Category Archives: Blog

Hugging hoodies

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So what to make of Boy Dave and hugging hoodies? I feel that Cameron is making a mockery of politics at the moment. How can people believe or trust their politicians when it is so cynical and so glaringly obvious that these gargantuan shifts in tone are about votes and not conviction?

So whilst Dave sets mood music to be conned by, I remember back to my first Question Time (one week after I was elected to Parliament last year) when Bluewater shopping centre was all over the news for wanting to ban hoodies. Asked my views, I said that any establishment is entitled to a dress code – but that having been said a hooded top was an article of clothing and in my view young people should be judged by their actions not what they wear. The Tory next to me was Boris! Now Boris agreed with me – and Boris is believable – Boy Dave isn’t.

Hopefully his merry dance between cuddliness and rightwing views will end up with him losing both the Tory core vote and the centralist votes – who both will see this for what it is.

Blogging politicians

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Awake to Steve Richards interviewing Alex (Recess Monkey – Labour) and Iain Dale (blogging Conservative).

The traditional media has decided that blogs are the big news and it would seem that these days bloggers lead the field and the media follow our agenda. Of course Alex and Iain both write really great blogs and their audiences are huge.

They are more overtly political and somewhat different to the blog I keep. They are really political commentators, and whilst national politics certainly features in my blog I also try to use it to communicate with my constituents. Having a distinctive geographically based constituency makes a difference – though I don’t worry too much about this. I much prefer writing what I want to say – and not thinking too closely about what different people might want to read. If they like what I write – good; if not – sorry, I’m going to write my own stuff anyway!

Although the hits I get are pretty huge these days – particularly when there is something going on that people want to come and have a look at – I’m sure Iain certainly is in a different league.

They both also allow comments on their blogs. I have always been sceptical about the benefits of allowing comments on this blog as people can engage with me in many other ways (such as by email), and for the comments to really work you need to take part and engage with each item and its comments. There is no way for me to do that with my work schedule – much as I would love to.

And as I write my blog myself (otherwise there would be no point) and I want to keep it personal, I don’t think comments are essential. Reading this blog gets you my direct, personal views. There are plenty of other places for political discussion, including some I occasionally take part in – such as Liberal Review who kicked off an interesting discussion around some thoughts of mine on knife crime.

I also notice that the Sunday Observer has a big article on blogging. I get a mention as having been a trail blazer for blogging politicians. Alex asked me if I would Chair an All-Party Group on this kind of stuff – but I just don’t think I can take on more commitments at the moment as I tend to be cursedly diligent!

Channing School

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Went to a local Independent School Founders Day service – Channing. Going through the entrance which fronts Highgate Hill was a bit like Disney as you came out the other side into a secret world full of women and girls, with lovely landscaping and clean spaces between the school buildings. Channing has a new Head, Ms Elliott, who gave a very good speech/report at the end of her first year. What struck me was that at A-level they had the best results in the whole of the UK – because in the days when I was at school (and I went to South Hampstead on a scholarship some decades ago), Channing was for nice girls but was not in the real academic race. They seem to be well up there now in terms of academic effort – but still combine a sort of ‘nice’ girl approach.

Sitting listening to the choir sing songs took me back to my school days – as it was formal in a way that you rarely see now in schools. As if tradition can somehow ensure rectitude. Maybe it can. Half of top jobs were found by a recent report to go to those who have been to independent schools, despite them only forming 5% of the school population. No surprise there. There is still, in my view, often no comparison between private and state education and that is the scandal that goes on untrammelled – particularly in London. If you live near a good comprehensive – then you are lucky.

The Charities Bill wending its way through Parliament at the moment tinkers with the charitable status enjoyed by Independent Schools in so much as it commands such schools to demonstrate that they have and maintain a public interest strand. For most this seems to mean that they are willing to do a few joint projects with the state schools locally and/or rent out their facilities to the local community (at a price!).

My solution is more radical, and as I submitted it in my draft chapter for the next so-called Orange Book – which isn’t an Orange Book – and is to be called Britain after Blair. However, the editors so far have rejected my solutions as being too interventionist. I will have a go at it again – but if not – I will publish it on my blog!

Anyway – Channing visited – I rush back to catch the end of the women’s singles. It’s a long time since I was tennis-mad – and used to ball boy at Queens just before Wimbledon. In fact, I did it three years running, to my mother’s dismay, right through both my O and A levels. And because the players knew me – they gave me a free pass to Wimbledon and the Players Lounge for those years. So – I retain a fondness for the game – although I haven’t put racket to ball for some years now.

