Sunday, 24 May 2020
Friday, 22 May 2020
COVID-19 and human rights concerns for older people
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Sunday, 17 May 2020
Levellers Day 2020
Contributors:John Rees – historian
& political campaigner, Tracy Walsh – Red Learning Co-operative The Sea
green singers, Cathy Augustine – Co
Vice-Chair, LRC, Marie Walsh – Didcot
Against Austerity Ciaran Walsh – Labour historian &; ranter, Jeremy Corbyn
– Socialist &; MP for Islington North
Video of march Music from The Black Family and Attila The Stockbroker
Category
Licence
Friday, 15 May 2020
Questions arising from measures announced in government support deal for TfL
Publication from Caroline
Russell: Letter to Heidi Alexander on TfL coronavirus financial settlement
Date published:
15 May 2020
Dear
Heidi,
Questions
arising from measures announced in government support deal for TfL
I was
relieved to see that an agreement was reached with the Government last night to
safeguard Transport for London (TfL) services and functions for the next few
months. Although the full agreement has not been shared, the details already
released raise a few immediate queries that I’d much appreciate an answer to.
The
first point of concern is concessionary and discounted travel. The message that
older and disabled people may lose their free or discounted access to the
transport network at peak times has already spread widely. There is a wide
range of cards and methods by which free travel is accessed by different
groups. Please will you provide very clear communication of the way that
all categories of discounted and free travel will now work, including any
difference between bus and tube access and let me know when this will be
available.
Many
supermarkets are now offering special hours for older and disabled customers in the early
morning, and some people may be using public transport, especially
buses, to help carry groceries home or to reach the shops. Will you discuss
with supermarkets in London adjusting these special hours to reduce the demand
to travel in the morning peak for people making these shopping trips.
The
proposal is also to suspend free travel for under 18s with special arrangements
for young people eligible for free travel under the national scheme. I
appreciate education is not a City Hall responsibility, but we know many
children, particularly at secondary level, have lengthy trips to school that
may be easily made by bike, if the conditions are right. Will TfL prioritise
safe cycle access to schools across all of London, and urge boroughs to do the
same?
The
other major concern that has come up in correspondence from constituents is
about the congestion charge. I called for the reintroduction of the charge last
week, and am glad that an exemption for NHS and care workers is proposed.
However, there are other workers and volunteers who are supporting Londoners
through coronavirus such as The Samaritans, based in Soho, who tell me they
have qualified as key workers during the lockdown. Given their work, across 24
hours a day, supporting the mental health and wellbeing of Londoners is it
possible to include this group of volunteers in the NHS and care worker
exemptions?
Private
hire drivers tell me they are concerned at the increase in the congestion
charge to £15 per day, and the hours that it covers. Is it possible for TfL to
investigate applying the congestion charge through operators of private hire
vehicles, like Uber, rather than directly on the precariously employed drivers
themselves?
The
congestion charge is not the ideal, long-term measure for managing traffic in
London, and exemptions can only go so far in making it less blunt. This is the
time to be developing plans to rapidly deliver smart, fair, privacy-friendly
road pricing, so that it can be in operation as our city recovers, controlling
congestion, reducing pollution and providing further resilience to TfL
finances. I would welcome an update on the current preparedness at TfL to
deliver smart, fair, privacy-friendly road pricing.
I’m glad
that you are taking actions to avoid gridlock and I’m especially glad to see
the scale of the emerging Streetspace plans. Delivering safe space for walking
and cycling has never been more crucial as we live with the ongoing threat of
coronavirus.
Yours
sincerely,
Caroline
Russell
Green
Party Member of the London Assembly
Saturday, 9 May 2020
Mapping a Just Transformation: The Plan
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Mapping a Just Transformation: The Plan
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Mapping a Just Transformation: The Plan
Hosted by Campaign against Climate Change trade union group, a series of film screenings will explore the need for radical transformation in society, as exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate and ecological crisis which has not gone away. The film showings and discussion will be an opportunity to map what this Just Transformation could look like. We start with The Plan, taking inspiration for today's Just Transformation from visionary manufacturing workers and trade unionists from the 1970s.
‘THE PLAN that came from the bottom up’ is a thought-provoking film on the extraordinary story of Lucas Aerospace engineers. Forty years ago they responded to the threat of redundancy with their own plan of action, developing alternatives to the military products their company made, including wind turbines and hybrid cars.
There will be a Q&A with speakers Steve Sprung, the film’s director, and Danielle Paffard from Green New Deal UK, talking about the forthcoming national Build Back Better campaign.
Discussion will start at 6.30pm, and we'll provide links for you to view the film (either the half hour version or the longer version) before. Register here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mapping-a-just-transformation-the-plan-tickets-104547548532
and we'll email you details for how to join.
Please join us for this discussion when the need for a Just Transformation has never been so urgent.
All welcome!
Date:
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - 18:30 to 19:30
Friday, 8 May 2020
Mugsborough Then & Now
Mugsborough Then & Now
📷The story of Robert Tressell and his book has been told and re-told by various authors, each account framed in accordance with their own perspective. His novel has also been the subject of academic scrutiny and literary criticism, but the approach adopted here is different. This new book focuses on the striking, not to say shocking parallels with modern day Britain, comparing Tressell’s descriptions of early 20th century Britain and with their 21st century counterparts.
Each subject is split into two parts, with the first section quoting examples from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and in the second part evidence based modern-day equivalents are introduced.
Wednesday, 6 May 2020
Tell Boris Johnson: we need to work with Europe
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Monday, 4 May 2020
Greens call for a new course on social care
Greens call for new
course on social care
Image credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Creative
Commons
The
UK government this week included deaths from coronavirus taking place outside
hospitals in its national figures for the first time. These figures therefore
now include deaths that have taken place in care homes. This came as it was
announced that there were 2,000 coronavirus deaths in UK care homes in a
single week in April.
Prominent
Greens were among the critics of the government’s response to the coronavirus
crisis in care. Jenny Jones – one of the two Green peers in the House of Lords
– said that care homes had been neglected in the government’s coronavirus
strategy. Writing in Left Foot Forward, Jones
called for a “National Care Service” to tackle the crisis in the care sector.
She wrote:
We need a national
care service that recognises the vital role that carers are playing by paying
them better.
We need a massive
injection of cash into the private care home sector in order to keep it going
for the coming year. We need to send out a clear message that the hospitals are
open for everyone who needs them.
Finally, we need to
recognise exceptional carers as the heroes they are. I think that the carers
and managers who are taking turns self-isolating at care homes are amazing and such
people need all the support we can give them.
The
call for a National Care Service was also shared by Jamie Osborn – a Green
Party City Councillor in Norwich. Also writing in Left Foot Forward, he criticised privatisation
of the care service:
we have a National Health
Service, funded by taxpayers as a universal right, but social care is
privatised or, for those who have assets of less than £23,000, it is the
responsibility of local councils.
He continued:
It’s time we had a
properly-funded, universal, free-at-the-point of delivery, National Care
Service.
The criticism of the status quo in
social care, and the response to the coronavirus crisis within it wasn’t just
confined to England though. Alison Johnstone – co-convener of the Scottish
Green Party’s parliamentary group – hit out at the Scottish Government’s
failure to increase testing in care homes.
Johnstone said:
The evidence shows
clearly that the regular testing of care workers and hospital staff will help
detect cases early, reduce the spread of the virus and give those workers the
protection they deserve.
The Scottish Government’s continued
refusal to commit to test these dedicated frontline health and care workers
when there is significant additional testing capacity available is baffling and
will severely hamper our ability to get a grip on this situation.
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