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A world in one city…
• ESTIMATES are that about one million non-British EU citizens live in London.
Germans, French, Italians, Scandinavians, Poles and many more – all EU nationalities live and work here. However, these non-British EU citizens are four times less likely to be on the electoral register than UK citizens.
You might say this we don’t care about the society we live in, we don’t want to integrate into British society. We have heard this over and over again…
We are London citizens like everyone else. We are eligible to vote in the London elections on May 1. We live in London.
We commute in, we work in, we pay taxes in London. We breathe the London air. We value the British sense of fair play as much as the fish and chips.
Most of all, we want to contribute to London functioning better for everybody who lives here.
That is why we care about how London is run who it is run by.
Many issues with high prominence on the Continent are reflected positively in Ken Livingstone’s work for London so far and in his future plans. Ken’s commitment to environmental issues matches the beliefs of many Europeans, as does his support of the London Living Wage campaign, transport policy and Safer Neighbourhoods policies.
Ken has made living in London more affordable. There are free language courses for new arrivals and free travel for children, disabled people and pensioners.
Now Ken also ensures that those who buy less polluting cars pay much less than those who don’t.
And, of course, he also works for the aim that 50 per cent of new homes should be cheaper homes to buy and homes at affordable rents. Many EU citizens, especially those who have recently come to the UK from new EU member states, are employed in the lower paying sectors of the labour market. The introduction of the living wage by Ken Livingstone and subsequent increases of it has already benefited these workers.
Ken has made living in London much easier. Through introducing the Oyster card (now over 10 million signed up), public transport has become easier to use, and Ken has doubled the night bus network. Ken has made London the only major city in the world where there has been a significant shift from the private car to public transport, cycling and walking.
He not only talks about tackling climate change but actively implements effective measures towards this end.
Every tonne of CO2 not emitted in London has a positive impact on the rest of this globe.
Ken has made living in London more fulfilling and empowering, not just through cheaper access to cultural events but also through investing in education and skills.
He has helped to provide better facilities for young people outside of school hours and pioneering equalities policy before anyone else so everyone can enjoy the same rights.
Even EU citizens who only plan to live here for a few years or less benefit from
re-electing an administration which is doing so much to get London moving, to reduce anti-social behaviour and crime by rolling out Safer Neighbourhoods Teams of police in all of London’s boroughs.
Protecting London from the xenophobic far right… There is a very real threat of reactionary and divisive candidates, with the extreme right BNP party only missing out on a seat by 0.2 per cent in the last London elections.
We need to prevent those parties who are trying to break up the bonds between Londoners. London is a world in one city.
The global becomes local and the local becomes global.
Ken is the one politician in London who has fully grasped this trend and is utilising it to the benefit of all Londoners.
David Schoibl,
Chair of Labour Movement for Europe (London & the South East)
and 16 others
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