Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Help, help! Canvass, canvass! That was my day yesterday. In the afternoon it became clear that the latest boxes of envelopes and the boxes of letters in our HQ were unlikely to get together without extra help. So - I sat on the phone doing what candidates do: telephoning people and asking them to come down to HQ to get them stuffed! This was really the first time I had called for extra help to get a task done - and people just said yes. It was amazing really - and people are incredibly kind.

Canvassing in Crouch End in the evening. One road was virtually solid Lib Dem and the others pretty good. The reason people gave on the door step for voting for me was overwhelmingly the hard work fighting for the local area. Iraq was occasionally raised - but not nearly as much as in other areas I have canvassed and Hornsey Town Hall came up a couple of times. I asked one woman who raised the issue if she had come to the 'hustings' on the Town Hall the night before. She said she hadn't because she could not bear the group organising it. There seems to be a real split in the community over the 'who' - not the 'what' - of the Town Hall.

John Stevens, an ex Tory MEP who came over to the Lib Dems some years back, had come over to help for the evening. Two passers by stopped to talk to us - both Tories, both voting Lib Dem. They said that the Tories didn't want to win this election because there was such financial trouble going to hit in a couple of years time - that Tories wanted Labour to be in government for that downturn - and then they could march in to save the day at the ensuing election. We all have our theories...!

Early morning station leafleting at Harringay Station. Get opportunity to see how the clear up I got done is holding up. Things are better – but still not good enough. I wish we could persuade Haringey Council to relay the little bit of road coming down to the station entrance and improve the paving - so that the little shops would feel better and smarten themselves up - and then people would feel great as they came for their morning train. A benign circle!

Lots of people saying they are voting for us. Lots of waves. Lots of smiles. Lots of leaflets taken. Hope it augers well!

Then paperwork and stuffing are the order of the day, followed by Crouch End for People hustings in the evening. Fantastic turn out - CEfP are very professional at marketing and always good at organising big meetings.

Hornsey Town Hall and its future is the key local issue in the Crouch End area and people care passionately about its future. But there are two 'groups' with very similar visions – but disagreements over who should be in charge of the process taking it from council ownership to independent trust.

The vision is for a cultural/educational and community use and a beautifully restored building - possibly an anchor tenant such as the National Youth Theatre, and a cinema, community facilities and so on.

On the one hand there is a Trust set up by Crouch End for People and on the other a Community Partnership Board who are made up of representatives of the community (including a couple of people who have been involved with Crouch End for People, but no formal CEfP rep).

I just want them to work together and put their weapons down. If all the skills and talents and commitment on both sides were put into delivering the Town Hall future that people want - and less on having a go at each other - the better the community would be served!

Getting a new school for Crouch End is a big issue in the area. The background – the TUC are closing their Crouch End site and it's now due to become a local school instead.

Good news in the end – but at first the TUC were looking into selling off the site to developers instead. Now – at the time, I campaigned with my colleagues and residents to pressure them to look at the school option rather than just sell the site to the highest bidder. We also had numerous meetings with council staff to push this issue along from their end too.

I've pointed this out, and it seems to have got under Labour's skin!

First I knew of this was when the press get in touch saying the TUC's general secretary (Brendan Barber) is claiming I'd never lobbied him. That's easy to put to rest – out from the files comes my letter to him and the reply back from the Assistant General Secretary.

Then the story changes. Now the press say the TUC are saying, yes I may have been in touch – but they'd already made up their mind by then to go for a school. So – out come the files again, and this time it's the official email from the TUC at the time saying they hadn't made up their minds which gets dusted off.

Bit careless of the TUC all this forgetting what they did and said at the time. I await the next claim from the TUC with interest!

In the evening - go to a mobile phone mast protest meeting. Barbara Roche (incumbent Labour MP) and I have both been invited to speak - and the residents are out in number. Yet another mast application - this time in Palace Gates Road – and, yet again, residents feel they are not having a fair change to have their say.

The answer is to change the law – it was under the last Conservative government that mobile phone companies were given the ability to put up many of their masts with only minimal control.

Although Labour MPs (like our one here!) like popping up and backing protests against particular masts – Labour still haven't changed the law to ensure all applications have to go through a proper application procedure. I believe local authorities should have the power to block mobile phone masts on the grounds of the "precautionary principle", where that's appropriate.

That's the only real solution – there's no point backing protesters if you're not going to back changing the law to give them a fair say. The Lib Dems proposed in Parliament changing the law – but sadly didn't get support from the other parties. Something to return to after the election!

We all agree to work with residents to fight this application - and an action committee is formed. One woman says to Barbara that she keeps seeing her at meetings but what does she actually do about it? I couldn't possibly comment!

Labels: mobile phone masts

Charles Kennedy comes to Hornsey & Wood Green! Visiting Weston Park Primary School on - incidentally - the 10th anniversary of the school council, who had democratically chosen questions to ask him.

