Friday 30 August 2013

We Care Lewisham & Greenwich Food Bank @Advice centre New Cross London

We Care food Bank and Advice Centre
467 New Cross road Deptford SE14 6TA
www.lewishamfoodbank.com
Open 11am-2pm Monday -Saturday

Office Telephone 0207 231 0535 Office hours


We Bank with Co-Op Lewisham

Sort Code 08 92 99

Account number 65659328



We are presently seeking to raise the £5000 we need in order to get charity status, So Regular monthly donations are very much needed.
We Care gets no state funding and is Sponsored by Housemartins Estate agents and the Charity Furniture/Cloths/Bric Brac shop we run on same site as Food Bank.

Our advice centre works by appointment as we were so busy prior to this with just walk in system we had to change.

We are supported by food from fareshare which we buy and most of our helpers and staff are members or supporters of the new community movement People Before Profit.

We are the only food bank in the UK that has a pet section .

We welcome everyone in need of Food Aid and do not take vouchers or turn people away due to workfare refusal, Sanctions etc.



Thursday 29 August 2013

Economy it is so simply to understand Establishment only seeks to mislead you. Read This:Gods of Money

Ok we are in a mess, but are WE? to get the best insight into how we are ruled and what goes on in Goverment and Banks, read the amazing book ;Gods of Money. a must read, easy to follow and with well researched papers to help you win any Economic argument, i had thought this would be heavy going, but spent my summer reading this, truly shocking but easy and interesting to read, if you like me are starting to question what you are being fed through main stream media and why, and you want to understand the establishment and big business agenda, then get this book.yet to read a book better writtern so clearly and with such fantastic research to back everything up.

I am presently on twitter so if you share my polictics you can follow me on twitter@Raywoolford.

www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk

Elephant & Castle SE1 regeneration latest planning Update from Local residents and community perspective as of August 2013

Here and Now

Aug 24, 2013 05:42 pm

Last week German national newspaper Die Welt featured this picture of the Heygate as a symbol of Britain’s social decline and the “Krieg der Reichen gegen die Armen” - the war of the rich against the poor.
By coincidence Lend Lease have just submitted a planning application featuring the same image but with a more promising message: change and transformation - Here and Now . Lend Lease were no doubt inspired by the prominent piece of graffiti either side of the banner, and it must also know that in Latin Here and Now means ‘hic et nunc’ - the immediate satisfaction of desire according to Wikipedia. Lend Lease’s desire for profit is being satisfied pretty immediately: it expects to draw its first profit from the E&C development in 2016, while the Heygate development as a whole is not due to be completed until 2025. Globally it reported a profit of £320m ($553 AUD) in its annual report last week.

Here and Now 2

Chatelaine House on the Walworth road is yet another proposed development in the Elephant & Castle opportunity area that doesn’t fulfill affordable housing requirements. The planning application is for 54 homes plus 5,000m2 of shops, offices and restaurants. There will be only 14 ‘affordable’ units - 10 social rented and 4 intermediate, equating to around 25% of the total number of new homes. The target date for the planning decision was the end of this month. There is no officer’s report yet on the application, so it is not clear whether the social rented units will be at council rent levels or the new so-called ‘affordable’ rents of up to 80% market.
The viability assessment for the Chatelaine House development was prepared by ‘Upside London’, a consultancy formed just a year ago with the motto ‘Making Development Viable’. The company doesn’t have a website yet, so we can’t see whether it features images of developers wheeling away barrows laden with cash. Upside London was joined by dozens of other property developers, estate agents and public sector representatives at a recent conference on achieving viable developments in London. Looking at its title “Very taxing: Is viability vanishing as charges and levies hit London development?” it would seem that all participants think that London is very lucky to be getting any affordable housing at all.

Come on Eileen!

The latest in the never-ending round of consultation about Eileen House ended yesterday. The original application was made in Feb 2009 and was rejected for having no social rented housing and not enough shared-ownership housing. The updated application is worse: it still has no social rented housing, it has reduced the shared-ownership units by 15 units to 65, and has increased the private units by the same number from 255 to 270.
Keep up to date on Housing and People Before Profit actions by following on twitter@Raywoolford

Friday 23 August 2013

Lewisham Hospital Update & Minister HUNT abuse of Tax payers cash to fight the people & the court ruling

