Exposed: Haringey Labour breaks domestic flights promise

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Information revealed by local Liberal Democrats shows that Labour have broken a key pledge to stop Haringey Council using domestic flights for council business. A document sent to the Government tallying Haringey’s C02 emissions shows that 17,038 miles were travelled on domestic flights in the past two years.

The news comes as  Haringey Council announced its support of the Friends of the Earth campaign to reduce C02 emissions by 40% by 2020. Liberal Democrats have accused Labour of hypocrisy and failing to keep to a key pledge on reducing C02 emissions.

The document sent to the Department for the Environment and Climate Change shows that 17,038 miles were travelled to UK destinations, 18,992 on short haul flights and 71,028 miles for long haul air travel.

Cllr Bob Hare, Liberal Democrat Green Spokesperson, comments:

“This news is very concerning for Haringey’s fight against climate change. Unless we are fully committed to doing all we can to reduce C02 emissions we will fail in our task.

“Local residents will feel let down by a Labour Council that promised to take action to reduce carbon emissions but has fallen at the first hurdle.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“This shocking admission by Haringey Council shows that Labour cannot be trusted on their green pledges – they simply say one thing but do another.”

5E awarded Beacon Status by Learning and Skills Council

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Lynne Featherstone MP presenting 5E student Rachel Williams with certificate of achievement I was invited to give out some of the certificates yesterday and make a short speech at the celebration of 5E being awarded Beacon Status by the Learning and Skills Council. 5E is a local provider of education and training to employment for those groups in the community who struggle against various barriers. The litany of who those groups are is familiar: black and ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum seekers, women, those with disabilities or health or mental health problems, lone parents, long-term unemployed, older people, ex-offenders and others –  who so often find they are not even in the running for getting jobs that others take for granted. And there are so many people who for one reason or another – don’t start anywhere near a level playing field.

For me, the recipe for a better and happier world is a fairer society. And what I really mean by that is a more equal society.  But Britain has steadily become a less equal and a less fair society, rates of social mobility have actually fallen.  And your educational chances are strongly correlated to your social class – setting the prospects for children even before they reach school. And that affects everything in life – because inequality begets inequality.

In fact, a whole host of studies across different countries have consistently shown that not just in terms of education and health, but also in terms of crime, social respect, trust and participation – the outcomes are linked to the degrees of inequality in wealth and income. So narrowing that gap benefits everyone.  

So the work that Raj Doshi (the head of 5E) and his committed, energetic and enthusiastic team do and their brilliant track record with of achievement with 5E having been awarded Grade 1 (outstanding provision) three times by OFSTED – who are the inspection authority for this – is vital.

With support, training and skills – everyone can and should have the opportunities that others take for granted. Congratulations to all who have taken the courses and all those who have made them so successful.

That’s the point of receiving Beacon Status – so they can shine a light for others to follow.

Liberal Democrats win Bedford Mayoral election

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Blimey. I know that there isn’t the same appetite for Cameron now as there was for Blair in ’97 – but if the Tories can’t win an election like this – then they must be really worried.

Bedford has elected a new Mayor – Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson. This is an amazing victory for Dave – and he and the Bedford LibDems have done brilliantly. I mean in this climate – just after the Tory conference – this is stupendous.

There hasn’t been tons of coverage about this election in the media – but it is an important one. The Mayor of Bedford represents more people than an MP does, and Dave will be making important decisions that affect peoples’ lives.

I think this result will put the wind up the Conservatives quite rightly. The General Election is so not a done deal. With Labour trailing a miserable fifth, the battle is clearly between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives as to who scoops up all those Labour deserters.

Lynne Featherstone launches annual Christmas card competition

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Lynne Featherstone MP is inviting local children to draw a picture of what Santa would get up to in their part of Hornsey and Wood Green, as she launches her annual Christmas card competition.

The winning entry of this year’s competition themed ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’ will feature on thousands of Christmas cards that will go out to local residents in December. The competition, which is open to children at all primary schools in Hornsey and Wood Green, is running until the 6th November.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I’m really excited about the Christmas card competition this year- each year local children amaze and surprise me with their creativity and fantastic ideas.

