Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Rush over to Centrepoint to be part of a 'Question Time' panel on transport and the balance of powers between Whitehall, the London Mayor and the boroughs.

Tony Travers and Peter Hendy and a councillor from Camden (Labour) were my co-panellists. I got into a right ding-dong with the Camden councillor as I was talking about how defensive the boroughs were about their parking fiefdoms. Cat amongst the pigeons!

Actually - it was an interesting debate - and continued with a lively discussion about consultation (do people listen to the results?) and the need for more powers for the London Assembly so it can exercise proper checks and balances on the Mayor.

Rush home to paperwork and emails and then dash out to distribute leaflets to deliverers ready for the general election being called. I think there would be a number of activists from all political parties who would throttle Tony B if he doesn't call it next week!

Labels: peter hendy, tony travers

Metropolitan Police Authority meeting - and the new Commissioner Sir Ian Blair got a right bollocking. No other way to express it. The members took him to task over his remarks on it being inevitable that more Muslims would be stopped under section 44 of the Terrorism Act - so basically they shouldn't be surprised or make a fuss if they get stopped disproportionally.

Everyone was pretty outraged and wanted their two-pennyworth. It was an appalling lapse - and when it came to my pound of flesh - I said exactly what I thought.

Which was that the problem with saying something like that was that the police are still struggling to even admit that such a thing as disproportionality exists; because Sir John Stevens (Blair's predecessor) would not admit there was racial bias in the Met; because of documentaries like the Secret Policeman – ethnic minority communities (and quite a lot of everyone else actually) believe that there still is plenty for the police to do to eradicate racism from their ranks.

And until the good stuff that is happening at some levels in the Met permeates to all levels - careless remarks will be taken badly as they were in this case.

Beating over - Sir Ian looked relieved as the topic moved on to his root and branch review of the Met. And that's a whole other chestnut yet to come.

Labels: ian blair

Emails, paperwork, phone calls, emails, paperwork, phone calls. Highlight of day - I have to dash to Marks and Spencer in Muswell Hill to buy food that you can microwave as oven still out of service and likely to remain so for some time. A local resident dashes up to me and says he and his wife have some time now and would like to help with my campaign. Every single person will make a difference ...

Back home to - emails, paperwork, phone calls, emails, paperwork, phone calls ...

Meet our press officer outside Millbank and we go and do SKY. They have decided not to do a live feed but a pre-record - that was just fine. They edit and take what they want - usually about a nano-second by the time it actually reaches the news.

Tougher on ITV - live to camera - and a proper grilling on our policies. Apart from mangling one set of words - I was pleased because they had gone tough and thrown every possible attack at me - and I lived! I always reckon it's been a good day if I'm alive at the end of it.

Then off to the crime manifesto launch - all good stuff. It's me, Charles K and Mark Oaten. Now the big boys have arrived, I become relatively ornamental. I say my piece but Charles and Mark, being the national figures, field the questions - very well I thought.

I go into City Hall to clear my paperwork and emails there and spend some hours finishing a variety of chores.

Then back to a stuffing evening at my house. I like stuffing evenings as it is a mindless task leaving us activists to gossip.

In the middle of all that has been going on, I have had to truck backwards and forwards to the vet several times. My dog, Purdy, ate a whole chicken carcass (bones and all) overnight on Good Friday. It was the first time I had cooked a proper meal since Christmas - and the oven broke. So moral of that story is - I should never cook!

Vet's fees need a bit of scrutiny is my overriding thought for the day. I have insurance - but the cost is exorbitant. Must have a look at this in due course … but too tired tonight.

Labels: crime, mark oaten

Canvassing again with the 'hit squad'. But today is nice and dry and I have a very pleasant time up and down Southwood Lawn Road. Much as before, several Labour supporters who won't be voting Labour and several definite LibDems.

As I am chatting on one doorstep, my phone goes. I excuse myself and it is our national press office asking if I will step in for our Home Affairs Spokesperson Mark Oaten who can't make the live TV interviews the next morning before the launch of our crime policies. It's always one of those moments - you obviously want to do it, but it is quite nerve-racking. I say yes.

This means I have to cancel my plans to go to the NewRos celebrations at Ally Pally - as I have to study the brief and be up at 5am to get to SKY and ITV in time.

Home to study. My daughter pretends she is the interviewer. Watch out Paxman I say.

