Abolition of Parliament

Posted on by

Day begins filming with Channel 4 a program about Sir Ian Blair’s first year in charge of London’s policing. Well – you’ll just have to watch when it comes out – but suffice to say in terms of honeymoon periods, I don’t think he had one.

Today is a mish-mash of meetings etc with the backdrop of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill – the Bill that has been nicknamed the Abolition of Parliament Bill as in its original form it gives sweeping ability to ministers to wipe out all previous legislation without proper Parliamentary debate. Today is the first day of two days of Report Stage. Judging from the avalanche of Government amendments – the penny has dropped and the Government have realised what a pig’s ear they have made out of this Bill. I don’t think anyone disagrees with the need to reform some of the processes to facilitate effective legislative reform. But this Bill was so flawed the Government should never have put it out in the original form.

In the evening meet Peter Hendy (Transport Commissioner for London) who I used to scrutinise when I was Chair of Transport at the London Assembly. I have a couple of issues to harangue him over – and business out the way – we discuss what we know about everyone we know. Peter is a good guy and I am glad he made it to Commissioner. London has some huge challenges ahead – not least Thames Gateway and the North London Line. I am optimistic that we will see a real change in the aspiration of overground rail with this addition to the TfL family. Peter is certainly very excited about its future.

Needless to say I bring up the North Circular – where an inadequate scheme to solve the problem is incessantly delayed. My plea is to get the funding in for the rat-running prevention now. I really don’t see why local residents should suffer endlessly because major schemes fall foul of one thing or another. In the latest case – if there is a public enquiry it could be years before anything goes ahead or not. We want our £4 million now. And just in case Peter was missing my campaigning – I asked him just exactly what I and local people need to do to make TfL extend the 603 bus route throughout the day and evening. What are the criteria? How can we prove we need it? What will persuade him to spend money on this route? I look forward to the answers in due course!

LIB DEMS DEMAND INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY OVER RUNNING OF COUNCIL'S COMMUNITY PROJECT

Posted on by

Haringey Liberal Democrats are asking for immediate action to be taken after it arose that the £50 million regeneration project The Bridge New Deal for Communities (NDC) has been managed so badly by Haringey Labour that no financial accounts of the project can be produced.

Councillor Wayne Hoban asked both the Director of The Bridge NDC and Haringey Council to provide him with copies of the audited accounts and auditor’s notes for the five years that the project has been running, only to be informed that no such accounts were available. Cllr Hoban has written to Haringey’s District Auditor to ask for an urgent forensic investigation of the NDC’s accounts.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“I find it incredible that this £50 million project should not have annual Audited Accounts. These are a major safeguard against mismanagement and ensure that the money is being spent appropriately, and it is extremely concerning to find that none have been kept.

“Concerns expressed by the local community about the way in which this multi-million pound project has been managed to date appear to be well founded, and require immediate action. I am extremely disappointed in the long delay, which I consider to be unacceptable.I have asked the District Auditor to respond immediately to my concerns, and I think it very important that he do so as soon as possible.”

He further comments: “In view of the non-availability of audited accounts for the first five years of the project, nothing less than an independent forensic auditor’s investigation of The Bridge NDC accounts will do.”

The National Lottery

Posted on by

I receive an email saying: Encourage Your Constituents to Have Their Say on the Future of the Lottery

The National Lottery Commission is the regulator of the National Lottery and is responsible for deciding who will operate the National Lottery when the current licence expires in January 2009. They say they are committed to running a fair, open and transparent competition, which has been designed to attract high quality, credible bids to run one of the most successful lotteries in the world.

They have published the Draft Invitation to Apply (ITA), which sets out the near-final details of the opportunity to bid for the licence to run the National Lottery from 1 February 2009. Published alongside the ITA is the Draft Licence, which details the conditions under which the Lottery will be regulated. The Final ITA and Licence will be published in June 2006.

