Green Party

Now the general election has been called, Ben's blog has been moved from this temporaryweb page to his campaign site.

No further blog comments will be posted to this page. 

To get the latest on Ben's election blog for the duration of the campaign and its aftermath, please visit:

http://www.benduncan.org/sites/benduncan/blog/

Thank you

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Welcome to my general election candidate blog - my campaign to represent the people of Brighton Kemptown constituency as a Green MP.

This page trails the launch of my campaign website.

Let me know what you think.

A public blog comment facility will be available soon.

You can follow the city Greens, including my next door candidate colleague Caroline Lucas, on Twitter at this link: Green blogs

My personal Twitter feed is accessible here.  

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Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Well, about time, really.

So Gord-help-us Brown has finally called the election - we will all get a chance to vote for the MP we want to represent us in the House of Commons in four weeks time - on May 6th.

Well, it's not before time.

As a local councillor I have a lot of conversations with people on doorsteps around Kemp Town in recent months and weeks.

Almost all of them have had one clear message: they want a fairer society, one where public services are enhanced - not cut - where the NHS is protected from both budget cuts and privatisation, and where jobs are created by cutting the red tape that's strangling small businesses and investing in the 'green' technologies that we need to get ourselves out of the energy crunch and climate crisis we face.

The good news is that's exactly the platform of the Green Party and here in Brighton Kemptown voters have a real chance to elect a Green MP to make exactly this case at every turn.

No-one's really arguing that voting Green could deliver a Green Party government in May - of course it couldn't.

But whoever does form the Government - we face a simple choice here in Kemptown: do we want an outspoken champion for the area who will strive to deliver a fairer society at every turn, or just another member of that Government, who will do pretty much what their party leader (not the needs of people living here) tells them.

I'll be voting Green - well I would do, wouldn't I - as a local resident I'll be on my own ballot paper! I hope you will too...

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Friday, 2 April 2010 

There are so many things I love about Brighton that it's almost a cliché to start a blog post with the words: 'One thing I love about Brighton is...', but here goes...

One of the things I love about Brighton is the rich diversity of third sector and campaigning groups based here doing globally important work. We've definitely got more than our fair share here, and I'm not sure why, really.

I suspect it's linked to a high university retention rate and the world-class Institute of development Studies at the University of Sussex combining to give us a relatively large pool of well-qualified, internationally-minded graduates.

Whatever the reason, such organisations abound. One such is the North Street based target Tuberculosis, a small NGO working on grassroots TB control initiatives in Africa and Asia.

In 2010, 2 million people globally will die of TB, principally in the world's poorest countries.

The disease is the third biggest killer of women worldwide, it is the leading cause of death for people living with HIV / AIDS - and the situation, which, according to the World Bank costs us about $20bn a year in lost productivity alone, has been declared a ‘global emergency' by the World Health Organisation.

In 2000, world leaders agreed to adopt the goal of halving TB death rates by 2015 - but we're still a long way off meeting that target. On the contrary, in many countries (including the UK), TB rates are actually rising.

If we are to meet the target we really need to spend serious money - and expend some serious political capital. TB is principally a disease of poverty, and improving lives for the world's poorest has, sadly, hardly been a foreign policy priority in recent years.

The Green Party believes it should be.

And, if I am elected as MP for Brighton Kemptown I will push for an immediate increase in the proportion of the UK's GDP which is spent on international aid and development work, as well as arguing it should be much better targeted towards meeting our Millennium Goal commitments: including those on reducing the incidence and devastating impact of TB in the developing world.

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Thursday, 1 April 2010 

There are all sorts of reasons why life is hard for older people living in Brighton Kemptown.

Poor housing, high levels of illness and disability, and sporadic care arrangements are all on the list .

The latest, long-awaited proposals for a National Care Service could make a difference, but no-one's had the political courage to work out how they'll be paid for yet - or the details of what kinds of care they might cover.

Whatever happens in the election, I hope the Green Party is invited to the table when a cross-party working group gets to grip with the scheme's nitty-gritty.

But perhaps the one single measure that could make most difference is really quite simple, and could be implemented almost immediately: give pensioners more money and make sure pensioner poverty is kicked into touch, once and for all.