Labels: jeremy paxman, mark oaten

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

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

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

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

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

Two pieces of news from the Guardian.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: brian paddick

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

It's very striking visually as well as making the point that we are a 'Real Alternative' - which indeed we are!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well actually I arrive at 2pm at Gail and Martin's house for my special 'training to canvass' day for canvassing virgins. It is quite daunting if you think about it - having to go and knock on strangers’ doors. All human life is there - but I generally come back pretty heartened at the general goodness of humanity. There are exceptions to that rule - but the vast majority of people are decent and polite - whatever their political leaning.

In fact, nearly everyone canvassing for the first time comes back pleasantly surprised how polite and friendly people are when you knock on their doors – so overcoming that initial fear is the key to getting more people canvassing.

Neil (my agent) and I have gotten there early in order to prepare the boards with the various bits and pieces needed like maps, instruction and postal vote forms as well as the canvass cards themselves.

But suddenly the hordes descended - and we were hard put to get them out in pairs quickly enough. We must have had 20 or more people out - some learning - some teaching. It was fantastic - and we canvassed nearly half the ward.

I took Monica out myself to train her on the doorstep. The first few doors she came with me. "Hello - are you ...? I'm Lynne Featherstone and we think Tony is about to call a General Election. Might we have your support or will you be voting for someone else?"

See - easy peasy! Within six doors Monica was off and running and at her very first door found a Lib Dem supporter who wanted to take a poster! Flying start...

Canvassing in Crouch End. On the doorsteps - lack of school places is the issue. Canvassing on a beautiful sunny day - and everything in the garden is lovely.

In the evening it’s a local Lib Dem fundraiser - an 'Auction of Promises'. Our new fundraising committee (made up of new young faces) has done this all themselves. They are looking nervous and wondering if the people will come. Their nerves are misplaced as we get an excellent turnout.

The promises on offer range from doing two hours ironing all the way up to use of a villa with private pool in Cyprus.

Ed and Monica have organised the whole evening and are genial auctioneers, Thoraya has done the phoning round to get people to come and to give and Laura is on drinks.

And Ed and Monica are complete stars. They have done so much preparation and make the introduction of each bid hilarious. They give a warm, funny and happy atmosphere to the evening. People bid high and against each other - and the ironing lot proves so popular amongst generally our single males who are apparently desperate for this lot - that the giver offers it twice more and we make the lot three times.

The evening is a stomping success with lots of money raised and a fabulous social evening - particularly notable for the quantity of young people who came.

Attend public meeting at Tetherdown School where they are discussing the plans for expansion. The first scheme was fabby but too expensive – about £7 million. Haringey Council then came up with ugly, grotesque schemes – costing about £4 million.

Thank goodness the parents protested - the school would have been ruined by the brutality of the council scheme. Pressure from campaigning on lack of school places in the Muswell Hill area seems to have spurred the Government into extra spondulicks - so that at least now there is a version of the first scheme in its infancy at around £5 million from which something good can be delivered.

There is a balance to be struck, as one woman in the audience pointed out, between the desperate need to provide more places double-quick as so many children can't get into local schools - and rushing and creating a monster.

It's another burden placed on local schools and families by the council's failure to plan ahead properly for school places in the first place.

Lots of burly and generally white men come to watch the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) in session. We are in session unusually at City Hall as last time we were stormed by the FBU (unions) - they forced their way into the LFEPA HQ committee room and blew whistles. It might not sound dreadful - but the noise pierced our eardrums, two colleagues were spat at and we could not move as they barred our exit. One member had some severe problems with her ears. Not acceptable behaviour whatever the circumstances. And rather daft anyway - who really thinks such behaviour helps win you friends to your side of the debate?

This time therefore, they have moved the meeting to City Hall for security reasons. The protesters are here over the planned closure of Manchester Fire Station and redeployment of 10 fire engines. The FBU heckle and jeer. Change is always difficult - but the new London Safety Plan puts fire engines where there are people and on a risk-assessed basis (i.e. where they are most needed to fight fires). So we all support it.

Then get a call from BBC London to go to College Green for a TV prerecord on the Tube. (A “prerecord” is where they film an interview in advance for use in a later piece, often on the following day). Basically the House Commons Transport Select Committee has announced its findings: shock horror - the PPP deal for the Tube is crap. Well - far be it from me to say I told you so - but I told you so.

Mayor's Question Time is cancelled because the Mayor has lost his voice. I might have thought he was simply dodging the rapier sharpness of my questioning if my ex-husband hadn’t seen him the week before in Cannes at some developers' junket. (Nice work if you can get it!). Apparently he was pretty sick and ill there - so undoubtedly he is really ill.

