Category Archives: Blog

Luis Pilau

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Evening at a dinner for Luis Pilau, the evangelist. I’m not evangelical myself but I had promised Pastor Nims Obunge (who is just the finest pastor you will ever meet and truly one of kind and originator of the Peace Alliance) that I would come to the dinner as he asked.

Needless to say, it was pretty evangelical. I was sat next to Pastor Agu on my left and Labour council leader (for now) Charles Adje – and had a really interesting evening. Pastor Agu had been a lawyer before he saw the light. I was expounding to him the difficulty I have with making a leap of faith. Can’t do it. Not my thing. But having been to a couple of black evangelical church services – you have to say they have something engaging. You can almost feel the spirit move – even if you are not religious like me. Anyway – Pastor Agu was telling me about his conversion – and how he had had a misspent youth. A young lady (later to be his wife) invited him to one of these churches. Being keen on her he went. And after a few visits thought he would give it the same try that he had given to all the vices when young. He tried them – so he would try this. And it happened for him. I understand from Nims that Pastor Agu can hold 30,000 people in his thrall when he gets going. Very charismatic guy.

Not so struck with Luis Pilau himself. He spoke for over half an hour and it’s just not my thing – but the whole evening was quite interesting and thought provoking.

On the tube on the way home, had a thought about my estate agents idea – instead of having 17 different premises in Highgate Village taken up with estate agents I had speculated about having them share premises. In fact, there is an office block to rent at the bottom of the village. They could all get in there and share service. It would be fabulous for the punters and fabulous for their expenses! Anyway – the point I was mulling over is that there are actually places where different firms share premises already – e.g. in airports – where space is at a premium too! So – not so far fetched after all!

Ming Campbell visits Haringey

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Menzies Campbell MP launches Haringey local election campaign

Ming comes to launch our local election campaign in Haringey – where we have a real chance to take Haringey Council after 35 years of Labour rule. The Leader coming confirms this position!

I and Neil Williams (LibDem Council Group Leader) meet Ming at Harringay station. He arrives at 9.15am on the dot. I love people who are on time and organised. We go to the Tottenham side of the station – to Harringay ward – to photograph Ming with the Harringay candidates and then to the Hornsey & Wood Green side for photographs with the Stroud Green candidates. Both sides are to emphasize our campaign for CCTV on the scary entrances both sides of the bridge.

Ming (Sir Menzies Campbell to give him full title) is looking very dapper and smart. We proceed to the campaign HQ at The Three Compasses where Ming will launch our campaign, meet local members and activists (all stuffing envelopes – and boy there are a lot to stuff) and do one-to-one interviews with the journalists covering his visit.

One of the journos lets it be known that a hastily scrambled together ‘launch’ by Labour Minister Hazel Blears is now to take place at 11am same day having heard about Ming’s visit. I know Labour are terrified of losing the Council – but please!

If it’s true – then Hazel (who is my opposite number as I am her Shadow Minister) will do her duty and attack the LibDems and me as usual. It doesn’t matter which way we vote on anything – be it the police budget at the GLA or the Violent Crime Reduction Bill.

We supported the funding for the police and the Violent Crime Reduction Bill – but whatever we say or do – Labour’s mantra is always the same and always untrue. In politics, as opposed to pretty much every other walk of life, lying is just shrugged at and you are just meant to grin and put up with it – but I think that is why politics is in the state it is in – because people can’t be sure that what they read is the truth.

I know I digress – but there is an absurd letter going out in Stroud Green. It purports to be from a Bernard E who lives in Stapleton Hall Road (curiously there’s no-one with the first name Bernard on the electoral register in that road). It basically attacks me for supposedly being a known right winger and supporter of the Orange Book. (A think tank book of essays and ideas by LibDems – one of which was a ‘right-wing’ suggestion about funding in the NHS – thrown out robustly by the party at the following conference).

This would make the party laugh – as that is hardly my reputation or position in the political spectrum. Anyway – there are two versions – one with a Labour imprint and one without (although election law requires all leaflets to have an imprint) – and the writer says he is an old friend of one of the Labour candidates, though doesn’t mention that said person is already a councillor in another ward but was deselected by the Labour party there and so has had to find another ward to stand in.

