Category Archives: Blog

Postal vote problems in Noel Park

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This part of the campaign always gets frenetic – stuffing, addressing, phone, canvassing and delivering non-stop.

A late telephone call with the chief of elections at Haringey Council reveals that one of the wards – Noel Park – pretty much has not received its postal votes. Whilst hundreds of postal votes have come back from other wards, in Noel Park the number is in low single figures. Clearly Royal Mail has messed up the delivery – big time.

So Norman Macleod – rightly – has decided to reissue all the votes in the ward and is getting council staff to hand-deliver them on Friday / Saturday morning. They will be given a new special code or colour – to identify them in some way as the second batch. If anyone should return two (if the originals turn up in any form) the first vote will be the one that counts.

For us – this means another bust of activity to get out an extra letter to people explaining what is going on. Busy, busy, busy!

More on Joyce Vincent

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Surgery all morning at Wood Green Library. Got more information now about the death of Joyce Vincent – the woman found in a Wood Green flat having been dead for two to three years. She had been housed by the Metropolitan Housing Association. In the end it was their bailiffs who went in because of the need to repossess the flat due to rent arrears. Her rent had been party paid by benefits and, I believe, started off in credit. Anyway – seemed to me that three years was a very long time to wait to chase up money owing and neighbours reported that usually – if they owed money – Metropolitan was on to them quite quickly. Well – I had an example walk through my surgery door where Metropolitan were going for eviction after three months of a new tenant. I am trying to stop it because – as is so often the case – the problem was with their benefits not being paid properly. But the point is – if they were so quick off the mark in this instance, what happened to make them wait three years in Joyce Vincent’s case? A question for the Chief Exec next week at our meeting I think.

Rush on to a meeting of Highgate Woods Committee (run by Corporation of London and local residents who are community minded). I just really wanted to show my support for the work of these dedicated souls who watch over our precious woods and care on our behalf. Highgate Woods are beautiful – they have that special atmosphere that you only get in woodlands (Queens Wood has it too). Sometimes I think we don’t really know how lucky we are – or all use it to best advantage. In fact the Corporation are to do a survey around people who live near the woods. I think it will be very interesting to learn what use people who live right there make of the woods – and if they don’t, why they don’t. Up to now surveys have been of users. Just as with buses – my old argument with Transport for London bus surveys was that they were always preaching to the converted in their surveys. What you really want is a survey that goes to everyone who lives within 5 minutes of a bus route to discover why they are not using their local services.

Anyway – I told the committee that I had actually mentioned Highgate Woods in my maiden speech – albeit only to mention that that is where I used to play kiss chase with other kids from Highgate Primary!

Just a footnote on the rolling news re Charles Clarke and the released murderers, rapists and so on. Several have now turned up and turned out to have been reconvicted for new offences. I’m sorry but this is hardly a surprise when there is a recidivist rate of 60% within two years. This was inevitable. And as to the view that Clarke is the best person to sort this out and therefore he should stay in post – this is a ridiculous hypothesis. Firstly – he didn’t tackle it effectively – even though he knew. Secondly it would seem that there is a view that there is no one better who could take his place anyway – a sad reflection if the case.

(You can sign the petition calling for him to go at www.libdems.org.uk/charles-clarke.html)

What I will say for Charles is that he has not tried to shift the blame to his Ministers. ‘Cos basically it’s the two Macs. McNulty and McTaggart in the Commons and Baroness Scotland in the Lords who between them have the responsibility for prisons and immigration. Clarke is right to take it on his shoulders – for that at least, I give him credit.

Charles Clarke

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Labour hits the skids. Timing immaculate. Already doing badly in the polls, slated on the doorstep by their own supporters – Charles Clarke, Patricia Hewitt and John Prescott decide to put the nail in the coffin of the local elections. How far they will fall – no idea.

But to the specifics. After PMQs, Charles Clarke comes to the Dispatch Box to make a Statement on the Deportation of Foreign Nationals. It was a pretty subdued performance really. I mean, what’s a man to say? He tried resigning – and Blair refused – tasking him with making everything all right. Poor sod. So he apologised and said he wanted to stay to sort out the mess. But I don’t think he should stay. Actually, I quite like Charles Clarke the person. He is intelligent and engaging. But – on his watch – this level of incompetence is so staggering (given the many warnings about it) that he has to go. If he were not to go – it would be like saying it doesn’t matter what happens in your department – even when as serious as this. And that continual degrading of standards is not acceptable. There are things that go wrong in any department, any office – and it is a matter of staff not doing something properly and no, I would not expect a Minister to go for run of the mill errors. But the warnings he received, the lack of action following them and the seriousness of the omissions make this a resigning matter.