This gives me an opportunity to work from home and watch the budget at the same time. Very luckily as it turns out because at midday I get a panic call from the Ham & High asking where my column is. Being an organised sort of person - I am horrified to learn that I was meant to have written one by the deadline of two days earlier. Even the Ham & High said they were worried about me and thought something had happened as I am ultra-reliable.

But no - just a mistake. However - by the now extended deadline of 2pm I have written and sent column to said publication. Whew!

Back to the budget. Brown presents it as all good news, but when the analysts get down to it the doubts come in. And thus it comes to pass that the £200 off council tax for pensioners is for one year only and will disappear in the Council Tax re-banding in September. And free bus travel - we already have that in London. The stamp duty higher threshold means very little here either. So - not sure that it's much of a deal. Faint breeze in a teacup I would say.

Labels: the budget

Muswell Hill and Highgate Area Assembly. Tonight is Royal Mail services in the area, recycling, mental health … and a presentation on Haringey's new website.

I listened to the two women from the Royal Mail vaguely trying to reassure people that everything would be allright once they got rid of casuals and had well-trained and permanent staff in place. Well - yes - but when will that be?

I have had lots of dealings with the Royal Mail on behalf of residents and 'Customer Services' just write a letter (standard type) saying your complaint will be answered - and then ... nothing.

Normally I can eventually get a proper reply, but every member of the public should also have no problem in getting their complaint properly addressed.

But most important news of the evening – Labour does a u-turn on bulky rubbish charges. For years they’ve been insisting on the council charging £15 for collecting bulky rubbish from residents. The result? The number of collections has nose-dived, there’s more illegal dumping and Haringey Council has to spend lots of money on collecting dumped rubbish. At last they’ve seen the light – and some free collections are being introduced in April. Victory!

Labels: royal mail

I go to visit the volunteers at Muswell Hill Police station. I cannot explain how fantastic it feels to have worked with local people to make this happen - to get the front counter open again. It's what we all wanted - but the amount of effort, campaigning, arguments it took ...

But now, it is open four days a week and rising. I met three of the volunteers. Diane Dodd (the volunteer director) and the volunteers themselves are doing such a fantastic job. There is a good turnout of members of the public coming to make use of the service. And the best thing is the re-engagement of community and the force that polices it.

Labels: muswell hill police station

Arrive at protest against the Vodafone mobile phone mast which is to be hoisted aloft the old BT building in Grand Avenue, Muswell Hill.

I am about 15 minutes late (doctor's appointment) and as I arrive I hear this fantastic chant of 'another brick in the wall'. Except that it's the children from a nearby school singing (to the tune of 'another brick in the wall') - 'We don't need no – radiation … All in all we're gonna fight 'til all the masts fall.’

It was a fantastic sight and sound with the children and parents standing firm to protect their youngsters against the harm that we are all concerned may lurk around masts - and mobile phones for that matter. I’m a firm believer in the precautionary principle.

I hope that Vodafone have a heart and decide against proceeding with this mast. But that won't answer the bigger picture issue. Individual protests spring up around lots of mast proposals - sometimes there's a victory, more often not. And of course, lots of us use mobile phones - so simply arguing for an outright ban wouldn’t make sense or be consistent.

So instead on Friday in the Commons, Andrew Stunnell (Lib Dem MP) is bringing forward a Private Members' Bill which proposes the precautionary principle. It makes sense to be cautious and careful, particularly around children, the elderly and the sick. And for local authorities to have the power to reject an application based on the precautionary principle where there are vulnerable children and adults nearby.

We also want ALL masts to need to go through the planning process - not just those over 15 metres. It’s daft that at the moment large masts can go up without any planning application being needed but many people have to apply for planning applications for relatively minor changes to their home such as to a porch.

Next Monday at Haringey Council we are also debating the issue after my colleagues in the Lib Dem council group submitted a motion. I hope the protestors will be bringing a deputation too.

Labels: mobile phone masts

A week or so ago I got a call from a Labour member in Stroud Green ward saying that he and quite a few people around where he lived were thinking not only of voting for the Lib Dems in the coming election - but perhaps actively going out and campaigning for us when the election is called. However, they wanted to 'interview' me as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate to make sure I was - whatever.

He assured me it would not be an 'interrogation' but just that they didn't know me and wanted to check out some issues with me.

