On A Levels - my story

 I took my A levels around 15 years ago.  Some of the grades were based on AS level results.  Knowing these rules I worked hard for the previous year's sets of exams too and despite flagging a bit at the end I achieved top grades.  Attending independent school and having private tuition and lots of support from grandparents as well as parents, and of course the local library, I worked hard and was able to sail through without distraction; as well as succeeding in exams I had some education in how to be happy and some extra curricular activities and activism.

I had an offer from Durham and a lower offer from Nottingham Uni, but I already had my heart set on Nottingham.  We had a wonderful professor there who later joined the royal society as a fellow.  Nottingham was not too far and often my friends with cars would let me hitch a ride, often arriving to my door at the bottom of the M1 in a couple of hours without even a break.  Sometimes I would get the train or hitchhike, and I visited London for national demostrations, and meetings of the Board of Deputies or UJS advanced political and educational training. - Nottingham was the biggest and fastest growing J Soc in the country at the time and was the campus where Limmud took place.  Being in the Midlands also allowed me to travel the country and experience the UK beyond London, more directly.  It was also, I'm told, less costly than living as a student in central London, while being able to live outside my parents home for the course.

I graduated into a recession and financial crisis triggered by sub prime mortgages, and struggled to get my foot on the job ladder, moved back to my parents, and volunteered in a charity shop for Age UK / Help the Aged.  I volunteered for Caroline Lucas' successful election campaign and to re-elect Green councillors, as elections and campaigns officer on the national committee of the Young Greens, England & Wales, and was involved in the London Young Greens and local Green Party here in the Borough of Barnet.  After attending a Jobcentre course, I got my own gardening business off the ground.

Thanks to my science background - GCSEs, A-Levels, and my B.Sc. - I was able to get into my chosen career of horticulture - with fees paid for by my family, and did some work experience on the course at Avenue House, a local stately home and arboretum.  I've always loved trees - and my plans to carry on with my degree subject, I later saw as unrealistic.  Though vocational qualifications in the UK are lower status than a degree, there was an over-supply of graduates in the job market and underqualified perhaps, I am always able to find work with my BTEC and though I now get offered employment in many locations, I turn down these offers to work self-employed as my own boss, my own way.

 If I was hiring some staff in the gardening business who might want to make their own career in that field, I could do so one day a week as part of the BTEC course with accreditation in the practical side of things.  I realise my back and knees aren't always going to be as strong as younger garden labourers - but the best way to get ahead in the gardening trade is to also teach practical and business tasks to a trainee. 

In the summer before Uni, I seriously considered going straight to work in a trade after meeting an electrician on my travels.  Probably for class reasons, my grandparents dissuaded me from dropping out.  I did have to drop down from 4 to 3 years of Uni partly due to lack of enough income, and partly because I wanted to do something new.  It might have been cheaper to go to college and get a trade before university in later life, who knows!  But it was partly my science discipline that I had on my CV that made me a good candidate to study horticulture.

Over the years I have come to become suspicious of mortgages (maybe because of the 2009 crash).  My boss after college actually passed away shortly after having paid off his mortgage.  At university I went in quite sexist and snobbish, and left less so, and less keen to work for British Petroleum or in polluting chemical industries.  I wanted to do something to make the world a better place and realised that maybe the best thing would be to do something that kept me going and surviving, while able to devote some spare time to activism and things worth doing.  I was very lucky that I've been given the chance to do a job that I love and am in many ways, in my ideal job.  People at the agency placement I worked at temporarily says I'd have to be mad to give that up and work for them.

