STATEMENT FROM HORNSEY COUNCILLORS ON SCOOTER ACCIDENT

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Hornsey Liberal Democrat Councillors (Robert Gorrie, Errol Reid and Monica Whyte) met this morning with Council Neighbourhood Management and the police’s local Safer Neighbourhood representatives to discuss Friday night’s tragic scooter accident and fatality on Newlands Road.

After this terrible tragedy, all have agreed that in the short term, Haringey Council will provide a youth worker with counselling skills to work with the local young people on finding positive ways to respond to the tragic death of their friend.

The Council’s Neighbourhood Management team is currently investigating a location for this to take place. In addition, counselling for pupils and young people will be available in the local secondary schools and the Commercial Road Support Centre.

Councillor Robert Gorrie said:

“This tragedy highlights a number of long term challenges faced by the area, and we need this opportunity for local residents, parents and young people to get together and discuss these challenges.

“We need to make young people aware of how dangerous their scooter riding can be. We also need to persuade the Council to put in place increased resources to support the young people of Hornsey; provide facilities for them to use and things for them to do, or a similar tragedy may happen again.”

Architecture awards

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I don’t suppose we will get over this date, 9/11, for may years to come. Important to remember. Am concerned by conspiracy theory gaining any credence that USA did it themselves. Often get the feeling these days that we are psychologically disposed to believe the worst of ourselves and our allies and the best of the terrorists. Those views have been encouraged by the way our trust was abused over WMD.

At the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architecture) London awards – of which I heartily approve. Design barely gets a look in generally and yet it is the answer to many of our problems. An example: minimum room standards. They are far too small. Result – teenagers can’t take friends home; they hang out incessantly; I get queue of people at surgery telling me how dreadful the youth of today is. And I am forever banging on about the importance of the built environment to our lives. It can raise aspirations or blight them.

The awards went to twenty-two buildings in London – which is quite a lot of good buildings in a year. We should be so proud of our good architects and their continual striving to create wondrous spaces and shapes and dwellings and workplaces. They fight the good fight. I just wish developers, councils and politicians would make their lives a bit easier – then we might really have more decent buildings – and not just in central London.

I tried to tell Ken, when I was on the Greater London Authority, to send his architectural adviser – ye Richard Rogers – to Haringey for one of our big projects. But Ken wasn’t really interested in the quality of development in Haringey, and the developers – well they cut every corner in the book.

Haringey Peace Week

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Watched Gordon Brown being interviewed by Andrew Marr and trying to be nice and cuddly. Problem is, as William Hague put it, no one can possibly believe he has had nothing to do with the events of this last week. Most damning was his too long silence. But I guess when you have kept silent for a decade and let TB take all the knocks – you don’t really know how to step to the front. It was evident that he is so used to saying almost nothing when a controversial issue hits (remember his long silences over Iraq? tube privatisation? etc etc). So he reverted to tired phrases. But you can’t have tired phrases if you want to lead a Labour renewal.

Spent the later part of this afternoon at a church service to mark the start of Peace Week. Haringey is the cradle of Peace Week, courtesy of the charismatic Reverend, Nims Obunge. Now a London-wide movement, it is going from strength to strength. Much singing and praising – and I, David Lammy (MP for Tottenham), George Meehan (Leader Haringey Council) and others all addressed the congregation.

Part of the praying and the blessing was to bring strength and wisdom to the leaders of the community (including us the speakers). It is very nice to be prayed for. I am not religious – but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel the spiritual side of life in a way.

It was also very moving to hear prayers for community safety, for entrepreneurs to move into the area, for health and so on. It was very practical prayer. Peace and justice was the overall theme – and of course the point is you cannot have peace without justice.

Street party with a twist

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Greenham Road street party
Sometimes you just see such a good idea you think why doesn’t everyone do it. I have been to summer street parties – many times. And they are always enjoyable, great for community spirit and sometimes for charity too. But today I went to Greenham Road to open their street party with a difference.

Sarah Prince had an idea. Then she got her chums (all women) out for a drink – and then they thought it was a good idea. Then she got WaterAid involved and everyone in the street and bob was your uncle (after a lot of hard work).