Charles swept in – but on the way stopped to talk to Sue Hessel from the Save Red Gables campaign group, which we support. Hope that adds to pressure - then in to the school.

Whilst the original plan was for Charles to meet ten children, we decide with the head, that it wouldn't be fair to have CK in school and for the other children not to have even seen him. So we go into every classroom to say hello. Good morning Charles Kennedy - they say. So sweet.

Then into the room with the School Council who ask a question from each class. 'What will you do if you don't get picked?', ‘How will you save pandas?' and 'What is your favourite food?'

Charles handled it all really brilliantly - good balance between substantive answers but put in a friendly way without being condescending.

Then after about 20 minutes the children went back to their lessons and the media had their way with him. 'Why had he come to Hornsey & Wood Green?' Well - there's an election ... and we can win here! That's what leaders do - turn up in top target seats! One journalist asked what I would do that the current Labour doesn't? Charles immediately referred her to the Evening Standard poll of London MPs where LibDem MPs took first, second and third place for hard work etc. Then the leader's tour sweeps on to the next seat and we get back to our normal campaigning.

Labels: charles kennedy

Hornsey Station 7am - bright and cheery. Then solid paperwork and emails until the afternoon when I change to phoning people to ask for various help, support etc.

News comes in from Camden Labour that Labour here has sent out an email for urgent help from Camden activists to come into Hornsey & Wood Green on the Wednesday afternoon - promising that they will be back in their own constituency by 6pm. Obviously worried!

Latest odds from the bookies on me winning – cut again, hurrah! Then phone canvassing in the evening.

Highgate station at 7am, pouring with rain and not too warm. However, heart much lightened by response from would be passengers on the Northern Line. Ah - the Northern Line - dreadful since the PPP and not improving. One passer by asks if I will attend a public meeting on the state of the Northern Line. More than happy to. Contributed to the Chief Exec of Metronet being sacked for appalling performance – and am more than happy to continue to rail against the PPP! And so a warning to the Chief Exec of Tubelines if performance doesn't improve - look what happened to John Weight!

A woman comes out from a house in Priory Gardens near the station to ask if I have any anti-war vote LibDem posters rather than pure LibDem - as the household is voting for me tactically to oust the 'pro-war MP Roche'. Winging their way as I write!

Lots of friendly 'you've got my votes' - almost made the cold and wet acceptable.

Go to Neil's house (agent) ahead of Charles K's office visiting (preparation for his own visit latter in the week). Neil has his mum staying with him – been helping address envelopes (she is fantastic!), but has scribbled on his postal ballot paper some information she was taking down whilst on the phone. Ballot paper ruined. Happily - you can apply for a replacement! Every vote counts...

Around 11am head of to the school where Charles Kennedy is visiting on Wednesday to check the layout, procedure, etc. Men from Charles's office, men from special branch (looking and behaving very like Men in Black) - I quite enjoyed it. All organised for Wednesday. Am hoping that despite the time constraints, Charles will have time to meet the campaigners from Red Gables - LibDems want to save it from Labour's closure - but the team explain that Charles's visit is very constrained time-wise and if possible will do - but no promises. Either way - I will raise it with Charles.

Masses and masses of casework, election enquiries and questionnaires from various lobby groups pouring in. Spend rest of morning trying to stem the tide.

Then canvassing with Don Foster MP in the afternoon in Crouch End. Neck and neck with Labour in this street and still no sign of any Conservative support whatsoever.

Labels: charles kennedy

9am - everyone arrives for the weekly campaign team meeting at my house. We all report to the campaign manager - what has happened in each of the wards we are looking after as to whether all the leaflets have got out, any problems, plans for the coming week etc.

Everyone then sweeps out to campaign. I spend a couple of hours organising for help to come in from across our activists in London to accomplish various tasks we have coming up in the last week - then head off to HQ.

Out canvassing in Hornsey ward - noticeable increase in people coming up to say that they are voting for me and us (generally switching from Labour). Lots of waves, smiles, hellos and good lucks - all good stuff at this point in the campaign. The sort of signs you hope for if there is to be a big swing.

Then go off to canvass Alexandra ward. We do some of the roads where passions have been running very high over traffic issues. So pleasantly surprised at just how positive the response is on the doorstep. Much still to do to sort out the traffic issues in the area though!

Having not written my blog for a couple of days - can't for the life of me remember what I did Friday! Guess it was canvassing and delivering?

Did get several phone messages and emails about a negative letter from the Tory candidate. The recipients are so outraged by its over the top attacks on me that they get in touch to say they will be voting for me. Two of them say they are Tories - but are just totally disgusted with the Tory letter.

Early start on Saturday to hand deliver our 'good morning' leaflets to people who will be receiving their postal votes today. We meet crack of dawn and I do a swift four hours pounding the streets of Muswell Hill. You have to cover a lot of territory with only a few leaflets to be distributed in each road - but my campaign manager says it's got to be done. So it was.