I am not alone in being shocked at the depths this Goverment will go to do what it wants and to hell with the people it is elected to serve.
This week Health Minister  Hunt has put in an appeal using tax payers money in the hope he can fight the people of lewisham and the Courts which stated he and his Goverment had acted unlawfully with the plans for closure at Lewisham Hospital.
Lewisham residents raised the money to fight our case in the court, pensioners and the homeless giving what little they had, whilst this Goverment will have unlimited amounts of our cash to take us to the cleaners, and do not think Labour is any better in this saga, it was the Labour PFI deals signed  during the last Labour Goverment that lead to the area health trust going bust. Labour fought hard to keep this quiet, but whilst at the start of the Save the Hospital Campaign People Before Profit was out voted , as the months have gone on People before Profit and our opposition to PFI deals and its impact of this on the NHS has started to win through and our party members have played a very large part in this amazing community campaign the people will fight on, we will win this campaign.
Labour voters may wish to ask there Labour MP and local Labour Councillors why the Labour Party refuse tom promise that if they win in 2015, they would scrap these closure plans, this would lead to the saving of the Hospital, but last weekm Shadow Labour Health Minister said that Labour would make MORe cuts to welfare than the Conservatives and WOULD not save Lewisham Hospital.
In 2014 it is almost certain that candidates will run against Labour on a Save our Hospital Ticket, If Labour Voters support People Before Profit and the Save our Hospital candidates and beat Labour, Labour MPs will be under huge pressure to back the Hospital with a pledge to save it in Goverment. If Labour Party still refuse to back Save our Hospital Louise Irvine Chair of save Lewisham Hospital campaign will come under huge pressure to stand for the Deptford Westminster seat, with other key Hospital Campaigners going for Heidi and Jims Lewisham East and West Seats.
Such is the Anger at Labour and Conservative plans for Privatisation and Cuts to the NHS, Lewisham Could break the political Mold, sending People Before profit People into run the Council, and 3 Save our Hospital MPS to Westminster to oppose privatisation and to show all 3 politrical groups that to close will lead to local Hospital Campaigners evicted them from Westminster on public love for the NHS and anger at Establishment robbery.

You can Follow me these days on twitter@Raywoolford

Please sign the number 10 petition calling for ban on PFI deals on PB4Pm website and tweet, Blog widely thank you.
www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk

Next People Before Profit Meeting Monday 2 September at 7.15pm Sayers Court tenants hall Evelyn Street Deptford. All welcome.




National bedroom tax day of Action Saturday 24th Lewisham People Before Profit Events

As part of the National day of Protest against the bedroom tax, People before Profit members spent Saturday collecting signatures across the whole of Lewisham Borough, calling for Labour Lewisham not to evict our neighbours to poor to pay and people sanctioned and in arrrears as a direct result of ATOS.
PBP have been carrying out the petition across Greenwich and Lewisham for months and if you do not see us, you can sign Monday-Saturday 11-2pm at the we Care Food Bank 467 New Cross Road Deptford.
Join the Big Sleep out, Many of our Candidates selected to run for the Council elections in 2014, From 8pm even in the rain People Before Profit members lead by Barbara Raymond the Countrys oldest and most active Community campaigner spend the night sleeping  on the steps of Catford Town Hall .
Nationally we are also calling on the Labour Party to Scrap this tax in 2015,  But seems Labour party say they oppose the Bed Tax, but refuse to ban if the win the 2015 Generasl election, insuring that People Before Profit has to stand as many candidates as we can everywhere to stop this tax and the worst of the privatisation and cuts agenda.
Next Group meeting open to all is Monday 2 September 7.15 pm Sayers Court Room, 347 Evelyn Street Deptford.Hope you can come and join us. Angry? it is time to join your neighbours and fight back.
www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk

ATOS Welfare Sanctions and total abuse of the welfare aims and objectives. Media Ignoring ATOS neglect of duty

It is an International scandle that the poorest people in the uk are totally dependent on income from ATOS a private company paid fast sums of public tax payers money not to pay out welfare payments.
At the We Care Food bank and the Deptford advice centre run by People before Profit supporters we are disgusted at the numbers of disabled who even with sick notes from Doctors and Hospital consultants are having payments stopped for months at a time. One client unable to walk with a 10 year old Daughter had her money stopped on 28 December as she was expected to go to ATOS in Wembley for a medical test, even though she was unable to walk and had letters from Hospital and Doctors ATOS stopped her payments, last month due to the fact she is disabled and with no income her 10 year old daughter has been taken into care because she having no money, is unable to feed her child. I have spent 3 days almost constantly on the phones seeking to sort this. you will be stunned but i fear not surprised to discover that ATOS have sent her Hospital and doctors reports to own medical team for assesment, i was alarmed to discover that there is no time frame, ATOS can respond when ever. This is a total scandle, at every level of Goverment officials must respond within a given/set time frame, except if you are ATOS and dealing with the people at the very bottom. Getting no luck from ATOS, i contacted Belfast for emergency hardship payment, but this was refused on grounds, as she had not been approved for welfare from ATOs she could not get a hardship loan until approved , almost 8 months with no money to buy food, transport costs, bills or rent as all are linked.ATOS still refuse to confirm when or what they will do with her case. I have this week sort to get a further appointment with ATOS has this woman is so desperate and hope to get a date, the great people at People Before Profit will pay for a private ambulance to carry her from her sick bed to wembley to prove as per Hospital Consultants and Doctors have stated she is to sick to work. We have set up 2 days a week when she can see her Daughter whilst this scandle goes on unreported by main stream media and neglected by a Labour Party to scared to be seen as a party of the POOR for fear of losing votes to UKIP.