Basically the children all get to make chalk pictures on the pavements outside their houses – and with the food and the games and the events the street hopes to raise £5,000 and Sarah got WaterAid to promise to match the funds the street raised. The money will go to a project which will bring a well to a village in Uganda where the children or the mothers walk for hours and hours to fetch water – and water which more often than not is likely to make them ill. This project will make an enormous difference – an unbelievable difference to them.

Having selfishly been gazing at my brown lawn in the July heat wave during the hosepipe ban, how unimportant that seems set against what is needed elsewhere in the world. Couldn’t help thinking that linking street parties with a worthy project is a good way to go. And what was really great is that the children were really involved – could chalk to their hearts content – and the rain will clear it all away eventually. Full marks to Sarah!

Hilary Benn for leader?

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Labour’s continuing leadership problems have made me think about who I would pick to succeed Blair. Hilary Benn would be my man. No enemies (that I know of) but more importantly a new sort of leader – one with a genuine manner and devoid of the Blair-style demeanour that is soooooo yesterday. That will be Cameron’s problem – he is emulating a past the country is getting fed up with. Benn could supply an ideal heritage transmuted to fit a modern agenda. Perhaps that way could lie Labour renewal. Perhaps it is not really for me to intrude on private grief – but it certainly is gripping.

More basic, four and a half hours yesterday of surgery, meeting residents individually about their particular issues. It always serves to remind me of the parade of problems and challenges that never seem to lessen. After which I had my regular meeting with Cllr George Meehan, leader of Haringey Council. I had a raft of issues to raise with him:

– an update on CPZs: there will now be a second phase of consultation, where they discount the roads that didn’t want a CPZ and go back and consult with those that did.

– Noel Park Recreation Ground delays – suffice to say that the poor children have had the summer without their play equipment replaced (it was taken away during building work of a new children’s’ centre and not replaced). I had categorical assurances from the Council about finish dates that were never met. Anyway – I now have the update which promises that the work will be finished by the end of the month.

– I raised the issue of the astronomical amounts of money paid in Housing Benefit for temporary accommodation. I have had two recent cases where the tenant has been placed in quite frankly unliveable one bedroom accommodation (with man, wife and child) at a cost of around £400 per week – and this in areas where normally even in the private market you wouldn’t pay more than £200 I reckon. I know there’s a premium because of the supposed short tenure – but inevitably a temporary placement for 20 days turns into months and sometimes year. Factor that up – and the costs are unbelievable. And it keeps the people who are meant to be helped with benefits in poverty as with that high price of rent they often can’t afford a job because they would then lose so much in housing benefits that they wouldn’t be able to afford to carry on paying the rent. There are some moves to make it possible to place tenants in the private sector – but I think this needs looking at. Some landlords are raking it – and it’s not as if they are taking a risk – as the rent is paid by the state!

– business recycling is next on my list. Businesses are largely untouched by recycling – so I have ‘called on’ George to look into it. In fact, as the Council has decided (controversially) to take back recycling under their own auspices – this is an ideal moment to push home the Lib Dem campaign to introduce business recycling into the borough. And while I was at it – I lobbied for bigger recycling boxes (again)!

– I also raised some issues about the Chocolate Factory with him – but more about that later.

– and last, but not least, I have offered (as the Council hasn’t used me yet) to lobby on behalf of the Council at Parliamentary level. As I had flagged this up on the agenda prior to our meeting, George had one ready for me – the cost of asylum seekers to this borough – or more accurately to get the Government to fund the deficit between spend and available government grant. Will do. In a borough like Haringey (and when I talk to colleagues from other parts of the country who rarely see an asylum case – you can see how uneven the destinations are) we happily have more than our share of the asylum seekers who come to London – but we should not have to bear those extra costs and pressures without full Government assistance.

Last meeting of the day is with Richard Sumray about Hornsey Hospital. Once again Richard stated his commitment to the project and the Primary Care Trust of which he is Chair is hosting a public meeting on 13th. I am stirring a campaign to coincide with this with the view to adding pressure and enthusiasm to support a bid for funding. A bid is being prepared – and I think we need to go for it big time. But we will hear the detail publicly next Wednesday.

Political bloggers

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Speech to the Government Smart Forum. It was a bit like walking into the lion’s den to give the Liberal Democrat position on ID cards (against) because – as the Chair pointed out – most of those in the room stood to gain financially from the relentless march of the ID and smart cards.

