s legal duty to provide a health service will be scrapped. See here for the Guardian's report on this.

On top of all that, a new “hands-off clause” removes the government's powers to oversee local consortia and guarantee the level of service wherever we live. We can expect increases in postcode lotteries – and fewer ways to hold the government to account if the service deteriorates.

The NHS will almost certainly be subject to UK and EU competition law and the reach of procurement rules will extend across all NHS commissioners. Private health companies will be able to take new NHS commissioning groups to court if they don’t win contracts. Scarce public money could be tied up in legal wrangles instead of hospital beds. Meanwhile, the legislation lifts the cap on NHS hospitals filling beds with private patients.

This is our NHS, and it’s up to us to defend it. MPs vote on this in just seven days so please act now. Please email your MP to ask them to vote against the changes to the NHS.

New thinking characterises first 100 days for Brighton & Hove - UK’s first Green council

It's been a busy and productive first 100 days in office for the UK's first Green-led council. Since their historic victory in May, Brighton and Hove City Council's 23 Green Councillors have launched a series of initiatives to deliver their three main priorities: tackling inequality, involving the community more deeply in decision-making, and making the Brighton & Hove the greenest city in the UK.

The initiatives include:

• Promoting a 'Living Wage' for Brighton & Hove and reducing the ratio between the highest and lowest paid council workers
• Working with partners to create new apprenticeships for the city's most deprived residents
  
• Improving community involvement in decision making
• Bidding for funding to set up Neighbourhood Councils with devolved local budgets
• Developing an ambitious programme of renewable energy generation to cut CO2 emissions and create jobs
• Introducing radical plans to upgrade cycling and pedestrian routes and to cut pollution and improve air quality
• Working towards achieving UN Biosphere Status and making bold moves to slash carbon emissions

Brighton & Hove City Council Leader, Bill Randall (below), said: "Residents of Brighton and Hove voted for a change, and they will see services to the city's most vulnerable residents protected, communities more involved in making decisions that affect their lives and the introduction of practical measures to protect and improve our environment.

"The city faces unprecedented and reckless public spending cuts imposed by the Tory-led coalition government. Nevertheless, we remain determined to address the city's housing crisis, reduce chronic inequality and at the same time protect and improve our environment to deliver our vision of a sustainable and fair city.

"We are exploring all possible avenues to provide more affordable homes, upgrade and green our existing homes and, at the same time, create training, apprenticeships and jobs for local people. We are working with Brighton Housing Trust on plans for an ethical lettings agency that would give the city's 28,000 private sector tenants a better deal.

"We have also produced plans for a Tenant Scrutiny Panel to give council tenants the right to scrutinise any issue of concern to them about the way their homes are managed. Closer partnerships have been forged with the East Sussex Credit Union, the CAB and other organisations in our drive to tackle financial exclusion.

"Air pollution is choking our city, and traffic makes some streets dangerous for children getting to school. Since May we have secured more than £4 million of extra funding that will make it easier and safer to cycle and improve the air quality and the health of the city. "It's early days and we face difficult challenges, but I firmly believe we're on the right track."

Great GCSE results - shame the government is creating such a bleak future for students

Great to see so many Camden pupils doing well in GCSEs. Hopefully lots of them will go on to sixth form and then university. Shame the Educational Maintenance Allowance has been cut back by the coalition government. Shame that university tuition fees are so crippling. Shame that the government apparently thinks higher education is no longer worth funding.

Sadly there's more bad news for those not heading into higher education. Youth unemployment has never been higher. The proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds in England not in employment, education or training has risen to 18.4%, according to the Department for Education. That's a disaster. We have to find ways to give young people chances to work.

Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas MP (above), said: "Nowhere near enough is being done to create job opportunities and get people into work. In particular, the shocking increase in the number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work suggests that we are now facing a major youth unemployment crisis, at a time when the options open to our young people are being dangerously diminished by Government decisions to increase tuition fees and scrap Education Maintenance Allowance.

"Combine rising unemployment with rising living costs and savage cuts to public spending and you have a recipe for disaster. As more families are pushed onto benefits - 38,000 in recent months, according to Unison - and more people are forced to apply for bankruptcy, we need to see radical action from the Government now."

As usual Camden Labour's election leaflets read like "Alice in Wonderland"!

