National Emergency Briefing outlines the need for urgent action to address the environmental crisis - the message there is not time to waste, particularly indulging the arguments of fossil fuel funded climate deniers

Extreme weather with fires in the summer and floods in the winter, food shortages, with harvests failing every other year, poor health and growing poverty are all consequences of the climate crisis the world now faces. > These are some of the stark facts presented in the National Emergency Briefing film being shown across the land. > The film, hosted by naturalist Chris Packham, shows a briefing presented at Westminster Central Hall last November. > The briefing saw experts from several fields address different aspects of the crisis. These included weather, biodiversity, security, health, economics, tipping points and transition. > There was then discussion after each segment, with the likes of Deborah Meaden, Jennifer Saunders , Koni Haq and members of the public. > The message was stark, namely that time is running out. Some dramatic change is needed in the way that humans live on the planet > The statistics were alarming, such as that one in four homes in the UK (8 million) will be at risk of flooding by 2050. Food insecurity will increase, with food price inflation growing due to extremes of weather. A third of food price inflation was due to extremes of weather in 2023. > Britain's green and pleasant land will be no more, with extremes of cold and wet in the winter, followed by intense heat (40 degrees plus) in the summer becoming the norm. > There was an upside to this largely doomsday scenario. This envisaged a major transition away from fossil fuels dependency. More renewable energy sources making the UK more secure, with cheaper energy and food. > "Flood absorbing parks, cooler greener cities, better insulation and resilient infrastructure protect people, cut bills,improve health and create skilled jobs," said Hayley Fowler, Professor of Climate Change Impacts at Newcastle University, who cited the example of Copenhagen that has reinvented itself as a sponge city. > What the film did not tackle was the role of the climate deniers in destroying the planet. Those among the political classes, who oppose net zero policies, denying what is happening, despite the evidence all around. It is an Alice in Wonderland approach of simply denying the science of what is happening if you don't like it. > What is more such an approach - as typified by Trumps America, where wind turbines are being destroyed to restore fossil fuel sourced energy - is economically backward. > China is leading the charge on renewables, with growing amounts of its energy coming from that source. It also supplies 80 per cent of the world's solar panels and over half of the electric vehicles. > China is moving totally away from fossil fuels, which are not only damaging the planet but becoming the most expensive way of supplying energy. It is not doing this out of some sense of altruism but because it makes economic and rational sense. > In this area, Trump''s policies will once again ultimately make America poorer again. > The recently elected Reform councils pledged to go back to the future by reversing environmental measures, will soon find this costs more money. The penny has to drop sometime that net zero is the only way forward. > The National Briefing Film is a great tool to communicate the nature of the crisis and the need for urgent action. Organisers want the film to be shown in community groups across the country, with MPs and councillors invited. The ultimate goal is to get a one hour screening of the film on TV. > What is for sure is that urgent action is needed. This is a worsening crisis, not another view on climate. Positive things are happening in this country at local and national level but everything has to happen more quickly. The upside is more jobs, security, cheaper energy and food plus a better life. The alternative is the end of life as we know it. >

To Kill a Mockingbird - Wyndham theatre

To Kill a Mockingbird - Wyndham Theatre The latest production of To Kill a Mockingbird has prescient timing,coming as the darker forces of violence and racism are very much on the move in Trumps America. The scenes dramatically brought to life in this play reminds all of how close to the abyss things have become. Previous incarnations of the play have had the luxury of a feeling of looking back, things aren't as bad now as then - no one could fall into that trap now. In Trumps America the lynch mob mentality has been emboldened, out on the streets in official and unofficial guises. The central character of Atticus Finch is played to great effect by Richard Coyle. The moral, yet vulnerable man, multi-layered, rather than simply good versus evil. He and the children Scout Finch (Anna Munden), Jem Finch (Gabriel Scott) and Dill Harris (Dylan Malyn) hold the narrative together. The whole episode is set over one summer. This adaptation by Aaron Sorkin brings the black characters very much into the foreground. In the original 1960 Harper Lee book, and then film, they were silent victims, being done to - appreciative to Atticus and the good whites. In this version, housekeeper Calpurnia (Andrea Davy) voices the anger. She is critical of Atticus, with his at times patronising ways - expecting gratitude. It is Calpurnia who breaks the reasoned tone of Atticus, when the news of the death of Tom Robinson comes through. She allocates blame to the jurors, who returned guilty verdicts, as "monsters" in the court room and "murderers" outside. Another element making this a more contemporaneous account is the role of the abusive father Bob Ewell. Played brilliantly by Oscar Pearce, the voice of the angry disempowered white man in America rings out. The supremacist message that the white man built America and Europe, yet he is the one now under threat - the new oppressed minority! Atticus is not only the lawyer defending a black man but the epitomy of everything that Ewell despises and blames for his own situation. "Your not one of us," is a memorable line. Director, Bartlett Sher, ensures the right tempo throughout, dark forces at play, yet also much virtue and quite a bit of humour. On set there is slick switching between the courtroom and the Finch house. The design is very good, enabling a seamless flow in proceedings. One possible fault would be the transition from court scene, verdict and death of Robinson to the later action involving the attack on the children and saviour role of Boo Radley. This passage has a slightly disjointed feel. Overall, though, this is an excellent production, well worth seeing. The way in which the original book has been brought up to date to resonate with Trump's America makes it particularly poignant. There is also a clear warning as to where things are headed, if the divisions now widening in society, are not healed soon. Runs till 12 September

