It's wet

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My ‘hit squad’ steams in again for a canvassing session. Not sure why it waited all day to start raining at four o’clock on the dot. Never mind – we’re rough and we’re tough – and out we all go.

Lots of Labour members (yes – members) absolutely furious with Blair and wanting to demonstrate their contempt for him by voting for me. Our Labour MP also comes in for a lot of criticism for her staunch Blairite, non-rebellious stance on just about everything.

Thoroughly soaked by the end of canvassing, I knock on the last door of the day. It opens and it is one of those funny moments as the person was famous (a comedian in this case). When you meet someone famous it is always bizarre because of course – you know their face but they don’t know you.

I cover it well – establish that his name is different from the one on my canvass card taken from the electoral register – and offer to find out if he is on the new electoral roll when it comes out in a few days time. He was jolly nice, invited me in and like others has always been Labour but this time thinking of voting Lib Dem. I suggest he looks at various tactical voting web-sites (e.g. www.strategicvoter.org.uk) which are advising disaffected Labour supporters where it is safe to vote Lib Dem without letting a Tory in etc.

I then decide I am wet and cold and have arranged to met team in the Red Lion and Sun pub – which I do.

Double dose of the Guardian

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Two pieces of news from the Guardian.

Today’s paper has an article from Tariq Ali saying he’ll be voting for me – in order to oust the pro-war Labour MP.

Also, I’ve been shortlisted again in the Guardian political blogs of the year competition. You can vote up until 4 April.

Also see some of the online Lib Dem ads are appearing on the Guardian website. Part of our overall stepping up of the campaign to be serious challengers to the other two parties – hurrah!

Tory troubles

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Today I stay home and bundle leaflets into delivery runs, prepare canvass boards and annoy the children. Major news breaking during the day is the Tory Deputy Chair’s streak of honesty where he reveals on tape that Tories want to cut much more than they’ve admitted in public.

The wheels immediately fall off the Tory campaign. Mr Flight is sacked from his post and then told he cannot stand again. His constituency party backs him at first – and then dumps him.

Now it looks like he’s being airbrushed out of the Tories. Go to Google to check how to spell his surname, bung in Howard Flight, up comes the first link – to his biog on the Tory website. But follow the link … and you get a big blank white space! Have a look at: http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&PersonID=5122

Campaign rally

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Off to the Purcell Room on the South Bank for an Election Summit – a last gathering of the Lib Dem clan to rally us for the election.

First off is the photo op with Charles. We are meant to stand in a diamond shape of human beings whilst the cameras shoot us from above. TV and radio and lots of papers in attendance. The Lib Dem star is definitely rising at the moment – as we are the ‘Real Alternative’.

I am placed next to Charles at the front of the diamond shape. It’s all very interesting where you get put – I surmise from the number of times I have found myself next to Charles in photo-ops recently that I am either absolutely gorgeous (unlikely) or that the party wishes to promote me as a good thing (quite right)!

Photo over – we go into the hall for a speech from our Charles. The media are allowed to stay for this – and Charles gives it a good send off. It is a confidence thing I think – our policies are good, out position is better than ever before – and the others are less than edifying with their various negative yah-boo style of politics – all giving us a feel-good factor. Let’s hope it translates into votes.

A few of the senior MPs have sidled up to me to say that the buzz in Westminster is that I will win in Hornsey & Wood Green. If enough people vote for me this is undoubtedly true – but I am too much of a grass-roots campaigner with feet firmly on ground to pay too much account to the village gossip (although I think they are right). But it is better than the gossip being in the other direction!

We then move into private session to hear from our campaign genius Chris Rennard and our election campaign manager Tim Razzall.

It’s a good session followed by our various spokespersons giving a three-minute speech on their area and then taking really nasty questions from us. We are all going to face this at hustings during the election – so seeing our spokespersons under heavy fire rehearses the arguments.

