BNP and crime

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Campaigning all day on Sunday – except for a journey to a working men’s club in Harlesden to take part in the London part of the Sunday Politics Show on BBC. The club was divided into a big bar and a small bar in which the filming took place. I was there early and so just chatted with Simon Woolley from Operation Black vote and the crew. Tim Donovan was the interviewer and the other guests were Grant Shapps (Tory) and Dawn Butler (Labour) and down the line and only speaking to Tim – Nick Griffin of the BNP.

The two discussions were to be Margaret Hodge’s pronouncement that 8 out of 10 white working class people in her constituency were considering voting BNP and, secondly, the Safer Neighbourhood Scheme.

So – a short film of canvassing in Hodge’s patch and an interview with Griffin. He came over as a racist and a bigot – so at least there was no pretending that that there was anything to do with housing shortages. For the BNP it doesn’t matter what the issue is – they will use whatever is the most obvious local scapegoat to pedal their bile. The word ‘swamped’ peppered Griffin’s language.

However, the arrogance and complacency of Labour in this area left them an opportunity. Political vacuums will always be filled. No wonder the film clip showed a local BNP member taking flowers around to Hodge’s house to say thanks for putting them on the agenda. The publicity we have all been forced into (including this) as a consequence is ridiculous as their ascendance is minuscule. But because of the filth they pedal – we all must always be vigilant against even this tiny blip on our horizon.

My criticism of Labour for their use of the BNP to try and scare Labour voters into voting Labour is that if there really are 8 in 10 white working class (Labour) voters considering voting BNP (which I doubt) – then where the bloody hell was Margaret for the last four years? Did she not know that there was this undercurrent of frustration and unhappiness amongst her constituents? So why the surprise? It is hard not to be cynical and believe that part of her tirade was scare-mongering. And quite frankly – this cynical use of the race card in reverse is as bad as the Tories use of it at the General Election last year. This is dangerous stuff.

The second issue on Safer Neighbourhoods was kicked off with Dawn Butler bringing out the lie that Labour have been peddling that the Lib Dems and Tories voted against the Mayor’s policing budget at the GLA. Tim Donovan did my work for me. He turned on her and pointed out that this was completely untrue. And Tim would know – as he covers the GLA and was there covering the budget debates. As he pointed out – the Lib Dems and Tories both voted on a separate vote for the police budget. And actually – we also put in an extra £20million to increase British Transport Police numbers in London to 272. Voted down by Labour. Anyway – it was good to see that lie rebutted – and not by a politician, by the interviewer himself.

Then she kept trying to say that crime had risen in Islington. The truth is – by the Home Office’s own statistics – that Lib Dem-run Islington has seen a drop in robbery of over 25% between 2002 and 2005, whilst Labour-run Brent (where Dawn is MP) has seen an increase of over 16% and violent crime in Labour-run Brent increased by almost 40% between 2002 and 2005

What drives me mad is the unquestioning repetition of Labour’s false mantras. They trot out absolute rubbish – and believe that repetition of the message will damage their opponents – regardless of the truth. Maybe it works – I don’t know – but no wonder the public don’t believe politicians any more if the truth doesn’t matter.

After campaigning rest of day – get home to find article in the Sunday Times on the meeting that I will be attending with a small group of other MPs from the cross-party group on Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy (MSBP), a condition where people supposedly fabricate illnesses in their children to gain attention. It wants a review of Government guidelines issued to social workers, police and teachers.

The reason for this is that it would seem that many parents are being wrongly suspected of this or variations on this – and the agony of being involved or connected with child protection issues when you are innocent is incredibly stressful and upsetting.

When the group first approached me – because of a local case of this type – my main concern was that in trying to get the balance right over when Social Services should intervene, it might lead to a raising of the threshold for intervention and thereby miss serious child abuse. Coming from Haringey, where the Victoria Climbie tragedy involved the failure of various people to intervene at the appropriate moment, I am naturally concerned that we don’t make it harder for appropriate intervention to occur.

However, the group persuaded me that actually Social Services were failing at both levels – both too many false accusations but also too many occasion when intervention wasn’t occurring. So that is what this is all about.