Read the insider story of Labour under Starmer

Get in - the inside story of Labour under Starmer by Patrick Maguire & Gabriel Pogrund Published by Vintage £12.99 This devastating account of the rise and falling years of Keir Starmer's Labour Government really does reveal the inner workings of the project. Times and Sunday Times journalists, Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, chronicle the parallel progression of Starmer and his chief collaborator Morgan McSweeney. A man determined to destroy Corbyn's Labour and build a new right wing edifice of obedient servants. All he required was an acceptable face for the project, who happens to be Starmer. The two men seem to share the same goal, with Starmer ambitious and utterly determined to become PM, no matter what the cost. So the plotting and scheming begins, in the early stages with meeting at Jenny Chapman's house in Camden. Then, other groups in other places. Starmer, though, is as ruthless as McSweeney, effectively getting rid of his cohort of inner support after the narrow Batley and Spen by-election victory in 2021. Then, the Blairites come in. Labour Together, gestated from Blue Labour, is the initial vehicle to destroy the Left. Shabana Mahmood and Conor Mcginn. are two leading figures in the fight against the Left. Mahmood does much heavy lifting across the party but is screened out of the picture, despite her Muslim heritage, at the time of the Gaza crisis. Steve Reed is another key player. An honourable mention for the Morning Star, as a must read for right winger John Spellar to see what his enemies were doing and celebrate any former hard left adversaries coming up in the obits. There are some intriguing insights such as when earlier Dominic Cummings contacted former Corbyn spokesperson Matt Zarb Cousins, suggesting that if Corbyn's Labour backed Theresa May's Brexit deal, the Tories would split enabling Corbyn to win a subsequent election promising to fund the NHS and public services. Another is McSweeney preparing for government, with a clandestine meeting with Michael Gove. The overall impression of Starmer though is a man crashing from crisis to crisis, only nominally in charge but willing to throw anyone under the bus to save his own skin. Casualties range from Corbyn and Louise Haigh to Sue Gray and in the end McSweeney himself. Angela Rayner is sidelined before she falls from grace over her tax issues. Though, she seems to have been one of the more effective ministers. Maguire and Pogrund succeed in producing what comes across as a fly on the wall account of the Starmer years. What is striking is how mythical this facade of competence, that Starmer and co endeavour to put across, actually is. Since being elected the government has just crashed from disaster to disaster - rarely seeming in control. Sue Gray, brought in as the chief of staff, to ensure a smooth transition to government, seems to do anything but. Instead, Gray seems to alienate everyone, until she has to go. Interestingly, it does not seem that despite popular perception there was any particular feud between Gray and McSweeney, more she alienated everyone and made government more difficult. The perception of constant chaos has ofcourse continued. The account ends with the budget in November 2025, so all of the stumbling of this year over Peter Mandelson, McSweeney, the local elections etc has yet to come. The overall impression is that Starmer is one of the least suited and incapable individuals to hold the office of Prime Minister probably ever. And as everyone knows there has been quite a bit of competition for that epitaph over recent years. The judgement of Maguire and Pogrund is all the stronger, given that they come over as not unsympathetic to Starmer, particularly in the early stages. They are certainly no Corbynistas. In fact, if there is a criticism it is siding too much with McSweeney and his anti-left agenda. It would also have been useful to have got an explanation as to why the hand picked 2024 intake of MPs - with the rooting out of anyone perceived to be vaguely Left - has resulted in such a rebellious Parliamentary Labour Party. The unsaid conclusion must be it has been due to Starmer's uniquely dysfunctional way of running government! Another area not addressed directly in the book is whether 2024 was like 1997 a time when Labour were bound to win, whoever they put up. The country was sick of the Tories and wanted them out. Both the Blairite apologists and those around McSweeney more recently have sort to build this myth that without radical change Labour could not have got elected. As a result, particularly with Starmer, the party has travelled policy light, bowing to all the neo-liberal shibioliths but basically pledging, while deploying the rhetoric of modernisation and change, to only manage the system better rather than replace it. The Corbyn years threatened to change the cosy arrangements but the forces within as well as without - as this book and the writers previous volume Left Out chronicle. Looking forward the quest now is whether a Burnham leadership will offer more of the same or genuine change. But I digress. Get In is a highly readable book, that exposes Starmer and McSweeney's Labour from the inside - fascinating for those who want to know how things ended up where they are today. And maybe where they are headed tomorrow.

