In the past week we received the sad news that Keith Taylor, former Green councillor and MEP, died after a short illness.
Keith was one of the first green councillors elected in Brighton and Hove and previously served as convenor of the Green group.
His impact on both the Green Party and politics within the city cannot be underestimated and his death has come at the young age of 69. The thoughts of the whole Green group of councillors are with his family.
Among many of the causes that Keith fought for was the protection of asylum-seekers. The political news in the past week has indeed been dominated by the state of affairs at the migrant processing centre at Manston, in Kent.
There have been claims that the Home Secretary refused to place asylum-seekers in hotels in Conservative areas. This comes as no surprise to me – as we know that Brighton and Hove was chosen for a refugee hotel last July because Conservative-led Surrey County Council refused it.
The Home Office is quite clearly in meltdown. There is a huge backlog of asylum-seeker claims which is leaving many refugees and asylum-seekers in insecure hotel accommodation or in terrifying conditions at Manston.
At present in Brighton and Hove, we have three hotels housing asylum-seekers, one of which is supporting unaccompanied refugee children. These hotels are costing the public purse millions of pounds, all while private companies make a huge profit.
Clearsprings, the company that was commissioned to provide these hotels, including in Brighton and Hove, reported profits up more than sixfold last year. The business gave its directors dividends of almost £28 million.
We also know that the accommodation being used in Brighton and Hove is owned by convicted criminal and infamous landlord Nicholas Van Hoogstraten – and this was challenged by MP Peter Kyle earlier this year.
Calling them hotels does the people in them a disservice. They are not places anyone would choose to stay. I have heard terrible stories from people who have been in the hotels that we have had in the city over the past year. I will do everything in my limited power to campaign for their end.
The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who does have the power to solve this crisis, thought it appropriate to use damaging and inflammatory language to describe people who we should be welcoming and providing sanctuary for.
The divide and rule tactics of the Conservative Party only seek to distract people from the real story here – that they are failing vulnerable people.
As a City of Sanctuary, we will do everything we can to provide support. I’ve recently visited our Adult Education Hub where I met some of the people accessing courses there, including refugees from across the world.
We should be proud of everything we do as a city to support refugees, be they from Ukraine or Albania.
The solutions for the Home Office to stop small boat crossings in the channel are clear – they must open safe and legal routes for asylum-seekers, provide proper processing and allow asylum-seekers to work in the meantime (as is the case for Ukrainian refugees).
At present to claim asylum in the UK, you must already be here – so it is sadly no wonder that many take that perilous journey.
The government pretends that it can solve this problem by sending refugees to Rwanda, a plan so callous that even the former Tory MP and Home Secretary Amber Rudd has criticised it.
There is a lot to criticise about the lack of action from our government and at the forefront of many people’s minds will be their failure to grasp the cost-of-living crisis.
The number of people using foodbanks and children eligible for free school meals in our city continues to rise – and without proper funding and support this rise will only continue.
As Greens, we are doing our bit. This November I am doing a fundraising challenge – “No Sweets November” – to support the Cornerstone Community Centre Foodbank in my ward.
If you would like to support the Cornerstone too, you can make a financial donation, with the details on the community centre’s website, or make a donation of food by dropping it off on a Friday morning in person. Those with a BN3 postcode who need help accessing food can visit on Friday afternoons.
As many celebrate with fireworks at this time of year, I will be thinking of the many pet owners trying to keep their animals calm and safe.
Firework displays can be a time of great joy (and one that I too find enjoyment in) but they can also cause great distress to some animals.
A survey by the RSPCA in 2021 found over 11,000 reports of animals in distress. I support the RSPCA campaign to enhance regulations to support animals which will ensure everyone can enjoy fireworks safely.
Councillor Hannah Allbrooke is the Green deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council.
Keith will be turning in his grave when we sees the barking loons who have taken over the Not So Green party in Brighton.
Critical Race Theory anyone?
As one of Hannah’s many Constituents, I do wish that she and her fellow Bruswick & Adelaide Councillor, Phelim MacCafferty, would stop grandstanding on national and international affairs whic are the business of our Parliamentarians, and instead concentrate on our tip of a city and their equal tip of a ward.
I could remind them that charity begins at home, only charity does’nt apply here as the are both handsomely paid to attend to the BASIC needs of the residents who are seeing increasingly less value for their eye-watering Council Tax bills!
As we elect three MPs in this city to represent us in Parliament, one of whom is the ‘Green’ Party’s Caroline Lucas, who’s no shrinking violet in the Commons, I think we can safely leave such matters in their hands.
To her credit, I can only recall Caroline intervening once in Council affairs and that was in the early days of the first ‘Green’ Administration (2011-2015), when she eventually endorsed a protest group started by me and called ‘Save The Seven Dials Elm,’ which survived a ‘Green’ Council death sentence and still thrives today.
If I may offer Hannah some friendly advice, perhaps her undoubted talents would be better employed by standing for Parliament in Hove, where she may do spectacularly well.
Then again, as I understand that she wasn’t resident here during our ‘Battle of the Elm,’ I can bring her up to speed on the details from my files and I’m equally happy to be of assistance in pointing out the innumerable problems besetting the residents of her ward—because I live here!
I’m at your disposal, Hannah, so please, DON’T BE A STRANGER.
I missed the argument as to why exactly we should be rescuing people and providing hotels for people arriving illegally and claiming asylum after leaving France? The Greens I thought would have preferred France as it is an EU country and not a war torn dump that people need to flee from. It is racist to imply that France is so terrible that we should be giving asylum to people arriving from there.
Yes, Keith had integrity. ‘Nuff said.
The Italians have the right idea. Turn the boats around. Worked in Australia.
Be nice if some of the nutters would wake up to the fact we are a tiny island and if we are going to let people come here, maybe an idea for them to have skills or once they arrive to be assigneded a job in a sector with shortages I.e farms, not just put them in a hotel paid for by the rest of us.
The idea that stopping illegal channel crossing is anti asylum seeker is also a nonsense. If you give the remotest s… You would not encourage people to risk their lives to get here, which is affectivity what’s happening by having a weak response like the current set up.