I mention all this because – whilst we are standing at Harringay Station with Ming – a man comes up to Lib Dem Cllr Laura Edge and me and asks if we have seen this anonymous (in the sense there is no surname and no address) letter going out and how awful it is and how obviously a Labour smear letter. I am heartened by the public’s ability to see through this type of rubbish.

What is odd about the attacks on me is that I am not even a candidate in the local elections as I am stepping down after eight years as a local councillor and five as Leader of the Opposition. But I know that for Labour (and the defunct Tories who have no seats on the council at all) I am a symbol of all of their troubles and political losses.

So at the Three Compasses and into the working room where the stuffing tables are. A big cheer from quite a crowd gathered there and Ming delivers a rallying speech to encourage the troops – as does Neil. Ming clearly thinks we can do it – if we do the work between now and polling day.

Then the series of one-to-ones with reporters. Ming is in fine form – and truly a professional. Interviews over – a couple of members take him for a short tour and then off to Euston to get a train to Manchester for the next big launch. The cry is that we will make great gains across the board – more votes, more councillors and more councils!

Straight back down to earth and surgery at Jacksons Lane Community Centre. Run into Melanie – the Director – who is in happy mode as Haringey ‘found’ the funding to save the centre. I knew they would. Having made it explicit that I would turn this into an election issue if they didn’t I think that may have played a part in focusing their attention on resolving the matter quickly and before the election got under way – although they will undoubtedly claim that had nothing to do with it. That’s where politics works! A situation where Haringey has ignored or not responded on such an important matter – and suddenly with a political spotlight about to shine and me poking my nose in – then things happen.

I remember a similar thing when Labour Haringey wanting to close Muswell Hill library. But the library campaigners, local residents and the LibDems turned it around – with the fortuitous advent of a local ward by-election at that very moment.

In the evening I go to meet Linda Alliston who leads the Coldfall Woods Group. There have been huge problems with gangs of youths on motor bikes ‘buzzing’ dogs and walkers and then burning their no doubt stolen bikes. There is raw sewage (long term problem) being fed into the stream.

The solution to the bikes is to make the woods and football pitches secured by ‘kissing’ gates so that motorbikes can’t enter. For this they need to access the Section 106 money (£500k) from the Lynx Depot development. Cllr Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) comes with me and he has already secured a promise that they would have no problem with a bid for the gates – so they need to write in and I will support that bid. Also – Martin has got the new Safer Neighbourhood police team (which is just in place) to agree that they will come and look at how they can tackle the youth/bike problem.

In the meantime however, Haringey needs to deal with the perennial dumping – and to notify the allotment owners and houses (whether Haringey or Barnet) that back onto Muswell Hill playing field that throwing their BBQ waste over into the fields is not acceptable behaviour. Sadly, there’s an anti-social minority who do this. The good folk who love the fields and the woods have two major clear-ups a year.

Anyway – it was nice to meet the group who look after and love the fields and the woods – a wonderful local amenity – and Martin will pursue the issues and I will also be writing to support the case.

Go back to campaign HQ for a last hour of stuffing envelopes to sooth me down to sleep mode!

Royal Free hospital

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Reflecting on the swingeing cuts at the Royal Free and having done a bit of homework with various medical experts, I have come to the conclusion that many of the problems stem from the fact that management make decisions about which jobs to cut, and doctors are relatively expensive compared to, say, nurses.

However due to the way medicine works, it requires several nurses on the ward for every doctor. At the end of the day it is clinical staff – not managers – who see, assess, treat, take responsibility for, and discharge patients. The biggest growth area in the NHS is middle management. It would be virtually impossible to find a clinician who has any idea of the purpose/reason for this management ‘growth industry.’ Conversely managers often start interfering with clinical decisions based on a lack of medical understanding – for example pressure to discharge patients prematurely, thereby increasing their chances of rapid readmission.