MARATHON MAN MATT HOME AND DRY

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Fortis Green Lib Dem councillor and local election candidate Matt Davies has completed his London Marathon charity run today with a personal best. He shaved five minutes off his previous best time, running the course in 5 hours and 37 minutes, raising over £2,000 for Amnesty International.

Cllr Matt Davies comments:

“Although aching all over, I’m delighted to have finished the run, even with a very modest improvement in my best time. More importantly, we have raised money for Amnesty, and I would like to thank all of those who sponsored me, especially my fellow Haringey councillors.

“Although I am taking the rest of the day off, I’m looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail. All the leaflet delivering in recent weeks has been very good training.”

DNA records

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Campaigning all day – and then suddenly – whilst stuffing envelopes with Neil and Monica I remember that I have to do a live radio show. Luckily, I remembered with a half hour to spare. This was for a station in the Midlands and on the revelation through my Parliamentary Question that 24% of citizens who have a DNA profile on the national DNA database (NDNAD) are from ethnic minority communities. This compares with 8% black and ethnic minority members in the general population.

I have come to two conclusions. Firstly – the police are clearly arresting a disproportionate amount of innocent black men. I believe that this is because wherever discretionary powers are used – those powers are used disproportionately. This means that all the work we have all been doing, including the police themselves, to eradicate disproportionality is clearly not working.

I often think whilst a proportion of this – hopefully quite small – is actual racism that the vast majority of it is conditioning. But policing should be about intelligence and evidence – and the challenge has to be to become so professional in carrying out duties that there is no way of telling what an officer is thinking on a personal basis. So – back to the drawing board on how to reduce the conditioning or counter it – so that disproportionality is diminished.

The second conclusion I have come to is that until disproportionalilty in policing is conquered – that this database has unintended consequences. I don’t think, that whilst the new powers to take DNA from those arrested was taken through Parliament that the outcomes had been thought through. It is unquestionable that DNA has moved forward the technological ability to detect crime. So – I have come to accept that a database of those charged and convicted or those cautioned is legitimate. I have also come to believe that checking DNA taken from those arrested and checked against cold cases is legitimate and valuable. Many murders and rapes have been solved that way. However, if DNA that is taken is kept on those who are not charged, cautioned or matched against cold cases – therefore innocent – there can be no reason to keep those DNA records and they should be destroyed.

I think this needs to come back to Parliament for debate. On Thursday in a debate about Forensic Science Services (too long to go into here) I made the same point. Andy Burnham wouldn’t let me come back on the issue of bringing it to the floor of the Commons as he seemed to think that the original debate was enough. I disagree profoundly with him. And for both reasons – the principle of innocent until found guilty which is subverted by the retention of the DNA of the innocent and for the reasons that the database itself is biased towards collection of black and ethnic minority DNA – this issue must come back to the chamber.

Hornsey Charter

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Surgery until lunchtime at Wood Green library followed by going to launch the Hornsey Charter in Hornsey High Street. My HQ is upstairs at the Three Compasses Pub on the High Street and Mike (one of the three licensees) chairs the Traders Association. In fact – the pub is just great itself. It has disabled access. It uses Fairtrade products and has won just every award going this year for Community Pub of the Year, Best Newcomer, etc, etc. Hanging baskets of flowers now line the street and this latest ‘Charter’ is about pushing forward the agenda to improve the trading conditions and environment of the area.

I am totally behind them on this. The Water Works (and the broken glass windows and decrepitude that Labour have just let linger for years) needs to be developed. Some would like a small – and I emphasize small – supermarket. Both Crouch End and Muswell Hill have supermarkets and it does help attract trade to the street without local traders being edged out by a superstore that sells all their products. Hornsey Station could do with a fair bit of loving too! And there are many other ambitions in the Hornsey Charter.

Lots of the traders came out for the photo ops and the pub provided sarnies and a drink to follow. The sun shone on Hornsey for the duration.

Parking on Muswell Hill Broadway

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Go to help local traders on the non-parking wing of Muswell Hill Broadway where they have been calling for a sign to warn motorists about a camera that will get them and then a ticket will follow.

