All your Christmas presents sorted!

If you're a bit stuck with your Christmas shopping, then take a look at the Save Fortis Green Allotments website - they are selling calendars featuring some beautiful photos of the allotments through the seasons.

Money raised from the sale of the calendars goes to the fighting fund to save the allotments - under threat but fortunately this group of residents are fighting to save them.

(I have blogged about the campaign to save the Fortis Green allotments before, but for some reason it's gone missing - presumably as I've accidentally deleted it at some point. Oh well.)

It's nice to share... probably

When I first saw this leaflet from Carshalton & Wallington Tory Ken Andrew I have to admit that I thought it was a spoof.

You can see the leaflet in its full glory by clicking on the image which will take you through to Twitpic.

Congratulations on the wedding to Mr Andrew - and nice that he wanted to share so much with everyone. But residents of Fortis Green can rest assured there will be no similar Hello! style photo shoot of my wedding popping through their doors next March.

And I've no doubt that while Carshalton & Wallington Conservatives were busy putting together this wedding photo montage the Lib Dem MP for Carshalton & Wallington Tom Brake was busy working hard for his constituents and getting our messages across to the voters - so double celebrations!

Sign our petition to save Whittington A&E now

I blogged a couple of days ago about the threat to A&E services at the Whittington Hospital.

Local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has set up a petition to save A&E at the Whittington, which you can sign here.

As Lynne has said:

If an ambulance is called to your home in Hornsey & Wood Green, for many people, their closest A&E is at the Whittington Hospital. As a borough, we are already poorly serviced for emergency hospital services - without a single unit in Haringey itself. I am not opposed to local health services being more efficient, but my Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues and I will not accept any cuts in the services at our closest hospital.

So please do help us in this fight - your starting point is to sign the petition. Thanks for your help.

M&S car park revamp

Good news from my Muswell Hill Lib Dem colleagues - long overdue safety improvements are to be made to the car park behind Marks and Spencers in Muswell Hill Broadway.

It may have taken eight years of campaigning by local Lib Dems and residents, but Haringey Council have now agreed that plans for improvemets will be drawn up soon. This is very welcome, as the car park is used by parents and young children as a route to local schools and the community centre.

Cllr Gail Engert and her Muswell Hill ward colleagues are expecting the plans by the end of November. Gail has said:

This is great news and testament to persistence by local residents. The increasing concern of the safety of young families using this car park meant that the Council needed to do something soon. I am glad that they have, after eight years campaigning, finally taken note and I hope plans are forthcoming and are fully funded sooner rather than later.

My Fortis Green ward colleague Cllr Martin Newton has also been involved, as our Lib Dem transport spokesperson. One way of making the car park safer for pedestrians as well as motorists will be to provide two-way vehicle access - which Martin hopes will also cut down on unnecessary confrontation between drivers, which can be a problem at the moment.

So, good news - pending good plans and swift action to implement improvements - and, of course, the benefits will be seen by those residents across the borough who come to Muswell Hill to do their shopping.

Spurs 9 Wigan 1, 22.11.09

An unbelievable game - I couldn't really let nine goals go by without mention, could I?

Clearly Wigan were very poor (so poor in fact that their players are refunding their fans who made the trip to London), but Jermain Defoe was just on fire in front of goal. JD has surely sealed his place in next year's world cup squad already - the kind of reliable finisher that England were lacking last time out.

Aaron Lennon gave old Spurs boy Erik Edman the proverbial torrid time and was just simply outstanding. As well as setting up just about every goal, great that he deservedly got on the scoresheet himself. If Azza's crossing has

sometimes been suspect in the past, he seems now to have hit his best and Sunday's match was a much a showcase for him as it was for Defoe.

Before the match started, we were joking that we only needed 16 goals to go above a certain other north London team in the table. Little did we know that we'd go a good chunk of the way to doing that - and the scoreline did not flatter Spurs. If it hadn't been for some good goalkeeping and, in the first half, plenty of missed chances, we could have been even closer to the 16 goals we 'needed'.

In all the excitement I didn't get any decent photos, but here are a couple from the end of the match and one of Niko Kranjcar - who also had an outstanding game and got a deserved goal.

