Politics. Spurs. Music. Waffle.

Charity auction for a signed Tottenham Hotspur pennant!

2011-11-27T18:35:00.001Z

As you can see from the Justgiving widget on the right, I am running the marathon for Shelter in April - please do click through and sponsor me. Shelter do vital work supporting people at risk of losing their home, dealing with rogue landlords or desperate for just a decent place to live.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club have kindly given me a signed pennant to auction to help raise funds for Shelter too. It's been signed by 9 of the Spurs players and comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity too. The player autographs include my favourite Spur, Michael Dawson, and everyone's favourite Welsh winger Gareth Bale.

You can put in a bid for it by clicking here to go to eBay - the starting bid is just £4.99 so ideal for treating yourself or for a present for a Spurs fan!

Community clear-up in Tottenham this morning

2011-08-13T14:32:00.000+01:00

We headed over to Tottenham this morning to help with the community clear-up - there was a good turn out of local residents and councillors, as well as people coming from further afield to help too. It certainly felt good to be part of something so positive and seeing action on the ground in our borough.

The photo at the top is me with Sonia and Julia, a mother and daughter who work at a school in Tottenham and had come in on Saturday to help out the local community, with Cllr Lorna Reith next to me. As I'm missing seeing Spurs play today, you might notice that my t-shirt is a map of White Hart Lane, at least.

That photo was just outside Tottenham Police Station, where we were removing bricks, rubble and even a chair - which had all presumably been used as missiles in the riot. But on the whole, most of the High Road looked to be back in good shape already, which was good to see.

The photo below was taken of some of the gathered masses as we collected our brushes, shovels and bin bags and got some instructions before we headed along the High Road and found side streets that needed our help.

I can see Cllr Matt Cooke (Bounds Green), Cllr Jim Jenks (Muswell Hill), Cllr David Schmitz (Harringay) and Cllr Claire Kober (Seven Sisters, and leader of Haringey Council) in the photo. But there were a bunch of others there too.

Just do what the sign says

2011-08-13T13:22:00.001+01:00

On the way home from helping with the community clear up in Tottenham, saw this sign. The photo says it all really!

Looters and rioters arrested in Haringey

2011-08-12T20:05:00.003+01:00

The number of arrests following the riots is phenomenal, latest count I got from the police was 1103 in London. There's been plenty of news of charges and sentences across all the media, but here are a couple of bits of information from Haringey, as an example:

Man charged with handling stolen goods after £40k recovered
An estimated £40,000 worth of electrical property was recovered by police in Tottenham following a call from a member of public. A 25 year-old man has been charged with handling stolen goods
Man arrested for violent disorder and theft
A 19 year-old man has been arrested in Haringey for violent disorder and theft. He is believed to have posted a picture on Twitter posing with stolen goods.
Man arrested in connection with violent disorder
A 22 year-old man has been arrested in Haringey on suspicion of violent disorder having seen his image in a national newspaper and handed himself in at Hornsey police station.
Man arrested on suspicion of burglary
A 21 year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a burglary that took place at a store in Wood Green after being recognised by a CCTV operator from images released by police.

Reminder too that you can go to www.met.police.uk/disordersuspects to see if you can help identify any other suspects.

I will blog at some point over the next week about the sentences being handed out, people being evicted and calls for housing benefit to be withdrawn. But following up my post yesterday about all the riot rumours being spread around, I noticed today the BBC have also covered this problem.

Support Tottenham - visit and help out tomorrow!

2011-08-12T19:53:00.004+01:00

Want to show that the rioters didn't win? Want to help people get their streets back in shape?

Come to Tottenham tomorrow (Saturday 13 August) to help clear up, meet local residents and councillors and give the community a boost.

Meeting point is the green on Tottenham High Road by Rheola Close, just south of the junction with Lansdowne Road, 10.30am for an 11am start. But if you can't make that and want to help then head to Tottenham and spend money in the shops, pick up litter - do whatever you can to show your support. You can also make financial donations, details here.

And if, like me, you are a Spurs fan who has an unexpected free day tomorrow now - use it to come and help our club's home since 1882 (and for at least another 129 years to come...).

Do you know anyone involved in the looting?

2011-08-11T21:51:00.003+01:00

Good news that lots of looters and vandals have been arrested - but just a quick post to advertise the link to the Met Police website where you can look through the photos of suspects and help even more get brought to justice.

Opening match of the season at White Hart Lane against Everton has now been postponed, so no football on Saturday for me. I am going up to Edinburgh next Thursday for Hearts v Tottenham though, for what will now be our first match of the season - Europa League rather than Premier League!

Unavoidable that the Spurs game has been cancelled. Just to reassure people, it is not because any trouble was expected or a lack of police capacity. It's simply because of difficulties with transport and the potential to disrupt the ongoing police investigations - which would have been the likely side-effect of 36,000 football fans going up and down the high road.

Dealing with riots and rumours

2011-08-11T20:34:00.005+01:00

The events of the last week have been devastating for many people - and if you're directly affected, here in Haringey, you can use the council's advice centre.

It's actually not connected to the riots, as his family were keen to point out, but before continuing I should say that Mark Duggan's death in Tottenham is very sad and I am looking forward to the full IPCC investigation.

What followed was nothing to do with protesting or politics and everything to do with thieving and vandalism. The Labour MP Karen Buck put it nicely in Parliament this afternoon: "no-one marched with a manifesto".

Anyway, everyone is hopeful that we've seen the end of this crazy period and certainly people are starting to pay the price for their crimes already. Particularly good to see, on BBC News, that a man has been charged in connection with the injured Malaysian student who was mugged by people pretending to help him.

Plenty has already been said and written about the riots, but I would like to say just one thing - about rumours and the fear of crime.

Here in Muswell Hill, we were fortunate that we didn't suffer any looting at all. In the early hours of Monday someone did attempt to break into the Carphone Warehouse (as you can see in the photo, they broke the window but didn't get close to getting inside the shop). There were one or two burglaries from shops - perhaps taking advantage of police being distracted elsewhere - but these do happen from time to time anyway.

However, there were plenty of rumours around on Twitter that there had been riots and looting in Muswell Hill. As a local resident, who walked around the shopping area after each night and at other times, and as a councillor who had briefings from the council and a face-to-face briefing with police officers including the area commander for North London, I know that these were just rumours. I tweeted a fair few replies to people to set people straight - although some weird people refused to believe me!

Some of the rumours sprang from the fact that a small number of businesses in Muswell Hill took the decision to board up the front of their shops - places like Art for Art's Sake and Crocodile Antiques (see photos) and Foxtons. I knew that they had NOT been damaged or looted, but many people walking past them assumed that they had been. Later on, the owner of the first two did put a notice on the boards which did include an explanation that they were up as a precaution - which was helpful, but most people will not have read that.

Why is all this important? Well, clearly, actual damage to property and injury to people is much more important - but these rumours and misconceptions add to people's fear of crime. At a briefing with the council and the police, I asked for clear information about the extent of the riots to be publicised in due course. Because in places like Muswell Hill, some people think that "youths" ran riot and looted - they did not. It is not helpful if, because of boarded up windows and rumours (some well meaning, some less so) on Twitter, people have the impression that every shop across the whole of London was smashed up.

I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the last few days, but it helps if people are given the full facts and can be reassured that the whole city was not overrun - terrible though it was for residents in those parts where violence and looting did happen. I think that is helpful for everyone to know the facts - those in areas that were badly hit, as well as those that were lucky like Muswell Hill.

The communities in Tottenham, Wood Green and across London are strong and will rebuild and grow stronger. There may have been plenty of thugs and thieves about, but they were still a small minority. London is a great place to live.

Chaos at Haringey Council's budget setting meeting as protesters storm the civic centre

2011-02-25T11:50:00.006Z

Last night's meeting of Full Council was unlike any other I have been to in nine years as a councillor.

First, the final result of the night: the council's budget - including massive cuts to older people services, parks and youth services, to name just a few - was approved. I voted for three of the five Lib Dem amendments, which would have prevented some of the cuts taking place, but none of those amendments passed. On the overall budget, I voted to reject the entire package.

The meeting itself was webcast live as usual and you will be able to watch the whole thing again soon if you want (including my contribution to the debate), when it is archived here.

But there was chaos before the meeting, with hundreds of protesters at the civic centre in Wood Green, which turned into some ugly scenes. The Ham&High have a report here and there are photos on various websites of the protest - the two here are one that I took on my phone at around 7.15 (the meeting was due to start at 7.30) near the entrance to the council chamber and a later photo of the smashed glass door. There was also at least one other door smashed, at the entrance to the civic centre and reports of at least one council worker being pushed to the ground.

When I arrived for the meeting a little after 7pm, the civic centre was already full of protesters chanting "Who's town hall? Our town hall" and pushing towards the council chamber. I'd like to say up front that there were lots of peaceful protesters there, including children. Might also be useful to add that there is a large public gallery above the council chamber and only limited space on the lower level for members of the public. There are usually members of the public in both the gallery and the chamber itself (usually if they are making a formal deputation) and indeed at the last meeting the gallery was full with sometimes noisy protesters.

But many there had getting into the council chamber as their main aim and some broke through a police line to occupy the room. Not 100 as I've seen mentioned on one website, more like 10 or 20 before the police stopped more entering. At this stage I had also passed into the chamber, to make sure I was aware of what was going on. As an independent councillor now, I sat in with the discussions with the two party leaders, police and chief executive as the best way to handle the situation was discussed.

An attempt was then made to convene the meeting in the council's canteen, which was far from ideal - not least as the meeting wouldn't have been able to be webcast, effectively leaving no record of the debate and clearly less transparency in the decision making process. In any event, some protesters followed to the canteen, the fire alarm went off and the police evacuated the building. Councillors, journalists and some members of the public then waited outside the council building for a fair while until the police cleared us to re-enter.

We saw two people being taken out of the building and to police vans, I'm not sure if there were any other arrests at this stage or exactly what these people were taken away for. Once we were able to re-enter the building we finally went into the now cleared civic centre and the meeting began around 9pm, an hour and a half later than scheduled.

The unfortunate result of this was that public access to the meeting was limited to those making deputations (i.e. those who had indicated previously they wanted to speak to the council about the cuts), local journalists and of course the website. I feel sorry for the vast majority of protesters who wanted to be in the public gallery and make their feelings heard peacefully. It's not clear how many of the protesters were local residents - I expect the vast majority - but there were definitely people there who were not from Haringey and presumably had come for political reasons or to make trouble.

I spoke to a couple of the protesters prior to entering the chamber the first time. Clearly there was plenty of anger at the cuts - and rightly so - with mixed approaches... some clearly antagonistic towards the police, some with strong anarchist beliefs and also plenty who were just there to make their voices heard. I could put in some anecdotes of conversations I had, but this post is long enough already.

There were powerful deputations from three groups, all of whom spoke exceptionally well and passionately. The key points I made were that I strongly opposed the scale of cuts forced on Haringey by central government - as I do not think it is necessary or fair. For instance, I believe that to impose these cuts without first considering raising higher rate tax levels is wrong.

Effectively blackmailing Haringey over council tax levels is also wrong - council tax is already high here and no one wants to see it higher, but how does this blackmail fit with the government's localism agenda to give councils more responsibility and bring power closer to the people?

Leaving aside the cuts imposed by central government - and I did say last night that I disagreed with one of the deputations calling for no budget to be set in protest - I don't feel that the Labour council has mitigated against the cuts in their budget as well as it could have. I know that the speed of the cuts has been a real challenge, but just one example - while delivering Haringey People (the council's magazine) costs £234,000 a year and telling people what you are doing is a good thing, if spending that money means closing services and actually not doing things, then it is at best counter-productive.

So, with the meeting finishing at 11.30pm, the budget was passed and service provision is going to be cut drastically. It was certainly my saddest day as a Haringey councillor. Many people are now likely to lose their jobs - as well as voting against the budget I did speak out against any reduction in spending on union officials at this time, as taking away the support that people will undoubtedly need would be wrong.

There was plenty of the blame game going on last night, but the truth is that both sides have to accept some responsibility. We all know that in the real world we can't all have everything we want all the time, but some of these cuts were avoidable and that is the saddest part.

Lauradale Road/Woodside Avenue update

2011-01-13T23:38:00.001Z

Some good news in Fortis Green over the festive period - a small, but important, victory in an ongoing planning battle.

I have mentioned previously the long running saga of people trying to build at 85-87 Woodside Avenue, which is designated Significant Local Open Land (SLOL). This is an unusual bit of land, situated at the rear of Lauradale Road, by the Fortis Green Allotments and opposite Tetherdown School.

With the decision expected to be made at a planning committee this week, local residents and I were delighted when (following a site visit in December) the council told the developers they would not be recommending the plans for approval. I know Lynne Featherstone, local MP who also supported the residents' objections, will be pleased too.

So the plans are dead and buried - for now. No doubt the developers will look at what the council have said and try again with amended plans, that's how these things go. Just means we all have to be ready for the next round of the battle whenever it comes!

First ever game of rugby in New Zealand

2011-01-01T11:30:00.002Z

Happy New Year everyone.

With the rugby world cup taking place in New Zealand this year, thought I would post this photo that I took over there last Christmas. It might just look like a field, but if you've got very good eyesight then you will see from the sign that it is the site of the very first rugby game ever played in New Zealand.

