Category Archives: Blog

Childminding

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Visit to a Quality Assured childminder in Noel Park to see more of how the Sure Start program works.

Patty and Roger Wanasen are the childminding couple who I am visiting in their home. The sun is beating down and Patty has told me not to eat before I arrive as she is preparing a picnic lunch. As I arrive I am thinking that it is too hot to sit out in the garden having a picnic and that the children will all get sunburnt etc. When I arrive and am walked through to the garden, however, I see an outdoor palace for children. Proper shading provided by the sort of tents you see at Henley or Wimbledon – one shading a table laid out with a feast (no other word can describe it) and the other covering a play area stuffed with children’s delights in terms of toys and play items.

And all the children and all their parents are there. It was totally delightful – and a truly good news story.

Childminding has always born the brunt of bad associations – the image being someone who has a child and takes in others to made a bit of money, puts them in front of the TV, gives them chips and crisps and takes no notice if they cry.

Well – this is as far from that as you can get. To be Quality Assured through the Childminding Network – locally co-ordinated by Naima in Noel Park – you have to jump through some pretty high hoops in terms of child nutrition, safety, knowledge and so on. Patty shows me around her house which really is a shrine to her love of children and her work – and shows me all of the record keeping on menus for the week, fire drills, accident book, attendance and all the certificates of various training achievement that both she and her husband Roger have attained. Patty is still a bit upset because OFSTED (yes that one) have given her ‘good’ rather than ‘outstanding’ and she doesn’t know why as she has poured her life and love into her childminding.

I have to say I am astounded too – I cannot imagine a better childminder setup or people more committed and warm and lovely. It’s just what you want when you have to leave your child somewhere – someone who will care as much as you. I thought they were outstanding and take the OFSTED report to study it. One parent suggests to me that OFSTED don’t like the free play time that Patty and Roger include. OFSTED apparently like children to be worked and instructed non-stop. I agree with the parent – free play time to do nothing, muck around or stare at the sky is vital. I will see when I read the report. But if that is what the case is – then it needs arguing against with OFSTED directly!

All the parents, and both mums and dads were there, were over the moon with the facilities and the personalities (which after all are paramount I reckon) of their childminders – and several of them had decided to keep their child there until school rather than go on to nursery.

All in all, superb. Then on to surgery at Jackson’s Lane for another couple of hours. Hot work…

Concrete factory

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Bad news this week about the decision on the Cranford Way concrete factory – the Inspector has given it the go ahead. Everyone is devastated. Following a tremendous campaign by local people and politicians across the parties – the Inspector deemed to find that all our cares and worries were as nothing. According to his findings we must all be mad. Sadly – it will be ordinary local people who pay the price in their quality of life reduction if we are right and he is wrong.

Goliath has won. Well Goliath in this case has loads more dosh for fancy lawyers.

Oh yes – the Inspector has applied various conditions to London Concrete’s permission to go ahead. But I wonder how long their promise to only supply Haringey building sites with concrete will last – and how long before they apply for an extension to the number of lorries going in and out. Enforcement is not the weapon of choice – but now we will just have to see. The planning process is always weighted in favour of the presumption to permit – sadly. And unlike London Concrete who were able to appeal the initial refusal of their plans – residents cannot appeal this decision as there is no appeal against the Planning Inspector. Judicial Review is the only next step – and that would be impossible to stage and even if we could – I don’t think they would not find against the process.

So depression all round.

Leave London for Torquay at 3.45 on Thursday for Question Time. Researching – I feel sure that Ming’s speech on tax (attacking twin evils of climate change and the widening equality gap by upping eco-taxes and reducing capital gains tapers etc on shares) will be on the agenda. I am wrong in the event – not even a mention.