Admittedly most doctors are patient-centred and not management-trained, so those hard-working managers who keep our cupboards stocked and pay the bills are crucial. The rest, who sit in pointless 9-5 meetings and hypothesise about meeting targets, while there are not enough clinicians to possibly do so within the limits of physics, should be redistributed.

Canvassing, canvassing, canvassing

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Morning canvassing in Woodside and afternoon in Bounds Green. But before the afternoon session I go to a new housing development to meet a group of Kurdish women living there with Ali – one of our Bounds Green candidates who speaks Kurdish and Turkish.

They are just a lovely group of women who are encountering all the same problems as everyone else in Haringey – mostly housing issues with overcrowding, not being able to live near family, the Council not doing the repairs etc etc.

Standing down as a councillor

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April fools – but no time for fun. Out canvassing in Muswell Hill with Sheila Rainger. I am stepping down as a local councillor in Muswell Hill ward on May 4 and Sheila is the woman who I hope very much will replace me. We are out with my other colleagues Cllr Engert (Muswell Hill) and Cllr Newton (Fortis Green). (Jonathan Bloch, the third Muswell Hill councillor, is also restanding).

This is my old stomping ground as they say – and it is so lovely to knock on the doors that started my political career. In Sheila local residents will be getting a really good local councillor who is experienced – and also married to the Campaigns Director of the LibDems. She knows all about campaigning to help local people and if she is elected – they will have lots to discuss over the breakfast table!

Labour splits over schools policy

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Surgery at Wood Green – harrowing as ever! Work at constituency office in afternoon – and get further news on the mess in Haringey education with sight of a local Labour leaflet. Labour are in real trouble as several of their council candidates have now started openly campaigning against the official Labour local schools policies.

They have attacked the official schools policy calling it “controversial” and “wrong”. They have also warned how Labour’s schools policy will only help “a select few”. Well – it’s still Labour policy and a Labour government who are trying to ram through a diabolical Education Bill at the moment.

We have been pointing out Labour’s dreadful policies for a long time. The awful situation is that over 180 children find themselves without an offer of any secondary school place for September – and on top of that over 80 younger kids from Haringey without the offer of any primary school place.

Primary class sizes up in Haringey

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Finishing up day at the office as we break for recess. No – it’s not time off! I wish it were – but there is a constituency to look after and articles to write and preparation for the next term – and in all my spare time ‘cos there is so much – it’s the local elections.

In the evening I join a women’s business networking group in Crouch End for a drink. I really enjoyed it – and thought all the women there were absolutely great and doing all sorts of interesting things. What is so wonderful is how many of them just work around having children – starting their own thing and operating from home if necessary. I should know – I did it too!

Also talk to colleagues about our local education plans. You may have seen the latest figures on school class sizes in Haringey – primary class sizes in Haringey are now higher than they were when Blair came to power in 1997. So much for Labour’s promises on education!

Should estate agents share offices?

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It’s a busy, busy day. All days are busy – but this is ridiculous. At the Lib Dem Home Affairs Team meeting I give a presentation on police mergers. We have quite a lively discussion. The problem is that the Government is steaming ahead with this lousy, rushed, costly and inappropriate merger program.

Straight into Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. John Prescott stumbled and bumbled his way through (as the boss is in Australia admitting he had made a mistake to pre-announce that he would go – but not when he would go. Gissa date Tony). I admire him in a way. He gave one good answer to the Tories – that he would rather get his words wrong than his policies – unlike them.

And then the ID card debate came back to the floor of the Commons from where it had pinged in the Lords. The Lords Amendment was rejected by the Commons – and was sent immediately back to the Lords. I could see the way this ping-pong was shaping up – that my tightly timed evening commitments were going to be out the window. I was to speak at Policy Exchange on Police Mergers and then rush to Highgate to the Highgate Society to be on a panel speaking on ways to solve the problems of Highgate Village where there are something like 17 estate agents and a Tescos – and our diverse village is in danger. Save our shops! I say.