However, I only had a couple of hours sleep the night before as although I went to bed about half ten (knowing I had to get up at 5am), I had just fallen asleep when a friend rang and woke me up at about half eleven. Finally got back to sleep about 12.30pm only to be woken at about 1.30am by my two daughters saying it was urgent and serious and I must come at once.

They are shouting at me that it could kill us if it were to sting us. The 'it' turns out to be a hornet. I mumble something about just leaving it - but no - the girls drag me into the hall. And indeed it is HUGE and evil looking. Every time it shifts position, the girls scream and run into my room. Dawn will be here soon and I am feeling moderately desperate about the prospects of sleep.

We reach a Mexican stand-off with hornet flexing wings above the bathroom door and girls and me staring at it. I go to bed. Screams, thumps, running and more thumps. I get up. The beast is dead. Said hornet had temporarily flown to the floor - whereupon youngest daughter (brave) hit with shoe followed by Collins dictionary. It's only 3am now ...

Meeting fellow activists in M & S car park - I go off to do a sturdy four hours delivery. Much heartened in one street by bumping into a long time and active member of the Labour party who informs me that all three of them in her family will be voting for me and that they have left the Labour party altogether.

Afternoon sees hustings at the Alevi Cultural Centre in Hackney. There are nine candidates there from three constituencies. Language is a big issue for the community. Parents have great difficulty supporting their childrens' education because - if they don't speak English - they cannot engage properly with the system.

So the Alevi community ran language classes on a voluntary basis with a little funding from Hackney Council. But Labour cut the funding. The Labour hopefuls for Hackney (Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier) struggled with that one.

Then all the Labour candidates (including Roche and Lammy) were attacked over student tuition fees. They all nearly had apoplexy when I got the mike (not easy) and pointed out that they had promised last election not to introduce tuition fees and then had. Civilised veneers tumbled!

Afterwards, back to HQ. A quick rally of the troops - and then home. I try desperately to stay awake - but zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Go into City Hall to Chair the Transport Committee this morning. This morning we have the Port Authority of London coming to give evidence to the committee.

This little known authority is independent and self-financing - but as it has power over our waterway, the Thames, we wanted to put them into the public arena. As they emerged from the shadows of privacy - I am not sure what they made of their grilling.

The key charges against the authority (who everyone acknowledges do a good job on the whole) is that the Board is entirely white, middle-aged men and that their interest lies in the commercial - and not the community needs of the people who want to use the Thames for leisure, passenger transport etc.

Their argument was that it was skills that were needed at Board level that guided their choice of member. Given the hoo-ha from those having extreme difficulty engaging with them or getting them to focus on community priorities, it would seem that the one skill they didn't think they needed was someone on the board who understood and would champion and drive forward the community agenda.

Followed by an interview by the Senior Salaries Review Board who were asking three 'chairs' of London Assembly committees what we thought about our roles, our workload and our salary.

Then back to Hornsey & Wood Green to knock on more sheltered housing doors. Have to do it during the day - as the elderly are very nervous once the evening draws on.

Pop round to see Andy Kershaw who is going to endorse me. Andy is passionate about defeating a pro-war MP. He has taped the Paxman interview with Blair which he plays to me and Neil (my agent). Andy is right - the one thing Paxman fails to ask is why Blair went to war at that point in time as opposed to before or waiting.

The evening is door knocking in Hornsey ward. Very warm on the doorsteps – and this even in one of the minority of wards which don’t have a Lib Dem councillor. Once again, see very little of Labour or Tory leaflets or canvassing. Most people say they've seen and heard plenty of my campaign but nothing of Labour. Good sign – and I'm sure due in large part to our Labour MP’s ultra-loyalist voting record, which has put off many Labour activists (not just Iraq, but tuition fees, PFI, foundation hospitals etc).

Labels: jeremy paxman

Weighed myself again this morning. Lost another 4lb. Lucky I put on a stone since the last election - clearly knowing that I would need blubber to see me through.

The evening brings the Friends of the Earth hustings. We cover a whole range of issues – including mobile phone masts, the WTO, climate change and supermarkets. The evening goes well for me - which I am relieved about as some of these 'specialist' hustings can become extremely detailed.

However, four years on from the last Friends of the Earth hustings, I realise that I know a lot more than I did then. And it's not just the text book policy stuff - it's living, breathing issues in Hornsey & Wood Green.

Issue such as the mobile phone mast applications which pop up virtually weekly - and where only legislation to give local authorities to refuse planning permission on grounds of the 'precautionary principle' will actually help keep masts away from schools and vulnerable adults. (The Lib Dems put down a motion in the Commons on this - but Labour and Tories took up the debating time so it didn’t progress.)

It's about the supermarkets - not just the big ones - but the little ones appearing now on local high streets and putting the old corner shops out of business. It’s about the need for traffic to be sucked back where it should be - onto the North Circular - where the Mayor's failure to grasp the nettle and put paid to the bottleneck has meant misery in the residential streets of Muswell Hill, Alexandra and Bounds Green. Real issues!

