Is one of my constituents a terrorist?

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My latest surgery brought the debates over what legal measures are acceptable in the fight against terrorism right to my doorstep. For one of the people who came to see me was Mouloud Sihali. He was tried – and acquitted – in relation to the Wood Green ricin plot of 2003, but it is clear that the authorities still very much suspect him.

A bit of background first, as I’ve always been a bit uneasy about some events around the ricin plot. First, news of the incident was not promptly reported to key leaders in Haringey’s local emergency planning due to – a senior source told me – “news management by Number 10”. I can understand keeping information from the public for a short time to avoid undue panic etc, but to have Number 10 directly intervene to stop local emergency planning officials know smacks of something wrong – particularly as this was potentially an evacuation scenario.

Second, when news did become public it was all about a ricin plot being thwarted and the story basically was “ricin found, terrorists stopped, all now ok” – except that it then turned out there was no ricin. (And if the absence of ricin was the reason for not telling emergency planning officials initially, then how come its absence didn’t make it to the media? Was someone wanting the threat to sound worse to the public than it really was?).

Third, the Government has tried to use the ricin plot as justification for extending the period people can be detained without trial. It is true that one of the people skipped to Algeria – but he was actually released after only two days, so even under current laws, the police could have kept him in detention for much longer if they’d wanted to. And anyway he could have been charged with acts preparatory to terrorism. If this was a major terrorist whose existence would justify allowing people to be detained without trial for 90 days – why did the police let him go after just two?

All of which adds up to good grounds for being sceptical of how the ricin case has been handled, but that doesn’t mean everyone accused is all sweetness and light. Indeed, Mouloud Sihali himself was convicted of a passport offence. However, as quite a few people were caught up in it all, it doesn’t follow from the final conviction of Kamel Bourgass that everyone else charged at some point was necessarily involved in the plot.

Mr Sihali had come to see me (and was happy for me to talk publicly about his visit) because he is under a virtual control order. Without actually being under a control order – and despite being cleared of the ricin plot and freed (completely free) for five months – he is now tagged, under curfew, not allowed to have a mobile phone or use the internet, or to have visitors to his room, and he has to report each day to the police. Free for five months – again there’s this nagging doubt that enters my mind about quite what the authorities are really up to. If they are convinced he is a terrorist – well why was he let wander round completely free for five months? Is it that they’ve changed their minds back and forth as to whether he really is a terrorist – and if they’ve been changing their minds, how good then is the evidence?

He’s now facing deportation as a threat to the security of our country, but the evidence will be judged in secret and the evidence will never be seen by either the normal court system nor Mr Sihali.

And so this is the problem. As he’s been convicted of a passport offence and was in this country illegally, I don’t have a problem with deportation action being taken against him and being judged in an open, public process. But he’s facing deportation on the grounds of being a threat to national security – i.e. if deported this way he’ll have the stigma of being thought a terrorist hanging over him for the rest of his life. That is an awful burden to carry … unless he really is a terrorist. Yet he doesn’t get the chance to argue his own innocence – and his argument is that he should be given a chance to clear his name against the secret evidence. (You can read some of his case in his statement on this website).

So here sitting in front of me I had the whole problem in a nutshell around the issue and the legality of control orders and secret evidence, the terrorist threat and civil liberties. Getting it wrong either way brings huge consequences – letting a terrorist go free or tarring an innocent man for life.

He is one of my constituents – should I be fighting to help an innocent man, or would I be aiding a terrorist? I have no idea, without knowing what the secret evidence is. My only route is to try and get a meeting with Home Secretary John Reid to find out more about what evidence does exist, seek advice and find out what routes are actually open to Mr Sihali to pursue.

But whereas I trust our judicial system to be fair and just – my confidence in this Government’s dealings with truth and trust has been fundamentally eroded – especially when you add in the issues about how they have already behaved over the ricin plot to their abuse of the public trust with the exaggeration and manipulation of evidence over WMDs in Iraq.

And even if all the evidence stacks up, and the man is a terrorist – is deporting him really the answer? Does shuffling a terrorist to another country really help when the accusation is that he’s part of an international terrorist organisation and there is an international war on terror?

