Tag Archives: mpa

Violent Crime Bill

Posted on by

The Violent Crime Bill is published today. I am the Lib Dem spokesperson on this in the Commons and will be taking it through the committee stage.

The bill is to bring in measures to address the rising problems around replica guns, the age at which you can buy a knife and binge-drinking. All very real problems – so Lib Dems are broadly in favour of the measures – with some heavy provisos around the detail, which I guess are where our amendments will be as we go through the legislation.

A while back, as a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), I went to visit the Met’s firearms division SO19 to see what armed officers do, learn about their training and see what they have to confront. There is now this amazing video / computer technology that puts you in a crime situation – and you see something happen, maybe a gun turn on you, and in a split second have to decide what action to take. Then it flashes up on the screen whether you were right to shoot or wrong – or indeed whether you are dead. Salutary experience for me. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get it right one hundred percent of the time. And I certainly couldn’t tell the difference between a replica gun and a real one.

Moreover, I went into the arms room where they have dozens of guns and their replicas – side by side in pairs – from revolvers to rifles. These are not some near approximation for the real thing. These replicas are indistinguishable from the real thing.

So – I am supportive of banning such replicas – so long as the law isn’t an ass. What I mean is that it has to be enforceable at the same time as not interfering with the harmless – such as props for plays. Let’s hope the legislation can cope with drawing this distinction in a workable manner.

On the age being raised to 18 to buy a knife – I think the government will get itself in a tangle. There is a great debate to be had about the age of majority. What can and should one be allowed to do at 16, 17 or 18? However, the notion that a couple can marry and have children at 16 but not buy a knife may well be in danger of being the wrong solution to a very real problem.

I regard knife crime as seriously as I regard gun crime and do not understand why knife crime carries lesser sentences. That is an area I would like to see tackled alongside a wide debate about the age of majority.

And then there is binge-drinking. Perhaps the government needs to pause before going ahead with 24 hour lifestyles. In the end – it is probably right – but there are clearly a number of drawbacks that need attention before that goes ahead.

But the real point about all of the above – they may go some way to satisfying the ‘tough on crime’ but they don’t even begin to touch on being ‘tough on the causes of crime’. What is it in our society that makes young men aspire to criminality as a way of gaining status with their peers? Why does carrying a knife mean more than doing well at school? Why do young people want to drink themselves into oblivion on a Friday night?

A change in culture is the hardest thing to achieve – because it takes massive effort at all levels for a long time. Sometimes laws can deliver – drink driving and wearing seatbelts are examples. But there was so much more than legislation to them. There was a real underlying resource poured into campaigning and advertising – and that is what shifted the culture when combined with enforcement.

So tough laws can deliver – but not if they are only there for appearance sake.

Finishing off at the MPA

Posted on by

Off to the MPA (having resigned a couple of weeks ago) to lead a deputation from Highgate who have submitted a question. Highgate Tube is out of action – closed – so have to take car. Looks like I won’t make it – but I do and arrive just in time.

The issue is that with Highgate being split between three boroughs, no single police commander will ever rate it important enough to get a Safer Neighbourhood Team. So the deputation wants the three police commanders to be given a nudge and a way to be found for such a team to be introduced in the area.

The reaction of my erstwhile colleagues on the MPA is hilarious. Kind of – how dare I? I dare.

Toby Harris (Labour and former GLA member himself) joins with the Tories in trying to infer that I am a johnny come lately to this and it was really started by Tories. Nonsense – as the chair of the MPA points out, I have been working on this for months and raised it on his borough visit to Haringey months and months ago. It’s another example of the rather cynical Labour and Tory love-in we often get in Haringey – they’re both so scared of losing yet more elections to the Lib Dems they like to talk each other up in public.

Anyway – it sparks a jolly good debate – and a few promises. After which melee the MPA Chair asks me to join him and makes a presentation to me with a gift and thanks me for all the hard work. ‘Ah – so now you’re being nice to me’!

I say thank you and how much I have enjoyed my time on the MPA. I also – parting shot – say that they won’t be losing me entirely as I have been put in the LibDem Home Affairs Team! Joy all round……..