Time to act on environmental catastrophe is running out

So the dust has settled on the local council elections in May. Labour retained control of Redbridge Council, taking 43 seats. The Independents (Your Party) got nine, the Greens and Tories five each. Thankfully only one seat for Reform. The Greens took Walthamstow Council from Labour. It will now be interesting to see if the Greens are greener in power than Labour - a big ask, especially in Waltham Forest. In Redbridge, the opposition parties will have to ensure that Labour steps up to the plate on the environment. In March, the Labour Council passed a nature emergency motion. Some suspected green washing but now is the time to prove the doubters wrong and deliver. A lot of the biodiversity gains in Redbridge have been due to the actions of residents and volunteer groups, like the Wrens, Wanstead Community Gardeners and the Friends of Wanstead Park. There has been the adoption of tree pits and creation of pollinator pathways (which include tree pits and stopping the use of pesticides in the streets). Unfortunately, there are just 10 pollinator pathways in 1800 roads in Redbridge. So, a long way to go. The concept of grow zones, where areas are allowed to run wild have been a success. Developments at Fairlop and Hainault Forest have also been encouraging. The concern though is that the council is happy to empower residents to act, just so long as it doesn't cost too much. What a real commitment to address climate and biodiversity emergencies requires is real funding and officer resources to make it happen. There also needs to be an overall effort to deepen and increase biodiversity.Too much of the borough has disappeared under concrete. Why not incentivise people to re-green their front and back gardens. Our gardens have huge potential for biodiversity - the creation of corridors and connection. There is a lot to do to really move forward on the environmental agenda. Nationally and internationally, the climate and biodiversity disasters attract a varying level of reaction. These go from Donald Trump's total denial that the disasters exist at all to the likes of Reform and the Tory Party in this country, who accept the problem but not prioritisation. Both target net zero policies as a bad thing, a luxury that cannot be afforded, whilst arms spending spirals upwards. The nihilist approach on fossil fuels like oil and gas underline the point. The country is too dependent on these energy sources, so instead of moving away from them to renewables, the Tories and Reform believe we need to double down on production. Turkeys voting for Christmas doesn't really cover it. So there are challenges at all levels. Pressure needs to be brought on national and local governments to accelerate programs to address climate and biodiversity emergencies. Denial is not an option. We must all act in different ways to bring about the change at local, national and international levels

Michael Rosen on great form for 80th birthday tour

Michael Rosen - Nice Rose Theatre, Kingston Author, poet, broadcaster and former children's laureate Michael Rosen was in cracking form at the Rose theatre for the start of his 80th birthday celebratory tour. Titled, Nice, the 60 minute show amounts to a quick run through life, with accompanying favourite poems, such as Hot Food, No Breathing and Chocolate Cake. Also, some from his new collection: Peas on Your Knees. Just honoured with the Hans Christian Andersen award for writing for his lifelong contribution to children's literature, Rosen enters his eighth decade in buoyant form. This is very much a show for the kids, with the former children's laureate immediately clicking onto their wavelength. The show is very interactive, with audience participation throughout. No recalling his long hospitalisation with COVID or the tragic death of his son Eddie.Both subjects of his last tour:Getting Through It. This is a light hearted trip through life. The odd signpost from his north London roots, such as saying his brother came south 40 years ago, he hadn't seen him since. And ofcourse Arsenal football club. Politics is limited to a dig at former education secretary Michael Gove, when he speaks of coming from the stone age. This section focusing on Rosen's age, sees him claim to be from 3,000 years old, so from the stone age. Time certainly flies with this show. A very enjoyable hour for all ages from the peoples poet. Next dates - 17/5 - Tunbridge Wells, 24/5 Norwich and 26/5 Cambridge. Tour ends next April.

