Alexis Rowell for a Greener Highgate

Caroline Lucas on the mess the coalition has made over solar power

2012-01-27T14:00:00.000Z

"The solar industry needs to know the UK government can be trusted If policy can be changed retrospectively, why should business believe that the UK is a safe place to invest?

"This week, the government lost its appeal against a judge's ruling that its move to change the rates for solar feed-in tariffs before the official consultation has ended was "legally flawed".

"The high court ruling is a real victory for the solar industry and for those households, businesses and community projects in my constituency who would have been left high and dry by the Department of Energy and Climate Change's attempts to apply a retrospective change to the rate.

"There has always been widespread acceptance that the tariff would need to be reduced as installation costs fell and economic realities shifted. But the focus of the cross-party and public campaign against the government's plans has been the speed and scale of the proposed cut, which has already caused huge disruption to the solar industry and the 25,000-plus jobs it has created.

"The courts have now twice ruled that these actions were unacceptable. Importantly, the courts have also sought to uphold a key principle about the very nature of government investment policy.

"The central question is this: if policy can be changed retrospectively, why should business believe that the UK is a safe place to invest? Investors need to know whether a government commitment to support them can be trusted, or if retrospective changes can be made at any point after investments start."

Read more about why the Leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP, thinks the coalition government has made such a hash of solar policy here on the Guardian website.

Let the Scots vote on independence ... and 'devo-max'

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000Z

As a Londoner with a bit of Scottish blood, I’m delighted to see that the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, is going ahead with a referendum on Scottish independence. He's just announced a consultation on the process which I've just replied to.

I said I approved of the question "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" But I also said I'd like to see a second question which asks Scots if they'd like more decision-making powers, but not full independence. That's the so-called “devo-max” option, which is what, I suspect, they'll end up with.

If you'd like to email the Scottish consultation, the address is referendum@scotland.gsi.gov.uk .

Green budget for London would create jobs, reduce inequality and improve the environment

2012-01-26T09:00:00.002Z

The Green Party's London Assembly Members have proposed an alternative to the Mayor's budget that would lower unemployment and and improve the lot of low income Londoners. It would also address environmental problems such as dangerous air pollution and poorly insulated homes.

The Green alternative budget would protect and improve key services, including safer neighbourhood policing, public transport and cycling infrastructure. It would deliver warm energy efficient homes and cleaner air. It would keep the council tax the same, limits the rise in public transport fares and raise extra money from motorists.

Green London Assembly Member, Darren Johnson (above), said: "We will bring down the fare rise below inflation, saving a typical household about £40 a year. Instead we'll raise more from motorists and introduce a congestion charge zone around the heavily congested and polluted Heathrow area.

"Our budget provides funds for a feasibility study of a fairer 'pay-as-you-go' road pricing scheme, which would charge a rate per mile driven, with higher charges for more congested roads and times of day. This could provide a significant new income stream of around £1bn a year, with cuts to fares ensuring it will be financially neutral for a typical household, and substantially less congested roads with cleaner air through out London."

"Our police budget does not change the total amount of money, but it does change priorities. We would provide more resources for safer neighbourhood policing, road safety, and preventative work with young people and gangs. We are able to achieve this partly through employing (usually cheaper) civilian staff wherever they can do the work as well or better than a warranted officer. Success should be measured by results not by uniformed officer numbers.

"London's serious air pollution problem needs radical measures and proper investment. This is provided by the Green budget, which will fund the introduction of a Very Low Emission Zone in central London where only clean vehicles are allowed, replace an additional 100 standard buses with cleaner hybrid models, and help taxi owners replace polluting vehicles.

"Without increasing the council tax, the alternative Green budget radically recasts priorities to make real progress in tackling some of London's most long-standing problems."

HS2 is an expensive, carbon-intensive, vanity project

2012-01-12T19:09:00.010Z

So the coalition government is backing the construction of High Speed Two (HS2), a new railway line from London to the north. At more than £32bn (and probably much more) this is likely the greatest white elephant the Britain has ever commissioned. At a time when frontline services are being cut to the bone, all three main parties apparently think it's a good idea to spend money the nation doesn't have on a high speed rail network which won't cut carbon emissions, which most people won't be able to afford to travel on, which business travellers don't need and which won't cut congestion any time soon.

In 2007, the Department for Transport commissioned a report - "Estimated Carbon Impact of a New North-South Line" - to investigate the likely overall carbon impacts associated with the construction and operation of a new rail line to either Manchester or Scotland including any expected modal transport shifts, and the comparison with the case in which no new high-speed lines were built.

The report concluded that there were no carbon benefits in building a new line from London to Manchester. That's partly because very few passengers are expected to switch to rail, partly because the nation's power supply will not be based on renewable sources, and partly because of the high carbon cost of building the new line, including tunnels and demolition of buildings.

Since then the project's green credentials have got worse. In an attempt to shore up support for Tory MPs in vulnerable seats along the line the Transport Secretary has announced that there will be more tunnels.

The only legitmate argument the government has is that we need more capacity between London and the North. But for a long time now most transport experts have agreed that there are plenty of other ways to increase capacity that would be cheaper and that could be completed faster. See here for the Better Than HS2 website.

Of the four main parties only the Greens are against HS2.

In Camden the Green Party has lined up alongside the many voices arguing that the proposals will destroy too many homes and blight neighbourhoods for decades.

Natalie Bennett, Chair of Camden Green Party, said: “It’s astonishing that the government has entirely ignored the strong opposition to the project in Camden, particularly the extensive demolition of homes planned in Regent’s Park and the valid concerns further north in Camden about the impact on homes."

The HS2 decision has been made in spite of clear public opposition as expressed in the consultation process, with the key question on the survey having 16,000 responses in favour of the current HS2 and nearly double that many against. What's more, analysis has shown that 24% of the positive responses were through one organised postcard campaign!

HS2 is a gargantuan vanity project which won't reduce carbon emissions (and may actually increase them), won't increase capacity any time soon and will cost a fortune. Like renewal of Trident and the war in Afghanistan, it is not something the Green Party would choose to spend money on.

There is a Greener, fairer alternative

2012-01-01T20:36:00.003Z

As 2011 lurches into 2012 it sometimes feels like the world is falling apart. The financial system is close to collapse. The coalition government’s cuts agenda has driven unemployment to its highest level for 17 years. And the recent climate negotiations in Durban achieved little. Global carbon emissions are rising faster than ever. Climate scientists say disaster is imminent.

It doesn’t have to be like this. There is another way, a greener, fairer way.

The Greens would not spend money on pointless military hardware like Trident missiles or senseless wars like Afghanistan.
The Greens would create new green jobs in energy efficiency and renewables, and protect frontline services.
The Greens would put in place policies to rein in the power of speculators, the City of London and unaccountable corporations.

Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas (seen above at Occupy London), has been recognised by the prestigious Political Studies Association as the MP who most influenced the political agenda in 2011. Since her election in 2010, the UK's first Green MP has made a significant impact through her work on issues such as fuel poverty, corporate tax avoidance and parliamentary reform.

The influence of the Greens is increasing in other countries too. They are now the third largest party in Germany and run five out of 16 state parliaments. In New Zealand’s recent general election the Greens won 14 out of 120 seats - their best ever result.

Wherever Greens are elected they push for greener, fairer policies.

Ten steps to a greener Christmas!

2011-12-01T09:00:00.001Z

The choices we make over the festive season - about what goes on our plates, the presents we buy, what we wear and what we put on our skin – have far reaching consequences for our health, the health of our countryside, and the development of countries across the world.

See here for ten suggestions from the Soil Association for ways you can enjoy the festive period that are better for people, animals and the planet.

An Olympic legacy for Camden - greening the Euston Road

2011-11-28T17:23:00.009Z

During the Olympic Games in 2012 two lanes of the Euston Road are going to be closed to normal traffic and reserved for Olympic vehicles, a bit like the Zil limousine lanes for communist bureaucrats during the time of the Soviet Union.

At first it sounds like the Olympic lanes will create chaos, but maybe, just maybe, they're a tremendous opportunity. How about this for a radical Olympic legacy for Camden - how about turning those two Olympic lanes into cycle lanes either side of a tree-lined walkway? The bikes can be directed back into the main traffic flow at junctions using advanced stop boxes (bike boxes).

This is an idea that came to Green Party councillor for Highgate, Cllr Maya de Souza, and I after we heard Roger Madelin of the Kings Cross developer Argent, speaking at the recent Camden Air Quality Summit. He pointed out that when the Channel Tunnel work was being done a few years ago, and the Euston Road went down to two lanes, people got used to the delays or simply stopped using the road.

Afterwards Cllr Maya de Souza and I had a combined 'eureka' moment - what if we don't turn those Olympic lanes back into normal traffic lanes, what if we use this as an opportunity to green one of the most polluted and dangerous thoroughfares in London?

So that's our challenge to the Mayor. Give Camden a real Olympic legacy. Turn those Olympic lanes into cycle lanes and a tree-lined walkway. Let's green the Euston Road.

If you live or work near the Euston Road, or if you travel through it regularly by foot or by bike, then please get in touch if you support this idea.

Let's recycle the Corporation of London

2011-11-26T09:00:00.000Z

So Michael Welbank, the Chairman of the Hampstead Heath Management Committee and Member of the Corporation of London's Court of Common Council, thinks the Green Party should be "one the Corporation's biggest supporters" (“The city and corporation”, Camden New Journal, 17 November). Well, we're not. Far from it. We see no reason for the City of London to be governed differently to any other part of the UK.

Elections to the Corporation are not conducted like normal elections. There are no parties or programmes to vote for – only shadowy individuals. In no local authority in the country do businesses get a vote unless their owners are also residents. The 34,000 business voters in the City far exceed the 9,000 residential voters. To qualify for a business vote you need to be a sole trader or a partner in an unlimited partnership, or you need to be appointed by a City business or organisation. To quote George Monbiot - it is a “plutocracy, pure and simple”.

It’s hard to take Michael Welbank seriously when he claims that the Corporation takes reform seriously. It managed to wriggle its way out of democratic renewal in 1835, 1894, 1963 and, most outrageously in 1969, when the rights of businesses to vote in local elections was abolished everywhere in the country except in the City of London. And the 2002 reform of which Mr Welbank speaks so highly dramatically increased the business vote. The Corporation is also the only “local authority” in the country that is not accountable to Parliament. Not very democratic all that.

As for recycling – Mr Welbank, you should be ashamed to claim that the Corporation is any good at it. You only have to go to Hampstead Heath on a beautiful day to see rubbish bins all over the Heath piled high with waste that could mostly be recycled. I and others have tried to persuade the Corporation to stop using polluting diesel vehicles on the Heath. Not so long ago the Corporation proposed building a new road through the bottom of the Heath. Not very green all that.

So no, we’re not the Corporation’s biggest supporters. We want the City of London to be run by a normal council operating under the normal laws of the land, and Hampstead Heath to be a public park run by the local council so that local residents can have a say over what happens there.

The Corporation of London is one of the most significant private lobbying groups in the UK. It is an old boys' network that is almost impossible to join. And it presides over a Square Mile of gambling, excessive risk taking, profiteering, tax evasion and law evasion. Like the Chair of the Financial Services Authority, Lord Adair Turner, we see little social value in most of what the City of London does, and even less in its lobbying arm, the Corporation of London.

So let’s recycle the Corporation of London – recycle it into a democratic local authority which is subject to the law like the rest of us. And whilst we're at it let's begin the business of cleaning up the City of London and recycle all those gamblers, profiteers and spivs into more useful members of society.

Caroline Lucas MP condemns government for failing to tackle fuel poverty

2011-11-25T13:00:00.000Z

Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas MP, has condemned the coalition government for failing to tackle fuel poverty effectively.

She said: "It is completely unacceptable that millions of people across the UK are still struggling to keep their homes warm and protect their families from the cold - with excess winter deaths reaching 25,000, increasing by 38% during the cold snap last December."

Caroline went on to say: "If the Government is serious about eradicating fuel poverty by 2016, it must radically improve housing standards, curb the power of the big energy companies to charge what they like, and put in place measures to help fuel-poor households."