“And I’m sure this year won’t be an exception, as they get to show what they think Santa might get up to in their part of town. Later on in October I hope to visit an arts class and see the creativity in action – and who knows – I might pick up the colour pens myself!”

Local Democracy Week – Alexandra Park School

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Lynne Featherstone at Alexandra Park SchoolIf I ruled the world I would ………….. that’s the challenge I have set local children in Hornsey & Wood Green schools to tell me in 200 words for Local Democracy Week.

I launched my mini-writing competition today at Alexandra Park School – where the amazing Jo (Citizenship teacher extraordinaire) had agreed to set up to undertake this project with the Citizenship and the English classes working together. So today I was attending the Citizenship class where Jo was brainstorming with the children to get them involved and engaged in beginning to think what sort of things might need changing or what worried them – and then – how that might be changed.

The first round of ideas were just brilliant – from the young girl who wanted to make life better for young carers, to world peace and beyond. I’m not going to go through the list – but suffice to say – that it is completely fascinating to to listen to the ideas they had about what worried them – and recognise where the input came from. Some clearly came from school work, much from television and newscasts  – but Jo was really clever – and as well as those sort of universal issues tried to move them onto a more personal level of what worried or concerned them in their own lives.

So I am greatly looking forward to reading all the submissions when they come in. I always feel very uplifted when I come out of a school visit like that.

My letter from Sir Thomas Legg

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Well – I got my ‘letter’ from Sir Thomas Legg on Monday (I did tweet) with reference to whether MPs would have to pay back money etc. All clear!

‘In your case, having examined the records in the light of my interpretation of the rules and standards in force at the time, I have not identified any payments made to you under the ACA during the review period which I consider call for any repayment or further supporting evidence to be provided by you. Accordingly, my conclusion is that no action is required from you in this matter.”

NB The Review period was from 2004-5 to 2008-09

So now I’ve been ‘sainted’ by the Telegraph, pronounced ‘squeaky’ clean by my local press and got my ‘all clear’ from Sir Thomas. But it still feels dreadful in Parliament – the atmosphere is depressed and subdued and the body politic is merely limping along.

And there seems to be no end to the problems of the expenses scandal – from the rumblings amongst some MPs about the changing of rules retrospectively like on cleaning and gardening (albeit that many MPs complaining about retrospective rules have voted for retrospective legislation for others), but also about what Sir Thomas has actually been focusing on within his remit of examining how the ACA (additional cost allowance – which is for second homes etc) was used.

I watched my own Leader, Nick Clegg, on GMTV this morning being very fierce about Sir Thomas looking at the very wrong but relatively small offences – but completely ignoring the big issues around avoiding Capital Gains Tax, flipping and so on which may have netted small fortunes. Those remain untouched. Nick has a good point – and it’s one of the real issues around all of this endless quagmire we are swimming around in – nothing is final, cleansing or absolute – so it can never end.

Until we go to the polls – this will run and run – so the sooner the better!

Diwali celebrated at Woodside House

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Local Liberal Democrats attended the 14th Annual ‘I Can Care’ Diwali celebrations last Friday (9th October 2009) at Woodside House and vowed to continue their support for the charity.

Last year Labour-run Haringey Council planned to force ‘I Can Care’, a charity that gives welfare advice and provides computer, yoga and English classes for elderly Asian residents, to relocate in a £12million project to build a new Council chamber.

After a sustained campaign by local residents and Liberal Democrats, Haringey Council was forced to shelve plans and postpone the project.

Cllr Robert Gorrie, Leader of Haringey Liberal Democrats, comments:

“I am so glad that we are able to be here, joining ‘I Can Care’ in their fourteenth Diwali celebration, twelve months on from Haringey Council’s welcome u-turn.

“Thank you to Raj and all who continue to provide this invaluable community lead service for elderly Asian women in the local area.”

