Category Archives: Blog

Poppy protocol

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Had lunch with the Bishop of London at St Paul’s Deanery. There were about five MPs and then a clutch of clergy who had had real input on the day of the July 7 bombings. Truly interesting conversations and get the feeling that the Church is so much more engaged than it was a decade ago with the real issues. There was virtually no comment from the Church during the years of the IRA bombings in London – but now they rush in not fearing where angels used to fear to tread. It is much healthier for all of us.

Sods law, I have been drawn as Question No 6 on the Order Paper for a question about Human Rights in Turkey today – so I will be unable to attend the Memorial Service following the lunch and will have to leave the lunch early too. The Bishop of London is very interested in the question – which he already knew about – and makes some helpful suggestions as to a supplementary. My supplementary will be on whether, whilst we have the Presidency of the EU, the Government has any plans to discuss minority rights in Turkey with the Turkish Government? Whilst I am really pleased that negotiations for Turkey’s accession to the European Union are now opened – and in fact am arranging to meet key members of the Turkish community in the next week or so – I am very keen to ensure that nothing will stand as an immutable barrier to their final and full entry to the EU.

So off I go – and ask my Turkish question to the minister. He doesn’t really answer the supplementary – so I guess that the Government isn’t going to use this opportunity to help Turkey!

There is some follow-on after my question to Blunkett yesterday. Opinion is hardening against his being able to stay – but I doubt whether my question will have registered on the Richter scale of his imminent destruction!

On a lighter note – I am having etiquette lessons from the Secretary to Mr Speaker (by email correspondence) – for which I am grateful. I had no idea that when I wore my Poppy on my right lapel that England might fall!

I love it!

Remembrance Day Poppies
– not worn before 1 Nov and not after 11 Nov unless the Cenotaph event falls on the following Sunday or you work for the BBC
– normally worn on the left hand side but sometimes this is not practical (never worn in the hair)
– if the poppy has a leaf it should be in a vertical position between 10 to 2 (bit like driving) (Scottish poppies have no leaf this year to catch out those Scots who were hoping last year’s poppy would do)

which leads to:

-always buy a new one each year
-always buy two (one is bound to fall out somewhere, indeed they are designed to fall out in order to force you to buy another one )
-never lend a poppy unless you can be sure the borrower will put money in the box

David Blunkett

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First thing Monday discover I have question number 1 on the Order Paper to David Blunkett as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. And yes – today is the day when he is all over the papers for buying shares in a DNA company and being on the Board without asking the advice of the Advisory Committee – a committee set up to help ex-ministers stay out of trouble.
 
My question is on pensions – which is the real issue – and the real problem with having a Minister seemingly too distracted by other issues. I get one supplementary and have a dilemma – if I don’t mention the current problems it would be bizarre – if I do the House will not like it (apparently it’s not “the done thing”). So I steer a middle course, merely asking if his judgement having been so recently called into question might make it a problem for him to unite a divided cabinet over solving the urgent pension crisis.
 
He was not best pleased and gave me a right bollocking for daring to ask and for not understanding that it is impolite to use questions to the Minister to ask a question to the Minister (!). He clearly didn’t like the question and raw nerves are, not surprisingly, easily set off.

For all Blunkett’s condescension, he – in answer to another question – happily joked about his virility. So talking about his virility at question time is ok, but asking if he’s able to do his job isn’t!
 
The more important point is what is going to happen to pensions. Blunkett may well survive this time, but the need for Labour to join the growing consensus around radical pension reform is pressing – and hopefully that is where he will turn his attention.

Late evening on Monday do a live radio show from a radio car outside my home. A Labour MP down a line somewhere else, Edwina Currie and another in the studio – all about Blunkett. Found myself in uncharted water with Edwina Currie congratulating me on my confrontation with the Minister. Politics makes strange bedfellows…

What is … an early day motion (EDM)?

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About time I tried to demistify some more Parliament jargon. So, attention at the back!

Early Day Motions (EDMs) are basically petitions which can only be signed by MPs. Despite the being called a motion, they are in fact almost never moved or debated in Parliament. Rather signing an EDM is a way of expressing support for a particular view.

Backbench members of the ruling party can often use EDMs to demonstrate the strength of feeling on an issue – it’s a way of warning their whips that they might rebel on an issue. That’s why EDMs on issues like student finance have been so important for rallying Labour rebels and to press for concessions.

For other MPs, they are particular useful to show the strength of cross-party support on an issue and to raise its profile.

For lobbyists, pressure groups and members of the public EDMs can be a very effective way of lobbying MPs. Asking an MP to sign an EDM sounds quite harmless (it’s a name on a motion) … but then of course the fact that someone has signed an EDM is a good stick to use if the issue comes up for debate under some other guise in the future!

If you want to see the EDMs I’ve signed visit the EDM website.