The Draft ITA is available to download from their website at: http://www.natlotcomm.gov.uk/Competition/

Public opinion is an important factor in the competition process they say, and ask if I am willing to encourage members of the public to contribute their views as part of the competition process. They have launched an online questionnaire to encourage people to have their say on the future of the Lottery. The questionnaire is available at www.natlotcomm.gov.uk

So as they say that they want my constituents to Have Their Say – I am publicising this so that you can!

Friday surgery

Posted on by

Long, long surgery at Hornsey Library. Always fascinating – always draining. Tales of misery of families torn apart by Home Office decisions that would break your heart; housing problems with four in a room; benefits cock-ups that end with eviction because Haringey loses applications – even though client has proof of posting; a young woman with a disabled child comes to tell me of the dreadful lack of support given to those with disabilities and the rude and unhelpful treatment they get; a young man with autism receives cuts and bruises while in respite care – and his family cannot get any appropriate explanations of why. So many battles to fight!

PHONE MAST APPLICATION WITHDRAWN

Posted on by

An application by O2 to erect a 15m mobile phone mast on the pavement on Woodside Avenue N10 has been withdrawn in order to carry out wider consultation, following the intervention of Lib Dem councillor Martin Newton (Fortis Green ward). Cllr Newton made contact with the company carrying out the pre-consultation and discovered that hardly anyone in the community had actually been consulted on the proposals.

Only St James’s Primary School, Tetherdown, Treehouse Trust, one resident, ward councillors and MP Lynne Featherstone had been contacted by the company.

Cllr Newton has supplied the company with a list of residential streets, hospitals, schools and other local facilities that might be affected by the proposal and asked for these to be included in the new consultation.

Cllr Newton comments:

“I am pleased that the company have withdrawn their application and that a wider group of people can have a chance to air their views. I hope that this will result in O2 deciding not to proceed, as I found this application particularly insensitive at it is sited on the doorstep of St James’s Primary School, Cranwood Nursing Home, as well as being close to several other Schools, Nurseries, St Luke’s Hospital and many local homes.”

London's local elections

Posted on by

I’ve become a political pundit!

Having watched pundits pund on election night over many years, I always wondered how those poor sods who have to sit up all night manage to find such interesting (not) things to say for the hours before the results come in. And how they manage to say it was a wonderful night for their party – whatever the result!

On election night, I was booked to be on the outside broadcast from a pub in Liverpool Street with Emily Maitlis. The BBC heavy mob was in the studio with Dimbleby – and we in the pub were the light entertainment in between the heavier pontificating in the studio.

It had been a long, hard, day – starting at 4am. Why we deserved a one day heat wave as we slogged the streets I am not sure – but numerous interesting tan marks and somewhat burnt bits indicated quite clearly who had been out in the midday sun – delivering leaflets and knocking on doors to see whether supporters had voted. The polls closed at 10pm – and as my colleagues made a dash for Ally Pally for the Haringey count, I went off to do my media duty.

Arriving at the pub around midnight, chaos is reigning – organised chaos however. Little vignettes of ‘real’ people talking to Emily who would then come to a panel of experts made up from any combination of: Michael Portillo, Oona King, Ed Vasey, Tony Travers, Trevor Phillips, Rod Liddle – the list was endless (and me of course). There was no sound feed to the huge TV monitors for most of the time – so none of us could hear the results coming through – which made commentating a bit tricky.

I guess it makes good television – but after my nano-second interview I was not too sad to have to leave for my second booking which was at BBC London radio from 2.00am to 4.00am. Much more civilised! On panel with me were my old GLA opponents – Bob Neill for the Tories and Jeanette Arnold for Labour – plus Peter Kellner (YouGov) and Jules interviewing.

