Category Archives: Blog

Baby P sentencing up for review

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So – good! The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, is going to take a look at the sentencing for the Baby P case – and may then lodge an appeal over them being too lenient.

With an ‘indeterminate’ sentence – it does mean that it could be forever. But with the minimum sentence length given out, it could mean – say – that the mother would be out in five years – which would be a travesty of justice. Once she or the others have served their minimum sentence, it’s up to the Parole Board to decide whether to release any of them at any point in time – but just because we have that safeguard doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be minimum lengths of sentence which they will definitely serve and which reflect the horror of what happened.

Funding for Haringey's schools

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Aha! Now the fight to get fair funding for Haringey schoolchildren is getting the support of teaching unions in Haringey. Everyone in Haringey recognises the injustice of us having to pay inner London teacher salaries but only receiving outer London per pupil funding. The differential is stark. Our kids get £1,183 less than children in Camden, Hackney or Islington.

I was able to raise this issue again on the floor of the House last Thursday. One day we will get it through to the Government that this is just not fair. Our schools are struggling terribly with their budgets – and if ‘every child matters’ how come our children don’t matter as much as them next door?

Political reform: what to make of Cameron?

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Having just read David Cameron’s recipe to restore public faith in politicians I note his glaring omissions. He omits what I regard as a fundamental gravy train that MPs have supped from for far too long. When I got to Parliament in 2005 I was outraged to find that MPs could use public money from the taxpayer for their mortgage and – given the booming house market until recent times – could then sell their property for huge profits and pocket them. That has been a scandal. I have bleated on about this ever since. Nick Clegg has taken up this issue too. The argument is very simple – that no one should be able to make a profit out of public money. Of course – David Cameron himself is profiting from this nice little earner. So – that’s the first black mark.

He also says nothing of the House of Lords – the bastion of privilege and non-accountability or democratic mandate. Failing to even wish to tackle this antiquated anomaly shows again that DC is a conservative who has been forced to flagg up ‘reform’ – but without the heart and commitment of a genuine reformer.

I was pleased to read the small paragraph on bringing the advantages of internet to Parliament. I have banged on about this for some time – and again I don’t think Cameron gets to the heart of what really matters. For example (not in Cameron’s recipe) from the first publication of a Bill – the changes and amendments all come on separate bits of papers.

I remember after leading on my first Bill in Parliament for the Liberal Democrats I went to the Labour Whips office to persuade them to use tracking changes so that we could see the Bill and its alterations all in the same place. You know track changes – the sort of thing the rest of the world has been using for years and years and years. But not Parliament. Instead – something changes, and you get given a block of replacement text without changes marked up. They seem incapable of breaking out of their straight jacket of history and moving to modern online information.

This just demonstrates the inability to move on the tiniest of changes that might help produce better legislation – and also open it up to public comment, scrutiny and feedback without having to be a lawyer to understand the bloody stuff. Make it easy for everyone to see what’s being changed – and I’ve no doubt people will start using that data, lobbying MPs more effectively and even spot things MPs have missed. After all – it’s not exactly news to say that some legislation gets through Parliament with mistakes in the wording. But open up the data – and then there’s the chance for other people to spot the mistakes, highlight them before they become law – and we all benefit.

There is stuff that Cameron’s said which I agree with – as you would expect given that many of the ‘ideas’ he puts forward in today’s Guardian are long-standing Liberal Democrat policies! Fixed-term parliaments, reducing of the power of the executive, cutting the number of MPs, devolving power to councils and empowering individuals. Transparency and accountability – definitely. Shame Cameron has had to be dragged kicking and screaming on these. But – to be fair – at least he is going out there.

DC, however, does not want to change the electoral system – a system that conserves the old ways at its very heart. No surprise there. We need an electoral system that gives real power to the voter to choose – and strips away the comfort of being in a safe seat that leads so many MPs astray, forgetting what they are really there for. (See this excellent analysis of the pattern between how safe an MP’s seat is and whether or not they’ve abused the expense rules.)

