Category Archives: Blog

A varied Monday

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Open London Region Conference on the Ethiopian Community Centre in the UK’s Regional Development Project – a mouthful I know, but really some much needed support for this community struggling through the maze of health, benefit, housing and other hurdles to life in this country.

I stay for the morning to listen to the distinguished panel of speakers – all deeply involved in immigration and asylum and all of whom know much more than a nine-week old MP! Given that something like 75% of people coming to see me in person have issues to do with asylum and immigration, I am keen to understand as much as I can as soon as I can.

What I do know from nine weeks of holding surgeries is that the Home Office is a mess. Initial decision making is extremely poor quality and vast numbers of appeals succeed because of this. There is a random nature as to who stays and who goes – which leads to upset when what seems like a precedent – isn’t. Far too often it takes years before decisions are made, leaving people living in limbo. The misery caused by the protracted system is appalling to see.

My afternoon is filled with a series of meetings in the pub – as our new office upstairs is not ready and flat pack furniture is being assembled. First in line is Groundwork – a federation of trusts who go into an area and support a range of sustainable projects. I try to persuade them to focus on Hornsey – both the council estates and the High Street which are in need of loving care.

Followed by a woman who is writing a report for Haringey Police on issues such as where road works are, where trouble spots are, where youths have nowhere to go but on the streets – presumably so that the police can then plan their work better.

Then an interview with N8 magazine, after which off to a meeting in N8 (coincidentally) with residents against the concrete factory proposed to be dumped in the middle of a residential area. There is a train track – so theoretically aggregates can come in by rail but they would still go out by HGV lorry – not at all suitable for the area, and would get stuck as they try and do the turn from Church Lane back on themselves into Tottenham Lane. Outside of the increased vehicle movements, the pollution, the noise and the general unsuitability of the location – jamming up the roads is probably the best hope for refusal of the planning application (there are quite strict rules on what issues can or can’t be considered when deciding on a planning application) – as this area comes to a standstill with traffic snarl-ups on a daily basis already. I undertake to write a variety of letters to Mayor Livingstone, Peter Hendy and Haringey Council’s Planning Department.

Shooting on the Underground

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News dominated all day by revelation that man shot dead by police was nothing to do with the bombings.

This is the ultimate nightmare for the police. Cool heads are what we need. And no rush to judgement – as knife edge decisions that may save us citizens from being blown up are clearly difficult for the security forces to make.

This tragedy should not have happened. We are used to the idea that if someone is down – there shouldn’t be a need to shoot them in the head. But elsewhere it’s much more common – how else can you be sure to stop a suicide bomber? We would not want it the other way round – that they didn’t kill through hesitation a bomber – giving him long enough to detonate a deadly device. And the person detonating does not need to be the same person carrying the bomb either.

Tough choices. Clearly this appalling error needs to be investigated so that police (if it was the police) can reduce the potential for such a mistake in future. But let us not fool ourselves – in the circumstances we face at present – these tough choices won’t go away.

Muslims and extremism

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Surgery all morning and then home to find office moving out – finally! After eight years of having a Lib Dem office in my home, including the general Lib Dem phone and email address, things are now moving to my new office. For the time being, it is above the Three Compasses Pub in Hornsey – which was our HQ during the election. We will be hopefully moving across the road to a proper office within a few months after that. Hurray!

I am nervous about the changeover. It’s necessary to have staff dealing with much more to cope with the workload, but I have had such a very personal relationship with everyone and want to maintain that as far as possible.

And I get my front room back!

At 3pm I start my journey to Melcham where I am appearing on ‘Any Questions’. Three tube lines to get to Paddington – noticeably empty and we are all staring at each other to check that none of us is a terrorist. At Paddington I get on the train and study the papers – as you have no idea what will come up on the programme. It is my first appearance on this one – although even more terrifying was the appearance on Question Time the first Thursday after the election – and I lived.

