Tuesday 20 November 2012

The Billion Pound Gamble goes to Parliament

So the big day arrived. Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble landed at the Houses of Parliament.
The room was packed to standing. We asked who was a Barnet resident, approx 90% of hands shot up. Amongst those were a fair few people I've not met before.

The evening started off with a short speech from our host for the evening, MP Dave Anderson. Dave is a former Unison convenor and a down to earth MP, the sort we could do with a lot more of. He explained his fears for the country and why he supports our campaign to stop One Barnet.

We then had the Barnet Casino film. A short animation narrated by John Dix (AKA Mr Reasonable). If you haven't seen the film, you should - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6I9kP6nCMg&feature=youtu.be - it explains why every Barnet resident should be worried about One Barnet.

After the film, John Burgess, Barnet Unison convenor made a short speech outlining the issues and handed over to me to explain why we'd made the film. I commented that it was a shame that not a single Tory Councillor has bothered to watch the film. I urged everyone in the room to contact their councillors and get active in the community.

The film was then shown. After there was a Q&A session with a panel consisting of

John Burgess (Barnet Unison convenor)
John Dix (AKA Blogger Mr Reasonable)
John Sullivan who is launching a legal challenge to One Barnet (Hear why in this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etOSBzuN1LM&feature=youtu.be )
Barbara Jacobson from BAPS
The chair was Ruth Kutner from BAPS.

The Q&A was lively with some very interesting questions and comments. Hopefully we'll have some video footage of these later.

Parliament is the focus of our democratic tradition. One Barnet is an attack on this tradition, removing accountability from the people and putting profits for multi national companies before the needs and requirements of the local community. It will destroy local jobs and damage the local economy and above all is highly risky. That is why I oppose it. That is why Charles Honderick and myself made the film. Thanks to everyone who turned up to support the film and the campaign. It is a source of great pride to us that so many people made the effort to come into central London on a cold and wet Monday night.


Director Charles Honderick amongst the dead PM's 

Councillor Arjun Mittra, Mr Reasonable and Mrs Angry soak up the atmosphere
oa
John and Susan Sullivan meet the great and good

A packed committee room 12 at the Houses of Parliamen watch http://www.billionpoundgamble.co.uk/

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