 How have we got to this position? I have so many people like this i am helping through the We Care food Bank and Advice Centre on New Cross Road Deptford that it takes all my time. We have no public funding and depending on our charity shop and Housemartins to pay our huge costs, i have today launched a new campaign group on Linkedin called We Care Food Bank Independent network to link all groups dealing with this sector to form a national network campaign across the globe to raise public awareness and to lobby Goverments on impact of policy on poor and Disabled.
Would welcome you to join the Network at Linkedin;

 You can follow me on twitter @Raywoolford

You can make a donation to help with our work at the Co-Op bank Lewisham ; We Care Food Banks account; Sort Code 08 92 99 Account number 65659328


Monday 19 August 2013

Privatisation of the NHS .Full details on the USA/EU Free trade agreement to distroy NHS

The real story behind the NHS changes: The US/EU Free Trade Agreement

The NHS changes have been both promoted and fought as a national issue. However, they are actually part of the preparation for a corporate-interest US/EU Free Trade Agreement. David Cameron has flagged[i] this trade deal, due to be formally launched in the spring, as his priority in his chairing of the G8 this year[ii].
Even though the NHS changes have at this point been fixed in the complex legislative framework of the Health and Social Care Bill, the relationship to this wider international investment context has still not emerged as public information. What opportunities does knowledge of this background provide?
I have been looking at international trade agreement issues for about 12 years[iii].  Outside of big business, the small amount of UK interest in international trade agreements has tended to focus on the effects on developing countries, whereas I have focussed more on the effects on people in the UK.
I attend EU Trade Commission civil society dialogue meetings in Brussels where some information is given out, with the opportunity to ask questions. The other ‘civil society’ attendees are overwhelmingly business group representatives.
In a 2010 civil society dialogue meeting Trade Commission personnel flagged the intention to push forward a US/EU Free Trade Agreement.
In fact transatlantic integration has been a priority since 2007[iv] when a Transatlantic Economic Council was set up for ongoing work and six monthly progress reporting. It was left off the public agenda for a period because of the banking crisis.  Financial service liberalisation, the primary cause of the banking crisis, is a major part of this trade agreement.
In the 2010 civil society dialogue meeting I’ve referred to, the Trade Commission admitted:
  •  That while it would normally not be possible to get this agreement through, the economic crisis would now actually be used to push through the agreement as quickly as possible[v].
  • That the important preparatory process would be regulatory ‘harmonisation’ before the launch of negotiations
  • That the first thing to be ‘harmonised’ would be health
Since then we have had the Health and Social Care Bill in the UK, preparing the sector for transnational health investors.
Liberalisation changes are often in a two-step mode. In the UK, the establishment of privatised GP consortia is being encouraged. In this segmented, privatised format, businesses can easily be sold to investors[vi]. In such two-step processes, the end game is obscured.
Although the focus of this paper is health, some background explanation of the international trade agenda is necessary.
Firstly ‘trade’, which goes on all the time anyway, is not the same as ‘trade agreements’, which are effectively irreversible commitments made at the level of international law, i.e. beyond changes at the level of the UK government or the EU.
Trade agreements are negotiated by governments but on behalf of corporations, and in the interests of transnational corporations.
Although the pretence is maintained that ‘trade’ is primarily about goods[vii], most EU and UK trade is in ‘services’, in which financial services and investment play a major part.
The trade agenda is about liberalising. While liberalising trade-in-goods is about countries reducing at-the-border taxes, when countries liberalise a service sector they open it to transnational investors. (The UK always does this anyway, unilaterally, outside of any agreements).
When countries commit services to international trade agreements, the liberalisation of those services is then locked in i.e. a commitment to keep the service open to transnational investors.
With aspects of public services privatised, either via privatised contracting or sell-offs, the privatisations underpinning the liberalisations also become irreversible.
The categories of ‘trade-in-services’ are all-encompassing, but the financial services industry is a major force for the liberalisation of services. The City of London[viii], made up of transnational financial service corporations, is the main driver of commercial policy within the EU and of EU external trade policy.
In the UK, City of London financial services dominate policy-making to ensure that national policy both fits with that wider liberalisation agenda and provides an international model for it.
For financial services, the transforming of the NHS is an exemplary model of how to turn a globally-respected universal health service into a cash cow for transnational investors.
Trade-in-services trade commitments involve states giving transnational corporations rights to come in and operate and to keep operating, without limits on their activities or on the number of transnational corporations that enter the sector[ix], with rights to the same or better treatment than that which national companies receive (including any subsidies)[x], and rights to sue the government in an international jurisdiction if there is any attempt, by any level of government, to limit  those rights or to introduce any regulation which might, even  incidentally, limit corporations’ expected future profits[xi].
As corporate rights are thus increased via trade commitments, the rights of governments to control them are correspondingly diminished and democratic control over the activities of corporations is forfeited.
When applied to health, this means the whole emphasis of health care changes. The rights of transnational corporations become the priority and health becomes primarily a trade issue.
Trade agreements are usually conducted very secretly but David Cameron, led by the financial service industry, has emphasised the US/EU Free Trade Agreement – though he hasn’t spelt out what it involves. It is also being promoted by ‘business leaders’, such as CEOs of banks[xii].
Yet despite the front page report of the Prime Minister’s speech and his focus on this trade agreement, the media, including the publicly funded media, have failed to analyse or question the implications of it or indeed what it has meant so far for the NHS.
There are as yet no organised critical voices to take this up.
Health is just the starting point. Regulatory ‘harmonisation’ with the US will be much broader.
For instance, until now the EU has resisted the importation of genetically modified human foodstuff and seeds (GMOs) which are the norm in the US. A push for a change in EU regulation on GMOs, for ‘harmonisation’ with the US, is inevitable[xiii].
Another obvious target for ‘harmonisation’ is the European public broadcasting model. The US media model is overwhelmingly corporate with public broadcasting marginalised. Recent events undermining public trust in the BBC have increased its vulnerability to calls to narrow its activities in favour of private media.  At this point, the EU Commission is proposing a ‘harmonisation’ of media laws across the EU, monitored by the Commission[xiv], an ominous start.
A major aspect of the ongoing work of the weighty Transatlantic Economic Council, headed by the top-level US Trade Representative and the EU Trade Commissioner, is to work pre-emptively with regulators to ensure that any new regulation takes account of the intended trade deal, so it is ready ‘harmonised’.
With the UK taking the lead in this trade agreement, albeit behind the scenes, and with the information from the Trade Commission two years ago about harmonising health, we can assume that the Health and Social Care Bill was prepared in this way,  yet without public information to this effect. The debate on the passage of the Bill was not properly informed.
The Trade Commission is the most heavyweight part of the EU Commission and its work is driven to a great extent by financial services based in the City of London. Yet neither the existence of this part of the Commission, nor what its bureaucrats are signing us up to in free trade agreements[xv], are mentioned in current UK discussions on the EU and the terms of UK membership. Without public knowledge of this major function of the EU, any referendum would be misinformed.
The failure of the media to provide this information is partly due to the fact that there is so little knowledge of the trade agenda among reporters except those who are complicit, even among BBC senior economics reporters.

