Oh dear. It really isn’t new Gordon at all is it? Off jets the PM to Iraq (handily clashing with Conservative conference, trying to steal some of the media coverage from them) and announces 1,000 troops are to come home – but 500 of them were coming home already. And – what happened to GB’s promise to make announcements first to Parliament?
Double-counting numbers and putting spin first. It’s the same old Gordon!
Well – my favourite bookish duo ride again! This time the two heroes (Tim West and Simon Key) working to get Wood Green a bookshop to replace Waterstone’s are marking National Children’s‘ Book Week by negotiating an article to go in the local papers about various peoples’ favourite book when they were a child.
I am desperately trying to send off my missive to them. Alongside this the paper will print a competition entry form to name the new bookshop.
This is one of those issues where you have to believe that right will triumph and that these guys will find the funding for their new bookshop. So I will send them my favourite children’s‘ book today!
Liberal Democrats have demanded that Haringey Council acts decisively and prioritises the interests of children when deciding any changes to the future arrangements for Haringey’s Children’s Centres. They have set out a five point plan to show Haringey Council the way forward and will be writing to all Children’s Centre heads to show their support:
1.Pressure the Government to guarantee long-term future funding.
2.Safeguard provision for disadvantaged children and those who have special educational needs.
3.Pledge that none of the wide-ranging existing services provided by these centres are cut.
4.Consult fully and transparently with parents and staff over the options and ensure decisions reflect this.
5.Provide assurances for staff that their jobs are secure.
Cllr Gail Engert, Lib Dem Children and Young People spokesperson, comments:
“Haringey Council needs to do all it can to make sure parents and staff are fully included in all discussions and decisions over the future of these excellent centres. Children attending deserve the best service possible and I’m yet to be convinced that tendering these out is the best option.”
Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:
“I am extremely concerned about our local Children’s Centres’ future and who runs them.Yet again, Haringey Council have launched their proposals in their usual bull in a china shop fashion with scant regard for what parents really want.Yet again, it is the Lib Dems that have to lead the way on how to properly engage local residents in important decision that affect their future.”
Evening sees Crouch End, Hornsey and Stroud Green Assembly. First big issue was the new Hornsey Depot development – where we are all worried that the development will steamroller ahead without taking heed of what local people want, albeit that there will be a process of consultation (a development forum prior to planning). Many concerns around school places, health facilities, more traffic and so on!
Then we had a presentation from the local Health Trust on Hornsey Hospital. I remain of the view that this hasn’t been thought through. We must not lose our local GP practises and the services must be what are needed not just what the Trust wants to give us. We need actual detail – none of which is really definitive to date. We want a replacement health facility for Hornsey Hospital – that means additional services to those we have now – and more doctors – not just nicking our existing ones from their local bases and centralising them on the Hornsey site.
Lastly – Parkland Walk. The results of the consultation held at Hornsey Town Hall showed (and we could have told them) that people wanted it first and foremost as a Nature Reserve, then for pedestrians then cyclists; that the drainage was the key priority for improvements, followed by repairs and better access to the walk and so on. Thank goodness local people rallied to the cause – and hopefully Haringey Council will now meet the consultation results with appropriate action.
As well as being my blog’s birthday today, it is also three months on since my previous three month round up of the most popular postings on my blog.
So here once again is a list of the postings that proved the most popular with you, the reader, in the last three months:
10. Flooding in Muswell Hill: title says it all really.
9. Haringey Conservative turns UKIP: William McDougall switches parties.
8. More on Wood Green’s Waterstone’s: the sad loss of a local bookshop. Not quite sure why this posting did better than my previous / longer one, but there you go!
7. More on Brian Paddick and the London Mayor: see number three below.
6. Birthplace of TV at Alexandra Palace to be lost? An old posting this – but certainly a big local issue. That the new owner is also involved in football may help explain its interest.
5. PMQs: What do you think? Prime Minister’s Questions – good for democracy or embarrassing weekly display of rowdy behaviour by MPs?