Underneath all the veneer of Labour’s tough talk on terrorism, here I am left facing a case where there’s a risk an innocent man in unjustly tarred as a terrorist without a chance to clear his name, but if he’s really a terrorist – then simply deporting him ain’t much of a punishment or deterrence either.

Remembrance Sunday

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Red poppies photoToday is Remembrance Sunday and the official ceremony at which the Haringey dignitaries and leaders lay memorial wreaths. The ceremony is very well done with the scouts and the venture scouts raising standards or laying wreaths for those too frail to do so themselves. The sun shone brightly down, the traffic was stopped and those who died that we might live were honoured and remembered.

Memorial service at Hornsey Central Hospital

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A very, very special memorial service at the war memorial chapel at Hornsey Central Hospital (which will be preserved whatever happens on that site)! I think this is the first time the memorial has been opened for years for the memorial ceremony and, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – with so many of the names of those who fell there – it was truly moving.

I talked to one of the veterans who had served in the Navy. It was just extraordinary to think of what this one man saw and witnessed. I won’t reveal what he said about sailor’s reputations in regard to each port of call – still cheeky at 80-odd! But alongside the humour, he also told me that he and one other colleague were the only survivors out of eight men attacked in a gun turret. It is impossible to understand what that generation saw and survived. And every time I write the message to go on the wreath I lay – and I thank those who died that we might live – I am moved to tears.

Afterwards I was chatting to lots of the people who had come – and the last chap to nab me was very agitated. Basically he wanted to express his anger – as a serving member of the RAF – as regards how he didn’t think it was fair for lads to fight for their country but when they were in need of state support (housing) they couldn’t get anywhere because immigrants got all the houses. And did I think he was racist, and political correctness was ignoring blokes like him, and he would have to vote for the BNP – there was no alternative.

Now whilst I said to him that I didn’t think we were likely to see eye to eye – I don’t think it is racist to bring this sort of grievance to light. The BNP made huge inroads in the east of London because Labour ignored the ‘already heres’. I don’t think it is just white working class – which was his argument. I think it is a real battle between the entitlement people who have worked and paid into the system for years feel they should have against the needs of the newly arrived.

I wrote about this clash of the already heres versus newcomers. I wrote extensively on in my chapter in Britain after Blair because I think there is a real and unaddressed issue here. And that issue, above and beyond this hopeless unfit for purpose Home Office, is about the allocation of a limited pot of public resource.

So – this young man was very, very angry with a country that he fights for but which he believes no longer cares or listens to people like him. I didn’t agree with his more prejudiced remarks – but I do agree that these are the issues we need to resolve if we are to avoid the BNP finding any favour for its hideous bile. Breeding grounds for discontent – particularly when they have some validity – are easily swung to extreme views.

Anyway – at that point I had to go on somewhere else and so made my excuses, though as I left the young chap then said I was quite good looking for an MP – and would I like to go out for a drink! For me though it was off to the Lib Dem Council Group’s Away Day (they didn’t get very far as the venue is next door my constituency office in High Street Hornsey). I took a break out session on crime and policing and then giving a general talk on how to take the issues that matter to their ward constituents and turn them into action.

Open Door and Highgate Wood School

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I met with Open Door yesterday – which literally opens its doors to young people in trouble. It is a charity and has to scrabble for funding grants and pots and donations – but delivers the most incredible service to young people who need talking therapies to hold them safe as life’s challenges destabilise them on their passage to adulthood.

This is a centre of excellence in terms of the quality of the staff and a truly professional organisation in an area where there is a need for real professionalism. With so many quasi-professionals offering a variety of counselling in a variety of circumstances with very little oversight or supervision, there has to be a concern about standards, training and outcome.

So when you have an excellent local organisation working in a key area, you would have thought that Haringey Council would welcome Open Door with open arms. And yet, my understanding is that they won’t even agree to meet with them to see how Open Door can be involved and engaged in this area.