Back in 1870, Nelson College and Nelson Football Club played a game of rugby on this spot in Nelson. The game in New Zealand has come a long way in terms of popularity since then of course - I remember last Christmas there was already a countdown clock to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in Christchurch's Cathedral Square. But this is where it all began.

Planning appeal success!

2010-12-11T10:32:00.001Z

I have blogged previously about the relentless nature of developers in resubmitting planning applications. The example in that post was Chessing Court on Fortis Green, where (despite a previous rejection from the council) plans were again put in to add an extra floor on the top of the building - which is already the tallest in the area.

Good news this morning as I got a letter from the Planning Inspectorate with the result of the appeal - it has been dismissed. The inspector agreed with objections from me, local residents and local MP Lynne Featherstone (who is specifically named in the appeal decision) that an extra floor on Chessing Court was unacceptable.

Unfortunately, there is another site which has been subject to lots of planning applications and is currently at risk - the land at 85-87 Woodside Avenue, which is at the rear of Lauradale Road next to the Fortis Green Community Allotments and opposite Tetherdown Primary School. Along with residents, Lynne and my ward colleagues I have fought against several planning applications on this site over the years.

Original plans for cramming eight houses onto the land were rejected and we defeated revised plans at an appeal, with a public hearing. Eventually one half of the site was built on, with just one house. The current plans are for another three houses on the other half. This hasn't been decided by the council yet and we are working hard to stop it.

Residents in Fortis Green ward

2010-12-11T10:02:00.003Z

You may have seen some local news yesterday. Just a quick post to reassure you that I will still be representing residents in Fortis Green and helping you with Haringey Council issues. If you're reading this blog, live in Fortis Green and need help with something then please just drop me an email.

Making sure your postal vote counts

2010-05-04T07:22:00.000+01:00

Postal voting in Haringey has already got off to a shaky start, with the ballot papers arriving late and in some cases with the wrong instructions on them.

If you have a ballot paper which you haven't got around to filling in yet - or you have done the voting but haven't posted it yet - then you might want to consider taking your postal vote along to a polling station instead, just to be on the safe side.

Of course, if you post your vote back to the council today (or even tomorrow) it should make it there on time. But if you want to be absolutely certain it doesn't get delayed in the post then you can take it to a polling station on polling day (Thursday!). You still need to complete the ballot paper in the same way as you would if you were posting it, including the declaration.

Just two more days to go before the big day - polls will be open from 7am until 10pm this Thursday (May 6th), so you have 15 hours to take a few minutes to vote. Whether that's handing in a postal vote or getting your ballot papers at the polling station on the day, you will get two ballot papers in Haringey - one for the general election (choose one candidate) and one for the local elections (choose three candidates). Enjoy.

Local elections in Fortis Green

2010-05-03T21:24:00.002+01:00

As I've already mentioned, one of my Fortis Green ward colleagues is standing down at this election - Cllr Sara Beynon. Sara has been great to work with over the last four years, a lovely person and a great member of the Lib Dem team. We're all sorry to see her go.

I am standing for re-election on Thursday, along with my fellow Fortis Green Lib Dem Cllr Martin Newton. In Sara's place we have a great new candidate - Sophie Erskine. Sophie also lives locally and has already been getting stuck into the campaigning work. You can see the three of us together in the cheesey photo above.

Remember, although you cannot vote for more than one candidate in the general election, you can vote for three candidates in the local elections which are happening on the same day here in Haringey. So everyone who is eligible will get two different ballot papers - one for the general and one for the local.

As the ballot paper is alphabetical, you can look for your three local Lib Dem candidates for Fortis Green by scanning for our surnames (Davies, Erskine, Newton) and/or looking out for the Liberal Democrat bird logo. Then you can vote for all three of us and I hope you will consider doing that!

Remember, it's a straight fight between Labour and the Lib Dems in Haringey - there have been no Conservatives elected to the council since 1998. Please help us end four decades of Labour rule in Haringey - last time you elected 30 Labour and 27 Lib Dem councillors and it's bound to be close again this time.

Green candidate multi-tasking or just hedging bets?

2010-05-03T08:22:00.005+01:00

I have just noticed that at least one of the Green Party candidates for Stroud Green ward at these elections doesn't seem to be very confident about her chances of getting elected.

Jayne Forbes is standing for election in Stroud Green here in Haringey next Thursday, but at the same time she is also standing for election in South Bermondsey ward in Southwark. She's also standing for election to Parliament in Barking on the same day... wonder where she will be spending polling day??

There's nothing illegal about standing for election in more than one place - and it's not unusual for councillors to be parliamentary candidates in different constituencies. However, it is unusual for candidates to stand for two completely different councils on the same day though. Presumably if she was confident of winning Stroud Green she wouldn't also be standing in Southwark?

Still, perhaps the reason for the Greens' lack of confidence in winning Stroud Green is that they finished a distant third in Stroud Green ward last time. In the 2006 elections, the Lib Dems won the ward from Labour - electing my Lib Dem colleagues Richard Wilson, Ed Butcher and Laura Edge.

You can see the full results for Stroud Green (and all the other Haringey wards) by looking up the official council figures here. But what it boils down to is that the average vote for each party's candidates was as follows:

Lib Dem - - - 1569
Labour - - - 900
Green - - - 515
Tory - - - 196

So, next Thursday the voters of Stroud Green have a simple choice: the hard-working Lib Dem team (Cllr Richard Wilson, Cllr Ed Butcher and our great new candidate Katherine Reece) or the Labour candidates who would prop up the current council which has run Haringey for four decades (or tried to, anyway).

The Green Party can't win in Stroud Green. I certainly respect anyone's right to vote out of principle for a party that can't win, but anyone who wants to finally see the back of Haringey Labour needs to vote for the Lib Dems as the only opposition that can make that dream a reality.

The make-up of Haringey Council was 42 Labour and 15 Lib Dem in 2002, at the last election in 2006 we slashed that majority right down, with 30 Labour and 27 Lib Dems (again, no Greens or Tories). In fact, there haven't been any Tories elected to Haringey since 1998 and voting for them or the Greens just risks letting Labour squeak back in.

If we win Stroud Green and continue to make gains like we did last time then the Lib Dems will end four decades of Labour control in Haringey.

Haringey Conservatives ever more desperate and churning out bogus polls

2010-05-02T20:25:00.000+01:00

I wrote a while back about the bogus poll figures that Hornsey and Wood Green Conservatives were using on their leaflets.

They were at it again last month, claiming they had polled 27,000 voters in March... although the Tory candidate had to admit to a local newspaper that these were figures they'd allegedly compiled over a year.

I don't know who the Haringey Tories think they're trying to kid. Again, here are some facts (not bogus party political numbers that are clearly make-believe):

Number of Conservative councillors elected in Haringey since 1998? A big fat zero. Not one.

Tory share of the vote at that general election? 12.7%.

For how many general elections has the Tory vote fallen? Every single one since 1992.

And whatever misinformation and bogus polling they put in their leaflets, the Tories here in Hornsey and Wood Green can't get away from those facts.

Why I am standing for re-election

2010-05-02T09:05:00.000+01:00

Being a councillor isn't always fun, takes up a lot of time and can be tough going sometimes.

So why am I putting myself up for re-election again?

Simple - the casework. I've enjoyed helping lots of people over the last eight years on a wide range of issues. It is of course always a pleasure to get a decent 'thank you' from residents - so I was chuffed to get an email earlier this week from one resident who told me she had decide to stick the following up on her Facebook profile for all her friends to see:

My hat is off to the Lib Dems in Haringey, North London.... Several times now I have had a serious problem with the local council and have had to resort to writing to my local councillor, Matt Davies or my local MP, Lynne Featherstone. Each time I have received immediate and personal attention that resolved the problem without delay... whether it's during election time or not!

I had to do so a week ago and just now I got a hand-written, hand-delivered card through my door telling me that Matt had, once again, addressed the problem and sorted it out completely... something that has had me consumed with anxiety for days.

As someone who has lived half her life in the US and half in the UK and has seen many parties come and go on both sides of the water since the 50's, I really feel we should give the Liberal Democrats a chance to run this country... we've seen what the other two main parties have to offer.

The Lib Dems have finally got themselves in the running and I am convinced they will stay there. My hat is off to Nick Clegg for his TV appearances on the debates and around the UK campaigning. He has shot into the limelight and landed on his feet walking tall and talking sense... what a lift to hear someone being open and sincere and even suggesting the three main parties cooperate on key issues!

I've already thanked her for her kind words and asked if I could share them on my blog - her comments on the need for a change from the old story of the two political giants and on the stellar performance of Nick Clegg during the election campaigns are ones I'm hearing lots around Haringey.

Tell us your priorities!

2010-05-01T19:46:00.001+01:00

As I haven't done any blogging for a little while, I'm late telling you about the Haringey Lib Dem manifesto for the local elections on May 6th.

Yes, there are two important elections in Haringey next Thursday. And they are both a straight fight between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with the Conservatives an irrelevance - just take a look at the results last time on the top left of my blog.

We published our local manifesto last month and plans range from the introduction of more 20mph speed limits on residential roads to improve safety to improving White Hart Lane Recreation Ground in Wood Green, from CCTV for Bowes Park station to improving cleaning and safety in the Sandlings and Sky City housing estates in Noel Park.

You can read the full manifesto here.

But one of the defining differences between Haringey Labour and Haringey Lib Dems is that we listen to what local residents want. We have been asking Haringey residents across the borough what their top five local priorities to improve their neighbourhood are - so we know where they want us to start putting the mess right if we take control of Haringey next week.

The photo shows my Lib Dem colleagues Lynne Featherstone and Cllr Robert Gorrie discussing our election pledges with local resident Eric Wilton from Alexandra ward.

Friends of the Earth's climate pledges

2010-05-01T09:21:00.000+01:00

Friends of the Earth came up with a fun, visual way to show which of the three main parties has shown most commitment to their climate pledges - see the YouTube video below.

And, yes, they are biodegradable balloons, apparently!

Haringey postal vote ballot paper error - latest

2010-05-01T00:22:00.000+01:00

As I blogged this morning, Haringey sent out some general election ballot papers to postal voters in Hornsey and Wood Green with a very unfortunate error - telling them to vote for "no more than three candidates". Of course, we all have just one vote on a general election ballot paper, not three.

The council have now put a statement on their website, which you can read here. They are sending replacement ballot papers to those who got the incorrectly printed ones and asking people to use those instead.

Many people will already have sent their original ballot papers back, however. The good news is that if you have voted already using an incorrectly printed ballot paper and just voted for a single candidate, then your original ballot will count and you can just destroy the replacement. Also good news for anyone who was confused by the instructions and voted for more than one candidate, invalidating the ballot - you will now get a replacement (with the correct instructions) so you will not lose your right to vote.

Bad news, however, for anyone who got an incorrect ballot paper and voted for more than one candidate (or didn't fill it in at all because of the confusion) and who has already gone away until after the election. Because if either of those apply to you and you aren't available at home to receive the replacement ballot paper then this error has cost you your vote.

On a related note, if you're registered to vote by post in Haringey and haven't yet received your ballot paper then you should call the council's electoral office on 020 8489 2953, 020 8489 2954 or 020 8489 6978. It should have arrived by now and they will need to issue you with a replacement.

Haringey appear to have sent out their postal votes later than many other areas - mine only arrived on Wednesday and many were still arriving on Thursday - which is in itself unfortunate, as I expect many people who knew they were going to be away and applied for a vote thought it would come much earlier. Some may already have left home before the postal vote papers arrived.

Let's hope that neither the late posting of ballot papers nor the incorrect voting advice on some of them has a significant impact on the general election result here in Hornsey and Wood Green, But it will still have an impact on those individual voters who find themselves disenfranchised because the system has let them down.

Haringey piloting PR for the general election?

2010-04-30T09:27:00.000+01:00

Question: How many votes do you get in the general election?

Answer: Three, if you live in Haringey.

But giving people three votes isn't part of some exciting experiment with proportional representation. It's a cock-up.

Some of the general election ballot papers sent out to postal voters in Hornsey and Wood Green are very clearly marked across the top with VOTE FOR NO MORE THAN THREE CANDIDATES. Whoops. Might be a welcome instruction for indecisive voters, but it isn't going to help us with an accurate election result.

I don't know how many voters are affected yet (my own postal ballot paper correctly told me to vote for just one candidate), but what I do know is that it is already causing confusion. Haringey are aware of the problem, but not sure yet exactly what they are proposing to do.

Just as a reminder, while you do get to mark three crosses on the ballot paper for the local elections, please do make sure you only mark the one cross on any general election ballot paper.

Let's hope this can get sorted and it doesn't cause chaos with the election...

Whittington A&E campaign success!

2010-04-29T22:46:00.001+01:00

I have been on a blogging break for a couple of months - partly as I had my wedding in March and largely as the election campaign has been keeping me busy!

But some good news that has spurred me back into blogging. Today the proposed closure of Whittington Hospital's Accident and Emergency department has been scrapped - good news indeed.

I've previously blogged about the lunacy of closing Whittington's A&E and Lynne Featherstone's campaign to stop the closure, so am naturally delighted that it's off the cards for now. We'll have to remain vigilant, as once these sort of threats come up once you can never be sure when they might rear their ugly head again. Not least as the announcement seems to have come as a complete surprise to NHS London.