Arriving at the station, I am whipped off in a car to a country hotel/restaurant/pub where the panellists and Jonathan Dimbleby have dinner. My tummy is not really up to a big meal before the event – and I can’t decide whether it would be good to have a couple of glasses of wine or bad to have a couple of glasses of wine. I decide in favour of the wine. Pleasant, if somewhat fake, repartee during meal. My co-panellists are Peter Hitchins (Mail on Sunday columnist), Lord Strathclyde (Tory Peer), Shahid Malik (new Labour MP from Dewsbury in the heart of the area where three of the 7/7 bombers come from) and me.

I think Shahid has being a real star during this period. He has said difficult things in a tinderbox situation – and deserves to be supported in what he is doing. In fact during the show Shahid said – in response to a comment about the police starting to do stop and search on the tube – that those who ‘look’ Muslim will be disproportionately stopped and that the Muslim community shouldn’t hate the police for it but should turn that hatred on those who had perpetrated the crime and brought this upon the Muslim community. Absolutely spot on – and tough stuff. Hats off!

I had been briefly watching Sky News at lunchtime and the police had just shot a suspect point black in front of tube passengers at Stockwell. Shocking stiff – and desperately hoping that the person was a terrorist rather than an innocent. Sadly as we now know – he wasn’t. That’s for another discussion. But Sky was running a poll which showed that around 48% of Muslims questioned believed that Imams or Mullahs who preached extremism and violence were not out of line with mainstream Muslim views.

I was shocked – because my own Muslim friends bear no relationship to the extremists and I spend huge amounts of time saying things like ‘the vast majority of Muslims condemn the bombings and condemn extremist views’. So this poll really chilled me and I chose on the program to push at what I consider an area that needs a bit of spotlight.

I am a white, middle-aged, middle-class woman. I don’t know the Muslim community intimately. I am exposed to views of Muslims by the media. I don’t like the idea of people hating me because they regard me as an infidel. I can live with hate – this is a democracy. But when that hatred turns into indiscriminate killing – and that killing is supported by extremist leaders – that’s something else. But it then becomes very easy to fear the whole community.

That is one of the dangers of segregation of communities. And the Muslim community is more segregated than most others. Segregation breeds ignorance of each other. Ignorance of others breeds fear of the unknown. And this is the feeding ground for extremists and a fertile territory for suspicion to grow.

Nothing, in my view, excuses terrorism or suicide bombers. The democratic process is paramount. I don’t care how many people of any culture have different views – they are welcome to argue the case and get elected. But never should a minority – even if they are the majority within one group – believe for one second that they have any right to kill to make their point or their case.

Sorry, getting very heavy – lightening up we moved onto the Tory leadership – always good for a laugh. We now have a long and protracted process ending in a beauty parade at the Tory Conference in the autumn.

I think the important point is the what – not the who. And judging from Cheadle by-election where we Lib Dems comfortably held the seat (a massively safe Tory seat the last time they won a general election) despite the Tories throwing everything at it that they could – not a whisper of a recovery. Blair appears to have left them nowhere to go – and if they go to the right – to their core vote – there aren’t enough votes there. They just don’t wash as liberal in any sense – and so hard to see them as anything but on a continuing downward slope.

The show passes very quickly – and then it is home by car to London.

Crime figures

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Up early to be at Sky News crack of dawn to speak for the Lib Dems as the latest crime figures are published today.

There are two sets: the British Crime Survey which is a massive survey of people and how many crimes they have experienced. These figures show overall crime is reducing – including violent crime, which is down by 11%.

The other set of figures published is from the police, and shows the numbers of crimes recorded by them. As these are absolute figures rather than a survey they might seem more accurate – but they are very dependent on the rules for recording crime and a change in the rules can make a big change in the numbers even if reality hasn’t changed. One example – when the police got much better at taking rape seriously there were big increases in the figures for rape – because they were recording and investigating more – not because there was a big leap in rape.

The recorded crime figures also record crime dropping – but violent crime up 6%. So it is obvious to me that the story will be the difference between these two figures.

As indeed it is!

It strikes me that as 48% of violent crime is alcohol related that the Government might just pause for thought about relaxing the licensing laws and introducing 24 hour drinking just at this moment in time.

