Category Archives: Blog

Not so equal pay at Cambridge University

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Cambridge – bastion of male dominance – still! So- I’ve referred the buggers to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission for investigation.

It’s because of the appallingly wide gap between what the university pays men and women. The university’s own Equal Pay Report shows that men are paid on average nearly a third more than women – £37,157 compared to £28,247.

There are two reasons for the gap – if you compare people on each pay grade, then for two-thirds of the grades, women on that grade get paid less than men – and also the higher the grade, the higher the proportion of men. At the most senior level, there are seven men for every woman – but even for those women who have reached the very top, they are still being paid less than men in the same position.

So there are some real questions for the university to answer – but there seems to be too much complacency around, particularly in the half-baked attempted explanation that men get paid more because they tend to be pay on a higher pay grade. Well, duh! But why is that the case? And why, even when people are on the same grade, men usually get paid more?

There are some professions where change in pay and equal opportunities has been slow and a long time coming. I have a smidgen of sympathy for those where you have to have many years of service in order to get to the very top – and there is at least an argument that those years are needed to gain the necessary experience. The Law Lords might be a case in point.

But academia – despite its rather fusty image at times – is not one of those. Look at what happens to the youngest and brightest new academic stars – they are often snapped up and become professors at a young age. Decades of service are not needed.

The gap at grade 12 (the top pay grade) is over 5%, which is the threshold where, under the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidelines action should be taken. The university is trying to wriggle out of this by saying the gap is under 5% – if you exclude “market pay supplements and other pensionable and non pensionable payments”. In other words – the gap is smaller, if you ignore bits of it. Not got enough. Pay is pay. So – over to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission!

The banking system: lessons from my childhood

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One of the questions on Politics Home this morning (I am a panel member of this daily tracker of opinions political) was do I think the banks should go back to a separation between our old safe, solid high street retail bank – and the speculative, take risks, make loads of dosh type investment banks?

Yes I do! I can remember being absolutely irate when our reliable, responsible banks were freed of such regulation and zoomed off to the realm of the speculative. I was upset because I liked slow and steady.

Perhaps this was because of a salutary experience I had about risk and loss. I had a very early example in my life of the dangers of the offers of a higher return on savings than the norm. In the flats where I grew up was a young financial buccaneer. He had his own merchant bank at the age of about 23 and all the families who lived in the block thought he was just the bees knees. All our families had seen this man grow since he was a little boy – and so when he had his bank all set up – he went and sought investment from lots of people who lived there – friends and neighbours. Many of these ‘investors’ were coming to the end of their working lives and I guess the offer was too good. I don’t know too much about the rates etc as I was a teenager at the time and not much interested in boring things like investment.

Anyway – however ridiculously high the promised return was – I expect a mixture of hope and trust and familiarity persuaded quite a few of the residents to place their life savings with this young man.

Of course, like all morality tales, this ended badly for these trusting folk – and all their money was lost. And the moral of the story was if it looks too good to be true etc.

The young man went to prison for about six years I think – so justice was done – but quite a few properly lived lives were ruined. These were not rich people – just people who had worked all their lives and put away their savings. They may have made a mistake in putting too much money with one person – but it was a harsh, harsh penalty for that.

Anyway – that was a merchant bank and therefore it was ‘buyer beware’. But when our safe, high street banks, changed into risk-takers – I guess many people didn’t really understand that they could play fast and loose with our money the same way investment banks could and did.

For those of us who had to literally beg for our first mortgages – when it was a case of being judged suitable to receive a loan on the basis that you would be capable of paying it back – the idea of a 100% or 125% mortgage is inconceivable as a model.

Were we, the population, collectively guilty of partying thinking we wouldn’t get a hangover? Maybe a bit – but if we thought the party would never end – it’s because the banks and the Government led us to believe that was the case. We couldn’t imagine that banks would be allowed to behave that way – let alone with the tacit encouragement of the Chancellor latterly Prime Minister.