At least that's the (view of the National Pensioners' Convention) [ http://www.npcuk.org/publications.htm ] and, as of yesterday, the Green Party.

Speaking ahead of a older people's Hustings event in central Brighton, Green leader Caroline Lucas unveiled plans for the state pension to be raised to £170 a week for single pensioners, and £300 a week for couples - as well as free social care for all who need it, as is currently offered in Scotland.

She said: "After a lifetime of hard work and contributing to society, pensioners deserve better than having to scrape by on an inadequate state pension.

It's only fair that the basic state pension should be enough to live on."

The figure of £170 per week is calculated as the minimum required to keep the basic state pension above the official poverty line.

If I'm elected MP for Brighton Kemptown I promise to push this policy at every opportunity, as well as arguing for an end to the default retirement age, so that people have the freedom to go on working and contributing to society if they wish to, free from discrimination on the basis of age.

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Wedesday, 31 March 2010

Remember Ian Tomlinson

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the death of innocent bystander Ian Tomlinson after he was assaulted by an officer of the Metropolitan Police at the G20 protest in London.

At the time of writing, no-one, either the officer concerned nor any of his superiors or managers, has been brought to justice.

No-one at all has been charged with anything, despite there being over 300 witnesses prepared to give evidence, a widely broadcast video of the assault - and scores of journalists being in the area.

Frankly, that's appalling.

Policing protests is still one of the hardest jobs the police face - it's a high-adrenaline situation, and mistakes are made.

But when they are (and the death of a bystander seems to provide prima facie evidence that there was, at the very least, a policing mistake made last April), it's essential that justice is done - and the lessons learned - quickly.

Otherwise confidence in our police - and therefore their ability to effectively make us feel safe in our communities and neighborhoods - will be eroded.

As a member of Sussex Police Authority I come up against mistrust of the police often - especially from protestors.

I try to explain that, actually, here in Sussex the police take a more enlightened approach to policing protests.

There have been mistakes made in the past (but not, thankfully, on the scale of the Met's blunder a year ago) but now the police here recognize that there is no such thing as an unlawful protest and that they have a duty to facilitate peaceful protest.

Part of the problem, of course, is cultural.

Some protesters, quite reasonably, see the police as merely agents of state repression.

Some police see protesters as scruffy anarchist types seeking to undermine society as they know it - and their authority to keep it safe.

Personally, I think they're both a little bit right and both a little bit wrong - and the long-term answer lies in both 'sides' having a bit more respect for the other, and what they are trying to achieve.

Tomorrow morning there will be a vigil to remember Ian Tomlinson: at 10.45 members of his family, some of his friends and campaigners will lay flowers in Cornhill, near Threadneedle Street in London, at the spot where Ian died.

In the interests of boosting public confidence and fostering trust and respect between protestors and the police, I hope there will be a visible contingent of respectful, and mourning, uniformed officers.

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Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Too little, too late?

East Brighton has more than its fair share of council-owned housing - and as a local councillor in Queen's Park I work closely with tenants and housing staff to make sure people's homes are warm, safe and welcoming.

Some of our city's most vulnerable residents live in council homes, and it's probably the most rewarding aspect of council work when I'm able to help someone with a problem just by speaking up in a way that makes a real and immediate difference to someone's life - helping understand a legalistic letter from the council, perhaps, or getting some repair or redecoration speeded up.

But I've always been dismayed that, though tenants still have the right to buy their homes from the council, the council isn't building new homes to keep up - the total stock is therefore shrinking, rapidly.

And council-owned homes are being transferred to the private sector too - Patching Lodge is a classic example.

It used to be a fairly tired council-run sheltered housing block on Eastern Road - now it's a brand new extra care home, with great facilities, but run by Hannover Homes instead.

It was the idea of a large-scale transfer of the council's entire stock to a third sector organisation that did it for Labour in this city, really.

But it hasn't stopped the reduction in the council's housing stock.

Or Labour's love of the private sector as a way of meeting social need.

The main problem is the archaic and unfair rules governing council housing finance: it's basically a stealth tax on the poorest in society.

Each year more than 150 councils are forced to hand over almost £300 million of the rent they collect from some of England's poorest households. Much of this money is pocketed by the Treasury and lost to housing.