Why I'm IN

writing, as always, in a personal capacity! The story starts when I joined the Green Party a long time ago. I remember watching Caroline Lucas' speech at Glastonbury talking about what a difference Green MEPs make. Derek Wall came up and told me to join the Green Party and I said I've already joined. I made some compromises and followed the party line much of the time. I later found out I didn't have to be so cautious of having my own opinion. I first put my name on a motion to conference about 5 years in (against implementing local government cuts, it was amended by Darren Johnson and Green Councillors) and it took me a while to really throw my weight around. Now I am on policy committee and very high up in JfJfP so it's come full circle. On most things I try and adhere to the party line because it's just a lot easier to make changes by convincing people in the party to come around to my view. In turn I listen to others and are moved by what they come up with. It's my job on policy committee to make sure members have an equal say, including on this issue. When I first stood as a general election candidate I was asked all sorts of questions including about the EU referendum which had not been announced yet. Rather than state my party's opinion, and then my own, I responded that yes we want a referendum but unlike David Cameron the reforms we want from Europe are very different. That was my 10 seconds of fame, at Mill Hill residents association, but the truth can not be summed up in 10 seconds. My favorite hustings was actually MMK school, where the kids politely got a lot out of me and who could lie to or betray those sweet kids. But my favorite thing about all this is feeling I am making a difference, that my work is key to the democracy of the party. In some way my endless trawling through positions the Greens have taken on Europe means that whatever position we take collectively is the preferred one based on evidence from millions of conversations. In 2014, the year before the General election, I helped hold London Green Party's seat in the European Parliament. We also gained a seat in the South West of England. As far as I was concerned I did not really care who the candidate was or what they did in Europe. For Barnet Green Party it was a chance to do something and we actually ended up getting more votes accross Barnet for the Council, than in Barnet for re-electing our Euro seat. At the time you could call me Euroskeptic, not really in the "out" camp, I despise Nigel Farage's UKIP, as an anti-facist, but undecided or not taking a position. I do not think the EU is a top concern to voters like the NHS, affordable housing, or migration. What swung it for me was my trip to help elect German Green Party MEPs in 2014. I spent every day for the week that I toured with the German Green Youth and a French Green Youth, and spent every night campaigning. We had a few campaigns which we interchanged in the different towns we toured: -Asylum and Frontex -TTIP and GMO's -Democracy, Solidarity, Europe! -For people to vote for Terri for all these reasons and more (many had already voted) -Anti-facism opposing the extreme right wing parties. and finally -Same-sex hand-holding and the International Day Against Homophobia, followed by a trip to a gay bar Having a gorgeous dinner which I cooked myself from local ingredients at Effi's home, Effi asked how we could counteract UKIP in the UK and why the UK want to leave Europe. We talked about other things and German state politics, which the Greens were involved in a Green-Black coalition in the area. I learned so much during that trip about our shared European identity. I saw how our allies the pirate party campaigned to legalise weed (a personal stance more liberal than Barnet Green Party's) I have spoken to old members who remember the many years the Green Party opposed EU membership, and new members inspired by the "seeing green" and "young greens" leadership. In summary I like my new European identity much better than my old undemocratic British citizenship, if you could even call it citizenship. I would not go as far as to say I love it. But a vote to stay in Europe can make another Europe Possible; -one with an alternative trade mandate that learns from the mistakes of the Common Agricultural Policy and provides better environmental regs than being the 51st state of America would. -Solidarity. A union where I (we) could be part of something with my (our) peers from the Federation of Young European Greens after last year's climate mobilisation, we'll be mobilising at the COP22 in Marakesh next year. -Living in a democracy with free and fair elections, working with other democracies on citizens' initiatives such as re-thinking the prohibition of Cannabis. David Cameron says giving prisoners the vote makes him physically sick. Physically sick. -A so-called Brexit is what the rightwing newspapers have been campaigning for for all my life. Dictators such as Murdoch, Putin, and their far-right allies would be very happy with a "leave" vote. Even a narrow majority would give them a chance to further destabilise our institutions, our democracy, and return to nationalism and their very scary views on race and identity. The real scare tactics are coming from the far-right and always have been, to sow distrust with our neighbours, to make make neighbours hate each other, with stories about muslims and disabled people. I don't associate myself with everyone on this side of the debate, and I respect my 20% of Green friends who take the other position, but if there's one thing we learned from the Scottish Indy referendum, it's that if we play this right it can unite us as a party and lead to a surge in interest amongst a population turned-off politics before. Please head over to the website "another europe is possible" and give us your email address and postcode. We'll be in touch! Ben Samuel - Proud campaigner, Former General Election 2015 candidate for Hendon ________________________________ P.S. We've got a debate scheduled at Middlesex University, organised by Poppy 7pm March 21st. On the panel we have representatives from both sides of the debate. For more info contact Poppy or look on Barnet Green Party facebook. I won't be there because I have an other meeting, with London Green Party. However here are my views on the EU and the real reason I will be voting in the #EUref.

