Oxfordshire against the cuts

I have had a number of emails from people looking to run as No Cuts people before profit candidates in Mays Local elections. Oxfordshire seems best placed to get people elected due to large numbers active in the no cuts campaigns. if you are interested, please drop me a line and i will put together interested residents. one of the best aspects of direct action, is the power to vote out Councillors who vote for cuts, think what a strong message we could give, by taking away all that they hold dear.. their Councillor allowance and prestige.

The Great March for the alternative to the Cuts

And they came in the hundreds of thousands,So many people it was impossible to film, or even see the start or the finish, so fast was the numbers... meeting at Waterloo east. the loyal band of Lewisham people before profit supporters, were joined by hundreds of new faces, at first it seemed we would be just 5, introducing each other i had to give up .. as every 5 minutes yet another train pulled in to Waterloo station with even more Lewisham people before profit people , many for the first time, taking direct action, by taking part in the march..With a huge range of Banners . John Hamilton had spent half the night making banners on poles, light to carry, but blowing in the wind, a colourful sight,with ever more people joining our group. The noise, the singing the sense of friendship was terrific, whilst Digby the dog, wearing a coat, People before profit, was a mini star, hundreds of photos taken, our message being seen across the country..2 nights before we had held our Cuts meeting in New Cross, to find people had arrived from Southall,Tower Hamlets, whilst 2 students had come from Hatfield, whilst a French reporter arrived from France.. it seems Lewisham is leading in ideas and vision the anti cuts agenda, We are looking to build the people before profit group nationwide, and put forward candidates for elections every where we can... It is times like these, you realise how important our group is, only Months ago we were on the streets marching against the Labour Partys Illegal war in Iraq, this time the nation is marching against the Conservatives and Lib Dems.. The political system clearly no longer represents the people.. Labour like our Goverment, is failing our people big time..Seeing a Labour Leader speak at the end of the march,just made me want to throw up.. it was Labour who failed to regulate the financial sector that caused the mess, in Lewisham, it is Labour Councillors voting through cuts to front line services, but protecting own interests and perks..
If Labour is really set to oppose to these cuts, they should urge all Labour Councils to refuse to follow Goverment lines, i am sure under European Law, we could argue, these Cuts are a breach of some european law...

Bellingham By-Election Result

So Labour the Local Party of Cuts has won a stunning victory in Bellingham, 51% of the vote makes alarming reading, on the door step, finding a local resident who said they would be voting Labour was near impossible, it seems the Labour voters,. support the cuts and with shame, blindly go into the polling stations, like Turkeys voting for christmas. The only good result was that the Lib Dems are no longer a power in Lewisham, this is the second local by_election they have had figures around the 300 mark. In Bellingham, they had a very good local candidate, with a solid record of service to Bellingham,In Better years this would have been an Easy Lib Dem Win.. and yet local people voted on mass to elect another yes to cuts voting.... Labour Councillor, who will be happy to close Librarys and Special needs centres, whilst paying out £6.5 million in consultant fees and paying senior Labour party councillors large sums in perks and allowances for being in the Cabinet.Ian Page, again a fantastic Candidate for Lewisham People before profit secured 12.5% of the vote on a clear no cuts agenda.. Lewisham residents need to wake up, whilst they still have services to defend. With the Lib Dems in freefall, they are clearly heading the way of the Irish Greens, who were wiped out in the Countrys General Election for supporting the unpopular Goverment.. This lead to Socialist and People before profit MPs being elected.. lets hope Lewisham follows the Irish Model.

Liz Taylor, The Great time we spent together

I have had the most amazing life, and spending time with Liz Taylor some 4 years ago, was unexpected, but great fun..i was taking her from Putney to Claridges Hotel, but having a bad back, she had decided i had the best car to get her to the hotel, her main concern was the fact, newspapers were reporting she had past away, so although ill, she felt she must face the world and prove the media reports wrong, for some 40 minutes, the Great Elizabeth Taylor flirted, gave an insight into a life, that was more than a Hollywood movie, and then out of the blue, decided she wanted to come back to my Home in New Cross for a cup of tea, deciding that i was offering much more fun than Claridges could offer, having writtern to the Evening Standard as part of a campaign to get her a gong, my letter was the letter of the week, the Standard turned it into a news item, and low and behold, she became a Dame, in my loo i have the Andy Warhol picture...whilst i have met a huge number of real A-Z stars, Liz Taylor, was fun, kind, down to earth, able to put any one at ease, amazingly short,Her work with Aids and her real acting talent,. will always live on, we shared the same Birthday, and the same Love of Purple..She is one real Star,The world with out her is a much darker place.