4th Wanstead Beer Festival coming up on 10 October - and how about a micropub?

The fourth Wanstead Beer Festival (WBF) is nearly upon us. This year Christchurch halls and grounds will transform into a beer paradise for just one day - Saturday 10 October. So reserve the date, tickets will soon be on sale. It is intended to bring an even wider range of beers and ciders this time. There will also be a special Wanstead Beer Festival beer, brewed just for us by Sambrook breweries head brewer. So that's one to look out for. The aim is once again to keep costs down, so most beers will be around the £5 a pint mark. A few specials might be a bit more but they'll be worth it. Funds raised will again be split between three local good causes. The River Roding Trust has already been selected as one of these. Thanks also to the great support from local sponsors, pubs and breweries. So lots to look forward to. These, though, are tough times for the hospitality industry. Business rates, tax on alcohol, rising wages - all make the challenge of keeping going that much greater. The government has recently provided some relief to pubs but there is long way to go. A pub a day closed in England and Wales last year. One interesting development of recent years has been the growth of the micropub. These premises, often amount to not much more than a front room. They usually provide a number of local beers and ciders plus gin and wine. The food is basic, often something like scotch eggs or pasties. Also, often a ban on mobiles and other conversation averse technology is another plus. So, in some ways a beer festival type menu on a permanent basis. Micropubs began developing in Kent a few decades ago but have now spread all over the country. My own favourite is the Waterworks in Rye, Sussex. The Waterworks used to be a public toilet but it has transformed since 2018, winning many awards and plaudits. Micropubs seem less popular in London but surely their time is coming. The growing overheads and desire for a good value drink, plus great company, surely means a micro pub would work around here. Let's hope someone takes up the challenge. For now the WBF and our fine local pubs will have to suffice. But what these outlets prove is that there is a great demand for good ale, food and company. If you want all three in abundance come to the WBF on 10 October. * More info + tickets for the WBF at www.wansteadbeerfestival.co.uk

Great new take on One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest at the Old Vic

This excellent production of the 1960s classic One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest grips from the start. Clint Dyer's direction brings a new twist to the story, with a predominantly black cast and explosive energy throughout. The play starts with an allusion to Congo Square, New Orleans - a place of meeting for trade and expression for enslaved African Americans. A place that marked histories of resistance and culture in America. In the play, this very much comes out in the character of native American, Chief Bromden (Arthur Roan), whose past is subordinated in the disciplinarian atmosphere of the psychiatric hospital. He hides behind a pretence of deaf and dumbness, as a defence mechanism. It is only the anarchic antics of Randle P McMurphy (Aaron Pierre) that bring out the truth and Bromden's story of indigenous struggle. Pierre gives a virtuoso performance in the role made famous by Jack Nicholson in the 1975 film of Ken Kesey's book. Always on the edge, provoking and challenging what he sees as absurd rules. No utterance, though, of the classic line from the film : "medication time." Pierre creates a bustling, energetic, aggressive character but also manages to bring out an underlying vulnerability. This anarchic intent of McMurphy comes up against the authoritarian rule of Nurse Ratched (Olivia Williams). The two vying for control of the group. The power struggle is fascinating as it unfolds. There is, though, much humour to lighten the load in a play, that finally ends in tragedy. Strong tones of misogyny flow throughout the play, with for instance McMurphy's declaration that he "fights and fucks." The other characters are variously "victims" of overbearing mothers and neglectful wives. It is important, though, to remember, that Kesey's book came out in 1962 - a different time. Misogyny is ofcourse alive and well today. Dyer's direction keeps the whole play flowing with a real energy. The clever setting in the round means that the audience almost feels part of the play - patients in the hospital. Ben Stones minimalist set with the white and green tiled floor and perimeter marked with radiators brings that sense of constraint yet potential power to break out. An excellent adaptation of Kelsey's book, with power and control amid stifling group dynamics to the fore. Well worth seeing. Runs till 23 May