Reasons to vote for Labour candidate for Wanstead Village Paul Donovan on 3 May

A Wanstead resident all my life, I attended Aldersbrook and Wanstead High Schools, before going on to Kent University where I attained my degree in law and industrial relations.
After graduation I worked in banking prior to moving into journalism. I have worked as a journalist for the past 25 years, winning a number of awards for my work.
I am a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church where I have been actively involved in justice and peace work and been a member of the Parish Council. I have also played a prominent role with the social justice work of the Church at a national and international level. I was also part of the multi-faith Peace and Justice in East London group, set up post 9/11 to promote peace.
I played a role in keeping Wanstead Police Station open – when it was previously under threat – after being mugged on Christchurch Green.
A committed environmentalist, I have played a role in building up the community based support groups for Wanstead Park. I am also a member of the Wren Group, Friends of Wanstead Park and an allotment holder. I helped to organise the Snaresbrook Seeds initiative in 2014 which saw tree pits in the area seeded with wild flowers. I am now trying to take this idea forward on a bigger scale with the Wild Wanstead campaign.
Now, I feel, is the time to put myself foward as a Council candidate. The Labour Council can boast a proud record over its past four years, despite the pressure coming as a result of 40% cuts in the budget from the Tory Government.
Not only has the Labour Council managed to defend and build on basic facilities, like the libraries and waste collection, but it is commmited to building a swimming pool in Wanstead. The step free access coming soon for Snaresbrook station is another important achievement.
Most recently I have been involved with fellow Labour candidates in the campaign to restore a full service to the W12 bus route. We are also backing the 20s Plenty speed reduction campaign. As well as this I am keen to play a part in pushing forward with Labour’s proposals on increasing recycling and cutting pollution.
As a lifelong Wanstead resident, I am acutely aware that this end of the borough can sometimes get forgotten. If elected, I will seek to ensure that our community is heard at the top table in the Town Hall. I want to stand up for Wanstead and be part of the exciting future for the area under Labour.

Let's protect the environment

Seeds, driveways and cycles - how the growing appetite to embrace the environment is playing out in Wanstead.

 

The Wild Wanstead initiative to plant wild seeds around tree pits has received a massive response from local people, with some 40 roads indicating they want to take part.

The first plantings will be taking place over the coming weeks with more in the autumn. So get ready to see some more colour on those Wanstead streets over the summer.

Wild Wanstead is also looking at the possibility of helping with makeovers of drives, returning them to garden status where the owner desires. This idea though is at a very formative stage.

There seems to be a real awakening around the area regarding environmental matters, with a group of concerned cyclists and walkers gathering last week at Wanstead House to discuss what can be done to make Redbridge more cycle and pedestrian friendly.

Again, there is much enthusiasm to make our already ecologically rich area even better to live in. The aim to get more people out on bicycles, public transport and on foot can be achieved with some imagination and a little logistical help from the council.

These are exciting times in Redbridge, with an appetite to embrace with nature and live in a more sustainable way. There has always been a thirst for living more at one with the planet but now a significant number of people seem ready and willing to take up the practical challenge. Long may it continue.

published in Wanstead & Woodford Guardian - 26/4/2018

 

Treatment of Windrush generation typifies anti-migrant culture of Tory government

The disgraceful treatment of the Windrush generation is not some aberration thrown up from the bowels of the Home Office -as some seem to think.

It is symptomatic of the anti-migrant attitude that has grown up over recent years. An attitude, so clearly evident at the time of the Brexit vote.

The "hostile environment" policy of the Home Office typifies that attitude.

And the country is already beginning to reap what it has sown, with fewer and fewer migrants prepared to take their chances here. The UK will pay the price, with its ageing population and creaking public services that are in the main kept going by migrant labour.

If this continues, the only ones getting their country back will be the fascists.