Please contact the Home Heat Helpline on 0800 33 66 99 if you need advice on how to stay warm this winter. Or Camden and Islington's Energy Efficiency Helpline on 0800 80 17 38 or via email - energy.advice@islington.gov.uk. And, if you live in a draughty Victorian building, then why not sign up for a Transition Belsize Draught Busting Workshop.

Green MEP demands EU investigation into UK's solar feed-in tariff cuts

2011-11-24T17:00:00.002Z

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London, has called on the European Commission to investigate whether the UK government’s proposal to drastically slash the Solar Feed-in-Tariff will weaken the UK’s ability to meet legally binding EU targets on renewable energy.

Under the Renewable Energy Directive 2009, the UK is required to source 15 per cent of energy needs from renewable sources, including biomass, hydro, wind and solar power by 2020. The government’s plan to cut Solar Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) payments by more than half will see the payments for electricity generated by solar energy fall from 43p per Kwh to just 21p – a move which will dramatically undermine solar pv installation and capacity and weaken the UK’s capability to meet its 2020 target.

Alarmed by the Government’s unexpected proposal to cut the tariff from 12 December 2011 and at the devastating impact the decision could have on job creation in the renewable sector, carbon savings and fuel poverty, Jean has tabled a Priority Question to the Commission which asks them to scrutinise the effect of the cut on the UK’s ability to meet its obligations under the Directive and to set out what proceedings will be taken if the Government should fail to meet the 15 per cent target.

Jean said: “The solar feed-in tariff has been very successful in helping homeowners, community groups, local authorities and businesses to realise and harness the benefits of solar power. In fact, since the scheme was introduced in April 2010, it has seen some 100,000 solar installations, the creation of more than 22,000 jobs and almost 4,000 new businesses.

“Not only will the Government’s proposal to make drastic cuts to the solar Feed-in-Tariff hamper job creation in the renewable industry and discourage community owned energy set ups, but the move also shows a blatant disregard for the UK’s obligation to meet legally binding EU targets on renewables.

“The UK Government has long since submitted its national action plan to meet the Directive on Renewable Energy which requires the UK to produce 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020. The feed-in tariff was a programme to support this drive towards renewables and slashing the scheme may mean that the UK cannot deliver on its plans. If the UK fails to meet its agreed target by 2015, the European Commission could impose fines running into millions of pounds – a criminal waste of public money in these tough financial times.

“It now falls to the Government to demonstrate that it is not changing an agreed component of its roadmap and that the UK is still on course to deliver 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Government can not be let off the hook on this most vital of issues.”

Appalling air quality is killing us all - Camden Council and TFL should do more

2011-11-23T17:00:00.003Z

Well done Cllr Paul Braithwaite for spurring Camden and Islington Councils into organising Monday night’s excellent Air Quality Summit at Camden Town Hall.

The Council Chamber was packed to hear experts explaining that streets like the Euston Road are breaking European and World Health Organisation limits many times over; that more than 4,000 people are dying in the capital each year because of poor air quality; and that the lives of those 4,000+ Londoners was shortened by 11.5 years on average because of air pollution.

But mortality rates are only the tip of the iceberg – tiny diesel particles are not only getting into our lungs causing breathing problems but they’re getting into our bloodstreams causing blood-related diseases. They’re even exacerbating conditions like diabetes.

Children are the worst affected. Children breathe in twice as much pollution as adults because their mouths are closer to vehicle exhaust pipes. Children also suck in more polluted air than adults because their energy levels are higher, their lungs are bigger in relation to their bodies than adults and their lungs are not fully developed. Nor will their lungs ever develop properly if they live near busy roads, which is disproportionately the case for children of lower income, ethnic minority families.

Why aren’t we up in arms about this? It’s hard to say because air pollution is killing and injuring more people than alcohol, smoking, drugs or road accidents. Maybe it’s because the public are just not aware of how bad the situation is. Maybe it’s because diesel particulates are invisible by comparison with the pea soupers of the 1950s, which led to the Clean Air Act.

The Camden Green Party is calling on Camden Council to lobby for three significant changes which we believe would dramatically improve the situation:

A strong inner London Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) rather than a weak LEZ starting at the M25 which penalises the wrong drivers and doesn’t address the real problem which is central London. In Germany 40 cities have done this with great success. The Berlin LEZ is already far, far tougher than the proposed tightening of the London LEZ in January 2012.
Transport for London to use cleaner fuels for its buses as Camden is doing with its municipal fleet and as European cities like Lille and Malmo have been doing for years with their buses. In 2007 when I was a Camden councillor and Eco Champion I persuaded the council to run a trial of biogas made from food waste, which produces far fewer carbon emissions than diesel and involves no air quality issues. Camden now has 25 municipal vehicles running on biogas made from food waste and companies like John Lewis are starting to use the council’s refuelling facility in York Way.
Transport for London to help black cab taxis move from diesel to biogas or electricity. TFL should pay for the development and the refit of cab engines, then recoup the cost via a precept on future cab fares.

If you’re concerned about air quality in your area, then there are two groups you can go to for help with measuring pollution: the Campaign for Clean Air in London and the Healthy Air Campaign. We recommend signing up to airTEXT which warns you by text or email when air quality is bad.

You could also write to the Mayor of London and express your concern about his lack of action on this critical issue. According to leading air quality campaigners the Mayor has shown zero leadership on this issue despite surveys regularly putting air quality among the top concerns of Londoners. Or you could take a more direct route and vote him out of office in the Mayoral elections in May.

Natalie Bennett, Alexis Rowell & Cllr Maya de Souza Camden Green Party

Fat cats and fairer pay differentials

2011-11-23T09:00:00.000Z

Councils have seen their budgets reduced by 20-30%, pensions are losing value, the economy is in a mess, millions are living in fuel poverty, nurseries, community centres and libraries are closing and yet Britain's top bosses have awarded themselves an incredible 49% pay rise.

The average salary of the UK's most senior company executives is now £2.7m while the UK's average salary is just £24,000. A tiny minority continue to be rewarded for failure.

David Cameron said the report was "concerning". It's more than concerning, Mr Cameron, it's wrong and makes a nonsense of your cuts agenda. It's examples of corporate greed such as this that prompted Jenny Jones, Green Party mayoral candidate to campaign for London to become a ‘Fair Pay City'.

As Jenny herself states: "During Boris Johnson's Mayorship the number of people within the GLA group earning more than 10 times the London Living Wage (£8.30 an hour) has risen by 56% (from 62 to 97). The Chief Executive of Crossrail, Rob Holden, earns £857,134. That's about 55 times the London Living Wage!

A 10:1 maximum pay ratio would seriously reduce the pay gap in our city. It is unacceptable to use the economic crisis to defend paying workers less than the amount needed to support a family at the same as paying out colossal salaries to chief executives.

At Brighton & Hove Council, which is run by the Greens, the differential between the highest paid and the lowest paid has been reduced to 10:1. Following calls by the Camden Green Party for the same at Camden Council, our new Chief Executive will get a basic salary of 10 times the lowest paid staffer.

There is a Greener fairer alternative.

Why no recycling on Hampstead Heath?

2011-11-22T09:00:00.002Z

As many of you will be aware there are no recycling bins on Hampstead Heath. And, as you will undoubtedly have seen, on a nice day the rubbish bins are overflowing. Something like 90% of that waste could be recycled, but the Heath authorities – the Corporation of London – say they don’t have the staff to collect recycling as well as waste.

Is that ok? Or should we suggest something radical like removing all the bins from the Heath and having mini-recycling centres at the places where people access the Heath as there are in the East Heath car park?

Air pollution twice as bad for children as for adults in London

2011-11-21T17:00:00.000Z

As delegates gather for today's inaugural Camden & Islington Air Quality Summit today, Islington Green Party campaigners have released figures showing that air pollution figures are twice as bad if you're the height of a child than if you're an adult.

Caroline Russell, a long-time road safety campaigner who commissioned the research, revealed that nitrogen dioxide levels exceeded national and European target limits in half the measuring stations across the borough. In addition, levels were twice as bad at child-height across Islington than at the 2.5 metre height most commonly published.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party Mayoral candidate, said: “These figures are bad news for giants, but even worse news for children. We know NO2 leads to more asthma, lung and heart disease and even premature death. City Hall must urgently do more to bring levels of air pollution down.”

And they must start measuring air pollution at the height which actually affects adults and children rather than far above the head of the world's tallest person, which is where most air quality monitoring devices are in London.

Caroline Russell, the Green Party candidate in the recent Islington by-election, said: “The figures at child height in particular are terrifying. As well as commissioning further studies, our representatives in the council must look at ways they can work with the Mayor to reduce air pollution locally, and all of us in London must consider what we can change to avoid exposing children to such high levels of NO2."

Inequality Matters

2011-11-21T16:02:00.004Z

We often hear politicians talk about ‘tackling poverty’ and the need to improve ‘social mobility’ but economic inequality lies at the heart of both these phenomena and much more. See here for Ten Reasons To Care About Economic Inequality by the new economics foundation.

Money cannot be eaten!

2011-11-08T14:00:00.002Z

From a poster at the Occupy London Tent University outside St Paul's Cathedral:

"Only after the last tree has been cut down.

"Only after the last river has been poisoned.

"Only after the last fish has been caught.

"Only then will you find out that money cannot be eaten."

Or, as I said in my recent post about the Arctic on cuttingthecarbon, even as we fall over the cliff we will be grasping at the air and trying to sell it for a profit.

Mansfield Bowling Club Redevelopment

2011-11-07T19:00:00.000Z

The directors of Mansfield Bowling Club in Croftdown Road are planning to sell their outside lawn to a developer to build nine luxury houses. The club says it can’t afford to maintain the outside bowling green and that with the proceeds of the sale they could properly refurbish the inside bowling green and the associated leisure facilities.

Highgate Green Party councillor Maya de Souza has objected to the plan. She said: “I’m very keen to see the open space protected, but if the bowling green really can’t be made to work, then surely there are better things to do with this site. For example, what we really need is affordable housing not more luxury units.”

But what do you think? Should the club be allowed to sell the bowling green to a developer of luxury houses? What would be your preferred solution?

We are the 99%

2011-11-07T13:15:00.008Z

I went down to see the Occupy London protest at St Paul's Cathedral yesterday and found it immensely uplifting. I really recommend a visit to everyone. There are talks in the Tent University and speeches/meetings in front of the steps of St Paul's. It feels like something is awakening, something that can move us towards a greener, fairer future, one where the 1% don't lord it over the 99%.

"In Transition" film, Dartmouth Park Arms, 7.30pm, Wednesday 9 November

2011-11-07T09:00:00.001Z

Transition Dartmouth Park are showing a film called "In Transition" at 7.30pm this Wednesday (9 November) at the Dartmouth Park Arms in York Rise that looks at how and why the Transition movement has spread so quickly. There are eight Transition Initiatives in Camden alone!

The film will be followed by a discussion with Jo Homan, one of the organisers of Transition Finsbury Park, which has been going for several years. Jo is also one of the founders of Edible Landscapes London.

The Transition movement is about working together to live more sustainably and to strengthen community at a very local level. It's about taking positive action to enhance the quality of life while improving the environment and having fun! See here for more.

TFL should face manslaughter charges over cyclist deaths

2011-11-06T20:13:00.013Z

This year two cyclists have been killed on Transport for London roads in Camden. Paula Jurek was killed in Camden Road at the junction with St Pancras Way on 5th April and Min Joo (‘Deep’) Lee (left) at Kings Cross on 3rd October.

In both cases these are on roads where improvements have been suggested by the Camden Cycling Campaign, the Camden Green Party and others, but they have not been carried out.

Transport for London published a report in 2008 which detailed safety changes needed in the Kings Cross area. That report has not been acted on.

The Camden Council's Cycling Champion Cllr Paul Braithwaite and Green Party Councillor Maya de Souza have both called on the police to consider whether Transport for London should face corporate manslaughter charges over cyclist deaths on roads where they have failed to make much needed safety improvements. I completely agree.

There's a cross-party motion going to Camden Council tonight calling for more action to prevent cyclist deaths. See the Camden Cycling Campaign website for more.
The photos above and below are of a 'ghost bike' which was placed at the site in Kings Cross where Deep Lee died.

