Category Archives: Blog

It's nearly over at the GLA

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Penultimate meeting of my Transport Committee at the London Assembly. Can’t believe the four years is already up!

We are meeting briefly in formal session to run over our ‘continuity’ paper which will go forward into the new term of office and summarizes our work over the four years. Apparently we have produced virtually twice as much as any other committee of the Assembly – no wonder I feel knackered.

More seriously – transport has always been the issue of the day and there were a million more things I wanted to do – but time is always limited. Hopefully – I will be able to carry on next term of office. I will certainly remain LibDem Transport spokesperson, but as to whether I am Chair again – that will depend on the numbers of each party that the election on June 10 delivers at the GLA! (See www.londonelects.org.uk for more details about the elections).

Then we went into informal session to haggle about our road humps, tram and LTUC reports. Needless to say – there was a hot debate on our proposed recommendations for the hump report – so watch this space.

Burlington Road

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Meeting with residents of Burlington Road in Fortis Green, Haringey who have had their peaceful cul-de-sac turned into a school entrance to Fortismere and Blanche Neville.

Yes – when Jarvis built a new sports hall at the end of their road, Haringey Planning put conditions on the development so that this would not become an entrance or at least only for a small number of peripatetic teachers.

But being Haringey they failed to build the fence to stop children using it. They don’t care that the school has put Burlington Road on its letterheads as an entrance and they show absolutely no intention of enforcing the planning conditions. No wonder the residents are feeling powerless against these broken promises.

I have already had one meeting with Haringey Council’s Chief Exec about this and taken him to the site to show him the appalling state of the road – ruined by contractors’ lorries. I have extracted a promise to really consult with residents over the replanting of the area and to review the state of the street.

Now it seems, I will have to go back into action to ensure the fence is built and the address changed. The Chief Exec’s argument so far about the school using Burlington Road as an address is that they won’t be able to get post if they don’t. Nonsense – how does he think they got mail before this entrance was created?

Back to London

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Pack, pay and go to the Conference Hall for the last morning of debate and delight. The highlight is the much vaunted Leader’s speech scheduled for midday. Will he make it?

Yes – of course – Charles is a trooper and delivers a bravura performance.

Rush back to London on rail replacement to Wigan and West Coast Main line to Euston (7+ hours) for remainder of Mother’s Day. Actual remainder by the time I get home is about three hours ’til bed. But the kids are both nice to me and let me watch something I want on TV – almost unheard of.

Saturday in Southport

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Have breakfast with the Kingston mob at Lib Dem conference in Southport. Includes Jenny Tonge who was to be speaking in a fringe that evening on Palestine. Since her outspoken statements on the plight of the Palestinians she has rarely been out of the headlines. We have a discussion around the issues – and I get the impression that she is bullish but defensive about her position on the issue and definitely not keen on Charles K since he sacked her from the front benches.

Dash over to Conference Hall to listen to debates. Vince Cable (shadow chancellor) gives excellent finance speech. Then I chair Navnit’s speech. Lord Navnit Dholakia is the President of the Liberal Democrats and (in the three times I have chaired for him) has never, ever run to time. I guess that is why he always gets the spot before lunch – so that if there is an overrun on his speech it runs into the lunch break rather than the scheduled program of debates!

Waiting to go on in the wings I have a chance to chat to Charles K. The Leader is always on stage for the Presidents’ speech. He congratulates me on our tremendous victory in the Stroud Green ward by-election (30% swing Labour to LibDem – LibDem gain). Not unnaturally, I ask after his health. He assures me he is fine now, but you can still see the after effects of the nasty stomach bug. Can’t stand the vultures gathering to see if will be able to get through his speech tomorrow.

Needless to say – Navnit’s ten minute slot extends to 25 minutes – 15 minutes over the session end. On finishing, I remind the audience that the map in their programs is wrong. It shows the Conference Hotel (where the lunchtime fringe meetings will take place) in entirely the wrong location. And no – it wasn’t the LibDems reproducing it wrongly – it was supplied by the Southport Tourist Office!

Duncan Brack (Chair of the Conference Committee and a good mate) comes up onto the stage at the end to have a chat and make arrangements to meet for dinner and comments on Navnit’s overrun – and I say, “yes – but I couldn’t stop him – you can’t stop the bloody president…’ at which point Duncan points out to me that I’ve left the microphone on and have just broadcast to not only the auditorium – but the exhibition halls too!

No doubt that cheers everyone up.

I run back to the hotel to speak at a fringe meeting on Young People and Transport and then drift back to the Conference hall for afternoon debates. The debate on euthanasia was one of the best I have ever heard. Stunning speeches, powerful emotions – on both sides. Although a supporter of euthanasia with living wills – I found myself swayed from one side to the other with the force of the debate. Fabulous. Had to leave before the vote to rush back to speak in another fringe.

This fringe was for the geek brigade. No offence – but if you are not into techno campaigning, you would not have understood a word of the second half of the meeting. Happily for me – I was there as the light entertainment part of the proceedings. Since coming runner-up in the Guardian Political Blog of the Year my fame has spread far and wide and

I have been invited to address LibDems Online about my blogging.

