Football pub quiz question

This article I've just spotted gives an unusual fact about Sunday's Carling Cup Final and particularly the goalscorers (both Tottenham and Chelsea). So if you're in a pub quiz with a smart alec quizmaster, look out for this one...

Security wake-up call for Parliament?

The news yesterday that people from Plane Stupid protesting against Heathrow Expansion made it on to the roof of the House of Commons didn't particularly surprise me.

Everyone always talks about the daunting levels of security at Parliament, but in my experience it has always seemed a worryingly easy target.

I worked in Parliament for 18 months, including being inside there as the planes struck the World Trade Center on 911. While security then increased, and anyone going through the main visitor's entrance at St Stephen's gets what's called 'airport style security checks', some of the other entrances into the Palace have less robust checks.

I have been into Parliament (since I have no longer been a pass holder) without having my bag searched - even just waved through a security check and left to make my own way wherever I was going. And although visitors should always be accompanied by a pass holder, how well that is enforced is variable throughout the Palace.

Now, there are two issues here - dodgy people and dodgy things (i.e. bombs, weapons). To get a Parliamentary pass, you do go through a thorough security check. But control over the passes is weak - for example, as far as I know there are no checks to ensure they are returned when staff leave employment.

But the news reports yesterday, while complaining that the protesters had been able to get onto the roof, also went with a lot of 'what if that banner had been a bomb' type of fear mongering. Well, I'm fairly sure (although, to be fair, not 100%) that had they been taking in a bomb rather than some harmless fabric then they would have been stopped. Why they would have taken the bomb to the roof is another question, but anyway.

That's the dodgy stuff, as opposed to dodgy people, point. Does it really matter if people are wandering around Parliament if they don't have any weapons? I'm not suggesting hiring out the roof for anyone to go up and protest, but the issue is more one of annoyance and embarrassment than danger.

It is nice that we don't have armed police every few metres in Parliament and good that people are able to get close to our democracy. So, while there are definitely elements of the security arrangements that the Parliamentary authorities should look at, let's make sure there is no move to unnecessarily limit access.

Sorry for waffling on - I'm on my way to a very early start for work and I'm still half asleep.

Home Office minister admits ID card scheme doomed to fail

I only spotted this Tony McNulty quote in the comparison I saw pointed out on this blog article.

The GLA campaign continues...

Just a quick post - on Monday this week my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Monica Whyte, who is our candidate for the GLA seat of Enfield & Haringey, was out campaigning in Enfield with Lib Dem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick.

The photo shows Monica with Brian and other local campaigners at Southgate police station. You can read more on the campaign on Monica's website here.

Carling Cup Winners 2008: Tottenham Hotspur

Well, it's nice to be able to use that headline.

It was a nervy last 15 minutes of extra-time when Chelsea finally decided to have a go at attacking, but the lads came through and it was altogether a more fun day out than the last Carling Cup final I went to.

Ledley and Jonathan Woodgate were outstanding in defence, though I felt sorry for Michael Dawson missing out. That's why I wore my Dawson shirt for the day, as you can see from the (not very good) photo.

The other two photos are of Wembley pretty much straight after the turnstiles opened and then when it was a lot fuller - with plenty of the free flags the Club had provided for each fan on view. My mate who I went with had a proper digitial camera so took some rather better photos, which I'll post when I get hold of them.

As it's taken a couple of days to find the time to write any more about the match, I won't go into any more detail now. Except to say, following some of the photos from an Essex nightclub that have popped up in the last couple of days, I think Ledley, JJ, Aaron and the rest of the lads all deserved a few drinks...

Back in the real world, Monday night was Overview & Scrutiny, which was a packed agenda as usual. One of the items was a follow-up on a review I chaired two years ago, on reducing youth reoffending. It's always good to revisit these pieces of work and see that they have actually had an impact - even if one of the recommendations was to write to the Home Office and I found out on Monday that although the Council did write, they never had a reply.

Anyway, just on lunchbreak then back to work - and out again in Highgate & Archway delivering leaflets for the by-election... polling day a week tomorrow now!