The timing of the announcement, exactly a week before the election, might cause a wry smile. But, for now, it's relief for local residents and congratulations to everyone involved in campaigning to save Whittington A&E - local residents and politicians alike. There has been a huge Lib Dem campaign since the threat emerged and the photo shows local Lib Dems supported by the Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Health Norman Lamb.

From left to right, you can see Lib Dem candidates Jo Shaw (Holborn and St Pancras), Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green, of course!), Bridget Fox (Islington South and Finsbury) and Rhodri Jamieson-Ball (Islington North). - with Norman in the middle.

Four decades of Labour in Haringey

2010-02-24T08:29:00.001Z

With the local elections coming up in May, Haringey residents have the chance to get rid of Labour after four decades.

As you can see from the numbers top left of my blog, the Lib Dems are the only party that can end Haringey Labour's rule. At the last local elections in 2006, Haringey elected 30 Labour councillors and 27 Lib Dems - not a single Conservative or Green was elected. In fact, it's now 12 years since the Conservatives won any council seat in Haringey.

I took this photo over Christmas when I was on holiday in New Zealand - a sign commemorating "one hundred years of local body government", brilliant.

Haringey was created in the local government reorganisation of 1965, so is just 45 years old... if it makes it to 100 I'm not sure local residents would appreciate a similar sign!

Save Whittington A&E: public meeting

2010-02-23T08:17:00.002Z

Local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has arranged a public meeting as part of our campaign to save the Accident & Emergency department at the Whittington Hospital.

Local residents will be able to put questions directly to some of the people involved in making the decisions about the Whittington's future. Lynne's recorded a short film about the meeting, which you can view by clicking here.

The meeting is on Thursday 4 March and will start at 8pm. It is being held at Greig City Academy in Hornsey (map here - use the entrance from Hillfield Avenue and follow the signs). If you've got any questions about the meeting, just call Lynne's office on 020 8340 5459.

As mentioned before, the Defend the Whittington Coalition have organised a protest march too, which Lynne will be going to with other Lib Dem colleagues to show our support for the campaign. That is this Saturday, starting at Highbury Fields at 12 noon and going to the Whittington Hospital. You can get details about the march on their website.

So, two more ways to show your opposition to the proposed closure of Whittington's A&E. And if you haven't signed our petition yet then please do so here.

London Marathon again... but not for me!

2010-02-22T08:16:00.000Z

I have done the London Marathon three times myself (slowly), raising money for Refuge, Amnesty International and the Terrence Higgins Trust. My total came to £3200 for Refuge last year.

I'm definitely not doing it again this year, so I won't be pestering everyone for sponsorship - some will be pleased to hear! However, one of my fellow Haringey councillors who also did it last year is running again this year, so please feel free to sponsor her.

Emma Jones, who is taking the training and finishing time of it all much more seriously than I did, is raising money this year for the Rainforest Foundation. You can sponsor her easily on her Justgiving page.

Open space in Fortis Green

2010-02-21T08:24:00.000Z

Not necessarily the best photos in the world, but here are a couple of pictures of the Fortis Green Allotments, which I took when delivering leaflets nearby recently.

As I have already blogged, the allotments are under threat of development - although they have some protection as Significant Local Open Land (SLOL). They also have an active and effective campaign group working to protect them, which has support from across the political spectrum.

There is a shortage of available allotments in Haringey, with people on the waiting list for years - which is a good enough reason in itself to fight against any development of this site. But my reason for posting these photos is to show that these allotments also play an important role as green, open space in my Fortis Green ward.

On the top photo you can see the campaign banner and on the one below you can see well into the distance. Being on a very popular path, heavily used by residents and school children, and next to Tetherdown Primary School, the loss to local residents of having these allotments replaced by housing would be significant.

With the Thames Water reservoir site and the archery club (you might just be able to see some archers if you enlarge that bottom photo), the allotments are part of an important bit of 'green'. It is vital that we don't concrete over every small bit of land we can find in London.

Success on digital aerial campaign!

2010-02-19T17:22:00.000Z

Finally some good news for the leaseholders hit with massive bills from the Council for the installation of digital aerials.

This paper is going to Tuesday’s meeting of the Labour Cabinet that runs Haringey, with some clear recommendations that will help leaseholders. It’s taken a lot of nagging from me, Lynne Featherstone, leaseholder groups, individual residents and others to get to this stage – but now at least some success.

Assuming that the recommendations are accepted, the biggest news for leaseholders is that they will see the costs of digital aerial installation capped at a maximum of £400. This is still a lot of money – and considerably more than many other London boroughs (you can read all about the original plans here). But it will more than halve some of the bills leaseholders were facing and importantly it is retrospective – so those that have already been forced to shell out a small fortune will be able to get some of their money back.

There will also be a block-by-block consultation – involving leaseholders and tenants – to see if each block wants the full (expensive) IRS system or the more basic digital aerial. If they go for the full IRS then the maximum cost will be £400 each, the basic system will obviously be cheaper.

A cap and block-by-block consultation are two of the things that us local Lib Dems and the Haringey Leaseholders Association have been calling for. The cap is higher than probably either of us would have set if we had the option, but will still come as a relief to many.

So, another victory for common sense and perseverance! Unless Haringey Labour decide to ignore the recommendations – we will find out next Tuesday.

Helping out burglars

2010-02-18T23:09:00.000Z

Saw this news story on the BBC News website today - about a website that some people have set up which contains a pile of personal information people have posted online. I haven't visited the actual website (called 'Please Rob Me') but the article says that you can basically figure out when people will be away from their homes.

It finishes with Crimestoppers saying:

Details posted online are available for the world to see; you wouldn't hang a sign on your door saying you're out, so why would you post it online?

Sensible advice, but reminded me that delivering in my ward recently I found someone who had done exactly that - a big notice on their front door saying they were out of the country until the end of the month (so not to leave parcels on their doorstep). Which might help them in not getting any parcels nicked, but seems a bit of an invitation to burglars.

Sometimes when out delivering you do get to play the good samaritan a bit - ringing to tell people they've left their keys hanging out of the front door or their car, or occasionally finding front doors open the owners didn't realise weren't secure or finding a resident ill and in need of help. Wasn't much I could do about this note though, hope no one takes advantage.

It’s a three horse race… or not

2010-02-17T18:45:00.000Z

Just a quick update. It was a busy weekend of campaigning – including one of our regular surgeries, plus a street surgery on the Great North Road. Plenty of leaflet delivery too, in my ward and one of our key target wards.

While out delivering in Fortis Green, a resident showed me a leaflet they had received from the local Tories – partly as they were surprised to get a leaflet from someone other than the local Lib Dems and partly as they were amused by the title: It’s a three horse race.

It is a hilarious leaflet. The Conservative candidate is quoted as describing Hornsey & Wood Green as:

A classic 3-way marginal seat

Ho hum. Classic 3-way marginal? Hardly. The leaflet then uses a very suspect ‘how you intend to vote’ graph which they claim is based on a sample of 9,000 voters and shows only 190 votes between the three parties. Ho hum again.

Leaving aside the dubious Conservative party stats, let’s look at real stats – the result of the last general election (2005) in Hornsey & Wood Green:

Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem) - 20,512 (43.3%)
Labour - 18,117 (38.3%)
Conservative - 6,014 (12.7%)
Others - 2687 (5.7%)

A three way marginal? It is marginal, but not three way. The Conservative candidate has as much chance of winning Hornsey & Wood Green as I have of flying to the moon for Easter.

The Conservative share of the vote has fallen in Hornsey & Wood Green at every general election since 1992, right down to the 12.7% they got last time. I don’t think anyone’s going to be fooled by this latest attempt by the Tories to pull the wool over the eyes of Haringey's voters. But just in case they are at least managing to fool themselves, I have permanently put actual, real, genuine stats at the top of my blog. So the Conservative candidate may want to refer back to these stats - real votes cast in real ballot boxes - before he gets too carried away.

Looking at the Tory quote, above, I was reminded of another quote I recently saw:

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts - for support rather than illumination

Rethink campaigning to tackle discrimination

2010-02-14T08:30:00.002Z

The forthcoming general election is guaranteed to elect a huge number of new MPs, due to all the retirements from the current crop. So, campaigning charities are busier than ever preparing for getting their priorities listened to by the new Parliament.

One example is Rethink, the mental health charity, which has set as its broad priorities for the new government to:

tackle stigma and discrimination
provide better access to services
to give fairer treatment to those caught up in the criminal justice system

They have a petition that you can sign here.

Save Fortis Green Allotments latest

2010-02-13T08:49:00.000Z

I recently received the latest edition of the Save Fortis Green Allotments Campaign newsletter. The campaign group is very well organised and doing a great job in fighting the threat to these allotments.

They set up a trust to negotiate with Thames Water to buy the allotment land and have now agreed a price of £30,000 with them – so are now fundraising to get that money and secure the future of the allotments for good.

The concerns for the future started with Thames Water touting around the land for sale - at a much higher price than £30,000. The land is designated as Significant Local Open Land (SLOL), which makes housing development difficult – but once developers get hold of land like this you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll use every dollar they have to secure planning permission through any route they can. So the threat is always there.

So, good news for the campaign, although it’s not all perfect – you can read the latest updates in full on the campaign website. This also includes all the ways in which you can support the cause, from signing the e-petition to making a donation.

They are also organising fundraising events and the next one is:

COMEDY NIGHT AND PROMISES AUCTION, to be held in Tetherdown School Hall on Saturday 27th February. We’re hoping to have Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith from The League of Gentlemen, Mark Maier and Andrew Clover performing for us, as well as some fantastic items to bid for, with food provided and a pay bar. Tickets are £25 each and are going on sale very shortly.

So you can put that in your diary and keep an eye out for details. The calendar I blogged about before sold out, so the group know what they’re doing! Hopefully this next fundraiser will be a big success too.

From a council point of view, my ward colleagues and I will obviously always resist any attempts to build over these (or any!) allotments if they come. Having chaired a scrutiny review on allotments a few years ago, I’m only too aware of the important role they have both for individuals and as a green, open space – and that demand for allotments already massively outstrips supply in many parts of Haringey.

For more information, do please visit the Save Fortis Green Allotments website.

Conservative police cuts to hurt London

2010-02-12T07:57:00.000Z

Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson has this week slashed £16million from the capital’s police budget. This was despite opposition from the Lib Dem members of the GLA - who put forward costed, alternative budget proposals which avoided cutting police numbers.

The effect of Boris Johnson’s massive cuts to police funding will be a reduction of 455 police officers. Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Policing Spokesperson and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority said about the Mayor’s statement that "the asset the police has could be put to better use":

… I entirely agree. However, he has failed to justify spending £2 million a year to chauffeur senior Met officers to and from work, and to provide first and business class flights for them when they travel abroad. He has failed to justify increasing the amount of money spent on press officers for the Met from £6 million to £7 million, or the £9 million they spend on consultants."

You can keep up to date on what the Lib Dem members of the GLA are doing about this and other issues via their website.

Haringey Lib Dem candidates selected for May 2010

2010-02-11T12:17:00.000Z

Happy to be able to tell you that I have been re-selected as a Lib Dem candidate for Fortis Green at this May's local elections.

In 1998, Lynne Featherstone, Julia Glenn and June Anderson were elected as the first three Lib Dems on Haringey Council and immediately became the official opposition. I was elected to represent Fortis Green for the first time in 2002, as part of a massively increased opposition group of 15, then re-elected in 2006, with our group growing to 27. So, this May, I am hoping that the voters of Fortis Green will re-elect me again - so that I can be part of the even larger group that takes control of Haringey Council after four decades of Labour rule.

We had a lively and packed hustings meeting at Hornsey Bowls Club, which was an excellent venue (I hadn't been there before). There were contested hustings for a number of wards, with some excellent new candidates and I'm really pleased that there will be plenty of good and enthusiastic new colleagues joining us on the council in May.

Of course, that depends on us all continuing the year-round hard work, campaigning hard for the election on top of that and the voters agreeing with us that Haringey Lib Dems have the vision and ability to get a grip on Haringey and get the council moving in the right direction.

I will post a couple of photos from the selection meeting later. Both Robert Gorrie (Haringey Lib Dem Leader) and Lynne Featherstone gave great motivational speeches and there was a buzz in the room that can give us all confidence for the campaign. You'll all be interested to know the full list of candidates selected across the different wards... all in good time.

Whittington A&E protest march

2010-02-10T07:57:00.001Z

Just a quick one - as Lynne is reporting on her blog, there is going to be a protest march against the proposed closure of the Whittington A&E.

Details to be confirmed (no doubt Lynne will have them first, but I will post too) - but the basic details are that it is taking place on Saturday 27 February, starting at 12 noon. The more people who turn out for it, the louder the voice that the decision makers will hear.

Nayim from the halfway line

2010-02-09T22:23:00.001Z

Just seen the video of this goal, scored from 100 yards, worth a look.

The link also gives a few other videos of long-range spectaculars - including the Nayim goal that produced the "Nayim from the halfway line" chant that is still popular (in some parts) to this day.

Whatever distance they're scored from, it would be nice to have some Spurs goals on our trip to Wolves tomorrow night - especially after the frustration of Saturday's goalless draw with Aston Villa at White Hart Lane. I think the BBC stats showed 28 shots on target from Spurs, while Villa were unrelentingly negative in their approach and could not really argue with the "Boring, boring Villa" chants aimed at them.

