Monthly Archives: Feb 2010

Politics Show and Westminster Hour

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Double media bursts today. The Politics Show at lunchtime are looking at the issue of airbrushed and digitally altered images and the effect they have on our sense of well-being. The Liberal Democrats have led the political field on this one – and we are calling for honesty and transparency on advertising. Altered images need to show clearly that they are just that – altered. The Royal Society of Psychiatrists has joined us in the call – for a label on these images that says whether they have been altered – and not in such tiny type as to be unreadable! The LibDem ‘Real Women’ campaign is now being backed by academics across the world as concern rises about the impact on women, men and particularly the young whose sense of well-being is diminished by the constant bombardment of perfected images which are unobtainable and unrealistic.

Then the Westminster Hour late tonight! What will the topics be? My guess is bullies and polls!

Whittington A&E march and rally

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Save our A&E! Save our A&E! Save our maternity!

So rang out the chants on the march to save the Whittington A&E this morning. The rain kept mainly on the plain – thank goodness – and we marched and chanted all the way from Highbury and Islington Tube to the Whittington – where we had a huge rally.

Big thanks to the Defend the Whittington Coalition – who organised the whole caboodle – and it takes some organisation – with having Holloway Road closed off in one direction, the Whittington main entrance closed during the rally and, lovely surprise, a jazz band played all the way. The Whittington Stray Cats – I believe they said they were called.

Of course – the key issue is how do we get those making the decision to withdraw any of the proposals that they say we will be consulted on next autumn that close the Whittington A&E? For currently – out of the seven draft proposals – four end 24/7 A&E.

This is a nightmare – where the Government is calling the ultimate shots – but hiding behind its quango servants to do the dirty work.

I have organised a public meeting on March 4, 8pm at Greig Academy (entrance to assembly hall in Hillfield Avenue off High Street Hornsey. The Chair of the Review panel, Rachel Tyndall,  (putting forward the proposals) and Richard Sumray – Chair of Haringey PCT will both be there to take questions from local people.

Please come and make the case – loud and clear – for all the reasons we users know. It is clear insanity to close this vital local service.

MP celebrates winning road safety designs with students from local school

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Road safety signsTo help celebrate the fantastic work students have been doing on road safety and announce the winners of a road safety sign competition, Lynne Featherstone MP visited a special assembly at Alexandra Primary School.

The Hornsey and Wood Green MP gave out prizes to the competition winners, Haidi and Zazia, who not only won brand new bikes, but also saw their winning designs put on road signs that will appear outside the Wood Green school.

The special assembly was the culmination of a joint effort between the school, the local police and neighbourhood management to help teach the children about road safety.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“The winning designs are just fabulous and will hopefully make passing motorists slow down and think twice about road safety so close to the school.

“This area sees a lot of heavy traffic and it’s extra important for kids who live and go to school in such a busy place to know how to stay safe.

“And teaching kids about traffic awareness in this fun and innovative way really seems to work!”

Go Debenhams!

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Hot on the heels of Debenham’s announcement that they were using size 16 mannequins – comes another ground-breaking announcement that they are going to use a disabled model in their advertising – read about it here. 

There is a growing movement – across several industries and companies – all moving towards creating a more realistic view of us human beings. For too long the skinny, bony catwalk icons have held sway – but now the fight back begins.

The amazing diversity of we humans needs to be reflected in the images we see. We are so much more interesting than stick figures – and that includes seeing that disability is also part of our diversity.

Fair Funding – consultation in next few weeks – hopefully

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Tony Brockman, of Haringey NUT, had convened a meeting of education stakeholders last night – to prepare for the consultation that will finally arrive in the next few weeks on funding our children in our Haringey Schools.

I started the ‘fair funding’ campaign several years ago, when I discovered from Parliamentary figures obtained – that our children got around £750.00 per head less than each child in Islington, Camden or Hackney. Hence the campaign title – fair funding!

Since that discovery and the full on campaign – I am pleased to say that the Labour MP and Minister, David Lammy, the Labour Council Leader, teachers, governors, parents and all – are all campaigning together to get the funding formula which delivers this disparity – changed – so that our children have a fair education.

The gap is still widening – and currently our children are getting over £1100 less per head – that is equivalent to £35 million per year and could deliver over 1000 extra teachers. That would be 15 teachers more for each of our Haringey schools.