Brighton and Hove City Council alone will have to hand back £2.9 million in 2009/10 and a projected £3.3 million in 2010/11 - money that could be spent locally dealing with the city's housing crisis.

Greens have long argued that this system must be scrapped, and that all money raised from council housing should stay in the city, and be used both to improve standards in the existing stock and build new homes.

And now, it seems, the Government has finally listened to what we've been saying for years.

But I can hardly believe their gall really: this Government has failed to tackle the problem for the 13 years it's been in office until now - less than six weeks before an election!

Well, better too little too late than nothing at all, I suppose, but it all smack of pre-election 'window-dressing' to me.

If the Government really wants to make a difference, quickly, it should also write off the outstanding house-building debt of £25 billion owed by councils.

This would leave more money to invest in new homes and to ‘green' existing homes and create many jobs in the building industry.

Perhaps they'll announce that next week...

Maybe then I won't have to listen to any more builders saying there just isn't the work to sustain them in Brighton at the moment.

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Sunday, 28 March 2010 

Clone Town Kemptown edges a little closer

 

Well the mystery deepens...

On Thursday morning the Taj natural food store in St James's Street was closed - a notice in the window quietly informed shoppers that the shop's locally-based parent company had gone under and was in administration.

Yet by the afternoon, Taj was open, busy as ever - and all seemed well.

But Saturday's Argus reports that the firm has indeed gone into administration - and the firm's owner is ‘having a bit of an issue with the banks'.

Who knows what the future holds for the store - one of the biggest retailers of ethnic produce, vegan and vegetarian staples, organic and fairtrade foods in Brighton.

Either way, I guess Argus columnist Adam Trimingham was wrong in December when he cited Taj's success as evidence that smaller, independent retailers are more than up to the challenge of the supermarkets.

The fact is Taj's woes will be sending shock waves through small, independent businesses in Kemptown.

It's hardly be a surprise though: the news comes just months after the opening of new Tesco and Morrisons supermarkets just a few yards away.

It's exactly what local councillors feared when Tesco announced its plan to open a new store up the road - and shows why we need policies that will protect local and independent businesses from the onslaught of the ‘big four' supermarkets.

If we don't, St James's Street will end up looking exactly like everywhere else, and there'll be no reason for anyone to visit it any more.

We need to find ways of extending non-for-profit credit to small businesses, and remove some of the red tape that's strangling so many of them.

The Government could start by rolling VAT, National Insurance and Income Tax into one to cut the number of forms local traders need to complete by two-thirds at a stroke.

Kemptown needs its independent businesses if it is to survive.

Today St James's Street is threatened with having one less colourful business - and one more empty shop. It looks as though Clone Town Britain has come a step closer.
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Saturday, 27 March 2010 

A dark day for education here in Brighton

The University of Sussex has rubber-stamped - and confirmed - its plans to make £5m of budget cuts that will see over 100 academics and student advisers sacked, several courses close their doors for good, and an end to sexual health services and crèche facilities being provided on campus and

The move will make the University of Sussex a less attractive place to study. I spoke to an overseas student yesterday who told me studying at Sussex was like studying in the developing world. Yesterday's decision can only make things worse - and we'll all suffer as a result.

Both unions representing staff at the university have fought hard against the cuts - with the complete backing of the students' union.

The months of so-called 'consultation' since the Vice Chancellor first revealed his plans last autumn have been bitter - and seen a strike by members of the UCU union, a motion of no confidence in the University's management team by students - six of whom were suspended following one of several student-organised demonstrations against the cuts.

The police were dragged into the dispute, after managers at the university seemingly stage-managed a dubious hostage situation designed to draw officers into the argument.

Even Brighton and Hove City Council passed a motion abhorring the cuts - complete with crocodile tears from some of the Labour councillors whose Government has been behind the privatisation of higher education that has caused them in the first place.

We were even treated to unlikely, but delicious, spectacle of the local Tories backing a union position over management cuts.

But still the cuts - and redundancies - will go ahead. What's the point of a consultation exercise if it ignores a near-unanimous call to find a different way of handling a cash shortfall?

