Preface....this is the post I started with before the 2010 election. This blog will be updated with new posts soon about my forthcoming travels...watch this space.
Having lived in Tottenham since 1983, I am shortly to stand for the Green Party in the general election. So it won't be the last time you see this woolly hat in the next while. Recognise the lady I'm with on the right ? Jean Lambert, our Green MEP - it was at the recent Newroz celebration in Finsbury Park.
I support the Green Party because it stands up for social justice. Getting something done about climate change is an important part of that, because the floods, droughts and storms associated with climate disruption hit the poor hardest, from New Orleans to Bangladesh and in flooded British towns as well. But the Green Party’s policies are about much more than the environment – it’s the party that stands for taxing the rich to sort out the national budget crisis, rather than slashing services for the poor, and it’s the party which opposes handing over parts of our precious public services to be run by big companies for profit.
Before I retired in 2008, I spent several years in social policy research, at London South Bank University and before that in research consultancy. (See below for some examples of my writing) Giving up paid work has offered me time to do many other things. Locally I’m active in Sustainable Haringey and I was co-founder of the Tottenham Food Coop. I also help to run a big allotment site at Tottenham Hale. I’ve also been working with the local campaigns against health cuts - to save the Whittington Hospital A&E and challenge health service privatisation.
For several years I have also been active in the struggle to preserve civil liberties, opposing ‘stop and search’ practices and the various forms of punishment without trial associated with anti-terrorism measures.
International solidarity has always been a big thing for me, ever since I spent much time at university collecting funds for War on Want. I worked as a ‘cooperante’ in Mozambique for three years, in the early 1980s when a post-independence skills shortage hit their civil service. Last year I spent a few weeks helping out with English classes at a community centre in the West Bank.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting here comments on current political issues and events. Keep an eye on this site and don't forget to use your vote - both in the local and the national elections!
By the way you can e-mail me at amg65amg@googlemail.com
(Some examples of my publications; see
http://www.plutobooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780745320328& or http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=278655 , or
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/11/3/gray.html )