I come out to lunch, switch on my phone, to find 15 missed calls. I hate that – I always feel under surveillance and guilty for not attending at moment of call. Too dutiful by far. Most are media – including the Evening Standard who are showing an interest in Hornsey & Wood Green. But there is also an urgent comment needed on the Mayor’s mad proposition to bring powered two-wheelers into the congestion charge regime. We have spent recent years encouraging people to get out of cars onto public transport or onto bikes or scooters – now the Mayor wants to charge them for the change he has been promoting.

Ken has turned into a money-grabbing government lackey. He was great on many issues before he went back into the Labour party. But now his whole joie de vivre has disappeared as he toes the party line and agenda. I think he is unhappy. I don’t know why – but he just doesn’t seem to have the spark he had before.

Back into the lecture hall to be lectured. Several more sessions, our secret polling and campaign advice and then off home to more paperwork and more emails.

More on stop and search

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I chair the Stop and Search Scrutiny Implementation Panel at the Metropolitan Police Authority. This session is about training and so the head of training and various other Met officers are present to give evidence. I suppose the argument of the day was a continuation of where stop and search policy and implementation will sit in the Met.

Commander Brian Paddick is now heading their working group and hopefully he can ensure the issue is dealt with properly. If it doesn’t find a home and isn’t led by someone with clout – it will go the way of all Met good intentions

The other interest of the morning was on training. I bring up a recent occasion when several of us went to the Commons and passed through the new security scan and body search. One of our number was extremely roughly treated – curt and unpleasant.

I ask whether there is any central emphasis on not being friendly, keeping a formal distance and a sort of roughness and authoritarian manner being a requirement? Oh no – said a very, very senior officer – but you know (and I paraphrase) some of the people going into the Commons behave extremely arrogantly when we have to search them – and after you have had a few of those, well – the people doing the searches are only human…

There was a kind of shock amongst the panel members. For though quite possibly the case the implication was there were lots of rude toffs and we were dismayed that such minor encounters could bring forth such unprofessional behaviour. The implication for how police would behave in a more confrontational stop and search situation was pretty poor.

I point out that we are trying to get to a standard of training where the professional behaviour mitigates against natural instinct – otherwise we will never eradicate discrimination in stop and search.

Also, my personal view is that what goes around comes around, and until the police learn to be a bit better at all their encounters the problems will not get better. It is frustrating at this stage to see how superficial some of the warm words are.

Evening of paperwork and email. Election correspondence is building – and flooding in!

10 reasons to vote Lib Dem

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I go to meet Charles Kennedy’s poster van for a photo op. The Lib Dems are launching our 10 Good Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat poster campaign today. The graphic and the idea behind it I think are fabby. In very bold text in red – it says ‘We oppose’ and then in gold ‘We propose’ and lists the 10 things.

It’s very striking visually as well as making the point that we are a ‘Real Alternative’ – which indeed we are!

It works well – of course the headlines are backed by substantive policy proposals – but as an ex-graphic designer of some 20 years’ experience prior to politics – it is the best graphic I have seen yet…

After our photo op the poster van goes on its merry way around to other Lib Dem target seats in London.

FULL COUNCIL – DISMAY AS DEBATE SQUASHED OVER PHONE MASTS

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Liberal Democrats have sharply criticised Haringey Labour for blocking a debate on mobile phone masts at last night’s full council. The move caused disappointment to local residents addressing the council last night on the issue and goes against recent practice in the council.

Liberal Democrats had asked that Haringey Council consider the issue along with the two deputations by local residents, so that the groups could hear the debate as has happened over recent issues such as skateboarding and the future of Red Gables family centre in Crouch End. However this was not allowed.

The motion proposed by Lib Dem councillor and Parliamentary spokesperson for Tottenham, Wayne Hoban, would have sent a message to the government that Haringey Council was unhappy with present law in relation to masts. Current law does not allow local councils to bring mobile phone masts under strict planning control or to introduce the ‘precautionary principle’, giving extra safeguards for schools, homes, and medical facilities from the risk of excessive radiation. The move backs a Lib Dem bill, with all-party support, currently moving through Parliament.