Carling Cup Final Half-time: Chelsea 1 Spurs 0

Just a quick half-time blog 'live' from Wembley.

Chelsea barely touched the ball for the first 10 or 15 minutes and were struggling to get out of their own half. But they've just gone in at half-time a goal up, thanks to a late succession of dubious freekicks, one of which was expertly taken by Didier Drogba.

In the last 20 minutes our opponents had definitely woken up, but we had by far the better chances of the first half - even though it's not been classic football.

On the whole we're looking quite sharp and Ledley King is back in as skipper and looking good. The main worry is that Chelsea will now just shut up shop in the second half and we could be in for a dull, fruitless 45 minutes.

But fingers crossed, if we keep playing well and with a bit of luck (and when the well-watered pitch has dried and got a little less slippy...) we'll still be lifting the Cup later today.

And if not, then I won't be doing a full match report later.

(Spurs team: Robinson, Chimbonda, King, Woodgate, Hutton, Lennon, Zokora, Jenas, Malbranque, Berbatov, Keane)

Spurs at Wembley again

It was a busy day of leafleting and canvassing in Highgate and Archway yesterday, with a really good buzz around Rachel Allison's campaign to join the Lib Dem team as a councillor. Only 10 days until polling day now!

After a good night out with Owen, Heather and Wendy (hi guys), today is a full day off from campaigning for me - as I am currently on my way to Wembley.

Hoping for a repeat of the last time I went to Wembley - a 2-0 win. Though that was Blackpool in a play-off final rather than Spurs and I think Chelsea might put up more of a challenge than Yeovil did that day...

Obviously excited and nervous about the match. Hopefully it will be a great match - but, to be honest, I don't really care if it is or not, so long as we win.

Michael Dawson won't be playing sadly, but I've got my Dawson shirt on anyway. We need all our players to be on top of their game today to bring back the trophy to White Hart Lane.

COME ON YOU SPURS!!!

This morning's good news

Another cracking by-election result yesterday, for our neighbours in Camden in the ward of Fortune Green (not to be confused with my own of Fortis Green here in Haringey). We held the seat with no problem at all.

With an increased majority and increased share of the vote, seems the residents like what the Lib Dems are doing with the council.

The result was:

Lib Dem Nancy Jirira 1206
Con 551
Lab 405
Grn 178

Particularly good news, as unusually I wasn't able to go and deliver good morning leaflets for once (due to work commitments). So I might have felt a bit guilty if we'd narrowly lost!

Congratulations to Nancy and the whole team.

ID cards - no, no, no

Nick Clegg was on Channel 4 last night, explaining why he's against ID cards - you can watch what he had to say on YouTube by clicking here.

Lib Dem success!

Locally we are used to lots of success - on the streets, campaigning for residents and of course in the ballot box. But in the six years I've been a councillor, success in votes at council meetings has been harder to come by - thanks to the Haringey Labour bloc vote.

But as I said earlier in the week, we had some good successes at Full Council on Monday. We tabled three emergency motions, two of which got passed.

Haringey Labour had to agree that leaving hundreds of personal records lying around what is now a squat is not acceptable and needs investigating fully. They also voted for the Lib Dem motion to fight the planned post office closures.

The motion they voted against - despite some supportive words from the Labour side they *all* voted against - was our proposal to reverse their cuts to free leisure passes for OAPs.

The public pressure and political pressure from us has won a small concession. OAPs will still be able to swim for free during off peak hours, but not in the mornings, evenings or weekends. That's simply not good enough.

The original Haringey Labour plan aimed to save the Council just £52,000, presumably this new (and hastily thought out) plan will save even less. Worth noting that the consultant who drew up this fees restructure was paid £12,000!

The Labour Cabinet Member responsible was clearly clueless as to what was going on and should resign. He even said at one point that he'd never supported the proposals - yet these were *his* proposals as the allegedly responsible councillor.

If you have time, it'd be worth watching that debate on the council's webcast archive - go to www.haringey.gov.uk

There was one other motion, which I was due to propose, that we didn't have time to reach. At the end of the meeting, we could have taken votes on that (as the Chief Executive explained, one part of the constitution explicitly allows for that - even if another suggests we can't).