Cooking up some tasty treats

2010-02-09T09:18:00.008Z

A great picture of Lib Dem colleagues Lynne Featherstone, Hornsey & Wood Green MP and Cllr Robert Gorrie, Hornsey ward councillor and Leader of the Opposition in Haringey.

The photo shows Lynne and Robert taking part in a Kurdish and Somali cookery class, helping to raise the profile of Salt Awareness Week. This was locally, in Hornsey, but Salt Awareness Week is a national (and, in fact, international) event. You can read more about the health risks of a high-salt diet by visiting the website of Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH), who organise National Salt Awareness Week in the UK.

I spotted this photo on Lynne's Facebook page. If you are one of Lynne's constituents and are finding it hard to keep up with the sheer volume of work Lynne puts in on a wide range of issues, you might find it handy to follow her on Twitter or become her friend on Facebook - you can find the links by visiting the homepage of her website here.

Of course, if you need Lynne's help with anything, rather than just keeping up with what she is doing for everyone else, then her contact details are on the website too and she is always happy to help.

(As always, you can click on the photo to see a larger version.)

Bo is gone forever

2010-02-08T08:55:00.002Z

Sad to read last week about one of the world's oldest languages dying out.

I believe languages are an important part of culture and need preserving where we can, just like buildings. Because, when they're gone they're gone.

Preserving Bounds Green tube station

2010-02-07T09:10:00.000Z

News this week that Bounds Green tube station has been designated a Grade II listed building – as a result of a long-running campaign by Liberal Democrats and local residents.

That started back in July 2008, with Bounds Green Lib Dem councillor John Oakes writing to English Heritage requesting that Bounds Green Tube Station be put forward for listing, to ensure its future protection.

Two other Piccadilly line stations of similar style and date had already been listed – Turnpike Lane and Arnos Grove – and now, thanks to pressure from the Lib Dem team and local resident groups, Bounds Green joins them.

The photo shows (from left to right): Mr Ron Lock (Bounds Green and District Residents' Association), Station Supervisor Mr Ken Chikoti (back), Lynne Featherstone MP, Cllr Ron Aitken, Cllr John Oakes, Cara Jenkinson and Mr Keith Fawkes-Underwood, chairman of Hornsey Historical Society.

Well done to my Lib Dem colleagues and all the residents who helped get the station listed.

On a slight tangent, the architecture theme reminded me of the below photo I took of some shopfronts in Nelson (New Zealand) - click on it to enlarge it.

A nice, old building with lots of charm… unfortunately with a rather less nice, modern addition next to it. A good example of why we need to list buildings like Bounds Green tube to give them proper protection!

Rees-Dart track, South Island, New Zealand

2010-02-06T08:15:00.001Z

As this weekend is full of canvassing and delivering, both in my own ward and in our other target wards, there’ll be a fair bit of walking done. Especially if you add in the walk home from White Hart Lane after the Spurs v Villa game this evening.

So, while thinking of that very purposeful and practical walking ahead of me, I’m just reminiscing back to a more leisurely walk over Christmas.

Well, the Rees-Dart track in the Wakatipu area of South Island, New Zealand, is not really all that leisurely. It’s a four-day walk (I get used to using the normal Kiwi word of ‘tramp’ instead of ‘walk’ while I’m over there - but if you tell people here you’ve 'been on a four-day tramp' it can cause some confusion).

For the Department of Conservation (DoC) information about the Rees-Dart track, click here.

We were lucky with the weather – although it was summer, there is a lot of rain down there all year round. But we had a dry first three days and only had rain (a lot of it) on our last day, Boxing Day. Still, made it all the more satisfying to finish the tramp and get back to Glenorchy for hot showers and dry clothes.

There is a great system of backcountry huts in New Zealand, placed perfectly for walks like this. You can see one of them in the top photo – Shelter Rock Hut. The other photos show: a random shot along the track on the first day; Snowy Creek, which makes a beautiful walk on the second day; and a little bridge. I should point out that the Rees-Dart track doesn’t have many bridges like this, you need some river-crossing skills. As the weather had been fairly dry when we did the track, we only came across one side-stream which involved going up to our waists – the rest were mostly just ankle or knee-deep for us.

You can click on any of the photos to get the bigger version of them. And for information about any of the other amazing walking tracks New Zealand has to offer, take a look at the DoC website.

Education, education, education - but with policies and funding to back it up

2010-02-05T19:22:00.001Z

This week Nick Clegg gave a speech at Barnado's on Lib Dem education policy for the general election.

The pledges focus on reducing inequality in education, with an extra £2.5bn being invested in schools - which could be used to cut class sizes, offer one-on-one tuition and provide catch-up classes.

The main schools to benefit from the money will be those taking on children who need more help, to start redressing the imbalance between those children who go to private schools and those who come from the poorest backgrounds.

You can read about the policy in detail by clicking here.

Labour MP for Hornsey & Wood Green still trying for a comeback

2010-02-05T07:56:00.001Z

I keep spotting former Labour MP for Hornsey & Wood Green Barbara Roche’s name popping up on various blogs and political websites, as she looks for a seat to stand in at the general election.

Barbara had a majority of over 20,000 when Lynne Featherstone first stood against her in 1997, but of course Lynne’s hard work overturned that and in 2005 Lynne was elected as the first Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green.

Barbara has tried to be selected for a number of safe Labour seats (and they’ll need to be pretty safe, as she did lose a 20,000 vote majority in just two elections). I believe she has come close in some, but is currently still looking. She obviously didn’t fancy her chances facing Lynne at the ballot box again.

The latest selection I’ve seen Barbara Roche’s name on has been for the safe seat of Wigan. That seems to have been a selection meeting that has caused even more trouble than Haringey Labour’s selections – take a look at the news report of the shortlisting and the failure to hold the count properly. They have eventually selected and Barbara has missed out on this one, but I wish her well in finding a seat to contest.

While looking at the Hornsey and Wood Green election results, it’s interesting for people to remember the complete collapse in the Conservative vote across Hornsey and Wood Green. The Conservatives last won a general election here in 1987 and their vote has fallen in each election since, right down to a very distant third place on 12.7% at the last election.

UPDATE 11.02.10: Former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has announced his retirement today, meaning a selection coming up for his Ashfield seat in Nottinghamshire. With a majority that looks healthy - on paper - wonder if that will become Barbara's new focus?

Real democracy in the Lib Dems

2010-02-04T19:28:00.000Z

Commenting on the news that they have lost another councillor, Haringey Labour Chief Whip Cllr Joe Goldberg claims that these local difficulties (which are starting to look like a mass exodus from Haringey Labour) are the result of a democratic selection process... he says:

We are the only party to maintain this level of democracy for council candidate selections and I believe it keeps us closer to communities we seek to serve.

Absolute rubbish, of course, as well he knows. How democratic the Labour ward selections are is up for debate anyway – but the point I unfortunately have to make (again) is that our own selections are done entirely democratically.

Haringey Lib Dems have not selected any candidates for the elections in May yet, which includes sitting councillors like me. Nominations are in and there will be a hustings meeting and vote of our party membership next week. That’s a genuinely democratic election, one member-one vote - and a single transferable vote, at that!

Because we have campaigners and councillors working hard in wards across Haringey all year round, perhaps Cllr Goldberg thinks our candidates were selected years ago. But we have a genuinely democratic system – and plenty of competition for places, too.

We will of course be able to announce our candidates in due course… I’ll let you know if I make it into the three for Fortis Green!

Homes left empty as Haringey families crowd waiting list

2010-02-04T08:58:00.000Z

As I’ve already blogged, one single councillor has now taken on responsibility for the whole of both the environment and housing portfolios in Haringey. Either alone is a massive job.

One example of the huge task that Cllr Bevan already had on his hands with just housing is the issue of empty homes, highlighted by my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Richard Wilson recently.

Richard is pictured here with fellow Lib Dem campaigner Katherine Reece-Thomas outside a large three storey terrace house in Stroud Green ward, which has been empty for nearly a year. At the same time as this property stands empty, there are 2,315 families on Haringey’s housing waiting list needing a house with three bedrooms and 566 needing one with more than three bedrooms.

All in all, the latest figures show there are over 16,000 families waiting for a house or flat in Haringey – and there are 369 other empty properties as well as this one. So, as you can see, the maths isn’t good even with those empty properties brought back into use. But it is a scandal that so many properties are currently being left vacant by Haringey (a quarter of them for more than six months) and something that must be addressed.

At the same time Richard told me about this empty house, I was dealing with a resident who lives with two teenage children and two toddlers in a one bedroom flat – desperate for a move to more suitable accommodation. Who knows how many houses and flats which would be ideal for her are among those 370 lying empty?

As Richard (who is Deputy Leader of the Opposition as well as one of Stroud Green’s three Lib Dem councillors) said:

No wonder we have such long housing waiting lists in Haringey, when our Labour-run Council is so wasteful with its own housing stock.

Nationally, the Liberal Democrats have a plan to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use. An allocation of £1bn for local authority and Housing Association grants would bring 100,000 homes into use as social housing and £400m would fund subsidised loans to bring 150,000 homes into use as private sector housing.

This investment makes sound financial sense – it costs an average of £10,000 to bring a property back into use but £100,000 to build a new social home. You can read more about this manifesto pledge – and see Sarah Teather, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg explaining it – by clicking here.

Coping with an autism diagnosis for your child

2010-02-03T09:39:00.001Z

Last month one of my nieces was diagnosed with autism. I have four nieces and one nephew in total, all five of them wonderful kids. Sasha, my sister’s younger daughter had a developmental check-up recently, prompted by a few little things - but mostly a bit of concern that she had not started speaking properly yet (she’s two and a half years old).

Now, children obviously develop at different speeds and in different ways, including the age at which they'll start to speak fluently. And Sasha has in effect been given a sort of provisional diagnosis, with relatively mild examples of behaviour which match the indicators for children with an autistic spectrum disorder. So we are, of course, all hoping that the behaviours that suggest autism now will simply disappear in time. Certainly, getting help and awareness at this early stage can only be a help.

My sister Steph has started a blog of her own, to document her experiences of dealing with the diagnosis and helping Sasha along with her continuing development – which you can read here.

Steph’s blog is completely non-political, as she is. If you start from her earliest post, you can read about the differing emotions that the situation has prompted and some examples of the behaviour that might or might not be indicative of an autistic spectrum disorder.

Steph has started the blog mostly as an easy way of keeping a diary of Sasha’s development, but also made it public as it might be a help to other parents finding themselves in the new and potentially frightening position of being told their child may have autism.

If you want comprehensive advice or information about autism, in children or adults, you can start with the National Autistic Society’s website.

Haringey Labour's disintegration gathers speed

2010-02-02T21:56:00.000Z

Today another Labour councillor jumped ship in Haringey. Tottenham Hale councillor Sheik Thompson has resigned from the Labour party and will sit as an independent.

This comes as no surprise and follows on from the resignation of Cabinet Member Brian Haley. And there are further rumblings that more councillors might be getting ready to quit Labour before the election.

The first concern for Haringey Labour (aside from trying not to lose any more of their colleagues before May) will be that their majority on the Council is now down to one. There are 29 Labour councillors and 28 opposition councillors. I bet they're really glad they cancelled the next Council meeting now - they still have to try and get their budget through on 22 February though!

Go directly to jail

2010-02-02T08:52:00.002Z

Had a busy weekend - casework, delivery over in Bounds Green ward (one of our key targets for taking seats off Labour in May and taking control of Haringey), delivery in my own ward, successfully buying suits for my wedding and a lot of other things that don't make for very interesting blogging.

There was also time for some fun stuff though - went to the theatre Friday and Saturday nights. The Rivals at the Southwark Playhouse was a lot of fun and Harry Hadden-Paton was just superb as Captain Absolute. Innocence at the Arcola (which we only just made it to, thanks to the vagaries of the No. 67 bus route) was interesting. Certainly not my favourite play, but engaging enough to entertain and be a little thought-provoking.

They were both a relief after the pain of our last theatre trip. That was to see The Misanthrope, which was just awful - we had to leave at the interval because I was worried Owen would hunt down the director/producer/writer and do them bodily harm if we stayed any longer. Unfortunately, The Rivals and Innocence both finished this weekend. If you're a masochist, The Misanthrope is still going.

The other fun thing that I finally did was to upload the photos from my Christmas time trip to New Zealand - so I will be sticking a few of them up here over the next few weeks to help brighten the blog up.

But for now, all I'm giving you is the below two photos of one of the more unusual places we stayed while in NZ - the Jailhouse in Christchurch. As you can guess from the name and see from the photos, it's a former prison that has been turned into a backpackers.

Located in Addington, around a 20 minute or so walk to the centre of Christchurch, it was in fact still operating as Addington Prison until 1999 - a remand centre, I believe. It opened as a backpackers in 2006 and is smart and clean, as well as a memorable place to stay.

The top photo is taken from what I assume would have been a good guard lookout position and the bottom one is the cell that my mate and I stayed in!

p.s. if you're heading to North Island rather than South Island but like the novelty factor of this place, there's another backpackers in an old prison (which I stayed in years ago) in Napier too.

Oyster pre-pay: mostly good news

2010-02-01T08:22:00.000Z

I was lucky to be able to have a walking holiday in New Zealand over Christmas and New Year and so missed something lots of residents across Haringey had been waiting for – the introduction of Oyster pre-pay at stations like Harringay, Hornsey and Alexandra Palace.