After the hustings - I go out to dinner with Duncan (who is helping me with some of my paperwork during the election and is the world's expert on illegal logging - which sadly, but not surprisingly, didn't come up).

He is writing a biography of Charles K and has spent the previous day on the LibDem battle bus. Says it was interesting and hectic dashing around the country with our leader. Duncan says Charles is in good form and that he has been invited back for another day on the bus - which he has declined in favour of coming to help me. Mucho flattered!

Labels: ken livingstone

I don't have the time to follow much of all the internet coverage of the election - but this one caught my eye as being quite fun!

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

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

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

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

So - a typical Labour Haringey cock-up!

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

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

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

Labels: mpa

Canvass, canvass, canvass - mostly sheltered housing - which in inclement weather is a good thing. Morning canvas at sheltered housing in Fortis Green ward. Met a truly amazing woman. She invited me in (and no - if my campaign manager is reading this - I didn't stop for a cup of tea).

And when we sat down she quoted back to me something I had said two years ago when I had visited and was talking to the residents in the coffee room. Better memory than me! It was about my time volunteering at the Royal Free Hospital and how I had noticed, on a ward of high clinical dependence, that if and when a nurse had a few seconds to plump a patient's pillow that person (albeit momentarily) perked up - literally from dying. She had remembered every word. Incredible.

Afternoon canvas at sheltered housing in Alexandra ward. Different kettle here - as everyone is out. I am thinking to myself that maybe they are all asleep after lunch? But no - happily one woman who was in said 'I'll show you where they are dear'. And took me by the hand to a communal room where we peered through a glass panel in the door. Bingo in progress. I know when I'm beat!

Evening - canvass in my own Muswell Hill ward. Very friendly on the doorsteps as you would expect in what is part of the Lib Dem heartland in the constituency. There are virtually no Tories here at all. Several posters taken and one stakeboard for the garden organised.

At 3pm we had the Churches of Muswell Hill hustings. First time we candidates had met. A UKIP candidate had arrived on the scene just last week - so there were five of us (three main parties, Greens, UKIP). It was such a beautiful sunny day I was amazed that people came - but a goodly number did.

I was gob-smacked by Ms Roche's opening remarks - something about being socialist MP for a socially progressive party. That must be why she was searching trucks for asylum seekers and voting for the war, for PPP, for closure of Post Offices, for tuition fees - the 'mantra' is endless.

On rough sleeping, she was going on about how dreadful it was, and how the Social Exclusion Unit was doing, and how complicated it was - when the questioner said that he had worked in the Social Exclusion Unit and ran the soup kitchen at the church we were in. He had seen no reduction whatsoever in homelessness and rough sleeping in recent years. I was glad he at least put paid to that - as the chair would not allow any discussion amongst the panel so we had no opportunity to come back on anything she said - which was extremely frustrating!

We covered a number of issues - from auditing the EU to fair trade - with a bit of knife culture and school dinners thrown in! The audience seemed to enjoy it - and it is always good to set out your wares in public.

Went off canvassing in Stroud Green - where we stormed to a council by-election victory about a year and a half ago with a 29% swing from Labour to us. Let's hope it stays that way. This is an area where disillusioned Labour voters may well swing to us. I engage with hunt saboteur - he will
swing to us because of our stance against ID cards and Labour's raid on our freedoms and rights.

Then back to HQ for some admin work. A Labour leaflet has apparently finally gone out - but its basic content is to republish Ken Livingstone's flatteringly vituperative attack on me in the Tribune. Ken is furious that Tariq Ali is supporting me and the LibDems in Hornsey & Wood Green in order to 'defeat' a 'warmonger MP'. He wanted him to support the Labour candidate in Brent East against Sarah Teather who won Ken's old seat in a stunning by-election a couple of years ago - but I think Tariq's view was that Brent East already had a very good anti-war MP!

Simon Hughes sweep into Hornsey & Wood Green. Yes - all the party stars are shining here this time round!

We are canvassing in Hornsey. People are always pretty surprised when they open the door and find Simon on their doorstep. And it has to be said - people are Simon's forte - he basically just charms them...

Simultaneously - my door knocking was pretty productive. One door I knocked at - definitely voting LibDem - says 'wait a minute, I've got a present for you.’ Haven't encountered this before - but wait in mystified anticipation. The guy reappears with a book - of which he is the author. Title of said book 'The Curious Incident of the WMD in Iraq'.

So - you never know what you will find on the doorstep. And Simon assures me that I don't have to list it in 'gifts received’ (Standards in Public Life) as it falls way below the level at which this kicks in. Phew - don't want any books for votes scandal attaching itself to my campaign!

Simon wants to stalk a high street - so we are just off Crouch End Broadway and go there to meet and greet. It was fun. Simon sweeps into each shop, restaurant or whatever - stops people just minding their own business - and engages thoroughly with the denizens of Crouch End.

