Everyone is welcome to a fundraising event to launch Barnet Green Party's campaign for the European Elections . There will be a delicious home-cooked Indian meal, and Jean Lambert MEP will be present as the guest of honour.

The event will take place on Saturday 25th October from 7pm, in North Finchley. We are asking for a contribution at your discretion.

If you want to come, or for more details, please call 020 8445 6312.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The London Underground is sending updates on its speakers policy to Barnet Green Party member Poppy, since she called the company to account over noise pollution at Woodside Park, her local station. Near the beginning of this year, Northern Line stations in Finchley were refurbished, fitting them out with speakers all along both platforms. The incessant announcements relayed over these speakers drove Poppy to send in a 600-word complaint. Since then the company has announced the cessation of all announcements after 10pm and before 7am, a reduction in the volume, and consideration of the problem of simultaneous and clashing announcements on both platforms.

"I'm sure mine was one among many complaints," says Poppy. "But I like to think that it is as articulate and as heartfelt as any."

Despite these concessions, Poppy is not content. "It's yet one more example of an unnecessary assault on our sensibilities that we need to expend energy fighting to ameliorate. I always end my letters to the tube saying I won't be happy till they take the infernal things away."

This year is also the 50th anniversary of CND with its well-focused campaign for a nuclear-free world.

The upgrading of Britain's Trident will increase the prospect of a conventional war escalating into a nuclear conflict and makes it more likely that other countries will increase their own nuclear weapons.

Billions of pounds are being spent on nuclear weapons which should instead be used to meet social needs and avert poverty.

Contact Gardi on 020 8445 6312.

It could be over a thousand pounds a year for a small shop and could destroy decades of hard work by shopkeepers who survive on small margins and provide essential community support.

Of course everyone should be able to walk along the pavement without obstruction, but a certain width of it could often be used without disrupting pedestrians. The Council itself puts advertising boards right in the middle of pavements!

Small shops are suffering enough with unfair competition from supermarkets, the loss of post offices, and free parking at Brent Cross (where more and more community events are being held, which should be in town centres).

Our town centres are the heart of our communities and some goods outside shops will make them more lively.

Barnet Green Party calls for more support for small shops.

In the Londonwide section the Green party won the backing of 18,056 people in the Barnet and Camden area, a mighty 10.2 percent of the total, which would have been enough to elect Barnet Green Party chairman Noel Lynch to the Assembly if matched across London as a whole.

The strong local support, which was less than 2,000 below the Liberal Democrats, helped ensure than Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson were re-elected to continue their very effective work for the Green Party on the Assembly.

In the Barnet and Camden constituency poll, our candidate Miranda Dunn also did very well, earning 16,782 votes or an impressive 9.50 percent.

The strong showing in these two elements of the election gives Barnet Greens a strong platform on which to build for next year's European elections and for the British general election whenever Gordon Brown finally agrees to call it.

In ward-by-ward figures for the Londonwide ballot, East Finchley was Barnet Green Party's best ward, chalking up 14.6 percent of the vote, while the Greens also scored more than 10 percent in Woodhouse, High Barnet and West Finchley.

In many cases the number of Green voters was higher than in 2004, but percentages were mostly little changed because the high profile battle between Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone also boosted the turn out of Conservative and Labour supporters.

The Green Party's total Londonwide vote soared to 203,465 this time from 160,455 in 2004, though the increase in the overall number of people casting their ballot meant the Greens' percentage of the poll remained very much the same at 8.29 percent versus 8.37 percent four years ago.

In the Mayoral vote, there was a big leap in the proportion of local voters opting for the Green Party as their second choice. Top scoring ward was East Finchley, where Sian Berry collected 25.16 percent of second preferences, a 5.50 point increase on the 2004 Mayoral result.

Among other strong districts were Coppetts, up 7.10 points at 22.66 percent, Woodhouse, up 6.27 points at 21.18 percent, and Finchley Church End, up 5.43 points at 18.92 percent.

Full results from the election can be seen at London Elects.

Barnet Green Party chairman Noel Lynch will win a seat on the London Assembly in the 1st May elections, according to the London Communications Agency's report on the election, written by leading London politics academic, Tony Travers.

"The Green Party will be looking to pick up one or both of the seats that One London will probably lose. The recent increase in environmental concerns should ensure this happens, as well as the strong performance of the Green Party on the London Assembly over the past term."

"Noel Lynch returns to the Assembly as Green member, four years after he lost his seat, alongside Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson, whose influence in the Assembly will depend hugely on whether Ken Livingstone wins a third term."