Summary and suggested action

-          It is in health that the effects of ‘harmonising’, towards this Free Trade Agreement, are already manifest. The fact that the NHS has been prepared for transnational investors as part of a planned US/EU free trade agreement should be made public.
-          The similar threat to other areas should also be public.
-          The activities of the EU Trade Commission on our behalf should be an important part of the debate about EU membership.
-          There is a job to be done on disseminating information and demanding reporting and analysis of the implications of the US/EU Free Trade Agreement, so that it is not just the perspective of transnational capital that is being presented. (The BBC has a Business Unit presenting this perspective but has no such unit for workers or public service users). The nationwide concern about the NHS and established networks of concern could be the means for a strong, clear and concerted public voice on this.
-          The juggernaut of the trade deal backed by business voice propaganda is unlikely to be questioned otherwise.
-          The lack of public information on this broader context of the NHS changes is grounds for the Health and Social Care Bill to be repealed. The Opposition Labour Party needs to call for this.
Raising the issue in relation to health would support information-seeking etc. for other areas
Linda Kaucher, Researcher on international trade

[i] The Guardian, front page 1.1.13
[ii] The UK has the presidency of the G8 this year. The annual meeting will be In Northern Ireland in June. The G8 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union is represented by the president of the European Commission and the leader of the country that has European Union presidency, which is Ireland for Jan –June 2013. This will be a united front in promoting the trade deal, though the FTA is not technically in the hands of the G8 institution.
[iii] When the World Trade Organisation Doha Development Agenda Round, launched in 2001, stalled in subsequent years, the EU switched in 2005 from the multilateral possibilities of the WTO to a program of bilateral and regional trade agreements. An essential difference between the WTO round, which often saw globalised protests, and bilaterals, is that the latter are inherently more secretive. In fact texts and negotiations are secret – at least to the public on whose behalf they are being negotiated – until the deals are completed. NGO Corporate Europe Observatory is currently taking legal action against the Commission for withholding information on the EU/India Free trade Agreement that was made available to business.
[iv] http://www.eurunion.org/partner/summit/20070430sum.htm See the Framework for Advancing Transatlantic Economic Integration between the European Union and the United States of America. The 2008 report has some mention of the work of the Transatlantic Economic Council. The 2009 report doesn’t. The 2010 report reasserts the role of the TEC, with a focus on ‘jobs’.
[v] Trade spin unfailingly presents further liberalisation as the answer to whatever is perceived as the current problem. The Doha deal was put forward consecutively as the answer to global terrorism (after 9/11), to climate change, and to the international financial crisis. ‘Jobs’ is the favoured current spin.
[vii] Coalition Secretary of State for business, Vince Cable particularly maintains the impression that ‘trade’ is about the UK selling widgets overseas, whereas Peter Mandelson in that position used a different strategy to deter attention from trade-in-services and effects in the UK, refocusing trade discussions onto developing countries.
[viii] The City of London Corporation joined with International Financial Services London, the previous financial services lobbying institution, to form TheCityUK in June 2010. At that time, the third partner was UK Trade and Industry, a UK government unit, attached to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and to the Department for International Development (DfID). Thus business and a UK government unit were organisationally joined.  This was quickly dropped and now senior representatives of government departments attend TheCityUK board meetings, including on international trade, as ‘observers’. For useful reading on the City of London see the ‘Griffin’ chapter in ‘Treasure Islands’ by Nick Shaxson, and TheCityUK website
[ix] This is the Market Access rule in trade-in-services agreements
[x] This is the National Treatment rule of trade-in-services agreements
[xi] This limiting of corporate profits, including expected future profits, is called ‘expropriation’. The provision for corporations to sue governments in trade disputes is called ‘investor protection’. The EU has recently introduced ‘investor protection’ into the bilateral trade deals it is currently negotiating with Canada, India, and Singapore. The experience where it has been included in other trade deals such as in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), between the US, Canada, and Mexico is that it is likely to result in either very big payouts by governments to corporations or to have a chilling effect on proposed legislation e.g. social or environmental legislation. See Corporate Europe Observatory’s downloadable document on the investor protection ‘industry’ called ‘Profiting from Injustice’.
[xii] Letter to the Financial Times 18th January signed by CEOs of 12 transnational corporations.
State of play in EU: 26 genetically engineered crops are currently being considered for approval in the European Union.19 out of these 26 are genetically engineered to be tolerant to herbicides.
[xiv] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac20da6e-63d4-11e2-af8c-00144feab49a.html#axzz2Ipm6XryQ
[xv] The EU has now either completed, is negotiating or is ‘scoping’ bilateral or regional trade deals with much of the world. Of particular importance is the planned EU/India FTA. The Trade Commission admits this is essentially a UK deal and that the single demand India is making is for Indian firms to be able to supply cheap labour into the EU (mainly UK). This is called Mode 4 in trade terms. In 2011 the Trade Union Congress voted unanimously for the TUC bureaucracy to publicise and oppose this FTA. However the TUC bureaucracy has failed to implement this directive of the Congress. On 21st Jan 2013 in Brussels the Trade Commission refused to discuss if there are any numerical limits because it has agreed with Member States (though actually the UK government) not to. Yet it is workers in the UK who will be primarily affected.
Please sign the petition calling to an end to PFI agreements on www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk website and spread the word, you can follow me these days on twitter@Raywoolford