I took Laura Edge with me as she is the Lib Dem councillor in Stroud Green ward (elected with a massive swing from Labour in the January 2004 by-election – 29% swing!).

I suppose there are about ten people there when we arrive - and they certainly put me through my paces. The key issues appeared to be Iraq, Control Orders, PPP for the tube and many, many others. I just answered directly - my thoughts. My late mother's advice to me in all things was 'be yourself'. So I was.

I recognise that many Lib Dem policies and positions at the moment resonate with Labour members and voters. This is not because of any change in Liberal Democracy - it is because Labour has moved. I am not a socialist but much of the rest of politics has moved so far to the right, that many people now find the Liberal Democrats closest to their own views.

One issue that was causing anxiety was the possibility that if they voted Lib Dem it might let a Tory in. No chance in Hornsey & Wood Green. The Tory candidate has even said publicly that the election is a very close contest between Labour and the Lib Dems.

Moreover, there are a couple of Labour websites that have sprung up to advise disaffected Labour voters where it is safe to vote away from Labour. In Hornsey & Wood Green the sites advocate voting Lib Dem completely safely:

www.strategicvoter.org.uk says, "Vote for the best-placed candidate from an anti-war party, which in this seat means LibDem ... You are in a vital battleground constituency where you have a real chance of getting someone from an anti-war party elected."

www.sonowwhodowevotefor.net says the sitting Labour MP, having voted for the war in Iraq, tuition fees and foundation hospitals, is "part of the problem" and urges visitors to back the Lib Dems instead.

I very much enjoyed meeting this Labour group this morning. There are some differences inevitably - but I was greatly impressed by their commitment and engagement in the political process - and that they cared so passionately about a variety of issues they were prepared to be active to deliver an outcome.

After a two-hour 'grilling' (not really) I sneak a quick lunch with my friend Jenny. Don't tell my campaign manager!

Then campaigning in the afternoon followed by a campaign team meeting at my house. All the ward organisers for the campaign come and we run through the programme and update on where we all are with our various tasks. We are all trying to do so much - and getting it mostly done. It is a fantastic team of people who are determined to give it their best!

Labels: iraq, laura edge

Special campaign action day in Woodside ward (Hornsey & Wood Green). We all swing in to action to get leaflets out - and some of us, including me, go door knocking. Previously a hard Labour area - but definitely going our way judging by the softness of the Labour vote.

I met only one Conservative couple who said that as the Tories didn't have a prayer in Hornsey & Wood Green they would vote Lib Dem too.

Then catch up on emails and letters. There is a steep increase in correspondence and emails asking for political positions on a variety of issues and all of the questionnaires to Prospective Parliamentary Candidates have started to arrive.

Off to meet parents and children at Red Gables - a special facility in Crouch End for children with particular needs.

Red Gables is a local success story helping children and parents and doing a great job. So of course, Labour want to close it. Lib Dem colleague Cllr Ron Aitken spotted this in the mountain of papers we get (for meetings we are not allowed to speak at). He contacted the parents and with local resident Sue Hessel brought it into the public forum. At council we have a deputation led by Sue and a motion moved by Ron.

It's becoming quite a hot issue, with Labour not playing straight with residents about what their plans really are for Red Gables.

Rush outside after Transport Committee to do a TV snippet on Bob Kiley's bonus and Oystercard.

Liberal Democrats finally got the figures and performance criteria of London's traffic supremo - only thanks to our request under the Freedom of Information Act. Mind you, I think it should be a matter of public record - after all Londoners are all paying!

Mr Kiley gets a basic of £312,000 per annum. And over the last two years, in each year he got a bonus of £275,000 (96% of the full bonus) and this year is expected to get as much as £365,000 bonus.

The criteria for the pay are extremely vague, flabby and flawed. For a start - we have no idea what Mr Kiley is meant to do for his basic salary. I would have thought quite a lot for that amount. And yet in the performance criteria we find things he has to deliver like increased bus mileage and reduced congestion. 'Scuse me - given the amount of extra buses we have all paid for over the last few years it would be a bit of a shock if bus mileage hadn't increased. Ditto for reducing congestion - with the Congestion Charge it seems to me that was the main point.

Another strand of Bob's bonus is helping to get borrowing from the government. This he has certainly delivered on and without Kiley I don't think the government would have trusted Ken to borrow money. Budgeting is not his strong point…

However - Lib Dems will now pursue what we should have got for our money out of Mr Kiley's basic salary and somewhat more specific targets for a bonus.