There are only six parking spaces on this part of the Broadway – and yet there is perfectly good stopping space outside the bank and the shops for about six more cars. But a single yellow line there means stopping is an offence. Not unnaturally people do stop for a moment to go to the cash machine etc and get ticketed. A sign warning people that a camera is watching would stop people parking where there is a restriction and therefore they would not get a ticket. Strangely enough, the Council has now refused TWICE to allow a sign indicating that this part of the road is monitored by camera. This particular camera is leading to hundreds of tickets being issued. Nice little earner I hear you say. I support sensible parking restrictions to help traffic flow and improve safety – and rigorous (but fair) enforcement. Parking regulations have to be fair – and this is not fair.

But the other side of this issue is that there is no traffic reason that I can see for not giving this little stretch of road free short-stay parking. It’s not dangerous or obstructing traffic flow. Other parts of the Broadway have free short stay or completely free parking and the lack of any parking on this leg is affecting trade.

My colleague Cllr Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green), working with local traders and shoppers (who have got a massive petition up), have got the Council to agree to a parking review. The other leg of the shops along Fortis Green and on the main Broadway have short stay parking – which works perfectly well. I strongly suspect the view of residents and businesses – if properly asked for in a genuine consultation – will be to introduce short-stay parking on this contentious bit where the camera operated.

We have to maximise parking for shopping for if the shops go – then our favourite areas will suffer. The balance has to be right – and where the public perceive unfairness, we should listen to them. Each local situation needs to be judged on whether restrictions are needed, the balance between businesses’ needs, residents’ needs and pedestrians and safety issues – and fairness. The minute creating a revenue stream dictates form – then function suffers.

MARATHON MATT CLOSE TO CHARITY TARGET

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As the big day looms, local Fortis Green Councillor Matt Davies (Lib Dem) explains that he is very close to raising his £2,000 target in charity donations for Amnesty International.

On the 23rd April, Cllr. Davies will take part in the London Marathon, alongside thousands of other runners. Cllr Davies completed the marathon in 2003 in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust and raised over £1500. He set himself a target this year to raise at least £2000, and is excited to have raised very nearly enough to beat that amount.

Cllr. Davies comments:

“I was delighted by the generosity of local people and councillors from both parties when I ran the marathon last time. So this year I have set my target higher and I hope that people will be able to help raise money for Amnesty International by sponsoring me. I am very near meeting my target – a huge thank you to all who have given money to what is a very worthy cause.”

If anyone is able to sponsor Cllr Davies in raising money for Amnesty, they can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/matt4amnesty.

LACK OF CONSULTATION OVER HORNSEY CENTRAL HOSPITAL MAY GO AGAINST HEALTH LEGISLATION

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Cllr Wayne Hoban, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Social Services spokesperson, has written to the Chair of Haringey’s Teaching Primary Healthcare Trust (PCT) to express concern that the PCT may have failed to adequately involve and consult patients and the public in relation to planning proposals and decisions affecting the provision of health services on the Hornsey Central Hospital site.

Cllr Hoban has identified that under section 11 (1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2001, the PCT is obliged to involve and consult patients and the public over the Hornsey Central development plans.

Following the unfolding NHS funding crisis, the Trust has withdrawn the original development plans, and approved a substantially different scheme. Patients and local residents, as well as Haringey Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, had been consulted over the original plans. However, the new designs have not enjoyed this consultation process.

Cllr Hoban states, “I am seriously concerned that the decision to amend the previous scheme in the absence of further consultation may go against legislation under the 2001 Act. The Hornsey Central Hospital site is one of our local treasures, and it should be used to provide much-needed healthcare to local people.

“The Liberal Democrats and I are concerned that the latest plans are more to do with balancing budget books than with addressing health needs, and the lack of consultation with patients and residents is concerning.”

World Haemophilia Day

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World Haemophilia Day reception – which I attend. Having been tangentially involved with haemophilia since one of my sister’s twins was born with it (out of the blue) 30 years ago. So I know a thing or two. Haemophilia itself is bad enough. Bleeding doesn’t stop and you have to inject clotting agents made up of Factor 8 from blood donations. But the blood donations have been contaminated over recent years with HIV AIDS, Hepatitis C and now CJD.