In the event it was good fun – and seemed to go down well. And given what the Chair said, I though it was a moral victory that in the straw poll vote at the end the room was pretty evenly split – only marginally in favour of database and ID card! But as the Chair also pointed out – those who voted against may not have been against the card or database – just the idea of this Government implementing and administering it!

Straight on to interview with Channel 4 for a package on blogging. There is a small, but definitive band of us who the media come to for stories about political blogging. Guido Fawkes, Recess Monkey, Iain Dale, me and David Miliband – on the whole. The blogs are all quite different and we all have a different approach and purpose with our blogs.

Ben Cohen, the interviewer, asked me which blogs I read – and I had to confess very few. To be frank as an MP I don’t get any time (although I would love to spend my time doing so) to enter the blogging community in that way. He asked me what I thought of David Miliband’s blog, and I had to confess I had never been onto that site – although I have heard it is pretty bland. Hey – he’s a Labour Minister – what did you expect?

The interesting point Ben brought up was that both Tories and Lib Dems are encouraging their troops to get involved in blogging but Labour isn’t – and therefore is missing out on this movement which is at times breaking news itself. But an army of bloggers saying whatever they wish – Labour nightmare! Especially at a time like now … (Though they shouldn’t be scared. At the time of my party’s leadership travails earlier this year, it was tricky to blog at times – but being able to communicate via blog helped me explain to people what I was thinking and why and things were better for that).

The Lib Dems are taking blogging more and more seriously – indeed I’ll be handing out a “blog of the year” award at this year’s party conference. (If you are a Lib Dem blogger going to conference, see the blogging tips on the party’s website).

And lastly – Blair’s ‘announcement’. I thought it was masked incandescent anger. As for Gordon – he did what Blair forced him to do: give him support. If Labour have any sense (and judging from early rumblings after the announcement sense isn’t their strong card at this moment in time) they will now shut up and concentrate their fire on the Tories. But that would mean breaking some very ingrained habits. We will see!

Muswell Hill Library

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Went to the public meeting / consultation on the plans for Muswell Hill Library on Wednesday evening. If it all came off as described and local residents concerns can be addressed – then the library could be fantastic.

It is much in need of really expensive love and attention. Patching up won’t do any longer – and it is right to develop the library into a modern, vibrant social centre. So that’s the good news.

Of course, funding it requires the building of a few probably luxury dwellings and the leasing of a space within the new library development for a restaurant. There was some concern over a restaurant – smells, noise, suitability and some calls for something more like a coffee shop with evening readings, etc etc. For those living in Avenue Mews, the fly in the ointment and for them a serious fly, is the loss of the only available parking in the street bar about eight on street spaces if the extra development happens.

The issues I raised were really about concerns over the rather vague presentation of the business plan and costs. As it was – with no idea of what bit raised what finance – it was impossible to make any judgement as to whether there was a choice at all as to what the space within the library could be let for – is any alternative to a restaurant feasible? Commercial confidentiality was given as the reason – but I didn’t feel that the figures had been really tested to any degree. So I asked Lorna Reith if she would go back to Property Services and rigorously test the figures. At this point it seemed that Property had simply said we need to sell land for development and lease a space – and that that had been taken at face value.

I also asked that whether she could take back the issue of the problems of Avenue Mews residents re parking to see if there were any other little bits of land belonging to the Council that might be rented to them. Both of these things Lorna agreed to do.

There still was a lack of detail about the plans – and Cllr Gail Engert (Lib Dem, Muswell Hill) made a very good point in terms of having asked after the last meeting for that detail yet here we all were at a second meeting and the detail was still not available.

However, all in all, it was a pretty positive meeting. And as I said at the beginning – if it all works out it could be great. If…

ID cards

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Thank you for inviting me today to speak at the Smart Government Forum and to give the Liberal Democrat perspective on ID cards.

The Lib Dems and I are not Luddites and we’re pretty gung ho about modernisation – but not as an end in itself. So, if I and my party are to remove our natural inhibition towards the state having any right to intervene into our lives – then the argument that the greater good is served by the giving up of our individual right to privacy and ownership over information concerning us, has to be won. And it can only be won if what is proposed will work for the greater good – or indeed, in the case of ID cards, work at all.