In the afternoon trail round dismally looking at the few offices which are still left in Parliament. I am almost bottom of the heap and will be left with shoebox, far from the Commons and far from staff by the look of it. I lost my place in office allocations because I had to go to Leeds to do Question Time.

Then I have to meet Mark Littlewood from the LibDem Press Office who runs through the whole media operation with me. Coming from high profile on the Assembly, I have a lot of media experience now – so much of what we cover is for form. Mark seems very on the ball and a good thing from what I can see.

In the evening – pop into Valerie and Clive Silbigers’ farewell party. They are moving to France. The first meeting Haringey Lib Dem meeting I ever went to was in Valerie’s flat. She has been a stalwart of the Party for over 30 years and is currently President of London Region – an unsung hero of the party to whom I am grateful for her love and support over the years. And in this election – whereas she has always done front of desk at Simon Hughes’ campaign HQ – this time she did mine! We wish them all the very best in their new life in France.

Bookies slash odds

Posted on by

Meet BBC News (national for once – rather than London) at HQ. I am being interviewed on transport. They are interviewing each of the main parties and then putting some sort of package together for Saturday news.

Transport is key in my view – but not getting much of a play so far in the election. The interviewer turns out to have written to me as his daughter failed to get a place in this year’s primary school lottery in Hornsey & Wood Green. I tell him about the fiasco that has just come to light following a reply from the Government a recent letter of mine.

Despite the grief, anxiety and publicity attaining to the scrabble for school places in Muswell Hill (and Crouch End and Wood Green) last year and this – St James’s had its application for two form entry turned down. I couldn’t understand this and so followed it up to ask for the reasons why. You wouldn’t believe it:

“The bid did not demonstrate the need for additional school places. In fact, the information presented showed there were surplus school places available. Officials subsequently contacted London Diocese to explain that the information submitted was incorrect.”

So – a typical Labour Haringey cock-up!

Then dash off to Hendon Police College where I am addressing London’s top cops on stop and search. It is quite hard to switch in the middle of an election into something else. I have a 20 minute speech to deliver and my mission is to make it quite clear to the Met how seriously the Metropolitan Policy Authority (MPA) takes this issue. There have been lots of warm words from the Met – but we are determined that real change will be delivered. Too long to go into now – but still think that some senior officers in the Met believe this is more to do with political correctness than anything else. It is not. It is about good and effective policing full stop!

Back to the election HQ to find that Ladbrokes have apparently opened the betting and Valerie’s husband Clive phoned to put a bet on me winning the seat. Valerie burst out laughing at something Clive said on the phone. I asked what she was laughing at and she said that Clive had asked to put a bet on Lynne to win and the bookie had said ‘Where’s she racing?’.

I finish the day with a canter around the very hilly parts of Muswell Hill ward to deliver some letters – and then home to emails. The fun just never stops … and the day ends with news that the bookies have cut the odds on me winning twice already!

Not so much a Mayor for London as a Mayor for Labour

Posted on by

I go into City Hall this morning for two meetings. The first with my MPA officer and my police researcher to prepare the planning for the next meeting of the panel I chair on Stop & Search (implementing the recommendations of the scrutiny). We also discuss the speech I am to make to about 150 police officers including all the borough commanders on 19th April.

Then a meeting with a Transport for London officer about the shenanigans that have been going on with the Immigration Service ‘fishing’ at stations etc. TfL have now stopped the practise and developed an agreed protocol on operations. The Immigration Service were being opportunistic and lazy in my view – as the TfL chap said far better that they should spend their time trapping illegal taxi touts as opposed to people just using public transport.

Now, as you may know – I’m not always Mayor Ken’s greatest fan! Someone points out to me Ken’s revenge! He slags me off in the Socialist Worker. His ire has been stirred by Tariq Ali’s support for me in Hornsey and Wood Green to oust ‘warmonger Roche’. Ken used to be anti-war but now he’s a Labour man. Not so much a Mayor for London as a Mayor for Labour.