And whilst our teachers do an excellent job – and we are improving – we are not improving as fast as other comparable areas. Obviously – a thousand more teachers would enable us to zoom ahead!

So – having secured a debate in Parliament specifically on Haringey’s unfair funding, having met with Schools Minister, Vernon Coaker (and twice with predecessor Jim Knight), having raised it at Prime Minister’s Questions and several other times in the House as well as tabling countless written questions – we are now at the point of possibility.

The Government has been conducting a review into their funding formula with the help of Price Waterhouse Cooper – and they are about to go out to consultation on the options for a changed funding formula. It is complex – really complex- so complex that Haringey have had to employ KPMG to interpret the new options – and they were there last night to explain to the stakeholders what will be next.

In brief – it looks like the recommended option in the Review will deliver a 6.6% increase to Haringey schools (if the consultation supports the recommended option). That won’t deliver parity – but it will deliver another £10million per year to our schools – and is probably for the time being – the best we are going to get out of this Government.

So – assuming this is the case and the consultation goes ahead – we all have to make sure that everyone – from stakeholders, to parents, to everyone – responds to the consultation. And we need to respond early and with personal experiences – what it will mean to our children and our school.

I also suggested that all our Haringey children might like to respond to – to make sure the Government hears directly from those most affected. I’m sure our children telling the Government what they could do with an extra £1000 would clinch the case!

I am hopeful, that after what has been a huge campaign as MP for this area, we will see a narrowing of the funding gap. Set to widen even further this year to around £1200 – it is the biggest ‘cliff edge’ between neighbouring boroughs for funding disparity.

I will come back and publicise the consultation as soon as the Government puts it out for us to respond to. It is thought that will be in the next three weeks – but track record on this would indicate that it could slip. But time is of the essence.

Victoria Climbie – have lessons been learned?

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Today is 10 years since Victoria Climbie died. As Leader of the Opposition in Haringey  I remember the beating of breasts by the then Labour leader of the Council about how lessons would be learned and how this must never happen again. And then it did. Eight years later – Baby Peter died another dreadful death – with over sixty visits to the home by Haringey Children’s Services and other agencies.

And again the phrase ‘lessons must be learned’ were uttered.

It is clear to me that when Victoria died – lessons were not learned. Only the social worker at the end of the food chain took the punishment – everyone else walked away free – and nothing much changed. That is why it did all happen again eight years later.

But this time – the law had changed as a result of Victoria’s death. For the first time in legislation, two positions were named as accountable for what happened in Children’s Services – the Director and the Executive Member. That was a direct result of Victoria’s death and Lord Laming (who conducted a public inquiry) recommendations.

That is why when Baby Peter died it was so important that the two people in those two positions – now accountable in law – lost their jobs. If no one, now the law had changed, lost their jobs – then again – nothing would have changed.

But this time – changes have been brought in. Scrutinised closely every month and under new Director and Senior Management – the latest Ofsted report this week – found that Haringey is finally improving. It has a long way to go – but nevertheless – let’s hope that this is a real sign of progress and that, thanks to Victoria Climbie and the changes to the law that have now had effect – we really have learned the lessons this time.

Local Liberal Democrats welcome easy access to battery recycling in shops

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Bob Hare and Lynne Featherstone recycling batteriesLocal Liberal Democrats Lynne Featherstone MP and Environment spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare have recently visited a local shop to test out new battery recycling facilities. From February 2010 new rules passed by the European Union mean that shops must have battery recycling bins for residents to use if they sell the equivalent of 1 pack a day.

Haringey Liberal Democrats are also proposing to install 100 new battery recycling sites throughout the borough as an amendment to the Council’s budget to be discussed on Monday. The sites will be in libraries, schools and other community space and will make it easier for local residents to find a convenient battery recycling site near to them.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“It’s great news that from this month, residents will be able to pop down to their local shop to recycle their batteries.

“Until now, people who wanted to do the right thing had to make their way to one of Haringey’s two recycling centres – and that’s not the best way to encourage recycling of some of our most hazardous waste.”

Councillor Bob Hare, Environment spokesperson for Haringey Liberal Democrats, adds:

“I very much welcome the fact that this will make it easier for people to recycle their batteries, but it can be made even easier. That’s why we are proposing to install 100 new battery recycling sites throughout the borough.

