Category Archives: Blog

Book banning

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Over on Liberal England is a really important post. What on earth is Labour thinking of to ban such an author. Your can’t suppress all dissent – not without becoming a totalitarian state! And well done Islington for stepping in!

Sinclair has a new novel, Hackney, That Rose Red Empire, out and had been due to launch it at Stoke Newington public library in the borough.

Terence Blacker takes up the story in the Independent:

After the arrangement was made, an essay written by Sinclair appeared in the London Review of Books, the theme of which was that the Olympics – “this 2012 game-show rabies” as he put it – would have a disastrous effect on London. “The Millennium Dome fiasco was a low-rent rehearsal,” Sinclair argued. “The holy grail for blue-sky thinkers was the sport-transcends-politics Olympiad, the five-hooped golden handcuffs, smoke rings behind which deals could be done for casinos and malls: with sponsorship, flag-waving and infinitely elastic budgets (any challenge an act of nay-saying treason).”

That parenthetical aside was prophetic. Stoke Newington Library rang Iain Sinclair to withdraw its invitation to him. The problem, they said, was that he had been critical of the Olympics. A spokesman for Hackney Council subsequently dug the local authority a little deeper into the mire. It would be inappropriate for a public library to host the launch for a book “expressing controversial or political opinions,” he explained. The problem with that argument, apart from its sinister daftness, is that the book is three months away from publication has presumably not yet been read by the thought police of Hackney.

The problem for small Labour minds of Hackney must have been Sinclair’s London Review of Books essay. As Blacker says:

suggested a high level of dodgy dealing in east London, with developers being given attractive deals if they put money into the financially hard-pressed Olympic project. As a result, the communities, small businesses and historic buildings were being destroyed. “Nothing slows the momentum, the Olympic imperative,” Sinclair wrote. Do read the whole thing for yourself.

This episode has a happy ending – and one that makes me proud to be a Liberal Democrat. Becasue Lib Dem run Islington has offered Sinclair the chance to launch his book in of their libraries instead.

The Islington Gazette quotes Cllr Ruth Polling, the borough’s executive member in charge of libraries and culture, who has called the decision “deeply troubling”: She says:

“There will never be censorship of this sort as long as the Lib-Dems run Islington. Banning an author from speaking because of his views about the Government’s incompetence is monstrous. But what’s worse is the Labour council’s blanket statement that controversial opinions are no longer welcome in their libraries. Libraries should be a place for discourse and free thinking. I’m pleased to offer Islington’s libraries for Mr Sinclair’s book launch.”

The state of our prison system

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I blogged earlier this week about why I think Jack Straw has it wrong when it comes to cutting crime. We don’t need more rhetoric about ‘I’ll be tougher than you’, we need effective action – and that includes better rehabilitation so that we cut reoffending rates, but instead the state of these services and our prisons system so often means that it’s just a case of out of jail and commit another crime.

Mary Riddell has an interesting piece in the Telegraph today about the failings of our prisons system, including:

The Ministry of Justice’s own study reportedly shows that 81 per cent of victims would rather an offender got an effective sentence than a harsh one: 80 per cent favoured community sentences if they work.

People worry, rightly, about the rise in some violent crime. Most would say the violent offenders whom I met at Wandsworth deserved their sentences; so would I. But surveys don’t reflect any clamour to lock away children, mothers and the mentally ill who could be more effectively punished or treated outside jail. People want safety, not vengeance. Mr Straw should grasp those points quickly, for time is running out.

Of the 66,000 offenders who get out of jail each year, three-quarters are unemployed. That primes them to re-offend, at a cost to the taxpayer of £13 billion a year. Things may soon get worse. As unemployment soars, few employers seem likely to favour the Wandsworth bricklayer above the 100 other applicants of unblemished character. (Read more here)

Meanwhile, we also have the news that the education system for prisoners hasn’t been working:

The Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS), rolled out two years ago to provide skills training and help tackle reoffending, has “failed in almost every respect” of its work, a report by MPs said on Tuesday…

n reality the system has not produced a core curriculum, meaning that prisoners who are moved can often not continue their chosen course, the report said. Learning was also being hampered by the failure of the prison service and education providers to pass on records when prisoners moved between prisons or into probation.