In their latest by-election leaflet the Camden Labour group claim to have saved the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Police Team Sergeant when other wards in Camden are being forced to share. This is patent nonsense according to none other than Cllr Abdul Hai, Labour's Cabinet Member for Community Safety. In an email to all Camden councillors earlier this month he said the council had had absolutely no influence over which SNTs kept their sergeants and which had to share sergeants. It was, he said, "solely a police decision". So which was it? Did Labour try to nobble the police to save the Highgate sergeant because they knew there was a by-election coming or is the claim in their leaflet simply rubbish?

The Camden Labour group also claim to have "saved" Highgate Library, but it's hard to see how cutting the library's budget by 50%, and telling the community they have a year to find someone to run it, could be described as saving it. The executioner's arm has simply been stayed - possibly because Labour knew their Highgate councillor Michael Nicolaides was likely to stand down and provoke a by-election. And if volunteers take it over and it fails, then Labour will try to shift the blame on to the community.

Of course, we've been here before. During pretty much every election Camden Labour have fought in recent years in fact. When they have nothing positive to say and their candidate has no experience, they resort to fantasy.

My promise to Highgate is that, drawing on the experience I gained as a councillor from 2006 to 2010, I will strive to hold Labour to account at all times. But I will also work with them, and with any other party, whenever there is scope for cooperation. In these difficult times it is only by being honest with voters, and by being collaborative across party lines, that we are likely to find effective and lasting solutions that work to the benefit of Camden’s residents.

Chris Huhne should give councils more help on climate change and cutting carbon

Earlier this year I was one of more than 10,000 Friends of the Earth supporters who contacted Chris Huhne asking for the independent Committee on Climate Change to be allowed to provide advice to councils on how to cut carbon and respond to climate change.

The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has just written a letter to Friends of the Earth saying he'll consider it, but that he thinks that people will appreciate that climate advice for councils may not be possible in this tight financial climate. Well, I don't!

I want my local council to do its bit on climate change because I think council action is vital and potentially significant. Spending a relatively tiny sum of money on expanding the advice the Committee on Climate Change can give will create clarity for councils about what scale and type of action they need to take.

When I was a councillor and Camden Eco Champion between 2006 and 2010 we started a big programme of action on climate change, climate adaptation and carbon reduction. Sadly that's gone off the boil under the new Camden Labour administration. There's so much we can do on this agenda - and it doesn't have to cost loads of money. It's all in my book "Communities, councils and carbon - what we can do if governments won't".

Camden's green groups clubbed together to give all Camden councillors a copy of my book earlier this year so they can't say they don't know what to do! If you want to encourage Chris Huhne to give councils more help to deal with climate change and rising energy costs, then please join the Friends of the Earth campaign.

Economics and prosperity without growth

George Monbiot's latest column picks up the thorny issue of economic growth - how it's not possible forever on a finite planet, how our obsession with it has led to all sorts of problems and how it doesn't make us happy. The Greens have long believed this. The seminal text is Prof Tim Jackson's recent book "Prosperity without growth", which has apparently made a lot of people in government circles very nervous. It shouldn't - it's common sense. The current system isn't working. It doesn't have to be like this.

Rail fare hikes are unfair and unwise

Rail fares are going up again, the latest in a series of unfair and unnecessary price hikes to hit commuters. Some routes in the London region will go up by a staggering 13% in January 2012. That follows an average rise across the country of 8% at the start of this year.

UK rail passengers already pay some of the highest fares in Europe. Under successive governments, we've seen public transport fares increase while services have failed to improve.

The Leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP said: "Trains are absolutely crucial to our economy, for creating a greener and more sustainable transport network, and for reducing inequality through improving the mobility of those on lower incomes. Yet for many, travelling by train has already become an expensive luxury. The government must urgently recognise that these relentless price hikes are having a serious effect on people's quality of life, and focus investment now to deliver affordable train travel for all."

Now, more than ever, we need to protect and support community policing

Now, more than ever, we need community policing. Yet Safer Neighbour Police Teams across Camden have been cut this year by Tory Mayor Boris Johnson. That's got to be wrong. Local police, on foot and on bikes, know their patch and know their residents. The Greens want to see Safer Neighbourhood Teams protected and supported.

Highgate has been lucky so far - its Safer Neighbourhood Police Team is still at full strength. Neighbouring Kentish Town now has to share a sergeant with Cantelowes ward to the south. This is a disaster and could spell the end of community policing. It is demoralising our experienced officers, some of whom are taking early retirement or looking for jobs elsewhere.

This is happening because national police cuts require the saving of three hundred sergeants across London over the next 18 months. It doesn't have to be this way. Green Party London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones (right), has fought long and hard to protect community policing in the capital. We will fight to do the same in Highgate and to return the Kentish Town Safer Neighbourhood Police Team to full strength.