Cllr Wayne Hoban comments:

“It is very disappointing to see Labour break with their own conventions to stop the Council taking a view on the issue. Local residents had expected to take a stand and this was cynically blocked. There is real concern over the placing of mobile masts in the borough and pressure needs to be put on the Government to give planning authorities more powers. Local residents will now know that Haringey Labour is simply not willing to put pressure on the government over this issue. We will continue to press for action.”

RED GABLES – LABOUR WON'T ANSWER

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There was further controversy over the future of the Red Gables family centre at last night’s Full Council meeting, when the Labour Lead Member seeking to shut down the much-valued centre refused to answer a question from Lib Dem councillor Ron Aitken on how many local families used the service.

The Lib Dem question from Councillor Ron Aitken was in response to Labour claims that the centre is essentially a borough-wide facility that serves families from across the borough, many of whom have to travel considerable distances to get to it.

Cllr Aitken last night asked what proportion of the users were in fact from the local area – but was told the figures were not available.

Ron Aitken comments:

“Local users and campaigners value Red Gables as a local centre. The refusal to reveal how many of the users of the service are local will cause suspicions that this information is being withheld.

“Haringey does not want to admit that Red Gables is a vital resource for the local community in Crouch End. If their policy to shut the centre really is based around it being a borough-wide facility, why can’t they come clean about where the current users come from?”

Kurdish New Year

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We are celebrating Newroz at City Hall – the Kurdish New Year. This time instead of just one day – the festival is running for two weeks and there are lots of events going on.

To my surprise, I am called to say a few words – which I do. I take the tack of the need for political representation. Their chief lobbyist, Ibrahim, came to see me a while back – and he is certainly doing a fantastic job of raising awareness among the political classes of the variety of barriers and challenges facing Kurdish-speaking people in England.

Relatively recent arrivals, Kurds have advanced very quickly into the infrastructure of society in terms of housing, work, health and education. It was a matter of survival on arrival and the barriers were immense. Twenty years on there are still barriers – like the failure to recognise that numbers of children at schools were not ‘Turkish speaking’ as they had been labelled – but ‘Kurdish speaking’. These problems are now being corrected. Still a way to go until we have a Kurdish GCSE though!

My main message is the need to move on from arrival survival into the landscape of the country. Lobbying is fine – but get involved (with whichever political party suits), get in there and get elected – to council, to Regional Assemblies and to Parliament.

UDP – LIB DEM DISMAY AS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AUDIT REJECTED

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Lib Dem councillors have expressed their disappointment that Haringey Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has thrown out attempts to force the Labour-run council to conduct a sustainability audit of the borough’s proposed Unitary Development Plan (UDP).

The move is a disappointment to both the Lib Dems and the Federation of Haringey Residents’ Associations, who were represented by Dave Morris at the call-in hearing held last week.

As a compromise, Lib Dem environment spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare had suggested that the Council could conduct a headline sustainability audit of key issues rather than a full assessment – but this was also rejected.

Bob Hare comments:

“This is very disappointing, as the audit would have been of enormous use to local groups in assessing the impact of council policies, and could have been done in time. It would have been very much in the long term interests of us all.”

Lib Dem councillor and group leader Neil Williams is also questioning the behaviour of Labour councillors before the meeting, who appeared to be receiving a briefing on the issue from council officers and other Labour councillors – to which Lib Dem members were not invited. Cllr Williams comments:

“Labour’s behaviour is very disappointing and it shows there is no intention at all to allow proper scrutiny of council decisions. Scrutiny members should approach these issues in an independent manner. I will be asking for the notes of this meeting and why other councillors were not invited. It is an inappropriate use of officers’ time and council taxpayers’ money.”