Thursday 17 September 2009

*Urban Green Fair this Sunday 20th Sept Brockwell Park

The date is drawing near and the excitement is mounting. Yes the 2009 Urban Green Fair is set to go for next Sunday- 20th sept- from 11am to 7pm in Brockwell Park, Lambeth.

There is loads on offer:
Mark Thomas, Paul Mobbs on secretive police, Clarence Thompson MBE talking after the Sam the Wheels local heritage film project about Railton Rd, a topical panel on policing protests with the TSG, Jenny Jones, Climate Camp and Liberty.

Also providing a great wealth of fantastic workshops is the Food and Garden Zone, including the prestigious Brockwell Bake Competition, - get your home made bread entries in.

The kids zone is rammed with exciting and creative activities including free food for early risers.

Visit the Lambeth Green Party stall.

Health and Healing will be providing a huge range of alternative and holistic therapies as well as proving a space for user-led groups to discuss issues on mental health, women’s health and community resilience.

Powerful and practical talks at the Climate Change & Energy Transition Zone as well as innovative and practical solutions and demonstrations in the new Building Zone.

Climate camp will have a space with talks and a big push for the next coal power station action on 16/17 Oct in Nottingham.

Free Bike repair from Dr Bike and sustainable transport solutions and a great line up in the Solar Cinema including Age of Stupid, End of the Line, Sam the Wheels and the Agricultural Rebel.

The Urban Green fair will powered by the sun and bicycles and will not use any fossil fuel power.
Full schedule will soon be posted on the homepage but check out the website for further updates:
www.urbangreenfair.org
http://www.facebook.com/l/35577;

* MUSIC GIG – this Friday night.

MUSIC GIG – this Friday night.

Green Party supporter Relentless MC has a music gig coming up. He is a highly talented and entertaining performer and helped us during the election.

It would be great if we had a good turnout of green supporters.

Venue: Elixir Bar, 162 Eversholt Street, NW1 1BL (Close to Euston and
Mornington Crescent Tubes)



Date: Friday, September 18th.



Start 9pm.



He will be joined by guest DJ and GP member T.R.E. who wrote the ‘Green Bus’ rap which some of you will have heard during the election bus tour.


Hope to see many of you there.

More on: www.myspace.com/mcrelentlessuk

*England canal system

From Karen Varga:

As someone who has lived on a narrow boat until very recently, it is a fascinating subject, can be a brilliant way of life, has a very rich heritage and the waterways can be beautiful, educational and interesting from an ecological point of view but the canal network is suffering from lack of maintenance due to cuts in funding by DEFRA, and British Waterways is potentially going to be part privatised. Living on a narrow boat as a way of life is something that is being eroded by the government too due to under funding, poor management and a system that favours the wealthy (moorings are now auctioned to the highest bidder and a lot of old moorings are being rebuilt with very strict rules about ages and conditions of the boats on the new moorings to favour new, expensive boats). If you don't have a mooring and don't continuously move around (difficult with children at school) you can have your boat seized and sold or crushed. In the economic climate with people losing their homes (as I did) or trying to find a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to the modern way of life it could be a great way of life (but quite hard work too) and a source of investment into the waterways - but as always it is sadly being mis-managed on various levels on a capitalist agenda. It is very sad for those who know and love the waterways and the way of life.

Friday 11 September 2009

*Met Police still entering innocent people on DNA database

A year after the decision by the European Court of Human rights' that the holding of the DNA samples of innocent people needed to be curtailed, large numbers of innocent Londoners are still being entered onto the national DNA database. In 2006/07 the Met Police provided a quarter of all DNA samples added to the national database.

Green Party London Assembly Member,Jenny Jones, said:

"The European Court made the right decision, but the whole wrong headed system is carrying on as before whilst the Government carries out a consultation. It is clearly wrong that thousands of innocent Londoners are still having their DNA added to the database on the assumption that they may be guilty of a future crime."


"The Met take around 80,000 DNA samples every year, but much of this is a waste of effort and money. The DNA records of children arrested but not charged continue to be put on the database. The Met Police do not even know how many dead people are on the database. It is vital for public confidence that the Mayor asks the police to implement the changes that must flow from this decision as soon as possible."

Wednesday 9 September 2009

*Attempt to silence sheltered housing solicitor.

Yvonne Hossacks, is the solicitor who has been effectively acting on behalf of Sheltered Housing residents up and down the country. She now needs your help.

She is being taken to court by several different councils who are attempting to get her struck off as a result of the work that she has been doing on our behalf to save the wardens. The reasons for the tribunal are:-

1) Improperly encouraging clients to court politicians and media
2) Not acting in the clients best interests
3) Making too many time consuming and costly applications to the councils

All ridiculous, I hope you agree!

Tribunal will be taking place on the mornings of the 14th, 15th and 16th September. The address is 3rd Floor, Gate House, 1 Farringdon Street EC4M 7NS.

There will be a protest giving support to Yvonne each morning from of the tribunal from 9 - 9.30 to let the court know how much we appreciate what she is doing. If anyone can attend on any of these days it will help Yvonne to continue the legal campaign.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

*Arms fair "shames London"

Below is a statement against this obscene event from Jenny Jones, Green Party Member of the London Assembly and of the Metropolitan Police Authority. I remember when I was an Assembly Member asking the same question to the Mayor and was told "The police are there to keep you and your friends out"

As London prepares to host the DESi Arms Fair to-day, Jenny Jones has called on the organizers to pay for the cost of policing the event.

"I can't think of anything more wasteful than the London police using their precious time protecting a marketing place for guns and bombs. It is unacceptable to expect Londoners to foot the bill for an event that they don't want. I will be pressing the London Mayor at question time on Wednesday, to ask the organisers to cover the whole cost of policing the event. At a time when police have been working hard to tackle the problem of knife crime, it is appalling that they have to waste around four and half thousand police officer shifts protecting the international arms trade."

"I've been inside this event to take a look for myself and I think it is obscene. The Government should end all its subsidies for the arms industry. I hope this is the last arms fair ever held in London."


Policing the Arms Fair in 2007 took 4,475 police officer shifts and 294 police staff shifts to police the arms fair at a total cost to the MPS of £1.469m (£1.178m in opportunity costs, £153k in overtime and £138k in non-pay costs).