Anyway – the way the timing goes I can make the Policy Exchange (because it is only two minutes walk from parliament – so can get back if vote is called) but have to pull out of Highgate as the ID cards debate will come back to the Commons around 9pm. I phone my apologies – but was quite annoyed as very much wanted to put in my two pennies worth. I heard from my sister who went that it was very well attended and that Cllr Bob Hare (councillor for Highgate and a LibDem colleague) had put forward lots of fresh ideas and had been very well received.

I had wanted to take on the estate agents. Seems to me that they all want to say they have an office in Highgate (for prestige). And indeed virtually everyone who lives in Highgate will have bought their house through one of them. At present, there is nothing in planning law that allows control of which types of usage (within a range) can be restricted. So there is work to do at the Parliamentary level to get the law changed. We have an EDM about Business Conservation Areas aimed at this type of thing – but I think we need to find another way.

Anyway – legislation takes forever – so whilst we put our thinking caps on about that – I think the estate agents should get together to share premises. I know – shock horror! But the truth is that most punters visit all the estate agents to register with them – so they wouldn’t care if they were all in one building (in fact it would make it easier). But even if it were only two to a shop – that would half the number of agents in the village. They could still refer to their ‘Highgate Office’ and they would half their running costs and overheads – not to mention rent! Of course they won’t want to even consider it – but they should. I may write to them to see whether they are willing to all come to a discussion about what can be done.

So – the Police Merger event at Policy Exchange went well – but we were all on the same side. Simon Jenkins was there – always good value. This is one that is going to really hit labour at the elections. It is such a dreadful proposal in its current form. Anyway – finish and run back to parliament for the last ID card debate as it comes back from the Lords once more.

This time the new amendment by the Tories suggests that up until December 2009 you will be able to opt out of having an ID card when you get your new passport. Labour in the Lords have agreed – and now if this passes in the Commons – the Tories having completely caved in, flip-flopped, whatever you want to call their disgraceful u-turn yet again on ID cards – that will be that.

And this is a dreadful amendment – no wonder Labour agreed. All it does is mean that when you get a new passport – until December 2009 – you will be able to opt out of the ID card. But you won’t be able to opt-out of the National Database Register – and that is where the real sinister part is; the card is nothing compared to the register.

And the date – December 2009, does not take you past the last possible date for the next general election. Yet the whole point of the new date being set is to take it beyond the next general election so that the parties can go to the country with their promises, clear in their manifestos, of their policy on ID cards.

So wrong date and the National Register now goes ahead. It really is Big Brother and then some.

Clause 35 and computer hacking

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Police and Justice Bill – two sessions! Apart from the usual rant about Labour centralising power unto the Home Secretary, the danger of abuse to prisoners by the Government’s proposed merger of inspectorates and the appallingly unequal deal we have with America on extradition – the highlight of the day was that little Clause 35 on computer hacking.

Subsequent to my amendment which was intended to have saved innocent IT people being done for hacking – when they were simply (for example) helping people remotely or checking the security and safety of their own systems, the Government realised their error and had put forward an amendment of their own.

I didn’t think it was as good – but good enough according to the industry expert advising me. Even so, the whole episode wasn’t very satisfactory – the Government should have consulted properly on the details of the measures before putting the Bill through Parliament – as they had been advised to do so.

Rather curiously too, given that this was an IT issue and is about putting people’s liberties at risk, I’ve had very, very little lobbying on the issue. It’s not often I wish for more emails in my inbox (!) but I think the online community missed a bit of a trick on this one.

Anyway, in between the sessions the new Evening Standard politico took me off to a Press Gallery lunch. This is where the members of the press invite a guest speaker – today Geoff Hoon, Labour MP and Leader of the House – to speak and answer questions. Each press person invites one MP as their guest – but only the press are allowed to ask questions. Geoff Hoon was very dull. He sort of said he was going to be as he didn’t want to find himself or his answers in the media. So I guess he probably achieved his goal.

New Haringey Chief Exec

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Met with the new Chief Executive of Haringey Council – Ita O’Donovan. I had met her in recent weeks twice at ‘events’ but this was my first official meeting. She seems very competent and I used the first meeting, as did she, to just iron out the relationship between the Council and myself, have a general chat and raise a couple of serious constituency issues, including my concerns over Hornsey Town Hall.