Steven Webb, Nigel Harman and Robert Daws are Public Property

As I previously blogged, I was due to go to the first preview of Public Property at Trafalgar Studios last week, but due to a technical hitch that performance was cancelled. Got tickets rearranged for last night and it was well worth the wait.

It was a good night before the play even started, as Stephen Fry (who makes a videoed appearance in the play) was also there to watch. Just standing next to him as he was chatting to the playwright in the bar was in itself pretty exciting - and I did manage to resist the temptation of ruining his night by interrupting to say hello!

We go to just about everything that Studio 2 at the Trafalgar puts on, the space is great (compact, around 100 seats) and the productions have been invariably good. So if you haven't ever been, I can recommend you get yourself down there now - Public Property is a good one to start with and it runs until December 5th.

So, a quick review of Public Property and why you should go and see it. It stars Robert Daws as Geoffrey Hammond, a famous newsreader who has got himself into a bit of a pickle in his car with 16 year-old Scouser Jamie (Steven Webb), alongside Nigel Harman playing Hammond's publicist Larry.

The three actors are all superb (see, I told you I didn't have anything against Nigel Harman's acting) and the play is sharply written with a fast pace and some great one-liners. There are lots of laugh-out-loud bits (even better last night, as we could also hear Stephen Fry laughing out loud with us) and the first act alone is worth the ticket price.

The basic story is around Hammond's 'mistake' and set at publicist Larry's house, as he tries to make the best of what he calls an opportunity. Harman is very good as the down-on-his-luck PR man trying to resurrect his own flagging career as the newsreader's own hangs in the balance. Daws brings fear, indignation and despair to his role and is superb. Steven Webb is just brilliant too - adding in plenty of extra humour to his role with his face, voice and some oven gloves.

In around 1h45 (including an interval), the play never leaves you bored, moving swiftly through. It probably does say something about celebrity and the media, but I don't think that is really its main intention - it is intended to entertain and, as a piece to keep you watching and make you laugh, it does exactly that.

You can - and should - book tickets here.

Local A&E under threat

There is a fight brewing on the future of Whittington Hospital Accident & Emergency Department.

Local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone and my Haringey Lib Dem colleague Cllr Nigel Scott are on the case already - as you can see from Lynne's blog post, there is a real threat that proper A&E services at the Whittington will be withdrawn.

Having had to rush Owen there in the summer when he had appendicitis, I was very grateful for a local, efficient A&E service. Any other option would have taken considerably longer to get to. And after the initial emergency there was also the advantage that public transport links to the Whittington are good, so going backwards and forwards to the hospital over the next few days was just a simple bus journey.

Clearly, local health needs change and technology and skills develop - meaning that sometimes services do need to be moved or combined into specialist centres. But transport times are not changing for the better and people will not stop needing A&E, so closing accident and emergency departments can only be a dangerous and retrograde step.

Letting In Air at the Old Red Lion Theatre

Just a very quick blog - saw Letting In Air at the Old Red Lion Theatre tonight and I can highly recommend it.

Only been to the Old Red Lion once before, but really like the pub and theatre and the last play was very good so was hopeful about tonight. Wasn't disappointed, the cast of four (Rebecca Elliot, Ryan Hawley, Edmund Kente, Tessa Mabbitt) all gave absolutely outstanding performances and it was one of the best plays we've seen in a while.

It's only on until 28 November, so get yourself down there (it's just by Angel tube station) quickly. You can read more about the play itself and book tickets here.

Best electoral wheeze ever?

Until now, I thought the 'Literal Democrat' that stopped the Lib Dems winning a European Parliamentary seat in 1994 was the best example of trying to manipulate a ballot paper.

But now I have read this... certainly an inventive idea. I don't think there would be anything to stop this being done in the UK, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

One good thing mentioned in the article is random ordering of names on ballot papers. About time the UK started doing this - instead of alphabetical order which gives what the article calls 'the donkey vote' to the person highest up the alphabet every time.

What Nigel Farage really thinks of his fellow UKIP MEPs

Nigel Farage, outgoing UKIP leader, can sometimes come across as a fairly savvy media operator. But in his eagerness to back Tory-turned-UKIP peer Lord Pearson as his successor for the party leadership he has dropped a bit of a clanger.