The results started to dribble in and were a mixed bag. We all kind of agreed that the main thrust of the voters seemed to be against the incumbent – whichever political party it was. Labour took the worst hit both from Lib Dems and from the Tories. Lib Dems in Camden, Haringey, Lewisham and Brent made substantive gains. However, Lib Dem Islington didn’t fare so well – suffering the consequences of tough decisions they had had to make. Tories took a hit and lost Richmond to the Lib Dems – but did better in the suburbs, but we saw them off in Kingston and the Tory leader there lost his seat.

And so it went. Just as we were finishing at 4am – the Haringey result came through. So we stayed on a bit longer so that I could comment on my own neck of the woods. We didn’t quite take the Council – cutting Labour’s majority to just three as we gained 11 seats from Labour. Thanks to the quirks of the voting system, there are actually Lib Dem councillors in a majority of the wards in Haringey now – and we topped the vote across the borough. So much for Haringey being a Labour borough any more! Particularly pleasing were our first two councillors in Tottenham.

And the Tories – who had been working to try and get back onto Haringey Council – failed to get a single seat back. So good for us in Haringey – but all in all – a mixed bag of a night.

I suppose that the conclusion that I came to was that London is angry. The incumbency kickings seem to be about a frustration with local government. Powers have been stripped from local authorities. What power they do have is so controlled by Government that local authorities frequently have to jump through hoops specified by the Labour Government to bid for funding to do what the Government wants – not necessarily what local people want.

I leave the radio station around 4.20am and head for the Three Compasses pub in Hornsey where we are privately celebrating our results in Haringey. Seeing a room full of Lib Dem Haringey councillors, it’s pretty amazing to think it is only eight years since I – along with June and Julia – won our first seat.

The real secret is engagement with local residents. It’s not just about political persuasion – it’s keeping it real and caring about the everyday world we all meet when we step out of our front door.

The London bombings

Posted on by

John Reid (new Home Secretary) makes statement on the reports that have come out on the chronology and the intelligence about the July London bombings last year. The thrust is to tell the tale of what happened when and to present the findings of the Security Committee – which focused on intelligence and resources.

As the story unfolded it became clear that two of the bombers were known but not followed up on. So there was an opportunity to have stopped the bombings. I don’t know that you will ever be able to stop everything happening. According to Reid three further attacks on London have been stopped since last year. However, the lack of resources to put possible suspects etc under surveillance is not acceptable.

We are pushing for a public enquiry. Reid refuses to authorise one. The remit of the committees who reported today is very narrowly focused – and doesn’t touch on prevention. What a wider remit could examine is why British boys were able to be radicalised, turning on their fellow citizens and murdering them. What is going on? That is what we need to understand – and address. It is quite clear that these were not boys from some dreadfully deprived or socially excluded background. They were from decent families and as far as I can tell, actually active participating members of society in terms of helping youngsters in the area, being a classroom assistant and so on.

So yes – we need to work with communities where deprivation and lack of employment and housing problems afflict large swathes of the community – but we are fooling ourselves if we think that will address the fundamental causes of radicalisation. That is a whole other ball game. And we cannot really begin to tackle it unless we know the why – which is why a public inquiry is the best way forward. Even the USA has appropriate investigations post 9/11.

In the evening I am addressing Year 11 and their parents at the Fortismere “Record of Achievement Night”. It’s held in the Panorama Room at Ally Pally. There are nine forms at this age – so we are talking around 200+ pupils and a couple of parents each. So the hall is thronging! We start with fantastic music. Two of the solo female vocalists had voices so wonderful that you get a lump in your throat.

The National Record of Achievement – which was presented to each student individually when they came up – is a record not only of their learning but also their extracurricular activities. I am a great fan of extra-curricular activity. And as an employer – I am looking in terms of formal qualifications, but beyond that I am looking for character, and determination and the person beyond the qualifications.

It was a very heart-warming evening. Contrast that against the day before when Labour (Government and Council) refused to review the funding allocation to Fortismere to rebuild (or even make usable) the 6th form block. Fortismere is the sort of school the Government says it wants to expand. It is a good school and its buildings need work. But when the council allocated the money for buildings – Fortismere got the least in the whole borough.