Those Oyster machines have been in place at some stations for ages (it feels like several years), tantalising passengers with the promise of integrated ticket technology at some point in the future.

Well, the future is now – if you want to travel from Ally Pally to Euston, say, you don’t any more have to buy a train ticket from Ally Pally to Finsbury Park then use your Oyster pre-pay just for the Finsbury Park to Euston bit on the Victoria Line. You can just touch in and out at Ally Pally and Euston, making it a single journey.

This is good news, of course, and something Lynne Featherstone had been pressing Network Rail hard on. But every silver lining has a cloud… As my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Richard Wilson explains in this blog post, it’s not all so simple if you have a travel card and want to go out of your usual zone.

That is easy with pre-pay on the tube network, with the extension charge just deducted from your pre-pay. But for rail they have created an Oyster Extension Permit:

If you want to travel beyond the zones covered by your Travelcard on National Rail services within London you must set an Oyster Extension Permit on your card before you travel. This means you will use pay as you go once you've gone outside the zone.

Oyster Extension Permits

§ You can set your permit at any Tube or London Overground station ticket office or touchscreen ticket machine, Oyster Ticket Stops, some National Rail ticket offices or self-service ticket machines
§ You only need to set an Oyster Extension Permit when you start a journey within the zones covered by your Travelcard and want to travel outside those zones on National Rail
§ Only set your permit to your card just before you make your extension journey
§ You must have at least £1.50 pay as you go balance on your Oyster card to set one
§ A permit stays on your card until you touch out at the end of your journey
§ When touching out, the permit will be cleared from your Oyster card and the fare for the extension journey will be deducted from your pay as you go balance

Simple, eh?

Your experiences of Whittington A&E

2010-01-31T13:05:00.000Z

Our local Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Lynne Featherstone is asking for details of your experiences of Whittington Hospital Accident & Emergency Department.

This is all part of our campaign to stop Whittington A&E being closed down. Lynne is leading this and you can read all about it on her website.

I have already blogged about my very positive experiences of the A&E at Whittington (and indeed the whole hospital) and why I think it’s so important that a full A&E service is retained. If you have your own story to tell then do let Lynne have a paragraph – personal testimony adds such weight to campaigns like this.

Jack of all trades

2010-01-30T09:23:00.000Z

After the resignation of Cllr Brian Haley from his cabinet post (and the Labour Party) a new Cabinet Member for the Environment was needed.

So, what have Labour decided to do? As reported by the Hornsey Journal, Cllr Haley’s responsibilities (which were huge) have been added to Cllr John Bevan’s to-do list, which already includes trying to run Haringey’s housing service.

While most residents will be rightly pleased at the idea of reducing the number of Labour councillors receiving a top-up allowance for various jobs (almost every member of the Labour group gets a top-up allowance for something or other), it does give Cllr Bevan an enormous workload.

Housing is hardly a minor issue for the borough and the environment brief covers lots of areas that are the only direct service many residents get from Haringey – rubbish collection, street cleaning, recycling, traffic, to name just a few.

It seems that Cllr Bevan is now in charge of a massive part of Haringey’s service provision, even if it is only for a few months. Can one person really give adequate time to addressing all these issues satisfactorily? Time will tell, I guess.

Let's hope Kraft protect Cadbury jobs - and take on Nestle!

2010-01-29T08:44:00.000Z

The recent news that Kraft have won their battle to take over Cadbury got me worried.

Of course, there’s a very real worry for Cadbury employees over jobs and all the other uncertainty that comes with a takeover. Then there’s the concern that Kraft will not handle the Cadbury brand in the same way as currently.

The latter point has generated plenty of press coverage and comment – people wondering if Dairy Milk will still taste the same or if all chocolate bars are now going to be covered with plastic cheese.

Maybe it’s better to look at it more optimistically though – Kraft is obviously a highly successful company and didn’t become one by not listening to what consumers want. Hopefully there will be good continuation in existing management, as well as staff at all levels, both to protect jobs and to give stability which can continue to build the success of the brand.

And, if we’re very lucky, it might even push Cadbury into launching Pebbles on the UK market!

Haringey Labour's Chief Whip, a law unto himself

2010-01-28T19:04:00.002Z

Haringey Labour really are in a mess. Their latest move has been to cancel the Full Council meeting scheduled for Monday 8 February.

Each year since I was first elected to the Council in 2002, we have had two Full Council meetings in February – these are the ones that set the council tax for the year and where the Labour backbenchers mindlessly vote through any budget that their Cabinet puts before them.

On Friday last week, we all received an email saying that the meeting was cancelled. No prior warning and no explanation. Certainly our Chief Whip was not informed in advance (or me as Deputy Whip), which at the very least would have been polite. In fact, it then took some days before we got any explanation… such as it was, I still don’t know why they cancelled it.

Perhaps they think they’re running the borough so perfectly they can squeeze any issues into just one meeting? Ho hum. Perhaps Labour Chief Whip Cllr Joe Goldberg has lost the plot or just wanted to show that the democratic process in Haringey is at his whim? Certainly more likely.

Not forgetting that this is the Chief Whip who hypocritically whined on at Full Council about wanting cross-party co-operation for the good of the borough while trying to score as many petty political points as possible.

Anyway, for anyone worried that I will have too much free time on my hands, there are plenty of other meetings that Labour haven’t managed to cancel. The scrutiny review panel looking at victims of crime, the safeguarding children policy and practice panel, the Alexandra Park and Palace advisory committee and the usual Area Assemblies and Full Councils are the main formal council meetings for me at the moment.

Last week I was also at the ward panel that works with the safer neighbourhood team to guide policing priorities for Fortis Green and provide useful two-way feedback between local residents and police. Chaired by Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association Chair John Hajdu, my ward colleague Cllr Martin Newton normally represents Fortis Green on this, but had another meeting that night, so I went along instead and had an interesting evening.

Latest news on the Miscellaneous Functions Sub-Committee that I am on is... still no news, no meetings since I joined it – I’ll keep you posted on that one! Don’t all get too excited.

Keeping things in proportion

2010-01-27T22:30:00.000Z

You know those text boxes with key quotes that the BBC uses to make its online news articles look pretty?

Well, the one they picked for this story earlier in the week is probably my favourite stand-out quote.

It is also a nice summing up of the case, clearly free of any legal jargon.

Freezing - council tax not weather!

2010-01-19T13:10:00.000Z

Leaving aside the resignation of the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment to join the Lib Dems, there were things of greater significance to local residents discussed at Full Council last night.

Key among those was next year’s council tax. The council tax and budget setting meetings are actually next month, but in this time of recession residents are no doubt even more worried than usual about what horror lies in store for them when council tax bills drop onto their doormats later in the year. So, following a well-presented deputation from a resident about just that, we had a debate on a council tax freeze.

Local Liberal Democrats first proposed a council tax freeze, to help local residents who are already faced with astoundingly high council tax, in November 2008. Setting the following year’s budget in February 2009, Haringey Labour ignored us and chose to hike council tax again, for the umpteenth year since they took control of the borough. We have continued to call for a freeze on council tax since and finally Labour have caved in with their own version of our council tax freeze proposal, which I like to call Haringey Labour’s Election Year Tax Freeze.

So the good news for local taxpayers is that council tax will be frozen this year, at last – as both the Lib Dems and Labour tabled motions last night to freeze council tax and that will be confirmed in next month’s meetings.

As usual, Haringey Labour cannot admit they were wrong or slow to listen to the needs of local residents, so we had the unedifying sight of their Chief Whip Cllr Joe Goldberg ranting and raving in a way that reminded me of listening to certain speakers at a National Union of Students (NUS) conference. He also used the Labour majority to get their motion discussed first – which contained a lot of misinformation and party political attacks, whereas ours was a straightforward call for a council tax freeze.

But Cllr Goldberg has good form on that front. Never missing a chance to make proceedings as unfair and partisan as possible, he also likes to have a go at the residents of Highgate and Muswell Hill as much as possible – there were comments from him again last night like the ones I talked about here.

I don’t know where Cllr Goldberg lives himself – I heard from someone that during the Seven Sisters by-election he was registered temporarily at a property in Muswell Hill, though I don’t know if that is true and I have no idea where he lives now. I do know that he’s the Labour PPC for Witney in Oxfordshire though and I wonder how his constant (pitiful) attempts at class warfare go down there?

Perhaps we should give Cllr Goldberg a little leeway, he must be getting quite stressed about the possibility of losing his seat to the Conservatives in Seven Sisters ward in May, considering how close he came to losing the formerly safe Labour seat at the by-election.

Cllr Pat Egan and Cllr Matt Cooke gave ridiculous speeches. As usual, Haringey Labour were keen to talk about other boroughs, not Haringey - you'll notice if you ever have the misfortune to attend a Full Council meeting that they don't like to talk about Haringey! Not surprising, when they have nothing positive to offer.

One thing Cllrs Egan and Cooke both referred to was the long running Lib Dem campaign to axe council tax completely and replace it with a fairer system, such as local income tax. They both claimed that we didn't want to talk about it and that it would cost Haringey residents more... nothing could be further from the truth.

I had actually already talked about it, at that very council meeting, before they both spoke - it's a policy I'm very proud of as council tax is simply unfair. And they claimed it would cost residents more - but the figure that Cllr Egan used as the additional income tax people would have to pay was actually lower even than the extortionate council tax I have to pay in Haringey on a small, rented Band E flat. So they could both do with a little extra work on their briefings.

Defection: Haringey Labour carelessly loses a Cabinet member

2010-01-19T12:41:00.006Z

Full council last night was even spicier than usual – the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment Brian Haley resigned his Labour party membership, quit his cabinet post and joined the Lib Dem group.

The news story in the Haringey Independent quotes Brian:

Over the last few months it has become clearer and clearer that Labour has absolutely no vision of how to lift Haringey out of its current mess. It is for this reason I have taken the difficult decision to leave Labour and join the only party that has the ideas and ability to turn things around.
Haringey Liberal Democrats are the only party with the drive and determination to provide local residents with the quality of service they deserve. I would urge anyone wavering in their support for Labour to join me in backing the Liberal Democrats which offers a positive change locally.

Now, defections are a part of political life. In the eight years I have been on the Council, two of our councillors have joined Labour and one of theirs has joined the Conservatives (still no Conservatives elected in Haringey since 1998). These things happen for various reasons. But they can provoke very different responses.

You will notice that when I talked about councillors leaving our group here and here, that I did not make negative personal comments about them or their previous contributions and did not opt for the easy thing route of pointing out all their flaws.

But at last night’s Full Council, Labour Leader Claire Kober launched a very personal and vitriolic attack on Brian – which actually surprised me, coming from her. Dignified and leader-like, it was not. It just shows that Labour are rattled… rightly so, with the local elections coming up in May.

And Cllr Kober is on very shaky ground when talking about defections, deselections and backroom deals while proclaiming that only Labour have democratic selection procedures.

Brian Haley is not the first Haringey Labour councillor to apply to join our group. There are at least five that I am aware of, and I am not on the local party executive that assesses membership applications and conducts interviews so the actual number is probably higher. Cllr Haley is, however, the first that the group has accepted.

And it is worth saying, contrary to what Cllr Kober seems to believe, that the selection process for our council candidates has not yet taken place. As always, it will be our local membership who choose our candidates – proper democracy, not dodgy selection meetings with a handful of stooges present.

Perhaps Haringey Labour are not aware that one of their councillors who tried to join us in the past was a certain Reg Rice. A Tottenham Labour councillor who found himself without a winnable seat in 2006, he walked into one of my Lib Dem colleague’s surgeries and essentially demanded a “safe Lib Dem seat”. That’s the sort of behaviour he might have been used to in the allegedly democratic Labour party, but it’s certainly not how we do things. He was told that he could not join our group.

Having failed in his bid to switch sides, Reg Rice went on to stand for Labour in Stroud Green ward, where he was soundly beaten by my Lib Dem colleagues Richard Wilson, Ed Butcher and Laura Edge. But he has been luckier in the Tottenham stitch-up this time, having been selected to stand for Labour in May’s elections.

I wonder if Reg mentioned to his local party that his commitment to Labour was not quite so rock solid as might be ideal?

I welcome Brian to our party and our council group, as I would anyone else also showing genuine commitment (new or old) to our plans for making life better for Haringey residents.

Out on a limb

2009-12-17T11:51:00.001Z

There is a small section of my Fortis Green ward that you might be forgiven for thinking is in Barnet, not Haringey - part of Aylmer Road and half of Bancroft Avenue.

If you look at a map, you'll see what I mean - it's the bit of Haringey that pokes out the other side of the Great North Road. Fortis Green ward has a small section of Aylmer Road and half of Bancroft, but everything else north of Aylmer Road in that 'segment' is part of Barnet.

My ward colleagues Martin, Sara and I know very well that it's Haringey, having delivered leaflets, campaigned and done casework for residents there for (in my case) eight years now. Indeed, early in the new year we'll be doing another street surgery for those roads and the residents along Great North Road and Aylmer Parade - precisely because this bit of the ward is some distance from our regular surgery venue.

The reason for saying this is that I have been helping a resident sort out a traffic issue on Aylmer Road recently and Haringey Council didn't realise it was part of Haringey! No wonder these residents might sometimes feel a little isolated from the goings on at the civic centre...