Manmade climate change is highly likely to be causing the freak weather

2011-11-06T17:23:00.004Z

Freakish weather disasters — from the catastrophic drought in Texas to the record floods in Thailand — are striking more often and there's a more than 2/3 chance that they are the result of manmade climate change. Those are the conclusions of a draft summary of a new report by the world's top climate scientists, the International Panel on Climate Change.

The IPPC report comes hot on the heels of the news that in 2010 global carbon emissions reached their highest level ever. The IPPC warns that, as carbon emissions warm up the planet, climate change is likely to spawn more similar weather extremes at a huge cost.

Read more about the IPCC report on wild weather and climate change here.

2010 was the worst year ever for global carbon emissions

2011-11-05T12:12:00.005Z

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US Department of Energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, the co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564m more tons (512m metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6%. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the US and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

Read more here.

Good news from St Pauls

2011-11-01T14:44:00.004Z

I've just heard that St Paul's Cathedral is suspending its legal action against the anti-capitalist protest camp outside the church. A cathedral spokesman said it intended to "engage directly and constructively" with the protesters "without the threat of forcible eviction". Read more here.

Maybe common sense has prevailed. This is after all about the most important issue facing Western society - how to put ethics into economics.

Or maybe, just maybe, they read that banner asking "What would Jesus do?"

Grapes in Holly Lodge

2011-11-01T12:47:00.003Z

Something caught my eye as I was out and about this morning. Could it be? Surely not. But it was. White grapes hanging on a fence on the Holly Lodge estate on the south-facing slope of Highgate Hill. It can't be long now before there's a Holly Lodge vintage!

Government slashes solar subsidies

2011-10-31T15:26:00.004Z

The coalition government landed a severe blow to the solar industry today by announcing that feed-in tariffs to support the installation of solar PV will be halved. For smaller domestic schemes (4kW or below) payments are being reduced from up to 43.3p per unit to 21p, with installations completed after the consultation ends on 12 December 2011 set to receive the new lower rate from 1st April 2012.

Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas MP, has attacked the Government's decision to 'punish solar success', warning that by failing to take a more gradual approach to reducing the rates to allow the industry to adapt accordingly, the Government risks killing UK solar off altogether.

Caroline said: "The reckless decision to slash feed in tariffs for solar by half poses a serious risk to the UK's burgeoning solar PV industry - and proves yet again that not even a successful, jobs-rich sector like solar is safe from the anti green forces in the Treasury.

"The timing of the decision is particularly damaging - this wasn't supposed to happen until April, yet the Government has chosen to bring it forward and cause massive chaos, just as it did with the solar installations greater than 50kw back in March.

"It's crucial that the levels of Government support are known to industry far in advance to enable people and organisations to plan ahead. This shock treatment will seriously damage the business case for solar energy programmes.

"While everyone accepts that the tariff needed to be revised in line with falling installation costs, consumer bills and economic realities, the speed and scale of this cut is simply unacceptable and will cause huge disruption to a sector just finding its feet - not to mention the 25,000 jobs which it has created.

"Local councils have been severely let down by this tariff reduction. May were looking to this programme to partly offset government cuts to their budget whilst reducing their carbon footprint, tackling fuel poverty and creating local jobs.

"Furthermore, by claiming that the solar cuts will benefit other energy producers, the government is trying to drive a wedge between different players in the renewables sector, when it should really be focusing its attention on keeping its promises to clean industries and defending green jobs."

The feed-in tariff scheme was introduced in April 2010 and has seen over 80,000 solar installations, the creation of more than 22,000 jobs and almost 4,000 new businesses.

See the Good Energy website for more on what the changes mean.

Labour cut Holly Lodge luncheon club

2011-10-28T20:54:00.001+01:00

Camden Labour are now adding insult to injury. The Labour-run council cut the core grant of the Holly Lodge Community Centre to zero – despite putting out leaflets during the Highgate by-election saying they were saving the Community Centre. But now they’ve also decided to cut the luncheon club at Holly Lodge.

Once upon a time Labour cared about the weakest and least well off in our society, the sort of people who use the Holly Lodge Community Centre and its luncheon club. For many of those older people the luncheon club is one of their only hot meals of the week and perhaps their only chance for a communal gathering.

Labour is no longer a party which cares about social justice that much is clear. Tony Blair began the process of turning Labour into a party which was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” and primarily concerned about winning elections at any price. These days Camden Labour seems to be about cutting frontline services and removing community safety nets.

Nationally the Labour Party basically support the coalition government’s cuts programme – it’s just that they want to go a bit slower. Only the Green Party is saying that the national and local cuts are fundamentally and ideologically wrong. Only the Green Party would like to stop spending money on useless military hardware like Trident and spend it on frontline services like the Holly Lodge luncheon club.

There is a fairer Greener alternative.

Basement developments driving us mad

2011-10-14T12:34:00.002+01:00

It sometimes seems like everywhere you go in Highgate, Hampstead and Belsize these days there’s a basement development that’s driving neighbours mad and a horse and carriages through common sense.

There’s one that’s been underway on for nearly two years in South Hill Park in Hampstead (see photo). The owners are building a swimming pool and jacuzzi complex that will allow them to look out over the Heath. Huge cracks have appeared in party walls and the peace and quiet of the street has been shot to pieces.

Despite Camden Council providing clearer guidance on basements when I was last a councillor (2006-10) the rules are still too lax. And Camden’s Planning Committee, which is mainly Labour councillors who seem to know nothing about how planning affects residents, is granting far too many applications for mega basements.

Basement developments do not provide any much needed new housing - most indulge private whims such as cinemas, gyms, and pools. They represent a threat to the structural integrity of nearby buildings. They can interfere with the water table and can cause flooding. If the traditional channel for water is blocked it has to find another way.

There’s now an online petition asking the government to introduce controls. It will strengthen the planning authority's right to make a decision based on the local situation rather than as at present having this overturned on appeal by central government.

Please sign this petition and write to the Chair of Camden Council’s Planning Committee, Cllr Sue Vincent, asking her and her Labour colleagues to be tougher on basement developments.

October is Walk to School Month

2011-10-08T09:00:00.001+01:00

Millions of school pupils across the world are promoting and celebrating the joys of walking during International Walk to School Month.

But why walk to school? For starters it helps children meet the recommended level of physical activity and reduces the risk of obesity and related diseases. Also, studies show that children who participate in regular physical activity have increased stamina, are more alert and perform better academically.

Walking to primary school allows children to develop crucial road safety skills and greater spatial awareness early on - skills they can rely on when they start travelling more independently, for example to secondary school. These findings come from research done by Camden's own Dr Mayer Hillman.

Walking to school also allows children to engage actively with their local community and develop wider social networks. Read more on the Sustrans website.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is probably the most important political protest in the world right now

2011-10-07T12:04:00.007+01:00

Thousands of protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement marched through Lower Manhattan last night and brought the area to a halt. This political protest, which has been going on since mid-September, is probably the most important anywhere in the world right now.

See here for the powerful speech Naomi Klein gave last night about the Occupy Wall Street movement. See here for The Guardian's live blog about the protests. See here for the Avaaz petition supporting the movement. And see here for the Occupy Wall Street website - if it isn't down because of the number of people around the world trying to access it!

Launch of Transition Dartmouth Park

2011-09-26T17:00:00.007+01:00

There’s a meeting this evening to launch the latest Camden Transition group - Transition Dartmouth Park - at Highgate Newtown Community Centre starting at 7.30pm.
The Transition Movement is about working together on green issues and strengthening community at a very local level. It's about taking positive action to enhance our quality of life while improving the environment and having fun! If you live in Highgate Newtown or Dartmouth Park, then please do go along and take part. Children are very welcome.

To get an idea of the sort of thing a Transition group does see here for the Transition Belsize website.

Questions for Sally Gimson and the Camden Labour Group

2011-09-25T19:42:00.003+01:00

There are a number of questions the community needs to keep asking Sally Gimson and the Camden Labour group in the months and years ahead.

1) Why did Sally and the Labour group claim to have saved the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Team Police Sergeant? Other wards in Camden have had to share sergeants as part of the Mayor of London’s unacceptable cuts to community policing. Labour’s own Cabinet Member for Community Safety said that keeping the Highgate Sergeant was solely a policing decision. The Borough Police Commander said the same. The Chair of the Safer Neighbourhood Panel was reported to be apoplectic about the Labour claim.

2) How can Sally and the Labour-run council claim to have saved Highgate Library when its budget has been cut by more than 50% and the community have been asked to find someone to share the space? The Camden Public Libraries Users Group (CPLUG) say the library is still at risk. The Chair of CPLUG has suggested that if it wasn’t for the by-election the Labour-run council would have tried to close the library.

3) Why did Sally and the Labour group claim to have saved Kentish Town Library when it was never under threat?

4) Why did Sally and the Labour group claim to have saved the Holly Lodge Community Centre when the Labour-run council has actually cut its core grant to zero. The management committee of the community centre - who felt obliged to put up posters to correct the misleading impression given by Labour’s leaflets - say it will have to close if they can’t fundraise enough to replace the Camden Council grant.

5) Why did she and the Labour group claim that the £200k planning gain from the redevelopment of the Holly Lodge bedsits would definitely be spent on rebuilding the Holly Lodge Family Centre? Before the by-election was called the council’s Planning Department had been refusing to confirm that this money would go towards the Family Centre rebuild. And there’s still nothing in writing except a Labour election campaign leaflet.

I understand that Labour wanted to win the Highgate by-election - after all, Highgate ward is where Ed Miliband lives. But I also know that, after all their campaign claims, the community is now watching Labour extremely closely. If Highgate Library is closed or reduced to a token facility, or if the Holly Lodge Community Centre goes under, then residents will know who to blame.

Labour win Highgate by-election fight - Greens vow to hold them to account

2011-09-19T15:48:00.004+01:00

Here are the final results from the Highgate by-election held on Thursday 15 September 2011:

Anthony Denning, Conservative - 593
Sally Gimson, Labour - 1178
Martin Hay, Liberal Democrat - 111
Alexis Rowell, Green Party - 947

Labour threw everything at this campaign in Ed Miliband's home ward. They threw mud at me, they wrote fantasy leaflets and they sent packs of eight canvassers at a time into the streets. And it was an election on their terms - a short campaign during the holiday period with many Green activists absent for the crucial last weekend of campaigning because of the national Green Party conference.

But I'm proud of the campaign we fought. One more week, and a few more community organisers spilling the beans on Labour's porky pies, and perhaps we'd have made it over the line. The passion, the commitment and the energy I saw in our team augur well for the future and prove the Greens have plenty of fight in them. And our thank you party in Forks on Saturday night was fabulous. There were so many people it felt like we were the winners not the losers.

Thank you to everyone in Highgate who voted Green, to all those who helped in the campaign, to those who put up posters, and to the residents who talked to us on the doorsteps and on the phone. Thanks especially to Cllr Maya de Souza for being such an excellent Highgate Green councillor that her reputation for hard work and friendliness preceded me wherever I went.

Well done to Sally Gimson. I'm sure she'll make a good councillor although I think the community will have a lot of questions for her in the weeks and months ahead. Over Highgate Library, over the Holly Lodge Community Centre and over the Safer Neighbourhood Police Team - we and the residents of Highgate will hold Sally and Labour to account.

Keep Highgate Green!

2011-09-14T16:54:00.001+01:00

Caroline Lucas named 'MP of the Year'

2011-09-14T16:00:00.000+01:00

The Leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, has been named 'MP of the Year' in the Scottish Widows & Dods Women in Public Life Awards - just 16 months after she was elected as the first Green to enter the UK Parliament.

The title was awarded to the Brighton Pavilion MP for proving to be 'the most effective woman in the House of Commons who has shown outstanding achievement during the parliamentary year'.

Since being elected in the 2010 general election, the MP has also been named 'Best All Rounder' in the Total Politics End of Year MP awards - and 'Newcomer of the Year' by the Spectator in its 2010 Parliamentarian of the Year awards. On receiving the accolade from Scottish Widows and Dods, Caroline said: "I am delighted that my work as a Member of Parliament has been recognised in this way. It is an incredible honour to serve the people of Brighton Pavilion and I will continue to strive to be the strong and principled voice which our city deserves.

"Until we see far more women represented at senior levels in politics and industry, playing a far greater role in decision making at the top, I think awards like these are an important way of highlighting and celebrating female achievement."