To my horror, earlier in the day I find out that George Galloway is on the panel. I had been told about David Lammy and Liam Fox – but not gorgeous George. I wouldn’t have gone on with him if I had known. He is a brilliant orator – but a dominating bully in terms of a panel. However, no choice by the time I find out. Worse – they sit me next to him. And thus it was – from the terror raid to the murder of the Butcher of Baghdad it was George on his soapbox.

Given Respect only has one seat in Parliament – don’t even think he should get the time of day. Particularly after his colleague decided to whip up the divides in Forrest Gate by advising Muslims to withdraw cooperation with the police.

Whatever else I might think about this seemingly bundled operation – the police had to go in. The intelligence seems wanting – and this isn’t the first time. But when both Muslims and everyone else need most to rely on each other and hold hands against the terrorists – George’s lot are stirring it – and successfully. The march on Friday will not be helpful. Even if peaceful – it is not necessary. The police will get it in the neck anyway if they have got it wrong on such a massive scale again. And the intelligence services need to go back to school – or over to Canada where they seem to get it right – and they could learn a few lessons.

It’s an evil agenda – and the shame is – that there is a great need to support the Muslim community in this terrible time for them – as the terrorists hide behind their skirts. But George’s way creates division and discord.

Anyway – the boys (and there were four of them and one of me) were all being very alpha male and so hopefully I provided some common sense.

Got back to London around 3am.

Notice in my inbox when I get in (yes – I did – even at that time of night) that some of the DNA stuff has appeared in the media – which is good as I am determined to follow this through until we get results. This was when I discovered from the answer to a Parliamentary Question (PQ) I had tabled that individuals’ samples on the DNA database have been shared with other foreign countries with no real safeguards in place.

Under new EU proposals, all member states will be able to access the British DNA database and the information on it. This is bad in itself and a bad omen for the upcoming ID register, now the Government has made it clear that our personal data can be shared with foreign countries.

There are no real safeguards in place to control this huge database – which leaves it open for misuse, especially as now we find out it’s not only being misused in our country but also internationally. What confidence can we have in the Government’s reassurance of the DNA database having proper safeguards when, until last year, they didn’t even collate requests properly?

Foundation schools

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My youngest daughter’s 17th birthday today. I have to get her up for presents and cards at 7.30am – poor thing. Finished her AS’s yesterday thank goodness. So dash off to work. Am studying the news very hard this week as I am on Question Time tomorrow and live in terror of not knowing about some issue that may come up.

Lib Dem Home Affairs Team first thing – and we thrash out our views on the terror raid in Forrest Gate, discuss trafficking and general crime issues. I have to leave early to go and meet the School Council from Fortsimere School who I have sponsored for a tour and who come up to see the exhibition of some of their work on display at the House. The new head is with them and I ask him for a meeting to discuss the school’s desire or otherwise to become a foundation school. I am against this on principle – but Haringey have screwed them financially to the point where I guess they feel it is Hobson’s choice. I will try and persuade them – but in the end – so long as there is a proper democratic process for making this decision – it has to be for the school, the students, the governors, the staff and the parents to decide.

I go to PMQs – and then stay both for the statement on the NHS and then the Opposition Debate on Tax Credits. What a mess – both of them!

Off to prison

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Spent the morning in Brixton Prison. I was there for the launch of a new book on Restorative Justice. Prison is unremittingly grim. I know it is meant to be – but sometimes it is portrayed as barely different from our lives on the outside. That is so not the case – and I wish more people could be taken to see and feel the claustrophobia of and harshness of the environment where we incarcerate criminals. It’s no cakewalk.

As the hysteria between Tory and Labour crescendos towards locking up everyone and throwing away the key – to show who can be tougher – I am more and more convinced that we need to concentrate on what works; what is effective. The overflowing prisons and increasing rate of offending demonstrate incontrovertibly that the Government’s policies are not working. For all the headline grabbing toughness – it’s a load of baloney. They keep on preferring headline grabbing new laws to properly enforcing the ones that are already there. And the Home Office – after years and years in which Labour could have sorted it out – is still a mess. Whether it is prisoners walking out of prisons, sentences that mean nothing, probation not coping and people being lost track of – it has almost become farcical.