Muslims and extremism

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Got an email from a very disgruntled constituent complaining about the Islam Expo being allowed on ‘our’ patch (at Alexandra Palace) and opening roughly at the same time as anniversary of the 7/7 bombings. I answered saying the timing could be viewed that way – but in reality that the Muslims had born the brunt of the reactions to 7/7. And indeed the Islam Expo is reaching out across communities and extending understanding in my view. That is to be welcomed.

Our foreign policy, waging an illegal war, has caused some Muslims to become radicalised and a few to commit these hideous and unjustifiable acts. Tony Blair says Muslims have to do more. My own view is that we all have to do more. The only concern I would personally voice through my own experience is that I have encountered one Muslim man in a leadership position, who when speaking to me or publicly condemns suicide bombings but who amongst certain other groupings espouses tacit approval. That is not acceptable and I think is about individuals power bases.

[UPDATE: have found out more about this person’s views, and it looks like I was mistaken – so I won’t be pursuing this further.]

Anyway – to my point – there was an interesting – and largely positive – poll in The Sun (!) about Muslims, extremism and terrorism. It’s an internet poll – so we need to be aware of that and polling the Muslim community accurately can be very difficult in terms of who a poll reaches and what selectivity that binds into the results. So we shouldn’t get too het up about the details, but overall picture is, as I say, interesting.

Further details are on Anthony Wells’s excellent site, but here’s what I make of them.

Yes, a small minority of Muslims think our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq justify attacks on British civilians. But it’s only slightly more (10% rather than 7%) than the figure in the non-Muslim population. In other words – there isn’t a great swathe of the Muslim population that believes in attacks on civilians. As for the deeply wrong minority who do – well, they are nearly as frequently found amongst non-Muslims as amongst Muslims. In fact, as the non-Muslim population is much larger, the majority of people who think such attacks are right are non-Muslims.

Also, a majority of non-Muslims here think problems with Muslim extremism have got worse in the last year. But amongst Muslims themselves – who are of course much closer to what is actually happening in their own communities – the figures are much lower at just under a quarter. And a fifth of Muslims meanwhile think problems with extremism have actually decreased in the past year.

One final straw in the wind: 9% of Muslims think it would be best if they didn’t integrate with the rest of society, but 16% of non-Muslims think it’s best if Muslims don’t integrate. Food for thought there!

In fact listening to radio phone-ins this week was equally struck by number of non-Muslims phoning in to say they didn’t want more integration and by a very good call from a woman who reminded us that when Brits go and live abroad, they often open an English pub, wear English clothes, speak English and set up a little England enclave!

Sir Ian Blair

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Last night I got a phone call around 6pm to say that Channel 4 are screening the program – 30 Minutes on Sir Ian Blair – that I was interviewed for. Being the day of the bombings I felt a pang of anxiety. I am not a Sir Ian fan – albeit he is not all bad. However, the interview had lasted at least an hour if not more and I had been pretty robust about Ian’s ups and downs in his first year of office. But the interview was some time ago – and they certainly hadn’t mentioned screening it on the first anniversary of 7/7 – which for obvious reasons is an ultra-sensitive moment. So, as ever, I was trying desperately to remember what I had actually said – and wondered what amongst it all the media would chose to use (normally it feels like only a nano-second actually makes it on to the screen).

In the event, they didn’t use the bit on Soham, or on his media gaffs, nor my view that he has politicised the police unforgivably. They didn’t use my questioning of his wisdom in partaking in Question Time nor his inappropriate and inaccurate public statements on the shooting at Stockwell. They actually used quite a positive bit (in fact the only positive bit) in which I call him a ‘progressive’ and say that his real problem is that the good stuff he has delivered like rolling out Safer Neighbourhoods is negated by his mistakes because they have been big and public.

It’s a tragedy really, as Ian I think desperately wanted to be the best and most respected Commissioner ever – and it all went so horribly wrong. We will see what the two IPCC investigations say in their reports. If he is found ‘guilty’ there is no way forward for him; if he escapes – then he had better learn from what has been a pretty disastrous first year.

Meeting George Meehan

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In the afternoon I have my first meeting with George Meehan since his reincarnation as Leader of the Council. We have an agreed agenda – and quite quickly get into a real abuse of power that is going on in Haringey. There are three areas where Haringey Council is moving ahead on absolutely vital local issues – and not even consulting with the local councillors at all. I know Labour are angry and scared about their losses at the local elections – but the Lib Dems are democratically elected and it is not only not appropriate to leave them out of things happening in their wards – but it is also unethical.

I put the CPZ travesty directly to George. There are four CPZ areas in the borough up for review to add streets (Wood Green, Bounds Green, Seven Sisters and Highgate) which George has suspended and delayed because the local councillors had not been consulted with.