A similar report for the 2006 Local Elections correctly predicted six Green gains in Lewisham. It says the mayoral race is too close to call. The full 2008 report is available at www.londoncommunications.co.uk

Travers's report shows that it really is worth voting Green in the London Assembly election as there is an excellent chance that a locally-based Green candidate can win a seat and represent Barnet's interests as well as reinforcing the Green group which has forced Ken Livingstone to bring in a wide range of environmental policies across London.

Lynch, a long-standing campaigner for sustainable communities, is in third place on the party's list for the proportional election element of the election, which means he will become an assembly member if the Greens collect enough votes to qualify for a third seat on the 25-strong body.

Originally from Ireland, he spent 12 years running The Bargain Centre in East Finchley, where he was a founder member of local newspaper The Archer and the East Finchley Traders Association, instrumental in the founding of the Credit Union and spent six years as an adviser with the Finchley Advice Centre.

His expertise in community activism and running a small business would be a valuable addition to the assembly at this time of unprecedented threats to communities from post offices closures across London and from relentless supermarket expansion, such as the plans to open giant Tesco and Asda stores near Sainsbury's in New Barnet.

In addition to heading the Barnet party, Lynch is coordinator of the London Federation of Green Parties, effectively chairman of one of the national party's most important bodies.

Since 2005, he has combined his party work with running the Green Room charity shop in Archway Road and he is also a freelance auctioneer. If elected again, he is eager to get back into the fray and use his experience to make progress on the many issues which he champions, such as health, the homeless, the aged, disability matters and animal rights.

But it is his expertise in running a small business and organising community initiatives which Lynch believes would be his most unique contribution to Green Party work on the London Assembly, on which it is quite likely he could hold the balance of power over the Mayor's budget.

"Small businesses are essential to a thriving local community. They are the glue of a community. It has even been shown that where there are many small businesses, there is less crime," he said.

He is aghast the the proposals for not just one but two new mega stores in New Barnet. "If either one of these developments goes ahead, many shops and other small businesses will be displaced and others will have their viability threatened. New Barnet as a community could be seriously damaged," he said.

He comes from a family of publicans and, though he himself seldom drinks, another of his concerns is the shutdown of many of London's neighbourhood pubs, which act as the social focus of communities, often hosting sports teams and other clubs. "News that the Black Bull in Whetstone closed on March 31 is another chapter in a continuing sad story," he said.

Lynch's ideas for supporting neighbourhood shopping areas and encouraging people to use them include the possibility of backing delivery services for however many local shops want purchases taken to customers. Such services would enable them to compete with supermarket deliveries. Another campaign of his is for the adequate provision of public toilets.

He is a long standing opponent of plastic bags, his November 2003 London Assembly report 'Plastic not fantastic' having kicked of the movement which Gordon Brown has only recently joined.

Just click on the video below.

Shuji Imamoto, Leader of Ecolo Japan Greens, and Miranda Dunn, Green Party GLA Candidate for Barnet & Camden invite you to attend a

dedicated to the memory of the dead and the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

To commemorate the Victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Victims of Nuclear War including those killed, injured or maimed by Depleted Uranium, in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans and the Victims of Nuclear Accidents such as Chernobyl. The ceremony is taking place one day before the Anniversary of Chernobyl on the 26th April; and in the 50th Year of the formation of CND or the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

You are invited to bring a song or a poem to contribute to the event, or to say a few words. We are also asking you to bring White Flowers to commemorate the Dead. We ask you to keep your contribution from 2-3 minutes or shorter.

Gardi Vaswani, who usually conducts the Peace Ceremony on Hiroshima Day, will be leading the Ceremony.

Following the Peace Ceremony we will have a short break to share food and drink before we start the Peace Walk. There is a Café near to the Cherry Tree. We hope to visit a Church, a Mosque and a Synagogue along a circular route to spread the message of Peace and Understanding between different Communities and Religions. Please tell your friends and bring them along. We will be distributing the maps of our Peace Walk Route on the day at the Peace Ceremony.

R.S.V.P.
Tel: 020 8371 9744
32 Glenhill Close,
Finchley,
N3 2JS
Or email: mirandajanedunn@aol.com

We, the Barnet & Enfield Friends of the Earth would like to invite you to our Farmers' Market on Saturday April 5th at 10:30 for our stunt, part of the Friends of the Earth National Day of Action make the point that a Climate Change Bill is worthless without the inclusion of aviation targets.

Friern Barnet Christ Church United Reformed Church
Friern Barnet Road
Friern Barnet
London
N11

We have invited the local press and will be holding an acted stunt on the main road at 12pm with actors playing the part of Gordon Brown and aeroplanes. The market will be its usual vibrant self with Freecycle, Goat's cheese, The London Wildlife, fresh meat, jams, tea & coffee, sauces & relishes. There will be a workshop on waxing wood with natural products and seedling pots made out of newspaper for your children to take away.

Looking forward to seeing you there in full support.