So whilst I am quite a toughie myself in terms of sentencing and enforcement – what I am completely clear about is the need to reduce offending and re-offending – and you can’t do that by simply locking people up. We certainly need to lock up those who might harm us – possibly permanently if the danger is severe. But we also need to make sure that those who will come out of prison one day come out in a state where they get a job, live a decent life and neither re-offend nor become a permanent burden to the tax payer. Otherwise – things ain’t going to get better.

Thus – restorative justice (which has long time been a Lib Dem theme) is now being heralded as one of the ways to do this. Making a criminal meet with the victim they have created can be a powerful step. It brings it home. It’s not easy on the victim – but there is a magic that happens (not for all but for some) when they are confronted with the harm they have done. For the first time the reality of the hurt gets through. And some are so affected that the work to make them change begins within themselves. I know – the dangers of being called soft etc – but I tell you – tough methods on their own do not work. The proof is in the criminal pudding. And the better results on pilots where restorative justice has been implemented are impressive.

So – an interesting morning. Walking away from the prison into the sunlight makes you realise how amazing it is to be free – and how close to hell being in prison actually can be.

Do a long interview with Politics Junkie – which is a website just as it says for the sad! Then a quick SI (Statutory Instrument). We are in agreement with this one – which adds bribery and corruption to the crimes that the Serious Organised Crime Agency can investigate.

Last gig for the day is to meet the other judges for the Guardian’s Public Services awards. These are to be judged in due course and a gala presentation next December. Bill Morris (Lord now) is one, and have enjoyable chat with him and several others. I find out what I will have to do. Apparently the judging will take place over a lunch – and the prizes awarded as I said in December. Luckily one of the judges who has done it previous years did mention that a very large box of paperwork will arrive prior to all of that. So there’s where the hard work will obviously have to be done! Anyway – absolutely delighted to be asked to do this as public services deserve more recognition – or rather the people and organisations that keep it all going. The voluntary sector is included – which is great as they often get left out – but they serve the public too.

London bombings report

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Report came out today by the London Assembly – my old stomping ground. It’s the findings of their investigation into how the emergency services and other coped with the London bombings and what problems were encountered.

It’s a really good piece of work. I suppose the overarching and key finding was that all the planning that went into London’s emergency planning post 9/11 was about the emergency services. What emerged clearly from the investigation was that the survivors and public’s needs had not even been factored into the equation. This report is the first to give voice to the needs of those caught up in the events of 7/7 and its findings and recommendations should be taken seriously and implemented.

The main things in terms of the emergency services was the lack of communications. The radio and mobile networks did not suffice and hospital staff found themselves having to go and see what was happening to their crews at the scenes ‘cos they couldn’t contact them. The train drivers couldn’t communicate with their controllers or the passengers. Once the City Police – completely autonomously – closed down the mobile networks except unto a few special exceptions – no-one could contact anyone. So that was a disaster – not just for the services – but ordinary people couldn’t find or contact loved ones to let them know where they were or how they were. And it is somewhat arrogant of the City Police to decide that theirs was the only need to be addressed by the plan or their actions. So much room for improvement there.

There were also eye-witness accounts of ambulances turning up without any proper equipments and so on. All things which need grabbing hold of and making sure that checking systems are in place.

Great plaudits, of course, for the bravery of the staff of the services involved – and not a report about blame – but a report that looks at the things that didn’t go right on the day and the needs of all those involved in terms of future disaster planning.

Of course, the problem with London Assembly reports is that the recommendations have no teeth and therefore there is no compulsion to implement the findings. That’s one reason why we still need a proper public enquiry. The other is that the voice of the people still has not had proper public hearing nor have the public had the opportunity to scrutinise the investigation in public on matters that we all, as Londoners, have a right to have analysed to the same level as the scrutiny in America which did hold a public enquiry.