Local Food Bank Donations; Lewisham & Greenwich Borough food Bank

We Care run Independent Food Banks and Advice centres in south east London with a model that is being copied across the UK. We are not funded by State or business interests and buy food via fareshare and are supported by members of People Before Profit.
We presently give our around 1000 food parcels a month and have a very busy community advice centre joined to our Food bank that opens 6 days a week , as does our Charitie furniture and cloths shop.
We constantly need Furniture, cloths and funds to buy food, pay utility bills and our rent and rates. Please make a regular monthly donation. £35 buys a cloths rail that with donated cloths can produce £1000 per year in income.
We Care Food Bank Account is with Lewisham Co-Op
Sort Code 08 92 99
Account number 65659328


We are open 11am-2pm Monday-Saturday

467 New cross road Deptford Se14 6TA

Office line open 9am-2pm Monday -Saturday ;0207 231 0535

www.Lewishamfoodbank.com

Bedroom Tax Campaign National Day of Action Sat 24 August; Lewisham event sign our Petition /join the sleep out.

As part of the National day of protest against the Bedroom Tax, Lewisham People before Profit will be leading the campaign in this area, with our petition seeking more people to sign across the whole borough already  with thousands of people having signed, we will present at Septembers full Council meeting, calling on Labour Council leadership to support People Before Profits call that people to poor to pay the Bedroom tax, will not be evicted, as part of this, we are holding a sleep out at Lewisham Town Hall Catford from 8pm Saturday night. Bring beds.Sleeping bags, if you can help during the day with petitions, or can join us at the Town Hall you would be most welcome; www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk
Lewisham & Greenwich People before Profit community activists will be running local Candidates in next Mays local Elections, with no evictions for bedroom tax onme of our key election issues. Please support our candidates by Voting People before Profit.
You can keep up to date on this with twitter by following me; @Raywoolford

Friday 16 August 2013

Diary of a food Bank worker 3. August 2013.

Whilst we continue to see ever increasing numbers of people and pets come through our charitie shop doors for the We Care food bank with around 1000 food parcels given out every month, it makes my blood boil the number of times shop and food bank helpers get handbags and personal phones stolen, these are amazing people doing a horrible job in difficult times and they do not and should not be victims of crime, last week we had 2 newly donated televisions stolen, we sell funiture cloths books and bric brac and alm ost everything you could need, at very low prices and give stuff to people in real need .
Our advice centre is seeing huge number of evictions caused by the new housing cap, Landlords are evicting  tenants only to aware that due to cuts to legal aid, people on low income cannot afford the £80 it costs to defend an illegal eviction, at the food Bank we are giving £80 a time to help fight this injustice, but have to wait months until a court date and winning back our £80.
We get no public money and this project is costing a fortune. thankfully Housemartins Estate Agents bail us out every week and pay our bills as being in a poor area our donations are tiny for the huge numbers we help.
The advice centre is open 11-2pm 6 days a week and works by appointment, this week i worked a solid week beyound these hours to keep on top of the work load whilst seeking to hold together my own full time job, help from people with skills of case work would be a huge help, it is extremly rewarding to help people and to be fighting both Goverment and in Lewisham our very badly run labour council.
Channel 4 has 2 film projects on the go and is looking for people on Zero hours contracts to be willing to talk about it on/off screen please email or tweet me.
Much media coverage has been about the blog A girl called Jack who can make a meal for 29pence, whilst it is amazing she can do this, i am worried that Goverment will use this as yet another example of people being given to much benefit when these examples show people can live on a 29 pence meal. we cannot trust either our present Goverment or the Labour party. thank goodness in south London we have People before Profit fighting the local elections in 2014.
The We Care food bank feeds any one in need of Food aid that lives anywhere in Greenwich or Lewisham Borough.
We are open 11-2 Monday to Saturday and you need prove of address plus if you can afford it a £1,
467 New Crossc Road Deptford SE14 6TA . 0207 231 0535 9am-2pm Monday to Saturday.

