Category Archives: Blog

The Scouts in Haringey

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On Thursday night I went to the AGM of London North Scouts at the Scout Park which is in my constituency – although the group also covers several others.

It is a fine organisation – and this was a timely visit as Haringey Council has decided to withdraw the very paltry support funding it gives them. I am fighting this , particularly as it has been taken away and the Scouts told to get funding from the Youth Opportunities Fund. However, the object behind that fund wasn’t to replace what local support there was – it was meant to be additional.

Anyway – I’ve written to the Council and to the Government. But back to the AGM – the keynote speaker was Terry Grimes of the Clash. Sadly I couldn’t stay for this speech as I had another engagement – but after I spoke he said he would call me as he is part of the Hackney YMCA and wants to chat with me in my role as Youth Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

Imagine though – the Clash – they were so it, back when I remember I briefly had a stall at Camden Lock market. How the years roll by…

David Davis, three days on

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So the nasty Tory party is back in full force turning its briefings in vituperative fashion on (or rather – against) David Davis. Much of the Conservative Party’s establishment seems to wish to infer that he is mad or sad or bad.

I think he is none of these things and take it on face value – he really does feel passionately about this issue and felt something dramatic was required. The issue of detention without charge is of such high import in terms of the fundamental values we hold dear in this land that it is worth taking a stand on. I hold no brief for David Davis. I don’t agree with him on almost anything else – but on this (like Nick Clegg) I do.

Anne Frank

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Lynne Featherstone signing the Anne Frank DeclarationOn Tuesday I hosted the Anne Frank Trust’s 10th Anniversary of the Anne Frank Declaration event at the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Sorry so late writing it up – but it was quite astonishing. First and foremost the Trust does extraordinary work with the Anne Frank story – using it to help young people everywhere. The Trust brings a timeless story which is seminal in its message to the world about fighting wrongs – but in the real world of a young teenager.

There was a video telling of their work, various speakers (including me) but most astonishing was that the singer Natasha Marsh (you may hear her on every Euro Championship football match on the TV) was here to sing live. One song, composed specially for the Trust will be released to raise funds. She sang three songs – the last being ‘You’ll never walk alone’.

It was sooooooo beautiful – like a bird soaring in perfect pitch – in the most incongruous of settings (Dining Room A). I wondered if the glorious tones would rise up into the House of Commons Chamber to take the message there. Congratulations to the Trust for all that they do – a wonderful event.

Knife crime and arches: are the police getting things wrong?

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The police placed a metal detection arch at Turnpike Lane a few days ago – and a colleague phoned me to tell me about it. He (being a lawyer) walked around it and challenged the police as to whether they thought they had the powers to make him walk through. In the end, when he walked around the arch, not through it, no one stopped him or followed him.

Rather a mess of a situation if you ask me! His legal view (and that of others I’ve spoken to also) is that the police have no powers to make people walk through the arches – but then I’ve also heard accounts of the police behaving as if they had. So – better information for the public and better training for the police needed by the sounds of it.

Also – from the accounts I’ve heard it also looks as if almost anything metal sets off the arches – and of course we all carry many metal things other than knifes. So there are two steps of police decision – who do they ask to go through the arches and then, if the alarm goes off, do they closely search the person? And again – the accounts I’ve heard are worrying, in that the police, or rather some police officers, seem to be slipping in to bad old habit of deciding whether or not to take these steps based on inaccurate cliches such as whether or not someone looks Muslim. White boys carry knives too!

Even if all these issues are got right, this isn’t the long term solution, much as it may bring very welcome short term benefits. Long term – we have to invest the resources to support young people so that there are other ways in life. Changing behaviour and culture is the issue.

David Davis

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Well, well! Quite a turn of events with him resigning to fight a by-election on the 42 days issues. It was clear in Parliament how strongly he feels on the issue.

Good to see Nick Clegg and the party saying that we won’t stand a candidate, so that the by-election is a clear verdict on Labour’s authoritarianism. There are some issues – and some principles – which are far more important than passing electoral advantage. Much though I think many Lib Dems would have liked the idea of fighting a by-election against David Davis, this way we get a clear contest on a key issue of principle.