Never before has a Government been so obsessed – when it can momentarily raise its eyes from its leadership troubles – by the centralisation of power. Never before has a Government sought so much to change the relationship between the individual and the state.

The trend can be evidenced. Civil liberties are being slowly eroded. CCTV has made us the most watched society in the world, the police can hold forever on file the DNA of innocent people charged with no offence, we have detention without charge and now the Government is forcing everybody to have an ID card. The relationship between the individual and the state is being altered: we will all have to prove who we are whether we are doing anything wrong or not.

The result is a real shift from that cornerstone of British democracy, presumption of innocence, to presumption of guilt until proven innocent.

I say this, not as much as a political statement, but as a rationale for why this Government – who philosophically would not be bothered by the principles involved in invading a citizens’ privacy as the Liberal Democrats would – is doing what it is doing. Yet this Government glosses over – indeed is in denial – about the very real dangers of the associated with the security and use of the proposed national database and the very real and pragmatic problems involved in the introduction of a biometric identity card and its inevitable ineffectiveness.

My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I were steadfast in our opposition to ID cards. Sadly the Conservatives caved in at the last throw of the parliamentary dice and backed the Government in the parliamentary votes that ushered in the Identity Cards Act.

In the end, it was the Liberal Democrats that stood alone in our opposition to this authoritarian legislation.

The result is that identity cards will be compulsory for anyone getting a new or renewed passport after January 1st 2010. Those who apply for passports before January 1st 2010 will have their names and details put on the new national identity register, although they will not be forced to have an ID card. Typically, this Government is unable to tell us from when the latter will apply, as it does not know when the national identity register will be in place.

The only way in which people will be able to opt out of this system after January 1st 2010 is by giving up their right to travel abroad. This is not a right anyone should have to forgo.

Yet it was a Labour’s manifesto ‘promise’ to introduce voluntary ID cards.

During the ID card Commons debate they argued that it is voluntary as to whether one has a passport or not – i.e. there is no compulsion to have one or to travel abroad. “Hey, Mr Border Guard, my Government says passports are voluntary.” Can’t you just see it?

At the Labour party conference in 1995, Tony Blair demanded that ‘instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local communities.’

What, then, is our opposition based on? Quite frankly – we are spoilt for choice!

Cost: ID cards will cost a fortune and we will be expected to foot the bill. Their introduction, alongside biometric passports, is estimated by the Home Office to cost £6 billion over ten years. A passport and ID card, even if you don’t want one, will cost £93.These costs will soar further as the current figures do not include the cost of card readers, staff training and biometrics. The current cost estimates are vague and incomplete.

IT track record: this Government hardly has a brilliant track record in introducing large scale IT systems. Systems in the Post Office, Air Traffic Control, Passport Office, Probation Service and the Child Support Agency, among others, have run massively over budget. Does anyone really expect the most ambitious system, for ID cards, to be any different?

Discrimination: ID cards will also lead to discrimination and harassment. As the Government encourage the police to detect illegal immigrants and terrorist suspects, black and Asian people will inevitably be targeted. I have no doubt that there will be a compulsion to carry and present in due course. The damage to community relations will compound an already tinderbox climate post 7/7.

Confidentiality: The introduction of ID cards will allow our personal data to be shared without our consent. Even the tightest security will eventually be breached. ID cards will only hold limited information but there are 52 categories of ‘limited’ information that can and will be held which will build up a pretty comprehensive picture of us and our lives.

How will future governments use this information? No one can tell. This country’s lack of a written constitution means that the Home Secretary is entitled to expand the scope of the register and lower the safeguards on data sharing, which leaves it open to abuse.

The ‘future government’ argument has never been more valid. How can anyone guarantee that ID cards will not be used to spy on its citizens or restrict civil liberties? How can anyone guarantee ID cards won’t eventually be used to monitor individuals or groups or restrict our entitlement to services? This is the thin end of the wedge – no one can predict how the use of ID cards will develop.

Security: How safe will the National Database be. DVLA sells information – there will be commercial pressures. It will ultimately be available to all government departments – will it stop there? No – it will be accessible under the principle of availability to all EU member state law agencies and so on. It will be a target for fraudsters and a gift for those intending harm – legitimised by an ID card. Yet ironically at the same time as saying the national database will be safe, the Government is extraditing to the USA one of my constituents because he hacked in to the USA’s national defence systems. So I rather doubt the Government’s assurances on security and safeguards.