In Parliament, Caroline is a Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fuel Poverty, and Vice Chair of the Public and Commercial Services, Sustainable Housing, Animal Welfare, and CND All Party Parliamentary Groups. She is also a member of the Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee, and sits on the Energy Bill Committee.

Caroline continues to be an active campaigner on a range of issues and is Vice President of Stop the War Coalition and the RSPCA, a CND National Council Member, a Director of the International Forum on Globalization; a Matron of the Women's Environmental Network; and a Patron of Martlet's hospice in East Sussex.

Labour say they have to cut services and yet the waste keeps piling up

2011-09-14T09:00:00.003+01:00

Labour's finance chief at Camden Council says we must cut services for young people such as the Fresh Gym in Highgate Newtown, we must cut services like the dementia centre in West Hampstead, we must cut grants to community centres like Holly Lodge. But then they waste money like there's no tomorrow.

For example, the pavements in York Rise/Chetwynd Rd have just been needlessly replaced. Worse - the paving stones are now above the height of residents' damp proof courses and the work may have to be done again. What a waste of money.

The Whittington Estate regeneration works, which were begun under Labour, led to a million pound out of court settlement by the council with contractors. Residents had warned that the specifications were too lax. The Labour Council failed to heed those. As residents predicted, the works could not be properly managed and works were done several times over. In the end architects and builders were sacked and new ones appointed. The council lost its legal battle against the original ones and wasted more money and more legal costs.

Highgate's Green Party councillor, Cllr Maya de Souza has been actively involved in pushing for better management of these regeneration works. Just think how many services and decent homes works could have been saved if the Whittington regeneration had been done properly.

Cllr de Souza also called for greater scrutiny of the North London Waste Authority's £7bn plan to use a controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to fund new waste disposal facilities. Even the Treasury Select committee has slammed PFI projects for being wasteful.

The Greens want to ensure proper scrutiny of how this deal is to be financed and managed so that we are not tied into a contract that locks us into supplying huge quantities of waste with penalties if this is not done. We shouldn' be creating waste-hungry monsters and we can't afford to waste money in these difficult times.

That's Camden Labour for you - cutting services and wasting money at the same time.

The coalition government's plan to rip up the planning system is a disaster

2011-09-13T17:35:00.006+01:00

The coalition government is relaxing planning rules at the behest of housebuilders who want to build on green field sites. They’d rather do this than reworking existing sites – brown field sites – because it’s cheaper. There is a risk that the planning system will make it easier for developers to evade planning rules here in Camden – it’s not just an issue for the countryside.

Green Party Leader, Caroline Lucas MP, said: "The new national planning proposals expose this Government's shocking bias towards big business and its determination tear up protection laws for our precious countryside. Ministers are intent on scrapping the policy of building on brown field sites before green field sites and the duty to ensure that new developments minimise road traffic.

"The Greens recognise the urgent need to build more homes in order to address the housing crisis in this country, but the main obstacle isn't the planning system, it's the lack of money - thanks in no small part to the Government's decision to cut the affordable housing budget by 60%.

"This new planning policy is likely to prove about as popular as the Government's ill-conceived plans to sell off the forests - and we need Cameron do a similar U-turn as fast as possible."

Labour did cut the funding for Holly Lodge Community Centre - don't believe their leaflets

2011-09-13T09:00:00.001+01:00

Cllr Maya de Souza and I were both at last Wednesday’s Camden Council meeting where Holly Lodge funding was discussed. We were there to support the residents who use the Community Centre and Family Centre. Grace and Zoe spoke powerfully on behalf of these valuable Holly Lodge amenities. And everyone cheered them to the rafters.

The good news is that the £200,000 that was earmarked for rebuilding the Family Centre, which Labour was going to take away, has now been confirmed. Cllr Maya de Souza worked long and hard with residents to lobby the last Camden administration to fund a community-designed building so we’re delighted that, after months of uncertainty, the work can now begin. It may have taken the spotlight of a by-election to achieve this Labour u-turn, but the important thing is that the project is safe.

However the Labour-led Camden Council has cut the core funding for the Holly Lodge Community Centre, which may force it to close.

Holly Lodge, where I am now a resident, is an extraordinary 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.

Green Party says Vickers doesn't go far enough on regulating casino banks

2011-09-12T19:00:00.001+01:00

Sir John Vickers, chairman of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), today published his final report on banking reform. Responding to the recommendations, which include the ringfencing of banks' high street businesses from their "casino" investment banking arms, the Green Party's Leader, Caroline Lucas MP, said:

"While the Vickers report includes some steps in the right direction, the fact that it fails to offer truly wide ranging and meaningful proposals for bank reform reveals a fundamental flaw at the heart of the ICB.

"The Commission's narrow remit renders it powerless to address the issues key to creating a safe and useful banking system - such as the nature of credit creation and tax reform, as well as bankers' bonuses.

"We are still in recovery from the biggest financial crisis for 80 years and struggling to keep our heads above the deep waters of recession, whilst spending billions on 'too big to fail' subsidies for the largest banks. Yet all the ICB can offer UK taxpayers is a limp collection of compromises which will fail to protect us from future banking catastrophes.

"For example, simply ringfencing 'casino' investment banking and high street banking won't work - not least because contagion can still spread between the two. These are different operations requiring different regulations, which only a complete structural separation between retail and investment banking can provide.

"Add to this the fact that Vickers suggests giving banks until 2019 to get their houses in order and it seems that the intense lobbying by the banking industry has really paid off."

Ultimately, no one is asking the crucial question - what should a good banking system look like? We need to do far more to ensure universal access to low cost banking services, and to force banks to provide affordable finance to small and medium businesses.

We also need far more diversity in the banking system in the shape of, for example, mutuals and credit unions - in order to reduce our exposure to market instability and protect us from the worst effects of casino capitalism.

Fantasy claims in Lab/Tory leaflets means they're worried

2011-09-12T13:00:00.007+01:00

Oh dear, oh dear - the Labour and Tory parties are both clearly terrified that the Greens are going to win the Highgate by-election this Thursday.

In their leaflets Labour claim to have saved Highgate Library but they've cut the budget by more than 50% and have given the community a year to find someone to share the space. The Camden Public Library Users Group (CPLUG) say there's still a substantial risk that Highgate Library will be closed.

Labour also claim to have saved the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Police Team Sergeant when other wards in Camden are being forced to share. But Labour's Cabinet Member for Community Safety recently wrote to all Camden councillors to say that the council had had absolutely no influence over which police teams kept their sergeants. It was, he said, "solely a police decision". The Borough Police Commander has said the same. The Chair of the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Panel is reported to be apoplectic about the Labour claims.

Labour also sent a letter to Holly Lodge residents saying they'd saved the Community Centre and Family Centre there. It's true that the £200,000 that was earmarked for rebuilding the Family Centre, which Labour was going to take away, has now been confirmed. Cllr Maya de Souza worked long and hard with residents to lobby the last Camden administration to fund a community-designed building so we’re delighted that, after months of uncertainty, the work can now begin. It may have taken the spotlight of a by-election to achieve this Labour u-turn, but the important thing is that the project is safe. Yet Labour-led Camden Council has cut the core funding for the Holly Lodge Community Centre, which may force it to close. Holly Lodge residents have now felt obliged to put up posters on the estate giving the facts about what has happened rather than the fantasy which is in Labour leaflets.

And now the Tories are getting in on the fantasy leaflet act. Their latest "newsletter" claims that "if the Green candidate is elected in Highgate, he will have no right to speak at Council meetings." This, they claim, is because "a political party must have three elected councillors to earn these rights."

That is mendacious nonsense. The rules are that if a party has more than one councillor then they constitute a group and that would give us the right to speak on all issues. Indeed the Greens have been here before - in 2006 when two Greens were elected in Highgate they were a formal group on Camden Council.

What these negative tactics show is that both Labour and the Tories are worried that the Greens are going to win the Highgate by-election on Thursday. Our pledge is that we will stay positive to the end. We Greens are not in politics for petty point scoring and we won't spread lies in an attempt to win. We're in it because we have strong principles and we because want to make a difference. It's a question of trust.

University of London to introduce London Living Wage - what about Camden Council?

2011-09-12T10:53:00.003+01:00

Good to hear that the University of London, my old university, has apparently agreed to implement the London Living Wage at some point during this academic year. However there's still nothing on paper so public pressure is still needed. There's a rally at Senate House (Russell Square car park) at 11.30am this Wednesday (14 September) so please do join them if you can.

The Camden Green Party supports the introduction of the London Living Wage at Camden Council. This means that council workers - including those working for contractors - are paid a minimum of £8.30 per hour, rather than the national minimum of £5.93, which is what Camden Council's contractors pay street cleaners and carers. It's been calculated that this would cost approximately 0.03% of the council's budget, which is likely to be offset by reduced staff turnover and improved productivity.

Labour promised to introduce the London Living Wage in their 2010 manifesto, but have conspicuously failed to deliver. The lowest paid at Camden Council are receiving what can only be described as poverty wages. I will campaign to persuade the council to introduce the London Living Wage. The Greens believe fair is worth fighting for.

Gordon House residents know how to street party!

2011-09-11T23:00:00.000+01:00

It was a pleasure to meet so many residents of Gordon House Road at the inaugural residents association meeting and street party on Saturday night. The road is closed every night at the moment to allow repairs to be done to the railway bridge. Because some of the residents had been talking about setting up a residents association so taking over the street for an impromptu party was the perfect kickstart. If I'm elected on Thursday, I look forward to working with the new Gordon House Road Residents Association and especially to being invited to their street parties!

Caroline Lucas appeals to Lib Dem members to jump ship and join the Greens

2011-09-11T17:37:00.004+01:00

At the Green Party conference in Sheffield, Leader Caroline Lucas called for Lib Dem members to turn their back on the coalition government and on the Lib Dems leadership. Here's what she said:

"This is not a true coalition. This is a Tory government being kept in power by the Lib Dems. It's no wonder the people of Sheffield gave them a bloody nose in this year's local elections.

"In a coalition, the idea is that both sides get some of what they want. But with this so-called coalition, the Conservatives have everything, and the Lib Dems get a bodged referendum that wasn't even in their manifesto. And what a sad irony that their own unpopularity in the country helps lose them that referendum.

"Of course, the Lib Dems have five seats in Cabinet. What a chance to make a difference. We have Chris Huhne there responsible for clean energy and fighting climate change. Yet in the past few months alone, his Government has slashed support to marine renewables, caused chaos in the solar industry, promoted new deep water drilling, and given the green light to shale gas fracking.

"Then there's Vince Cable at Industry. Whose sole idea for more employment seems to be boosting the arms trade? Who missed the chance to see Northern Rock turned back into a mutual, rather than sold off to the highest bidder? And who has failed to secure the far-reaching banking regulation that he once promised.

"We have Danny Alexander at the Treasury. And one of his top ideas for reducing the deficit? Selling off our forests.

"And Nick Clegg, of course. The Minister for meeting angry people and being shouted at. Is it any wonder, then, that people inside and outside the Liberal Democrat party are asking - if we're not getting what we want, why stay in?

"But it's worse than that. The Lib Dems aren't getting what they want. But they're also helping the Tories give the rest of us things we don't want, and never voted for. Like privatization of the NHS. Like the cuts in services. Like £9,000 tuition fees.

"That's not why most people voted Lib Dem last year. Not in Sheffield. Not in Eastleigh. Not in constituencies across the SW of England. Not on the university campuses. And is it any wonder that former Lib Dem supporters are increasingly turning to the Green Party?

"A party whose members decide policy, and whose elected representatives stick to their principles, and still get things done. Now, in this hall today are people from all kinds of different backgrounds. Former Conservatives. Former Labour. Many people who would never have been involved in politics at all if it hadn't been for the Greens. We welcome you all.

"But I have a special message for those Lib Dem supporters who are beginning to despair of the path their leadership has taken them down. If you became involved in politics to serve your local community, to protect the environment, or to challenge inequality, then join us. We are working for the same ends. You'll find many former Lib Dems among our ranks. And your contribution to politics in our country is more valuable than ever."

And that's why I joined the Greens!