West Ham creep toward Premiership safety with a point at home to Stoke

^{West Ham 1-1 Stoke City}

^{West Ham manager David Moyes seemed happier to get a point out of this keenly fought encounter than his opposite number Paul Lambert.}

^{Moyes declared that: “the important thing was not to lose,” going on to say that “this was one of the best performances we have had here.”}

^{The West Ham manager appears happy to secure the club’s Premiership status a point at a time, setting his target at 40 points. Though none present on the night will have come away happy, given that a win here could probably have secured that status for another year.}

^{One of the biggest culprits on the night was goalkeeper Joe Hart, who, spilled the ball to allow Stoke to take the lead. The former Manchester City stopper will have done his World Cup prospects no favours with this performance in front of the watching England manager Gareth Southgate.}

^{Moyes defended his goalkeeper before explaining how he had said well done to him after the previous game saving performance against Chelsea but this time he said he “should have done better with that one.”}

^{While Hart turned out to be the villain of the evening, the hero was Andy Carroll, who coming on for the last ten minutes, scored the equaliser and set up what looked like the winner from Javier Hernandez before it was ruled out by referee Michael Oliver.}

^{There were no complaints though from Moyes, who saw three goals ruled out by the referee, whilst there was more than a hint of offside in the Stoke strike. “The referee got the decisions right,” said Moyes.}

^{The game had started in a fairly pedestrian way, causing some to wonder whether they were in a parallel universe, where the two sides were already safe, with the players thinking of the beach.}

^{Hart was the busier of the two keepers, fielding a couple of long shots in the first half.}

 

^{Things warmed up in the second, with first a Marko Arnautovic header being ruled offside, then an Edimilson Fernandez shot from 20 yards being similarly ruled out because Arnaoutovic was offside and blocking the goalkeepers vision.}

^{Stoke struck in the 77th minute, when West Ham failed to clear the ball. Xherdan Shaqir found a space for a drive from the edge of the penalty area, which Hart spilled to the onrushing Peter Crouch, who finished with ease.}

^{Enter Carroll, who got on the end of an Aaron Creswell cross to side foot home. The big striker then set up Hernandez but the goal was ruled out because Carroll was ruled to have fouled the defender.}

<sup>Stoke manager Lambert felt lady luck was not on his teams side. “If we keep playing like that we will win games,” said Lambert. “If we’d played like that since August I wouldn’t be here and the club wouldn’t be where they are.”

published Morning Star - 18/4/2018</sup>

Tory approach to crime invites gated communities and private security

Crime is an issue of growing concern in London. There have been the headlines recently about the number of deaths, particularly of young people in the capital over the past year.

At local level there has been a myriad of crimes, varying from theft to violence against the person.

The cry goes up what can be done about it? Well, it is not a coincidence that as the government continues along a road that seems to be about decimating the police as a public service, this must have some effect.

There has been £1 billion cut from the Metropolitan Police budgets, with 20,000 police officers being removed from the streets. This reduction in police resources, has come at a time when the population is increasing, with the demands on the police growing.

Some might suspect an idealogical motivation on behalf of the Conservative Party regarding cutting the police. It is an approach they seem to take to a number of our most precious public services. Keep cutting resources, so that that service becomes so poor that the option to privatise can be more easily sold.

In the case of policing, this agenda is something people really do need to think carefully about. Do we want a society where those with wealth live in gated communities patrolled by private security firms, whilst a sort of law of the jungle operates outside those gates? It is certainly not the sort of community that I would want to live in.

What is needed is to fully funded criminal justice system. The police need to be given the resources so that they can deal with the problems of crime. But the prison and probation services also need to be funded and run properly. There is little point in incarcerating people, so that they can then come out and commit more crime. There needs to be far more invested in a more holistic justice system – not one premised on how much can be made out of it by the private sector.

published Wanstead & Woodford Guardian - 12/4/2018
Wanstead & Woodford + Ilford Recordeer - 19/4/2018

Universal Basic Income must not be a tool for the right to make further cuts

Universe newspaper editor Joseph Kelly makes some interesting points in his piece on Universal Basic Income, some though I do not recognise, such as that  the left has given the idea a cold reception. Former Labour leader, Ed Milliband, has been a supporter, whilst John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, was one of the first to seriously address the idea in terms of the programme for a future Labour government. A number of trade unions are also on board.

