Category Archives: Blog

Darfur

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Whist the by-elections play out on the political stage, long before they were called – I had arranged the inaugural meeting of my Haringey Local Darfur Action Group (HLDAG) today. (Read here for my earlier posting on why such a local group is needed).

I had been amazed by the response to my initial email – and to the number of people who wanted to join me in this pressure group. My idea is to set up an organising group to lobby and put pressure on the sensitive political spots that might prompt the Government of Sudan to stop the genocide and let the African Union / United Nations troops be deployed before 2008 – the current best estimate following President Bashir’s promise to finally allow them in.

But there are many other things that need doing – including the extension of the UN arms embargo across the whole of Sudan as weapons are coming into Darfur from there. The difficulty of getting the UN resolution through is I guess because China and Russia have a veto and they both earned well over £20 million each on arms sales to Sudan in 2005. So – an example of what I hope the group will do (and the group will grow in size) is to all send emails to the Chinese Ambassador asking him not to use the veto, for example – as it would be a shame if the Olympics in Beijing were to become a political football, etc etc.

I invited a Darfuri refugee to come and speak to the Group, and Ishmail Jarbo, whose parents were murdered and he himself injured before fleeing to this country, told us his tale. This was very powerful and brought home the reality of the genocide. My Lib Dem councillor colleague, Errol Reid (Hornsey ward), then spoke. Errol has long been involved with Sudan and is also the secretary for the International African Lawyers, fighting on human rights and anti-slavery.

We all then contributed a great range of ideas and a number of those attending stepped forward to take this campaign forward.

I know, I know – how can what we do in Haringey affect Darfur? Well – I totally believe in people power. I also believe, that at this particular juncture, China will be sensitive to world opinion and as China is the most influential foreign power in terms of Sudan – pressure on China is one way forward. And there is divestment – as we pressure groups not to invest in companies who are supporting the genocide. And, this is my pilot, and I will be trying to extend this nationwide in due course.

Being impotent and doing nothing is why dreadful things continue for decades in this world. This is a complex situation and in the end, only a negotiated peace will bring real peace to the area – and both Arabs and Black Darfuris will have to come around the table with all the groups and militias and rebel bands. But that cannot happen until the killing is stopped. So first deployment and stopping arms.

The communication for this group will be primarily by email – and if you live in Haringey and you want to join in what will be a relatively simple exercise in targeted lobbying – then let me know. You can also join the Facebook group.

The group will hopefully have its first organisational meeting to decide the action program in the next two weeks and then we will email out the first proposed action; after all – this is an action group!

Gordon Brown and our Tube

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PMQs – and Gordon didn’t have a good one – repetitive and unsure of facts or what to say. It’s not so easy being PM as he expected.

Vince Cable had a question on the order paper and used it to batter Gordon over his head with the failure of Metronet – whose slide into economic meltdown was inevitable. There’s no sliding away from this issue for Gordon because when he was Chancellor – the PPP for the tube was his baby. Ken L went to court to try and stop this dreadful contract which cost something like £500 million in consultants and lawyers alone.

I was shoulder to shoulder with Ken against the PPP – for the very reasons that are now coming to light.

Make no mistake – these are Gordon’s PPP chickens coming home to roost – and not so new Gordon is entirely to blame for this debacle.

Obscene behaviour by supermarkets

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Pleased today that the Guardian – who called me yesterday – have the story online about exploitation by some of our big supermarkets who pay a pittance to people overseas. Good story by them – here is part of what they say:

The call came after the Guardian reported allegations by workers at factories in Bangladesh supplying Asda, Primark and Tesco that they worked up to 80 hours per week for as little as 4p an hour. They also reported abuse by supervisors, and sackings for taking sick leave.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat international development spokeswoman, said legislation should guarantee that pay and conditions of overseas workers met international standards: “It’s obscene that [UK shoppers] can earn more through their club card points than the people who produce the goods they are buying.” She was setting up meetings with supermarkets and other large employers of overseas workers to talk about their corporate responsibilities.

Haringey Conservative turns UKIP

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Well, well, well!

William McDougall – ex-Tory councillor on Haringey and their Tottenham candidate in the 2005 general election – has surfaced as a fully-fledged UKIP member. This is his endorsement for the candidate for Sedgefield by-election:

“I was the Tory Candidate for Tottenham in the last general election, and previously was both a Conservative on Haringey Council and Chairman of my local Conservative Association. Like Toby I have become fed up with the direction the Party has taken, and have now joined UKIP.

“If I wanted to support a social or liberal democratic group there are already two well established parties. If I wanted to support environmental extremists there is a third. But why support Cameron? He is losing the Tory base without convincing anyone else. His Ealing candidate even donates money to the Labour Party.”

Criminal investigations at home and abroad

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Ealing bright and early – everyone seems very jolly this morning. Think that is probably the aftermath of the news that broke yesterday about the Tory Tony Lit (and Tory must be a loose description) who gave £4,800 to Labour just before he became Tory candidate.

Then back to Parliament, where suddenly see on the annunciator (TV screens around Parliament that tell you what is happening in the Commons and Lords) that there is a statement to be made – an update from the Foreign Secretary on Litvinenko.