As for the talk about Davis’s resignation being in part precipitated by splits in the Conservatives, well – easy to speculate, but will be interesting to see how this plays out, and regardless if the outcome is that he forces the Conservatives to stick with their opposition to 42 days (rather than, say, backing down in the Lords) then all the better.

One councillor down

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One of our councillors, Ali Demirci, has gone over to Labour. It’s only two years since Ali was elected on the Liberal Democrat ticket. Was his belief in fairness, equality and community so transitory? Or have Labour’s overtures and love-bombing simply turned his head? With his family links to Labour – perhaps he just took the easy road. Anyway – it will make the political contest in Bounds Green (which already had both Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors) all the more interesting!

DUP saves the day for Gordon Brown

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Very unhappy about the vote today on 42 days detention without trial! Gordon Brown got it through – just – with the DUP bailing him out at the very last.

Talk of all sorts of deals – rumoured and actual – flying around – but this sort of issue shouldn’t be up for bargaining. It should be about principles, not horse-trading.

Sat through pretty much all the seven hour debate in Parliament – and the case for locking people up for a month and a half without any trial just wasn’t made. Protecting our liberties should be at the core of what we do but – oh how ironic – once again it looks as if it’s the House of Lords that will be better safeguard of our democratic freedoms than the Commons.

Don’t let the good guys be the fall guys

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That was the theme of last week’s column for the Ham & High:

I am sick of the good guys being the fall guys. Let me elucidate. At its most simple it’s that honest, good citizens (the good guys) who transgress, for let’s say, staying on a parking meter or pay and display a few minutes over time get a ticket – and pay it.

The bad guys – who perhaps don’t bother to find a meter and park illegally and get a ticket or are involved in a traffic incident or so on – by contrast frequently don’t pay. And the worse they are, the less likely they are to pay – because they’ve not got up-to-date car tax, not got insurance, not got a license, given a fake address, using a stolen car, can’t be traced via the DVLA or because of any of 101 other reasons.

It all amounts to the more honest you are, the more likely you are to be punished if you make a mistake or have a momentary lapse of judgement. Don’t get me wrong – I am a great supporter of proper traffic and parking regulations – and if we park illegally we should be done for it and pay up – but the rules have to be fair and they have to be right. But the zealous – often over-zealous – chasing up of people who are easy to find whilst others can escape completely means we have the opposite of how a fair and just system should work. Good guys get the punishment, bad guys escape. Yes, punish people if they break the rules, but punish people more severely the worse their actions.

Even worse, those who aren’t easy to trace because of the tax and insurance etc dodges are often flouting not just those rules but, on the too rare occasions they are caught, turn out to be wanted for a host of other offences too. Pursuing the habitual wrong-doers would therefore reduce all sorts of misdeeds and clean up a whole range of misdemeanours.

So – you would think – that the authorities would invest in catching the bad guys. But think back through the recent government announcements and ideas – spying on people’s litter bins, mandatory national ID cards, introducing a database of all the phone calls and emails in this country – and they’re all ones that involve putting huge resources into keeping tabs on innocent people…

You can read the rest of the piece on my website.

Four schools face closure in Haringey

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Earlier today the Government announced that four schools in Haringey face closure. Here’s what my press release said:

Lynne Featherstone, commenting on the Government’s announcement that four schools in Haringey have been given a warning notices to improve exam performance or face closure said:

“We must challenge underperformance in our schools but threat of closure and job losses is hardly going to motivate the teachers whose help we need to drive up standards.

“I have long fought for fair funding for our local schools, so the extra money is welcome. However, this announcement seems far too much stick and not enough carrot.”

Councillor Gail Engert, Haringey Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education added:

“I wait to see how exactly much extra money this will mean for our schools. But £400m over 638 schools nationally only works out at about £600,000 per school. This will hardly scratch the surface of the historic chronic underinvestment in Haringey’s schools.”