Am doing Question Time this Thursday. What do you think the questions will be?
I remember doing Question Time the Thursday after I was elected in 2005 – a terrifying thing to do to a new MP with virtually no television experience. But actually – it went well. I was sitting next to Boris – still an MP at that point in time. There was a question about whether young people should be banned from wearing hoodies in Bluewater shopping centre. I remember noting down the words ‘dress code’ and saying that any establishment was welcome to have a dress code – but in terms of hoodies – it should be about behaviour not a piece of clothing. After I spoke – Boris said ‘dress code’ definitely – and agreed with me – or words to that affect. He was very funny and whilst I don’t agree with him that much – and am still cross with him for even standing for Mayor of London (let alone winning) I’ve always had a soft spot because of his kindness that evening.
A couple of days later, I think – although memory may not be completely accurate – I met or was phoned by Shami Chakrabarti – who said she had watched Question Time and that answer signalled to her I was ‘one of us’. Much flattered – and the start of a good working relationship – which as I became spokesperson for Crime and Policing shortly afterwards was a very good thing.
Of course – it might still not happen – as last time I was lined up I was bumped off the program in favour of that Nick Clegg!
To give local residents the chance to hear directly from hospital bosses about the threat to the Whittington’s A&E, Lynne Featherstone MP will be hosting a public meeting on the issue on Thursday 4 March, at Greig City Academy, High Street, Hornsey, N8 7NU:
The meeting, which will run from 8 pm, will give local residents the chance to question Rachel Tyndall, Chair of the North Central London Review Panel, the organisation that has put forward the suggestion to close the Whittington A&E, and Richard Sumray, who is Chair of NHS Haringey.
Lynne Featherstone will also lead a group of Liberal Democrats who are marching from Highbury Fields in Islington, to Whittington Hospital on Saturday 27 February from 12 noon, to protest against the threat to the Archway emergency department, and encourages local residents to come along and show their support for the campaign.
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
“Local residents need to get a chance to put their concerns about the future of our A&E directly to the people in charge. And the hospital bosses need to hear how strongly we feel about these threats.
“So please come along both to the march on the 27th, and to the meeting on the 4th March. Join us and make your voice heard – together we can fight this!”
Note: The meeting will be in the school’s assembly hall and access to the hall is from Hillfield Avenue.
The Guardian front page this morning says we have ruled out coalition with both Labour and Tories. In recent weeks I think they have had stories saying we will support coalition with Labour, coalition with the Tories – and now – no coalition at all.
We haven’t changed our position at all. The people, not the party leaders, are the kingmakers and it is completely pointless and wrong to try and predict the future until people have had their chance to vote.
The voters will decide the result of the election and then all the parties will have to respond to the country’s decision.
What we have said is that our four key priorities around fairness are what’s important.
The police are planning to expand their presence in Wood Green – keeping the existing police station in use but also moving the front counter to the Fishmongers Arms (right next to the Civic Centre, closer to the centre of Wood Green, closer to where people congregate and closer to the crime hotspots).
I was impressed with the new front counter – not yet in use – when I went with Cllr Robert Gorrie (Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council) to see it and meet the local Commander, Dave Grant.
Having staffed and open police stations in the heart of our community is central to the fight against crime and the fear of crime. It gives us a police service that knows its community and whose community knows it. That’s why I fought for so longer to get the Muswell Hill front counter reopened.
The new front counter in Wood Green is much better equipped and located than the current one. It’s all ready to go – brand, spanking new – and has the advantage that local people would be able to use the front counter to report their problems in a much more peaceful and calm atmosphere – no longer needing to mix with the less salubrious side of station life with those who have to report to the police station, and so on.
If the existing building is also kept in use for police services, such as cells and a base for patrol cars etc, then this means overall a bigger and better police presence in Wood Green. Hurrah!
If!
We need to be sure that moving the front counter doesn’t become an excuse to cut back, sell off property – and leave us with fewer services. That has to be the concern in these times of economic uncertainty.
And then there’s still the question of exactly what policing will be done from the existing police station building. The police have promised a public consultation on that – including the possibility of moving the front counter back from the Fishmongers Arms, if it isn’t a success in its new location and local people want it moved back.
We also need to make sure that any building work on the old police station preserves its historic front, which is a real architectural gem that adds to our community. Last time the police made proposals for the station the local community was rightly up in arms at the insensitive architectural designs. That planning application was withdrawn and we await a new one, due to be submitted in the autumn.
So we should be due two chances to have our say – the public consultation on police services in the area and also the planning application for the Victorian police station building.
But ahead of that the police want to try out starting to use the new facilities at the Fishmongers Arms – moving their front counter service from the existing police station to the new location.
I know some people have been skeptical about this, worried that it’s a way for the police to preempt those two chances for us to have our say later in the year.
But if it is a genuine trial, making use of new expanded premises and with a commitment written in blood that the final decisions will only come after we’ve been consulted – then it means we get to try out the new services sooner and it makes for a better decision in the end if there’s some practical experience to draw on.
So this is a debate which will run for some time – and do let me know your own views.
Here’s my latest column for the Muswell Hill Flyer and the Highgate Handbook:
I sent out an email to my special email list to ask for people’s personal stories of when the Whittington Accident & Emergency had been important in their lives – and got a phenomenal response. (If you want to be on this list just email lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org and say so).
