29/11/15 Why I will be out on the streets of London

Ben here... last year I stood for MP in Hendon.
Here is a piece with few reasons I will be joining tomorrow's People's march for climate justice and jobs.




I did a LOT.  A lot has happened on affordable housing with the local compulsory purchase order number 1 being confirmed with slight amendments following a public inquiry.  But Climate Change is such a big problem, such a mind-blowing international issue that I feel quite strongly that I didn't do enough during the campaign, and I didn't communicate what I had done, on the issue.


I'm marching with my local party, Barnet Green Party, and our banners.  I will be outside Hendon Central from 10, heading off at 10:30.  Give me a buzz on my mobile if you want to travel from Hendon to the demonstration together.




I have had a look at the blocs that are organised for the march.  Many of them are tempting.  I am hoping to march with either the Green Bloc or my faith group, both meeting at the corner of Park Lane and Curzon Street.  What with ISIL and the Paris attacks it is really important that faith groups are coming together for this.  Tim Gee wrote a blog on OpenDemocracy on why it's important for believers to take action for the climate "in times like these".  Rabbi Jonathan wrote a piece for the JC and will be speaking to a packed hall tomorrow with other faith leaders. It's a shame, possibly with the exception of Jonathan Wittenberg, that none of those leaders are to the right of me on the religious observance spectrum. 


I also want to note; It's also a shame that Israel chose this weekend for this demo to keep Israel's natural gas for Israel.  Whilst criticising Israel is always a hot potato, I can't help thinking that both sides are wrong Netanyahu for signing the gas deal and the Zionist Union (Labour Party) for their negative protest at a time that the diaspora is crying out for community solar energy.


This weekend there is a truly global movement on the march.  The only place people aren't marching is in Paris, where a state of emergency has been declared and the 200,000-strong march banned by the authorities.

I'm marching to save the climate in solidarity with someone who can't. Kathleen. Join us #March4Me https://t.co/2bkK1Tneqj

— Ben Samuel (@filosofical_140) November 28, 2015


P.S. Remember to use your orange ballot paper in London to get Greens elected in 2016!

- Green Thinking from Crop to Crumb

Green Party members Natalie Bennett (left) and Ben Samuel (right) visited the Bread Factory this week to show their support for this important project providing healthy food to local people while investing in a fleet with zero carbon pollution. The Green Party passed new policy at its recent National Conference offering more support to local food initiatives. The Greens recognised the vital role they can play in providing fresher, more healthy food, addressing growing food poverty and greening local communities. Of course the new fleet is also more environmentally friendly, relying less on dirty diesel (£110 a tank) and making our food distribution systems less reliant on fuel. Ben Samuel, 25, who lives in the Brent Cross community said ‘We would like to see more of these fleets and see them getting better infrastructure from Barnet Council. The Council should be supporting local food by ensuring their procurement process makes use of local produce. The Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration should also be used to encourage the inclusion of food growing spaces that can be used by the community and unused land should be made available for people to grow their own food, whether you're into rocket or coleslaw sandwich fillings’. 
The director of the Bread Factory said,  "This initiative came out of thinking about how we take care of the environment.   We have here two electric vans.  We hope to get two more.  The other thing is the electricity it is fed by is now fed by solar or wind, so as I was saying to the Green Party it is zero emissions.  We hope to do our small change from our small perspective here in Hendon"
Alon from Oreo V representing the new vans said... I think this is an historic movement.  We believe the revolution of electric cars starts here.  Electric vehicles are more efficient.  All trains are now electric.  It is very brave to be taking that first step.
Natalie Bennett, said "John Lewis had electric delivery vans.  Back then there was hundreds and hundreds of different sorts of vehicles on our roads, especially adapted by their manufacturers to be suited to the job.  We got away from that with mass production and so what you have now is vehicles that are probably designed for running around motorways at high speed and high energy capacities and I was hearing earlier today lots of them do 60-80 km a day around London and the average speed in London is 7 mph (12 kph).  So what you are doing is going back to the future! Back to the right vehicle for the right job which means that we are also producing on a small scale with the right thing for the right job.  Now this is the sort of industry that we in the Green Party believe we need and that of course mirrors what you are doing with bread too because you are employing lots of (300) people and you said earlier that you value your people too.  And what we need is we need jobs, we need energy efficiency and we need quality products and you are delivering all of those, congratulations."
The manufacturer told me informally the battery now weighs only 150 kg, and I asked him if there was evidence that it goes 100 miles; of course the answer was yes.  I also asked them if the Bread Factory had any plans for green roofs.
Stop press: The Greens are now the third party in London ahead of the Lib-Dems, according to the last Assembly Poll which uses a proportional system.  The Green constituency candidate for the Assembly got nearly 11% of votes cast, behind local Tory Brian Coleman, but ahead of the Lib-Dem.