But there is another bunch of CPZ proposals in the west of the borough, (Fortis Green, Muswell Hill, Hornsey etc) where there are new proposals for great huge new CPZs where the local councillors (Lib Dem) have not been consulted – but hey ho – they have gone out and are going ahead anyway! I asked him to suspend ALL the schemes pending both consultation with the relevant local councillors and also in the light of the imminent new guidance coming down from government about CPZs and the processes around them.

George said that this was not right, that it shouldn’t have happened and that from now on it wouldn’t. I pointed out that ‘from now on’ was meaningless as such great swathes of the west would be progressed anyway under these proposals. George has agreed to discuss suspending the schemes with Brian Haley – Labour Executive member for Environmental issues. We’ll see what happens!

We discussed a number of other issues, including the planning enquiry on the Lordship Lane twin towers proposals. It banished the tower block but has allowed the eight-storey block to go ahead. Not a victory in my view. Also on planning – there’s the concrete factory. George says the council committed to the enforcing of the forty-three conditions that the Planning Inspector put on his granting of the appeal by London Concrete.

I also ask him about the council permits for parking that were issued to residents in a new block that had got planning permission on the basis of being ‘car free’. This is a great worry for local residents as parking stress is severe in their area.

George says that “only2 seven permits were granted – and when they run out they will not be re-issued. I point out that it is told to me that the developers advertised the flats as being with permits. George says if that is so it is illegal. So if anyone has hard evidence, please let me know.

We then discuss Fortismere School. Haringey Council is sending out a letter to all parents to lay out some of the facts. I am glad as I have been calling for the facts to be given straight so that the parents can make an informed choice and then, hopefully if they answer my call, vote in a parental ballot!

On to Hornsey Town Hall – an exhibition goes up today in the Town Hall and in September the development plan from the Community Partnership Board will go to the Labour executive.

The London bombings

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Memories of the bombings flood in from every news station and newspaper. I am taken back to a year ago where I remember so clearly my journey into Westminster. It was the first time I took the car up to Parliament – because I had to take a load of stuff in. The radio began to give news of ‘power surges’ at stations. But I knew after a few minutes that there was a likely terrorist attack in process. And as I drove past Kentish Town station people were being evacuated – and as the news of the bus bomb came over the airwaves I saw buses begin to be emptied of their passengers as the drivers obviously received messages to evacuate the buses. In Parliament there were huddles of MPs and staff around TV screens – and towards lunchtime Charles Clarke came to the chamber to make a statement on the attacks. There was a very, very sombre air that day. And I remember coming out in the late afternoon to go home – giving a lift to two others. Emerging into bright sunshine from the cold and grey of the Commons atmosphere – with thousands and thousands of people walking to get home.

A year on London has proved how strong she is and how our communities – all of us – have held hands to make sure that terrorism didn’t triumph. Truly it is together we stand and divided we fall. And the evil that the extremist Islamic terrorists visited upon us will be vanquished if we stay strong.

I go to surgery in Wood Green and then to pay tribute to those who died, their families and the injured and to the work of the emergency services at a short ceremony in Wood Green opposite the Civic Centre. It is a hard day emotionally – lord knows what it must be like for those more closely involved.

CPZs

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Straight on after the postal services meeting to the anti-CPZ (Controlled Parking Zone) meeting organised in Muswell Hill against the ‘Stop and Shop’ proposals and the proposed CPZs in Muswell Hill – but also in a number of other areas in the West of the borough.

The local Liberal Democrat councillors were not even consulted about these proposals in their wards prior to the consultation being sent out. Labour are behaving incredibly anti-democratically, trying to get around the fact that these wards have actually elected Lib Dems and not Labour.

It’s quite a large meeting and conducted pretty constructively. I am given an opportunity to speak and whilst I am a supporter of traffic restrictions and regulations on parking when they are there to solve a problem – you have to think that such indecently rushed proposals which are so extensive, include great swathes of streets without any parking problem, and are not based on proper feasibility or parking stress studies, may be about revenue raising and not simply problem solving.

There are real problems, however, in some streets – and if Labour are going to put forward proposals they should be working with local people to identify first where those people are with problems, what times of day, etc, etc and then through public meetings and residents associations talk to the people and form the proposals together – not just dump them on them.

Ironically, the four CPZ review areas of Woodside, Bounds Green Highgate and Green Lanes have been delayed by Labour leader George Meehan. But six or so CPZ proposals have gone straight out to statutory consultation with no such lead up – and as I say, without even consulting the local councillors.

I am meeting George Meehan tomorrow and I tell the meeting that I will be asking him to suspend all consultations pending the new guidance about to come out from government, because proper procedures haven’t been followed and because there should first be a full program of local meetings AND a proper study of each area to identify accurately times and locations of severe parking stress.