The Westminster Hour

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It is so weird to go out at 9.30pm on a Sunday night to do a live panel discussion. That’s the time of the week when I am normally just relaxing before the onslaught of the week ahead, making sure everything is done and ready.

But last night (Sunday) was the first of the new era of The Westminster Hour with its new presenter Carolyn Quinn. One of the innovations is a live slot with a panel of MPs – myself, Kitty Usher (Labour) and Ed Vaizey (Tory). Some weeks will be the three of us together but more often it will be two of the three in any combination for a chat about what’s coming up in the week ahead, any particular issues of interest to us individually – and as Ed and I are consummate bloggers – what the blogs are saying.

So off I went to Millbank for a 10.15 start. Kitty had been all over the papers as one of those on the Government payroll who was campaigning against closure of health facilities locally while being one of those voting for the cuts on the government whip in the House of Commons. I thought she had a pretty good stab at defending herself.

To my mind, the big problem isn’t whether Labour MPs are being consistent or not, but that MPs from all parties are raising concerns – and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt isn’t listening. In Hornsey & Wood Green (as I said on air) the local council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee wrote, as did I, to Patricia – and the reply they got was from the equivalent of the Customer Service department in BT or the Royal Mail. Thank you for your letter – but… Being fobbed off with such a junior reply is hardly the Health Secretary listening.

What makes the fob off more galling is that Patricia Hewitt told Parliament that the correct procedure is indeed for council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committees to write to her and she will use her discretion to intervene and takes this most seriously. Not what happened in Haringey’s case!

Then we had a bash at the Home Office – well it’s an open door on a day when the Government is on the run from yet more scandalous incompetence. If the Government stopped trying to make a new law every day (3,000 new offences since 1997), then their staff might have a chance to get on top of their jobs. But the Government just loves headlines that say: we are going to be active – we are doing things. Just as when John Reid said he would work f***ing 18 hours a day to get it sorted – it makes for good headlines, but the results are rather different!

CPZ – BOUNDS GREEN STREET LEFT OUT IN THE COLD, SAY LIB DEMS

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A street which wants to be inside Haringey’s Bounds Green CPZ scheme has been completely ignored by Haringey Council officials, claim two of its residents. They say Haringey dismissed the results of a comprehensive street petition they carried out, and told them to shut up.

“Haringey Council has simply refused to listen. They told us to prove we wanted the CPZ by getting a clear majority in a petition. We did. But yet they’ve still left us out and despite countless calls won’t tell us why.

“At the same time Herbert Road and Queens Road, which are right next to us, and whose residents didn’t want the scheme, are included.

“Haringey seems to be completely confused about who wants what and only hear what they want to hear. Their attitude stinks. This could really affect our lives but none of the people we’ve spoken to seem to give a damn. One actually told us not to kick up a fuss,” says Mrs Emma Croxall of Richmond Road, Bounds Green.

“After Haringey’s first survey, most of us were horrified when we found out our road wasn’t going to be included in the CPZ despite ALL the surrounding roads having it – we’ll be swamped with cars and we’ll be in the unbelievable situation of having to drive through a CPZ to get to our own road!

“We spoke to Haringey and they told us to petition the street. So I and my sister organised a survey of our own, which showed an overwhelming majority in favour of having a CPZ. Haringey have clearly chosen to ignore the results of our petition in their report.

“Cllr Haley clearly said the Council was not going to impose things against our will,” said Mrs Croxall this week. “But it has done. Why isn’t the council listening?”

The story emerges as Bounds Green residents get their third mail out in the consultation process. Liberal Democrats, who have consistently challenged the accuracy of the Council’s consultation procedures, say the sisters’ story is further proof of Haringey’s bad faith throughout the exercise.

Says Bounds Green Liberal Democrat councillor and spokesman on Community Involvement, John Oakes: “This bizarre story underlines Lib Dem fears that this sort of dishonest approach underlies Haringey’s whole CPZ strategy.

“The Council’s first survey found that 32% of residents didn’t want the CPZ. But the sisters’ survey found the 67% who do want it. The Council should have listened.

“Haringey just doesn’t want to get it right. Only two hundred yards from Richmond Road is the Springfield parade of shops, in Bounds Green Road. This has been placed on the outside edge of a CPZ scheme, which threatens to put them all out of business because of the parking charges key staff will have to pay every day. They have repeatedly protested against this to Haringey, but Cllr Haley has ignored their letters and emails. His officers have insulted them in public meetings.

“And a resident survey of adjacent Park Road shows it too is heavily against a CPZ scheme. But again, it has been included.

“This sort of behaviour shows Haringey’s true attitude: it is straight out of the Kremlin.”

Kiva: what do you think?

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Since being promoted to the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet, I’ve had quite a lot of suggestions for issues around international development I should be campaigning or working one.

One was about championing a particular outfit working to aid encourage by investment in small businesses in the development field. I’ve been looking into its work, but thought – why not also ask more widely for what people think of its work? So – have a look at www.kiva.org and let me know what you think,

A different way of learning in Stroud Green

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Lynne Featherstone MP and Cllr Ed Butcher at Stroud Green Primary and Infant SchoolVisited Stroud Green Primary and Infant School today to see the product of their work with Creative Partnerships (CP). CP are part of a government program to go into schools in areas of deprivation and work with the school, an artist and the children on projects that will develop the children through arts and drama. This type of learning is indeed vital and is one of the areas that seems somehow to have been squeezed out of the normal curriculum – although in the end that’s where it really needs to be.