The challenge over UBI is as to whether it can be used as a means to liberate individuals (the left view) or is simply a mask to cut the benefits support net further (the right view).

The attraction for the right is that it would see UBI as replacing all welfare support - including health. The question of what would happen about pensions is an interesting one that no one seems to have addressed.  

The elephant in the room that Mr Kelly does not address is automation and the loss of jobs. It is estimated that 50% of jobs will go over the next 10 to 20 years. This offers challenges to world economies and the Catholic Social Teaching construct of the relationship between work and human welfare. The UK certainly has not recognised this development, with schools teaching skills that will be redundant over the next few years.

A major driver for the UBI is the need for people to have the money to buy stuff to keep the wheels of capitalism turning. The antecedents of UBI can be seen by the embrace of ideas like the living wage by Conservative governments. All see the need to get money into ordinary people's pockets so that they can spend. If the jobs aren't there and the wealth continues to accrue to a small minority then the system simply does not work.

So yes, the UBI is an idea, whose time is coming - driven on partly by the lack of jobs. The struggle is to ensure that the level of UBI is set sufficiently high to enable people  to live and prosper in the future. What must not happen is for the right to use UBI as a way to further undercut the basic state supports that underpin all our lives.

 

published - Universe - 13/4/2018

Time Britain got over its post imperial identity crisis and recognised its place in the world

When will this country recognise that it is no longer a "great power"? The present government act like Britain has the same imperial power as in the 19th century.

The reality is that Britain is a small isolated country in the north of Europe, seemingly intent on isolating itself ever further from our European neighbours.

It is a country stilll caught up in a post imperial identity crisis. Why else would Britain continue to seek to militarily intervene in other people's countries?

published - Metro - 16/4/2018

The Ferryman is a brilliant play

The Ferryman - what a brilliant play. The twists and turns of the Troubles, depicted in the story of one family at the time of the hunger strikes in the north of Ireland. One minute the joy of getting the harvest in, the next the dark shadow of execution, masked by secrets and lies.
The family scene is set against the background of one of the disappeared, who is found in a bog, ten years after his death. The plot then vacillates between darkness and light to great effect.
The ability of writer Jez Butterworth and director Sam Mendes to take a character from the background and bring him or her to the fore to become a catalyst for another turn in the narrative is brilliant .The play runs for 3 hours but is so gripping, the time flies by. Great play - on at the Gielgud theatre till 20 May

First major venture from Wild Wanstead - the flowering of the streets

The flowering of Wanstead streets

 

Wild Wanstead is to champion the seeding of tree pits across the town.

The organisers hope that the initiative will bring a splash of colour and boost for local wildlife across Wanstead over the coming months.

The initiative picks up on the Seeds for Snaresbrook project run in some roads from 2014. On that occasion, the funding for the seeds came from the council, with Friends of the Earth co-ordinating the project. 

The motivation on that occasion was to help the bee population.This time it is hoped birds, bees, butterflies and other insects in decline will benefit from the native wildflowers, as well as bringing th visual transformaton of our streets.

The idea is at embryonic stage, with an approach being made to the council but nothing will happen there now until after the local elections. 

At this stage, Wild Wanstead are looking for volunteers who would be prepared to plant the bases around tree (pits) in their roads and look after them. If interested, please get in touch via the website -www.wildwanstead.org

Paul Donovan, who is part of Wild Wanstead and helped organise the Seeds for Snaresbrook project, said: "This will be a great way to push ahead with the Wild Wanstead initiative. It will help the wildlife in the area and transform our roads into a sea of dramatic colour.

"When we planted the tree bases before it worked really well, the aim now must be to renew those areas where they were planted before and extend the planting across Wanstead to those roads not included last time. 

"To do that we need people to come forward and volunteer. If people want to include their road and take part please get in touch."

published Wanstead & Woodford Recorder - 5/4/2018
Wanstead & Woodford Guardian - 12/4/2018