Call me old-fashioned - but I always thought a bonus was for doing extra well - not simply doing your job!

And of course the other biggy of the day was Oystercard packing up across London this morning. It wasn't down for long - but it's a good example of how things can go catastrophically wrong. (A corrupted disk Tim O'Toole had said in committee when I asked him to make a statement.)

Imagine if TfL had advanced the dream at this stage of everyone getting rid of their small change because you could buy bread and milk on Oystercard. Doris would have gone thirsty and hungry this morning.

After a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting, I rush to Transport for London to see Peter Hendy - supremo of all transport that runs on the surface of London.

This visit is about the Croydon Tram. There is a row between the guys running it and Transport for London. The people running the tram seem to believe that TfL may be trying to put them out of business by running competing bus routes. TfL think this is rubbish.

Peter (who is pretty robust) seems quite open to any suggestion from Croydon Tramlink about a way forward - but he certainly needs something from them on the table before any rescue plan could be brought forth.

And in the evening: with an election just around the corner - I do some telephoning!

Labels: peter hendy, tfl, tim o'toole

The tube! I am chairing the London Assembly’s Transport Committee this morning and Tim O'Toole came in to give evidence - Managing Director of London Underground (LU) for Transport for London - followed by the hard men of the private companies - the Chief Execs of Tubelines and Metronet.

There was recently an explosive exchange of bad will in the press between LU and the private companies. The Northern Line is failing appallingly and the engineering overruns on a Monday morning are becoming legendary.

Tube users are getting a raw deal. Improvements, such as they are, are small and slow - and some areas are getting worse. These guys - the three of them between them - share the blame.

In the press Tim O'Toole has basically said that the private companies are not putting resources in fast enough and are thinking about their profits (we anti-PPP brigade could have said 'told you so'!). There is a hint that he believes that the penalties that Metronet are incurring are not high enough and that it may be cheaper for them to overrun on a Monday morning causing misery for those trying to use the tube rather than finish on time.

With regard to the Northern Line - a new proposal from Tubelines made its public debut. It is clear to anyone who uses it twice a day (as I do - and yes I declare a great interest) that radical renewal and repair is called for. Apparently Tubelines have submitted a proposal to LU (Tim) which breaks the line into seven sections. Each section would be closed and totally redone, with the whole line taking about a year. The public will be consulted on this (or told about it) and replacement transport will be provided while each section is shut.

It's only a proposal - but it's the only game in town as far as I can see at the moment.

Anyway - there was a bit of a squabble about line closure per se - as this enables the private companies to do their engineering work more quickly and cheaper. Who reaps the financial benefit? LU (and I) think that we (the public) should get a refund on monies saved - but the private companies will undoubtedly find reasons not to pay it.

The other raging battle is over figures and discrepancies. In his media outburst, it was clear that Mr O'Toole believes (and the report to the TfL board says so) that only a tiny percentage of work promised on renewal or repair of stations and escalators etc has taken place. In committee both sides were shirty. I put it to both of them - and they equivocated about interpretation of figures to the point where they could both be right.

Just keep up the pressure - that's all I can do. The PPP is a dreadful contract and Tim O'Toole is doing a good job considering the pup he's been sold. I suspect his very public outburst on the performance of private companies came as a result of extreme frustration with a contract that puts him quite squarely between a rock and a hard place.

Labels: tfl, tim o'toole

Tariq Ali came to tea. This was following his public statement on TV that he was going to vote Liberal Democrat to oust a pro-war MP - and his advice to others to do likewise where opportunity presented itself. Towards the end of his interview he revealed that the particular pro-war MP he was voting to get out was Hornsey and Wood Green’s Barbara Roche.

So I had written to Tariq to see if there was anything to be done to deliver our joint aim.

He was absolutely charming - and wanted to be as helpful as possible in the cause.

In my student days Tariq Ali was a revolutionary hero. I was on the left of the political spectrum - but just nowhere near as cool as the International Marxist Group.

Strange how life turns out!

In the evening attended an Operation Black Vote rally. I accepted the invitation as a great enthusiast for getting people to vote (obviously) but also particularly because of my concerns about black and minority ethnic groups having a history of non-registration and non-participation.

On the news in the morning I hear that Jesse Jackson is to be speaking at the rally.