But the Council helpfully attended a site meeting along with Transport for London, everyone has now agreed that the houses are in Haringey and we have an agreed way forward, so good progress.

Residents vs planners

2009-12-14T12:07:00.002Z

A lot of my casework over the last eight years has been dealing with objections to planning applications. Maybe not the most glamorous part of the job, but it's an area that causes a great deal of concern and frustration to local residents.

When a bad proposal is made, they contact me and get help objecting - sometimes written, sometimes in person at a decision-making meeting - and on big developments we can generate a lot of extra comments from people who might be affected. So we make sure that residents' voices are heard and put all our objections as clearly as possible.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But the fight is always worth fighting - even if you don't stop a development altogether, you might at least get some concessions.

But one of the most frustrating parts of the planning process for residents is that the battle against a proposed development can seem never-ending. Fighting bad development proposals can be time-consuming and energy-draining and when you win there is an immediate sense of relief. But more often than not, new plans are submitted - frequently with only minor changes - and the developers have another go.

For example, there is a current planning application in for Chessing Court on Fortis Green in my ward. The proposal is to add an extra floor on the top of the building, which already towers over neighbouring properties. Residents are objecting, as I am, and hopefully the plans will be turned down.

It's a bad case of deja-vu though. An application for an extra floor on top of Chessing Court has only recently been rejected. The new plans are no better than last time - newly added windows and roof terraces will in fact make it worse. But thinking they had won the fight already, residents are now faced with the realisation that they just won one battle and are now in a war - that could go on forever, with slightly revised plans coming up again and again.

This sort of situation can be demoralising for campaigning residents and in some cases seems to be a deliberate effort to wear them down until they give up. So the message is: don't let developers get away with anything and get your local ward councillors to do as much of the fighting for you as you can!

Children's centre snub for Fortis Green

2009-12-13T18:54:00.000Z

My Lib Dem ward colleague Martin Newton recently highlighted just one way Haringey Labour are neglecting Fortis Green.

Haringey Council are only providing £5,000 to fund a new children’s centre in Fortis Green ward. This was revealed as part of a welcome announcement of further funding for children’s centres across Haringey - but the allocation for Fortis Green compares with other wards getting up to £495,500.

Fortis Green is the only ward in the borough not to have a children’s centre and with 5,000 quid that looks set to continue.

Facilities like this should be where there is need, of course - but there is need in Fortis Green. Haringey Labour like to ignore the West and pretend it's a perfect paradise with lots of rich people. But while average wealth is high in Fortis Green compared with many other wards in the borough, the average is just that - an average - and there are plenty of people who do need support.

Haringey Labour have missed a chance to show they understand that and start addressing the situation instead of ignoring it.

Something different for Christmas

2009-12-11T08:42:00.000Z

If you’re struggling for a Christmas presents (and have already bought a Save Fortis Green Allotments calendar) then here’s a great idea for you.

At www.adoptaword.com you can do just that – adopt a word. I visited this site when Stephen Fry tweeted about it (he adopted “wordy”) and it is for a great cause. The money raised from adoptions goes to I CAN, the children’s communication charity.

As the I CAN website explains, one in ten children has a communication difficulty – almost three in every UK classroom – impacting on all aspects of children’s lives.

You can choose a word to adopt for yourself or as a present – and if you order before midnight tonight then you will also be in time to get an adoption pack sent out in time for Christmas.

Enjoy. (Sorry, “enjoy” has already been adopted, by the way).

Housing and other Haringey Labour failings

2009-12-10T08:35:00.000Z

At the last Full Council meeting, I asked the Labour Cabinet Member for Housing when he had last reviewed the payment terms offered to leaseholders and how they compared to neighbouring boroughs.

What I was interested in seeing was if Cllr Bevan had started to look at the Haringey Leaseholders Association (HLA) proposals for making the payment terms fairer. The HLA passed a motion at their AGM last month calling for two things – the interest free payment period to be extended to five years and for the interest free period to be available in part to those who cannot pay the full amount in that period. I blogged in more detail about these at the time (including explaining what that second one means in practice).

Cllr Bevan was not at the HLA meeting, but I assumed he would have either been informed what had happened or perhaps taken an interest in the goings-on at the AGM of the group that represents leaseholders across Haringey and asked for a briefing. But when I asked in my follow-up question if he had specifically looked at these proposals he told me that he had not had any feedback from the meeting and so had not considered them. At least now he is definitely aware of them and will hopefully be asking for a full briefing on leaseholder issues.

There were also a number of targets that Haringey Labour are currently missing tucked away in a Cabinet report that came up at Full Council. I’ve copied a list below and I asked the Leader of the Council what action was being taken to deal with these problems.

As housing spokesperson, I asked the Leader specifically to explain the big increase in the time taken to re-let council housing and the 43.3 day wait for people to have their benefit changes or new claims processed – against a target of just 17 days. You can listen to her answers on the webcast of the meeting.

I also challenged the Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Enforcement on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) policy. Cllr Canver had been responding to a planted question from a Labour backbencher about HMOs so that she could try and show she is being tough with rogue landlords. However, when I stood up and asked why there had been a delay in implementing HMO planning policy and when that would be sorted out, she knew nothing about it… although I only got that information direct from Cabinet papers. Oh well.

Haringey Council targets not being met (July and August 2009):

Levels of recorded offences of serious violent crime and knife crime rates are higher than targets set.
Children’s social care initial assessments improved slightly in August but core assessments completed in time reduced and both remain below target.
Household waste sent for recycling remains below the 32% target.
Average time for processing new benefit claims and change events increased to 43.3 days in August and remains above the 17 day target for 2009/10.
Average re-let times for local authority dwellings declined to 45 days in August against a target of 31 days.
Call centre telephone answering - 82% of calls presented to the call centre answered against a target of 90%

Labour failing Haringey residents

2009-12-09T23:12:00.000Z

News that Haringey is one of nine local authorities to have been rated “poor” by Ofsted for its children’s services is not really surprising.

I don’t think anyone underestimates the scale of the challenges facing Haringey on child protection, following the tragic deaths of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter. Attracting enough social workers is difficult for most boroughs, but for Haringey – which has come under so much pressure from the media – it is all the more so.

There are a range of services which Haringey Labour is failing local residents on however. On the new oneplace website the Audit Commission’s overall statement for our area is:

Haringey London Borough Council performs poorly

Haringey is rated 1 out of 4 for managing performance, which is defined as “an organisation that does not meet minimum requirements, Performs Poorly”.

Haringey Labour have had more than three decades to get things right in Haringey and have failed. For the last 12 years they’ve had a supposedly supportive Labour government and still failed. Compare this with Lib Dem controlled Islington, where we took over a failing council in 2000 after years of Labour mismanagement – their overall statement is “good” with 3 out of 4 for managing performance.

Not to worry, local elections in May 2010 and Haringey’s taxpayers have the opportunity to turf Labour out and elect a Lib Dem council to start making a real difference to Haringey – from Highgate to Tottenham and everywhere in between.

Have your say

2009-12-07T21:00:00.001Z

If you live in Fortis Green, Muswell Hill, Highgate or Alexandra wards then tomorrow night (Tuesday 08.12.09) is your chance to raise concerns directly with the Haringey Council, including two Labour cabinet members.

It is the regular Area Assembly and this time being held at Highgate Primary School, North Hill, London N6 4ED.

The meeting starts at 7.30 pm but council officers will be available before the meeting from 7.00 pm for residents to raise any individual matters of concern.

My Lib Dem colleague for Muswell Hill ward Cllr Gail Engert chairs these meetings and the agenda for tomorrow covers Archway Road, transport to Hornsey Health Centre, low-carbon zones, school travel and lollipop service, youth services in Highgate and an update on 'Making the Difference' funding. Phew - lots to get through, as always. But there is also a Question Time for quizzing Labour cabinet members on any aspect of how they run Haringey Council.

I have another meeting tomorrow as well, the scrutiny review looking at support for victims of crime, but as soon as that finishes I will be over to the Area Assembly myself. Hope to see some of you there.

Lib Dems - we're everywhere!

2009-12-03T08:55:00.000Z

Even on a weekend away, there's just no getting away from my fellow Lib Dems.

Up in Aberdeenshire to visit my school friend Suzanne, we were told on arrival that we were heading to the nearest town, Alford, to see the Christmas lights switch on.

Turns out that doing the switch on was none other than Lib Dem MP for Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine, Sir Robert Smith. An easy man to spot, at his height! Suzanne, ever sociable, bounded over to him once he'd finished his raffle-drawing duties to introduce her family and, of course, me.

After explaining how a Haringey Lib Dem councillor came to be at the Christmas celebration in Alford, I had a good chat with Sir Robert. Hadn't met him before, a very nice chap. So, an unexpected treat - always nice to meet fellow Lib Dems from around the country. Pleased too that he didn't miss the opportunity to ask us if we wanted to go leaflet delivering!

I did take a quick photo during the raffle draw as proof, as you can see.

Clear opposition to A&E proposals

2009-12-02T22:42:00.000Z

Monday night's council meeting saw a motion to fight the mooted closure of the accident and emergency departments at both the Whittington and North Middlesex Hospitals, proposed by my Lib Dem colleague Nigel Scott (Alexandra ward councillor and opposition spokesperson on health).

I am pleased to say that the motion got unanimous support from both sides of the council chamber. As I have previously blogged (and local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has also blogged, in much greater detail), it is vital that A&E services remain at the Whittington and at the North Mid.

These are two essential services for Haringey residents - as we don't have a hospital actually in the borough. As I said in the debate on Monday evening, I'd like to place on record my thanks to the A&E staff at the Whittington. In July I had to rush my partner there and the treatment was quick and first-class.

Within about 10 minutes of arriving at Whittington A&E my partner was put on a drip. That means he was getting treatment only 20 minutes after we left our flat in Muswell Hill. That is impressive - and reassuring for anyone that needs urgent medical treatment like this.

There is a wider debate about specialisation of services - not every hospital can provide specialist services for every condition. But by its very nature A&E is not a specialised service. It needs to be local and needs to be there when local residents need it, at any time of day or night.

If you haven't yet done so, please sign our petitions to save the Whittington and North Mid A&E departments. And please lobby your local MPs and councillors on this issue!

Fumni & Areeb set the standard

2009-12-02T21:19:00.002Z

After a lovely weekend in Aberdeen visiting my old school friend Suzanne (more on that tomorrow...), Monday night's Full Council meeting was a lively affair, as usual.

We started by hearing from the two co-chairs of the Haringey Youth Council, Fumni Abari and Areeb Ullah. They were probably the most impressive speakers we heard all night, giving an interesting account of all the work the Youth Council has been doing. I was tempted to ask them if coming to meetings like ours made them more or less likely to want to become local councillors themselves... But at any rate Fumni has already gone much bigger than that, becoming the first non-MP to speak in the House of Commons.

Areeb said that the Youth Council had met representatives from other countries - including China, where their definition of 'youth' for these purposes was 18-45 year olds. As was pointed out, that gives lots of us some (false) hope! Worth watching both of them speaking on the webcast of the meeting.

It wasn't all good though. Labour cabinet member Cllr Dhiren Basu, made an extraordinary (even by his standards) speech, where he quoted a press release from Sutton Conservatives about trees in south London - of great relevance to residents in Haringey, I'm sure. Maybe he is thinking about defecting to the Sutton Conservatives?

Our emergency motion on the future of A&E services for residents in Haringey was the main debate, with my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Nigel Scott speaking very eloquently - but more on that in my next post. I spoke a few times as usual, including raising some housing issues, but I'll cover those off in a separate post too, as this one is already far too long.

I should also mention that for 'opposition business' Cllr Ron Aitken gave an excellent speech on policing in Wood Green (and across the borough) in his capacity as Lib Dem spokesperson on crime and community safety.

World Aids Day

2009-12-01T23:02:00.003Z

Late in the day, but today is of course World Aids Day.

You can read a little bit more about the day and, if you can, make a donation to the Terrence Higgins Trust by clicking here - a great charity that I raised money for the first time I did the marathon, back in 2003.

And the BBC have an excellent slideshow of HIV/AIDS campaign posters which is definitely worth a look.

All your Christmas presents sorted!

2009-11-27T08:41:00.000Z

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

2009-11-26T08:57:00.001Z

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

2009-11-25T12:25:00.000Z

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

2009-11-24T08:41:00.001Z

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

2009-11-23T22:50:00.002Z

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

2009-11-21T10:30:00.000Z

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

2009-11-20T18:42:00.000Z

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

2009-11-19T23:30:00.001Z

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?

2009-11-14T09:50:00.003Z

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

2009-11-13T08:41:00.000Z

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

2009-11-11T13:04:00.001Z

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

2009-11-10T19:57:00.003Z

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

2009-11-10T12:23:00.000Z

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?

2009-11-09T21:23:00.001Z

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

2009-11-04T08:49:00.002Z

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)

2009-11-03T11:50:00.002Z

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?

2009-11-03T11:12:00.002Z

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.

And the Spurs go marching on...

2009-10-28T22:41:00.006Z

Yesterday night's result at White Hart Lane was altogether more satisfactory than Saturday's - even if it was hardly a vintage performance.

When the players came out, Everton's very purple kit made me wonder if we were actually playing Harchester United. Actually, some of the filming for Sky's Dream Team was done at White Hart Lane I believe, so wasn't beyond the realms of possibility.

