A man followed me home from the tube last Wednesday night. It was about 11.30pm. He had been in my carriage from Warren Street, got off at Highgate, was behind me on the first escalator, behind me on the second escalator up to Archway Road – and as I headed up the hill, I was conscious that so did he.

The few people who had started in the same direction, faded away within the first 100 metres – so it was just he and I. I crossed the road – at a point where the pavement narrowed so it would look like the natural thing to do. So did he. When I came to the turn I needed to take – so did he – albeit once again on the opposite side. I was ready for flight – was looking for which houses had lights on, which doors were near. Suddenly he ran across the road towards me and then, with a spurt of speed, arrived on the pavement ahead of me and accelerated away.

Once he was ahead of me and I had him properly in my sights, I felt OK. And then, of course, he crossed the road and went up a drive, got his keys out of his pocket, opened his front door and went home to hearth and family. He had obviously run to get ahead of me to stop me thinking he was following me. Men and women reading this will probably recognise this situation – a woman thinking she’s being followed and a man knowing that she’s thinking he is following her. That’s the situation we have arrived at because we feel unsafe, going home late at night – whether we are or not.

But while this sort of episode is a regular part of life, it is far too rare to see politicians taking a real interest. It is easy to talk about wanting better public transport – but this means little if it isn’t also backed up with real measures to not just improve buses, tubes and trains, but also to improve safety.

This is just one of the policy areas which the Mayor and London Assembly need to tackle. And public transport isn’t just about the mundane details of life like getting to and from work or food shopping. It is also about giving everyone the chance to enjoy London’s fantastic social, cultural and entertainment opportunities – eating out, cinema, theatre, pub or whatever.

We need to make journeys to and from public transport safer and we need to feel safe when we are on public transport. The safer it becomes the more people will use it – and the more people that use it late at night the safer it becomes. That is to do with attracting more people onto public transport, improving lighting, ensuring our safety whilst on our journey whether through human or technological presences and looking at ways people get home from public transport. It’s not just ‘safe routes to school’ that are needed.

There is a wealth of different policies which need to be brought together, ranging from changing the fares structure for Black Cabs so that there are more cabs available late at night to increasing the resources available to British Transport Police. And how about offering free tube or bus tickets with cinema tickets?

At the moment the Government is spending money hand over fist on expensive private consultants to try and make their plans to privatise the tube add up. That money would be far better spent on improving our tube and making it safer, rather than trying to privatise something not even Mrs. Thatcher wanted to sell off.

Judging from the results of the Mayoral and Assembly elections, Millbank’sability to get its message across is slipping. Many voters hadn’t evenrealised there was going to even be an Assembly, let alone how to vote forit without spoiling over 100,000 ballot papers. Perhaps Millbank should haveconcentrated its efforts more on the Assembly and less on poor old Frank.

It was a great night, however, for the Liberal Democrats – four of uselected to the London. And on top of that the news of our stunning victoryin the Romsey by-election! It certainly made up for the 16-hour count stuckin the QE2 conference centre, which has all the attractions of a dismalairport lounge.

The day after, we (all the parties) went into the temporary offices atRomney House. Well actually Labour met somewhere else because they ‘wantedto be alone’. They did manage to make a flying visit to put their towels onthe deckchairs (bag their offices).

I had never met Ken before. Like most Londoners, I’ve enjoyed his nasalviews on a variety of TV shows. However, nearly everyone I had met duringthe campaign who had known or worked with him didn’t have a good word to sayabout him. Not being particularly judgmental, I was glad when he respondedto our invitation to come and ‘share his vision’ with the LibDem Group. Kensaid all the right things: inclusive, informal, cross-party working, anideas hothouse, Londoners had spoken, etc. I couldn’t have put it better.Why then did it feel like the Kiss of the Spiderwoman?

Having observed the bizarre and less than admirable behaviour of politiciansin the House of Commons, and for that matter, in Haringey Council chamber, Ihave high hopes that the London Assembly will be different – but then, I ama born optimist.

I couldn’t help noticing, however, the Labour members on route to theinaugural meeting of the Assembly, all stopping to pin a red rose to theirlapels. A yucky, but harmless form of tribalism.

Sadly, I can’t say the same for the Tory tribalism exhibited during thefirst meeting. I know a week is a long time in politics, but they seem tohave already forgotten Norris’s slogan ‘Action not Politics’. The firstthing they gave to London was ‘Politics not Action’ putting down a motionagainst the ‘principle of congestion charges’. It was simply aimed at tryingto expose Labour’s problems with Ken. Labour members undoubtedly haveproblems being caught between Ken and Tony, (rock and hard place are thewords that spring to mind) but cheap political shenanigans set a sour toneat the first meeting.

The Assembly needs to fix London’s problems, not just be an old-fashionedpolitical talking shop. Congestion is a real problem – a problem that costsLondoners dear in terms of health, cost to business and loss of personaltime. If congestion charges are set sensibly, reduce traffic, cut pollutionand are only introduced after tangible public transport improvements- thenthey will have my whole-hearted support.