Ministers have emphasised the importance of education in reducing reoffending – 50 per cent of people in custody have no qualifications. But MPs said the courses on offer were of little use to prisoners serving less than 12 months and reconviction rates for that group had not changed as a result. (Read more here)

I go to a hanging

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Went to a hanging! Well – not quite. As Shadow Minister for Women I went to celebrate the ‘hanging’ of the portraits of women MPs in our party groups at the National Portrait Gallery.

This project to celebrate women in the House as well as all the anniversaries this year of womens’ suffrage was driven forward by Boni Somes of Women’s Parliamentary Radio amongst other projects.

Boni had managed to get us all together in our party groups and be photographed on the steps opposite Westminster Hall entrance – albeit on the Liberal Democrat one Julia Goldsworthy and I had to be photo-shopped in. It was an impossible task – but Boni managed it.

Anyway Angela Eagle for the Government, Teresa May for the Tories and myself all spoke and championed the need for more images of women and celebrations thereof – to encourage more women to come and join us. To support the cause – Lib Dem MPs Jo Swinson, Susan Kramer and Sandra Gidley rallied to the cause.

There was a view that the portraits would be better hung at Parliament – so in fact I believe that is what will happen.

The woman who has hugged 26 million people

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Sunday night went to Ally Pally to greet Amma. Amma is an Indian woman who tirelessly travels the world with a message of love basically.

This is what it says on her website:

Through her extraordinary acts of love and self-sacrifice, Mata Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) as she is known, has endeared herself to millions of people around the world.

Tenderly caressing everyone who comes to her, holding them close to her heart in a loving embrace, Amma shares her boundless love with all-regardless of their beliefs, who they are or why they have come to her. In this simple yet powerful way, Amma is transforming the lives of countless people, helping their hearts to blossom, one embrace at a time. In the past 36 years, Amma has physically hugged more than 26 million people from all parts of the world. In some places, she has embraced 40 to 50 thousand people in a single programme, sitting almost 24 hours to do so.

Her tireless spirit of dedication to uplifting others has inspired a vast network of charitable activities through which people are discovering the beauty and sense of peace that come from selflessly serving others.

Amma teaches that the Divine exists in everything, sentient and insentient. Perceiving this underlying unity in all things is not only the essence of spirituality but also the means to end all suffering. Amma’s teachings are universal. Whenever she is asked about her religion, she replies that her religion is Love. She does not ask anyone to believe in God or to change their faith, but only to inquire into their own real nature, and to believe in themselves.

Hundreds of her followers had come from far and wide to see her, hear her and be hugged by her. As I waited to go on stage to greet her formally, she came into the hall and hugged me. A small woman, dressed in white – who gives millions of pounds to help the poorest and those struck by disaster.

The teaching – it seemed to me – was really just good old-fashioned principles – thinking of others before oneself and helping others. Thinking each day by ones own behaviour how to make things better for others.

Clearly there was a huge amount of love for her in the vast hall – and her devotees find a spiritual home with her credo. I very much enjoyed the occasion. I placed a garland round her neck and was hugged a second time. I gave my speech and then after a few more formalities – left the stage.

In the end – I just think that anyone who wants to help others, spread love and gives up their life to do so – is a phenomenal power for good.

And I don’t know if the hugs worked – but I did go home and decide to try and be nicer to my children!

Prison policy: it's about future vs past

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Jack Straw is in the news today for a speech he’s going to give calling for a tougher line to be taken against criminals and prisoners. Fancy that – a Labour minister calling for tough action!

I think he’s got the key issue wrong. Yes, we do need to make sure that victims are respected in the criminal system and their views have appropriate weight, but so often things are out of kilter when it comes to the past versus the future.

Punishing criminals is about taking action over what they’ve done. Proper rehabilitation is about stopping them committing more crimes in the future.

When a criminal is in jail, we can’t undo the hurt and harm they’ve caused in the past – but depending on whether or not we take rehabilitation seriously, we do have some control over how many future victims of crime they’ll cause because – except for the most serious offences – those prisoners will be out of jail again some day.

And yet – rehabilitation is so often the poor cousin of the system, with excellent projects not bringing their full benefit because the money and headline attention goes on the rhetoric of toughness. We need to talk more about effectiveness, not vindictiveness.

PS Chicken Yoghurt puts it very nicely!

Haringey Council keeps waste plans secret

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Rubbish dumpNot impressed with Haringey Council’s decision to keep secret official papers to do with disposal of our waste.

Neighbouring councils involved in the same project have already disclosed information detailing the fixed 30-year term of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) proposal and the substantial increases in waste volumes and costs to residents and businesses that the NLWA approach assumes.