There's so much more we could do on transport if only TFL and Camden Council would listen to local people

2011-09-06T20:21:00.007+01:00

Green Party Mayoral candidate and GLA Member Jenny Jones (left) has called for far better transport provision through Highgate ward and into Highgate Village. Speaking on the by-election campaign trail in Highgate ward she said: “There's no coordination of bus services through Highgate Village. None of them make any sense. TFL should listen to the community and work with them to find a solution that works for the residents of Camden, Islington and Haringey.”

As the Green Party candidate in the Highgate by-election, I would like to see Transport for London treating Highgate Village as a community and a partner in terms of its bus service provision. Historic Pond Square is not a good place for the 271 bus to terminate. I will be joining the Northern Heights Campaign which seeks to persuade TFL to negotiate openly and fairly with councillors, organisations, businesses and residents from the Camden, Haringey and Islington parts of Highgate Village.

The Greens also want to see tougher action on air quality. Highgate Green, Cllr Maya de Souza (below), said: “The Mayor is poisoning us by not being tougher on diesel-powered buses and taxis. 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!”

I asked for help from London Assembly Member Jenny Jones to persuade TFL to listen to residents. As well as the issues in Highgate Village, residents in Dartmouth Park have been telling Green Party canvassers that the 214 service has deteriorated. TFL need to listen to residents not retreat to their ivory towers of "we know best" transport planners. Local people know what's best for their area not so-called traffic experts.

The Mayor has also done nothing to make cycling safer - he may even have made it more dangerous. The Mayor's free bike scheme, which still doesn't come anywhere near Dartmouth Park or Kentish Town, is no substitute for proper cycling infrastructure. Cllr Maya de Souza and I are supporting the London Cycling Campaign’s “Going Dutch” campaign which is calling for space on London’s roads to be given over to cyclists and safer streets generally so that children can cycle to school. Until we create proper cycling infrastructure we cannot expect parents to let their children cycle on London's streets. Just this morning I saw a cyclist knocked off his bike in Dartmouth Park Road and taken to hospital in an ambulance.

The Greens want to see 20mph speed limits on all residential roads and consultations about increased traffic calming on rat runs like Chetwynd Road and York Rise. Cllr Maya de Souza said: “We also want to see car owners given incentives to give up their private cars and get bikes or join car clubs. For most people it would already make financial sense to join a car club - the world's 800m cars are used only 8% of the time - but we need to give them a helping hand.”

Jenny Jones added: “Keeping London moving is crucial and Greens want to make it easier and more affordable. Plus, public transport has to be cleaner and more reliable. For that we need safer, quieter roads and part of that is encouraging people to walk and cycle more, so that there's less need for cars.”

Too many public contracts go to tax evaders

2011-09-06T11:00:00.000+01:00

More than half of the private companies winning Government contracts have subsidiaries in tax havens. Out of the 20 biggest companies being awarded public service contracts, 13 have subsidiaries in places usually used to minimise tax bills, according to the report by Ethical Consumer magazine.

Tim Hunt, the report's co-author, said: "At a time when the Government is implementing the biggest cuts to public spending in living memory, the Government should demand that companies being awarded contracts should not be allowed to also make use of tax havens."

Caroline Lucas MP, the leader of the Green Party, said: "It is completely unacceptable that the Government is paying no regard to the social and environmental records of the companies who are being awarded contracts to run our public services, and it completely undermines their rhetoric about aspiring to be the greenest Government."

Richard Murphy, from the Tax Justice Network, said: "These findings are troubling, but seem to form part of a pattern that now appears deliberate. "We're seeing taxpayers' money now being captured by private corporations who are using it for the benefit of a few in society at a cost to the great many ordinary people who're paying the price through reduced services, benefits and even healthcare, and all at the cost of increased tax."

Darling memoirs - what did Ed Miliband know and do?

2011-09-05T23:00:00.000+01:00

We should have done something to get rid of Brown, says former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling. The former Chancellor's memoirs give a fascinating insight into the failures of the last Labour government.

Alastair Darling has accused Gordon Brown of extreme naivety over the banking crisis. He said the former Prime Minister thought the recession would be over in six months and claimed he ran a confused and chaotic government racked by bitter infighting. The new Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who lives in Highgate ward, wants us to dismiss Alistair Darling's memoirs as irrelevant to today's debates. He's wrong. And I wonder what exactly he knew or did at the time. Sounds like it was complete chaos. Food for thought for all Labour voters I'd have thought.

The girl who silenced the world

2011-09-05T09:06:00.004+01:00

This is really worth rewatching. Many thanks to a supporter in Highgate for emailing it to me. Twelve-year-old Severin Suzuki was addressing a United Nations meeting on environmental issues. Her passion and common sense bring tears to my eyes even though I've now seen this clip many times. It's a powerful reminder of why we all need to keep fighting for comprehensive action on climate change and sustainability. See here for some of my work on this agenda.

Camden Labour have lost people's trust

2011-09-04T23:19:00.008+01:00

Does anybody trust the Camden Labour Party any more? They say they saved Highgate Library, but the budget was cut by more than 50%, the community has been given a year to find someone to share the space and the Public Library Users Group say the axe is still hanging over its head.

Labour also claimed to have saved the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Police Sergeant, but their Cabinet Member for Community Safety says it was solely a police decision. What's more they refuse to tell us whether the 18 extra Police Constable Support Officers in Camden Town will continue to be funded by the council.

What sort of response to the riots would that be if those community police officers were cut by Labour-run Camden Council?

Cycling - let's go Dutch

2011-09-02T12:00:00.003+01:00

I fought long and hard when I was last a councillor to persuade Camden and Transport for London to install properly separated cycle lanes such as you see now in Paris, and I will carry on fighting for this if I am elected in the Highgate by-election.

I am supporting the London Cycling Campaign’s “Going Dutch” campaign which is calling for space on London’s roads to be given over to cyclists and safer streets generally so that children can cycle to school.

Until we create proper cycling infrastructure we cannot expect parents to let their children cycle on London's streets.

Camden Council's contractors should pay the London Living Wage not poverty wages

2011-09-01T19:00:00.008+01:00

The Green Party supports the introduction of the London Living Wage. This means that council workers - including those working for contractors - are paid a minimum of £8.30 per hour, rather than the national minimum of £5.83, which is what Camden Council's contractors pay street cleaners and carers. It has been calculated that this would cost approximately 0.03% of the council's budget, which is likely to be offset by reduced staff turnover and improved productivity.

The Camden Labour Party promised to introduce the London Living Wage in its 2010 manifesto, but has conspicuously failed to deliver. The lowest paid at Camden Council are receiving what can only be described as poverty wages. I will campaign to persuade the council to introduce the London Living Wage. The Greens believe fair is worth fighting for.

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

2011-08-30T12:44:00.005+01:00

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

2011-08-30T10:52:00.008+01:00

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

2011-08-26T13:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-26T00:52:00.004+01:00

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"!

2011-08-24T23:00:00.003+01:00

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

2011-08-24T00:26:00.008+01:00

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

2011-08-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-23T13:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-21T23:16:00.008+01:00

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

2011-08-21T18:00:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-08-19T17:00:00.004+01:00

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!

2011-08-18T21:00:00.006+01:00

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

2011-08-18T13:33:00.004+01:00

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

2011-08-17T18:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-17T12:59:00.004+01:00

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!

2011-08-17T01:29:00.004+01:00

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

2011-08-17T01:00:00.006+01:00

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

Recycling shame of Hampstead Heath

2010-06-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

Why oh why is the Corporation of London, which manages Hampstead Heath, not into recycling? The photo below shows a popular part of the Heath early last Sunday morning. The rubbish bin is overflowing and most of its contents could be recycled.

Hurrah for Andrew Thornton of Budgens

2010-06-29T09:00:00.000+01:00

I’m not sure at what point Andrew Thornton, the owner of the Belsize Park Budgens franchise, “got it”, but as soon as he did dramatic change became possible at his supermarket. As a result of working with Transition Belsize his stores now:

Sell over 1,500 local food lines (sourced within 100 miles of the store) out of 10,000
Send its food waste to be turned into biogas and then electricity
Put only 6% of total waste into landfill
Have recycling bins at the till for excess packaging
Offer excess packaging, mobile phone and cartridge recycling facilities
Cover its fridges and freezers at night to save energy
Have a sustainable fish policy using a traffic light coding system
Use 70% fewer plastic bags than in 2008 and have introduced a charge of 2p for “single use” carrier bags to reduce usage further
Offer bicycle deliveries to those who live within two miles of the store, both for food if they spend more than £25 in his shop and for moving general stuff around for a £5 charge

In addition Andrew has always said that he will sell any food that Transition Belsize can produce and will help with packaging it if need be. And now, his piece de resistance, he's opened up the roof of his Crouch End store to community groups wishing to grow food which he will then sell in the store. It's called Food from the Sky and it's an absolutely wonderful project so hurrah for Andrew Thornton (pictured below enjoying a picnic on the roof in Crouch End).

New study: gardening makes children happy

2010-06-28T08:44:00.003+01:00

New research suggests that taking part in gardening can make a child feel happy and boost their development. Too right it does. I spent Friday evening gardening with five children aged between four and eleven. Their enjoyment was palpable.

The study of 1,300 teachers and 10 schools was commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It found children in schools that encouraged gardening became more resilient, confident and lived healthier lives. The RHS says school gardening should be used as a key teaching tool, rather than as an extra-curricular activity.

Researchers found that teachers who used gardening as part of learning said it helped improve children's readiness to learn. They also said it encouraged pupils to become more active in solving problems, as well as boosting literacy and numeracy skills. The report said: "Fundamental to the success of school gardens in stimulating a love of learning was their ability to translate sometimes dry academic subjects into practical, real world experiences. For more on this read here...

Of course, adults derive just as much enjoyment from gardening. An innovative new scheme in Totnes in Devon called Healthy Futures has just kicked off which allows GPs to prescribe community gardening. And on Saturday I visited the Secret Garden of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture. Tucked away behind the busy roads of Finsbury Park the Foundation has a beautiful garden where those who are recovering from physical persection can obtain peace of mind through gardening.

Boris's new cycle superhighways

2010-06-22T09:00:00.001+01:00

So Boris's new cycle superhighways are about to coming into being. I'm sceptical. They basically amount to a strip of blue paint on very busy and polluted roads.

And what happens when they hit a bus stop? Ah yes - they simply disappear and cyclists are left to do what they always have to do - fight with traffic.

It's not doing it for me, Boris.

Transition - upwards and onwards

2010-06-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

The annual Transition Conference took place last weekend at a beautiful old agricultural college - Seale Hayne - near Newton Abbot in Devon (see photo below and note the "green wall"!). It took me a few days to recover from the intellectual overload of having to take part in thoughtful workshops and discussions for three days solid. But what a joy to be with so many people who genuinely care.

We now have seven Transition groups in Camden: Belsize, Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Hampstead, Kentish Town, Kings Cross and Primrose Hill. Word reached me today of moves to start Transition Fortune Green. And I'm on to someone who I think will be a great motivator for a Transition West Hampstead. It's an amazing movement and I'm incredibly proud to be part of it. For more on the Transition movement click here.

More PFI-funded roads isn't the answer - not in Sheffield nor anywhere

2010-06-18T15:51:00.004+01:00

Very depressing to hear the (Lib Dem) Leader of Sheffield Council on BBC Radio Four's The World At One today saying that his priority was to make sure that Private Finance Initiative (PFI) money was available for building more roads around his city despite the government cuts. More roads? Is that really what he thinks Sheffield and the UK needs - more roads?

As far as I'm aware every study of road building capacity has shown that building more roads simply leads to the traffic increasing by more than the new available road capacity. And what's the point of building more roads if in five years time nobody will be able to afford the petrol to run their cars. He, and Sheffield, would do much better to put their money into car sharing, car clubs, buses and other forms of public transport.

As for PFI - that was Gordon Brown's way of taking investment off the books to create the illusion that government borrowing was lower than it was. In the long run it costs public authorities more.

PFI, roads - these are old "solutions" for another age and I'm shocked that a Lib Dem council leader should be supporting them.