But with budgets squeezed and targets set – even for the youngest now – there is little resource in-house to even begin this sort of intensive specialist work. Which is where Creative Partnerships come in.

So basically – with the littlest children – Creative Partnerships find the school, the right teacher and the right Head (as you need the school to take this on with open arms if it is to work – and here they have) and an artist. We had Harriet – who seemed absolutely delightful and committed to the project and to the children. As CP pointed out to me, the last thing you need is a ‘resting’ actor who is only filling in; you need someone who really believes that through vision and drama children can learn through different pathways.

And therein lies the point – this form of learning isn’t academic but rather it helps develop the other talents children have. Sometimes a child who finds in normal class that they are last or worst or slow or whatever finds that here they can shine in a completely different way. And I personally am a strong supporter of bringing out the best in each child. And that certainly isn’t a one size fits all: life’s more complicated than that.

This is not about ‘putting on a play’ with the talented actor child always getting the main part. This is about thinking – writing and creating a story – and then having the teacher perform it at the childrens’ behest.

In Stroud Green’s case it was ‘Tom the Diver’s Last Dive’, about all the things he encountered in his last dive. It was quite clear that the children were completely engaged in thinking and speaking about all that was going on. There were no children who hung at the back not participating and there was genuine learning and enjoyment – so congrats to all.

However, when the funding runs out – the real challenge is to be able to maintain this type of teaching and learning within the normal school curriculum.

Terrorist and Muslim do not equate

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I write a weblog. For the uninitiated – this is an online diary. A comment that was posted by a young man who lives locally encapsulated – albeit accidentally – the confusion and conflation between ‘terrorist’ and ‘Muslim’.

The comment was in response to my last Asian Voice column which had been basically about the Labour government throwing away millions on the Identity Card scheme because it wastes those millions on tracking innocent people rather than spending the money on catching the guilty.

In the article I say: “One of the things terrorists want is to get rid of liberal society. It’s their enemy. So stripping away our freedoms is not fighting them – it is doing what they want”.

My commentator then berates me and says that ‘terrorists despise us not for our freedom, but that most suggest their hatred emerges from our occupation and participation in the Middle East.’ He goes on then to argue that the main reason for anger within the Muslim community is as outlined by Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

“As Muslims it is our religious duty to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are suffering in Palestine, Kashmir and every part of the world; we must also show solidarity with the oppressed in any part of the world regardless of their religious or racial or ethnic affiliations. Therefore, our disappointment and anger will remain until we resolve the most pressing conflicts in the world”.

He misses the point. Of course our (Labour’s) foreign policy is causal. Liberal Democrats make this point at every opportunity. But the response in terms of the use of terrorism in this country is totally unacceptable albeit thus caused – and any loss of our civil liberties is a victory for the terrorist.

But the real issue here is that my commentator has conflated – even juxtaposed – ‘terrorist’ for ‘Muslim’. I wrote about terrorists and my respondent was talking about Muslims. That to me is a dangerous conflation. Or is my correspondent really saying that the anger in the Muslim community is so great that terrorism and acts of murder in this country is justified? Let me know what you think.

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2007

LIB DEMS SECURE ASSURANCES FOR HEALTH PROVISION ON FORTIS GREEN AND MUSWELL HILL

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Local Liberal Democrat councillors have fought hard to secure written assurances from Haringey’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) that health services would not be moved out of the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green area without a full public consultation.

The promise came at Wednesday night’s Overview & Scrutiny meeting to discuss public concern over the proposed sale of the Fortis Green clinic. Proposals to move services from the clinic are expected to be approved at the PCT board meeting on January 24th. Pressure from the Liberal Democrats has now ensured that local alternatives have now been found for all the clinic’s services – on Pages Lane and Colney Hatch Lane, both also in Fortis Green ward.

Cllr Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) comments:

“We are pleased that the PCT eventually listened to local campaigners and decided to relocate the clinic services in nearby local premises.

“The long-term plan was to relocate these services to the new Hornsey Hospital when it is up-and-running but we have now got the PCT to agree to carry out a full public consultation before they move these services out of the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green area.”

Cllr Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) comments:

“It is highly regrettable that the PCT did not consult more widely and for a longer time on this issue. But at least local alternatives have been found.

“We now have assurances that local health services will definitely not be moved from Fortis Green and Muswell Hill without a proper consultation and will not automatically transfer to Hornsey.”

PMQs

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Prime Minister Questions were not very inspiring today – tired old Prime Minister. Where’s his sparkle gone? Mind you Cameron lost the plot. He went on the mess in the Home Office – but failed to hit home trying too hard to turn it around to the Conservative policy (one of the rarest commodities in politics) which is to have a Minster of Homeland Security. So he tried to turn a complete balls up by John Reid and the Home Office into a reason for a terrorism minister. Didn’t fly at all.

Ming went on Iraq and pushed Blair to see whether – given that Bush is going to announce 22,000 more troops tonight – Blair is going to send any more British troops. He didn’t answer as usual. So good question – but no answer!

Briefed by Oxfam

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Yesterday was my first Shadow Cabinet meeting, but the main event of the day was going to Oxford for a three hour briefing at Oxfam Headquarters. They are really huge these days and I guess that is reflected in the extension of what they do from where they started when first founded to a now much wider brief.

So – I was briefed on situations in Sudan, Middle East, Asia and the rest; on arms treaties and trade; on climate change and development and so on and so on. It was tremendously interesting and useful – as the NGOs are numerous in this field and are on the front line.

That having been said, I have some clear ideas of where I want to go with the portfolio and am setting up a strategy group to map out the next year.