I seize my opportunity, as I have been waiting for the new Cabinet to be in place before trying to arrange for Marina Litvinenko and myself to meet with the Foreign Secretary. I get called – compliment (genuinely) David Miliband on his proposal to take a hardish (but proportionate line) with the Russians – expelling diplomats in response to their refusal to extradite the murder suspect in the case – and then ask him if he will agree to meet with me and Marina. He basically says yes – him or if not him – his official. So – a good ask!

Then straight into the BAE corruption debate. It is a Liberal Democrat Opposition motion. What struck me most was the Government’s absolutely vitriol towards us for raising the issue. Very telling! They didn’t like it one bit. I expect it is because the Government has used the smoke screen of ‘national security’ to hide the reason for the dropping of the investigation into BAE by the Serious Fraud Office. They wanted the contract for jobs and commercial reasons – but that is not a reason that can be used for dropping an investigation – only national security is. Hence – it is about national security and I’m the sugar-plum fairy! I didn’t catch Mr Speaker’s eye sadly – despite bobbing up and down for a few hours. I had to satisfy myself with a few interventions instead!

A weekend of congratulations

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Saturday I go to the Highgate Horticultural Society Show to award the prizes. It is a complete delight to see the absolutely beautiful exhibits. My children don’t let me near our plants! That says it all. However, clearly the prize winners and all who took part are green fingered. A lot of work goes into these events – so congratulations to all.

As indeed, on Sunday, congrats to the Golf Course Allotments – particularly Karen – whose sterling efforts resulted in a successful (but modest) lottery bid to have a new Community Hut. And what a splendid hut it was – absolutely gorgeous. This is an amazingly committed community and I was delighted to have supported their bid and delighted to be asked to open the new hut. As the heavens opened as I cut the ribbon – lucky we all had a new hut to gather in!

It's still the economy, stupid

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I’ve just uploaded my latest article – this time one about the economy for Liberator magazine:

I have petitioned and campaigned for – and against – many, many things since the world of political campaigning crossed my path. But the absurdity of the thought of running a petition calling for next month’s inflation figure to be cut by at least 0.3% or running a street stall demanding an extra 0.1% on the third quarter’s GDP growth figure should not become a reason for ignoring economic issues in our campaigning.

You can read the full piece over on my website.

Winning in Camden

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Hurrah! Wake up to two texts on my phone saying we won the by-election in Camden by 150 votes – which is pretty huge and a great sign of things to come. Well done Matt. No one is going back to Labour (it was a Labour resignation that caused this by-election) and no one is swinging to the Tories. So – hey – not resurgent after all!

Avenue Gardens Residents' Association

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Spend the morning in Ealing for the by-election. Seems very jolly over there and upbeat. Main community event of the day back in the constituency is going to Avenue Gardens Residents’ Association to do a ‘Question Time’.

Key issues from the evening included Haringey’s lack of consultation with residents over planning proposals – in particular – Haringey Heartlands. And – even if there is a consultation – they ignore it.

One resident raised the issue of the proposed polyclinics – and the potential of these plans to denude us of our local GP practices. That is what we need to make sure doesn’t happen.

It was interesting when I met with the Trust and asked what I would think is a critical question – what proportion of GP visits require further action (diagnostics, referrals to a clinic, etc), they couldn’t give a full answer.

But this is key to the polyclinics idea – because if, say 90% of doctor’s visits require follow up with one of the services that will be at the polyclinic – then having the GP and those other services all on one site can have advantages of saving further trips (and so further delays). But if those 90% instead don’t require further services, then having GP practices centralised isn’t nearly so attractive.

Anyway – back to Avenue Gardens Residents’ Association – we also ranged over excess of traffic, HGVs, the tick-box society, the quality of councillors, the poor quality of decision-making at Planning Committee, and other topics too. I enjoyed it – as I always do. Meeting people at events like this always reaffirms the point to the whole process. It is always about peoples’ lives!

PMQs

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Brown was a great deal better today than last week – and followed PMQs with a draft Queen’s Speech. Innovation – the ability to discuss and disseminate proposals before the Queen’s Speech – or does the PM just want his manifesto out there for an autumn election which gets called before the actual Queen’s Speech? Hmmmmmmm.

Then it was the Tory Opposition Day debates. There was a tepid motion, apple pie against which it was impossible to vote – however, it was based on the report by Iain Duncan Smith. In fact, I went to record for the Week at Westminster to discuss the ‘back to basics’ marriage proposals of the Tories with Diane Abbot and Nadine Dorries. Needless to say – Nadine supported her Tory colleagues and tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to argue that the £20 per week for married couples was the answer to all our ills. Diane and I were on the other side on this one.

To me – ludicrous to go backwards and propose a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. Yes – we all agreed that having two parents in situ was the optimum (although only Nadine thought they had to be married not just cohabiting) but Diane and I recognise the world we live in – not make believe. That genie isn’t going back in the bottle – not for Tories or anyone. It was a fun knock around – better than having the boys in! Then I returned and sat in the last half hour of the debate itself – but listening to Tories bang the marriage drum just makes me wonder whether they have changed at all!