But I think we relied on the banks to know what they were doing in the way they used to. If they said we could borrow like there was no tomorrow – live now and pay later – then there couldn’t be a problem with it. The banks led us up the garden path (albeit we were happily led) and now we find they were full of avarice and greed.

So when Gordon yesterday talked about a return to the separation of banks back to the old style high street banks – he is right but how dare he not accept or understand that it was under him that this dangerous financial model was given license and bred the monsters who have led to such a downfall. And yes – Gordon – it may be a global financial downturn – but the seriousness of our situation is laid at your door. No one else’s.

I can’t help feeling sorry for the prudent in all of this. Yes – of course those who suffer direct hits on job and home are first in line for help. But what about all those older people who supplement their meagre pension by the interest paid on a lifetimes work savings? As Vince Cable (Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor) says – time for thrift and sensible behaviour. But we need some assurance that thrift and sensible behaviour will be rewarded – not punished – as is currently the case. Now – there’s a novel idea!

Catch me on the radio this evening

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Appearing on Radio 4's The Westminster Hour with Carolyn QuinnI’m on The Westminster Hour tonight (Sunday): Radio 4, 10pm.

If you miss the show you’ll be able to listen again on their website.

If you want to get advanced notice of my media appearances like this one, you can use the media events service at Flock Together. You’ve got three choices:

  1. Using this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LiberalDemocratsMediaAppearances, or
  2. By email: register at FlockTogether and pick “Media appearances” as one of the categories of events you want to be emailed about. (If you are an existing Flock Together user you can also change your preferences – login and then click “Edit your preferences” in the left-hand menu; you need to tick “Media Appearances” under “Email options”), or
  3. On the web: take a look at the dedicated Flock Together page.

National Nest Box Week

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Lynne Featherstone putting up a nest boxThis week has been National Nest Box Week – so up when a nest box in my garden!

Haringey’s birdlife has drastically declined in diversity and numbers over the past thirty years, so I was doing my little bit to help – and to encourage others to do so too.

Diminishing biodiversity isn’t something that is only happening on the banks of the Amazon, but here in Haringey too! It saddens me that we see fewer and fewer birds in our gardens. Sightings of the house sparrow, for example, have fallen in Haringey by 80% in 30 years.

Loss of habitat and lack of food is really the reason why we see fewer birds in our gardens. So putting up a nest box in your garden is really the best and easiest way to help Haringey’s feathered friends.

Anyone wanting to find out more about how to fit a bird box should visit the National Nest Box website.

Guy Njike

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Good news – finally! Guy Njike has been granted indefinite leave to remain here. While his solicitors were still preparing his new fresh claim, the Home Office has granted him indefinite leave to remain under the legacy cases programme. Congratulations to Sara Hall and all those who campaigned so tirelessly for this happy ending.

Second doctor suspended over death of Baby P

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Whilst Haringey Council was undoubtedly the first in line for responsibility for failure to protect Baby P – their woeful performance deflected some of the heat from the health services. But news today that on the health side further steps in accountability are being taken as reported on Sky News:

Dr Jerome Ikwueke twice referred the little boy to hospital specialists after becoming concerned about suspicious marks on his face and body.

The General Medical Council’s interim orders panel suspended his registration as a doctor on Tuesday.

This follows the suspension in November of paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, who failed to spot that Baby P had serious injuries two days before he died.

Police launched an investigation but nobody was charged until Baby P died in a blood-spattered cot on August 3 2007.

According to prosecution documents, Dr Ikwueke saw the child 14 times in the months before his death at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and a lodger in Haringey, north London.

There is clearly much we don’t yet know about who did what and when, but I’m glad to see that the health side of the equation is getting the scrutiny it needs – because in the end, if things were done wrong or people not up to the job, that needs to be put right before anyone else suffers.

You should not have to move out of Haringey to get proper mental health care

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A woman came to my surgery last week (obviously cannot go into detail) but I wanted to place in public the utter poverty of treatment and support for those suffering from mental health issues and their families in Haringey.