It would seem, however, that Blair will only ‘let him go’ if public pressure mounts – so if you want to add to public pressure for Clarke to go – visit www.libdems.org.uk.

There are a number of areas that worry me about the substance of the matter in hand as well. I am less bothered about the ‘foreign’ bit. Yes – of course where a judge has said the criminal should be considered for deportation, then this consideration – and if decided so, deportation – should happen and in good time. And no doubt if one of those roaming our countryside murders or rapes – it will be a huge issue.

However, the bigger questions for me are the incompetence when this issue was flagged up; regardless of nationality – murderers are meant to be followed up on release and sex offenders are meant to be on a register – in other words, for both of these categories we should know where they are. How many released murderers or rapists are wandering around without the authorities keeping appropriate tabs on them? Is this endemic? And what is so complex about a foreign national coming for release. All the prison and the Home Office have to do is talk to each other. It’s not rocket science.

And on top and above, in some ways, all of this – is the exposure it gives to what I regard as one of the worst sides of this Labour Government – its proclivity for producing endless legislation when usually there is perfectly good legislation in place already – just not enforced. That is what this country needs – people doing their job properly using the laws that exist to enable them to do so. That’s why Charles Clarke has to go. If we accept him failing so badly in his job then we cannot expect everyone down the line to do their job properly. New legislation and new action-man headlines don’t change a thing!

Northern Line and Blanche Nevile

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Briefing on the Northern Line. My poor old local tube line – so much trouble in running reliably. So – London Underground and Tubelines put together a presentation to brief the interested in what they are going to do. Basically two main things are happening – short-term and long-term. Firstly – reliability during off-peak hours. They are tackling this by changing the pattern of running between the different line options. Without boring you with details – the outcome should be reliable trains every three to four minutes (I think) through the day – which is good news. No more 8 or 12 minute gaps. Hurrah! And that should come in this September. No change at peak times – but they say that better running during the day will mean that problems in the day that would have knocked on into the evening rush hour will be mitigated before the evening and so will benefit the rush hour too.

In the long term – work on the infrastructure, track and signal. This will mean the by 2011 we will have about 25% more capacity with more trains running and lots of stations upgraded – sadly not Highgate yet (personal interest).

The bad news – as ever it was – is that this increase in capacity that we are paying through the nose for (fares on the tube being amongst the highest in the world) will only cope with the projected increase in passenger numbers as London’s population grows over coming years. So – the overcrowding will not get better at peak hours despite all this improvement. This was one of the arguments I had many times with the Government when the PPP was coming in. It was always the way it was contracted by the Government. So – in true tradition – I told you so.

Evening sees me going to Blanche Nevile (the deaf school that Labour were threatening to close) for a meeting with governors, parents, officers of the council, deaf children and assorted interested parties. It was a fascinating meeting to attend as the mingle of deaf and hearing exactly replicated proper integration – rarely experienced, but what Blanche Nevile is all about.

First the officers presented – well nothing. Ian Bailey told us that because of the local elections he couldn’t really say anything. Except he was quite clear there were ‘no proposals to close Blanche Nevile’. And a note from Charles Adje – Leader of the Council (for the moment) read out that there were no plans to close Blanche Nevile. So – you might have wondered why we had all bothered. Why did I write my column in the Ham & High to spark this off? Why the Ham & High’s news story – deaf school to be axed? Well, I had based my column on a leaked letter from the Director of Children’s Services at Haringey Council – Sharon Shoesmith – to the Chair of Governors, Judy Downey. In black and white it states that the school is no longer viable and goes on to say that there may be a proposal to close Blanch Nevile.

I am long enough in the tooth to know that despite the protestations of officers and Labour Leader Charles Adje – saying ‘there are no proposals’ does not mean there are no proposals. What it means in Haringey speak is that there are no finalised proposals that we are prepared to put on the table in an open way and discuss with parents, governors and staff. I have been told before there were ‘no proposals’ to sell off residential care homes like Honeywood. And then Honeywood is closed and sold.

So – the reason I ‘outed’ Labour’s secret machinations – is to make sure they are put in a position where they cannot close this wonderful, wonderful school by stealth. And the meeting was fantastic – from Chair of Governors, to Head, to Staff Governor, to parent, to teacher governors to deaf children – they all made the resounding case for keeping and loving and being proud of this exemplar school.

So – my hope is – that now the Council will start talking properly and honestly to the school. The cat is out of the bag – and we are all there to fight for the best future for the children – as that is what really matters.