Footnote to the day – was Mayor Livingstone demonstrating his petty-minded, grubby approach to statesmanship. His comment on the Assembly’s work was that it was ‘nitpicking’. Don’t suppose the relatives and friends of those who died, or the survivors, or the rest of London will be impressed that he places so little value on finding out what happened and making sure we are better prepared in the event that we come under attack again. Well done Ken – generous as ever!

Ming Campbell on crime

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Had to change my schedule around to be at Ming’s crime speech. I thought Ming did a good job on it – and was disappointed by the leader in the Independent which slags him off and the Lib Dems for not standing up for Liberalism. Bollocks! Press slag us off for being soft on crime and then when we state our credentials more aggressively – slag us off anyway. I do think we should take the world on our terms and I am for going out and being far more bold on our stance. I am convinced that we actually hold the intellectual and policy keys to making the world a better place – which is why both the other parties continually steal or try to steal our territory. It is irksome to see Cameron getting the coverage he does for doing sweet FA other than ride a bicycle with his shoe chauffer in attendance. He ought to have been slaughtered for that.

Then an afternoon of other peoples’ problems at surgery at Wood Green Library. The BBC ‘See Hear’ team arrive to film me after surgery as they are doing more in depth coverage of the Blanche Nevile School for Deaf Children story.

Haringey Council would like to make out that we (the governors, teachers and me) have all made a fuss about nothing – that there was never any intention to close Blanche Nevile. Fly in the Council ointment of course is the letter in my possession from Sharon Shoesmith (Director of Children’s’ Services) to Judy Downey (Chair of Governors) stating in black and white that the school is financially vulnerable and that there is a proposal to integrate the deaf teaching into Highgate Primary and Fortismere and to possibly close Blanche Nevile. I rest my case.

Actually, it is fine by me. I am more than happy to have upped the ante on this – now that the Council has been forced to publicly state that the school won’t close – mission accomplished. They might not admit they’ve back-tracked, but the key thing is – they have, and that will be good news for the children and parents who rely on the school.

Speaking in Oxford

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Go to Oxford on Thursday evening to address Oxford University Liberal Democrats. Confess to them that this is my old stomping ground (Ox Poly!) and where I took my first political steps – both campaigning to save art and stop the poly becoming a University (we won – but as Oxford Brookes now clearly exists – only temporarily) and also marched against ‘Maggie Thatcher – Union Snatcher’ when Maggie was Education Minister trying to take away student unions. I even threw flour-bags at her effigy – street cred or what? Another campaign, which, although it worked in the short-run – Student Unions were saved – ultimately failed to dent her passage to Prime Ministerial greatness. Oh well.

I used the bulk of my speech to meander through the ills of modern society and more pointedly – the ills of the Labour Government and its mantra of over-controlled micro-management of public services, onslaught on civil liberties and put forward my strategy for winning seats at the next general election. Had a really enjoyable discussion afterwards – and it all seemed to go well – and then back to London by around 1am.

ID cards

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Education! Education! Education! Labour, supported by the Tories, push through their dreadful Education Bill this week – the one that moves the deckchairs, that will allow McDonalds to run a school and which does nothing to address standards within schools or meet children’s needs. There are a few Labour rebels – but with the unwavering and pretty uncritical support of the now cuddly Tories – our school system moves nearer to disaster.

Liberal Democrat MPs campaign against ID cardsNick Clegg, myself , Roger Williamsand Mark Hunter (the Home Affairs Front Bench Team) joined by Simon Hughes, party president, go to the Passport Office to hand in our old passports and apply for new ones. This is to illustrate our protest at the Government forcing all of us to go onto the National ID database at the point at which we get a new passport. It doesn’t start for a while – but is against their manifesto pledge that the ID card / database would be voluntary. They’ve broken that promise (surprise, surprise) – by linking it to renewing passports are basically making it mandatory. But if you renew your passport before these rules come in – you can put off joining the register for 10 years. But which time who know who will have won an election and maybe scrapped the whole scheme.