There are five candidates in the UKIP leadership election – Lord Pearson, three of Nigel Farage’s UKIP colleagues in the European Parliament and a local councillor. Nigel Farage said on BBC 2 that “only one of them is a serious, credible candidate”.

Now I don’t know any of the three MEPs standing or indeed Cllr Alan Wood – although, to be blunt, “credible” is not a word I would personally associate with UKIP for any reason – so I don’t know if his criticism is pertinent or just a factional thing.

But Nigel Farage is going to continue leading the group of UKIP MEPs in the European Parliament. So I was interested in how he will find harmony in that group now, given his damning dismissal of his colleagues’ abilities.

And if Nigel Farage doesn’t consider Nikki Sinclaire MEP, Mike Nattrass MEP and Gerard Batten MEP as serious or credible enough for his party then how can they be serious or credible enough for elected office in the European Parliament?

He will doubtless be hoping for a more credible performance himself over the next few months as he tries to unseat House of Commons Speaker John Bercow as MP for Buckingham at the next election.

Always dot your 'i's and cross your 't's

Just a quick link to this blog post from Mark Pack - picking out what I would probably agree is the weirdest criticism of Gordon Brown ever.

Opening night of Public Property at Trafalgar Studios... or not

This post was going to be a review of Public Property at the Trafalgar Studios - first preview tonight. But unfortunately had a call this afternoon to say that tonight's performance was cancelled, as the producer hadn't been able to get everything she needed into the studio in time. I presume here we are talking equipment rather than people.

Maybe the hitch is to do with the on-screen appearances by Stephen Fry, Natasha Little and Elize Du Toit... Had really been looking forward to it, but not all is lost as we have been able to switch our tickets to next Friday. Miss out being the first to see (and review) it, but never mind.

The real-life, actually-there-in-the-studio cast is Steven Webb, Nigel Harman and Robert Daws. I've seen all of them on the stage before, so have an idea of what to expect from them - all accomplished and very watchable, so should be good..

Steven Webb I saw in the excellent Sh*tm*x , also in Trafalgar Studio 2, which just never seems to fail to put on great productions. In fact, that was so good we went and saw it twice in a week.

Nigel Harman I saw in the considerably less excellent Three Days Of Rain, which I wouldn't have watched a second time however long I lived. After I wrote that blog I got a bit of stick on the Nigel Harman Fansite message boards... but to clarify, the problem was not in any way Nigel's acting, just the play. Very much looking forward to seeing him in what I hope - and am sure - will be a much better play.

Robert Daws I actually saw on the stage years and years ago, with my Mum & Dad, in a farce called Caught In The Act (styled as a sequel to Run For Your Wife), which also starred Russ Abbot and Eric Sykes. It's a long time ago, but I remember being fairly suspicious at the start (my parents' choice of play) but very pleasantly surprised and entertained.

Anyway, I'll get to see Public Property next week - if anyone else sees it in the meantime and wants to comment below on how they find it (without spoiling the plot for me please!), you're very welcome.

UPDATE: Following the helpful comment below, I see you can also get all the info you need on the play by going directly to Public Property.

Test your observation skills

I only saw this awareness test for the first time recently. I know it’s been around for a while (the original one), but have a look and see how good your own observation skills are.

The original is the basketball one, but if you’ve already done that test there’s also a new “whodunnit?” one. A bit of fun but with a serious message – trying to make the roads safer for cyclists.

No doubt a campaign that my old uni friend Mike will be quite keen on, with the number of miles he racks up on his bikes.

How much time does being a councillor take up?

People often ask how much time each week being a local councillor takes up – bearing in mind that many of us, like me, also have a full time job.

The short and unhelpful answer is that it varies.

I knew there were some stats around for how many hours a councillor spends doing the role and a quick google led me to the Local Government Association (LGA) figure of 59 hours a month, as mentioned on page 3 of this magazine online.. I also happened upon a figure of 18.2 hours a week from Fylde Council, which I just mention as that’s where I grew up myself – although I think they may in fact be using the LGA figure anyway, as the numbers seem to match.