I will be presenting these to all the members of all the boards of all the layers of NHS decision makers who are working out our future health services (and there are many of them) and to the government in due course – to try and remind them that this about people’s lives – and that we are not just pawns on some management chessboard.
The clue is in the title of the service – ‘emergency’ – and some of the stories tell how the ambulance man or woman has said we must go to the nearest hospital because x won’t make it if we don’t – every second counts.
Now every resident of Muswell Hill and Highgate who has contacted me about this is quite clear about the importance of having a full 24/7 A&E locally. Distance matters both for saving lives but also for ease of access. And quite frankly the Whittington is far better placed for public transport than the Royal Free for us.
The decision makers are arguing that distance isn’t always important and that extra GP hours, NHS Direct and pharmacies can be a viable alternative. But no amount of extra GP hours or even an urgent care centre (which is one of their alternative suggestions) can replace a full A&E service. This is insanity being wrapped up and sold to us under the guise of ‘better clinical outcomes’. Yes – there are people who use A&E who don’t need to – but taking away A&E isn’t the answer – adding a GP walk-in where those people could be diverted to – could be.
If our A&E goes – as sure as night follows day – we will also lose obstetrics and the Intensive Care Unit. There will be no emergency take from GPs and it will compromise the teaching of medical students at the Whittington.
As for the funding, I put it directly to the Minister, Mike O’Brien, in an Adjournment Debate on the Whittington, that there is a fear that this is about cuts and budgets. The Minister assured me, on the record, that there would be no ‘slash and burn’ solutions and that all of this was about better clinical outcomes.
Well – for all those stories where people would have died if there had not been an A&E at the Whittington – seems to me being alive is a pretty good clinical outcome.
Over my first term in Parliament I’ve been nominated for many awards: Woman Politician of the year, Chanel 4 Rising Star, Stonewall’s Politician of the Year, numerous blog and website awards – and in all cases have failed to top the poll! Always the bridesmaid – never the bride.
Until now! And which accolade finally comes my way – Sky’s most fanciable MP!
Thank you Sky – you’ve made an old woman very happy!
After winning Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone’s writing competition in the autumn, Roela Mehmeti, 11, this week went to collect her prize as she shadowed the Hornsey and Wood Green MP in Parliament.
The Alexandra Park School student won the Democracy Week competition on the theme ‘If I ruled the world’ after fierce competition from secondary school pupils across the constituency (see her entry here). For her special prize, Lynne Featherstone MP gave the 11 year old an exclusive tour of Parliament and took her for lunch in one of Parliament’s restaurants, whilst explaining what being an MP is really like.
Lynne Featherstone MP, comments:
“It was great to finally meet Roela, after reading her moving piece on the importance of the family. Her entry really pulled at the heartstrings, and it’s clear that she’s amazingly talented.
“I hope this has given her a good understanding of what being an MP is really like – and maybe it’s grown a little seed for her to one day try it for herself!”
Roela Mehmeti, 11, from Alexandra Park School, adds:
“I was really surprised and happy when my form teacher told me that I had won the competition. And I have had a really nice day in Parliament today. It’s been very special.”
Local Liberal Democrats have voiced their concern at new figures, revealing that Haringey, despite Labour promises, is one of only nine areas in the country where there are more pupils per class than 30 years ago.
The Times Educational Supplement figures show that average Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) across England improved from 23.1 pupils per teacher in 1979 to 21.4 in 2009. However, Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Haringey had the same or worse PTRs now compared to 1979.
Liberal Democrats have said that larger class sizes are another indication of Haringey’s unfair school funding system, that sees local children receiving over £1,000 less than children from neighbouring boroughs.
Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, has spearheaded a campaign for fair funding for Haringey children, which has received widespread support.
Gail Engert, Liberal Democrat Children and Young People spokesperson, comments:
“Every child deserves a fair start in life. Having fewer children in a class is vital, so that each child can have more attention from the teacher, but also so the teacher can pick up any problems, early on.
“I am very concerned that, whilst most other areas have improved their pupil to teacher ratio, Haringey has failed to do this.”
Lynne Featherstone MP adds:
“Cutting class sizes is a fundamental change that would make Haringey’s schools better, but because of Labour’s failure to address the school funding crisis, we now have some of the country’s biggest class sizes and see the knock-on effect that this has on our children’s education.
“Liberal Democrats, through our Pupil Premium, are committed to cutting primary class sizes to 20, to give every child the opportunity they deserve.”
I read the news of our complicity in torture and cover-up – not believing what I was reading. How can we have come to this terrible place? I am so ashamed of our Goverment.
And because we know that this is a Government that misleads us when it suits them – how can we have any confidence in the Foreign Office’s denial of involvement in rendition and torture of terror suspects?
As Ed Davey (LibDem Shadow Foreign Secretary) said:
“With allegations of complicity in torture coming on top of the Iraq Inquiry’s revelations, it is painfully clear that Labour has left Britain’s reputation in tatters.
“If the Government is so sure it has nothing to hide, it should allow a judicial inquiry into torture allegations to go ahead.”
Here’s the latest about Wood Green police station. Cllr Robert Gorrie and I met Dave Grant (local Commander) at the brand, spanking newly kitted out police front counter in the ‘Fishmongers Arms’ next to the Civic Centre in Wood Green.
After winning Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone’s writing competition in the autumn, Roela Mehmeti, 11, this week went to collect her prize as she shadowed the Hornsey and Wood Green MP in Parliament.
Lynne Featherstone 
