Compromised Opinions of the Croydon Incinerator

The opinion of Gavin Barwell, Croydon Central MP, towards the Viridor incinerator is completely irrelevant.

Many Labour supporters have spent the week trying to embarass Mr. Barwell into taking a firm stand against the incinerator. This is something Mr. Barwell cannot do.

Not because Mr. Barwell has a deep love for incinerators. Not even because he will spend more time being sweet talked by Viridors sale teams instead of listening to alternatives. These guys have well prepared pitch and will leave him thinking that there is only one option.
The decision on wheither or not to be build an incinerator has long since left the rights and wrongs of the issue behind.

The main reason for building an incinerator is now to avoid making Councillor Thomas looking like a fool.

Croydon Labour are as much to blame as anyone. Maybe it's the political system as a whole.

I would expect Mr. Barwell to come to his own decision on the merits of the incinerator. Wheither his political opponants like it or not, he is an intelligent individual. However, the Croydon Labour party would be popping champagne between now and Christmas if he came out against the incinerator. This is a prize too great for any Conservative to hand to Labour on a plate.

There is a precedent though.

In 2006 Kent CC were in the same shoes and went ahead with the Allington incinerator. At the time Councillor Keith Ferrin said it had to be done to deal with Kents' rubbish. Now he says he got duff information, that the decision was a stupid one and he curses the 25 year contract he has locked himself into.

That took real guts to come out and say that. I bet if he could turn back time to before the contact was signed and the incinerator built he would make a different decision. That is where we are now here in Croydon. We do not need to sleep-walk into another bad decision because we are too ashamed to admit we were wrong.

The Londonwide Members of the London Assembly.

An unexpected pleasure of combining the local political and twitter battlegrounds has been the various tweetups that have been arranged by the ever resourceful members of the Croydon scene. These gatherings allow for a more informal atmosphere for people to meet each other for a chit-chat about whatever is going on in their lives or community at that time. Inevitably when I introduce myself with my twitter name of CroydonGreens a political discussion soon follows. Let’s be frank, that is why I’m there. To represent the Greens as an accessible political group and to dispel any lingering views that you have to be an extremist hippy to join up. It works in the opposite direction too. I have enjoyed the company of members of rival political parties and we can discuss issues honestly without the Punch-and-Judy style that is commonplace across the chamber floor of Croydon Council or on your twitterfeed. Long may what is said at tweetup stay at tweetup.

One discussion I did have, that I feel the need to follow up, was on the concept of the List system for electing additional members of the London Assembly. It was suggested to me that it was odd that certain members of the GLA did not have to answer to any particular area or electorate. That is technically true however it cannot be suggested that they do not represent anyone. For example, the 2 Green Assembly Members represent me. In theory it could be, and should be, argued that I am represented by the Croydon and Sutton GLA member, Conservative Steve O’Connell but that’s not really the case.

All politicians know which side their bread is butter on. Steve O’ Connell likes his bread buttered on both sides. *Let’s all take a moment to enjoy my cheap (although highly accurate) gag*. Most Croydonians reading this will be aware of Mr O’Connell’s work in his many jobs and will either admire him or despise him for it. Analysis of his record is not really the point of this post.

My point is this. Steve O’Connell does not need my vote to get elected; the colour of his rosette does that job for him. The same can be said of my MP, Malcolm Wicks and indeed my Ward Councillors. Therefore I cannot go to any of these people and expect to get any worthy response other than “I’ll see what I can do {now stop cluttering up my office}.”

The 9,000 people in Croydon and Sutton who voted for Shasha Khan at the 2008 GLA election would continue to feel this sense of disengagement if it were not for Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson fighting the good fight on their behalf. OK, since then we have managed to get our first MP elected but, let’s face it, the FPTP system used in Local and Parliamentary elections are always going to be more of a hindrance, than a help, to the Green Party cause.

The real allure of the upcoming elections in London is that it gives voters of other Parties who have an interest in green issues the ability to vote Green without having the guilt of turning their back their Parties' chosen candidate.

For example, a Conservative supporter can vote for Boris and Steve O’Connell and still give a vote to the Greens for the Assembly. I find there is a bit of snobbery within the Green Party at times when it comes to the values of those who vote Conservative. I find that many of those people hold deep concerns about the environment, it’s just not their number one issue and their worries are not being adequately met by their Party leaders. These are potential votes that deserve more than to be dismissed.

This is even more true for a Labour supporter who vote for Jenny Jones first and Ken Livingstone second in the mayoral election, knowing their vote will be counted for Ken when the big two slug it out for the role of Mayor; They can then vote for Louisa Woodley and round it off by ticking the Green Party on the Assembly list.

It is worth noting that all 3 LibDem members plus 3 more Conservative and 2 more Labour members are elected using the system, so it’s not as if this method penalises the bigger parties in any way. Curious that this structure is being used, without any of the bitter commotion that surrounded the AV disaster this time last year.

But that’s a different story.