The problem with the Government’s Violent Crime Reduction Bill is it does the ‘tough on crime’ bit of the equation – but doesn’t have any measures to address the seemingly British malaise where young people drink themselves to oblivion on a Friday and Saturday night.

Whilst I am personally in favour of changing licensing hours so all the pubs don’t empty out at the same time – the timing of Labour’s licensing plans really isn’t smart.

Spend much of the morning yoyo-ing between the Commons and doing media interviews. Then back to the Commons to gen up on what’s in the papers ready to go back to Millbank to the Beeb for the Daily Politics show with Andrew Neil.

My only encounter thus far with him was during the General Election of 2001 when Sky did a late night program on ‘rising stars’ on which I went with a Labour and Conservative equivalent. At that time I was a distant third hoping to rise to second in the election. I remember Neill saying something derogatory about the Lib Dems – like well you’re only a Lib Dem so who cares what you say. And I remember giving as good as I got! He loved it.

The other thing I remember about that night was outside of the studio I spoke to a psephologist who was pontificating on the election and is likely swings and directions. He asked me what I was hoping for – and I said ‘obviously to win – but a good second would be an achievement in itself’. He said he would eat his hat if I even got into second place. I swept magnificently into second place – but sadly couldn’t remember this guy’s name to recontact him with a view to watching said spectacle of hat-eating ceremony!

Anyway – today we will be discussing Muslim communities and retired people abroad getting winter fuel allowances. Neill starts by having a go (as it is the last day of the Parliamentary term) about the so-called long holidays MPs have.

Bollocks to that – I have only had a couple of days off since going back after Christmas, I do a seven-day week, and weekdays are usually 10 to 18 hour days. So pooh to you Andrew Neill. He is unmoved – and obviously thinks all MPs do nothing. He says he will come and check on me in the constituency and I say just fine!

I think the only way political pundits will be happy is if we have no holidays, reduce our pay, cut our staff and office allowances and expenses and I hear that Marks and Sparks do a good line in hair shirts!

David Davis joins us for a section of the show and for reasons that remain a complete mystery to me spends the entire time of his interview refusing to admit that he is going to stand for the leadership of the Tory Party. Completely bonkers.

Rush back to Commons for lunch with someone who wants to discuss the future of the Liberal Democrat party with me! My researcher appears to tell me that 4 bombs have gone off – or more accurately 4 detonators have gone off which appear to have failed to detonate the bombs themselves – thank God. Much evidence will therefore be available to the police and security forces.

Al-Mujahidin

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Interview with the BBC World Service about an extremist ex-leader of a defunct group called Al-Mujahidin who has been spouting bile attacking Britain and the police for being terrorists and causing the bombs on 7/7.

I think Blair is wrong to say that Iraq has nothing to do with the bombing. It may not be a direct causal link, and it may not be the only contributing factor – but it is a denial of the bleeding obvious to ignore the fact that our involvement in Iraq makes it easier for those attacking us to recruit more supporters. Moreover, the vacuum it leaves in the argument allows ridiculous statements like those made by Al-Mujahidin to ferment in its wake.

I am also concerned that we give (including me going on the program to talk about it) air time to extremists – as the knock on effect can be to heighten the feeling that this may be a view held in the mainstream Muslim community. One good thing about much of the media coverage recently has been the increasing description of the range of beliefs held by people who call themselves Muslims – i.e. an understanding that the extremists are just that and don’t represent all Muslims. This is a time where we need to hold hands across our cultures and our faiths to come together against murderers and criminals who seek to divide and destroy our world.

Mobile phone masts debate

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Attend a panel debate about mobile phone masts. What is clear here is the passion in the room and the frustration of the people with the blanket refusal of the authorities and Labour to truly examine the situation.

Whilst myth and anecdote undoubtedly mix with fact in some people’s views, my take on the meeting is that some serious scientific studies need to be done to examine whether there is an increase of cancer incidence in the area that lies directly in the beam of greatest intensity from masts in place for, say, 10 years.

In the meantime – planning law should be based on the precautionary principle and we should permit through planning law only those masts which avoid schools etc until the studies are complete.