Daily Mail tries to break wind

2010-06-10T18:42:00.004+01:00

The Daily Mail has published a letter by former BBC correspondent Michael Cole in which he attacks wind power and the appointment of Miriam Durantez, the wife of the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, to a job in the renewables industry. Unfortunately for Mr Cole, his claims about wind power bear little resemblance to reality. Frankly a newspaper like the Daily Mail should have a duty to check claims like this before they print them. If Michael Cole had written something as inaccurate as that during his time at the BBC, he'd have been fired on the spot.

Here are his claims followed by answers from RenewableUK (formerly the British Wind Energy Association):

Cole: "[Wind Turbines] can't run without power from the National Grid and need their own generator to keep them constantly supplied with electricity."

RenewableUK: "Mr Cole here appears to be getting confused about how wind turbines generate power. Because wind speeds are variable, turbines use an induction generator to extract as much energy from the wind as possible. Induction generators could be considered to be a form of reversed electrical motor: when the wind turbines' blades are turning faster than the speed of the equivalent electrical motor, the generator produces power. This doesn't mean they drain it when the wind speeds are low - when they are, the turbine is switched off. However, to turn the generator back on again it requires an initial burst of electricity to create the magnetic flux which allows it to work - a jump start, if you will. Stand-alone wind turbines get this from a bank of capacitors, and grid-connected turbines take it directly from the grid. This means that Mr Cole would be right if he wanted to say that if all the generators supplying power to the National Grid failed simultaneously you couldn't use a wind turbine to start it up again, but given that a typical coal or nuclear plant requires about a seventh of the electricity it generates, it seems odd to focus only on wind turbines."

Cole: "Billions of pounds have been spent in Britain on more than 2,000 turbines - and yet they contribute barely one per cent of all the electricity that we need. The combined output is less than one medium-sized conventional power station."

RenewableUK: "This is simply wrong. Wind capacity in the UK is 4.5GW, and the total capacity of all generators in the country is 80GW. Owing to wind's variability, wind turbines typically produce about 3% of the country's electricity. However, we actually only use a maximum of 63GW - the remainder is backup for when thermal power stations 'trip' and fall off the grid. About 1GW of conventional power trips every week on average. In terms of cost, it's true that over the last ten years the Government has spent approximately £1billion on supporting the wind industry via the Renewables Obligation system, and another £270 million on research and development. However, in the same period the Government has also spent £200 million on the National Opera, and last year alone around £35 billion on defence. Yearly Government spending on renewable energy is extremely low and easily affordable compared with other areas of state activity."

Cole: "They are an ever-present eyesore and are blamed for killing bats and birds that accidentally fly into them."

RenewableUK: "As Bill Oddie knows, before a wind farm is built the developers have to conduct an environmental impact assessment to ensure that local wildlife won't be adversely affected. Large wind turbines actually have less of an impact on wildlife than comparable structures like communication masts or road traffic - and certainly less than cats!

"It's true that some people dislike the look of wind turbines, but they're in the minority - surveys have repeatedly shown that the majority of people support the expansion of wind energy. Their concerns shouldn't be ignored, however, and during the planning consultation process people have the opportunity to ask developers to ensure that the visual impact of a proposed farm is minimised. This can and has led to developers moving the planned sites of turbines so that they're less visible to people who dislike them.

"Constructive engagement like this on both sides of the debate is crucial to ensuring we can use renewables to help prevent dangerous climate change and secure our energy supplies - while at the same time ensuring that people who will be impacted by new renewable energy projects have the chance to have their say. Unfortunately, what Mr Cole has written does not constitute constructive debate."

Hear hear!

Transition, deep green thinking and the Big Society

2010-06-06T10:13:00.006+01:00

As the Joint Coordinator of a Transition Initiative – Transition Belsize in North London - I am instinctively drawn to the concept of David Cameron's Big Society. It has a lot in common with the aims and ambitions of the Transition movement. Cooperatives, boosting social entrepreneurs, time banks, community-owned assets – these all fit neatly with Transition thinking and indeed a lot of deep green thinking.

The Big Society takes a lot of interesting ideas - cooperatives, boosting social entrepreneurs, time banks - but what worries me about the concept is that I see little understanding of the real underlying problems of our society - materialism (ie capitalism), globalisation of production (as opposed to the spread of ideas) and an unwillingness to live in tune with nature leading to depletion of natural resources. The Big Society takes a lot of interesting ideas, but it never really grapples with the problem of Tesco (which I use as a metaphor for big business).

In an interview with Transition Culture the man credited with the Big Society concept, Red Tory Philip Blond, said that Tesco would have to change so that local businesses can exist cheek by jowl with Tesco:

“I think tackling the ‘Tesco-isation’, if you put it like that, is part of the answer, but also the dominant supermarket players are also going to be part of the answer. I think the point with supermarkets isn’t that they are going to be eliminated, not least because many people wouldn’t want that, but it is actually getting them to operate differently, and to operate differently in a way that works with locality and with other needs, diversification of the food supply, more localised provision, market making rather than market dominating, and I think everybody will have a role, and they will go from big to small.

"We don’t want to get in a position of just defending the small against the big, what we want is all modes present, in a way that one mode doesn’t dominate other modes, so we don’t have a purely local economy, because that isn’t sustainable, nor do we have a purely global economy because that isn’t sustainable. We need the inter-penetration of each order or each sphere by the other.”

Later in the conversation he said: “There’s no turning the clock back, no opposing globalisation. The point is rather to orient globalisation towards augmenting the local rather than eliminating it.”

I don’t see anywhere in that interview, or in anything Phillip Blond or David Cameron have said before or since, any convincing explanation of how you can make Tesco and local shops work well together. All the evidence is that out of store supermarkets destroy town centres, that supermarkets lead to money and resources leaking out of local economies, that town centre supermarkets lead to the closure of independent food shops. How would the Big Society prevent that? By educating residents to want to buy local? That’s a lovely idea but it’s naive.

Breaking up the banks and going back to small regional banks or mutual societies is another laudable intention, but how do you restrain 21st century capitalism and the destructive force that is maximisation of shareholder value so as to allow small financial institutions to thrive? How do you change the values of society back to something where "Small is Beautiful"? How do you prevent international capital from taking highly leveraged bets against countries and companies?

I’m all for smaller classes and smaller schools that are closer to where children live, and I’m a big fan of community clinics providing all but emergency services (as in much of France), but if all schools and hospital departments are set free to run themselves and charge whatever they like, then how is that different from the old Thatcherite approaches - privatisation, trickle down and get on your bike?

I don’t want to throw out the Big Society concept. I think there is something there. But at the moment it feels like a collection of ideas floating on the surface with no real understanding of why we are in crisis and no real framework for solving the crisis.

The problem isn’t a dichotomy of socialist big government versus rightwing libertarianism, which Phillip Blond says he’s trying to get away from - the problem is the underlying values of the consumer society. And the solution is not to give those who are at the margins of society more assets so that they can play at the materialist roulette table - the solution is to change the underlying values of society. Where for example is the Big Society analysis of the gap between needs and wants which has been created and exploited by the advertising industry in the modern capitalist era?

So this is, I think, where Transitioners and other deep green thinkers part company with the Big Society. We see climate change, resource depletion, globalisation of production, maximisation of shareholder value, industrialised food, debt overhang, asset bubbles, financial crisis, oil wars etc as symptoms of a society running out of control, whereas the proponents of the Big Society simply want to tweak the model to allow a breed of New Victorian social entrepreneur to take their place alongside the Murdochs, the Leahys and the Trumps of the world.

Let’s not throw out the Big Society model just yet. It has lots of good elements in it. But we need to be aware that it is far from fully formed. Therein lies the real challenge and opportunity – how to create a model that picks up where the Big Society leaves off and which deep green thinkers and Transitioners can agree with, a model which doesn’t simply mutate into a reworking of “sink or swim” Thatcherism wrapped in a shiny new language of community.

Camden Green Fair

2010-06-04T12:16:00.002+01:00

The Camden Green Fair is this Sunday 6th June from 12midday to 7pm in Regents Park. It’s a fantastic showcase for all things green so please do go along if you can. I’m talking at the Bird Table Debates at 1.30pm on “The rise of the Transition Town movement and its place in David Cameron’s Big Society and deep green thinking”.

Insulating a private block in Belsize

2010-06-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Here's something that made me smile - a private block in Belsize being cavity wall insulated. The guys on the crane are injecting polystyrene beads into the cavity. When I saw this I thought it was the result of Camden Council's new policy of helping blocks like this to do the work because it's so hard to get all the individual flat owners to agree on what needs to be done and who should pay for it it. But no - the owners of this block - Lowlands in Eton Avenue - managed to agree among themselves that the work needed to be do so all credit to them.

Camden pub with green wall

2010-06-02T09:00:00.002+01:00

Here's one of my favourite green walls. It's on The Driver pub in Wharfdale Road in Camden. Well worth a visit. It was designed by Patrick Blanc, the French green wall specialist who's done so much to raise awareness about vertical planting, although I would describe most of his walls as being mainly about aesthetics rather than more functional stuff like insulation, cooling, food growing and enchancing biodiversity.

Growing food on the roof of Budgens

2010-05-31T23:44:00.005+01:00

This was a great way to spend part of my Bank Holiday Monday - helping to install a food growing site on the roof of Budgens in Crouch End! The aim of owner Andrew Thornton and his partner Azul Thome is to give local people the chance to grow food and then to sell any surpluses in the store. After a fun afternoon of planting we tucked into a freshly picked salad and an excellent bottle of Sancerre. Next year I'm hoping for a vin de Crouch End!

BBC reporters implying manmade climate change is a scientific debate is irresponsible

2010-05-25T10:06:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday the From Our Own Correspondent programme on BBC Radio Four broadcast a report by Roger Harrabin about a gathering of climate change sceptics in the US. He mentioned the University of East Anglia researchers implicated in the so-called "climategate" scandal again and again, but completely failed to point out that they had been completely exonerated of any wrongdoing by an independent Royal Society inquiry.

Last night an Analysis programme by Justin Rowlatt, also on Radio Four, repeatedly tried to suggest that there was still some debate about the basic science of climate change.

These two journalists in particular spend their time making it seem like the jury is still out on manmade climate change in the scientific community when it patently isn't.

Every major institute that deals with climate-related science is saying manmade climate change is here and real and dangerous. The translation of what the science is saying into the language of the public is this: global warming is definitely happening; it is happening because of human activities and it will ontinue as long as CO2 and other greenhouse gases (like water vapour trails from jet planes!) keep increasing in the atmosphere. (For more on how to answer the climate sceptics see here.)

It is utterly irresponsible of the BBC to run stories that suggest that there is some sort of debate about this. We can have a debate about how high temperatures will go, about the possible consequences of climate change, about how fast we might get to mass extinction of species (which is of course already happening), but not about the basic science.

As an ex-BBC journalist I perfectly well understand the need for a "good story" or a "controversial debate". But the BBC is supposed to be a public broadcaster with duty to inform and educate as well as entertain. On climate change it is failing to do that. Indeed, as I've said before, I think the BBC bears much of the responsibility for the confusion about climate change in the minds of so many.

What does success look like in the context of the new Conservative-Lib Dem coalition?

2010-05-14T11:04:00.005+01:00

I've been slow to judge the new Con-Lib government because I wanted space to think about what it all meant first. I know Lib Dems who instantly left the party because of the link-up with the Tories. I know others who've pronounced themselves more Lib Dem as a result of seeing Lib Dems in government. I'm not yet 100% sure what I think so I've decided to wait and see what actually happens.

Out on the streets of Haverstock ward where there's a Camden Council by-election next week it's been difficult to explain what's happened in the requisite 30 seconds, even for me, a former salesman and broadcast journalist. It's easy to knock the national coalition - "you've sold out to the Tories", "I voted Lib Dem and got the Tories", "you had a chance to form a once-in-a-lifetime coalition for progressive change" etc. But it takes about ten minutes to explain to someone why the outcome is the least worst option, to coin a phrase used by Winston Churchill to describe democracy, and why, if it goes well, it could be the most progressive government since 1945.

