Here is my latest column for the Muswell Hill & Highgate Flyers:

It’s that time of year again. No, I’m not going to get all political and talk about the conference season and the start of Parliament’s new session. No, I’m not talking about school being back – hopefully your little darlings (and not so little ones) will be settling into their new classes. But instead – it’s survey time!

In one form or another I have been doing local surveys for over a decade. Whilst it has become a bit more of a mission to ask 45,000 odd households what’s on their mind, my annual survey is one of the most important things I do as a politician – finding out about local residents’ concerns. Sadly, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to knock on every door when everyone’s in to have a chat (but I do try!) so my survey helps me fill the gap.

Some of the issues I have campaigned on hardest were first mentioned in people’s survey responses – such as the 603 bus, getting Hornsey Hospital re-opened and arguing for Oyster Pay-as-Go in local train stations.

The questions I ask touch on all sorts of subjects from grumbles about grot-spots – sadly a perennial issue with Haringey Council, to whether people support my tough stance for action on Climate Change in Parliament.

But this year there are two particular issues I want to hear about. One is how the downturn is affecting people locally. Gathering more direct information from local people’s experiences is vital for me to argue whether Government services are properly geared to helping people and are working in Hornsey & Wood Green.

The other issue is on a related point. We have some of the most treasured local high streets in the capital – Muswell Hill, Highgate, Crouch End, the list goes on… With my Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues we have being working hard to support local shops and businesses through the recession – promoting local loyalty cards, making parking easier to encourage customers and prodding the council to do more.

But the other thing I want to hear from people is what will encourage them to shop more locally. I am determined that we do all that we can to save our High Streets from the worst of the recession.

So watch this space – or more accurately your letterbox – I look forward to hearing what you’ve got to say.

Here’s my latest column for the Ham & High:

Every day we are bombarded with literally hundreds of images of people. In our city few surfaces are left without some form of graphical advertising. And as any good advertiser designer will tell you – you can’t sell without a face.

But how often have you ever stopped to study the faces that sell you something? If you took the time you would probably notice something odd about the people enticing you to buy. On close inspection you will find something surreal – teeth that gleam just a bit too brilliantly white, cheek bones that protrude more than is natural and waists that you could only hope to achieve if you had had ribs removed …

In our digital age it has become the norm in the advertising and glamour magazine industry to touch up photos. And so what I hear you say? A toothless wizened hag is unlikely to induce even the most compassionate of consumer to buy the latest widget unless it was Halloween masks. In competitive markets and hard times these canny retailers are merely trying to put themselves ahead of the game.

I’m no stranger to leafing through the odd glamorous magazine myself. But page after page after high gloss page are full of armies of the unreal – a mystical race of people where no blemish goes untouched and no cellulite un-airbrushed. An exclusive club that no-one can enter even if you had unlimited resources, a digital plastic surgeon with Leonardo da Vinci’s touch and boundless energy for the gym to tone the most stubborn love handle.

As a lady of certain age I can (now) shrug off my imperfections and hope my suitors will be interested my humour and passion for people. But what about teenagers and in particular young girls? Images of human ‘perfection-plus’ have become so ubiquitous and impossible to avoid that we must urgently question how they are influencing young minds.

Trading standards would come down on you like a ton of bricks if you falsified the representation of a product. But there is absolute nothing stopping the full on and hidden manipulation of the human form. Caveat emptor you might say, but when our young are bombarded with the subliminal message that beauty is not only desirable but actually physically impossible to achieve then we have a serious issue.

The problem is more than just angst ridden adolescents. Hospital admissions for anorexia have increase by 50% since 1996 and more worryingly sufferers are becoming younger. Of course airbrushing is not only cause, but there is academic research to suggest how digital manipulation contributes to negative self image. It is not difficult to see why. Who can help feeling inadequate when confronted with such unobtainable perfection?

So what’s the solution – lock up our children and ban photoshop? Unsurprisingly, as a liberal this is probably a step too far! But at my party’s conference last month I was successful in getting a policy adopted that would force magazines to indicate clearly whether an image has been tampered with.

A visual prompt would serve as a reminder that the image being viewed is not real. It would offer reassurance to young minds that shouldn’t despair if their teeth aren’t perfectly white or their bum’s rounder than it is flat.

We cannot ignore what has become a serious health problem for our youth. Young people will always aspire, look up to and seek to emulate pop stars and models. Being young is difficult enough without imposing the hurdle of perfection. So let’s give them a helping hand and make sure they know that no-one can achieve the lofty heights of airbrushed beauty.

If you would like to get involved in the Liberal Democrat campaign then please visit www.realwomen.org.uk/takeaction

Here’s my latest column for the Highgate Handbook and Muswell Hill Flyer:

It is that time of year – when I get invited to all the wonderful summer activities that local people put on. Street parties, summer fairs, school fetes, strawberry teas, horticultural shows, carnivals and parades nearly takeover my engagements diary over these summer weeks.

The Fair in the Square in Highgate was a raging success. The sun shone and it was thronging with smiling people. Stalls galore and food and drink was flowing. There were entertainments for children and friends and neighbours strolling around – just like a picture book really.

My role was to judge the dog competition. Images of the judges at Crufts came to mind in advance – feeling haunches and judging stance were my only knowledge of dog competitions. Happily this wasn’t required and I had two co-judges – knowledgeable about dogs – to help.

When I saw the categories – any nervousness about my ability to tell a ‘good’ dog from a less good one evaporated. The first category was a looky likey one – i.e. how alike dog and owner were. And there were two that really were almost identikits of each other – and I mean that in the nicest way! There was even one game lady who had covered her face with false tufts of hair to look like her dog. And there was cutest dog, waggiest tail dog, best behaved dog and best looking dog – so I needn’t have worried about my professional judging ability after all.

The Hillfield Park Olympic Games are another annual must attend – as one of the oldest and best developed of street parties that I go to. During the day there is fun and games – mainly for the children with races, dog agility courses, football dribbling and so on – culminating in the whole street – and neighbouring street – ones mucking in for a tug of war.

One of the outstanding races of the day is the bike race up the hill. Hillfield Park has a gradient to die for – this is tough, tough fun. I don’t know how anyone could get up it on a bike at all – but they do. In threes – as the ‘Olympics’ are always done in teams (red, blue and white) – both children and adults attack the hill – and most do arrive at the top. The evening is full of music and food and fun.

And such a successful party – as with the Highgate Fair – and all the shows and events over this period (too many to list them all) owe everything to those who do a mammoth amount of work to make the events the wonderful success that they are.

Congratulations to everyone in Highgate and Muswell Hill who have put in so much effort and love to giving all of us such a good time. Have a happy rest of summer!