Speaking up for the planet

On Wednesday I joined thousands to lobby my MP and speak up for the things we love, which are threatened by climate change.

One report is here

He gave us nearly an hour of his time which is bloody impressive considering the fact that when I asked him by email, I got the impression he wasn't coming because he had something else on.

That's me in the Green t-shirt.
Persistence pays: We phoned his Westminster office twice!

A journalist came up and spoke with him afterwards and I really enjoyed spending time with local 38 degrees members in the process of tracking the politician down.
I also filled in a feedback form to report back to the Climate Coalition.

On Ken Loach's institutional antisemitism

I have not read the BDS letter in the Guardian but learning of it in Jewish News, I disagree with the move against the modern day equivalent of the Hebrew Bible. I supported Israeli film from the beginning. In my student years I saw "Turn Left" a film with the Union of Jewish Studies about a family Indian immigrants to Israel. On my last trip to Israel I discovered the subsidised film industry that made "Fla'ot" a film about gangsters that kidnap a Rabbi they believe to have magical powers. Students at Sussex continue to celebrate the feminist film focusing around a bizarre check-point mix up, Israel's answer to Hollywood's "trading places". Other anti-cuts activists make it impossible for many young people to have a proud Jewish Left-wing identity. I have not read Ken Loach's letter to the Guardian but I saw his film "The Spirit of '45" which of course ignores the pioneering work of socialists in Israel-Palestine under the British Mandate. If it were not for subsidies from the state of Israel to Hebrew film it would be as dead as Elstree's film industry. I am not a big film buff but I hope any up-coming London politicians will keep their promise to oppose divisive boycotts recognise how essential SERET film festival is to our culture.
Ben Samuel, via email

Leadership

The Green Party is in a strong position in this country when it comes to leadership contests. I would not know where to start when talking about who runs my local party, which is the building block of how we organise because of our belief in devolution on putting power locally. A lot of it is looking at the selection for the Mayor of London in 2016. Like the leader, our Mayoral and Barnet & Camden candidate will have to be good at speaking for us through the broadcast media. For me leadership is not about blindly following some dictator or a cult of personality. It is a quality within us all. The question is what defines us "going forward". Are we going to sit there and take heavy election defeats (in which case look no further than Barnet and Hertsmere branches) or are we going to be an insurgent political party achieving great and radical swings in a warming Britain? It's terribly unpredictable but in the next few years it is in our hands. Those are my thoughts on leadership, and you bet I will be part of the next Green wave.