What I will say at tonight's protest

Many voters in West Hendon did not vote for this government or this council. activists such as myself have been at the front line of Housing Struggles whether West Hendon in Hendon, Sweets Way in Chipping Barnet, or the Whitefields estate in Golders Green. The Government is taking steps to make more laws against public disorder, The Daily Mail screams that they want to scrap the Human Rights Act which they claim is aimed at Abu Hamza and benefit scroungers but we've been trying to meet these benefit scroungers but the millionaires are nowhere to be seen. Both Matthew Offord and the UKIP chap refused to come to West Hendon residents association for a hustings. And yet the conservatives have the chutzpa to claim they share British values of democracy. What is democracy when they are blind to the needs of the most vulnerable in our society? A Green Mayor of London --- would tackle air pollution head on, not try and hide the scientific evidence. A Green London Assembly member for Barnet & Camden would stop social cleansing - Kosovo style or Westminster style A Green assembly member from the proportional representation top up list would would continue to fight for every square inch of green spaces Dan ----- has done a grand job of getting an affordable deal including parking and so on. However, my mate --- is an accidental landlord in ------ Close and he does not know what to do because he is being told he has to take his private tenant to court in order for her to be re-housed. Where will she go? A Green Mayor of London would replace intermediate products such as "shared ownership" and "shared equity" that don't stay permanently affordable with co-operative home ownership and rental models. Our West Hendon is not a political organisation it is a community organisation. That's why I told Janette if we send a message out saying Vote Labour that would be a betrayal of the trust we have built up over the last year. But I campaigned on cutting VAT for refurbishment, that could cut your heating bills to less than a hundred pounds a year, and boost the economy. What has Labour and local politicians ever done for us? Did they sign the petition? NO! The Green Party signed it but, then Labour started their own petition against the rent hike. The email Paulette and Lubna sent out raised the question. If everyone is going to lose their affordable homes what is the point of this protest? At MIPIM UK alternative conference someone asked, What does victory look like? Well the Mayor and the Council have tried to divide and rule the community. We are here to show who is in charge. This land is our land. This is our town hall. It does not matter if Matthew Offord says wants to help lease holders over tenants, everyone has a human right to housing. And why would he say that? No one in this campaign feels like they are taking on the council on their own. Tenants have stuck together with lease holders through the inquiry. If we can just hand in the petition to the Council at 7 p.m. tonight, in a dignified manner, we can make them listen, and we can show what a strong position we are in. This is the first time that has happened that we take the fight to the Council and make them listen.

Imagine

Barnet Green Party, with over 300 members, can be trusted to represent you, based on ten core principles that define Green politics.

Here is the Green vision in terms readers "not interested in politics" can understand.

May 2nd, 2020, you are woken by your children walking to school, with the sun's rays lighting up your spacious home, reflected off solar panels.  Back in the "oil age" it was just garages out there but your Residents Association released it for 50 council homes, under the community right to build. Because TTIP was stopped back in 2015, you are able to take your coffee with fresh organic milk from Edgware, as you catch up with an elderly neighbour about the democracy you still enjoy.

You kiss your spouse goodbye as you both head to work, which is a ten-minute bike-ride through the regenerated town centre.  As you buy your daily "Hendon Times" the shop-keeper tells you about her railway tour through Europe's green and pleasant land - yesterday was a bank holiday.  You dock your bike in the cycle hire stand outside work as your eye pad logs in to the public wi-fi for a video conference.  Your colleague, who had another baby, feels happy with the community NHS and is enjoying free child care. After the 2014 Gagging Law was repealed, your colleagues were able to campaign with North London Citizens for a £10 Living Wage.  Poppy, the Council's leader, is on the line, listening to the concerns of local business about parking (some things never change).

At 28 and very much the new kid on the block, I am trail-blazing with a positive message and clean campaign. My priority is putting the community first, better transport, stronger society, fairer economy, for the common good.

Crowdfunder (like pledgebank, deposit bonds, or kickstarter)

then 3 come along at once

What an eventful lunchbreak.  I haven't heard the results of the vote yet and will phone the clerk to the governing body (Ext 185 on a Monday) to ask how many votes I got.

B A (I think that's his second initial) in Animal Care (I think) was suspended for getting caught with an alleged roll-up this morning.  The other dope-smokers seem to know a lot about it.
Someone threw an egg at us (gazebo / smoking area).  I'll load the photo evidence later.  I'm not sure which it was, but I know what both of them look like.
Nikki, who looks like Chloe without the braces, ran after them yelling and a L1 Animal care tutor came along.
I saw David heading towards the scene of the crime as well.  Some hot drinks were involved too.

There is not enough to do at lunch break but I don't agree that clamping down, or throwing eggs at the smoking area, is an adequate long term solution.  BA should definitely not be expelled, though that is not college policy.  He has the right to a phone call, and texted a friend, but is not picking up. 

Afternoon with Bob now, business studies.