Cllr John Oakes, Bounds Green, adds:

“It is about time that Haringey Council made up its mind on the future of Woodside House and ‘I Can Care’. It is unfair that, at a time of the Festival of Lights, we are still kept in the dark on the future of ‘I Can Care’.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“We will continue to fight to ensure this marvellous community group has the right support and facilities, so it continues to be a success for its members.”

Seeing Mr Speaker

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I had an appointment to meet Mr Speaker today – John Bercow. I had requested this meeting as I wanted to suggest to him (gently) that Parliament still probably had a bit of a way to go to really engage with people using  technology to make it more accessible.

This is about opening it all up. Things have improved in the website now works better. But most of the best internet developments have come from outside the official Parliamentary structures, e.g. They Work for You and Write to Them both are more popular and have a wider range of functions than the official locations for similar information. These are sites where people can go to find out just what their own MP is doing. You can find what questions your MP has asked, what they have said in any debate and so on.

There is a culture issue here and that holds things back a lot. For example – uploading clips of MPs speaking onto YouTube. It’s taken months to review, and the arguments are over points the rest of the world has largely moved on from years ago like there might be an advert on the page!

Also – the way information about progress of legislation through Parliament is made available makes it very hard for others to then make use of the data. It’s as if the Met Office insisted people come to its website to find the weather forecast and didn’t like people taking its data and reproducing and reusing it elsewhere. Hence the ‘Free Our Bills’ campaign.

So – my visit to Mr Speaker was to suggest that he set up an Advisory Board to help move this agenda forward. It is crucial that it is non-partisan (this is about bringing parliament to life), and includes external experts as well as officers and possibly MPs.

There are a number of simple, significant steps a Speaker can take but the Speaker is very busy and to actually get stuff to happen needs support to make it happen.

Which is why I have suggested to him this Advisory Board. Mr Speaker seemed relatively enthusiastic – and is going to think how to best progress this. I didn’t go into any suggestions or details of things that I think should or could happen – that is for the group.

I think what Mr Speaker will want to do is to sound out the other Parties and officers etc – and then he suggested that we all get together for a brainstorm to see where this could go and how it could happen.

So – I was really pleased that he was open to the idea – and we will see what happens next.

Safety concerns highlighted at local Haringey school

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A local Liberal Democrat councillor has asked that Haringey Council investigates safety concerns outside a local school, after reports of congestion and hazardous parking in the area.

Councillor Lyn Weber visited Coleridge School last Friday (9th October 2009) to see problems with cars parking on yellow lines and on the corners of junctions with the busy Crouch End Hill.

The school, in Crouch End, expanded from 2 form entry to 4 form entry last year, meaning that the volume of traffic ‘dropping off’ pupils has increased dramatically.

Lyn Weber (Crouch End) comments:

“It is clear from many reports and my visit last week, that traffic in this area, as children arrive and leave school, is becoming potentially dangerous.

“The school is working hard on their green travel plan, with wide support. We now need the Council and parents to support the school, to ensure that children are safe when they go to school. The amount of cars and the lack of ‘dropping off’ space can put pedestrians in danger as congestion builds up.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“This is a popular school and since it expanded the amount of traffic in the area has become a problem. We now need a solution.”

Expenses all clear for Lynne Featherstone

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Lynne Featherstone has today received a further clean bill of health in the review of all MPs’ expenses. Sir Thomas Legg, the former civil servant charged with reviewing claims made since 2004, confirmed no action or any further investigation was required in the Hornsey & Wood Green MP’s case.

As the expense scandal erupted, Ms. Featherstone was named a ‘saint’ by the Telegraph at the time for refusing to claim for a second home, even though she was eligible under the discredited rules.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone says:

“This is good news, but I didn’t need a Telegraph scandal to tell me it would have been wrong to claim for a second home when I live locally and it only takes 40 minutes to get to Parliament.

“The Legg review is a good thing. MPs are not above the law and, where they have made improper claims, they should be made to repay them. In this way, hopefully, we can slowly start restoring people’s trust in Parliament.”