Ted Heath

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Away Day for the Parliamentary Party – as private can’t tell you what we said! Parliament has been adjourned out of respect for passing of ex-Prime Minister Ted Heath. Interesting that it was he, a Tory, who believed so passionately in our joining the European Community (though Churchill’s views on European unity would also make many current Tories shiver!). I remember the debate and the referendum. Needless to say I voted for. Ted Heath was the last Prime Minister to see active service and I do wonder whether that is what gave him such an internationalist view. Certainly his successors appear myopic in European, nay, global terms.

Trouble in Albert Road Park

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Surgery all Friday morning and then rush to meeting in the Pavilion in the Albert Road Recreation Ground where yobbery is ruining peoples’ pleasure and intimidating adults and children alike.

I brought this up a while back and wrote to the police along with my Lib Dem councillor colleague for Alexandra ward – Wayne Hoban. At the time the Chair of the Friends of Albert Road Park led a blistering attack on us in the press for so doing saying there was no yobbery and that I was scaremongering. Perhaps the fact that Wayne had taken the seat off him in the previous council elections clouded his judgement?

Anyway, the views of residents are very clear – there’s a problem. A key local group like the Friends can’t ignore this – so the chair has now done the right thing and gathered all the partners needed to sort out what is turning into a serious problem.

Around 30 youths are terrorising the users of the recreation grounds and the surrounding area. There are two ring leaders who according to the police are actually setting fire to things and carrying out criminal activities. Although they are in the system of criminal justice, they are currently on bail and out on the streets.

Local residents describe the muggings and the threats and the thefts and it is clear that this is a case where they need to gather evidence to issue an ASBO on the ring leaders so that a clear message goes out that unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. There is also a clear need for engagement by the partners with the youths in the wider groups in terms of activity and possible Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (a much better and broader approach to problems than ASBOs).

I leave the meeting with some confidence that appropriate action will now be swiftly taken.

Run to Haringey Civic Centre to sign book of condolences there – and then go down for meeting with Labour’s Leader on the Council. He seems keen to form a good working relationship with me – which is a sensible approach. After all – I am a resource for the constituency and he would be stupid to ignore the benefits of a lobbying voice at parliamentary level albeit from someone of a different party.

Last act of the day is to take my daughters and a friend to Hampstead to Waterstones at about 11.10pm and to queue along with other insane Harry Potter fans for the shop to open at midnight to purchase the sixth in the series.

Whilst in the queue the photographer from the Ham & High came past and much to the childrens’ embarrassment thought finding the MP in the queue with them was too good an opportunity to pass up. Happily, one of the members of Boyzone (apparently) was also in the queue and I dare say the Ham & High will use the celeb and my kids’ blushes will be spared.

David Warwick's departure

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Commons all day with a variety of business to take care of – but leave at 4pm to go to the Chief Executive of Haringey’s leaving do at Ally Pally. Held in the Palm Court – it is thronging. The Palm Court is so named because it is a vast space akin to a greenhouse with huge plants and glass roof – so the greenhouse effect is present and we are all melting.

Speeches begin at 6pm with Charles Adje, Labour Leader of Haringey Council. He starts by saying he is going to read a letter from Peter Forrest (a former Tory councillor, who was leader of the opposition for a few years before the Liberal Democrats stared winning council seats in 1998). Now – given there are no Tories on the council and haven’t been for several years – it does make me wonder about the cosiness we often see between Labour and Tories in Haringey …!

However, it is clear to me from the three people lining up to speak – that Labour has forgotten to ask me or any Liberal Democrat to say a few words, despite the fact that the Chief Executive was the Chief Exec for all of Haringey Council – not just the Labour party.

I take matters into my own hands – and circling the back of the room – I make my way to the guy who is introducing the speakers and tell him that I would like to say a few words too. Of course, I haven’t prepared anything because I hadn’t been asked to speak originally. Labour are always trying to exclude me / us from everything – but this was quite shameful.

