Showing posts with label Euro election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Euro election. Show all posts

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Brent Labour councillor won't vote Labour in Euro election


Brent Labour councillor Claudia Hector has said she will not vote Labour in the European elections on May 22nd because of Labour's lack of concern over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The TTIP would open up public services to privatisation and un dermine workers' rights. In a Twitter exchange Cllr Hector expressed frustration at Labour Mep Calude Moraes' failure to engage on the issue:

  1. Will you be supporting Andy Burnham's wish that the NHS be protected from the TTIP Treaty, as part of the euro platform?
  2. You have not replied to my enquiry about TTIP. Is that because of ignorance or lack of interest?
  3. Still no reply. I will not be voting Labour in Euro lctn, this is the greatest threat to our freedom in generations.
  4. From the email I got from Claude Moraes it's clear he can't see the TTIP danger
 At the Green Party's Spring Conference, leader Natalie Bennett had this to say about the TTIP:
TTIP is a huge threat to hard-fought-standards for the quality and safety of our food, the sources of our energy and our privacy and risks undoing decades worth of EU progress on issues like worker’s rights.”
Bennett stated that the proposed deal threatened to “blow apart the power of our democratic decision making.” She raised the spectre of the Edward Snowden revelations to demonstrate that the US state was “profoundly untrustworthy”.

It’s not surprising, really, when we hear Lib Dems trumpeting the proposed US-EU free trade deal as some kind of economic saviour. The Lib Dems are the lapdogs of corporate Europe, while the Tories are its war horses. In their support for the trade deal, the Lib Dems are reiterating the propaganda of multinational companies interested only in swallowing up new markets, consuming new societies whole. 

Let’s make no mistake, the proposed free trade deal is a huge threat to hard-fought-for standards for the quality and safety of our food, the sources of our energy, workers’ rights and our privacy. One of the great contributions of the EU is to set a foundation of these standards – not good enough, not high enough – but a start. The proposed free trade deal is a supertanker of dynamite that would blow those foundations apart.
And more, it would blow apart the power of our democratic decision making. The deal provides corporations with new rights to sue the Government for legislating in the public interest – that’s definitely not acting for the common good. 

The banking lobby is so happy with the financial services proposals it has said that the text could have come straight from its own brochure – that’s acting in the interests of the 1%, not the common good.

And there’s more. It’s a deal being proposed with a state that the bravery of Edward Snowden demonstrated is profoundly untrustworthy. Yet there’s no openness – no democracy – about the negotiations: the mandate that the EU Council gave to the Commission is still classified as ‘secret’.


Sunday 4 May 2014

Register by Tuesday May 6th to vote on May 22nd


There is still time to register to vote in the vital Euro and local elections on May 22nd. To be included in the Register you must be at least 17 years old and a citizen of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, a Commonwealth country, a British Overseas Territory or any European Union state. Print out the form below and take it to Brent Civic Centre.

Monday 8 June 2009

SOLID VOTE FOR GREENS IN BRENT

The Green Party came a good 4th in the Euro election in Brent out-polling UKIP and with four times the vote of the BNP.

The big surprise in the election was the large vote achieved by Jan Jananayagam (Independent) who campaigned on a human rights platform and is UK spokesperson for 'Tamils Against Genocide'. She had an energetic young team who were very active in the borough.

Public anger over expenses was clearly apparent from the comments on some of the ballot forms which accused all politicans of being crooks and a number of ballot forms that said NO to all candidates or stated 'None of the above'.

The Greens ran an effective campaign and the strength in some localities suggests that with hard work we could achieve our first Green councillors in the local election next year.

Provisional results, taken down by hand at the count are:

BRENT
Labour 15,583
Conservative 11,940
Lib Dem 11,370
Greens 5,007
Jan Jananayagam (Tamil Supporting Independent) 4,867
UKIP 3,240
Christian Alliance 1,974
BNP 1,250
Rejected votes 621
Turnout: 32.1%

Harrow
Conservative 20,793
Labour 12,135
Jan Jananayagam 6,856
Lib Dem 6,054
UKIP 5,837
Green 4,181
BNP 1,835
Christian Alliance 1,558
Rejected votes 516
Turnout: 38.49%