Arriving at Friends' Meeting House (incidentally where my old school had its prize-giving day and where I sat for six years not receiving a prize – until success in my last year) there were queues in the street. The hall was absolutely packed and there was a real buzz in the air.

Ten speakers took to the podium in turn - Simon Woolley (Operation Black Vote), then a series of religious leaders from all the faiths (black and ethnic), then the activists like the 1990's Trust, Lee Jasper and the like.

I guess out of the one or two thousand people there - there must have been about ten or so white people in the audience. I wish there had been more to hear those speeches - to hear the voices of those who suffer discrimination in our land.

What struck me most (barring one or two remarks) was the lack of bitterness and the kinship fostered between the different ethnic and religious groups.

And then came Jackson. Of course his oratorical skills are greatly heralded, but I had never heard him live before - only the soundbites of television coverage now and again.

It is impossible to describe the power that he exudes with his voice, his delivery, his charisma.

He finished his speech. He then asked the audience to remain in their seats. And he asked if there was (and you have to kind of read this in an American southern accent) anyone over the age of 18 who was not registered to vote. And no one put up their hand. Then he asked again. And one man put up his hand but refused to come down to Jesse to register there and then. Then he asked the audience to put up their hands if they were registered to vote. And most people put up their hands. Then he asked all those who had not put up their hands to come down to him and register. And a couple of people came. And then he asked again. And more came - and then more - and then more.

It really moved me. It may be the technique of the evangelist - and it's true to say I haven't witnessed that before. But to see one man draw so many to him and because of him feel safe to register to vote where they hadn't before was extraordinary.

I came home with much food for thought on all I had heard and seen.

Busy media day today. Splashed across Evening Standard front page is news of a 'leaked' document from the Assembly showing the appalling performance to date of the two private companies running the tube - and their manager, Transport for London.

I am really cross as it wasn't a 'leaked' document - it was just the background briefing for members of the Assembly Transport Committee (which I chair) who will be questioning Tim O'Toole (MD of the tube for Transport for London) and the two Chief Execs of the private company on Thursday when they come before me in public session.

Cross - because the witnesses will now be forewarned. We always give them the questions or subjects so that they can prepare their background. However, the point of a public session in scrutiny is to put them on the spot.

Give a long interview to Metro on the failings of the PPP. How long have you got? Late with almost everything they are contracted to do - from over-running engineering to station upgrades.

Thursday's session should be pretty interesting!

Also the Standard has taken my news release based on figures I have got hold of on how Capita (the Mayor's favourite contractor administering the congestion charge) has had to pay GBP 4.5 million in fines - that's GBP 7,400 per day. Even worse - the Mayor is going to extend their existing contract and almost certainly give them the contract for his westward extension to the congestion charge.

Well - given they are still missing 21% of their targets (improved from missing 35% previously) they are hardly going to kill themselves to improve when they know that seemingly whatever their performance they are going to be not only re-employed - but given new contracts.

It's in the Standard and I do an LBC radio pre-record on the Capita release. Transport for London telephone - absolutely furious. However, the figures came in official Mayoral answers to written questions I had submitted.

Red faces I understand at TfL - they are now saying they gave the wrong figures in the Mayoral answer.

Capita have only had to pay GBP 3.7 million in fines not GBP 4.5 million.

I am sure that makes all the difference - not!

Then - to my surprise - BBC want to tape me talking about Ken's climbdown over the Royal Ballet School. Happy to oblige. Ken has made a complete arse of himself by trying to use planning consent as a means to engineer his social policies - in this case the real sub-text being a view that a Royal Ballet School in a Royal Park is too posh and elitist.

My understanding is that this is rubbish as any budding Billy Elliott anywhere in the country aspires to come there - whatever the background.

Caught out, Ken is trying to assert that concessions by the school that they will make more strenuous efforts to attract diverse kids is the reason he has now been able to change his mind.

Last media call of the day is about the Parking Enforcement scrutiny I have instigated and been chairing at the London Assembly. We are in the process of writing up the evidence. It has become clear that the report will be ready in time for the April meeting - but if Blair calls the election - it might not be allowed to be published during that period.

There is some ruling somewhere that no one should gain any advantage from its publication. I would argue that it is the normal work of the Assembly and shouldn't be stopped. I will ask for a legal ruling on this in due course.

Back to Hornsey & Wood Green to whip round to various houses collecting envelopes and then mountain of emails and casework to attend to.