4. Tim Garden: August was marred by Tim’s tragically early death.
3. Don’t vote for me: no, I wasn’t planning to run for London Mayor in 2008. But thanks for the online votes!
2. Should YouTube be closed: a posting about the decision by one teaching union to call for the closure of YouTube – because of its role in some bullying episodes. My view? “No” – wholesale closure would be an ineffective over-reaction. But click through to read more…
1. Fortismere School update: perhaps no great surprise that news of the future of a local school should have attracted the most traffic – and in fact this very posting topped the list in the previous three month period too. I hope my postings helped shed a little more light on what was happening during what has been a controversial episode.
What to make of the whole list? Well – it is good to see a mix of local, Liberal Democrat and national stories – which must mean there’s a good mix of readers out there! It also looks like postings often pick up quite a lot of readership some time after they were first written (and hence the poor showing of the most recent blog postings in the list) – something to remember when I write them!
Anyway – thanks for reading – and we’ll see what the next three months brings.
Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear Lynne’s blog! Happy birthday to me!
Four years old today! (And still the proud owner of the dullest ever first post probably!)
I blogged before about Conservative GLA member Brian Coleman’s foolish and insulting comments about Haringey.
Although Brian gamely tried to defend his words in a comment on my earlier blog piece, the real sign of what happened is that even Boris Johnson – not exactly a stranger to the blundering insult of an area himself! – thinks our Brian went too far, as one of our local papers reports:
Boris Johnson MP (Conservative), who was campaigning in Wood Green last week as part of his bid to become the Mayor of London, distanced himself from Mr Coleman’s comments.
He said: “Like everywhere it has its problems. There are lots of lovely bits and lots of lovely people here. I think generalisations are not particularly helpful.”
Figures unearthed by the Liberal Democrats reveals shocking figures that highlight unacceptable levels of poor housing for residents in Haringey and the failure of Haringey Council to address the situation. Statistics in Haringey Council’s own Housing Needs Assessment shows that the accommodation for one in five of all households in Haringey is considered unsuitable and one in three homes with children is unacceptable.
The figures also reveal that 10,606 households’ ill health is caused by bad housing conditions. Lib Dems have expressed their concern for residents, who face overcrowded, unsuitable, unaffordable housing that is detrimental to their and their children’s health coupled with little prospect of respite due to Haringey Council’s inability to address housing shortfalls.
These appalling figures have been highlighted further by reports from a resident who has been waiting eight years to have repair carried out on her home. Haringey Council has been aware of the leaking roof in a Stroud Green housing block since 1999 but has failed to respond to complaints made. Meanwhile the resident’s home has been ravaged by damp that has caused health problems.
Cllr Catherine Harris, Lib Dem Housing Spokesperson, comments:
“I am horrified but not surprised to learn from this assessment that there are thousands of households like Ms Ebai’s where the health of the tenant is suffering because of the terrible condition of Haringey’s housing or because of severe overcrowding.
“With 5,688 households in temporary accommodation, an annual shortfall of 4,865 affordable homes per year and 8,311 households overcrowded, it is clear Haringey Labour’s handling of housing is a dismal sickening failure.”
Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:
“These figures expose the squalid Dickensian condition of much of Haringey’s run-down and overcrowded housing.The people of Haringey deserve better than they are getting, but after 10 years of this Labour Government’s inaction on the housing crisis, conditions in Haringey are only getting worse.
“The Council knows that over a third of its houses are unsuitable for habitation, however week after week, month after month, year after year; residents visit me to highlight their experience of the Council’s failure. The Council need to address this situation and provide the decent homes they have been promising for so long.”
What with party conference and now general election preparation – not to mention the normal day-to-day work for my constituents – I’ve not previously got to blogging about the Alisher Usmanov affair.
If you don’t know – he is an Uzbek billionaire (and then some) and owns a large chunk of Arsenal football club. Craig Murray – former British ambassador to Uzbekistan – made various allegations about him in his book. No libel writ. But he then repeated them on his website. Result?
Threatening legal letters to the firm hosting his website. Firm then decided to pull the computer on which his website was hosted – removing from the internet both Craig Murray’s site, but also a host of other sites from people who had never even mentioned Alisher Usmanov. Also caught in this was Tim Ireland (of Bloggerheads website, and who had also mentioned the allegations) – his site was pulled by the firm too.