Services just seem to diminish and diminish endlessly. The ward at St Ann’s where you can be admitted as an emergency is not suitable for many of those admitted due to an episode of one sort or another – for example an episode for someone with a long-term bipolar condition.

Such a person needs to be taken in – but where they are placed is so important. Currently it is a ward with psychotic and highly disturbed patients.

If you or I were placed in such a ward – we would be frightened – as was my constituent’s partner. He was so frightened he could not sleep at all due to the noise and disturbances from the other patients throughout the night – and of course these conditions hardly assist recovery or state of mind.

There is virtually no continuity in mental health care. Senior managers were not in the slightest bit interested in helping him move elsewhere where there was a doctor who had been dealing with him and with whom he felt comfortable. They just kept passing him on – and on – and on – from one to another. There was virtually no patient engagement.

And there is no support for his wife – the woman who came to me for help. Nobody helped her when her husband was threatening suicide. And there has been a complete lack of care for him outside of the hospital. Where they have now moved to – psychiatric nurses come to the house. In Haringey, when the threats of suicide were at there worst – all my constituent got was advice from social workers who suggested that he drink some warm milk before bed.

They have moved and now get much better care and the husband is vastly improved. You should not have to move out of Haringey to get proper mental health care. Yes – I will be raising this with the new Chair of the Mental Health Trust and the PCT when I meet with them shortly.

It is an utter disgrace – and if this was your or my loved one – we would be up in arms. I hope this new Chair wants to hear what I have to say – because this is not acceptable. And if the Government say – it’s the local PCT and Mental Health Trust who are responsible – and if the PCT and local mental Health Trust say it is the Government – I think that will demonstrate pretty conclusively that the system we have to protect us and provide our local health services stinks!

Fun at the dentist

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Lynne Featherstone at my dental careHalf-term – good time to go to the dentist if you are a child! One of our locals – ‘my dental care’ in Myddleton Road, Bounds Green – has made it a special children’s week. Existing and new young clients are invited in for a check up so that they get used to the dentist. And they then receive a goody bag with very special toothbrush, toothpaste etc.

They have made a huge effort to get the word out locally that there is a very friendly and happy NHS dentist ready to meet and help children’s introduction to the world of teeth hygiene and care. A good start that will help them for the rest of their lives – and keep their teeth!

Post Office news – and some of it is good!

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Here’s my latest piece for the Highgate Handbook & Muswell Hill Flyer magazines:

And it came to be! We all said that if our precious sub-Post Offices closed, the displaced users would have to go to other post offices and queues would lengthen. Even outside of the Christmas pressures – queues have been out the door at the remaining Post Offices.

To move it from anecdotal to actual, in the autumn I launched a Post Office survey where I asked local residents to count their waiting times. I have now put together the numbers and they show what we all feared – waiting times are absolutely outrageous in many of our local Post Offices, with waiting times of up to an hour in both Muswell Hill and Wood Green!

Given the Post Office promised extra resources during their ‘consultation’ on the closures so that we wouldn’t be faced with extra queues – and spoiling for a fight because they haven’t delivered on that promise – I met Crown Post Office Network Manager Richard Barker and presented him with the results.

Being able to show him actual numbers really worked, as he promised three more staff at Wood Green Post Office. But sadly – for the rest of us it is about managing the business better and about getting people to go in when there are no queues – for the time being.

Mr Barker also listened good and hard when I told him that many elderly residents find it very difficult to stand and queue for such long periods of time. He has now promised to put in as much seating as possible when the Crown Post Offices in Crouch End, Wood Green and Muswell Hill get refurbished this summer.

I have also been nagging the Government about the continued need for local postal services. In the Government’s response to me there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon and Mr Baker mentioned this too – that Royal Mail are planning to introduce Post Office outreach services in communities, and I will fight hard for our local parades to get as many of these as possible – so watch this space!