Can you Sponsor a cloths rail? A rail costs just £35. but when full of donated cloths can produce £1000 a year to pay towards our amazing work, how many times do you give money with no ideac what happens to it? this Donation of just £35 brings money every week into the food bank going a massive way further than £35 given to anyone else if you can donate a small monthly amount via your bank this would be a huge help.
We Care food Bank, bank with the Co-Op
Sort code 08 92 99
Account number 65659328
You can keep up to date by following me on twitter @Raywoolford

Bedroom Tax the Lies the Goverment tell. Read this update August 2013


The Government’s justification for its controversial “bedroom tax” has been debunked by new figures showing that up to 96 per cent of those affected have, in effect, nowhere to move.

The figures published today in The Independentexpose the false argument behind ministerial attempts to spin the move as ending the  “spare-room subsidy”, and confirm campaigners’ claims that it merely penalises poor people.
The policy means that tenants have their housing benefit reduced by 14 per cent if they have one spare bedroom, and 25 per cent if they have two or more spare bedrooms.
Yet more than 19 out of 20 families  hit by the bedroom tax are trapped in their larger homes because there is nowhere smaller within the local social housing stock to take them. This is shown by figures provided by councils in response to Freedom of Information requests by the Labour Party.
For the 38 councils that provided full data, 99,079 families are expected to be affected by the bedroom tax, but only 3,803 one and two-bedroom social housing properties are available – just 3.8 per cent of the homes required to rehouse the families who are hit.
Another 26 councils who responded said they expected a total of 45,669 families to be affected, but were unable to say how many smaller properties were available in their area.
Liam Byrne, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “The big lie behind this Government’s spiteful bedroom tax is now plain for all to see. Ministers like to claim it’s not a tax, but the truth is more than 96 per cent of those hit have nowhere to move to.
“This hated tax is trapping thousands of families, forcing vulnerable people to food banks and loan sharks, and there is now a serious danger it could end up costing Britain more than it saves as tenants are forced to go homeless or move into the expensive private rented sector. David Cameron’s bedroom tax is the worst possible combination of cruelty and incompetence. He should drop it now.”
The situation is affecting local authorities around the country. In Birmingham, 13,557 households are affected by the bedroom tax, but just 368 one and two-bedroom properties are currently unoccupied. In Cornwall, meanwhile, there are just 65 one and two-bedroom homes and more than 3,300 people eligible to be charged for under-occupancy.
Steve Turner, executive director for policy at Unite, said: “These figures show beyond any doubt that Iain Duncan Smith has been misleading the public. He tried to spin the bedroom tax as a way of managing housing stock, but in fact it is a cruel and callous attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.”
“The evidence now overwhelmingly shows that the Government has made a grave mistake with this policy. They must abandon it now before more lives are destroyed.”
In Sefton, Merseyside, more than 3,600 people were competing for 18 available one and two-bedroom properties at the time of the FOI. Kevin Appleton, income manager at One Vision Housing, which manages Sefton Council’s waiting list, said that the situation was now even more stark.
“As of today we’ve got 8,360 people on the waiting list. Of these, 4,859 want one-bedroom homes and on this week’s adverts we had just six available. It’s making life very hard for people whose lives were hard anyway. The demand for three-bed properties has fallen through the floor,” he said.
Louise Harding, head of tenant services at the Coast and Country Housing association in Redcar, said in one of their worst-hit areas there were 53 three-bedroom properties empty and queues of people desperate to downsize. “It’s appalling,” she said. “We’ve got 1,100 people wanting to downsize to a one-bedroom property and on average we only have around 30 available every year. At this rate it will take 37 years for all those people to get one-bedroom homes. The iniquity of it is shocking; this about money-making.”
More than half of those affected by the policy have a disability – and campaigners say they will appeal against last week’s High Court decision that it did not discriminate against disabled people, who often need an extra room in which to sleep alone. 
The Government announced last Tuesday that it would increase the emergency funds available for those affected by increased housing costs by £35m. But the handouts, known as discretionary housing payments, are a fraction of the millions needed to cover people’s shortfall in rent.