I run out of City Hall and dash back to the Muswell Hill roundabout for a briefing of a raft of Police Officers and Community Support officers who are part of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

1,000 officers across five boroughs are taking part in five one day bursts where a whole raft of measures are used to deter, detect and reduce crime. It was fantastic. I have never seen so many officers in Muswell Hill and passers by may have taken fright in case there was some sort of crime wave that officers had been brought in for! I look forward to seeing the analysis of this operation when it comes for monitoring to the Performance Committee of the MPA on which I sit.

Then I rush home, log on. I had forgotten what happens when a General Election gets called and I am the candidate – emails flood in as do phone calls. I check for emergency ones – and then dash out to deliver leaflets for a few hours.

Rush back to do a pre-record radio interview on tomorrow’s Mayor’s Question Time – more on transport – then rush out again for another few hours delivering leaflets. I do rely on the election campaign to get fit and lose half a stone.

And as ever – back for emails, letters and of course – this blog!

Fighting crime in Highgate

Posted on by

Meet two women in Muswell Hill who contacted me about an idea they have for helping mothers cross the barriers back into work. Brilliant idea – as ever – I am enthused and will try and find funding streams for them to tap into. Funding is always the key (and the full stop to brilliant ideas).

In the afternoon, meet the key senior officers involved in the Muswell Hill (and a bit of Fortis Green) Safer Neighbourhood Team which is about to roll out. Hurray!

This is what residents want. Dedicated neighbourhood teams on the beat. But we need them everywhere – otherwise you get displacement of crime.

And what about poor old Highgate – split between three boroughs? I am working on bringing that together – and have made some progress following my lobbying of the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). A methodology and trial is afoot in Bexley – and then once the wrinkles are ironed out there the model can be used for Highgate and any other areas of London where there is a neighbourhood split across different boundaries.

Stop and search

Posted on by

Chair the Stop & Search Implementation Panel which is overseeing how the MPA’s recommendations from last year’s scrutiny are being implemented – or not. This session we have the Home Office, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Met Police as witnesses.

The first part is taken up with an update on the Met’s new policy on Stop & Search. Their ‘vision’ statement now addresses the issue of ‘disproportionality’ in Stop & Search – and I am extremely glad we were able to persuade them to put this in and that they were intelligent and brave enough to do so.

(‘Disproportionality’ is the issue of people from some communities being more likely than average to be stopped and searched; is this because of good policing reasons or because of bias in the implementation of the policy? There’s a lot more about this on the MPA website.)

The next battle is over a recommendation in the scrutiny that asks for a special department to run the Stop & Search brief – at present it is one (or a couple) of men and a dog. This proves a sticking point for me and I will ask for this to come back to next meeting with Tim Godwin (bigwig) and the new Lead for the Met on this, Brian Paddick. The MPA is not going to let this one get away – it is too important.

In the afternoon, do some canvassing in Highgate and Hornsey wards – despite cold and rain. It feels pretty good on the doorsteps. Later, an evening of paperwork and email and envelopes.

MPA meeting

Posted on by

It’s a Metropolitan Police Authority Away Day – and we are ‘away’ in a hotel in Piccadilly. Without boring you to death over the whole day’s proceedings – the basic thrust of the day was that we have to get smarter and tougher in calling the Met to account.

I have learned an awful lot in the nearly five years I have been on the Authority and think that considering we were only ‘born’ then, a tremendous amount of change for the better has come in that period.

I suggest that the ‘strap line’ for the MPA should be – ‘Making Police Accountable (to London)’.

In the evening, it’s my regular surgery for residents. It’s so full I cannot get through everyone in time before Muswell Hill Library closes. So many problems for residents of humungous proportions – it’s a sound reminder of why it is worth fighting for better services. You might not always be able to deliver the outcome someone wants – but you can treat people well at all times.

Then rush around dropping off leaflets to deliverers (and remember to return a DVD to the video store) before it’s our local branch executive meeting.

You can tell things are hotting up because the attendance is good, the people’s reports are more or less all there and everyone is on the ball. Fundraising is high on the agenda – and the new fundraising group has put together an Auction of Promises, which is where people give something (an example is use of a flat for a weekend during the Edinburgh Festival) and then we will have an auction of those ‘lots’.

The nitty gritty about printing schedules, policy working groups, council business etc takes most of the evening and I rush home to try and catch the late night broadcast of Desperate Housewives. Pure escapism.