He is the past master at such engagement - and when you walk through Simon's constituency of Southwark and Bermondsey it takes hours as everyone knows him and talks to him. Of course, this has its downside, as he has given me a lift in his bright yellow taxi to where we have been canvassing and I need to get back to go to Muswell Hill to sign the 'Make Poverty History' pledge. Eventually with the help of his minder we pull him away.

Arrive in Muswell Hill at the stall. Sign the pledge and wait as the other candidates are late or not coming. Journal photographer appears (at the request of the stall holders - not me!) and the 'signing' is complete. We all support the ambitions of this campaign.

Labels: simon hughes

First panic of the day - the first batch of our election address needs to be bundled and got to Royal Mail. Neil (agent) phones around the 'gang' and we all flood in to finish off the last envelopes. All is well - except it takes Neil three and a half hours round trip to get it there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (lot of western allusion today) I get my spurs on and go canvassing with Jonathan Marciano from the Ham & High. As ever, we are looking for Labour 'switchers' as I guess that will be the story of this seat. But it is hard to find anyone who is not out and out Lib Dem (of the very few people in that time of the morning).

In the end Jonathan decides he will have to make do with a photo of me on the doorstep of a Lib Dem supporter. So we talk on the step and as we are talking it turns out that he did indeed used to be a Labour supporter. It was the LibDem work locally that first brought us into the frame (cracked pavements and rubbish collection etc) - and combined with Iraq … If you can't keep a street clean - how can you run the country - I always say!

We do bits of interviews as we go. My successful campaigns for the 603 bus route and the police front counter reopening at Muswell Hill police station are touched upon but the main issue coming up on the doorsteps is Iraq. Crime, education (particularly school places) and health also feature.

When people start talking about why they are voting and switching it is about the sort of world people want. It matters how you behave. It matters if you wage an illegal war. It matters if your civil liberties are taken away. It matters if what makes our society decent and caring is trashed.

Whew - glad to get that off my chest.

Rush home to try and get my emails done. It is absolute mayhem trying to deal with everything that is coming in. I am glad that the volume of stuff has exploded in size - I think. Rush back to HQ after a few hours of inbox control and to help get our next leaflet our to deliverers in Hornsey and then off canvassing again with Alexis.

Very good canvassing here and more posters. People are very interested in talking - which means I cover less ground - but it I feel an important part of the democratic process for candidates to have to meet and talk to the public.

Actually go home quite early at around 8pm to read the Liberal Democrat manifesto properly and start to think about the hustings the first one of which is to be Churches of Muswell Hill on Sunday afternoon.

Labels: 603 bus, iraq, muswell hill police station

Early to bed - early to rise! I guess the election adrenalin must have kicked. Having fallen asleep to the first strains of Desperate Housewives (which I had been hoping to watch for a moments respite) I wake up at 3.45am. Lie there 'til 6am then finally decide pointless exercise.

Off canvassing with Ed Davey MP who is our Shadow Deputy Prime Minister. The doorstep feel is remarkably similar seemingly wherever we canvass. LibDems and soft Labour. Rush Ed back to HQ as he has to go off to Islington South and Brent East. Ed’s also been to Dorset and Guildford - the common denominator is that these are all seats where women candidates are challenging. Just showing that Ed takes supporting women candidates to its proper level!

I continue stuffing envelopes (just one of my favourite past times), have lunch with Neil and then rush home to do some Highgate delivery. I find a couple of hours delivery a day helps ease the tension and get rid of some of the adrenalin.

Back home for emails and paperwork. Adrenalin disposal not helped by LibDem press office phoning to see if I would talk to BBC London about LibDem womens' policies. I agree to BBC interview - but that means have to be up at 6am to brief myself in the morning. Oh well - I'll be awake anyway…

Rush back to HQ for more stuffing. Rush back home to write out a letter that I want to deliver to people with postal votes who will be voting next weekend. Pass out to Andrew Neil's dulcet tones.

Labels: ed davey

One week gone - half a stone lost! Thank goodness for election.

Lunchtime visit to Coleridge School. All the candidates are invited separately - a wise head clearly. Music plays as the children aged about 7-11 walk in and sit cross legged in rows. I guess there were about 200 all staring up at me. Terrifying!

I just tell them a little about the Lib Dems and then two children have been chosen to ask the questions selected by the school council. Very good questions - better than most adult hustings I thought - as it wasn't full of party hacks or planted questions. I remember an education hustings at Fortismere School last time out where there were about 20 people in the audience, almost all of whom were party people.

One of the questions was what about pollution. So I asked them if the had heard of the congestion charge. Yes - they all said. Was it a good thing I asked. No - they all said. Why not - I said. Because you have to pay - they all said. Was pollution bad? Yes - they all said. I then attempted to demonstrate the link between the two.

School dinners were high on their list of questions. Thanks Jamie. Did they like salads I asked? Not a totally positive response - but at least Jamie has brought the discussion and got them thinking and talking. They also asked what I was going to do about fast food outlets in Crouch End. No correlation again!