The chief executive of Citizens Advice, Gillian Guy, said: “Discretionary housing payments are worth only a small fraction of the total cut in housing benefit and are often only temporary, meaning problems can go unresolved.”
She added: “This is an upside-down approach to policy-making which doesn’t get to the root cause of why housing benefit costs have increased. We have a chronic shortage of affordable housing in the UK with over 1.8 million households on waiting lists.  As long as this dire lack of housing options exists then the Government can’t reasonably tell people they have a choice about downsizing to a smaller home.”
Chris Goulden, head of poverty at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “It is very difficult to see how this policy can work without causing severe hardship, particularly as many of those affected are disabled people. The housing benefit bill could also rise if more people move into the private rented sector because of a shortage of one or two-bedroom properties in social housing.”
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “This ignores the fact that people may move to housing in the private sector and not all tenants will have to downsize because they could make up any shortfall through getting a job or increasing their working hours. These reforms will save the taxpayer £1bn over the next two years and help to ensure a better use of our housing stock when in England alone there are nearly two million households on the social housing waiting list, and over a quarter of a million tenants are living in overcrowded homes.”
While the DWP argues that social housing tenants who want to downsize could instead spend their housing benefit on private accommodation, there is already a major shortage of small, cheap private accommodation.
It would also defeat the cost-cutting aim of the whole policy, since the housing benefit payable for a private one-bedroom place is often more than for a two-bedroom council house. Saving enough for the deposit needed for private housing is a further issue – and a near-impossibility for those already struggling with rent arrears because of the bedroom tax.
Spotlight: Trapped by the tax
Since the introduction of the bedroom tax, thousands of families in the Cotswolds have been trapped in larger properties that they are penalised for by the new charge.
In Wiltshire, there were no unoccupied one- and two-bedroom properties at all, for 2,953 affected households, though 48 were advertised as being available shortly. The situation is similar in Gloucestershire, which had just three suitable properties for 540 people.
Jo Sutton at Wiltshire Citizens Advice Bureau said: “We’re seeing a number of clients who have been hit by this and the impact is huge for some people.”
A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We are doing everything we can to support families through these significant changes.”
Case Study: ‘I’m £200 in arrears and it’s only been two weeks’
Hannah Smith, 28, lives in a three-bedroom house in Hyde, Cheshire, with children Gracey, 7, and Jake, 6.
I’ve always said that this house could be for a bigger family. I’ve been asking on and off for the last six years for a two-bedroom place, but the housing association said it couldn’t happen, so I’ve been stuck here.
We had a letter the month before the bedroom tax came in, saying that due to the ages of the children, I’m under-occupying my home by one bedroom and by April we’d have to start paying extra for the rent and also council tax.
Now I’m out of pocket £48 a month. It’s stupid because they wouldn’t move me. I’m already more than £200 in arrears and it’s only been a few weeks. They won’t let me apply for a new two-bedroom place because I’m in arrears. But I can’t clear my arrears because of the bedroom tax. It’s crazy.
On the estate where I live, two-bedroom properties are very rare. Everybody is going to be queuing up for them now.
You have to juggle paying your rent and getting the food in for your children. I haven’t had to use food banks yet, but I may have to.
I’ve worked in a shop and as a care assistant, but not since I was left on my own with the children.
This tax doesn’t work. David Cameron is taking money from people who are just trying to stay afloat.”
Run-down seaside towns a  ‘dumping ground’ for the vulnerable
Declining seaside towns around Britain are suffering “severe social breakdown” as they becoming “dumping grounds” for people on low incomes or welfare benefits, pushed out from inner-city areas, a report has found.
Hotels that once accommodated holiday makers are increasingly being converted into cheap flats for vulnerable tenants. The properties are also being used by councils in wealthier areas as low-cost options for housing children in care, said the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think-tank.
Their findings show that Britain is spending almost £2bn a year on welfare payments to people of working age in seaside towns. The report, entitled “Turning the Tide”, calls for action to revive the fortunes of seaside tow