Peoples Supermarket For Lewisham, Deptford or New Cross?

I have had great response to the Idea of opening a peoples supermarket, along the lines of the Channel 4 tv show, but as Deptford is set to have a public meeting to get together a friends of Deptford High Street, it may be a good idea to add to the agenda for such a meeting. i will ad the venue details and agenda as it comes together, you may have your own thoughts about it..please ad your comments, ideas, or just email. with the huge March on Saturday through the streets of London, The By-Election this week in Bellingham,most of us active in the community are fully booked up, so public meeting will take place in April/May, with full details going out on the Lewisham People before profit website, and through our News Letter and this Blog..

Friends Of Deptford High street

With Deptford High street in need of a helping hand, after years of Labour Lewisham Neglect, some readers of my Blog have come up with the idea of a Group;Friends of Deptford High Street, this would not just bring together the large number of Community groups and active residents and traders in the area, but would reach out to former residents, and visitors across the globe, giving us a real email data base to lobby the Council on Planning issues, and to promote all that is great about Deptford, and much more.... In Mays local Elections, Lewisham People before profit put forward the idea, one of many ideas.. to build a cable car linking Convoy Wharf, Deptford High Street, and Canary wharf, Lewisham Council with its total lack of Vision or interest, said it was a terrible idea, but Boris Loved it, as did Greenwich Council, and from 2012 Greenwich residents, Not Deptfords, will be seeing and enjoying the rewards and benifit of Lewisham People Before Profits, Cable car in Action...Only 2 years ago Deptford High Street was voted the best in the UK, but as with all things in Labour Lewisham, the Council missed a trick, and the chance of building on this, together with the Arts, dance, Music and Maritime History, was ignored...Deptford has far greater potential than Borough Market...Should we set up this Group? Does Deptford Need another communty group? Will people who come to the meeting do anything?.

Lewisham Terminal ill Care. Why do we not have a support Group?

Out over the weekend in the Bellingham BY-Election, met insperational Woman, coping with Cancer and having to keep the family together as a single mum with 3 children, having lived with Cancer and seeing my last partner pass away, i was only to aware of the lack of support for people, but i had thought in this day and age, funding and support was out and gave access to people across South London. One of the tough parts of dealing with death, is losing your friends and family support, many just keep away, unsure how or what to say, or even to scared, almost as if Cancer can be caught like a common cold..We really need to get a support group going, if you are seeking help and support or have friends and family that need help, or you can give time to get this crucial service up and running, please email or call me..We have all been given up on by the political party system, we can only look after ourselfs. i hope lots of you out their,care to help me do this...

Tidemills School Deptford, Parents Battle to, Say No, starts again

It would seem the No Acadamy Campaign, at Tidemills school in Deptford will have to start all over again. Parents inform me Today, that the school head is seeking to start the process again, even though the No campaign won the first round.. This school is a very great asset to the wider community it should stay as it is, a Great Local School with excellent grades in its Ofstead report.. Please support and Join the campaign, the No Campaign will be adding to this story, with Back ground and Action plan...

Cameron Goes To War, But For Who..?

So, yet again another UK prime minister is taking the country to war. The word I have from senior conservative contacts is that Libya got the support of the Arabs in exchange for turning a blind eye to Bahrain and Saudi and other rotten leaderships.

It would seem they think a fair war is one that has our commercial interests at the centre. Less than one year ago, the Labour Party were Libya's best mates, selling crowd-control weapons without as much as a by your leave....

Yes, we need to stop people being killed en-mass by despot dictators around the globe. But if we really cared, we would have stepped in to protect the population of countries like Zimbabwe, where our country has a real connection. Instead we do nothing to protect the population because there is no commercial interest.

How can you win a war when the population is split and the leadership has called a ceasefire? This could last years, may never be won, and will cost us a bucket-load of cash at a time we are told we have no money.