The death of Joyce Vincent

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Over the last week or so the furore around the death of Joyce Vincent – the woman who was found dead in a flat in Wood Green and who had been dead for two years – has swirled around me. As I listened to each piece of information from whatever source I became more and more concerned as there were so few answers that actually answered anything.

Following my request to the local Police Commander to open a fresh criminal investigation, I spoke to the police the same day to follow up. They are not opening a fresh investigation – but they were re-visiting the investigation and conclusions they had reached first time round when the body was found. They wanted to ensure that they still ‘felt comfortable’ with what they had done at the time. And basically – they were pretty emphatic that there was no sign of foul play – that the Coroner had found no injuries etc. Although how you find injuries on someone who has been dead for two or so years is a mystery to me. Anyway – no further investigation was believed to be necessary.

I have had responses to my enquiries both to the local Council Chief Exec and Metropolitan Housing Trust. The Council doesn’t appear to feel it has any particular remit in this and the Housing Association says that it had only a caretaking responsibility in terms of the flat – i.e. normal caretaker responsibilities but no support package. They were facilitating ‘independent’ living.

At least the Head of Metropolitan Housing has suggested that we meet Monday week – and I am anxious to meet with him. Not pointing fingers – but it is inconceivable to me that you can have a tenant with no contact for three years – particularly if they have been housed following leaving a women’s refuge. I am trying to get a meeting with the Head of Women’s’ Aid too – because surely anyone leaving a refuge is vulnerable and needs an eye to be kept on them? So many questions still outstanding.

It may not be foul play that ended Ms Vincent’s life – but it is an indictment of us as a society and our so called safety-net that she fell through and nobody noticed or seemed to care. The media furore may die down – but I will continue to pursue these issues until I am reassured that no vulnerable person leaves a refuge without some follow-up mechanism to simply check she is alright, especially when there is rent unpaid for a long period of time giving a clue that something may be up.

A Labour leaflet came my way from the trio of Labour candidates in Highgate Ward. It made me smile really. They are pictured smiling in front of Blanche Nevile school – but it is Labour who are currently threatening it with closure! No mention of this in the leaflet either! I wonder what people worried about the school’s future will make of that photo?

BNP and crime

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Campaigning all day on Sunday – except for a journey to a working men’s club in Harlesden to take part in the London part of the Sunday Politics Show on BBC. The club was divided into a big bar and a small bar in which the filming took place. I was there early and so just chatted with Simon Woolley from Operation Black vote and the crew. Tim Donovan was the interviewer and the other guests were Grant Shapps (Tory) and Dawn Butler (Labour) and down the line and only speaking to Tim – Nick Griffin of the BNP.

The two discussions were to be Margaret Hodge’s pronouncement that 8 out of 10 white working class people in her constituency were considering voting BNP and, secondly, the Safer Neighbourhood Scheme.

So – a short film of canvassing in Hodge’s patch and an interview with Griffin. He came over as a racist and a bigot – so at least there was no pretending that that there was anything to do with housing shortages. For the BNP it doesn’t matter what the issue is – they will use whatever is the most obvious local scapegoat to pedal their bile. The word ‘swamped’ peppered Griffin’s language.

However, the arrogance and complacency of Labour in this area left them an opportunity. Political vacuums will always be filled. No wonder the film clip showed a local BNP member taking flowers around to Hodge’s house to say thanks for putting them on the agenda. The publicity we have all been forced into (including this) as a consequence is ridiculous as their ascendance is minuscule. But because of the filth they pedal – we all must always be vigilant against even this tiny blip on our horizon.

My criticism of Labour for their use of the BNP to try and scare Labour voters into voting Labour is that if there really are 8 in 10 white working class (Labour) voters considering voting BNP (which I doubt) – then where the bloody hell was Margaret for the last four years? Did she not know that there was this undercurrent of frustration and unhappiness amongst her constituents? So why the surprise? It is hard not to be cynical and believe that part of her tirade was scare-mongering. And quite frankly – this cynical use of the race card in reverse is as bad as the Tories use of it at the General Election last year. This is dangerous stuff.

The second issue on Safer Neighbourhoods was kicked off with Dawn Butler bringing out the lie that Labour have been peddling that the Lib Dems and Tories voted against the Mayor’s policing budget at the GLA. Tim Donovan did my work for me. He turned on her and pointed out that this was completely untrue. And Tim would know – as he covers the GLA and was there covering the budget debates. As he pointed out – the Lib Dems and Tories both voted on a separate vote for the police budget. And actually – we also put in an extra £20million to increase British Transport Police numbers in London to 272. Voted down by Labour. Anyway – it was good to see that lie rebutted – and not by a politician, by the interviewer himself.