Crime figures and taxi fares

Posted on by

Meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) committee that I sit on which monitors the Met performance. Bit of a barney over crime recording. The Met always try and have it both ways. When there is a bad stat – such as recently the rise of violent crime – we are told that the increase is not real – it is due to better recording and better reporting. On the other hand when the stat is good and crime rate is dropping – then of course the drop is real and the recording is totally accurate.

Afterwards, have my surgery at Muswell Hill library. Interesting case where a guy developing a site is going to appeal after his planning application was refused. I had backed residents in opposing the application as, from what I saw of the original drawings, the new house would be over dominant, over development etc. This chap not surprisingly disagreed! He disputed some of the pictures used previously. Am doing some research to try and find where the truth lies on this one.

Then off to the local branch meeting of the Liberal Democrats – but have to do a quick radio interview from the chair’s bedroom on arrival. I am attacking Mayor Ken for raising taxi fares.

Together with the tube and bus fare rises (above inflation and breaking his election promises) the cost of using public transport is rising fast in London. And this from the man who made his name on ‘fares fair’! And to add insult to injury, raising black cab fares can only serve to drive more people into unlicensed mini-cabs – which we are supposed to be trying to exterminate. Not clever! But Ken is short of cash. He’ll probably try and put a tax on walking next!

Policing issues

Posted on by

Chairing the Stop and Search Implementation Panel at City Hall – which means following up on how the recommendations of our investigation into stop and search are going.

Today’s meeting’s hot issues are: have the Met come back with agreement on changing their vision statement appropriately and have they responded to our request for a public document to explain their new stop and search policy?

The Met came back with pretty negative responses. They hadn’t changed their vision statement and had rejected the idea of the document. As chair, I made it clear that as far as I and the other members of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) were concerned these were fundamental issues and they needed to go back and look at the issues once again.

More police business later in the day with a meeting of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board of the MPA.

I raised the morning’s clash of views with the meeting and asked the chair’s guidance as to what happened when the Met and the MPA could not come to an agreement. The Commissioner’s Chief of Staff was in attendance (unfortunately she had not been able to attend the morning session) and she is leading the stop and search steering group within the Met. She kindly said she thought we would be able to resolve the issues. I am sure we will come to agreement soon and I was grateful to her for a genuine effort to cross this bridge.

Another issue was faith monitoring. Diametrically opposed views split the group – which actually is a good thing. This isn’t a simple right and wrong way forward and the issues really need to be debated, aired, thrashed out. Would faith monitoring enhance our understanding of what is going on – which is the stated purpose – or would it deepen differences and be a pointless knee-jerk reaction to the very real problem faced by Muslims post 9/11?

Naming buildings

Posted on by

Back into City Hall to catch up on correspondence etc. Sally Hamwee says that during Mayor’s Question Time (which I’d missed with my back trouble) she asked my question to the Mayor and said that it was his Christmas present that I was not there to irritate him. He rejoined with ‘that depends what she’s up to’!

Last meeting of the Met Police Authority before the break. Big issue of the day is the naming of the three new buildings that house the new call centre system – C3I. Suggestion that went to committee was to name them John Stevens, Paul Condon and Toby Harris. Whilst the first two – after commissioners – went through finance committee, the third stuck in everyone’s throat. Toby Harris was the first chair of the MPA – but as he lost his seat at the election and does not garner universal respect and admiration and came back as an “independent” appointee of the Home Secretary – it’s a no no.

So it came to full authority. An interesting bit is the equality impact statement on the paper which says the practise of naming buildings after policemen means that inevitably all buildings will be named after white men and so needs review. I say do it now. As everyone seems keen on Sir John, the argument is over the other two. Of course, women and ethnic minorities don’t figure to date.

Cindy Butts suggests Nick Long for the Lambeth Building – but others don’t feel it should be named after any MPA member. Cindy’s devotion to Nick is admirable – but living idols can fall from grace. It could have been the Blunkett building – and then where would we be.

The Chair calls for suggestions to be decided later etc. Poor old Toby – not nice to find such universal agreement cross party and independents that it shouldn’t be named after him.