Hundreds of our armed forces have been killed in Labours illegal war, whilst the MOD is seeing massive cuts in arms and man power...our new prime minister, like Blair before him, is set to go to war just to make his mark in History...

.. Who will be the real winners in this?

Lewisham Unions set to drop funding for the Labour Party

At Lewisham Trades Council meeting this week, Members voted to cease funding the Labour party, for failing to protect local services, and for making such savage cuts to services.George Hill Unite Chairman has writtern to the unions leadership calling on them to fund Councillors,Who vote for and campaign against the cuts.This is a national trend, across the UK, local branches are under huge presure from working members to stop funding the Labour party, and only fund politicians opposed to the cuts...Such as Lewisham People Before Profit, The Socialist Party and others..With a clear alternative to the cuts, the Labour Party clearly has lost the plot, not satisfied in bringing the country to its knees,by failing to regulate the financial sector, in its new love of greed, self interest and filling their own pockets.. it is carrying out Tory Policy with out as much as a by your leave...

Fight The Cuts, Get Ian Elected In Bellingham

Thursday 24th March is By-Election day in Bellingham Ward,Lewisham just 2 days before the National, March in London Against the cuts, What a great start to the march, to see Ian Page elected as the First Anti Cuts Elected Councillor in London..If any one can come and help, man polling stations, deliver news letters, call on voters... we can win this, we just need every one to come and help.

Housing Crises as Shelter reports within 10 years Social Housing will be unaffordable

At a key planning meeting this week, with by other Hat on, my position as a director of the RLA,( i get to meet all the big guns in Housing, and through this able to put forward and make national housing policy)The British Housing Federation, Shelter, Crises, rla,citizens advice bureau. I was shocked to discover that a report just published by Shelter states within 10 years we will have no affordable housing in the uk... The Goverment is seeking to turn the Housing market. like the NHS in to a free for all private market..with rents up, all new social tenants expected to pay increase of 80% rent for example a 1 bedroom flat will rise from £68 per week, to £150 per week plus... they are also putting forward article 4, this gives powers to councils to stop homes being let out to Students and others on HMO. at a time the goverment is saying on one hand, every one under 37 years old must share a room or flat. the other hand is helping Councils get the power to close down HMO homes, when residents object, this could see homes used by Nurses, fireman etc who may live in shared house, who come home at night, being seen as disturbing the other people in the street, giving them the power to close down the house..is this really about being fair?...Housing is such a big issue, and yet politically it is never high up the agenda, i hope i can help at national policy on supporting the roll and the case to build more Council Homes and save what we have, but with Labour supporting the Goverment on this.. we have little chance of doing any thing...What do you think?

Deptford Job Centre.. Back as Our Big Society

Local residents Horrah.... have moved in and turned the closed former Deptford Job centre on Deptford high street into a hive of communty action, it was always total madness to close the job centre at a time after 13 years of wasted Labour rule, Lewisham ended up with the largest number of young people without a job in the UK.It seems in Lewisham they no longer care. Deptford high street has been a national scandle the way Labour has allowed 11 betting shops to open, and failed to develop the areas arts and marine History into a key London tourist attraction. Lewisham people before profitput forward a cable car idea at the last elections, to boost jobs in the area, and to see the river given better public access, everyone thought it a bad idea in the Council, but Boris loved our idea and is running with it in Greenwich.. another great ideal lost, because we have a Council full of Labour People with no Vision and no skills, Deptford could be so fantastic, we have the arts, The Music, the fantastic people that give us all this wonderful sense of community, although i must admit, i would like to see more get of the sofa and take a more active roll in our Neighbourhood. At the Deptford Communty Forum, it was shocking the numbers of people present, happy to go to a meeting, but will never write a letter objecting to a planning application, go on a demo, or play any real active roll.

Bellingham By-Election Vote to close to Call as Ian Page gets message across to win..