But for some reason Haringey Labour were very keen to avoid having to vote on a motion which criticised Ken Livingstone, attacked his wasteful spending on spin & PR and urged more funding to fight knife crime. I can only assume that was because they agreed with us on all of it but didn't want to be seen voting against their Mayor. I expect they'll all be joining us in voting for Brian Paddick on May 1st!

A car owner for 30 minutes

A resident in my ward recently contacted me about pushing the Council to provide bays for a car sharing scheme.

I have been told there are a number of schemes like this - in London, we have http://www.streetcars.co.uk/, http://www.whizzgo.co.uk/, http://www.zipcar.co.uk/ and http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/ - if anyone knows of others, feel free to add below. The idea is simple - a car that members of the group can book out for half an hour, couple of hours, half a day, a day. Such a scheme can help reduce car ownership, helping us with both usage and parking problems.

The Fortis Green resident who contacted me uses these cars, but the nearest one is based in Highgate, which limits its convenience for him. The problem is that these cars of course need a dedicated parking bay, which needs to be allocated by the local council. Although there are some in the area, they are in boroughs like Islington and Camden, with not a single bay provided by Haringey.

Unprompted, when I was delivering leaflets with our by-election candidate for Highgate & Archway, Rachel Allison, she told me that she had been pressing Haringey on this already. My ward colleague Martin Newton, the Lib Dem roads spokesperson, has also been chasing the Council for months and months on this, as well as our MP Lynne Featherstone.

I have just had a response to my enquiry on this and the good news is that the Council are tendering for the provision of a car club scheme at the moment, with a view to getting it started in July. So the relentless Lib Dem pressure has finally paid off!

Not too much longer to wait - but they are only looking to put in 10 bays across the whole of Haringey. I have asked them to look at increasing that number if the scheme is a success.

I've also asked how they will be deciding where exactly the bays go - if any Haringey residents have any suggestions of locations for bays, please email me or leave them in the comments box below.

Fashion statement or environmental awareness?

Last night's Full Council was pretty action-packed - I'm still reeling a little from the shock of Haringey Labour actually supporting two of our motions, on an investigation into the shambles of the lost personal data and on opposing post office closures.

I'm on my way to chair a scrutiny meeting looking at the Council's 'neighbourhood management' function, but I'll try and blog later on in detail about what went on at the meeting.

Just one quick thing though... you may remember that Haringey Labour opposed a simple motion we put forward recently to support the Crouch End 'Bag for Life' scheme. Well, last night the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment and Conservation went one further, saying that the scheme was not about the environment but simply a "fashion statement" from the people carrying the bags.

And, yes, they were the actual words he used. Unbelievable.

Not the way to leave a train

Typing this while stuck on a tube on the Piccadilly Line. On way to Wood Green Civic Centre, left work in the Old Street area at 6.10 and by 7pm I am still not even as far as Finsbury Park... Bang goes the 7pm meeting with my group - remains to be seen if will make the start of Full Council at 7.30.

We have a really packed agenda tonight - aside from the council tax setting decision, we are doing our opposition business on crime in Haringey, a motion on the Mayor's misuse of taxpayers' money and hopefully up to three emergency motions we have tabled on the scrapping of free leisure passes for OAPs, the imminent threat to our local post offices and the fiasco of the Council losing thousands of residents' personal details. As well as the usual reports, questions and deputations.

And the reason for this delay? Well, apparently there is a defective train half in the station at Finsbury Park - which might not have held us up for so long if some idiots hadn't decided to try leaving the train, meaning that power on the line has now been switched off.

Fingers crossed I'll be out of here in time to make it to the Civic Centre for 7.30... You'll be able to tell if I made it by the time this is posted, on my walk up from the tube station...

...ok, it's now gone 7.30 and still not reached Finsbury Park yet. Worth mentioning that our tube driver has been doing sterling work both reassuring and entertaining us all though.

Northern Rock: burn, burn, burn

A satirical view of the latest Northern Rock development from one of my favourite websites. Be warned that if you read the rest of the website you will come across plenty of rude words, so don't blame me if you click the link.