I really enjoyed it. Not my usual target audience - but voters of the future. Lots of them came up after to say they would vote for me. Perhaps we should revisit the voting age?

In the afternoon - meet BBC London camera team. Well I guess they are stretched as the team was the camera man and interviewer all in one. He followed me knocking on doors for a couple of hours. Several of the LibDems we found wouldn't give permission for the film to be used (drat) - not dressed, wet hair, no make-up. The BBC man knocked on each door after I had called to ask permission - nothing goes out without it.

Matthew Taylor MP canvassed with me and calls me to say hello at a door with a Tory mother (going to vote Lib Dem because Tories can't win here), a daughter who doesn't know, her friend who is LibDem and whilst talking on the doorstep, the son (I guess around 15) arrives and shouts Labour (at his mother).

One woman today said she was going to vote for Respect and was clearly put out when I informed her I didn't believe there was a Respect Candidate standing. But she was the only person in all the canvassing I have done who has mentioned Respect here.

Back to HQ dropping camera man and Matthew off at tube. Noticed just before getting into car that microphone had fallen off. And as we have no idea when it detached itself - may have to do whole thing over again!

At HQ stuffing envelopes is the order of the day. The glamour of democracy in action!

Labels: coleridge school

Austrian journalists accompany me on the campaign trail. A very nice man and woman who are, if I remember rightly, the equivalent of Radio 4 (the woman) and the Editor of the Guardian (the man) in Austrian terms.

Keen to raise my vote in Austria - we set out in a Labour street in a Lib Dem ward (Alexandra, three gains from Labour in 2002). It was quite extraordinary. Virtually every Labour supporter told me they were voting Lib Dem this time. Iraq was the reason. Whilst Labour may hope we have moved on - we haven't. I wish Gilligan had been with me on this street. I couldn't have wished for more palpable evidence of the Labour swing to the Lib Dems.

One woman (Labour all her life, but now voting Liberal Democrat) wouldn't take one of our posters because she didn't want to put off Labour canvassers and was hoping to get them on her doorstep to give them a piece of her mind.

Another woman called me across the road to her - same story and her husband who had voted Labour since the Khaki election (think must have meant 1945 rather than the Boer war!) was voting LibDem.

In the evening went round to Tariq Ali's house to finalise his further efforts to help me in order to actually defeat in his words 'a warmonger MP'. Tariq is solely and genuinely committed to getting an anti-war majority in the Commons - that is his purpose and therefore we have common cause.

Labels: andrew gilligan

I am to be adopted - as LibDem candidate for Hornsey & Wood Green in the back room (huge) of the Three Compasses pub - where our HQ is upstairs.

Lord Bill Rodgers (member of the SDP Gang of Four and ex-LibDem Leader in the Lords), Lord Tim Garden (military expert) and Ed Davey, MP are all there to attract a good crowd, tell people how wonderful I am and how hard they need to work for the campaign.

Fantastic turn out - made Neil (my agent) come and take a photo from the front looking back at the audience - 'cos political parties are always saying it was 'packed room' but it really was. So I thought we should have the photographic evidence to back it up!

It was a fantastic night. It is only seven years since we got our first councillor and we’re now poised to have a Lib Dem MP.

It just reminded me of a piece I wrote for a LibDem publication years ago on 'Why I am a Liberal Democrat' or something like that. I chose to write about the 'Power of One' - that however impossible things seem - that doesn't have to be the case and that change can be brought about with enough commitment and effort. And as 'ones' come together in common cause - mountains do move.

Labels: ed davey

Andrew Gilligan's piece on Hornsey & Wood Green comes out today in the Evening Standard - which is going to be a pretty important piece of coverage for us - one way or the other.

First phone call in from the press office - only seen the headline - looks good. Well - without droning on too much - it was a good piece for us and for me. Huge photograph of me with the panoramic backdrop of London viewed from the steep slopes of Muswell Hill.

Glad to be able to report that it's a nice photo! Then I read the piece and it is a really accurate summation of the situation here. The Labour vote is very soft and it's going to be an exciting finish.

One of the bits that interested me the most was the description of what Labour think is happening in this seat. Last time out in 2001 LibDems (and me) took around 10,000 votes of Ms Roche's majority. That was before 9/11, before the war and so on. Their rational, according to Labour, is that the residents of this area are basically the advanced guard of Labour thinking in the capital. i.e. Labour here became disillusioned before Labour elsewhere - and therefore the huge swing to the LibDems last time was it.

I have to say I don't think so! Not in a million years. However, using that logic - is Labour saying that there will be at least a 12% swing to the LibDems in all seats where we are in second place? That would be excellent!

Labels: andrew gilligan

9am sharp the campaign team arrives at my house. Everyone in very good form and we get through the business of going through the status of our campaign in record time. Most head off for our HQ to begin the days canvassing (not before 11am as waking people on a Sunday morning does not endear them to your cause!), delivering and sticking and stuffing.

Neil, Susie and I head off to do a photo shoot at Alexandra Park Station and then I come back home to write some notes for Bill Rodgers who the following night is to chair my adoption meeting. Drop them off and head to HQ myself.