Lord knows, I get so much traffic on issues around young people and behaviour – I can only assume that the Council is so big that it doesn’t truly understand how to involve and engage organisations like Open Door. I will write to Sharon Shoesmith – Director of Childrens’ Services – to try and orchestrate a meeting between the Council and Open Door. I have no doubt that this could be a very beneficial engagement – particularly if they can be involved with schools and the well-being of young people. Early intervention in terms of support for those who without such support may go on to a lifetime of troubles seems like a good idea to me!

Then it was straight on to meet the new Headmaster of Highgate Wood School. Patrick Cozier seems a very good thing to me and in the end, it is the enthusiasm and vision of the Head that plays such a large role in inspiring the staff and the pupils and the school. He seemed very clued up as to relations with the local community. Take the recent hoo-haa over flood-lighting for example – where the local papers describe it as a sort of war. In reality he and staff are meeting and working with local residents and local residents’ associations. Schools always bring hazards for those living close by – but a Head who understands and wants to work with the community is half the battle. And the other half is his ambition to inspire the school to improving results in line with other schools in the borough. So – I hope to help wherever I can and look forward to working with Mr Cozier, the staff and the pupils.

And finally – I had an American shadow me the other day and she blogged me! You can read about here experience at http://myfairladybug.livejournal.com/51887.html.

Alexandra Palace update

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On The future of the birthplace of regular TV at Alexandra Palace is under threatThursday it was the meeting with Cllr Charles Adje (Haringey Labour councillor and Chair of Alexandra Palace Board) and Mr Firoz Kassam (of Firoka Group – who are purchasing a 125 year lease on Ally Pally). Cllr Wayne Hoban (ex Ally Pally board, Lib Dem Deputy Leader of the Opposition and ward councillor for the Palace) came with me.

The meeting was not exactly a resounding success in terms of agreeing any changes ahead of the signing of the contracts on Tuesday to protect the historic TV studios. Being so close on the deadline for signing the contracts it was clear that the long delays over signing since last May had exasperated those involved in the process and so there was reluctance to make any more changes at the last moment.

In my view – in that case it should have been dealt with earlier and anyway it is important to get everything right if you are signing something over for 125 years! As to why it hadn’t been dealt with earlier – well, when the issue was originally raised and proposed by the two Liberal Democrat members on the Ally Pally board and minuted – it was voted down. So this was a last (and unsuccessful) pre-contract signing attempt to change things.

However, Mr Kassam recognises the importance of the history of the birthplace of television. The contract provides for a museum of television history and until the deal is signed and sealed this remains the state of play. As a businessman there is also no doubt that he recognises that the historic site is a unique selling point and that he will want to maximise that advantage.

Mr Kassam seemed open to discussions on the museum post-contract signing. One point made during the public kafuffle over the last couple of weeks was the issue around the BBC expecting the Firoka Group to put up the funds to preserve the artefacts and create the television museum and the BBC not being able to put money in itself. I am hopeful that given Mr Kassam’s willingness to look at these issues with interested parties that the BBC and Mr Kassam will be able to talk the issues over.

So, we’re back to where we were a few days ago before this meeting was arranged – that is, the Charity Commission consultation that will run for one month – and remains tremendously important in terms of any issues anyone wishes to raise. Therefore, I would encourage everyone to put in their views during the consultation period by emailing the Charity Commission at enquiries@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk

As always the emails that work best with this sort of lobbying are short, temperate but clear messages that include your full name and postal address. It would be handy if you could also copy your email to me at lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org

Extradition with the US

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Catching up on this week – on Wednesday Parliament was prorogued. A strange name for the ending of business – in this case ahead of the Queen’s Speech next Wednesday. So we rushed through finishing off business from the last “Parliamentary year” so the decks are clear ahead of the Queen’s Speech kicking off the new one next week.

So – the Commons (MPs) had to deal with all sorts of odds and sodds of Bills, deciding what to do with changes voted through in the Lords to them. The Commons either has to agree or reject them. Amongst all the completing / finishing off were a few of the unresolved clashes where Labour had lost to the other parties in the Lords but hadn’t been willing to back down in the Commons. In the end either the Lords has to back down or the Commons has to make a concession (or in extreme cases the Commons over-rules the Lords with the Parliament Act).