Fortismere School funding

Posted on by

Martin Horwood MP stands in for me for the first hour of the Police and Justice Bill in Parliament as I am going with the governors and Head of Fortismere School to present their case for funding. The school has a buildings crisis looming since Haringey Council allocated only £1.61 million out of the borough’s £165 million to Fortismere.

They present the case well – but the Government’s line was that they needed to work with the council on getting a fair share for their school. Well – they tried that didn’t they – and it didn’t work. There is a pretty underhand pressure being applied so that Fortismere will be forced to sell off grounds or assets. Whilst we all applaud funding being given with a bias towards helping areas with high deprivation – it goes too far when practically new schools are getting great dollops of cash and Fortismere – with buildings containing rooms that are actually unusable – is neglected.

Rush back to Parliament to take over from Martin on the Police and Justice Bill. The Government has changed diddly squat during Committee – and now at Report and Third Reading are similarly immoveable.

So the sweeping forced mergers of police forces against their will is still there. So much for local policing! They are bunging in the Prison Inspectorate with four others – a move condemned by all (except the Government); they are increasing summary justice without any judicial checks and balances; they refuse to go back and renegotiate our unfair and unequal extradition arrangements with the USA and they are centralising power into the hands of the Home Secretary – who will be able to direct the work of the police and police authorities throughout the land without appropriate safeguards.

Education Bill

Posted on by

Bit like a yoyo today. Had to go to Westminster then back to Hornsey & Wood Green then back to Westminster then back to Hornsey & Wood Green. The middle H & WG was to address Haringey teachers on Labour’s Education Bill. I was definitely preaching to the converted – in terms of them and me and the Lib Dems (and some Labour members) being against the proposals. The whole Bill is about structures really – not standards which it should be. As to selling off our schools to commercial sponsors (and if you buy three – now you get a discount) – it is a frightening scenario. But all our agreement in the hall won’t change Labour’s stony ears I fear. Maybe a massive lobby by teachers will have some good effect. As far as I can gather from Sarah Teather – our Education Spokesperson – the Government haven’t moved an inch in all eighteen sessions in committee stage on the Bill.

At Westminster end go with cross-party group to meet with Beverly Hughes about the situation surrounding parents wrongly accused of child abuse. I present my constituent’s case as do the others. Ms Hughes listens well and promises to look into the case I give to her. It is devastating for families wrongly accused. Failing to intervene when you should brings tragic results – but so does intervening when you shouldn’t, and in this case it seems that procedures were just not followed at the school etc. Those sort of mistakes should not happen. I await Ms Hughes follow-up.

Joyce Vincent

Posted on by

Today have meeting with Regional Director of Metropolitan Housing – the housing association in charge of the flat in Wood Green where Joyce Vincent lay dead for two to three years.

Having gone over the procedures at length, I am part re-assured that the association is looking at ways that they can pick up on the warning signs from persistent lack of contact with a tenant. He gives me no details at all on the crucial issues of timing – and we outside just have to take the assurance that there was nothing about Ms Vincent that indicated she needed any more support or contact than the rest of us.

Mr Mawson picks up something I had put on my blog – which was that I am surprised around the lack of follow up on anyone who leaves a women’s refuge. I had ventured to suggest that there should at minimum level be a follow up phone call or something at 3 months, and 6 months for the first year or whatever – just to touch base, not necessarily intervene in any way. Mr Mawson says he will add it into the safety net pot that he is trying to create to ensure this doesn’t happen again. He promises to write to me when the report on the incident is finished and goes to the board. He seems determined to instigate better procedures.

The only niggle I really have left is that without any information as to the timing of any of the events leading up to Ms Vincent’s death – you kind of feel as if you haven’t made sure for yourself the facts of the case.

Spend rest of evening trying to deal with amendments for the Police Justice Bill on Wednesday.