Then she kept trying to say that crime had risen in Islington. The truth is – by the Home Office’s own statistics – that Lib Dem-run Islington has seen a drop in robbery of over 25% between 2002 and 2005, whilst Labour-run Brent (where Dawn is MP) has seen an increase of over 16% and violent crime in Labour-run Brent increased by almost 40% between 2002 and 2005

What drives me mad is the unquestioning repetition of Labour’s false mantras. They trot out absolute rubbish – and believe that repetition of the message will damage their opponents – regardless of the truth. Maybe it works – I don’t know – but no wonder the public don’t believe politicians any more if the truth doesn’t matter.

After campaigning rest of day – get home to find article in the Sunday Times on the meeting that I will be attending with a small group of other MPs from the cross-party group on Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy (MSBP), a condition where people supposedly fabricate illnesses in their children to gain attention. It wants a review of Government guidelines issued to social workers, police and teachers.

The reason for this is that it would seem that many parents are being wrongly suspected of this or variations on this – and the agony of being involved or connected with child protection issues when you are innocent is incredibly stressful and upsetting.

When the group first approached me – because of a local case of this type – my main concern was that in trying to get the balance right over when Social Services should intervene, it might lead to a raising of the threshold for intervention and thereby miss serious child abuse. Coming from Haringey, where the Victoria Climbie tragedy involved the failure of various people to intervene at the appropriate moment, I am naturally concerned that we don’t make it harder for appropriate intervention to occur.

However, the group persuaded me that actually Social Services were failing at both levels – both too many false accusations but also too many occasion when intervention wasn’t occurring. So that is what this is all about.

DNA records

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Campaigning all day – and then suddenly – whilst stuffing envelopes with Neil and Monica I remember that I have to do a live radio show. Luckily, I remembered with a half hour to spare. This was for a station in the Midlands and on the revelation through my Parliamentary Question that 24% of citizens who have a DNA profile on the national DNA database (NDNAD) are from ethnic minority communities. This compares with 8% black and ethnic minority members in the general population.

I have come to two conclusions. Firstly – the police are clearly arresting a disproportionate amount of innocent black men. I believe that this is because wherever discretionary powers are used – those powers are used disproportionately. This means that all the work we have all been doing, including the police themselves, to eradicate disproportionality is clearly not working.

I often think whilst a proportion of this – hopefully quite small – is actual racism that the vast majority of it is conditioning. But policing should be about intelligence and evidence – and the challenge has to be to become so professional in carrying out duties that there is no way of telling what an officer is thinking on a personal basis. So – back to the drawing board on how to reduce the conditioning or counter it – so that disproportionality is diminished.

The second conclusion I have come to is that until disproportionalilty in policing is conquered – that this database has unintended consequences. I don’t think, that whilst the new powers to take DNA from those arrested was taken through Parliament that the outcomes had been thought through. It is unquestionable that DNA has moved forward the technological ability to detect crime. So – I have come to accept that a database of those charged and convicted or those cautioned is legitimate. I have also come to believe that checking DNA taken from those arrested and checked against cold cases is legitimate and valuable. Many murders and rapes have been solved that way. However, if DNA that is taken is kept on those who are not charged, cautioned or matched against cold cases – therefore innocent – there can be no reason to keep those DNA records and they should be destroyed.

I think this needs to come back to Parliament for debate. On Thursday in a debate about Forensic Science Services (too long to go into here) I made the same point. Andy Burnham wouldn’t let me come back on the issue of bringing it to the floor of the Commons as he seemed to think that the original debate was enough. I disagree profoundly with him. And for both reasons – the principle of innocent until found guilty which is subverted by the retention of the DNA of the innocent and for the reasons that the database itself is biased towards collection of black and ethnic minority DNA – this issue must come back to the chamber.

Hornsey Charter

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Surgery until lunchtime at Wood Green library followed by going to launch the Hornsey Charter in Hornsey High Street. My HQ is upstairs at the Three Compasses Pub on the High Street and Mike (one of the three licensees) chairs the Traders Association. In fact – the pub is just great itself. It has disabled access. It uses Fairtrade products and has won just every award going this year for Community Pub of the Year, Best Newcomer, etc, etc. Hanging baskets of flowers now line the street and this latest ‘Charter’ is about pushing forward the agenda to improve the trading conditions and environment of the area.

I am totally behind them on this. The Water Works (and the broken glass windows and decrepitude that Labour have just let linger for years) needs to be developed. Some would like a small – and I emphasize small – supermarket. Both Crouch End and Muswell Hill have supermarkets and it does help attract trade to the street without local traders being edged out by a superstore that sells all their products. Hornsey Station could do with a fair bit of loving too! And there are many other ambitions in the Hornsey Charter.