Anything you can do, we can do better...

Although at the last Council I was questioning if Haringey Labour even spoke to their own Labour Government, judging by the very poor budget settlements we always get in Haringey, it's clear from this latest news that they do at least manage to pick up some tips from their colleagues in Government...

CONFIDENTIAL FILES LEFT IN SQUAT SHOWS GROTESQUE COUNCIL INCOMPETENCE, SAYS LIB DEM LEADER

Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams is calling for an urgent independent investigation into a shocking and disastrous breach of security involving the personal details of thousands of Haringey residents.

Reports in the Sun newspaper and on the internet today show how Haringey left the personal details of thousands of local residents in an abandoned building in Crouch end that has been occupied by squatters.

Cllr Williams comments:

"This is an absolutely appalling blunder and shows incompetence on a scale that is truly grotesque.

"We must have an independent investigation so that lessons are learned, as if this Labour Council investigates, you can bet there will be a whitewash by Haringey Labour.

"But most important of all, what steps are Haringey taking to inform those whose confidentially has been so disgracefully breached? Given that police appear to have confirmed that criminals would have all they need for identity fraud, this must be done straight away."

Cllr Williams is tabling an emergency motion to today's full council demanding a full explanation, investigation and apology.

Here's the article in The Sun, where the story broke.

Fight to save Highgate Post Office

The Post Office is planning a series of closures across Haringey.

The first I heard about was the one on Highgate High Street, as our Lib Dem by-election candidate Rachel Allison has launched a petition to fight the closure proposal.

If you agree that the loss of the post office would be a big blow to Highgate, please sign Rachel's petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/highgatepostoffice

If you live in Highgate, you'll also be getting a paper copy of the petition to sign.

But it's not just Highgate that's under threat locally. There are seven post offices across Haringey which will be in proposed for closure when the 'consultation' begins next week.

As well as Highgate, the post offices at Weston Park, Ferme Park Road, Alexandra Park Road, Salisbury Road, West Green Road and Page Green Road are under threat.

Local post offices are not just about convenience, but a sense of community too. My Lib Dem colleagues and I will be doing all we can to fight the closures, locally and nationally - please sign the petition above, and do write to your local MP asking for their help.

Some sort of apology

A little bit of overseas politics. You probably heard the news this week that the new Labor government in Australia issued a parliamentary apology to the Aboriginal communities.

Eventually, the new Leader of the Opposition, Liberal Party Leader Brendan Nelson, decided to support the apology - although some of his Liberal colleagues boycotted the parliamentary session. Worth pointing out at this stage that the Liberal Party in Australia bears no relation to us Lib Dems here in the UK!

Well, theoretically he supported the apology. But you can read his speech here and it is hardly heartfelt, or even making much pretence to be genuine.

As a sample quote:

In brutally harsh conditions, from the small number of early British settlers, our non-indigenous ancestors have given us a nation the envy of any in the world. But Aboriginal Australians made involuntary sacrifices, different but no less important, to make possible the economic and social development of our modern Australia.

I think, as he did say he supported the apology, he needs to get in a bit more practice on how to say sorry properly.

Unsurprisingly, considering he also littered his speech with other far from apologetic references, it didn't go down too well. For a brief report on it, take a look at this news article.

Leyton by-election result in full

Great news - Winnie Smith won the Leyton by-election yesterday, with a massive majority. So, although the leaflets I delivered early yesterday morning can't have swung it, it's nice to be on the winning side.

The result was:

Winnie Smith, Lib Dem 1360
Labour 695
Carole Ann Vincent 176
Conservative 108
Green 90

Carole Ann Vincent, formerly of Big Brother fame, was standing either for Respect or with their support - from the leaflet I saw yesterday, it wasn't clear which.

So a gain from Labour and the ward has three Lib Dem councillors again. Well done to everyone and special congratulations to Winnie.

Most Fanciable MPs 2008

Just a little light entertainment...

Sky has announced its Most Fanciable MPs of 2008 list.

Good level of Lib Dem representation! Including Lynne and Nick who've made the Top 10 for the second year in a row.