The most notable being the row of our unequal and unfair of British citizens under the extradition arrangements with the USA. On that the Tory Lords caved in ultimately (and got heavily criticised in the media for their backdown).

I don’t subscribe to caving in on issues that are of such importance as equal treatment of British citizens by foreign Governments. No doubt, we will have to bring the row over extradition back at the next legislative opportunity. Perhaps Labour will roll it up with other treaties on extradition and look to set renegotiating principles. The Government never likes to be seen to be acting on Opposition positions – preferring to bring things back under their own banner. That’s fine – so long as they do.

PLANNING INSPECTOR THROWS OUT BACKLANDS HOUSING APPEALS

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The Government’s Planning Inspector has dismissed a raft of appeals from Paul Simon Developments against Haringey Council’s decision to refuse them planning permission to build luxury housing on a backlands site in Crouch End.

A long campaign has been fought by residents who opposed the controversial developments, and Lib Dem councillors fought hard to overturn procedural mistakes made at a crucial Planning Application Sub Committee meeting order to ensure a fair hearing.

The appeals were dismissed due to the Inspector’s ruling that the development of luxury houses in the area would be excessively intrusive, and would be detrimental to the character of the backlands site, designated a Conservation Area.

Lib Dem councillors fought hard in September to have ruled null and void a meeting in which the decision was taken to grant planning permission to the developers, after the Labour chair of the Planning Applications Sub-Committee was deemed to have made a serious procedural error.

Lib Dem Planning Spokesperson Jonathan Bloch comments:

“I am delighted to see that, at last, a fair and transparent decision has been taken on the backlands development site. Labour’s shenanigans in what should be a politically neutral planning committee threatened to undermine the planning process, and we hope that residents will in the future be able to make their representations in an open and receptive forum.”

Councillor Dave Winskill, Crouch End ward councillor, adds:

“Residents really deserve this result. With local Councillors they have fought tooth and nail against this series of totally inappropriate applications. I hope that the developers get the message in the Inspector’s ruling: that this is the wrong place for housing.”

Councillor Wayne Hoban, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, adds:

“Such procedural mistakes are unacceptable.Local residents are entitled to expect that the Council’s planning process, particularly in relation to sensitive and controversial applications such as this, will be fair, transparent and accountable.”

LIB DEMS CALL FOR HALT IN FORTIS GREEN CLINIC SALE

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Haringey Lib Dems have expressed surprise and anger that Haringey Primary Care Trust has suddenly put the Fortis Green Health Clinic up for sale. Local councillors had previously been assured by the Trust that it would not be sold until after the Hornsey Hospital site was redeveloped. Local GPs had expressed an interest in moving in to the Clinic, allowing it to be kept for health use.

Health Spokesperson Cllr Richard Wilson comments:

“The local Health Trust are counting their chickens before they are hatched. They should not be selling off any health related land or facilities in Muswell Hill until they are certain the Hornsey Hospital redevelopment is going ahead.Many attempts to replace the Hospital have already fallen through, and the risk for residents is we could end up with neither a hospital nor a clinic.

“We are told the NHS is improving, but all we see locally are more cuts and closures.The Trust must halt this sale straight away.”

Fortis Green ward councillor Martin Newton adds:

“We were told that the Fortis Green Clinic was safe until a better facility was provided. I am angry that the Trust has suddenly changed its mind and is now rushing to make to sell the site.

“Local GPs were keen to move into the clinic when it became free, but it seems the Trust has closed the door to this option and want to sell of the land to developers. I urge the PCT to halt the Clinic sale and start exploring the options of turning it into a GP surgery.”

First Muslim in Congress

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One particular result in the US elections has caught my eye – the election of Keith Ellison in Minnesota – as he’ll be the first Muslim member of the Congress. From what I’ve seen of his views (such as two state solution to the Middle East and an endorsement from American Jewish World) this will be very good news – both because of the extra prominence it will give to non-Muslims that Muslim doesn’t equal extremist or terrorist and also because the more prominent moderate Muslims there are in leadership positions, the better for the Muslim community itself too.