Jean Lambert, MEP, has offered her heartfelt thanks to the voters of London, who re-elected her as a member of the European Parliament this month for the third time with substantially strengthened support.

The Green Party received 10.9% of votes across London, an increase of 2.5 percentage points on the result on the last Euro-pean election. This put the Green Party in fourth position across London, just behind the Liberal Democrats, who took 13.7% of votes, 1.6 percentage points down.

Observers at the Camden count estimated a particularly strong vote for the Green Party within the Holborn and Covent Garden ward, which bodes well for next year’s council elections. Across Camden, the Green Party confirmed its position as one of the four main parties, all of which are now split by less than seven percentage points.

Jean Lambert said: “I am really pleased that we increased our vote in London, against tough competition and am very proud to continue to represent London. All through the campaign, we

Thank you for your votes, Holborn and Covent Garden!

Green Party: the courage to change

Jean Lambert and the London Green Party team toured London in a traditional double-decker bus powered by recycled cooking oil

1.3 million voters choose the GreensThe Green Party vote overall around England and Wales in the European election grew by a far greater proportion than that of any other party. The party won 9% of the national vote, an increase of three percentage points. Caroline Lucas, the party leader, was re-elected as an MEP in the South East, also for a third term, with 11.6% of the vote, 3.4 percentage points ahead of Labour.

The Green Party topped the count in Brighton, Oxford and Norwich. The party also finished second in the counts in Islington and Hackney and did extremely well in Lewisham.

Greens fight for living wage for council staff

Green councillors, working with their Labour counterparts, have forced Camden council to con-tinue considering ensuring that all staff working for the council, including contractors, receive the London living wage. This willinvolve an investigation into low pay for council staff.

The move was opposed by Liberal Democrat councillors, and the Conservatives didn’t attend the Resource and Corporate Performance Committee last month. The Tory/Lib Dem council administration has been directed to research the issue of low pay at Camden Council in time to contribute to the discussion of the tendering of part-time worker contracts on 21 July.

Alex Goodman, leader of the Green Group on Camden council

The National Minimum Wage is set at £5.73; and the London Living Wage, calculated to allow a minimum decent standard off living in the capital, is £7.60.

Alex Goodman, leader of the Green Group, said: “It has been calculated that the financial im-pact of making the London Living Wage a contractual requirement would cost the council about £1m a year, out of a total budget of £259 million, a sum that would ensure that basic, decent provision for Camden care workers, cleaners and caterers, essential workers in our community.”

Greens in London have been consistently working for every-one in the capital to receive the Living Wage. Jean Lambert, the Green MEP, spoke in Bloomsbury on International Workers’ Day, in support of the Bloomsbury Living Wage Campaign.

Camden Green News One World. One Chance. Vote Green Party. HOLBORN AND COVENT GARDEN June 2009

In the local elections, the party made its breakthrough onto four new county councils: Cambridgeshire, Devon, Glouces-tershire and Suffolk.

In Norfolk the Greens held

two seats and gained five. In Lancashire the party successfully defended one seat and gained a second. The Green Party ended the campaign with 123 council-lors on 42 councils.

found people wanted to talk to us about many of the serious issues facing the EU, including future negotiations on climate change, the future of trading partnerships and their effect on poorer countries, the human rights policies of the EU.”

Jean continued: “In the new Parliament, Greens will obviously be working on the new negotia-tions on climate change planned for Copenhagen later this year. I want to continue working on the employment part of this – how to develop jobs in the new en-ergy industries, for example, but

also how to improve training to ensure every job has less impact on the environment.

“New equalities legislation is also due. I am committed to ensuring this happens and that the EU makes the current laws work. Given the election results in other parts of the UK, it’s really important that I support and promote London’s positive actions, experience and attitude.”

She concluded: “Having the support of so many London-ers of so many different back-grounds is something that I truly value.”

Jean Lambert re-elected as MEP

10.9% of Londoners back Green Party

This leaflet is printed on recycled paper using environmentally friendly inks. Please recycle it after you’ve read it.

The Camden vote for the four main parties

Labour Party11167, 23.68%

Conservative Party10400, 22.05%

Liberal Democrats10180, 21.59%

Green Party8040, 17.05%

Caroline Lucas MEP visits the RSPCA shelter in Brighton

Your area forumThe council-run area forum will next meet on; Wednesday 24 June, 7-9pm

Coram’s FieldsThe Band Room

93 Guilford StreetLondon WC1N 1DN

There is now a £10,000 fund for each ward. The council is seeking local input into how to spend it.

We would like to encourage local input into this and other council decision-making.

London faces legal action over deadly air quality

Green party membership grew by 8.5% during the six weeks of the Euro-pean election campaign. But there’s a lot of work to do and everyone can help, whether you want to be an armchair member or get more involved. In the next Camden council elections in 2010, we’ll be working to elect Greens in Hol-born and Covent Garden and surrounding areas.

In the parliamentary seats of Brigh-ton Pavilion, being contested by Caro-line Lucas MEP, in Lewisham Deptford and in Norwich South, as well as here in Holborn and St Pancras, Greens are surging particularly strongly.

Please join online at www.greenparty.org.uk, or con-tact the number or address below for an application form. If you’re not quite ready to do that, but would like to help us out, please contact southcamdengreenparty@ googlemail.com or 07967-417859, or fill in the form left and send it to South Camden Green Party, 56 Walker House, NW1 1EP.