Can it really make sense for a University to ignore almost every voice both on campus and in the community it serves?

Why didn't the Vice-Chancellor Michael Farthing ask the Government to step in and save the jobs, courses and facilities?

Come to think of it, why didn't the Government just find the money in the first place - £5m is a drop in the ocean, after all, in the Higher Education budget.

The fact is, the Government hasn't got the £5m, as it isn't just Sussex.

Universities up and down the country are facing the same cuts, thanks to a funding crisis that represents nothing less than an attack on higher education as a publicly funded service - at exactly the time when we need it most.

How are we going to create the jobs we need to get ourselves out of the economic and environmental messes we're in if we don't invest in higher education?

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Friday, 26 March 2010

As campaign finance gets murkier, campaigning gets cheaper

Its interesting (well, to me, anyway) that as the Westminster parties seem to get more and more tied up in knots about the way they are financed, election campaigning just gets cheaper.

The election hasn't even been called yet, and already its obvious that social media - and the on-line campaigning generally - is playing a bigger role than ever before.

Charities and lobby groups are using websites like ‘the political exchange' to gather candidates' pledges of support, and generate emails for the supporters quizzing candidates on issues from child protection and hunting to abortion and the death penalty.

And, of course, it doesn't cost anyone much - least of all the candidates - to do any of this.

Later today, for example, I'll be taking part in a democratic first- a ‘twitter' based online ‘Question Time' style events about crime and justice issue organized by the Howard League for Penal Reform.

I'll spend half an hour answering members of the public's questions about Green Party crime and prisons policy in 140 characters or less - in what's already been dubbed a ‘twitchat'.

Some have argued that it's pretty hard to present policy meaningfully in such tiny messages, but I disagree really.

After all, it doesn't take many words to spell out the Green Party's view on crime and policing:

- address fear of crime

- put fewer people in prison

- put more bobbies on the beat, less guns at Gatwick

- concentrate on justice for victims, and rehabilitation for offenders

- more cash for neighbourhood policing

and so on.

I could go on all day. And I will later: well, half an hour anyway.

The twitchat takes place from 12.30pm - do follow the debate - or ask me a question - by searching for the #TA2010 hashtag.

And if you're reading this after the event, the whole debate can, in theory, be viewed in full later at www.howardleague.org

Of course, you can always keep up to date with what I'm up to on the campaign trail by following me @KemptownBen

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Thursday, 25 March 2010

So why should I vote Green?

Well as the dust settles on another budget, and a furiously busy day out campaigning in Brighton, it seemed as good a moment as ever to muse a little on democracy.

When I first joined the Green Party, a decade or so ago, the decision was met with some skepticism from friends and colleagues.

‘It can't possibly make a difference', I heard.

‘The voting system is stitched up - we'll always have a Labour or Tory Government', and ‘You're just wasting time and energy that could be better focused on direct action' were other versions.

But I disagreed then and, as an elected Green Party councillor and Sussex Police Authority member, I disagree now.

Even without having the majority we need on Brighton and Hove City Council to really deliver our Green agenda for a fair and sustainable city, we have been able to punch above our weight and make a difference through persistence, good arguments, support from officers, working with other parties when our interests overlap, and, not least, being in tune with residents in the wards we represent.

For example, Greens were able to get the city's planning blueprint for the next decade to plan for a radical ‘green' overhaul of the Valley Gardens area (at the moment it's little more than a central reservation in a dual carriageway but it really should be an accessible park).

We've been able to improve recycling and waste-reduction goals in the council's waste plan, to get the council to drop unpopular plans to ban dogs from all of our beaches, to secure more cash for older people's services - and, most recently, to adopt a new vigour to sort out the mess of nuisance, crime, and ill-health left on city centre communities by the Licensing Act 2003.

I'm also a member of Sussex Police Authority - and, although I'm sometimes feel like the only Green in the village there, again I've been able to make some small, and really exciting, changes to the way policing in delivered here in Sussex.

I've been able to make sure we concentrate on neighbourhood-led policing (bobbies on the beat rather than guns at Gatwick, in a nutshell) and make sure those same bobbies actually listen to what residents are saying there priorities should be.