I truly don’t think this will hit home with the public until they twig when and as they renew – but as the nation wakes up to the cost and the consequences – I am still hopeful that it can be stopped. The big problem will be how much has already been spent by the time this happens – too many billions that could have gone on effective crime-fighting measures – like more police – and there will be no turning back.

You can sign the Lib Dem petition against ID cards and also find out how you can renew your own passport (if you have one) before the Big Brother database kicks in at the Lib Dem website.

Haringey Council

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Quite emotional for me – tonight’s Haringey Council Mayor Making is the first sitting of Haringey Council since the local elections. I remember what it was like when I was first elected to the Council in 1998 along with Julia and June (the first ever Lib Dem group on Haringey) and I became Leader of the Opposition. Then the layout of the chamber meant there were three rows each side, and we would sit in a little clutch at the front on one side – surrounded by Labour members on all sides (and long ago two Tories as well) who laid into us in the most bullying way you can imagine. Toby Harris was the then Leader of the Haringey Council and he and his cohorts spent much of each meeting just slagging me individually and the Lib Dems collectively off. I had to rise to speak on every item virtually. I often think how lucky I was to have such a rough start in politics. It certainly makes the Commons Chamber seem like a nursery by comparison!

Anyway – tonight and only eight years later, as I sit as the MP at the front of the guest seats, – there are still three rows of councillors each side of the chamber – but instead of 54 Labour and 3 LibDems – now it is 30 Labour and 27 LibDems. And how subdued and conciliatory Labour have suddenly become. It felt fantastic! To see how we have grown and to recognise that change is possible and hard work does reap rewards…

Some things don’t change, however, and all the important positions in the Council, as ever, are exclusively Labour – indicating that they are not yet willing to accept that the balance has changed in Haringey.

Hornsey YMCA

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Pouring with rain and freezing cold – the 10K run in the Hornsey YMCA’s annual Fun Run and Children’s’ Race day was still great – but not like a summer day when families spend the day having fun and picnicking.

I start the race and then give out prizes a couple of hours later when the runners have run. The money raised this year (and this was the biggest year of entry ever) is going to TreeHouse Trust – a local charity that provides top-notch education for children with autism in Muswell Hill. They have integrated well into the local community – and some of their children were taking part in the races today. Fab!

It was so wet and miserable, however, that despite the British stoicism that saw all the runners run regardless, not all the winners hung around for their prizes. The overall winners were there – and well done to everyone who took part. The Hornsey YMCA does fantastic work in the local community and deserves much more thanks and recognition than it gets. Today they had their new community bus at Priory Park. This bus will go out to reach those youngsters who normal channels don’t reach to give them information on pathways to work and sexual health advice and so on.

Later in the day I go to St Mary’s where the Lib Dems are having their thank you party to all those who helped us in the recent local elections. The room is packed – and the really great thing is that there are dozens of people I don’t know. In the old days I knew everyone. But we have grown so hugely over recent years – this is the result. So I spend the next few hours talking to the people I don’t know – all of whom really helped us to the fantastic result we achieved. Taking eleven seats directly off of Labour and topping the poll across the borough was no mean feat – and if there are a couple of by-elections now…

Cannot help but mention in passing the farcical state that the Home Office appears to now be in. It’s like a Carry On film – where one gaff follows another. However, hate to say I told you so – but on every possible occasion since I was elected I have pointed out that the Home Office is the most incompetent and inefficient organisation I have encountered. I have a stream of people through my surgery every week whose lives are held in suspended animation because the Home Office loses their documents, takes years to answer, makes mistakes, and so on. Just glad its awfulness is now being so publicly exposed. This must herald substantive change as people’s lives are completely screwed by such a dreadful department.