Lots of the traders came out for the photo ops and the pub provided sarnies and a drink to follow. The sun shone on Hornsey for the duration.

Parking on Muswell Hill Broadway

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Go to help local traders on the non-parking wing of Muswell Hill Broadway where they have been calling for a sign to warn motorists about a camera that will get them and then a ticket will follow.

There are only six parking spaces on this part of the Broadway – and yet there is perfectly good stopping space outside the bank and the shops for about six more cars. But a single yellow line there means stopping is an offence. Not unnaturally people do stop for a moment to go to the cash machine etc and get ticketed. A sign warning people that a camera is watching would stop people parking where there is a restriction and therefore they would not get a ticket. Strangely enough, the Council has now refused TWICE to allow a sign indicating that this part of the road is monitored by camera. This particular camera is leading to hundreds of tickets being issued. Nice little earner I hear you say. I support sensible parking restrictions to help traffic flow and improve safety – and rigorous (but fair) enforcement. Parking regulations have to be fair – and this is not fair.

But the other side of this issue is that there is no traffic reason that I can see for not giving this little stretch of road free short-stay parking. It’s not dangerous or obstructing traffic flow. Other parts of the Broadway have free short stay or completely free parking and the lack of any parking on this leg is affecting trade.

My colleague Cllr Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green), working with local traders and shoppers (who have got a massive petition up), have got the Council to agree to a parking review. The other leg of the shops along Fortis Green and on the main Broadway have short stay parking – which works perfectly well. I strongly suspect the view of residents and businesses – if properly asked for in a genuine consultation – will be to introduce short-stay parking on this contentious bit where the camera operated.

We have to maximise parking for shopping for if the shops go – then our favourite areas will suffer. The balance has to be right – and where the public perceive unfairness, we should listen to them. Each local situation needs to be judged on whether restrictions are needed, the balance between businesses’ needs, residents’ needs and pedestrians and safety issues – and fairness. The minute creating a revenue stream dictates form – then function suffers.

World Haemophilia Day

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World Haemophilia Day reception – which I attend. Having been tangentially involved with haemophilia since one of my sister’s twins was born with it (out of the blue) 30 years ago. So I know a thing or two. Haemophilia itself is bad enough. Bleeding doesn’t stop and you have to inject clotting agents made up of Factor 8 from blood donations. But the blood donations have been contaminated over recent years with HIV AIDS, Hepatitis C and now CJD.

I wrote a column on the subject back in 2001, as a safe form of Factor 8 had been developed but was not available to haemophiliacs over the age of 16. So every time a boy or man over 16 had to have Factor 8 – they risked getting these diseases. And many, many of the haemophilia population have been infected with something through the Government’s penny pinching over not allowing safe Factor 8 and also, in the beginning, the use of contaminated blood knowingly.

A very short while ago the Government, under immense pressure, was forced into extending the safe version of Factor 8 to all ages. Thank heavens for that – but after so many were already infected. Now there is a fight on for compensation to be increased to those who got AIDS etc through contaminated blood. The original levels of compensation were based on very limited survival – but of course, now those with HIV and AIDS live longer and so higher compensation to cover these longer lifespans is appropriate..

Battles go on and always will – but the history of Government on this issue is one of shame.

Environmental Audit committee is a hoot. It’s my old stomping ground of transport under the spotlight – and the witnesses are from the GLA. Strikes me though that not much has really advanced over recent years. The Congestion Charge was the big idea – and the money poured into expanding London’s bus network has expanded London’s bus network – hallelujah! But ultimately it’s going to have to be about changing behaviour – reducing the need to travel and getting people to think outside of their box(cars). Long, long way to go.

Last event of the day was to speak at the Islington, Highgate and Muswell Hill Rotarian Club – which turned out to be a very pleasant evening held at Highgate Golf Club. I’ve only ever been as far as the drive into the club – as the houses peter out there so my leaflet delivery does too.

As we are in the middle of the local elections, I decided to avoid political stuff and gave a sort of personal and blue skies thinking address. There were some lively questions and one cheeky elderly gent dared to suggest that as ‘cream rises to the top’ so should Parliamentarians – and that’s why there weren’t more women in Parliament and in fact those put there by Labour’s all-women shortlists were incompetent and ordinary. I jokingly retorted that from my experience so far there were plenty of incompetent and ordinary males there – in fact a majority. But I took the discussion onto the fact that Parliament is no longer full of ‘great’ politicians; it is changing – and the mystery around the individual statesman is gone too with the advent of 24 hours news. Anyway – my chosen subjects for the evening were housing and crime and much thought provoking made for a good evening, I hope, for all.