I am very disturbed that Haringey Council officials’ instincts seem to be to withhold information from local residents rather than engage them in the debate.

The things we throw away in our dustbins are one of the most direct ways we effect our environment. We need to reduce the amount of waste we throw away and then we need to figure out how best to dispose of what is left. Treating residents as adults, and sharing with them the likely costs through their Council Tax if we do not change our approach to rubbish, is an essential first step.

It is completely bizarre that Barnet residents are allowed to know the potential impact on their borough and their Council Tax while Haringey residents are left completely in the dark.

Why an army of small donors isn't all good news

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Featured on Liberal Democrat VoiceMy latest column for the Ham & High is about the US Presidential election:

I shall go to the ball! I have been invited (along with hundreds of others) to the American Embassy for Presidential election night. Obama versus McCain – what a roller-coaster ride and political battle of the first order that has been – and maybe still is as McCain marginally closes the gap opened up by Obama in the last couple of weeks.

To be frank – I was a Hillary supporter – and I have my doubts about some of the policies Obama has pushed, such as the possibility of unilateral US military intervention in Pakistan. But compared with McCain – Obama is vastly preferable.

What has really surprised me though is the relative poor quality of the Presidential debates. I’ve watched them and been disappointed each time as both Obama and McCain failed to really deliver. I can’t say that they particularly articulated a vision which appealed to me – but then I am not an American.

I understand the desire for change Obama in particular is trying to tap in to – anyone must be better than George W Bush! Deep in my waters I fear an appeal based too heavily on being new and young – maybe to do with sub-conscious memories of T Blair. But more optimistically – maybe he really is the business. I just hope he wins!

Much of the coverage has been about the sites of both campaigns – and Obama’s in particular – putting together huge networks of supporters for their campaigns. Of course – with a population six times ours, the numbers are bound to be huge by our standards!

I think there is also a very big question mark about whether the ranks of small donors is really the good thing it is normally painted as. Certainly – lots of small donors is better than a few big donors, but the US has for decades had pretty tight limits on the maximum size of donations. And as for the small donors – my reading of events is that in the US people tend to give money rather than time to campaigns, whilst in the UK it is more a matter of giving time than money.

Reading accounts of people helping with door knocking and leaflet drops in the US, I think many UK political activists can only look on with envy at the relatively short lists of doors and short delivery runs compared with what is usual over here.

And given the choice – I’d rather have a political system that makes use of people’s time than money, as that makes for a healthier democracy. Of course you need both – but we shouldn’t be blind to the drawbacks of a system that is so heavily based on building up lists of donors – and then spending the money on advertising – rather than time on the streets communicating with the public. This isn’t just a theoretical issue – because going through Parliament is another round of proposed changes to how politics and political finance is regulated.

The first steps of the debate in Parliament has spun around and around as the Tories slag off the union’s financial support for Labour and Labour slag off the Michael Ashcroft money that is buying Tories marginal seats.

No wonder the British people have such a poor view of us politicians – as our spokesperson, David Howarth said eloquently to both Labour and Tory benches: stop such narrow, internal navel gazing and petty point-scoring for a moment’s media coverage as either the unions or Ashcroft is reviled. Just think what this looks like to the people out there. It is everything they think and hate about us – carrying on the narrow political battle when the crisis of confidence in democracy is raging to the point where people have no faith in politicians or even democracy any longer.

We Liberal Democrats voted against the Bill at second reading because it doesn’t deal with the cancer that eats away at the body politic. There are bits of the Bill that are OK – that improve little bits of the funding process – but it is just tinkering. If we want the people to once more have confidence in politics, politicians and democracy – then Labour have missed this enormous opportunity to restore public confidence in democracy.

Tackling knife crime in London: good news

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Spent Friday afternoon with Blunt 2 Taskforce – the key policing taskforce set up after the 24th knife murder in London. Well impressed with the Met’s concentrated focus and gold service in terms of trying to tackle what everyone is screaming at them to tackle – stopping our youngsters killing each other.

The idea is to stop trouble before it escalates into violence – so from a control centre in Central London key hotspots are watched and every bit of intelligence that comes in is monitored. If it looks like problems are brewing – then teams are sent in to diffuse anything that might kick off, as well as act as a deterrent. When police vans arrive in an area – word gets round pretty quickly to stay in and leave weapons at home if going out.