Labour domination in Camden doesn't make for healthy democracy

When the Highgate by-election was called Labour had 30 out of 54 of the councillors at Camden Council. A healthy democracy needs a strong and challenging opposition to keep it on its toes and inject creativity into the mix - and Camden could do with a lot more of that right now.

Labour don't need another rookie backbench councillor - what they need is someone to challenge them, someone with experience and strong principles, someone with a reputation for hard work like Highgate’s Green councillor, Cllr Maya de Souza.


The Greens have topped the poll in the last three elections in Highgate. It's us or Labour round here.

If you vote Green in Highgate, I can promise you another hard working Green councillor and much tougher scrutiny of the Labour Council. A healthy democracy needs the checks and balances of strong opposition.

Londoners are being poisoned by Boris!

Londoners are being poisoned; the air quality in the capital is dire. The government knows it but, scandalously, is doing virtually nothing. It’s not just that annually there are 4,200 premature deaths in London, which Mayor Boris Johnson has been forced to reveal after an Freedom Of Information request, but it is also the impact on our quality of life – coughing, spluttering, asthma, cardio-vascular disease and the impairment of the growth of our children's lungs.

We know that the biggest cause is traffic and diesel engine vehicles in particular. But Mayor Johnson has done nothing. He’s capitulated to the taxi lobby such that they can keep their dirty-engined cabs on the road for 15 years instead of the proposed reduction to 10. He’s abolished half of the congestion zone and held up the extension of the Low Emissions Zone His main idea for addressing the problem seems to be spraying glue on the Euston Road in an attempt to pull diesel particulates out of the sky! Meanwhile, he’s wasted £8m on just buying just five of his hopelessly uneconomic replacement Routemaster buses that will hit the road conveniently just before next year’s Mayoral election.

We have to make air quality a real issue and ensure that Camden Council gives London some leadership. It’s been backbench councillors like the Green Party's Cllr Maya de Souza (left) that have been keeping Camden on its toes. We need initiatives like a borough-wide default 20mph speed limit, actively discouraging short local journeys, by promoting cycling and walking instead – not just wring our hands, as hot-air Labour councillors have been doing.

Reflecting on my political journey - or rather on that of Labour and the Lib Dems!

I've just been reading today's Camden New Journal and Ham&High. As expected, my selection as the Green Party candidate for Highgate has sent a few ripples through Camden politics. Both papers pick up on my political journey - from Labour to the Lib Dems to the Greens - so I thought I might dissect that a bit.

My politics and principles haven't actually changed much during my adult life. Of course, climate change and peak oil have shot to the top of my list of concerns, but most of my other views remain intact from my student days. What's happened is that the political parties I've been part of have traded their principles for power.

I joined the Labour Party many moons ago when it believed in social justice rather than financial aspiration and Rupert Murdoch. I was even a branch chair for a couple of years - although only in Paris so not exactly a hotbed of Labour activism! I eventually left over Tony Blair's illegal and shameful war in Iraq. I also felt that New Labour had moved much too far to the right.

I spent a year out of party politics and then joined the Lib Dems because I liked their environmental policies and because it seemed to me that they had a a good chance of taking control of Camden Council. In the end it was thanks to the three seats we won in Belsize, which nobody expected us to win, that the Lib Dems became the largest party in the council and I became Camden Eco Champion.

When I was interviewed as a potential Lib Dem candidate for the 2006 local elections I was very clear that the one thing that would make me leave the party would be if it supported nuclear power. The party hasn't, but Chris Huhne and the Lib Dem coalition negotiators have. That's another red line in sand for me, a point of principle. My party left me - I didn't leave my party! (See here for why I think new nuclear is so insane and here for the latest explosive truth behind Fukishima's meltdown.)


I left both the Labour Party and the Lib Dems on issues of principle. I don't have a problem with taking difficult decisions; I'm just not very good at supporting bad decisions. Going to war in Iraq was a bad decision, as most Labour supporters will agree. Building a new round of nuclear power stations is a bad idea, as most Lib Dems will agree. The one big change in my thinking during my adult life has been about economics. I was trained as a conventional economist at University College London, but these days I no longer believe in growth (or voodoo) economics, a debt-based (or enslavement) financial system and shareholder (or casino) capitalism. They don't work and they do too much damage - to people and to the planet.

