Yesterday, parents and protesters from the group 'Hands Off Lewisham Bridge' helped ruin Gordon Brown's day. Brown was due to deliver a speech on parent power - the nerve! - at Prendergast Hilly Fields School in Lewisham, when he found himself confronted with some real life parent power. Prendergast school is in the same London borough where parent activists have been continuously occupying the roof of Lewisham Bridge primary school for thirteen days in protest at the council's plans to demolish the Grade II listed building.Arriving at nearby Prendergast school, Brown was confronted with angry chants of 'Students and Parents Unite' and 'Hands Off Lewisham Bridge'. One protester, fancying himself a modern day Emily Davison no doubt, even launched himself in front of the Prime Minister's car before being bundled away by violent police. So much for parent power, Mr Brown. Here is the incident caught on film:
Check out the Independent for further information.
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1 comments:
Hey Apologies but my blog wont let me post on it at the moment. This is a response to your comments.
It has been hard work to try and make sense of the quagmire of information that’s been coming from all sides but this is what I’ve come up with through speaking to various people.
Originally the.....
"Greens, along with the Socialists and other parties, called for a community school, i.e. one run by the local authority, but this was blocked by education minister Ed Balls".
The Greens are not in favour of privatising the school. The process of finding a site for the school has been going on for two years and I think to a certain extent the Green Cllrs have just given up fighting against it. The PFI debate is bigger than one(worthy) school campaign.
The Socialist Cllrs were instrumental in backing the redevelopment of the school as were the Greens. They have a desperate need for more school places and this is inner city London so there is also the Green Space issue. The Green Cllrs were in favour of finding a site for a community school and had wanted to use Lewisham Bridge...which at the time was not even a listed building! The Green Left Cllr has abstained on the main motions…despite her comrades in the SP and GP ploughing ahead.
Now it appears the Socialist Cllrs have done a U-Turn which to be honest is a good thing, recognising that the will of the people is against them and yes I am hoping to make the other Green Cllrs to actively campaign with the parents on this one. We are a de-centralised party and along with the many perks there are minuses. That said the Green Left Cllr has stood her ground and Green left Comrades have were doing stints on the roof up until a few days ago.
Ultimately as the Rose Cottage and other similar campaigns have shown me. Cllrs don’t have any real say in the planning process, and the PFI debacle is the Labour Governments funding method.
And yes I am circulating our response internally and intend to follow it up.
Apologies if this responses seems snappy but I find it unusual how people always focus on the Greens behaviour and not on lets say...oh the Socialist Party? The Green party is a centre left party and tends to act accordingly-although the Green Left have made huge strides forward in a short space of time. Whats the SP's excuse?
Gx
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