As it turns out, Everton's purple kit is a big effort for charity, so well done to them. There wasn't much else for them to be pleased about last night

though, it was not a good game for them. Spurs ended up comfortable winners without playing at all well.

A few fringe players like David Bentley and Alan Hutton got a run out, and looked alright, but Roman Pavlyuchenko sadly wasn't able to take his chance to prove Harry wrong - surely nearing the end of his Spurs career now?

Couple of photos from the 2-0 win - the top one as the players were leaving the pitch (spot Fellaini's brilliant hair on the left) and the one below from during the match. Michael Dawson looking a bit despondent (maybe he's just seen Pavlyuchenko spank the ball wide) and Dan Gosling in the foreground showing just how purple the kit is.

So, we wait to find out who's up next in the Carling Cup - quarter finals at the start of the December. First though there is the small matter of a certain London derby on Saturday...

UpRise: SAVE RISE FESTIVAL

2009-10-27T12:19:00.000Z

A campaign is running to bring back the Rise festival which Mayor Boris Johnson scrapped.

You can see a brief history of the festival here. But essentially the idea is a free music festival with a clear anti-racism message - a message which Boris Johnson removed when he was elected last year (is it really only last year Boris was elected? feels like a lifetime already). With a lack of financial support once the fundamental point (anti-racism) was cut out of the festival, Boris cancelled Rise completely.

The UpRise group are trying to resurrect the festival, with plans to hold it in Finsbury Park (one of its original homes) next year. You can visit their website and sign their petition here.

I only went to one Rise - in 2007 when I saw Saint Etienne and the Holloways perform, amongst others.

Haringey Leaseholders Association AGM

2009-10-26T08:28:00.001Z

As opposition spokesperson on housing, I attended the Haringey Leaseholders Assoociation AGM last Thursday.

When the Chair Sue Brown opened the meeting, there was, unsurprisingly, a lot of talk about the digital aerials fiasco I gave the background to in my last post. The HLA's agreed motion called for an individual opt-out, block-by-block consultation and a cap at the London average, which must be retrospective.

For me, the two parts of that which will make the biggest difference to leaseholders are the opt-out and the cap - but as Haringey are now offering block-by-block consultation, that is of course an avenue worth trying too.

Labour Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Bevan was not there, but was certainly mentioned - especially in discussion of his hazy recollection of the vote taken at the HLA meeting in February (see my last post).

Another big issue was raised too though, which I have not yet looked at myself since taking over as housing spokesperson in May. Leaseholders used to be charged for work (not just aerials, all sorts of building work) in arrears - I heard that it's not so long ago since the bills came in after completion of work and there was a two-year interest-free period on top of that.

Now leaseholders are billed in advance of the work being done. There is a three-year interest free period - although this does not compare well with neighbouring borough Islington where leaseholders have a five-year interest-free period. Bear in mind that these bills can easily be five figures and leaseholders cannot be expected to find, say, £20,000 lying down the back of the sofa.

The HLA passed a motion calling for Haringey's leaseholders to be given a five-year interest-free period to match that offered by Islington and for the interest-free period to be available for part of the bill, even if the leaseholder cannot pay the full bill in the three/five-year period. Let me explain that one - it is simple, but difficult to get across without an example:

Under the current system of three years interest-free, a leaseholder gets a bill for £20,000. They can afford to pay £5,000 a year, so it will take them four years to pay off. As this is longer than the offered interest-free period, they cannot take advantage of that and will pay interest on the full amount. What the HLA are asking for, is that the first three years payments (totalling £15,000) be accepted on an interest-free basis and the leaseholder only pays interest on the remaining £5,000 (not the whole £20,000) which will be paid back after the interest-free period is over.

These both sound like fair requests, which would make life a little easier for leaseholders - especially in these difficult economic times. We, as a Lib Dem group, do need to look into the costings and practicalities before we can commit to implementing them if we take control of Haringey at the local elections next May. A leaseholder at the AGM whose name I did not catch suggested the HLA finding out how much money the Council had made by switching leaseholder bills from arrears to advance. An excellent idea and one I will take up myself too.

I had talked to our local Hornsey and Wood Green Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone before the HLA meeting, as I knew she had been doing work on leaseholder issues across Haringey - including, but not only, the digital aerials saga. Lynne has been so concerned by the various individual problems with works and billing that different leaseholders have raised with her that as well as helping each individual case she has taken action at a higher level too.

Lynne has asked the Council's auditors to look at how Haringey charges leaseholders - to get to some answers on procurement and value-for-money, as well as the accuracy and fairness of leaseholders bills.

There's much more to come on this over the next few weeks and months I'm sure - watch this space...

Diamond-encrusted aerials, anyone?

2009-10-26T07:56:00.001Z

If you live in Haringey then you will probably be well aware of the ongoing saga of the Council's exorbitant charges to leaseholders for installing digital aerials on their blocks - it's been a regular feature in the papers for months now.

You can get the general gist from just a few of the press releases here, here and here. And we have a petition you can sign too.

But, in a nutshell, the Council chose to install a very high spec digital aerial system (they do have an obligation to provide at least a basic digital aerial) and the costs to leaseholders have reached up to more than £1000 per flat - way above the London average. We have been calling for an opt-out for leaseholders who do not want the system, as well as a better value-for-money deal for the rest of us - council taxpayers pick up the bill for the other flats, of course.

As usual, there has been an unsurprising lack of consultation and a shocking attitude from the Labour Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Bevan. He stood up in Full Council earlier in the year and stated that the Haringey Leaseholders Association (HLA) voted at a meeting in February to accept the expensive Integrated Reception System (IRS). This is simply not true - as was pointed out to him by the person who chaired that meeting.

Cllr Bevan was at the February HLA meeting, but his recollection of the vote is strangely different to everyone else's. While he says that leaseholders voted in favour of the Council's plans, what they actually voted for was an opt-out for leaseholders from the plans (as we have also been calling for), which is clearly very different. This is confirmed in the minutes and also re-confirmed at Thursday night's meeting of the HLA - plus Cllr Bevan has been publicly corrected on it. But he continues to stick to his original story!

We 'called-in' the Cabinet decision to steam ahead with the existing IRS plans despite widespread opposition - the only concession they had made was admitting that their original procurement had been a failure on value-for-money and re-procuring to try and bring costs down. The Labour majority on Overview & Scrutiny voted against our call-in, but as a result of the meeting there has now been some movement.

There are now plans to do a block-by-block consultation to ask residents what they want - with the majority deciding which system to install. This cracks open a window of opportunity, if not fully, but falls well short of the opt-out that we (and the HLA) have been calling for. Most blocks will have a majority of council tenants, who don't pay directly for building works like this - so it would be understandable if the majority in most blocks went for the most advanced system.

Probably a better hope for leaseholders is belated talk from the Council of capping the costs to leaseholders. Other London boroughs have installed digital aerials at costs to leaseholders of as little as £75, with several boroughs coming in under £200. A cap at the London average could be the best way forward here - and that is what the Haringey Leaseholders Association called for at their AGM on Thursday night. More on that meeting in my next post.

Conservative smear campaign or just stupidity?

2009-10-25T19:52:00.002Z

I've blogged before about my former Fortis Green ward colleague Steve Gilbert's campaign to be the first MP for the new seat of St.Austell & Newquay - which is where he was born, grew up, went to school, lives and works... a lot is often said about local candidates, but they really don't come much more local than that!

Well, speaking to Steve this weekend, it seems that the campaign by Caroline Righton (the Conservative candidate for the seat) has got nasty. She has misrepresented Steve - either deliberately or stupidly - in an email she has sent to local residents and also appears to have told a porky pie about her ability to check the facts of her story too.

Last Wednesday, both Steve and his Tory opponent had been invited to two different events - one a question time sort of radio debate, broadcast live on Radio Devon, the other a last-minute invite to a meeting about the regeneration of St.Columb, a key town in the constituency.

Now, Steve had been down to ask a question to the panel at the radio debate but took the view that the local issue was more important than getting a bit of exposure on the radio - so withdrew from that to go to the St.Columb meeting. The Conservative took the opposite view, getting herself on radio and just giving apologies to the local regeneration forum. I'll leave it to local residents in Cornwall to decide which approach they think is best.

But here's what Caroline did next. Like lots of PPCs, Steve uses both Facebook and Twitter to keep his friends and supporters posted on what he's doing. After that night's meeting he Twittered:

“stephen_gilbert was at meeting about regeneration of major town (declined by Tory PPC); Tory PPC at a publicity stunt (declined by me)....10:15 PM Oct 21st from web”

The next morning, Caroline Righton sent an email to local residents saying she had been forwarded Steve's Twitter update and including it... but look how it changed between actually being on Twitter and appearing in the Tory's email:

"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!!!"

Now, that puts a rather different complexion on it. She goes on to say:

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.

She might not have liked Steve highlighting their different priorities when it comes to helping local residents or getting on the radio, but it is obviously an outrageous smear that she is telling people that Steve made an offensive comment on his Twitter - which is open for anyone to look at!

She also suggests that she couldn't see what Steve wrote herself, although the screenshot here shows that she has an account and that Steve is in fact one of six people she is 'following'. She has even Twittered herself about the radio debate that night. So it wouldn't have been hard for her to check her facts before she sent out this underhanded smear to residents.

So, what I think Caroline needs to tell us is if she knowingly lied as part of a very deliberate smear campaign - or was it just stupidity in adding in the rude word which presumably a fellow Tory and supporter added to Steve's Tweet (either as their own offensive comment or as part of a deliberate smear campaign)?

Steve's office has asked her to set the record straight with the local residents she sent this email to and to apologise for it - as, four days later, they have had no response, I think this deserves a wider audience! We'll hopefully get an explanation from the St.Austell & Newquay Conservatives at some point...

Just to be absolutely clear - you can see Steve's actual Tweet, timestamped, still there for all to see on his Twitter page here. No offensive language - that was added in by the Tories.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

2009-10-25T08:11:00.003Z

By the final whistle yesterday, I was beginning to regret having said I would blog about Spurs after the match with Stoke was out of the way.

You can get a proper match report here. Having only lost to Chelsea and Man Utd this season before yesterday and sitting in third place in the Premiership knowing a win would move us level at the top, it was probably inevitable that Stoke would win.

The nature of the loss is particularly galling though. It's not that unusual to see a team arrive at White Hart Lane with the sole intention of defending and getting a draw - but Stoke actually started timewasting from the starting whistle. Let's just look at the key stats for the whole match:

Possession: Spurs 66%, Stoke 34%

Shots on target: Spurs 12, Stoke 2

We had seven corners too, but when was the last time Spurs fans could feel confident a corner might lead to a goal? Anyway, they are not stats that should have led to Stoke beating Spurs 1-0, but they did - due to a combination of missed chances, good defending and a couple of great saves from the Stoke keeper. We weren't helped by Huddlestone and Palacios being largely

anonymous in midfield - and particularly not by having to play for 20 minutes with 10 men after Aaron Lennon went off injured after we had made all our subs.

Jonathan Woodgate being forced off after 13 minutes on his return from injury was a nightmare - even if it did mean my favourite Spurs player Michael Dawson coming on to replace him and doing an excellent job.

The ref was poor too, Stoke got away with some proper muggings - for once, we needed a ref who was more protective. Having reeled off some excuses, I don't want to take anything away from Stoke getting a win on their travels. They arrived to do a job (defend), which on the whole they did well - even continuing to put 11 men behind the ball when we were down to 10 men and frantically attacking. And their goal, which on 86 minutes was their first shot on target since the opening minutes of the game, was excellently taken.

And Spurs didn't play well enough, consistently enough, to be able to win - even with all those chance. It was a frustrating game and not an ideal warm up for the derby match next weekend. With Robbie Keane ineffective again, you can't help but think if Jermain Defoe had not been stupid last week he would have been the difference between good stats and a good result this week.

Posting a few photos - Michael Dawson, Vedran Corluka and Benoit Assou-Ekotto amongst others - but taken on my phone rather than a decent camera, so they are gloomy and a little difficult to make out. Which pretty well sums up the match.

Hits and misses... but mostly hits

2009-10-24T10:35:00.001+01:00

Leaving football aside until after today's match and skipping over the less pleasant things (like Owen’s emergency appendectomy*), theatre has as usual been accounting for a lot of what free time I have left after work and council.

I’ve been to lots of plays over the last six months, way too many to mention. Easily the worst was Punk Rock at the Lyric which had some inexplicably good reviews but was utter garbage. There have been one or two other stinkers as well, but all in all have seen some excellent theatre – just to mention a few:

Eight at Trafalgar Studios (we’ve seen everything else in Studio 2 too, all very good – this was one of the best)
Abigail’s Party at Etcetera
Arcadia at the Duke of Yorks
2^nd May 1997 at the Bush
Til I Die at the Old Red Lion
Troilus & Cressida at the Globe – and The Frontline which got another airing this year

Anyway, you’re too late for any of those. One play we’ve seen recently which was very good and is still running is Speaking In Tongues. Seems that it hasn’t been all that well received and you can get tickets at bargain prices now – but it’s definitely well worth watching. Great performances from all four of the cast, which includes John Simm and Kerry Fox of Shallow Grave fame.