“Batteries are so bad for the environment, and most people do want to do their bit for our planet – it’s only right to make it as easy as possible for people to do just that!”

Liberal Democrat pressure pays off on Haringey digital aerials scheme

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Lynne Featherstone with a digital aerialHaringey leaseholders will soon pay less than half of the originally proposed cost to get digital TV, after a successful campaign by local Liberal Democrats and leaseholders.

Reports published recently detail a u-turn by Haringey Council and a notable victory for leaseholder groups and local Liberal Democrats on a change to the scheme which charged up to £1,000 for the installation of new TV aerials in housing owned by the Council.

Haringey Council’s Cabinet should agree to a new plan this week which will see full consultation, a cap on costs to leaseholders of £400 and a retrospective payment to leaseholders who have already had to pay up to £1000.

Liberal Democrats launched a campaign against the extortionate costs in June last year after it emerged that Haringey’s leaseholders had to pay up to ten times more than leaseholders in neighbouring boroughs.

After the decision was made by the Labour Cabinet to go ahead with the aerials scheme in July, Liberal Democrats forced a rethink of the scheme through Hraingey Council’s watchdog committee.

Local Liberal Democrats have today expressed concern at the fact that leaseholders and tenants still have to pay four times as much as some neighbouring boroughs to watch TV, and are now calling for the cost to be cut further.

Cllr Matt Davies, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson, comments:

“I’m glad that finally the signal from local leaseholders and Liberal Democrats has got through to Labour loud and clear. Leaseholders did not want to have expensive, diamond encrusted aerial systems imposed upon them without any say.

“Unfortunately it took action by the Liberal Democrats and local leaseholder groups in July last year for Labour to realise their error. I am glad that our pressure will mean leaseholders get to pay less but it’s still quite a bit to fork out to watch TV. I know that leaseholders are still worried about the excessive cost, and the battle continues.”

Lynne Featherstone MP, adds:

“The digital aerial scheme fiasco is a prime example of how badly Labour runs Haringey Council. It fails to consult, it imposes an expensive system without considering the implications and only after intervention from Liberal Democrats and residents does it change its mind.

“I’m glad they have dropped the price but it’s still four times the price leaseholders in neighbouring boroughs pay  and we’re making that concern clear to the Council.”

Whittington A&E: LibDems would give Power to the People

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The Ham & High just organised a photo-op outside the Whittington in advance of the march on Saturday (Highbury & Islington corner at noon) so that they can give it advance publicity. Well – done Ham & High!

The key in all of this – is where the power and the decisions lie – and sadly – it isn’t with the people. If it was – we wouldn’t be in this postion to start with. We are at the mercy of high paid, managers and bureaucrats moving around services on paper – without any understanding of our wishes or our needs – nor any mandate from us.

As for the Labour Government – they say it’s a local matter. There is nowhere for us to hold the decision makers to account that has real teeth. Whatever they decide – they won’t lose their jobs and they don’t have to face an electorate.

If Liberal Democrats were in charge (and after the election we may be) we would put power back in the hands of the people. No longer would we be in this untenable and unacceptable and position – where we petition and beg for what we want to unaccountable quangos.

Everyone I talk to says the same thing: this is madness – but how do we stop it? We fight, we march, we meet and we protest – but in the end – if we the people had the power, if our health boards were elected and accountable as they will be under a LibDem administration – the Whittington would be perfectly safe in our hands!

Power to the people!

Reaction to Ofsted report into Haringey's Children's Services

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Commenting on the Ofsted update report on safeguarding in Haringey Council’s Children’s Service,  Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, says:

“Clearly, a lot of people have been working hard, so that Haringey can achieve the basic service of protecting children.

“I tentatively welcome progress, but stuck in my mind is the fact that Ofsted gave this Children’s Service three stars weeks after Baby Peter died.

“There are clearly, still, significant shortcomings in key front-line services and I will continue to press for more openness and transparency, so we can have lasting confidence that they are getting it right.”

Councillor Robert Gorrie, Leader of Haringey Liberal Democrats, adds:

“I can only thank the committed efforts of the staff who are desperately trying to get this service up to scratch.

“However, I remain deeply concerned that only one in three vital checks of children at risk are happening on time.  To me, this is deeply unsatisfactory and not of a high enough standard to prevent another child falling through the safety net.”