I’ve not actually read Murray’s book or blog – so I don’t know whether the allegations are true or not – but that’s not the point. There are two free speech problems here.
First – I’m all for people who publish things online being held accountable for what they say – but people who publish online should also have reasonable protection. It is possible to get an injunction against a book, newspaper etc before going ahead with a full action for libel – but there are hurdles you have to meet and in the end you have to make your case in court and win if you want to stop the allegations being distributed. That’s not what has happened here as far as I can see – instead it was a case of threatening legal letters and – bing! – the site went.
Second – those innocent sites caught in the crossfire – including Tory MP and London Mayor wannabe Boris Johnson and Labour councillor Bob Piper. These and others do seem to be back online – but they shouldn’t have gone in the first place.
In many ways the internet – and blogging community – has shown its resilience through this, with widespread support online for the principle of free speech (and far more publicity about the allegations I suspect than if the lawyers had never sent those letters!) There’s an impressive list of blogging supporters at Tim Ireland’s new/temporary site.
Now – libel law isn’t my area of speciality, but clearly what’s happened here leads to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with our laws.
There’s much that is wrong with our libel laws overall (basically – too much power given to the rich who are willing to gamble on the libel lottery), but it may also be there are some smaller, more immediate changes that would be feasible to pursue in Parliament, even though I’m sceptical of the odds of getting a major libel law overhaul in the near future. Something to ponder – and I’m open to suggestions.
(Update: I’ve corrected the text above as more than one legal letter was sent – I originally wrote about “one” letter)
That’s the topic of my latest column for the local Muswell Hill and Highgate magazines.
As to what the vice is?
Well, you’ll have to read on…
Our secret vice
But 
it’s a wonderful vice – it’s growing things! Having attended a number of horticultural shows this summer, including the Highgate, Muswell Hill and Hornsey Horticultural Societies – I have been staggered not only by the produce and exhibits – but the commitment and participation by so very many local people to this raging passion.
Now a veteran of a number of local shows – I am wise to the fact that most of the First in Show honours are collected either by Gary Sycamore or Eric Gurman – who basically clean up on each occasion. However, as one woman who kept coming second to Eric said to me at the Muswell Hill show – that when she does get a First Prize and beats him – it really means something to beat such a master. And there are so many categories – that others do get their chance to shine.
A tremendous amount of effort goes into organising and arranging these shows – and they are all incredibly well attended and very much enjoyed by everyone. Personally, I love them. I cannot grow things myself – for two reasons: a) incapable and b) time poor! But one day, when I have time – it’s on my list – because it is such a joyous thing to do.
I am always amazed at how such beautiful flowers and vegetables come into being – despite last summer with no rain and this summer with nothing but rain. Over my two years of shows, I am learning about what makes a perfect vegetable or bloom and that the National Horticultural Society judging has very strict, high and testing criteria.
It is also clear that there is a wonderful community that grows up around allotments and horticultural societies. This year I ‘launched’ the new ‘shed’ for the ‘Golf Course’ allotments – the result of lots and lots of work in terms of bidding for a lottery grant. Now we have a splendid shed – and a community who all know each other, where the kids can play and where actual food is grown! This isn’t just about shows – this is a real opportunity to bring people together, make people feel part of a community – and to produce wonderful vegetables which save a lot of money.
I was given a basket of vegetables to take home from the Muswell Hill show – and the vegetables just tasted heavenly – completely different from the ones I buy. It makes you think! And it is not just the taste that appeals – it is knowing that there is a vibrant community behind the growing of the fruit and veg that appeals too – because so often, especially in our urban areas, community ties are so weak and hardly anyone knows anyone else.
Anyway, this is just one of the best of local community activities and individual pastimes that you can get. I ran into one of my Liberal Democrat colleagues at the Hornsey show, Cllr Errol Reid (Hornsey) who is now campaigning to expand horticultural horizons. Errol wants to get the National Horticultural Society to extend its judging categories to window flower boxes and stuff grown inside – so that not lucky enough to have access to an allotment or garden can join in the fun!
Lynne Featherstone 