So I give the low down on blogging, my blog, the pitfalls (i.e. people now read what I have said about them and get offended) and encourage them all to engage with the populace. And as I said – the rest of the meeting was for advanced geeks in techno terms. I didn’t understand any of it – but they all seemed to enjoy themselves greatly.

Lib Dem conference

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Off to LibDem Conference in Southport.

The journey on the West Coast Main Line was a salutary travel experience for a Londoner used to berating the conditions of the underground. The tube is just fab compared to this travesty of a travel mode that calls itself a railway. I know the speed restrictions are in place for safety following Potters Bar and Hatfield – but how long does it take to repair?

Well – the journey took about 5+ hours at a crawl. But hey – then I was there by the English seaside. I thought it was very windy – and wondered how stoic you would have to be to actually holiday there as I was nearly blown off my feet every time I emerged from my hotel. I only found out later that the whole country had been swept by gales at 70+ mph.

My hotel which was the Conference Headquarters hotel was one of those grand old seaside hotels that had been so splendid in days gone by, but whose faded grandeur was now bordering on seediness. Not withstanding this decline, I plonked myself in the lounge bar on arrival, and did what you are meant to do at Conference – reacquainted myself with colleagues from the length and breadth of the land and had a couple of gin and tonics in lieu of lunch.

Crossing from bar to chair, I encountered John Craig, Sky’s political presenter and his colleague Fiona. So I joined them for chat about the greater issues of the day. For John that meant how ill was Charles really? Well – there’s no use pretending – that was the big story!

I might very well want the media to concentrate on our policy of scrapping the unfair council tax – but in pecking order it was – Charles’ health (or lack of it ), our debate to allow porn for 16 year olds, banning smoking in public places and euthanasia. I’ve given up worrying about what the media cover – just do the work and it will all be alright.

Following dinner with my campaign manager, during which we like to reminisce how far we’ve come in Haringey and how far we want to go (this is a tradition – hugely enjoyed by both of us) I sneak off to my room to watch the last episode of Sex and the City. Couldn’t miss it. Cry through entire episode. Thank goodness it was the ending we girls would have wanted.

Mobiles on the Tube

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Meeting with Simon Hughes (LibDem Mayoral Candidate) myself and Tim O’Toole (Managing Director of London Underground for TfL).

A number one on the LibDem list for the London Assembly elections in June, I accompany Simon to many of his meetings with the transport top brass as he consults them on his ideas for his manifesto or statements to make sure they are robust and make sense to those working on the frontline of providing public services.

One item Simon brought up was the issue of enabling mobile phone use on the underground. This is something that is being worked on by TfL currently, but the tragic events in Madrid in which a mobile phone was probably used to detonate the bombs, means a rethink maybe necessary.

Tim thought that the safety provided by letting travellers use mobile phones more than outweighed the bombing risk. He pointed out that terrorists could use any method of detonation. Indeed, as I pointed out – given terrorists looked like being caught from tracing contacts on the one mobile phone that didn’t detonate its bomb, it probably wouldn’t be the

method of choice next time.

Anyway – as I said – these meetings are confidential so that we can discuss frankly policy ideas in advance of any decisions on what policy to put in the manifesto before June’s elections, but Transport for London virtually immediately (and certainly very suddenly after the meeting) issued a press release on mobile phones and their future on the underground following the Madrid bombing. Bad behaviour indeed!

Talking transport

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I a speaking at the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Residents’ Association AGM – combined with the local Buswatch group. I am invited on the strict condition that I keep it non-political and am there as Chair of Transport of the London Assembly.

I had a wonderful romp through all the transport issues of London – under the title of ‘The Good and Bad News’. I talked about the transport challenges of the first term of London Government. It is so wonderful to be able to speak for an hour and take questions on my specialist subject – a rare opportunity in British politics.

There was a fantastic turnout and I am sure that was because so much of what I do on transport at the GLA has a real effect on local issues. It’s a bit like being a doctor going to a party and all the guests telling you their symptoms. There isn’t a person in London who doesn’t have a transport issue that affects their lives.

Haringey Heartlands

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Plenary session of the London Assembly with two lots of witnesses before us – the LDA (London Development Agency) in the form of Chief Exec Manny Lewis and Chair Honor Chapman, and the Thames Gateway lot with five witnesses from various partnership bodies.

I was not supposed to be doing anything on the LDA bit – but opportunity knocked suddenly at my door. At our previous LibDem council group meeting in Haringey we had had a presentation by local residents who felt they had been ignored by Haringey Council in the development of proposals for the Haringey Heartlands scheme.

These residents and their associations had invested all their time and energy in trying to work with the Labour MP and the local Labour council administration. When finally they realised they had been ignored, they had come to us as a last resort.

So I’m sitting in the Assembly chamber and the Chief Exec of the LDA – which is funding some of the Heartlands scheme – is wittering on about sustainability being the absolutely vital condition of their funding and that this is paramount.