Out in Bellingham Ward Lewisham, it is clear the anti cuts message and the years of community service given to Lewisham by Ian Page the Socialist/Lewisham People before profit candidate is paying off if we can get more people helping and getting out more flyers as well as speaking on the doorsteps,we can win here big.. what a boost it would be to the antui cuts movement, please get out and help... , after all does Lewisham need another Labour Councillor to vote for Cuts? they have 50 councillors already, and they all support the national cuts agenda, even though in Lewisham, Labour have wasted and mismanaged public funds and services on an epic scale.. glad to see my letters were published in South London Press, Mercury, 8/16 News paper and more to follow. Vote Labour and you get more cuts, Vote Ian and you get a guy elected who will show that the first big cut we need to make is in Cutting the Labour Councils Cabinet Gravy train and Steve Bullocks excessive pay.. cutting back or stopping the 6.5 million, this is Lewisham Council figures not mine, spend on Consultants would be a great start.. remember this mess was caused by a Labour Goverment full of greed and hunger for wealth and power, which by failing to regulate the financial sector or the banks, caused this mess, how can any one really vote Labour again..they sold out the poor, years ago...

Discuss and Plan the future of public services in New Cross London SE14

James Holland from Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance has organised a meeting from 7pm at the Woodpecker Hall on the Wood Pecker Estate New Cross SE14, on Monday April 11.The Topic is New Cross The future for public services...

The Cuts, a real financial crises, or political ideology-your questions answered

We have booked All Saints Communty Centre New Cross road New cross from 7pm on Thursday 24 March, same date as the Bellingham By-Election, in which we hope local people vote to elect a No Cuts Councillor such as our Candidate Ian Page.
The Meeting will be a chance for any one to drop in and ask any question or raise any concerns they have about the cuts. with the 3 main political groups and the national press all saying the cuts are a must.. are we really being given the truth? or more lies from the political elite? Spead the word.. will love to meet you all there.. All Saints Hall is on New Cross road, Bus Garage end..

National march against the cuts, 26 March

If you thought the anti war marches filled the streets, just wait until the real impact of the savage cuts start to bite. This national march through the streets of london, has been organised by the TUC, it will be a huge peaceful demo. please get your neighbours, your friends, all your family members to take part. Lots of feeder marches will be taking place across london. but Lewisham People before profit supporters will be meeting by the steps at the entrance to Waterloo East entrance...Bring home made banners and anything to make a noise..

Lewisham Betting Shop Planning Applications

What is it with Lewisham Council? are they really so rottern that they do not care about the impact of yet another gamberling venue in Deptford? why did they  agree this fresh application for  betting shop number 11 for Deptford High Street?Lewisham People before profit submitted a sound argument to object, along the lines of thous given by Southwark and Greenwich Labour councils, but Lewisham in its wisdom, did not even inform objectors of the meeting and just stamped it through.We have sent a letter of complaint demanding a response as to why we were not informed of the meeting, and to make sure we are able to attend the next big planning meeting on Convoy Wharf.

Bellingham By-Election Ian Page No Cuts Candidate set to Win

At last Ian Page is standing in the Bellingham by-election. A Socialist Alternative/Lewisham People before Profit candidate. A candidate we can trust. He could be elected on the 24th March.

Ian Page was possibly the best Councillor Lewisham ever had. For 15 years he worked tirelessly for the residents of Telegraph Hill ward, before tragically losing in last May's local elections. But Telegrah Hill's residents loss, is a great opportunity for the residents of Bellingham.

Ian will not just stand up to Labour cuts in the town hall, he will work hard day after day on behalf of Bellingham Ward. Having been there today, it was clear local people are fed up, let down by a Labour council that will close libraries and children's centres, but are not willing to cut the pay of staff at the top.

Lewisham Labour council spent 6.5million on consultants last year, but will close libraries that cost only £108.000 a year to run. Why don't they cut the consultants fees?

The Lib Dem vote is going down the pan fast...a party that makes promise after promise and then lies in order to win power can not expect the electorate to support it. Look at the Greens in Ireland, they were wiped out in the country's general election for supporting such an unpopular government. The same fate awaits the Lib Dems..

But we must not forget the mess we are in was caused by a Labour government seduced by greed and wealth, which allowed the banks to rob us all blind because they failed to regulate the markets.

Lewisham has the highest youth unemployment in the UK, and this is after 13 years of Labour Goverment and a solidly Labour Council. Hopefully Bellingham, like the rest of Lewisham, will realise that the Labour party gave up on the poor years ago... Roll on more by-elections so we can scare the ruling politicians big time.

Vote for Anti Cuts councillors. If they see the public is set to kick them out big time, we can make them Make cuts to the rich, not the poor.