Public transport in Hornsey

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Morning in surgery as usual. And then go to meet the temporary Chief Exec of Haringey Council about two families waiting to be re-housed. Both these families have a disabled child and both are desperate to be re-housed because – as the children have grown up (one is now 11) – carrying them up narrow stairs has become impossible. Have called this meeting because have simply been getting the run-around from Haringey Council. And I simply don’t believe that no three-bedroom house has come up in the five years that family one has been waiting!

The Chief Exec is there with the officer in charge of allocations. Clearly on the defensive – but also didn’t get all their facts rights. The contents per se of the meeting has to remain confidential at this moment in time – but both families are now well and truly at the top of the agenda. Whilst they have totally different situations – at least the publicity and effort will hopefully sort this out soon.

What I was under-whelmed with was the idea that Haringey can try to so easily wash its hands of a family. It is disgusting. Furthermore, I don’t believe no houses have come up in the last five years that could not, with a bit of work, have been made suitable. The policy of having to wait for an adapted house in every case is ridiculous if you are not creating adequate facilities for those with disabilities in the first place.

I have never managed to get ‘evidence’ as yet as to why some people get allocated what they want and others wait years in seemingly equivalent situations. If anyone can ever bring me evidence rather than rumour that some people are getting round the system, I would be very happy to take it further – but without actual evidence it is impossible to prove.

Then off I go to see the last part of a Mobility Exercise Programme in Hornsey where some of our older citizens are being taught exercises in a class which keeps them mobile and probably saves the NHS a fortune in medical bills. It is just wonderful.

I have been brought in by the teacher for two reasons. One: the funding has been cut and is running out – so a weekly class is now once every two weeks and floundering. And two: there is no transport in the whole area in and around the Campsbourne Estate – so people are having trouble getting to the class. The council officers are there – and having heard I was coming had already broached the subject with Transport for London. I feel a hopper bus coming on. Similar situations in the east of the borough I understand have hopper buses to help those on the estate get to the shops and around and about – so we want the same!

And then – it’s home – and a weekend off. I know – shock horror. I have struck through one weekend per month in my diary – otherwise there is no time off. One danger though – my younger daughter will make me go shopping with her. It’s cheaper to just keep working!

www.hearfromyourmp.com

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Spent day doing paperwork basically: the morning at Parliament and the afternoon at my constituency office.

Earlier this week I became one of the early guinea pigs for www.hearfromyourmp.com – a new experiment in bringing MPs and their constituents together. I’ve been a bit of a sceptic about online interactivity when it comes to politics (examples of such interactivity are often so poor – same old people mouthing the same old slogans) – but am interested to see if this site can make a go of the idea.

It seems to be done by pretty much the same people as did www.theyworkforyou.com. This site has rapidly become a key part of the political furniture – it’s where so many people now turn to find out how MPs are performing. There’s always a risk when you put together stats that too much attention ends up getting paid to what can be counted just because it can be counted – you can count the number of speeches an MP makes but can’t really count their quality! But the site’s done pretty well at picking out sensible numbers and making otherwise obscure information about MPs easy to find. In the end letting people like you keep tabs on people like me is probably good for democracy!

All of which is a way to say – the team doing www.hearfromyourmp.com are pretty impressive. So – fingers crossed – this new scheme will be another useful building block in making democracy a bit healthier in this country. It could certainly do with some help!

Anti-terrorism legislation

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Wednesday is terror! The Government’s latest anti-terrorism legislation came to the floor (i.e. the main chamber you see on TV rather than being discussed off in committee) of the Commons for its Second Reading. The “second” reading is actually the first proper debate as the First Reading is just when it gets published.

I wrote my latest newspaper column on this so you can read my thoughts – if you are interested – on my main website.

The actual debate was interesting in as much as it was quite clear, despite Labour and Tories going to vote it through and LibDems going to vote against – that there was wide agreement on the points that should be taken out and rethought. The main questions were around the new proposed offence of ‘glorification of terrorism’ – which everyone in nine hundred different ways disparaged for its broadness of definition – and the police powers to extend detention without charge from 14 – 90 days.

The others tried to have a go at the LibDems (what’s new?) for voting against at Second Reading. If you support bits of a bill and oppose other bits, do you vote for or against the overall package? For the Lib Dems the parts we oppose (supported in fact by many MPs from both Tories and Labour) are so important that we decided to vote against the bill.  Our position was upheld by several Tories who spoke to voice their objection to voting with the Government despite the whip being out on them. As one really great speaker said – it is the principled position to vote against the Government when a Bill contains such a section which is much be objected to.

Despite rising to my feet for the best part of seven hours at the end of every speech – Mr Speaker failed to call me. The way things are done is excruciating – but I will have another go at report stage next week. I did manage an intervention to point out that the authorities always say they ‘know’ that someone is guilty! Of course – they ‘knew’ about weapons of destruction. And they ‘knew’ that the Birmingham Four and the Guildford Six were terrorists! Wrong … I rest my case.