Labels: tfl, tim o'toole

Am aiding Simon Hughes (Lib Dem president) who is chairing the finale at conference. This is Razzall (campaign head), Rennard (chief campaign guru) followed by three rousing 'get the activists excited' speeches by key people, with Charles Kennedy to finish off.

Everything went smoothly - and the choreography went extremely well. Whew!

Labels: charles kennedy, simon hughes

Sitting in the Conference Hall hoping to be called in the crime debate. You have to put in a speakers' card with details of who you are, why you should be called and the gist of what you intend to say. That is so the chair of the debate can balance the speakers for and against a motion.

I was called towards the end of the debate and was able to give full vent to my views on Labour's appalling 'control orders' proposals.

We have had 30-plus years of terrorism in London – and we never needed control orders then. Two lessons from those years:

1) internment doesn't work - it simply creates more terrorists

2) the police, even after bombs in our capital, never asked for these sorts of powers

And as for people being detained without trial because the authorities 'know' they are dangerous. The authorities 'knew' that the Guildford Four did it, and they 'knew' that the Birmingham Six did it and they 'knew' there were WMD in Iraq!

It is easy to frighten people - George Bush did and got re-elected. No doubt Blair observed the technique.

And yes - of course there are occasions when civil liberties need to be over-ridden to protect us from extreme danger - but those powers already exist in an emergency and the Home Secretary can, under existing civil contingencies powers, declare an emergency and use those powers to detain etc.

Off to Lib Dem Spring Conference in Harrogate. Getting to Kings Cross was hazardous with snow pouring down. Train was cancelled. Usual harrowing story of trying to get anywhere by rail in this country. There wasn't any snow once we left London - it was something 'overhead' that caused us to take over two hours just to get as far as Peterborough.

Much cheered on journey by the Evening Standard London Assembly column where a journalist picked up on my spat with Ken at Question Time and featured us as the argument of the week - giving the score of 2 to me and 0 to Ken.

The Lib Dem Group (bar one) stuck on train on way to People's Question Time - where the Mayor and the chorus line - whoops sorry, London Assembly members - face public questions. The points are broken just outside of Lewisham so the train can't stop at the station (it stopped for quite a while outside the station before they decide this). Eventually we straggle on to the platform around 7.30pm. The audience had enjoyed the Chair of Transport being stuck on a train.

Ken enjoyed himself less than usual. I don't know if the weight of opprobrium over his refusal to regret his holocaust remarks was getting him down - but he wasn't as witty or charismatic as usual. I had a run-in with him over his raising of bus fares after students from Goldsmith's College (where the question time was held) had a go at him about rising fares.

It was a better session than we have had before - well chaired by local GLA member Len Duval. Len brought everyone in and there was much more of a debate than usual. That may be why Ken enjoyed it less - it wasn't all him all evening.

Lots of residents have queried recently that they are seeing Haringey bin men mixing recyclable materials together and also putting them into normal rubbish trucks.

Not surprisingly, this has raised some questions about what is happening!

Some of the news is reassuring. Because of the successes of campaigns from local groups and Lib Dem councillors to improve recycling in the borough, a wider range of materials is now being collected in many parts of the borough.

This means new vehicles are being used. Several new ones look much like normal refuse collection trucks. And, just to add to the fun - at times some normal refuse collection trucks are also being pressed into service to collect (just) recyclable materials.

Also, for many recycling collections, materials are not sorted out before being placed in the van. Rather they are all put in together and then sorted out at the recycling depot.

If you get excited about machinery (!) the way the materials are sorted out is very clever, using magnets, optical sensors, air jets, trommels and more. (The things I've learnt in recent months about recycling ...!) The idea is to make the sorting more efficient and accurate than the old way.

There are questions about just how well the machinery works and how much actually gets recycled. Also, much of the paper and cardboard is being shipped out to China, with transport impacts on the environment. Glass is left too contaminated to be used for new glass, and instead is crushed and used as road aggregate - a big loss of energy.

My colleague Bob Hare (Lib Dem Environment spokesman) has visited the sorting plant in Kent and is investigating just how well the sorting works, how much waste is left over, what is going to China etc.

One thing this does reinforce is the importance of using goods made from recycled material (e.g. recycled paper) as far as possible. The bigger the market is, the more effort will go into recycling and the more that will be recycled within the UK without the need for exporting waste.

In the meantime, if you'd like to know more about other aspects of recycling in the borough, I've recently updated the recycling factsheet on my website (pdf format).

Labels: bob hare