There have been gigs too, though not at quite the same rate as the theatre visits. The usual slightly random mix of music - Tracy Chapman, Maccabees, Art Brut, Manic Street Preachers, Take That, Jarvis Cocker… highlight has to be the Blur Hyde Park gigs (I went to both days), just awesome.

Also, although I started off my birthday last Friday by delivering leaflets in my ward, it finished more promisingly with Saint Etienne at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Brilliant as always – and played one of my favourite songs, Hobart Paving, which I haven’t heard them do live before. Sarah even dedicated it to a Matt - ok, I wasn’t that Matt, but I got to be there for it anyway.

(*I'm not sure you would really get an appendectomy that wasn't an emergency - I guess it's like saying "necessary engineering works"... as if you'd be doing them if they weren't necessary)

Decent housing has to mean safe housing

2009-10-23T08:21:00.004+01:00

I have already blogged a little about Monday night's meeting of Full Council. Not mentioned the failure to stick to an agreed ban on domestic flights, but you can read about that here.

I did do a speech about the safety of Haringey's housing, in my new (since May) role as opposition housing spokesperson. Have to admit I didn't deliver it very well... just wasn't feeling too great and so read out a speech I'd written beforehand, which never makes for the most inspiring listening experience. But the points I was raising were sound.

The choice to cover housing safety in our 'opposition business' slot was based partly on follow-up from the tragic fire in Camberwell earlier in the year. I met with the Council at the time and was reassured that none of Haringey’s blocks posed the same risk to residents. There are six blocks in Haringey recently named by the BBC as ‘high risk’, which are actually the top end of 'medium risk', having been scored by Haringey as 6 out of 9 - and I asked the Cabinet Member if there were any plans to reduce this risk further. Although he didn't answer that part, he did confirm that six more blocks the BBC said had no fire risk assessment in place - Cedar House, Daphne House, Kenley, Northolt, Reed Road and Trulock Court - had now been reassessed.

Homes for Haringey has also identified two additional sites which have some of the same design problems as in the Camberwell tragedy – some blocks on Campsbourne and Broadwater Farm. On Broadwater Farm, some original fire doors have been replaced by non-fire resistant doors - in some cases actually by the Council, according to a Homes for Haringey briefing, although this was denied by the Cabinet Member .

There is also an issue with escape hatches which have been blocked by residents for understandable security reasons (the idea that a fire escape which needs to be kept available should be through someone else's property does seem bonkers). I asked what alternative plans have been made to address this - as I asked a lot of questions during my speech, I have now followed up in writing with those that the Cabinet Member was unable to answer on the night, including if he will consider installing smoke alarms across all council properties.

I also covered the vast number of people Haringey is housing in temporary accommodation and the unsuitability of some of that accommodation. Picking out just a few pieces of casework involving temporary accommodation raised by my Lib Dem colleagues Cllr Carolyn Baker and Cllr Karen Alexander in Harringay ward, there are families living with serious damp, collapsed ceilings, mice infestations and inadequate security (other residents in the same block being able to freely access each other's properties). In addition to housing that is just not fit-for-purpose, repair work done also continues to throw up problems - with wires and pipes left exposed and some problems remaining unfixed for months or years.

The third area I talked about was how safe Haringey's housing is in terms of crime, in particular antisocial behaviour. As an example, my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Nigel Scott had told me about Bolster Grove in Alexandra Ward. There are problems with anti-social behaviour in the area, exacerbated by people hanging around in stairwells of the blocks and it seems that often the perpetrators are not residents there. So one obvious way of helping would be to install an entry-phone system. But when Cllr Scott asked for this to be done, he was told there is no funding for it – despite this basic security potentially making a big difference to residents’ lives.

Another example from Harringay ward – a resident in a ground floor property next to a public path, with broken window catches and so no security. She pointed this out to housing officers before she moved in, but they had still not been fixed well after she had moved in.

Basically, I said that no resident should be put at an increased risk of fire or of health problems through being housed by Haringey and no resident should have their chances of being a victim of crime increased through being housed by Haringey. That doesn't seem too much to ask, does it?

One of the biggest campaign issues since I became our housing spokesperson has actually been the installation of digital aerials. It might not be an issue of life or death, but is symptomatic of the way that Haringey treats leaseholders and is having a big financial impact on them and on local taxpayers. But I'll blog properly next week with the latest details on all that and what I have been doing on it over recent months - actually, was at the AGM of the Haringey Leaseholders Association last night.

In the meantime, if you already know the issue well from direct experience or from our press coverage, then you can sign our petition here.

Haringey Labour slow to catch up, as usual

2009-10-22T12:26:00.001+01:00

You can see by looking at this blog post from February that in the Council's budget meeting the Lib Dem group proposed a freeze on council tax for the year - so that local taxpayers already hit by the recession (not to mention decades of Labour council tax rises) could get a little respite.

The Labour group voted against the freeze back in February. But, as highlighted by Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition Cllr Robert Gorrie at Monday night's meeting of Full Council, they have now decided a council tax freeze is a good idea after all...

... oh yes, council elections next May.

A Labour rebellion!

2009-10-21T18:19:00.000+01:00

Last night’s Full Council meeting was more interesting than usual. A Labour councillor voted against the Labour line and with us Lib Dems.

That might not really sound very interesting – but it is the first time since I was elected in 2002 that any Labour councillor has voted with us instead of with the Labour group. It’s taken more than seven years, but I’ve finally seen some backbone! The only time that we’ve come close before was just before the 2006 election, when two Labour councillors (since retired) abstained on a vote, but that was in a meeting closed to the public.

It’s not that unusual to hear supportive words – indeed sometimes whole speeches that appear to completely support a Lib Dem motion or amendment – from some Labour councillors, but when the vote has come there has always been meek compliance with the Labour whip.

Maybe we should be grateful that at least one Labour councillor had the courage to stand up for a principled position, though of course it was not enough for us to win the vote. But the rest of the Labour group voted to wreck the motion we had proposed. What was this awful motion that they couldn't bring themselves to vote for? It was to support the campaign for a one-hour bus ticket.

The motion was timely, with Boris Johnson's public transport fare increases just announced. There are big increases in some areas, including a 20% increase in the standard bus fare, up to £1.20. As buses are cheaper than the tube, those who are already struggling and can't afford tube fares will be hit hardest by this increase. A one-hour bus ticket can help that - it simply means that you can change buses within the hour and not pay a second fare. So if your journey means, say, getting one bus for 10 minutes and then another for 15 minutes, you would just pay one fare - not two.

It was pointed out that people might take, say, a single bus that takes 45 minutes instead of two different buses that could cut the journey time drastically - because they currently have to pay for two fares. The motion simply called for us to support a one-hour bus ticket and condemned the fare increases . I believe a number of Labour groups across the capital have supported similar motions, but Haringey Labour chose to vote through a toothless motion which just made a party political attack on Boris Johnson instead - all well and good, but as usual with Labour we were left with all talk and no action.

One of the Labour councillors also failed to back a motion on climate change which the rest of both sides of the Council supported... not sure what was going on there.

Back with a not very Big Bang

2009-10-20T23:26:00.003+01:00

The 125th anniversary of the beginning of space and time (sort of… see this article) seems as good a day as any to kickstart my blog.

I haven’t posted since just before the marathon in April. Don’t worry, I haven’t actually needed all that time to recover – though it was much tougher than the last two times, with age and fitness levels conspiring to give me a pretty torrid day on the streets of London. But, made it through to the finish line again and raised around £3200 for Refuge, so it was all worth it.

Right, back to the usual mix of council, politics, Spurs, gigs and theatre, with whatever else I can find thrown in….

Just two weeks to go - please help me raise money for Refuge!

2009-04-10T13:22:00.003+01:00

Only two weeks until the London Marathon now - but, don't worry, that means there's still time to sponsor me and help raise money for Refuge.

You can read more about Refuge, and donate money if you are able to, by clicking on the widget above.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

2009-02-22T21:12:00.002Z

Tomorrow is the start of Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Talking about eating disorders is a good start, if you're also able to support Beat, the Eating Disorders Association with a donation then you can give them some money by clicking here.

The Rootmaster in Brick Lane

2009-02-16T08:35:00.001Z

On Thursday night we went to the Rootmaster restaurant - or, rather, the Rootmaster Bustaurant - for an early Valentine's dinner.

As you might guess by the punning name, it is a restaurant inside an old Routemaster bus. For overseas readers, they are the classic, original double decker London bus - red, of course. The bus is parked just off Brick Lane, near to the courtyard area where The Big Chill Bar is.

The bottom deck of the bus is the kitchen, which you can see into from outside, so it's up the traditional Routemaster steps to the top deck for the seating area. You can see photos on the website - obviously it's not a huge restaurant, being just the top deck of a bus, but they fit a fair few seats in and it's very well decorated. There's a large table at the back of the bus where we sat with four other couples, which would be great for a group of friends. Actually, that's how I heard about it - my friend Megan had been there recently with a group of her friends visiting from Australia.

The food (and drink) is all completely vegan, which was an added interest as Owen is vegetarian, but I had really picked it for the unusual setting. The food was absolutely top quality though and the whole experience very stylish. The menu is on their website, I had very tasty gyoza to start and an excellent teriyaki stirfry for my main course, followed by an awesome hot banana roll. The service was good too - we took our time and spent a good couple of hours there, but other people were getting in and out more quickly if they wanted.

So, yes, it's got a bit of novelty value - but the food is excellent and we had a great time all round. If you fancy trying it out, make sure you book in advance though. I did that over e-mail.

Just another reason why Haringey Labour cannot be trusted

2009-02-15T12:51:00.001Z

Another issue that came up at Monday's Full Council was Jacksons Lane.

The arts centre in Highgate has been vulnerable to losing Arts Council funding, due to the Council's lack of support. My Lib Dem colleagues in Highgate, Cllr Neil Williams, Cllr Bob Hare and Cllr Rachel Allison, have been engaged in a long-running campaign with Lynne Featherstone MP to help secure the centre's future.

On Monday the Labour Cabinet Member responsible told us that Haringey is now going to provide some money - and his u-turn is welcome. But he extraordinarily claimed that he didn't understand the fuss and had always been offering money to Jacksons Lane, despite plenty of evidence to disprove this.

If you need independent proof that Haringey Labour did a u-turn on Jackson's Lane funding (which is the result of Lib Dems and residents campaigning to save the centre) - then you can now find it direct from the Arts Council:

This was a very welcome last minute offer by Haringey, without which we would not have been able to continue our commitment to Jacksons Lane.

Is it any wonder that local residents do not trust Haringey Labour when they try to rewrite history like this? Fortunately, we have local elections next May and all the voters of Haringey have the chance to kick them out and make a fresh start with the Lib Dems.

To freeze or not to freeze, that is the council tax question

2009-02-15T12:21:00.000Z

Just a short postscript to last Monday's council meeting, where Haringey Lib Dems proposed freezing council tax. Haringey Labour rejected the proposal, choosing instead to push the borough's already extortionate council tax rates even higher.

They even said that we were only proposing a freeze as we are in opposition and that if we were in control now we wouldn't freeze it. Rubbish - we had costed our alternative budget proposals and told the Full Council meeting how a council tax freeze could be achieved, without any frontline services being cut. Just one of the savings we proposed was to cut the Council's propaganda rag Haringey People (which my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Robert Gorrie accurately referred to as 'a fantasy comic') down to four - useful - issues a year.

Labour councillors still opted to vote against our proposals and hike local taxpayers' bills up still further.

One of the Labour councillors said, in support of his 'argument', that Lib Dem councils like Islington promised council tax freezes in opposition but failed to deliver them in power. Like much that we heard from Labour on Monday night, this statement was simply the result of stupidity, misinformation or deliberate untruths.

When they took control, Islington Lib Dems promised to reduce the massive tax burden that years of Labour rule had left residents with. And this year Islington Lib Dems are AGAIN proposing a freeze on council tax. But will Islington Labour join with their Haringey colleagues in voting against a council tax freeze and for another increase to hard-pressed taxpayers' bills?

Of course, council tax is the most unfair of all the taxes we pay anyway - and the Lib Dems campaign across the country to abolish it. You can sign the petition to axe the tax as part of our campaign led by Tom Brake MP by clicking here.

Not too late to bid for signed Spurs pennant

2009-02-14T10:41:00.002Z

Just a quick reminder that I am auctioning a Spurs pennant signed by 12 of the players (including Michael Dawson, Jermaine Jenas, David Bentley, Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate) to raise money for the excellent charity Refuge, who help victims of domestic violence.

The autographed pennant was kindly donated by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and you can see photos of it and information on how you can win it by clicking here.

But hurry - the auction closes Tuesday (17 Feb) lunchtime!

How many red cards can a player get in one match?

2009-02-13T08:29:00.001Z

The red card from Sunday's match (where Spurs played so well for much of the match and just couldn't turn the possession and chances into goals), reminded me of this article I randomly came across the other day - an interesting run down of 10 'classic' red cards.

It was linked to from where I was reading about Dean Windass having been given three red cards in one match, which I thought was pretty impressive. That makes No.9 in the list.

One sending off that I remember in particular isn't in the list. Carling Cup semi-final, second leg, 2002, at White Hart Lane: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink sent off for slapping Teddy Sheringham. Only problem was that it wasn't Hasselbaink, it was Mario Melchiot - poor ref Mark Halsey got a bit confused. The FA did manage to correct the mistake on this occasion.