Someone asked me what I meant by progressive at a dinner party on Saturday night. He was talking about politics in terms of right and left which I, like most Lib Dems, eschew. By progressive I mean the agenda I fought for when I was in the Labour Party (until I left over the Iraq War) and that has been part of the Lib Dem DNA since before I joined the party:

- a fairer political system where votes have meaning, parliamentary terms are fixed and the House of Lords is elected
- a fairer tax system where the poor pay less and the rich pay more
- a fairer education system where class and cash don't define outcomes
- an economic system which values and protects the environment rather than destroying it
- a more liberal approach to civil liberties instead of the surveillance society, detention without trial, ID cards and the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" attitude of the outgoing Labour government
- a multilateral approach to international affairs rather than endless armed interventions in other countries
- a decentralisation of power to the lowest possible level of decisionmaking

Labour had 13 years to do some or all of that but they didn't. It beggars belief to imagine that some or all of that was on the table in the last 24 hours of Gordon Brown's administration. Especially given the noises off from elsewhere in the Labour Party. There was no progressive coalition on offer, Labour is no longer a progressive party and anyway, the maths of a Lib-Lab coalition in terms of seats in the House of Commons simply didn't add up.

Then look at what's actually in the coalition agreement - virtually all of the Lib Dem manifesto ie fairer politics, fairer taxes, fairer education and a greener society. There are some notable fudges such as nuclear power (which I'll come back to another day), but, if the coalition holds together, it's actually quite impressive and progressive - especially on the environment. If Labour had put together a programme like this it would have been hard for most progressives not to have supported them.

Of course the question of whether the Con-Lib coalition will hold together is the key one. If it does, then we get a lot of good policies like the break up of the banks, an end to outrageous banking bonuses, a proper post office network and a focus on renewable energy rather than "clean" coal. And maybe, just maybe, the British public will learn to love adult politics, as the Scottish and Welsh already have done - where politicians talk to each other and compromise rather than squabble like children.

But perhaps the biggest thing in favour of the new government is this - surely it's better to have Lib Dems in government than having the Tories going it alone.

By the same token I have offered to help the incoming Labour administration in Camden on environmental policy. They probably don't need my help but if they do, then I'm there for them. Some things - particularly the environment in my view - are far more important than party politics.

Tories & Lib Dems share spoils in Belsize - Labour win back Camden Council

2010-05-08T14:13:00.005+01:00

Here are the results of Thursday’s local elections in the London Borough of Camden's Belsize ward where I was a councillor from May 2006 to May 2010:

Jonny Bucknell, Conservative – 1,969
Claire-Louise Leyland, Conservative – 1,969
Tom Simon, Lib Dem – 1,949
Nigel Rumble, Conservative - 1897
Anne Ward, Lib Dem – 1,746
Paul Perkins, Lib Dem - 1727
Samantha Gunasekera, Labour – 1,094
Sada Deshmukh, Labour – 1,051
Luca Salice, Labour – 1,027

So congratulations to Jonny (who's reportedly cried several times in public because he's so happy I didn't stand again!), Claire-Louise and Tom, and commiserations to the others.

Across Camden there was a Labour surge on the back of the unexpected increased vote for the borough’s two Labour MPs. Labour now have 30 councillors and have regained control of Camden Council, which seems a bit tough when you think that the Audit Commission has rated Camden as the best run council in the country for the last few years.

The Lib Dems and Tories both lost councillors and now have 10 each. And the Greens were reduced to one seat in Highgate. Three seats are still up for grabs - because of the death of Cllr Syed Hoque during the campaign the three Haverstock councillors will be chosen in a by-election on Tue 25th May (which the Lib Dems won making them the official opposition). So it’s all change.

For what it’s worth my analysis is that there was a strange Nick Clegg Rebound Effect going on. The TV debates propelled him into the spotlight and made a lot of people think about voting Lib Dem. But the other two parties ran very effective campaigns warning that a vote for the Lib Dems would mean letting in Labour or the Conservatives.

The turnout was the highest for years and most people voted the same way in the national election as they did in the local poll. The net result was a squeeze on the Lib Dems and the loss of more than half our council seats. Exactly the same thing happened in Islington. However at the national level it meant a hung parliament and Nick Clegg is currently negotiating to be in government. Strange times indeed!

New orchard at the Rosary School

2010-04-29T09:00:00.001+01:00

I'm delighted to hear that Camden Council recently helped the Rosary School to install an orchard. Volunteers helped plant the orchard and make space for food growing areas in the adjacent nunnery. Pupils helped to plant plum and cherry trees, apple espaliers (apple trees growing up walls), rhubarb, redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries. Food growing tools have also been provided so that the students can maintain the space and council officers are working with the school to integrate their interaction with the orchard into the curriculum. Fantastic - let's have more of this!

Installing a bee hive in your back garden

2010-04-28T13:43:00.004+01:00

This is my friend Matt taking delivery of his new bee hive. Two weeks later he had to deal with a bee swarm in a neighbouring garden. A swarm occurs when a new Queen bee takes some of a hive's worker and drone bees off to start a new life elsewhere.

To the untrained eye a swarm can look utterly terrifying as a dark cloud of bees whirl around noisily looking for a temporary resting place - in this case on the branch of a tree. At that point you have up to 48 hours to "rescue" the bees. If you don't, they'll find a new home for themselves. The trick is to shake the bees into a box and transfer them to a new hive overnight when they're asleep.

Collecting a swarm is a delicate business which usually requires an experienced beekeeper. So you've got to be impressed with Matt. He's only just done a two day beekeeping course but he's already tamed his first swarm and now has two bee hives!

Impressed by cycling mums

2010-04-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

I was impressed by these mums collecting their children from a school in Belsize. I watched in awe as they launched themselves into the Swiss Cottage gyratory system. Ow!

Nettle quiche, steamed hop shoots and foraged salad - yum!

2010-04-27T14:00:00.001+01:00

How's this for a delicious looking homegrown and foraged meal? It's nettle quiche, steamed hop shoots and a lettuce, lime, hawthorn and mint salad! Thanks to Mark Stonebanks for sending that in. Mark's a member of the Transition Belsize foraging group who are learning to becoming expert foragers.

The battle of disinformation goes on

2010-04-27T08:00:00.002+01:00

I'm grateful to Tim Drewitt for emailing me the quotes below from Al Gore's new book Our Choice in reply to my post about the University of East Anglia climate scientists being completely exonerated by an independent inquiry:

"The process of deception by the biggest carbon polluters started in the years prior to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio - it grew to become the largest effort of its kind the world has ever seen. Their aim was to reposition global warming as theory rather than fact.

"These professional climate skeptics have had an outsize impact on the politics of the issue. The reason for their devastating impact was clearly understood by the denier network from the outset of the campaign. One of their advisers (to the Bush government) described the strategic rationale in these words: 'Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.'

"Brain scientists have identified the specific parts of the brain within the frontal cortex that keep us on course once we decide to pursue a value-based goal over a long period of time. Significantly, they also note that that particular part of the human brain - the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (or DLPFG) - just above the temples may weaken in the presence of high stress and that the mental effort necessary to maintain its crucial function may be exhausted by excessive distraction and anxiety.

"The DLPFC keeps us on track by coordinating our ability to recall things from memory, plan for the future, and juggle all of the things competing for our attention. Take the DLPFC offline - with constant excessive levels of stress, for example - and we become locked in the here and now, with little care for the past and an ambivalence for the future. Unsurprisingly, there is overwhelming evidence that modern societies routinely generate much higher levels of stress than was common in previous centuries."

Al Gore, Our Choice

Government criticised for Sustainable Communities Act inaction

2010-04-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

This damning statement from the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests that, as many suspected, the government was never really serious about the Sustainable Communities Act, which gives people the right to propose legislative changes that would help to make their communities more sustainable.

"Three months after the submission of the shortlist of 199 proposals, and 9 months after the proposals, under the Sustainable Communities Act (SCA), were first shared with the Department of
Communities and Local Government, an interim announcement from the Secretary of State deals with just 17 of the proposals, and in most of those it is merely suggesting further reviews and discussion. Although the Secretary of State is supposed to “reach agreement” with the Selector (LGA) about the fate of the shortlist, only two cursory discussions with the Chair of the LGA’s all party Selector Panel have taken place.

"The Selector Panel worked hard last year to consider the 301 proposals submitted by councils quickly, equitably and in a transparent manner. We sought to make the process straightforward
for the department by presenting the shortlist in easily digestible themes.

"Previous to that councils and residents spent many hours consulting, promoting and drawing up proposals for small and practical changes that would make a real difference locally, despite there being no clarity or timetable about the process."

"Although consideration of all the proposals submitted was always going to be difficult before the General Election, the efforts to deal with even some of the proposals have been pathetic. Neither is there a timetable for further consideration after the election nor any certainty that a further round of proposals will be forthcoming. We have to wonder whether this Government ever took the SCA
seriously."

What's your Plan B?

2010-04-22T17:00:00.001+01:00

If you were caught up in the aftermath of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, did you have a Plan B?

John Cleese came back from Oslo in a taxi. That’s a Plan B of sorts, but at £3,300 it’s not an option for many of us. Having a Plan B is about creating resilience - it’s about improving our ability to deal with external shocks like this.

In the last few months I’ve been struck by the lack of resilience all around us. I recently went to the Royal Free Hospital for some physiotherapy, but because of a power cut the place was in chaos and out-patients like me were sent home. Before that it was the unusual snowfalls which left large parts of Camden isolated.

What happens if Algeria or Russia decides to cut gas supplies to Europe? What happens if London’s water supply is poisoned by terrorists in retaliation for our armed interventions abroad? What happens if food supply lines into London are cut as they so nearly were in 2000 during the fuel protests? Britain buys 95% of its fruit and more than 50% of it vegetables from abroad. Most of it comes in by ship, but the more exotic stuff is air-freighted and was already starting to disappear from supermarket shelves by the time the flight ban was lifted.

This is the downside of globalisation. Just-in-time production systems which span the globe looking for cheap resources create vulnerability. We’ve seen it in the financial system – globalised, unregulated markets are inherently unsafe. During the fuel protests in 2000 the supermarkets warned Tony Blair that they were a few days from running out of food. We were, it was said, nine meals from anarchy.

Transition Belsize is a community response to the need for more resilience in our lives. On Saturday mornings on Haverstock Hill hundreds of people have been joining us to learn how to grow food, identify edible wild plants, run a wormery or repair a bicycle. These are the sorts of skills we will need as oil becomes prohibitively expensive, which it undoubtedly will because we’re at or near the peak of global oil production.

The most amazing thing about these Saturday morning workshops is the community spirit they engender. You can see people having loads of fun learning new skills together. If we can solve the problems of climate change and peak oil along the way, then great. If we can give people space to deal with the psychological problems associated with dramatic change, then so much the better. And if we can create resilience and enhance community by inspiring residents to grow peas or ride bikes, then nothing could make me happier.

For those of us trying to live in tune with the natural world rather than in opposition to it, it’s tempting to see the Icelandic eruption as either an act of God or perhaps a manifestation of James Lovelock’s Revenge of Gaia. But I’m a realist not a romantic so I prefer to see it as simply a powerful warning, just like the 2008 spike in oil prices to $147 a barrel and the 2000 fuel protests.

The final act of the Camden Council all-party Sustainability Task Force which I have chaired these last four years was to ask the various leaders of Camden’s political groups to commit to a plan for greater resilience for our community. We also want to see Camden Council policies judged by how much they reduce vulnerability to external shocks like an aviation ban or fuel price rises.

Last week Camden’s green groups organised the first ever Resilience Hustings in the Hampstead & Kilburn parliamentary seat (see photo above). We and the 200 people who attended wanted the candidates to understand our concerns about climate change and peak oil. But we also wanted to communicate our view that the current globalised economic system based on cheap oil is going to become ever more fragile and that we need to work together on a Plan B.

It’s worth remembering that the last time Eyjafjallajökull erupted – in 1821 – it was throwing up ash for 14 months. My preferred Plan B is relocalisation. That means building resilience, solving the carbon problem, enhancing community and having fun. Put simply - we can wait for disaster to strike or we can work together now to create a better future.

University of East Anglia climate scientists exonerated by independent inquiry

2010-04-21T14:59:00.000+01:00

You may have missed it, because I certainly did, but last week the University of East Anglia climate scientists at the heart of the climategate emails scandal were completely exonerated of any wrongdoing by an independent inquiry panel chosen by the Royal Society.

The inquiry panel concluded: "We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it. Rather we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention."

See here for the inquiry panel's full conclusions.