Now, I suspect that this figure has been arrived at by asking councillors how many hours they work (how else would you get the numbers?), so needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. I have seen higher figures before too, of 25+ hours a week. Clearly the number of hours also vary depending on the councillor’s position – if backbench, in Cabinet, chairing committees etc. It certainly does all add up, whichever way you look at it.

But it does vary from week to week. For example, last week I had four council meetings of sorts in the evenings: a meeting with Homes for Haringey to discuss housing issues in my role as opposition spokesperson; an Overview & Scrutiny meeting looking at support given to victims of crime; a meeting of the Alexandra Park and Palace Advisory Committee; and my own ward surgery (advice session for residents). This week I only have a meeting of the Miscellaneous Functions Sub-Committee (yes, it really does exist) scheduled, for tonight – and that has been postponed so I don’t have any formal council meetings this week.

Of course, meetings are not the only part of being a councillor, thankfully. Although some weeks I might spend up to 12 hours just in meetings, that doesn’t mean I just have a week off on the weeks like this one where there aren’t as many meetings (or even none). As well as council meetings and ward surgeries – three a month for the Fortis Green ward councillors – there is of course the casework.

Again, the time casework takes varies widely – from cases solved by one quick email to ongoing cases that require e-mails, letters, phonecalls and case-specific meetings. Some are done directly with the council – either through the formal “members’ enquiries” system or through established contacts, some involve working with (or complaining to) outside agencies like Transport for London and some involve providing advice and assistance to residents from knowledge you gain over years as a councillor or enlisting the help of our ever-willing local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone.

This blog post is already too long – and I haven’t had time to mention other aspects like dealing with the press and campaign activities. You might argue that delivering leaflets is for my own good and not directly related to council work, but if we didn’t tell residents what we are doing and encourage more to come to us for help then we wouldn’t be doing our job properly.

None of this is in any way a complaint – the work can be very rewarding and if I didn’t want to do it I wouldn’t have to put myself forward for re-election again next year. It can be very time-consuming some weeks, but less so in others. Taking calls and dealing with emails when away for the weekend or away on holiday is part of it too – residents don’t usually expect you to be available 24/7, but it’s good to keep on top of things and I find it helpful to deal with issues as they arise where possible.

So, it is a big time commitment – but it is rewarding. If you’re thinking of putting yourself up for election then my advice is just to go for it, whatever party you’re standing for. Enthusiasm and perseverance are probably the two most important things you need, the rest you can pick up on the job. The more diverse experience a group of new councillors can bring to a council the better.

Cheating is never right

This week there has been an announcement of a crackdown on school places cheats.

I have recently finished serving a four year term as a governor at Fortismere - an excellent school in my Fortis Green ward, which a huge number of parents put as their first choice for their children when applying for secondary school places.

Due to its success and popularity, many parents are disappointed - the catchment area for Fortismere is very small. To avoid fraudulent applications, the school has increased checks to try and stop parents using cheats like short-term lets of properties in the catchment area, false addresses or lies about living arrangements to get their kids into Fortismere ahead of other kids who meet the criteria.

It is difficult to know the scale of the problem, but it clearly does happen. It is obvious that a parent would want to get their child into the best possible school - but cheating to make that happen is a very poor foundation for a child's education and clearly very unfair to the majority of parents and children who use the system honestly.

The long-term solution is to ensure that all schools have the same high standards and successes, but that doesn't get us away from the current reality of parents trying to get the best for their kids in the situation they face. It must be a difficult decision, I am sure, but the right decision must be honesty and the fairest distribution of places that is possible.

Caroline Righton breaks her silence (to journalists)

Having just blogged about the two week silence of Conservative candidate for St.Austell & Newquay Caroline Righton... shock news, she has finally said something after all!

Unbelievably, however, it is not an apology.

The explanation (such as it is) that she has sent to journalists is below. But the key points are:

• No apology to Steve or to local residents
• No retraction of the smear email to those she sent it to
• No explanation as to why she was so irresponsible in not checking her facts (which anyone could have done on Twitter)

Caroline Righton's explanation of the smear email, in full:

" Two weeks ago, I was sent, in an email, Twitter comments that had been made about me and my attendance at a meeting with the Chief Crown Prosecutor and senior police and prison officers.