Uneventful couple of hours canvassing and then off to the Kurdish Centre off Green Lanes where I have been invited to speak for 10 minutes on anything I like. This is the celebration of 17 years of the centre.

As I was asked what time slot I would like and had said 3.30pm I turned up and the hall was full of people. The proceedings were mainly in Kurdish (with a bit of Turkish). There was a Green MEP there and she was called to speak first. A translator translated as she went.

When I was called I just spoke about the choice they would have at the election, the war, and the importance of communities like the Kurdish community not just voting, but becoming politicians and active members of the community.

Then Barbara Roche (my Labour opponent) arrived. Didn't know she was coming. She took the stage in an absolute thundercloud - so assume that she didn't know I was going to be there either. Blasted the LibDems right, left and centre.

She also introduced herself as a Member of Parliament for a left-wing progressive government. You could have knocked me down with a feather! This from the most right-wing, privatising government we have seen. And her voting track-record? Voted for tube privatisation, for top up fees, for war in Iraq, for cutting benefits for disabled people, for Post Office closures, the list goes on …

Dash back to HQ (just love having an HQ) and grab some canvassing.

A lot of Labour supporters know about Tariq Ali's call for people to vote Lib Dem in Hornsey and Wood Green to defeat the pro-war MP. It's put a lot of people on the spot. Do you stay at home or reluctantly vote Labour – or do you take the plunge and cast a vote which will actually make a difference?

Tariq has basically challenged all those in Hornsey & Wood Green who have been so upset by the Labour Government taking us to war illegally and by the MP's unswerving support for that war - to actually do something about it - because here they can.

Take canvassing back to HQ and dash off to meeting about traffic issues in Bounds Green. As usual - a proposed traffic scheme to stop rat-running from the North Circular is dividing a community that straddles the Haringey / Enfield border. I look at all the maps with the two women who have called me in desperation to stop Enfield just doing what they plan - without Haringey sorting out their side. As ever - one road's benefit by timed closures means another road's suffering. I will pursue as it drives me mad - the sticking plaster approach to traffic problems in London.

Home to emails, paperwork etc - and lots of requests for posters! Hurrah!

Labels: iraq, post offices

Our campaign HQ opens today. I go there at 11 to start canvassing. It is just a fabby HQ, above the Three Compasses pub on Hornsey High Street. Above a pub - bound to be popular with people coming to help! Right in the centre of the constituency and with just the nicest owners and staff - and great, real, food.

The office is already buzzing and there are helpers already doing what helpers do in an election - sticking bits of double-sided tape on posters and folding letters for stuffing. Love it to bits. Valerie is front of house at HQ - President of London Region Liberal Democrats, activist over decades - and who for the last (can't remember how many) elections has gone to Southwark to do front of house for Simon Hughes. This time she is staying on here to help me win the seat - because basically this time - it's game on.

I go off with Monica to canvas a new block of flats in Crouch End. It has an entry system that is impenetrable. Needless to say we do penetrate - as the candidate it’s often not too bad trying to get into places as people generally want to offer you the democratic opportunity to knock on doors.

One single mother I spoke too with two very young children said it was a nightmare because they never got any leaflets - the leaflets most of us moan about littering our floors about pizzas etc! As a result – cut off from the businesses in the area and didn’t get local news through free newspapers, political leaflets etc.

Back to the pub for lunch and a drink with the activists. Sarah Ludford, MEP arrives to go out canvassing. I give her the times of the blessing (Camilla and Charles) and the Grand National - so that they can avoid knocking on doors during those and off she goes.

A group sitting at a table in the pub call me over, wish me luck and ask for a poster … It reminds me of the campaign technique my agent and I used in '97 when we didn't have a clue about campaigning. We used to finish canvassing (Muswell Hill ward) at about 9pm and then he and I would go to the various eatery or drinkery establishments in the constituency wearing our rosettes as a means of seeing and being seen. I didn't win! Eight years later, my campaign manager just roars with laughter at what he regards as completely amateur techniques - but I'm not so sure … (And it was a good way to end a hard day's campaigning).

I have a brief word with my agent who tells me that the local Conservative party chair was loitering downstairs outside our HQ for an hour or so in the morning. Strange! Surely they’ve got better things to do …

Monica and I go to do a couple of hours delivering. She is nervous that I may mention her driving in my blog. But I won't - it's really her parking technique that is of interest. People smile at me in the street - which I take as a good sign - it sure beats not smiling or ignoring. Two hours of my exercise program - unfortunately in high heels as I forgot to bring my trainers out - is my Bridget Jones for the day.

I rush home to check messages and finish up some correspondence. About 10pm I finish (well you never finish but I do have two children and am single so occasionally feel it appropriate to appear) and go into the lounge to watch a film with them. Needless to say I fall asleep on the sofa.