Airsoft guns

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Three sessions (extended) of the Violent Crime Reduction Bill in committee – non-stop pleasure today! Broken only by lunch with ITV execs who are trying to get to know me. It was very pleasant and spent some time discussing the X factor – which I have to say is fabulous!

In committee we ranged through imitation guns, air weapons, knives, searching pupils and so on. I thought I did quite well during what was a long day. Even Hazel Blears looked bleary at the end of the last session, which terminated at 9 at night – as did I probably.

In terms of imitation guns, I think the show-stopper was around airsoft. For those who haven’t a clue what this is – as I didn’t only a short time ago – it is a game played with pellets by adults who shoot each other with imitation weapons. The speed or power is measured in ‘joules’. As I understood it, one joule is regarded as lethal. The Tories put down an amendment suggested that up to 4 joules should be allowed. The logic of which I still don’t understand.

However, the show-stopper was that I had asked my researcher to phone AirSoft and see if they minded if their weapons were painted with a day-glow orange ring around the muzzle so that they would be obviously not for real. They said no probs – basically. Hazel thought that was extremely helpful – and I surmised that – despite the mountain of lobbying mail we had all received from airsoft players – no one from Government had talked direct to the relevant organisations.

Imitation arms are a menace – and whilst you don’t want to catch out re-enactment societies, plays etc – I totally support the increased penalties and crack down on the sale and manufacturer of such arms.

[UPDATE: Thanks for all various feedback on this topic; see my latter blog posting.]

Another really good amendment of ours (if I say so myself) was about the searching of pupils for knives. The Bill will allow supervised and senior teachers, never alone, to search a pupil for knives. This is now prevalent in our schools and much preferable in my view to having a metal detector as you walk into school. However, the Government had completely left out Further Education colleges where lots and lots of youngsters under 18 now attend for a variety of courses. So they graciously acknowledged that this was the case – and hopefully will come back with their version of our amendment at Report Stage. Report Stage is when the same, but reduced process we have just been through in Committee comes to the floor of the Commons for all to have their say. It then goes straight into 3rd Reading – and either it passes or not.

So we finished around 9pm at the end of three sessions today. Glad to be to it and through it. The first is the worst. It wasn’t bad – but being the first time I had led a Bill through a committee it was very challenging as I was unfamiliar with the processes – which in Parliament are bizarre – as well as concerned to make sure that I got all the right amendments down and argued them properly. One thing I don’t yet understand – and maybe never will – is why the Tories write out speeches on every point and burble on for very long periods adding nothing whatever to the point. Perhaps it is because they were all lawyers and are used to charging by the hour!

Aircraft noise in Hornsey and Wood Green

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Spent most of the day working on the Violent Crime Reduction Bill. But highlight of the day was a rally in Westminster over night flights, organised by HACAN Clearskies and others.

The relentless drive by airlines, airports and Government for bigger airports and more flights rolls on – and the current proposals are for more night flights. Funnily enough – when I started campaigning in the Hornsey & Wood Green area – quite a few people had complained to me about aircraft noise in Muswell Hill. I had gone to Heathrow to the noise unit to investigate why there seemed to be an increase in flights over Muswell Hill. What I discovered was that there is a northern stack where aircraft wait. Whether that was the cause or not – unknown.

Curiously, after thumping the metaphorical table – I was told there had only ever had 8 complaints submitted over the previous 10 years from the Muswell Hill area. Now, I had received many more complaints than that just myself in a year! It didn’t mean there wasn’t a noise issue – but it did mean they were very smug about the level of complaint. It’s clear most people who are unhappy about the issue in my constituency don’t know who to complain to about the issue – something I will remedy!

Recently, there have been a lot of complaints locally about increased aircraft noise. In fact last night, my daughter and I counted four in one hour, really low and really loud. Anyway – on the back of this new spate I emailed out to my local lists to try and find out if this was particular sensitivity on the part of a few residents or a more widespread and general view about an increase. Judging from the response – it is much, much wider than before. I’ve put a map of the responses up on my website – and will make sure that people get the address details of the noise unit at Heathrow so everyone can also lodge a formal complaint – otherwise they will carry on saying, problem – what problem?

Back to the night flights rally. About 500 people turned out to oppose the proposals to expand night flights. A stream of politicians from the South West of London came and went to the podium – and then they let a North London girl (me) have my say. I told them about the complaints here in the north and about the survey. And about what seems to me the real crux of this problem – the continual expansion driven by the predict and provide approach of both government and supplier to an ever-increasing market. I remember at the London Assembly responding on behalf of the Transport Committee to a consultation about Heathrow. The constant drone of the government is that if we don’t expand – we die. Or rather Frankfurt or Paris will be then the preferred destination and inward investment will cease. Rubbish. Of course – there’s lots of money involved. And BAA, the airlines and the government want it. Before the ink on the paper was dry from the 5th terminal enquiry at which BAA had promised no need for a third runway – guess what – they started wanting a third runway.

So I rallied – for us – for North London!