Yet many of the residents’ concerns over the scheme are precisely about sustainability – e.g. there is no plan for education and skills, no clear idea where jobs would be created and there is a poor transport scheme which will turn the new area into one big rat run.

As I said, opportunity knocked, and I asked Manny Lewis if residents unhappy with the proposals on the grounds of sustainability could come to anyone at the LDA with their problems. He said the man to see was Tony Winterbottom, Director of Regeneration. So I went on ask could they come and see him directly and, of course, he had to say yes.

So at last, a chink in the armour – a breakthrough for residents to at least be heard. You can’t guarantee the outcome – but at least now there will be an opportunity for residents to be heard.

Tube – things will only get worse

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Tim O’Toole, Managing Director of London Underground for Transport for London and generally a good thing was required to present himself before my committee to answer for the tube.

A bit of a challenge – but he’s basically up to it. Lord knows what it must be like to be a smart American lawyer and manager, and then to find yourself running the tube in London – particularly with its industrial relations.

But as I said, Tim’s a smart cookie. He does a great version of pro-active breast beating. For example, last time I had him in to an emergency session of the Transport Committee to answer for the Hammersmith and Fulham and Camden Town derailments, he started by apologising for a ‘parade of failures’.

It is always disarming to an extent when someone comes in and admits their failures when you are used to the vast majority of people in charge defending their position even when totally indefensible.

So once again Tim started by basically admitting that the tube was not performing that well – and that there was a need to lower expectations because the PPP didn’t contract for it to perform that much better.

I thought I played a bit of a blinder myself, when I elicited the information that however well Tim and his boys (sexist but true) managed the tube and got the most you could get out of it through tip-top management techniques – the truth was that performance would still deteriorate because the best management in the world couldn’t keep pace with the deterioration rate of the asset base.

Things can only get worse!

Well we knew that when Labour lost the plot on the tube and stuffed us with the PPP. And thus it is proving to be. My only hope is that there will be a renegotiated PPP contract or an add-on to the PPP contract that will be paid for by the Government to ensure that the standard contracted for in the PPP is raised. The new stations that will come on-line in the first 7 year tract of the contract will make it look better – but to us daily users reliable trains would be a boon.

I suppose we had two ‘victories’ from the morning’s session. Firstly, Tim reported that they had at last found a way to give me what I had been asking for – an easy benchmark for overcrowding.

In Paris (and my own recommendation) the standard is 4 people per square metre. Sadly, Tim is not tempted down this route – but he stated that they have developed a way of adding seconds to the journey time based on levels of overcrowding. This slightly odd approach is based on the fact that penalties for the contractors come into play if journeys take too long – so turning overcrowding into extra journey times means contractors might get penalised. He hasn’t unveiled it properly yet – just giving me a peek at the promised land.

The second piece of good news – also arising from that emergency meeting – was that London Underground have moved to address concerns expressed after the derailments by the unions that when staff raised matters of concern – management took no notice.

Both the infracos (the private companies now in charge of the infrastructure) have developed web based complaints and tracking so both staff and management can see what the complaint was and when logged, what was done, what the progress is and what the outcome is.

So two gold stars for the Assembly! Hoorah!

Muswell Hill by-election

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Leap out of bed at 4am and into strange clothing appropriate for delivering leaflets in Muswell Hill ward for polling day. “Good Morning” the leaflets say – bright and cheery on doormats for when people awake.

As dawn breaks over Muswell Hill, I race a milkman down Park Avenue North – he delivering milk, me Good Mornings. He wins. Back home at 7am to do a couple of hours of emails and then off to City Hall for the first of the Olympics Forum.

This is the bid team, led by Barbara Cassani, trying to engage with the key stakeholders in London to build the support needed for a successful bid. Although a PR exercise – I am still very impressed with her and indeed the thinking behind our Olympics bid. Will have my full support and effort. It would be tremendous if we won.

Then back to Muswell Hill LibDem committee room to start the knocking up. Knocking up, for the uninitiated, is when poor activists like me hound local residents who have said when previously canvassed that they will vote for us. So I go round for seven hours or so knocking on their doors to drive them out to the polls and to do their democratic duty.

Polls close at 9pm and its off to Haringey Civic Centre for the count. I am up in the public gallery with the team, whilst our counting agents and candidate Gail Engert is downstairs in the count itself. Craning necks to see where the crosses are on the first ballot papers to emerge, my eyesight fails and I haven’t a clue what is on them. But it doesn’t take long to know that we have a landslide victory.

What a fabulous result for us. This is my ward where I am a sitting councillor too – so extra pleasure in a result that delivers Gail a 57% majority.

The result is:

Gail Engert (Lib Dem) 1,739 (70%, +8%)

Labour 321 (13%, -6%)

Tories 278 (11%, +2%)

Greens 164 (7%, -3%)

Majority: 1,418

Turnout: 32%

Swing: 7% Lab to Lib Dem

Then everyone back to my house for champagne! I clearly drank too much of it as I am sitting typing this with what must be a hangover. I don’t drink very much and two glasses is usually more than enough – but on a night like this, I guess I must have let my hair down and had at least four.