I wrote a column on the subject back in 2001, as a safe form of Factor 8 had been developed but was not available to haemophiliacs over the age of 16. So every time a boy or man over 16 had to have Factor 8 – they risked getting these diseases. And many, many of the haemophilia population have been infected with something through the Government’s penny pinching over not allowing safe Factor 8 and also, in the beginning, the use of contaminated blood knowingly.

A very short while ago the Government, under immense pressure, was forced into extending the safe version of Factor 8 to all ages. Thank heavens for that – but after so many were already infected. Now there is a fight on for compensation to be increased to those who got AIDS etc through contaminated blood. The original levels of compensation were based on very limited survival – but of course, now those with HIV and AIDS live longer and so higher compensation to cover these longer lifespans is appropriate..

Battles go on and always will – but the history of Government on this issue is one of shame.

Environmental Audit committee is a hoot. It’s my old stomping ground of transport under the spotlight – and the witnesses are from the GLA. Strikes me though that not much has really advanced over recent years. The Congestion Charge was the big idea – and the money poured into expanding London’s bus network has expanded London’s bus network – hallelujah! But ultimately it’s going to have to be about changing behaviour – reducing the need to travel and getting people to think outside of their box(cars). Long, long way to go.

Last event of the day was to speak at the Islington, Highgate and Muswell Hill Rotarian Club – which turned out to be a very pleasant evening held at Highgate Golf Club. I’ve only ever been as far as the drive into the club – as the houses peter out there so my leaflet delivery does too.

As we are in the middle of the local elections, I decided to avoid political stuff and gave a sort of personal and blue skies thinking address. There were some lively questions and one cheeky elderly gent dared to suggest that as ‘cream rises to the top’ so should Parliamentarians – and that’s why there weren’t more women in Parliament and in fact those put there by Labour’s all-women shortlists were incompetent and ordinary. I jokingly retorted that from my experience so far there were plenty of incompetent and ordinary males there – in fact a majority. But I took the discussion onto the fact that Parliament is no longer full of ‘great’ politicians; it is changing – and the mystery around the individual statesman is gone too with the advent of 24 hours news. Anyway – my chosen subjects for the evening were housing and crime and much thought provoking made for a good evening, I hope, for all.

THE DEMISE OF LONDON POST OFFICES IS UNACCEPTABLE

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New figures revealed by Liberal Democrat London Spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone MP, show that there has been 342 London post office closures in the last 3 years.

Ms Featherstone is calling on the government to put in place a realistic policy saving local post offices from closure, hitting local communities unnecessarily.

Commenting Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“The future for London post offices looks gloomy.”

“It is time that the government realises the seriousness of this problem.”

“The government needs to come up with concrete plans to provide for the long-term future of Royal Mail. So far, only the Liberal Democrats have a realistic plan which will save the post office network.”

RISBOROUGH CLOSE FINALLY TO BE CLEARED OF RUBBISH

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Residents of Risborough Close, Muswell Hill, can breathe a sigh of relief as pressure from Lib Dem councillors has secured a new refuse store. The previous storage area was woefully inadequate, resulting in large and unsightly amounts of rubbish bags piled high. These would often split, leaving rubbish lying strewn around the paths and the area immediately outside the building.

Muswell Hill Liberal Democrat Councillors Lynne Featherstone MP, Gail Engert and Lib Dem candidate Sheila Rainger took up the case when a resident contacted them with stories of having to walk through rubbish including condoms and dirty nappies. Haringey Council contractors Accord, who organise and carry out rubbish collection across the borough, were not clearing this loose rubbish up, resulting in build-ups of waste that were deemed a health and safety risk.

Councillor Engert comments:

“I am delighted that the new rubbish storage area has finally been built. Haringey Accord has also agreed to make more regular collections of refuse from the building, and we hope that this will at last put an end to the problems.”

The area where rubbish used to be kept will be cleared once new bins are delivered for use in the new refuse storage area.