"I forwarded this email, in full and without editing, to the organisers of a local meeting I had been unable to attend to check they had given my apologies and correcting the allegation that I had been involved in a publicity stunt.

"As it transpires the asterisked word was the sender's opinion of the opposition candidate.

The opposition agent made this clear in an email to all recipients.

"This is not a word that I would ever use. I have always endeavoured to conduct a clean, positive campaign and there was absolutely no malice intended in this misunderstanding."

Sorry seems to be the hardest word?

I do like the phrase "my attendance at a meeting with"... as I understand it, she was in the audience, asking a question to the panel. I'm happy to be corrected on that point if that's not what the event was, but on that basis anyone in the audience of Question Time could say they were "in a meeting with" Jack Straw or Chris Huhne or whoever. But I digress.

At least we now have a public admission that the email Caroline Righton sent to local residents was false. But why no apology? It does show a shocking lack of judgement and rather unfortunate bad manners. The fact it has taken two weeks to even get this far is ridiculous.

Caroline Righton still needs to apologise. How much better this would have all been if she had simply retracted the email and apologised when her mistake (?) was pointed out two weeks ago.

Has anyone seen Caroline Righton?

It's now nearly two weeks since Caroline Righton, Conservative candidate for St.Austell & Newquay, sent out an email to local residents smearing the Lib Dem candidate for the seat, Stephen Gilbert - as you can read in my original blog post. Below is the actual text of the email she sent out to residents, so you can see it in full for yourself.

And still no explanation or apology. So it seems that Caroline Righton thinks it is totally acceptable to send out emails which lie about her opponent. Brilliant.

Steve has now given a quote to the local papers:

"I would like to think this was a careless mistake rather than a deliberate smear but it's sad that the Conservatives don't have the courtesy to set the record straight with local residents or the manners to apologise. Over the next five months I will be talking about what I stand for and I hope that the Conservatives will join me in fighting this election on the issues that matter."

Personally, given the length of time that has now elapsed, I think Steve is being too generous in giving Caroline Righton the benefit of the doubt. She has had two weeks to put this right - a careless mistake is corrected as soon as you realise you have done it.

So it seems fair to assume that either it was a deliberate smear in the first place and she has no intention of apologising for it or that she is just not very interested in St.Austell & Newquay and doesn't think the integrity of her campaign is important. The only other option appears to be that she thinks lying is okay and is just hoping that everyone will forget about it. None of the possible reasons for her silence suggest she has any political judgement - or, indeed, common courtesy.

The smear email from Caroline Righton to local residents, in full:

Dear All

I hope last night's meeting went well. As I said I would appreciate a debrief of what was said.

I was sent the comment below by a constituent who is privy to my opposition's Twitter emissions, which I am not. Apparently his asterisk'd comment is highly abusive.

Very sad - because as you know I didn't decline to attend.

I was disappointed not to be able to be with you but couldn't due to the lateness of the invite which arrived on Monday and a prior engagement, which far from being a publicity stunt, was a debate about law and order with the Chief Crown Prosecutor and was a live broadcast so I couldn't postpone it either.

Given his comment which is in the public arena, can I just check that my apologies were given to those attending and the true reason explained.

I would welcome any future opportunity to participate in debate about St Columb Major's regeneration, both as a local resident and a prospective MP.

Best wishes

Caroline

stephen_gilbert was at meeting about regeneration of major town (declined by Tory PPC); Tory PPC at a publicity stunt (declined by me)....

D***h***d!!!

I'm not sure how to reconcile "I didn't decline to attend" with "can I just check my apologies were given", but that's not the point. The point is that the email is a lie, Caroline Righton was told that it was a lie (although she could have checked this for herself, so at best her email was irresponsible) and she has still not apologised or, importantly, retracted the lie.

So, if anyone has seen her around St.Austell and Newquay recently, please do ask her when she is going to make a retraction, apologise to Steve - and the local residents for lying to them - and make a genuine commitment to fighting a clean and positive campaign for the general election.

St.Austell & Newquay Lib Dems have also now written to David Cameron, asking for his apology seeing as Caroline Righton has failed to give one - you can read about that here, here and here.