Local Food Bank Donations & Advice centre donate £35 to turn into £1000 to help us feed people, pets .

As more and more people seek food aid and advice from our Independent food bank and advice centre, we urgently need more funds to cover the rising cost for feeding so many. we presently give out over 1000 food parcels to local people in need, plus huge numbers of Cats and Dogs to stop them being dumped.
A cloths rail costs £35, but can produce £1000 per year in income from the sale  of cloths we are given at our Charitie shop in Deptford. How many times have you donated money without a glue as to were it has gone? this is great chance to make a small donation that produces income day after day, feeding huge numbers of people and helping due to the savage cuts
We Care Food Bank and advice centre is not part of the trussell trust and gets no public or state money, please sponsor a cloths rail, or more if you can afford.
Our account for donations is;
We Care Food Bank account
Co-Operative Bank Lewisham
Sort Code 08 92 99
Account number 65659328

Thank you.

Monday 12 August 2013

El Rincon Bar Niguelas Lecrin Valley Granada Spain My Secret space but sadly no longer

OK, i hate doing this, discovering a truly amazing place and then after years of keeping it secret, having to tell you about it in order to protect its survival.  As Spain like the UK has seen its workers driven on to the streets due to mass sackings and yet another housing crises and  into food banks and all due to the wrecklessness of bankers.
Granada is yes a truly amazing city and has to be on every ones must place to visit before i die list, but travil a bit further inland and you discover the Lecrin Valley the region the Arabs called the Valley of Happiness, its mountians and valleys will, take your breath away, you can escape here on the fantastic state bus service and you can rent a rustic house sleeping 6 plus from as little as £230 per week about £35 per person per week, every village bar will serve you the best beer and an organic Tapa you will taste for just a euro, whilst Niguelas has a hugely popular classical Music festival that is free and built on solid region traditions that make working Spanards proud and the Muller Gardens  Won over a pack of cards one of the must see Spanish Gardens.
 Oddly you will find the English hidden away, the only English you see are holiday  home owners who take a postive step to play and active role in village like and support every event, whilst the people that live in the valley seem to spend there lifes missing out on the wonders around them and spend endless hours watching back to back Soaps.
So people  This is real Spain, no designer shops, no burger joints and no neon signs, just chilled bars, epic walks and peace and quiet that in any part of the world is increasingly hard to find whilst do not be shocked to see Labour MPs, Left Wing Celebraties worth a few  bob and endless writers and dreamers.
If you take the plunge and like me take time to support the Spanish with your holiday cash, please hunt down the secret bar that is El Rincon, drive up or walk up through the Village until you come to the Old water Mill and charming building in which i have spent many happy hours, but these days seems empty and unloved, here you will not get the basic Tapas you get from all the other Bars in the village, did want to spend more time here but beer was warm and no tapas given even though beer price is most expensive of the 11 bars covering the village, not acceptable .Set back hidden round the back of Los Lentos watermill  is the village chill out zone, a Bar with rustic furniture, fairy lights and views to dream about, at first i did think this was a middle class bar for the English, but scratch the surface and you uncover a small team of English woman and a dashing Spanard who do wonders with local produce and are very creative with the superb quality of the Tapas they serve, although the Burgers are great, the toasted Pitta Bread Girls does not go, it is like biting into an old shoe box, which is a shame when the food is so good, the staff thoughtful fun and eager to please the local Spanish as much as the English, this time round i discovered that romance has hit the bar and young love does melt the heart, throw in the Bar dog that just showed up one day half starving and scared to death of people and you realise that these people may have a lot of front but they are brave giving up proberly great jobs to live a dream , whilst i did my best to boost numbers, it seems a plastic chair on a street side bar in the main Village is more to local taste, but i think my view is that El Rincon is just to special to go every day, or the Village English and Dutch visitors are just to lazy to discover, they are truly missing something special.
The festival of classical  free Music and local tradition events happens from end of July until end of August is truly fantastic and i am at a loss as to why the local English  residential population fail to support, but they do need to do more to welcome people who are not spanish and many people say organisers do not make any effort to welcome none Spanish which is a real shame., whilst the stunning  Muller Gardens has special camp tea in the Garden partys organised by La La , who like much else about this place is pure charm.
As Spain hits hard times you may think that people like this do not matter, festivals, culture and work and chasing a dream are for others. i want the dreams to work out, i want the young lovers to be forever happy i want the Spanish to vote for the Party of the Valley the local group not unlike Londons People Before Profit,
going by the number of Indy funny people and Indy bands who escape like me to this region we hope you will make the trip, not to spoil but to enjoy and to insure all that is wonderful remains and bars like El Rincon are the rip roaring success they deserve to be .
Whilst away i read the best researched book on the economy i have ever read, easy to follow and a must read, not sure if the book will shock you or just give you the proof that you need in a good economics debate, But get the book The Gods of Money

New Cross Ward Party in the Park September 2013 We need a break come and support this free event

PARTY IN THE PARK    FORDHAM PARK     NEW CROSS    SAT 14th SEPT  1 - 8 pm

Party in the Park came a huge step closer with the design of the new poster including all the bands artists etc (designed by Jo, see attached)
We really need to get this poster absolutley everywhere within a mile of the park - please print some yourself if you can, or ask NXL for some (we will have a stack available there for people to pick up)

Also, please make sure you've invited everyone to the FB event 

People Before Profit UK party Conference Sat 21 September 2013 12-5pm every one welcome

Lewisham will host this years UK People before Profit party conference in New Cross London on Saturday 21 September .
The aim is to revue party policy and our manifesto which can be read on our website.www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk.

People before Profit is fighting more local council seats in 2014 Local elections than ever before and have an exceptional range of community activists running for the Council on a none privatisation and no cuts to front line services agenda as we seek to be almost old fashioned in seeking to elect local residents to serve the people  not the big business interests or developers as presently is the case by Labour and Tory Councils who seem to forget they elected to serve voters interests above all else.
With rise of food Banks, PFI contracts, zero hours contracts an ever growing housing crises for low paid and front line services always being  cut before Consultant fees, People before profit will be a truly amazing alternative, as resently as March PBP secured more votes than Lib Dems. UKIP and the Tory combined moving up from 5th place at the last local elections to 2nd to Labour in Evelyn Ward Deptford in March.
We have a huge team working tirelessly to win our target seats in 2014 and hope to see more people put themselfs forward across the UK.
Our Party Conference will not just be about policy, but will we hope be a bridge head to other community based groups across the UK unhappy with the political establishment as is, and are seeking to run an alternative. This Conference will therefore be ideal meeting to come or send a delegation, although only party members can vote.
Please express interest in attendence via the People Before Profit UK website.