The sort of get-rich-quick, growth-at-any-cost, me-me-me capitalism that Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair promoted isn't fair, isn't sustainable and isn't making us happy. It's part and parcel of a society where bankers feel it's ok to pay themselves exorbitant bonuses, where politicians fiddle their expenses, where tabloid journalists hack phones and where police officers accept bribes.

The Green Party seems to me to be the only political party that understands that this is all joined up, that we have to change the fundamentals of our society and our economy, and that principles are actually important in politics. That's why I'm now in the Green Party and that's why I've now thrown my hat back into the political ring.

Out on the streets of Highgate with the Camden Greens

It was great to be out on the streets of Highgate last night and this morning. We had a strong team of canvassers despite the rain and an excellent response on the doorsteps - even on Ed Miliband's road! People are clearly worried about threats to community policing in the light of the riots and they're concerned about the cuts that the coalition government and Camden's Labour-run council are imposing.

The Greens are strongly in favour of properly resourced community policing because that's what works. Police officers on foot and on bike, who know their own patch and the people who live in it, are the best chance we have of safe streets. We think Safer Neighbourhood Police Teams are the one big success of policing over the last ten years. It's crazy that some SNTs are being cut back and we'll fight hard to protect the SNT in Highgate.

We also don't think frontline services have to be cut back as much as the hatchet job that the Labour group in Camden has been responsible for. Look at Brighton, which is run by the Greens. Funding for libraries, play groups and community centres is not being slashed in Brighton as it is in Camden.

Join War on Want's campaign to stop the fashion industry using sweatshops

War on Want’s latest report, "Stitched Up", exposes the reality faced by thousands of women toiling in sweatshops in Bangladesh to produce garments for sale in the UK. Women workers face daily violations of their rights: excessively long working days, unsafe working conditions, unrealistically high production targets, paltry wages, sexual harassment, and the denial of maternity leave. Please help to stop this exploitation by increasing pressure on the British government to regulate UK companies so that the rights of overseas workers are protected. Please click here to join the campaign and send a message to your MP as I've just done.

Press release – Alexis Rowell selected as Green Party candidate for Highgate by-election

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In a surprise move, which is likely to send shockwaves across Camden politics, the Green Party has chosen former Liberal Democrat councillor and Camden Eco Champion, Alexis Rowell, as their candidate for the Highgate by-election on Thursday 14^th September.

Alexis was a leading Lib Dem councillor in Camden from 2006 to 2010, and is widely credited with having significantly raised the profile of environmental issues in the council and across the borough.

But, shortly after winning a national Sustainability Councillor of the Year award, he stood down at the May 2010 elections saying he’d done 80% of what he’d set out to do.

After his selection on Tuesday night by the Camden Greens Alexis said: “I have been growing increasingly disillusioned with the Lib Dems since the party joined the coalition government. My principal reason for leaving was Chris Huhne’s support for nuclear power, but I have also been completely unimpressed with the coalition’s overall environmental record and appalled by what their policies and cuts are doing to the social fabric.”

Alexis formally resigned from the Lib Dems on Monday paving the way for his selection by the Greens on Tuesday night. In his resignation letter to Nick Clegg he said: “I recognise that any government would have had to make difficult decisions, but I’m still shocked by the fact that you signed the foreword to the bill to privatise the NHS, by the draconian frontloaded cuts to local government, by the free schools policy, by the virtual abandonment of state-funded higher education, by the lack of any action on banker bonuses and exorbitant pay in general, by the decision to fully privatise the Royal Mail, and by a host of other free market or libertarian policies which I didn’t vote for and which I can’t support.”

The Greens currently have one councillor in Camden, Highgate’s Cllr Maya de Souza. In the past the Greens held all three seats in Highgate and are widely seen as the principal challengers to Labour in this by-election. Cllr de Souza said: “We are delighted to have such an experienced and energetic candidate standing for us in Highgate. It is largely thanks to the work Alexis did last time he was a councillor that sustainability is such a key concern at Camden Council. But he’s also got a great track record as a ward councillor responding to residents’ concerns. His energy, enthusiasm and hard work will be a great asset to Highgate.”

The Chair of the Camden Green Party, Natalie Bennett, said: “At a time when the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are creating havoc nationally, and Camden Council’s Labour administration is closing libraries and playgroups, Alexis is a strong candidate for anyone who cares about the environment and progressive issues generally.”

The leader of the national Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP, said: “Alexis’s move from the Lib Dems to the Greens shows that it is the Greens who are leading the way on progressive and environmental politics in the UK. I encourage all Lib Dems to take a long hard look at what the coalition is doing and to ask themselves whether they really support what’s happening.”