I've been able to ensure that the police dramatically improve their impact on the environment as they do their work - and have managed to get the principle that they have a legal duty to ‘facilitate' peaceful protest enshrined into their mission statement: the local policing plan.

I'm currently working on an official scrutiny of the way Sussex Police manage hunts - specifically the reality that, despite the hunting ban, officers still view their role as preventing disturbance rather than bringing hunters to book for breaking the law by carrying on with their barbaric - and now illegal - activities.

I hope this will lead to a change in police policy this year that will see fewer foxes killed  - and hunt monitors and saboteurs treated with the respect and fairness they deserve.

The point isn't that, in and of themselves, any of these examples will deliver a fairer, better, society - but that elected Greens make a real difference.

And with that just a small snapshot of what one Green councillor can achieve in a couple of short years on Brighton and Hove City Council, just imagine the impact a few Green Party MPs in the House of Commons could have.

I'm not asking you to vote Green to get a Green Party government - that isn't about to happen, of course - but to ensure that, whoever forms the next government, it has to listen to a few Green voices, punching above their weight, and consider a few Green Party policies - and, crucially, fairness, all the time, not just at election time.

Of course, election times bring their benefits - principally, we are given chances to tell voters why we think we'd make the best fist of representing them in parliament.

That means Question Time style meetings. I've done a few now: here's me in action last week at the Jubilee Library, talking about the steps we need to take to make Brighton and Hove a truly sustainable city.

If you've got a spare two hours, you can watch the whole debate here.

http://www.brighton-hove.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_compact.php?a=37760&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB

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Wednesday, 24 March 2010 

We need a radical budget today to get the economy back on track

Today is budget day - and perhaps this Government's last chance to get the economy back on track.

We've heard, over and over, that this won't be a traditional give-away budget - but that's exactly what we need.

Not in the sense of cutting taxes, either on the ‘bad' stuff like cigarettes and alcohol, or the ‘good' stuff, like wages and pensions.

But a budget that recognises we shouldn't rush to pay off our national debt and should, instead, focus on securing - and creating - jobs, and improving pay and conditions across the public sector.

We need to remember that when markets fail, the government needs to step in and get the economy working again.

 The truth is, as we learnt in the 1930s - you just can't cut your way out of a recession.

If people are in work, they're spending money and they are paying taxes - and that's what makes the economy go round.

The UK has had a large public debt for much of our history. We fought WW2 with a large debt. We created the NHS with a large debt. Lots of countries keep themselves prosperous despite high levels of public debt.

Public spending cuts would harm the economy.

It would impact on jobs - and hit the poorest hardest. That's just not fair.

We need to see it made easier to create jobs in the private sector too: and perhaps the best way to do that is to scrap much of the red-tape that's holding small businesses back.

We must roll VAT, National Insurance and Income Tax into one.

Both to cut prices and balance some of the inflationary pressure of carrying large amounts of national debt, but also to cut the form-filling burden on small businesses by more than a third at a stroke.

We'll see what Gord-help-us Brown and Alistair Darling come up with, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Tuesday, 23 March 2010

I welcome CCTV monitoring - monitoring of CCTV, that is. 

One of the roles I perform as a member of Sussex Police Authority is supervising the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme in the county - a volunteer-led oversight of standards in police cells across the county.

Volunteers take it in turns to visit police custody centres across the county - at any time of day or night - and check that people being detained are being given enough food, that they're being treated with respect and in full accordance with human rights standards, and so on.

The scheme works fairly well. Although conditions in police cells are pretty awful they are better than they were, and the independent visitors' scheme gives an extra level of scrutiny, and can provide us authority members, and, where necessary, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, with evidence of any systemic failings.

And now the police authority are going to roll out a new volunteer-run scrutiny scheme, checking the way CCTV images are being used.

http://www.sussexpa.gov.uk/upholding-standards/professional-standards.aspx?articleid=166

It won't be possible for a handful of volunteers to check every bit of footage from every CCTV camera in Brighton and Hove - but the fact that they will be looking at clips at random and without notice should make it harder for any rogue officers to do anything they shouldn't when they're controlling - and watching - the cameras.

That can only be a good thing. But the truth is we need fewer cameras in the first place - and a few more PCSOs and neighbourhood police officers on our streets to build the community relationships we need to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.