So – the Met has responded to our angst in London about the number of young people dying and injured on our mean streets. Those I met were dedicated, committed and determined. They were very aware that the increase in Stop and Search had to be not just about the action – but include engagement with young people if it is not to cause alienation. (Very important as ease to see how handled badly some of these tactics could go very wrong.)

They know that they need to take these actions with respect – but equally it was clear that they felt that the stop and search powers which have come under such scrutiny and criticism in recent years have a key role in tackling knife crime.

They’ve taken around 2,500 knives off the streets – with no complaints. On the whole, the police work with communities these days and – according to them – find the communities grateful for the protection that they bring in areas where kids are afraid to go out. No doubt I will at some point have this confirmed as the statistics filter through (albeit statistics got a bit of a bashing this week).

Since July 14th and the setting up of the task force there have been a further three murders. That is dreadful – but it is a slowing of the rate we saw for the first seven months of the year. Blunt bluntly admit they cannot exactly claim specific credit – but that is I guess because it is impossible to measure things that don’t take place. So if incidents are disrupted and don’t happen – they are not counted. Tricky.

Anyway – the point is I thought the project, the team, the resource committed to it and the effort are all very impressive. But – as the police were only too aware – it isn’t a matter of simply the policing and judicial side – it is about young people’s lives, diversions, aspirations, families and all of that wherein lies the long term solutions.

Catching those who do carry is obviously hugely important – but it’s also about what happens to that young person thereafter to make him or her change their behaviour. And as I said after my visit to Haringey Youth Offending Service last week – the resource going into preventative work, restorative justice, reparation and rehabilitation just doesn’t come near the level of resource on the judicial and policing side.

But if we do not do anything to change behaviour – then the police will be catching the same people over and over again!

If empty bottles had dreams

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Green glass bottleMy latest column for the Highgate Handbook and Muswell Hill Flyer is about recycling:

Here’s a question – why do we still need bottle banks when we have doorstep recycling? A relevant question as Haringey Council is on the brink of scrapping them.

Doorstop recycling is great idea in principle. It responds to the reality of any time poor Londoner; there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything let along make it to the bottle bank. Green boxes are an easy and convenient method that lots of Councils have chosen to increase the amount of waste recycled.

The problem is that it is the best worst option. That might sound a bit strange, but here’s what I mean. Take an ordinary glass bottle, let’s say a wine bottle. After you have finished the last drop of that cheeky red I am sure you diligently put it in your green box.

Here is where the problem starts. Because not only do you put in wine bottle from Friday night, but you also put in the weekend’s newspapers, the pizza flyers that come through your letter box and your plastic milk containers after you finished the last drop milk for your crunchy-nut cornflakes that morning.

When this mix leaves your doorstep and gets crushed in the lorries that transports it to the recovery centre, the damage is done. The dreams of that poor bottle are crushed and that empty bottle of cheeky red has absolutely no chance of ever been turned back into even a milk bottle let alone the finest Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

The bottle does get kind of recycled, but the best that poor bottle can ever hope to be is road fill because of the contamination. Hardly the most glamorous end to your favourite Pinot Noir but more seriously, what is lost when it is recycling in this way is the enormous energy saving potential of that glass. It takes about seven times the amount of energy to make new glass than is does to make glass from recycled glass. An extremely important fact as we try to reduce our carbon footprint.

Until a more perfect and cost effective alternative presents itself, kerbside recycling in its current form is here to stay for a while. But in the meantime, why not keep our bottle banks? When practical, I am sure many people are happy to take their glass to the supermarket bottle bank instead of consigning it to be become part of the M1 extension.

Taking the greenest option away is simply ludicrous and retrograde step in our fight to make our communities more environmentally friendly. I for one will be fighting to keep our bottle banks not only to help drive down our borough’s carbon emission, but so green bottles can still dream of rediscovering their cheeky former selves.

Health Trust standards fall

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Haringey Primary Care Trust is letting residents down. Its official rating for quality of service has fallen from ‘good’ to ‘fair’ – which is bad enough – but even worse its performance in meeting national targets has fallen to ‘weak’.

Front line services particularly highlighted by the official watchdog – the Healthcare Commission – are breast cancer screening and access to GP services.

My Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Richard Wilson and I have demanded an urgent meeting with the Trust’s leaders to seek assurance over an action plan for improvement – and I have contacted Health Secretary Alan Johnson to ask for assurances that resources will be levered in so that no local people suffer the consequences of Haringey PCTs poor performance.