Donations to “Camden Green Party” are also highly welcome.

Join a successful, growing party - the REAL Greens

A single computer, monitor and printer can use £100 a year in electricity. Laptops on average use 70% less energy than desk-tops, so if you have a choice, us-ing the former will save energy.

The most energy-efficient

The UK faces an embarrassing legal wrangle during the 2012 Olympics over its failure to act on air pollution, Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party MEP, has warned.

The European Commission has already launched legal action against the UK over breaching standards on particulate matter (PM10), the tiny airborne parti-cles emitted by industry, vehicles and domestic heating, which can cause and irritate conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular

Finding junk mail a problem?We can supply you with a free ‘no junk mail’ sticker, and informa-tion on how to stop ad-dressed junk mail. To get the sticker and infor-mation call Natalie on 07967-417859 or email southcamdengreenparty@googlemail.com, or write to 56 Walker House, NW1 1EP.

If you have a sticker already, you might be wondering why this leaflet arrived on your doormat.

We don’t regard

political communications as ‘junk mail’, but an im-portant way of helping people exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities.

And we think that if you have gone to the trouble to try to cut down paper usage, you might particularly want to hear about the Green Party’s work.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

www.camden.greenparty.org.ukPromoted and published by Edward Milford on behalf of Camden Green Party, both of 25 Parliament Hill, London NW3 2TA. Printed by Hillingdon Greenprint, 58 Beech Avenue, Ruislip, HA4 8UQ on recycled paper using environmentally friendly inks.

Camden Green News One World. One Chance. Vote Green Party. June 2009

Manage your computer to save cash on electricity

disease, lung cancer and lead to premature death.

On two major stretches of road in London, both near the edges of Camden, levels of another dangerous pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, are double the limits set by the World Health Organisation. NO2 limit values come into place in 2010, and if the UK is still in breach of these it risks further action from the Commission.

Jean’s warning follows a report by the Greater London Assembly’s Environment Com-mittee, then chaired by Green Party AM Darren Johnson, into air quality in the capital. The report noted that health prob-lems caused by air pollution cost the NHS £20 billion a year. The report recommended action to reduce road traffic and encour-age walking and cycling, and

laptops have “Energy Star” labels awarded by the US goverment.

Both laptops and desktops can be simply programmed to go into “sleep” mode after an appropriate period of inactivity - perhaps 5 or 10 minutes. This will significantly put power use.

Nevertheless, in standby mode, some computers use up to £9 a year in electricity: the only way that you can be sure if isn’t using energy is to switch off the power at the plug. That’s also the most effective firewall, making your computer 100% impregna-ble to hackers. Printers use even more idle power than comput-ers. Again, switching off the plug is the answer. If your sockets are hard to reach, a good investment will be a multi-plug adaptor with individual power switches, so that you only switch on peripher-als when you need them.

Camden Green Party has wel-comed the plan to implement a cycle hire scheme in central London similar to Paris’s Velib, although expressed regret that it will initially be confined to only Zone 1. A total of 39 docking sta-tions are planned in Camden and the scheme is scheduled to begin in May next year.

Natalie Bennett, the Green

Party’s coordinator in South Camden, said: “The scheme should discourage car use and take some pressure off the hard-pressed peak-hour Tubes. Hopefully it will also encourage more people to try cycling, with its health and environmental benefits.”

She added: “It is vital, how-ever, that with this huge addition

to cycle traffic in Camden, facili-ties are in place from day one to. ensure the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and all road-users.

“These are already crowded streets, and careful planning will be needed both in the im-mediate vicinity of the docking stations and on the cycle routes radiating out from them, to make the scheme practical.”

Concerns about cycle hire scheme

4,400the number of deaths are caused by air pollution each year in London, four times as many as earlier estimates.

Are you registered? All citizens of Britain, Ireland, European Union and Commonwealth countries should register to vote.Contact:0207-974 6000camden.gov.uk/ democracy

For Boris!Camden Green Party has given its support to the “Boris Keep Your Promise” campaign, which is calling on London’s mayor to follow his election promise in funding three new rape crisis centres in London and guar-antee funding for the existing centre. A consultation closes on 21 July. See: www.boriskeep yourpromise.org.uk

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Robert McCracken QC has lived at Seven Dials Court for 15 years. He shares his flat with his partner Sue , a psychiatrist, and nephew Ben, a film maker.

A keen cyclist, Robert says his philosophy is “Think Global, Act Local”. He has been active in the Covent Garden Community As-sociation, and has served on its executive. He is an active local campaigner, being prominent in the fight to force the Metropoli-tan Police and Camden Council

to take seriously the distress caused to local residents by nightly drug-taking and foul-ing in doorways. He helped to protect the Phoenix Garden, and subsequently made possible the creation of a new pond.

Robert is now chair of Friends of Lincoln’s Inn’s Fields, of which he is a founding member. He worships locally at the Westmin-ster Quaker Meeting House in St Martin’s Lane.

Professionally he is a barris-

ter practising from the Temple, specialising in planning, public and environmental law. He is proud of having promoted for the Lake District National Park Authority the 10mph speed limit on Windermere.

His experience of the prob-lems caused to local people by irresponsible businesses (partic-ularly noisy bars and restaurants) led him to become co author of the standard work on Statutory Nuisance, published by Tottel.

Meet a local party member…

Robert McCracken, QC