At present we have a government that does not represent the people – elected to total power by something like 36% only of voters – and garnered by electoral and financial effort being funneled into swing seats in marginals, largely ignoring voters elsewhere.

If we want politicians and politics to truly change – it isn’t enough to simply change a few rules in the heat of the media spotlight, but we need to change the rules by which MPs get into power – and can get kicked out again.

But at least, this catastrophic and seismic explosion into the body politic – has made even the Conservative leader – and even if for the wrong reasons – say some of the right things. Some – but not enough.

Gordon Brown, mind you, is woefully absent from this debate altogether, off the pace and not addressing the issues that need addressing. Totally explains why Blair managed to out dance him on the leadership in the first place.

What is clear is that this is a moment in time when the political establishment is in crisis. And that establishment has kept at bay the real changes that our needed in our country to make our democracy decent, effective, transparent and accountable. Power to the people is what is needed. Clearly power that rests in politicians hands will not deliver the new politics that we so desperately need.

Now you see it, now you don't – Labour and allowances

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Now you see it (Labour taking bigger allowances on Haringey Council) – now you don’t – because they’ve tried to hide it in extra Special Responsibility Allowances rather than an overall rise for all their councillors!

The reality though is that Labour have actually awarded themselves £44,751 in extra allowances – through the back door. What Labour have done is vote unanimously for the total of their Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) to be increased from £676,533 last year to £721,284 this year. In contrast, the Liberal Democrat councillors on Haringey are committed to cutting the number of SRA positions altogether.

This news goes against Council Leader Cllr Claire Kober’s comments that Haringey Council should tighten its belt and “any savings can go straight into providing essential services for the people of Haringey.”

As my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Ed Butcher said: “The Labour leader has been quoted as saying councillors should tighten their belts too in this financial crisis. Well, this looks like they sadly added a few extra notches instead.”

(There’s more on this story on my website and on Liberal Democrat Voice.)

Lap-dancing update

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Grabbed the opportunity of the Policing Bill – which proposes changing the rules around lap-dancing – to extract a promise. The new legislation, when passed, will make lap dancing clubs have to apply for license as a sex encounter establishment. Currently they only need the same license as a pub.

Part of the concern in Crouch End, outside of just the application (now on hold) for such a club at the Music Palace, was that an application would be rushed through and get granted before the new legislation – and then the legislation would allow all existing lap dancing clubs automatic new licenses – called ‘grandfather rights’.

So – up I leapt during the week – and intervened on the Minister to point out how dreadful this would be. And happily, on the floor of the House of Commons, I extracted the promise that last minute applications for lap dancing clubs will not escape new licensing laws.

Hurrah!

Baby P – sentences handed out

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So – sentences have now been handed out following the trial over the death of Baby P.

This coincided with the publication of the second Serious Case Review which finally lays bare the litany of failures by every agency involved and by all the individuals who did not do their job properly.

What is so shocking is that virtually no-one did what I am sure the people would expect when a child is on the at risk register.

As to the future. Well, Haringey (who issued a statement then bunkered down not willing to face the media – which doesn’t bode well for a change in attitude) would like this to draw a line under the whole sorry story. But there should be no lines drawn. That is what they did after Victoria Climbie when they promised this would never happen again and that lessons had been learned – when clearly they hadn’t.

If Haringey Council doesn’t change its rotten culture of secrecy, cover-ups and acceptance of inadequate performance – then there can be no assurance that a few years down the line another vulnerable child will not suffer again as those meant to protect them fail to do their jobs properly.

Who should be the next Speaker?

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So now we are looking for a new Speaker. I just don’t want it to be the traditional kind of same old same old that went before. If there was ever an opportunity for change and reform – this is the start of it.

Anyway – thought I would ask you all to give your views on who the new Speaker should be! I can’t promise to agree with you or go with the majority on this one – but knowing who might inspire public confidence is crucial to choosing the right person.