Effectiveness: Perhaps the most salient argument against ID cards is that they will not succeed in any of the areas they claim they will. ID cards will not prevent benefit fraud. They will not halt identity fraud or identity theft. They will not stop illegal working. They will not, as the Government believes, assist in the fight against crime or terrorism.

Some benefit fraud may be prevented by forcing people to show an ID card when claiming benefits. ID cards will, however, have no impact at all on the most common type of benefit fraud – people misrepresenting their circumstances rather than their identity. Countries that have ID cards still have benefit fraud.

Indeed, the value of ID cards as a guarantee of identity and the access they provide to valuable services will make them a target for forgery for criminals and fraudsters. It will usher in a new era of identity fraud and theft. The Government will claim that the technology can’t be forged, but history will prove them wrong. It’s a common, common pattern – new encryption, new security, put it on a device that gets widely distributed, and it gets cracked. In a recent case in Germany, criminals forged an ID card that included biometric data.

By forcing people to show their ID cards in applying for a job in the UK, the Government expect to prevent illegal working. This will not happen. Industries with high levels of illegal labour are already required to check identities but the Home Office does not inspect them. In 2003, there were only two prosecutions for employing an illegal worker. ID cards will not thwart unscrupulous employers or suddenly turn a beleaguered Home Office into a well-oiled machine. Neither will ID cards shore up our porous borders.

Similarly, ID cards will not help fight crime or terrorism. Generally, the police’s problem is not identifying those arrested but catching criminals in the first place. The terrorists responsible for 9/11 and the Madrid bombings all carried valid identity documents.

Knowing someone’s identity is different from knowing how they will behave. No one can seriously tell me that ID cards would have prevented the London bombings. The fight against crime and terrorism needs more police and better police work, not ID cards.

If this Government were realistic about making an impact on crime, fraud, terrorism and illegal immigration it would scrap the preposterous ID card scheme and spend the vast amount of money on something useful.

The Liberal Democrats would. We would fund 10,000 police officers (on top of Labour’s plans) and provide an extra 20,000 community support officers to back them up. We’d equip the police with new technology to tackle crime and cut the hours they spend wrapped in paper and red tape. For example, handheld computers for beat bobbies.

My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I do support the use of biometrics in passports only. It’s a logical aid to identification – when identification is the issue at borders. But the database behind passports would carry only the information on the passport – as it does today – plus the biometric match.

We would establish a National Border Agency, bringing together officers from immigration, the police and customs, whose responsibilities currently overlap. This would combat cross border crime, illegal immigration, terrorism and fraud.

We would cut down on illegal working by actually, shock horror, inspecting employers and bringing prosecutions against those who use illegal labour.

Finally, the Liberal Democrats would use phone-taps and other ‘intercept communications’ as evidence in court against terrorist suspects, making prosecution easier.

Principle: Finally it’s the principle. I have many sorts of cards – but they are purpose driven. I have wanted something – be it a credit card or library club or a driving license and in return I have given the information demanded by the provider. But outside of purpose driven documentation of my choosing – if I have committed no crime then I own the information about myself and no one has a right to access it.

The introduction of ID cards will change British life. The relationship between the individual and the state will be forever altered. It will revolutionise the capacity of the state to monitor the movements and behaviour of each and every one of us. It erodes privacy, and in extremis it will curtail freedom. To cap it all, we will be forced to pay for this dubious privilege.

This Government may propagate the idea that in the ID card we will have an answer to all our problems – but as I have outlined – it will not. Clinging to an idea, a panacea that won’t work is incomprehensible from where I stand, but cling they have and the legislation is now in statute. But I still harbour the expectation that this well-intentioned scheme will fall and fail.

And my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I will continue to fight this illiberal, ill-judged and unworkable system. I hope many of you will support us.

Displacement activity

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You can tell I’m prevaricating and procrastinating – but I’ve been watching the Labour Party self-destruct in preference to writing my speech for the keynote spot at the Smart Government Forum tomorrow.

Cometh the moment cometh the man? Is Gordon going to step forward now and show that he has what it takes to lead? Otherwise – the moment may pass him by. Sky says that he is likely to do interviews in the weekend press. Time and tide etc…