I am then faced with a dilemma. I am furious with Labour over their ‘sacking’ of the Chief Exec. Publicly – David Warwick is leaving because he has decided to take early retirement. Pigs might fly in my view. Out of the blue – with never a mention of such an idea – and leaving virtually immediately upon announcement – this looks like a sacking, smells like a sacking and walks like a sacking.

I suspect the Labour leadership could not bear the fact that this Chief Exec wasn’t a Labour hack and that he did not simply go along with everything they wanted however mad.

So – what do I do? Say what I really think or simply say nice things? Resort to humour is my get out. I keep it brief. I say that it was an extraordinarily fast retirement. I mention that I hope that the entire management board won’t follow as Haringey needs stability (they will go – one already on her way to Hammersmith and Fulham). And I am cheeky – which I won’t go into here!

I make a hasty exit with Cllr David Winskill – not in case of repercussions but because I am speaking at a local vigil at the Crouch End Clock Tower for the victims of the bomb blasts. I had been asked to speak at the one at Trafalgar Square – but because Haringey residents were so affected personally by the attacks as four of our tube stations are on the Piccadilly Line, it seemed far more important to be here.

About a hundred turn up – which considering shortness of time is a really good show. Inevitably – and rightly – in speeches Iraq and the Middle East creep into the frame. I concentrate on unity – believing absolutely that what all of us from every faith, creed and colour have in common is so much stronger than anything that divides us by our differences. It must be ‘us’ – and us is everyone – against them – deluded and fanatical extremists who murder with no true understanding.

However, I do believe that every action has a reaction – and we certainly received intelligence prior to the Iraq war that if we went to war – we would be likely to increase the chance of terrorist activity against us. The government clearly still felt it right to go to war – I didn’t. However, it is no excuse for terrorism. It is just a fact that it would increase. And festering sores of unresolved disputes will always be a source from which politicians can drink and then poison young men’s minds.

I have to leave the vigil at 7.30pm as I have promised to speak at the NO2ID cards meeting in Haringey. I literally turn up to speak and take questions before having to run onto a meeting with Hornsey Town Hall Trust who wanted to meet me post election.

They opt to take me to dinner to do so – which on a lovely evening is extremely pleasant. The two men are reasonable and I, as I repeatedly say, would love both sides of this stupid divide to work together. But I fear they are both going to stick to their absolute positions and that therefore despite my best efforts which I wish to employ will remain divided – which is a pity for the community.

One of the problems is that the Hornsey Town Hall Trust want the site first handed over to a trust, whilst the Council’s plan has more of a role for a developer earlier in the process. The reality is that I think it very unlikely the Council (whose property the site is, and so has both a financial and a moral a responsibility to ensure that whatever happens to the site doesn’t turn out to be a disaster) will be persuaded the risks of handing over the site just like that to a trust are really low enough to justify this course.

So – my ideal would be for Anthony Westbrook and Anthony Charnley from the Hornsey Town Hall Trust to go onto the Community Partnership Board – set up by the Council – as I think they have fantastically valuable skills which the Community Partnership lack – and put their efforts into that pot so that what comes out at the other end is nearer to the vision wanted by the community.

Seems easy, hey? But the Hornsey Trust folk – although they do say that they are happy to have any Trust (not necessarily theirs) in the seat – are not willing to give up their model. And so – I guess they won’t join the Community Trust.

Impasse – but I am still going to do my best to try and bring these two sides – who are both genuinely wanting roughly the same vision – together.

Leave restaurant about 11pm – and rush home to see by-election results. Way before results come through – I get texted from Cheadle to say we’ve won. Fab! That will put paid to the endless rumours and whispering about Charles Kennedy’s likely survival. He’s not going anywhere!

Cheadle by-election

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I go up to Cheadle to lend a hand in the by-election which followed the sad death of Patsy Carlton. I canvas for about three hours in the midday sun – and despite lashing of sun cream – the bit on my back I couldn’t reach bears bizarre strap marks the next day.

Then I do some delivering – but we all have to be back for a photo-op with Charles K at 4.30pm. After which I (and Susan Kramer) decide we have had as much as our old bodies can cope with and travel home on the train together.