And I do think the public need to have confidence in whoever is chosen – not just the MPs!

So tell me your views…

Electing a new Speaker

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It must have been one of the shortest statements ever. Basically, Speaker Martin said for the sake of the unity of the house he would step down on 21 June – allowing for a new speaker to be voted for on 22 June. And that was that.

I though just as he got it wrong yesterday – he got it right today. I just wish he hadn’t had the humiliation of yesterday. But politics is like that – sudden and often quite brutish in its endings.

Speaker Martin’s announcement today is just the start of a process that will hopefully sweep away the cobwebs and dust of a system that has been sustaining a broken politics – and will let light into all the old, dark secret ways.

We all now have a duty to give our ideas and energy for reform to the Kelly commission, who will independently set the new rules for all expenses and the like. He needs to get a shifty on – as the sooner we can cleanse our body politic the better. There are massive problems out there for so many people that this inward focus must end as soon as possible.

And whilst the Speaker has now done the honourable thing – and I am glad that he can now go with dignity – that still leaves the many MPs on a spectrum of guilt from potentially criminal (that means they must face the law of the land), through excessive greed (deselection) to smaller transgressions (the ballot box ). All those must be dealt with appropriately – and the punishment must fit the crime. For the rest – being sainted in the Telegraph is their earthly reward. (Fair play to the Telegraph too – as they are now publishing each day a list of ‘saints’. See their coverage of myself here.)

As to who will be the new speaker – I don’t know. I do know that the new system of secret ballots means that hopefully the dreadful pressure of the whips and the totally partisan approach will not hold sway. We need someone who can deliver a modernising agenda. That is the crucial point and I don’t care which party they come from – only that they can deliver and take us forward out of this unholy mess.

Frank Dobson and I had a real set to as we were waiting to go on the BBC’s Daily Politics show. He is against the secret ballot and was trying to argue that we shouldn’t have anything secret. I think he doesn’t get it. Expenses – open and transparent so the world can see and be reassured about our behaviour. Voting, just as in general elections, in a secret ballot to make sure we don’t suffer undue influence.

Methinks Frank doesn’t get it. He still clearly wants to stack the odds, use the whips, ensure a Labour Speaker – rather than fair play. Luckily we had to go on set before we got to fisticuffs!

Michael Martin

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I was sitting in the chamber yesterday awaiting the arrival of Speaker Martin – and thinking of history. I was remembering other ‘rotten’ Parliaments that I had yawned at in my school history lessons – bored and not understanding the import of history – that it was once reality. Ironic – really. And then Speaker Martin rose to make his statement.

Whilst I had called for him to go last Sunday – as I sat there in the chamber I wondered – could he, would he? Was there a rabbit out of hat? As his first words left his mouth – I knew that nothing had changed. Speaker Martin just hadn’t got it. He did apologise to the nation. He said we all had to bear our responsibility. And then he said he would call an urgent meeting with all the leaders. He just seemed not to understand the raging torrent of public opinion out there. Calling a meeting just wasn’t going to do it!

Not enough. Not nearly enough. You cannot defend the indefensible – and yet he believed he should.

The world has moved on – and MPs are not a special breed who can hide behind some special arrangements that make them in some way exempt from the scrutiny and openness that we prescribe for others. The Americans have got this together so much better than us.

Anyway – Speaker Martin failed to command the respect of the House – as MP after MP defied him and challenged his authority. One MP shouted from behind the bar (from which you cannot speak). Centuries of convention and respect dissipated as Mr Speaker lost control.

He was not helped by his own mistakes in understanding the standing orders of the House and had clearly not been briefed properly by his Clerks – as he said that the motion of no confidence (tabled by Douglas Carswell and on which I was one of the initial signatories) was not a substantive motion. But it is. He said it was an EDM. Shouts from the House – anger and derision mixed.

But with today’s news that he’s going to stand down – that’s all history now. The job now is to get a Speaker who can help us all start fixing the system.