It would be nice to think that this would shut the sceptics up, especially Nigel Lawson, and that the media, especially the BBC, would now get over their obsession with the idea that there's some sort of scientific debate about whether climate change is happening and whether it's manmade.

If 99.9% of pilots told you not to fly in a particular plane because of the risk of a crash, what would you do? So why would you do something different when 99.9% of the world's climate scientists are saying that the planet is heating up because man is burning so much carbon, and that climate change has at least the potential to make earth uninhabitable for most living species including human beings? Why are we so unwilling to use the precautionary principle when it comes to climate change?

The climate change effects of Eyjafjallajökull

2010-04-21T09:22:00.000+01:00

Several people have sent me the graphic below which tries to assess the pros and cons of the Icelandic eruption in terms of CO2. However it doesn’t reflect what’s really happening because to get the true greenhouse effect you have to multiply the CO2/NO2 emitted by planes by 2.7 to account for their water vapour trails which act as a greenhouse gas. So the big red triangle should be about three times bigger.

Also the sulphur being spewed out from the volcano is having a cooling effect. Sulphur combines with water vapor in the stratosphere to form dense clouds of tiny sulfuric acid droplets which absorb solar radiation and scatter it back to space.

Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted on 15th June 1991, followed one month later by Mount Hudson in southern Chile. The Pinatubo eruption produced the largest sulphur oxide cloud of the 20th century. The combined aerosol plume from the two eruptions spread around the planet. The data collected after these eruptions show that mean global temperatures decreased by about 1°C over the next two years.

Dreaming of green walls

2010-04-16T17:00:00.000+01:00

How's this for a green wall?! Almost makes you want to climb it. Beautiful. It's the market in Avignon.

Belsize Pesto is here!!!

2010-04-15T17:00:00.001+01:00

The Local Food Production Group of Transition Belsize has produced its first pestos, partly made from foraged ingredients, and I'm delighted with the results. We had loads of fun making them - although we really need a better blender if we're going to do it regularly and in any quantity!

You can test (and buy) the Belsize Pestos on Saturdays between 10am and 1pm on Haverstock Hill outside Budgens for the next three weeks. We're also hoping that a few local eateries will start serving it soon.

Why did we start making Belsize Pesto? Partly to raise awareness about local and foraged foods. Some of the ingredients are what most people would think of as weeds but they're not - they're free foods with loads of goodness in them. We're also trying to source as many of the other ingredients as possible from the London area.

Another key aim is to create livelihoods. If Transition is to survive and prosper then I firmly believe that we have to find ways to create jobs for people so that the movement is not just dependent on well-meaning volunteers. Wild foods production is one way. The Belsize Energy Company, which is seeking to advise residents on solar panels and the Feed-in-Tariff, is another way.

US military predicts Peak Oil by 2012

2010-04-13T22:00:00.000+01:00

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

The report, by the US Joint Forces Command, says: "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."

For more on this read The Guardian article. It looked like the British government was inching towards an understanding of the issue when the Dept of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) staged a behind closed doors discussion with industrialists and representatives of the Transition movement a few weeks ago. But nothing seems to have come of it. If the US military, surely one of the biggest single consumers of oil in the world, thinks Peak Oil is upon us, then why is the British government being so blinkered on this issue?

Three little piglets

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000+01:00

Some things leave one lost for words. Call it love at first sight! The three little piglets at Kentish City Farm.

Camden vehicles running on biogas

2010-04-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

I've just heard that Camden Council is introducing 20 new biomethane vehicles to its vehicle fleet in the next few months. That's great news. Camden's biomethane (or biogas) is currently produced from food waste that has rotted in landfill sites. Biomethane is 80% fewer carbon emissions than diesel. And burning it means no noxious emissions. It's a triple win.

The transport team is also fitting innovative ‘hybrid assist technology’ equipment to a further 15 vehicles. The new equipment will help to reduce fuel consumption by 20% and contribute to reductions in carbon emissions and air pollutants. Hurrah!

Camden Green Drinks - TONIGHT

2010-04-07T17:24:00.000+01:00

Don't miss Camden Green Drinks, hosted by Transition Belsize, tonight, and on the first Wednesday of every month, from 8pm upstairs at the Sir Richard Steele pub on Haverstock Hill.

"The whole point about modern society in Britain is that the only way we know how to have fun is to expend energy. We need to re-learn the skills our grandparents had for having fun with very little. That's what it's really going to be about. If you look at human history, we can bear anything, so long as we have a bit of fun at the same time. The fun bit is what we have to work on."

Paul Mobbs, author of "Energy Beyond Oil"

Ever thought of setting up a wind farm?

2010-04-06T17:00:00.000+01:00

Denmark generates a whopping 20% of its electricity from wind. Virtually every wind farm in Denmark is a cooperative which means the local community has a financial stake. Bar some notable exceptions like the Energy4All wind farms, virtually no wind farms in Britain are cooperatives. In the UK large energy companies apply for planning permission to plonk mega wind farms in peoples’ back yards. Nothing comes back to the local community. It should therefore come as no surprise when residents object.

Energy4all was created in 2002 to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy co-operatives in the UK. It was a response to the phenomenal number of enquiries received by Baywind Co-operative from people looking to replicate the success of the UK’s first community-owned wind farm, which was set up in Cumbria in 1996.

Baywind has generated enough green electricity to power 1,300 homes a year whilst paying an attractive return to its 1,350 members (averaging 7% per annum), and supporting local initiatives. Energy4All is owned by the seven co-operatives it assists. As additional co-ops are established they too will take a share in this growing organisation. Energy4All offers a highly successful combination of industry experience, community involvement, and business acumen providing a package of sector, admin, and financial services to co-ops in return for an annual fee.

If you'd like to set up a wind farm cooperative then read the Energysteps website, which is designed to provide clear and practical information on the process of building a wind farm, then talk to energy or sustainability officers at your local council to see if they can help.

Task Force bows out with call for seven eco actions

2010-04-01T17:00:00.000+01:00

A letter to the leaders of Camden Council's political groups

Cllr Nasim Ali, Leader, Labour Group
Cllr Alex Goodman, Leader, Green Group
Cllr Andrew Marshall, Leader, Conservative Group
Cllr Keith Moffitt, Leader, Liberal Democrat Group

Dear Nasim, Alex, Andrew and Keith,

At the final Camden Council all-party Sustainability Task Force meeting, which took place last night, I was asked to write to the leaders of all Camden Council’s political groups on behalf of the Task Force to seek your support for seven measures should you be in a position to form the new administration after 6th May 2010.

1. Eco Portfolio
To create an Eco Portfolio on the Executive to lead on issues relating to climate change, the end of cheap fossil fuels (“peak oil”) and resilience (the ability of our community to withstand external shocks)

2. Eco Champion
To retain an Eco Champion challenge role and to give it constitutional standing

3. Sustainability Task Force and Leader’s Group on Sustainability
To propose the merger of the Sustainability Task Force and the Leader’s Group on Sustainability into a new sub-group of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) devoted to climate change, peak oil and resilience issues, and to support the appointment of a chair who will challenge business as usual and commit to trying to make Camden a leader in terms of the transition to a low carbon, more sustainable future

4. Camden Peak Oil Report
To commission a Camden Peak Oil Report via the Local Strategic Partnership as Bristol has done and engage the community in the writing of it as Bristol has also done

5. Reduction in Camden’s carbon emissions of 40% by 2020
To commit to a reduction in Camden Council’s carbon emissions of 40% by 2020 based on 2005 levels and to seek to persuade all LSP members to do the same

6. Sustainability sign-off
To commission Bioregional (who gave a presentation to the Task Force last night) to create a Camden One Planet Living Index, such as they are currently testing with the London Borough of Sutton, as a way to judge the sustainability of council policies before they are enacted and then to raise this yardstick to the level of the legal and financial sign-offs that all reports and policies are currently required to achieve

7. Sustainability indicator
To commission the new economics foundation (who gave a presentation to the Task Force last night) to construct a combined indicator for judging the effect of Camden Council policies in terms of minimising the use of natural resources (ecological footprint), enhancing resilience and improving the wellbeing of residents

Caerphilly and Torfaen Councils in Wales have recently introduced combined indicators to measure ecological footprint, health (which is a big issue in the Welsh Valleys) and wellbeing. We believe that for a London borough resilience is a more critical indicator to measure than health.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support for the Task Force and the Eco Champion role over the last four years. I think we’ve achieved a lot but there’s clearly a lot more do. Hopefully the seven measures we have proposed here will help to set Camden on a course to becoming a truly sustainable borough.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Alexis Rowell
Chair, Camden Council all-party Sustainability Task Force

Boris finally speaks out on air quality

2010-04-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

London' s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has accepted that 4,300 premature deaths a year in London are linked to long-term exposure to dangerous airborne particles at an annual cost of up to £2 billion. He's now joined Parliament’s cross-party Environmental Audit Committee in calling on the government to commit the resources necessary to reduce the enormous burden air pollution places on organisations such as the NHS and to implement national measures where they are most effective.

Diesel particles not only cause lung diseases but they also get into the bloodstream because they're so minute. Prof. Frank Kelly of Kings College London, who's one of the UK's leading experts on air quality, has described living in a diesel-polluted area like London as equivalent to "a lifetime of heavy smoking."

The Campaign for Clean Air in London (CCAL) has welcomed Mayor Johnson's intervention. CCAL Founder Simon Birkett said "Boris has made improving air quality in London a General Election issue by throwing the gauntlet down and sending the government a wish list of 14 measures it needs to take."

See here for the Mayor's draft Air Quality Strategy, ‘Clearing the Air’, which is now out for public consultation.

Heathrow third runway blocked by courts

2010-03-31T16:00:00.000+01:00

The government’s Heathrow policy is in tatters after last week's High Court ruling that ministers' decision to give a green light to the proposed third runway does not hold any weight. The judge dismissed the Government’s claims to the contrary as ‘untenable in law and common sense’.

If the government wants to pursue its plans for Heathrow expansion it must now go back to square one and reconsider the entire case for the runway.

The implications of last Friday's ruling are profound, not just for Heathrow but for airport expansion plans across the UK. Lord Justice Carnwath ruled that the 2003 Air Transport White Paper – the foundation of expansion plans across the country - is obsolete because it is inconsistent with the Climate Change Act 2008.

The judge expressed real concern over the “hardship caused to the local community by uncertainty” over the third runway. The 2M coalition of councils which brought the successful legal challenge is now calling on the government to end the uncertainty and scrap the runway plans once and for all.

The judge ruled that:

If the Government decides to push ahead with the runway project it must now review the climate change implications of Heathrow expansion, the economic case for a third runway, and the issue of how additional passengers would get to a bigger airport.

The Government’s entire aviation policy must now be reviewed to take into account the implications of the 2008 Climate Change Act. The judge found that “the claimants’ submissions add up, in my view, to a powerful demonstration of the potential significance of developments in climate change policy since the 2003 Air Transport White Paper. They are clearly matters which will need to be taken into account under the new Airports National Policy Statement.”

On the economic case for Heathrow expansion he would be ‘surprised’ if the recent tripling of the estimated cost to society of emitting carbon did not have ‘a significant effect’ on the economic case for the runway. The judge also said that “it makes no sense to treat the economic case as settled in 2003.”

On the issue of surface access he said the claimants’ case – that there is no credible plan in place to transport millions of extra passengers to an expanded Heathrow - was ‘justified’. Significantly, he noted that the Government was “unable to provide a convincing answer” in court when it was pressed about over-crowding on the Piccadilly underground line that would result from construction of a third runway.

The judge is now inviting the Government to sign a legally binding undertaking that it will not base future aviation policy solely on its 2003 white paper. A further court hearing is expected to take place next month to examine the Government's response to the judge's request. At the same hearing the coalition will seek costs and fully expects to recover those costs from the Government.

The challenge was brought by Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth and Windsor & Maidenhead councils with support from Kensington and Chelsea, Transport for London and the Mayor of London.

The councils were joined by the local residents group (Notrag), aircraft noise campaigners HACAN, World Wildlife Fund UK, Campaign to Protect Rural England and Greenpeace. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was an expert witness.

The local authorities are all members of the 2M Group which comprises 24 local councils (including Camden) opposed to Heathrow expansion with a combined population of 5 million.