The fact is we have more CCTV cameras watching us more of the time here in the UK than in any other country in the world.

While some cameras do seem to have led to a reduction in crime, the crime and anti-social behaviour is usually just shifted on to an area - often just around the corner - out of the cameras' range.

In some areas the cameras just lead to a weakening of communities - and actually make things worse, not better. No-one feels safe living in a street that feels like a crime hotspot with cameras everywhere, after all.

So I welcome the new CCTV monitoring a scheme - but I hope it will have the power to help monitor which cameras are actually making things worse, and be able to recommend turning a few off them off.

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Monday, 22 March 2010

Today is World Water Day - a time for us to focus on the fact that some 4,000 children somewhere in the world die EVERY DAY as a direct result of their lack of access to clean, safe, drinking water.

Billions around the world are affected by water shortages every year - as well as causing death, disease and poverty, water scarcity is fuelling conflicts, pushing up food prices in the developing world - and making life harder for millions of subsistence farmers, many of whom are forced to give up land which they and they families have cultivated for generations and migrate to slums on the edge of cities in an desperate search for work - and survival.

Yet international organisations like the World Bank and the trade rules our political leaders broker in our name are making the problem worse - by forcing water privatisation on communities in the developing world (in some cases this has actually made it illegal for farmers to collect and use rainwater!) - and encouraging developing nations to allow water-hungry export industries to set up shop in ‘water-stressed' areas.

Although there isn't a specific Human Right to Water - it's clear that such a right follows from many other human rights guarantees - specifically the right to life itself.

I think we need to increase the amount of aid we give to water projects, we need to abandon the World Bank - and many of its rules - in favour of a General Agreement on Sustainable Trade - and we need to recognise the specific Right to Water, and begin prosecuting national leaders who fail to deliver it for everyone living in their countries.

On Saturday, I was honoured to say a few words launching a Water Aid stunt outside Brighton Town Hall - the charity was trying to get in the Guinness Book of Records by forming the longest toilet queue in history to try and draw attention to World Water Day.

I don't know if they broke the record - I'll let you know when I do - but they managed to get The Argus to promise a story on global water issues, a fantastic achievement in itself.

Of course, we've had a long, wet winter here - and the issues of water supply we face in Brighton Kemptown are more likely to be about the way water charges are worked than the taps not working.

I am working closely with the city's High Rise Action Group - and Southern Water - to try and roll out water meters in blocks of flats - both to bring down charges and create an incentive for tenants to waste less water in the first place.

But the global and local issues are connected - by the spectre of privatisation.

We need to ban the ridiculous - and largely harmful - practice of allowing water to be traded just like any other commodity. It's the very stuff of life and I find the idea that someone can profit out of its supply absolutely appalling.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

Hi there!

Welcome to the first post on my new blog: Ben 4 Kemptown!

Now seems like a perfect time to launch the blog - as, even though Gord-help-us Brown hasn't actually called it yet, the election campaign is hotting up.

There are eight candidates now chasing votes in Brighton Kemptown - and I've been to three Question Time meetings this week, taken part in a ‘political soapbox' event, launched a Water Aid event - oh and faced a grilling at Brighton Council about my campaign against Labour and Tory cuts in the Sussex policing budget.

Yesterday I was honoured to be asked to explain some of my priorities to an audience of environmentalists at Hove Town Hall.

I didn't talk directly, of course, about environmental issues - but rather made the case for a connected view of policy-making based on the notion that if we are going to solve the environmental problems facing us all - we need to solve the economic ones at the same time, and that means creating a fairer society for all.

I think my message - that, if elected, I'd push for investment in job creation, I'd fight against public service cuts, for an increase in foreign aid, for defending the NHS from creeping privatisation and fragmentation, and for an end to the costly, unnecessary and damaging Trident nuclear missile system - went down well.

I'll keep making the same arguments and, ultimately, it'll be for voters to decide.

I'm really excited about the next few weeks - if the Green view proves as popular over the next 50 days as it has over the last few, Brighton could be returning two Green MPs to Westminster on May 7th. I guess I'd better start looking into the costs of a season ticket to Victoria!

Update soon.

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