1. (-) Jeremy Hunt (Con: Surrey South West)

2. (1) Julie Kirkbride (Con: Bromsgrove)

3. (-) Julia Goldsworthy (LibDem: Falmouth & Cambourne)

4. (-) Jenny Willott (LibDem: Cardiff Central)

5. (7) Lynne Featherstone (LibDem: Hornsey & Wood Green)

6. (-) Edward Garnier (Conservative: Harborough)

7. (-) Angela E. Smith (Labour: Basildon)

8. (3) Nick Clegg (LibDem: Sheffield Hallam)

9. (-) Jo Swinson (LibDem: Dunbartonshire East)

10. (5) Shahid Malik (Labour: Dewsbury)

I'll leave you all to go off and find photos of the ones you don't know.

Polling day in Leyton - oh, and Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started early for me - with my alarm going off at 4.15am. Out of the house by 4.30 and on the way to Leyton, where today is polling day for the council by-election.

The by-election was caused by the removal of disgraced Labour councillor Miranda Grell following 2006's election campaign. You can find plenty of details on all that by doing a Google search, so I'm not going to go into it now.

Our candidate is Winnie Smith and a team of us from Haringey - including our own by-election candidate (for Highgate & Archway on March 6th), Rachel Allison - were over there this morning, helping deliver early leaflets reminding people it's polling day.

The local Leyton team will be out and about all day, campaigning hard to make sure Winnie is elected to join her two Lib Dem colleagues in the ward, but for me it's into work now. It's going to be a long day after the early start, but very much looking forward to a much more relaxing Valentine's Day evening myself than they will be having on the campaign trail over in Leyton.

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.

President Blair

Dream or nightmare? David Miliband thinks he might have priced himself out of the market anyway...

UK Youth Parliament elections

The elections for Haringey's representatives to the UK Youth Parliament have just been held.

Congratulations to Farinja Begum from Park View Academy, Adam Jogee from Highgate Wood and Sam Newton Fenner from Fortismere in my ward, who have been elected to represent the borough at the UK level.

Adam (pictured) has also been elected co-leader of the Haringey Youth Council, along with Alisha Bartlett from Hornsey School.

Apparently over 2000 people voted in the elections, which sounds a good number to me and is encouraging when people find it easy to say that young people aren't interested in politics or getting involved in their communities.

Talking of elections, after a lovely dinner Friday evening with my parents then a great trip to Shropshire for a wedding at the weekend, I'm overdue getting back on the Highgate campaign trail... so tonight is an evening of freezing fingers stuffing leaflets through letterboxes in Highgate and Archway. All worth it to get Rachel elected to the Council though!

Another disappointing Labour budget

Wow, the time has flown by since I last blogged a week ago.

In brief:

Had a very nice weekend in Wales, then Monday night was Full Council. I was fairly busy at the meeting, seemed to be speaking on just about every item. It was the budget setting meeting - last year I was our finance spokesperson and made our main speech with our alternative budget proposals, this year my colleague Cllr Robert Gorrie has taken over that role and gave an excellent speech.

I covered what Labour had and hadn't taken any notice of from our alternative proposals last year, the impact on local pensioners to their penny pinching cuts on free passes at Park Road Pools and the travesty that is the inflation busting rent increases they are foisting on Haringey tenants. Also spoke on a few other points, but as not much time now, anyone who wants to know more about the meeting can drop me an email or view the meeting in its full glory on the Council website.

Also this week, I went to see Art Brut at ULU - they were brilliant, even if the crowd didn't seem to be into them as much as last time I saw them. Also had my regular surgery for residents to come and ask for help and a Lib Dem group meeting. Of course, was also Super Tuesday. So it's been a busy week. That all amounts to a sort of apology for neglecting the blog again.

Massive by-election victory

I see this morning that there has been a crushing defeat for the Tories in Portsmouth. You can see the by-election result for Copnor here. A Lib Dem gain from the Tories, hard as it is to believe from the massive margin of vistory - you'd assume it had always been a safe Lib Dem ward.

Actually, have just found this posting on Martin Tod's blog which gives the percentage increase too. See, Nick Clegg is making a difference already!