About Alexis

Alexis unexpectedly won a council seat in 2006 in Belsize, then a safe Conservative ward. The Lib Dems had been a distant third in previous elections behind the Tories and Labour. In his book Alexis describes how he put together a team of 50 friends and family to help with the campaign. Nobody in the Lib Dems or anywhere else in Camden expected the Lib Dems to win Belsize and no Lib Dem activists were allowed to work there except the candidates. In the event the Lib Dems won all three seats in Belsize which proved crucial as it meant the Lib Dems became the largest group in Camden Council and Lib Dem group leader Keith Moffitt became council leader.

Alexis was a BBC journalist from 1990 to 1998, most notably working in Moscow, Kiev and Tbilisi as the Soviet Union was breaking up. He currently runs a climate change and peak oil consultancy called cuttingthecarbon – www.cuttingthecarbon.com. Alexis has an economics degree from University College London, an MBA from INSEAD Business School and a Masters in Food Policy from City University. He helps to coordinate a local environmental group, Transition Belsize – www.transitionbelsize.org.uk - and the Camden Climate Action Network – www.camdencan.org.uk. He has also written a book called “Communities, councils and carbon – what we can do if governments won’t”, which he describes as “a blood, sweat and tears account of life as an elected eco warrior trying to encourage local government to work with communities to make the world a greener place.”

The Highgate by-election was called when Labour councillor Michael Nicolaides stepped down citing work and personal pressures after just 18 months in the job. The last time the ward was fought, in May 2010, the Greens won one seat (with Maya De Souza winning the most votes) and Labour won two. In 2008 a byelection in Highgate saw the Greens top the poll.

Ends

Stop Press - I'm standing for the Greens in Highgate!

More on this tomorrow but just to say that on Monday I finally resigned from the Liberal Democrats (see previous post) and joined the Green Party. Then tonight (Tuesday night) I was selected as the Green Party candidate for the Highgate by-election on Thursday 15th September. It's been a bit of a whirlwind 48 hours. All I'll say for the moment is that I'm really fired up. And I've decided to restart this blog which I stopped when left the council in 2010.

Why I'm resigning from the Liberal Democrats - an open letter to Nick Clegg

Dear Nick,

I’m writing to tell you that I’ve decided to leave the Liberal Democrats. My principal reason for doing so is Chris Huhne’s support for nuclear power. Opposition to a new round of nuclear power stations has always seemed to me to be a key Liberal Democrat policy and a potent symbol of Lib Dem values. Before Fukishima I could think of many reasons why the Lib Dems were right to oppose nuclear power.[1] With that tragedy still ongoing, and rivalled only by Chernobyl in terms of its adverse impact on nature and mankind, the list grows ever longer.[2] [3]

When I was interviewed as a potential Lib Dem councillor candidate in 2006 I said that the only thing I could foresee which would make me leave the party was if it decided to support nuclear power. The party hasn’t, but Chris Huhne and the Lib Dem coalition negotiators have.

As I think you know I’ve also been quite unimpressed with the coalition’s general record on environmental issues.[4] The bar set by the previous government was low but so far, in the opinion of all too many environmentalists and commentators, you’ve sailed under it.[5]

I joined the party primarily because of its environmental policies, and I worked tirelessly in Camden in 2006-10 to promote sustainability with a Lib Dem face, so this feels like a personal betrayal.

However I’m also horrified by what the coalition’s policies are doing to the social fabric. I recognise that any government would have had to make difficult decisions, but I’m still shocked by the fact that you signed the foreword to the bill to privatise the NHS, by the draconian frontloaded cuts to local government, by the free schools policy, by the virtual abandonment of state-funded higher education, by the lack of any action on banker bonuses and exorbitant pay in general, by the decision to fully privatise the Royal Mail, and by a host of other free market or libertarian policies which I didn’t vote for and which I can’t support.

I hope one day you manage to find your voice in the coalition and that it ends up being the progressive voice of the Liberal Democrat Party that I joined when Tony Blair launched his illegal war in Iraq. However for the moment I can see no value in your being Deputy Prime Minister or in the Lib Dems being part of the government. Your participation is not only legitimising the Conservative Party’s confused and troubling agenda, it is also destroying the Liberal Democrat party and its progressive soul. I therefore feel that I have no choice but to leave.

Yours sincerely,

Alexis Rowell
Former Liberal Democrat Councillor, London Borough of Camden, 2006-10