Labels: sarah ludford, simon hughes

This blog is turning into Bridget Jones’s diary for the duration in as much as I have lost 3lb. Again yesterday two hours delivering leaflets. Normal paperwork, email and phone to race through and wrote one speech.

I get a phone message from a colleague that Ken (Livingstone) has been attacking me in the Tribune. I knew he had had a go in the Socialist Worker. It would seem that Tariq Ali's support has angered Ken. Of course, Ken's old seat of Brent East fell to the LibDems in a by-election with a 29% swing - so - being Ken – he’s lashing out.

The ironic thing here is that prior to his readmission to the Labour party we were fighting together on many policy issues. It's not me who's changed but him (sounds like a line from a song).

Labels: ken livingstone

7am start on emails having done fifty sit ups. Given the amount of exercise I get during and election delivering leaflets and the amount of weight I lose from being on the run - I have decided that I might as well have a flat stomach by May 5!

Inevitably during a campaign the blog content of my daily efforts will be repetitive in terms of 1) delivering leaflets 2) canvassing 3) stuffing envelopes and 4) answering emails, letters and the phone.

The interest I guess will come from the twists and the turns, the media and the national campaign.

So today was unremitting emails and paperwork all morning. Then for light relief three hours of leaflet delivery midst beautiful sunshine - interspersed with hail, lightening and thunder. We (Monica and I) were leafleting a really up-market part of the constituency - with mega houses and tree-lined drives. Only issue with long drives is that it takes twice as long to deliver as normal roads.

At 7.30pm arrive at the British Legion in Muswell Hill Road for the consultation with key stakeholders in Muswell Hill. I am the lead councillor on the roll out of the police’s Safer Neighbourhoods Scheme in Muswell Hill. This is what we have all been waiting for - 6 police personnel, ring-fenced for Muswell Hill on a permanent basis. Hurrah!

This is a real 'good news' story - and tonight is about asking the chairs of residents' associations and neighbourhood watches what they believe are the priorities for the area.

I have raised already one of the key problems for residents of St James's Lane and Connaught Gardens - which is kids hanging around - and in the case of St James’s Lane acting quite aggressively to passers by.

I have been in email correspondence with Stephen Bloomfield, the local Commander and suggested to him that we try Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs). Yes - we can have patrols (if we are lucky) and that will move them on - temporarily. But I am for long term resolution - not just pushing a problem into someone else's back yard.

ABCs were pioneered in Lib Dem run Islington with the Met and involve the police, the parents, the children, and other partners from education, social services, housing - whatever the problems need. Parents and children sign up to an agreed way forward for behaviour and have regular meetings to discuss any difficulties etc. These have worked stunningly well - so much so that Labour Ministers Charles Clarks and Hazel Blears are now advocating this as best practise across the land.

Stephen Bloomfield emails back that this seems just the right sort of case to be taken forward with ABCs but he isn't promising anything until he knows more.

So at the meeting, the team are there and the issue is raised and we will see what path they take.

One of the most positive and optimistic evenings in my memory in terms of policing (outside of the re-opening of Muswell Hill Police front counter).

Come home to find phone message from Andrew Gilligan - so call him back. Piece in Standard will come out on Monday. He asks how I am getting on - and I say well. Lots of emails from Labour supporters telling me not only that they are going switch from Labour for the first time in their lives and vote for me - but why.

Interestingly - the reasons are not just the war. Iraq certainly leads the field - but the disappointments with Labour are many. It’s feeling very good on the doorsteps – especially as former Tory and Green supporters are getting the tactical voting message that to beat Blair’s candidate they need to vote Lib Dem in Hornsey and Wood Green.

Labels: andrew gilligan, crime, hazel blears, stephen bloomfield

Plenary session at City Hall questioning transport supremo Bob Kiley - followed by Mayor's Question Time with Ken.

As I walk from London Bridge Station (following a journey from hell on the Northern Line) I pass a cafe. Sitting and looking very sad and lonely is Ken having a cup of coffee. I watch him for a while - as it is a really striking picture and wish that I had had a camera.

Anyway - to cut to the chase - my big issue is the £1.6million that Ken spent on external legal costs fighting the PPP (tube privatisation). Now I thought the money was definitely worth spending - we had to try and stop probably the worst contract in the world being foisted on London. We failed. But my beef with Ken is that for him it was clearly 'gesture politics' (the most expensive in history) as now he’s back in the Labour fold we don't hear a peep from him against the PPP - nor do we see action to take control of a failing contract.

So I put this to Kiley and he lets rip against Metronet who are managing to disrupt London almost every time they overrun on engineering works. Clearly from recent media outbursts from Tim O'Toole and now Kiley - frustration at TfL is rampant.

So I helpfully suggest that they sack Metronet - none of this waiting and putting them on notice to improve or else. That should already have been the case. Clearly financial penalty is no barrier to their poor performance - time to cut losses and run. I mean, John Weight, the Chief Exec of Metronet, came before my committee a few weeks ago. I pushed him on his responsibility for the overruns. He admitted publicly it was entirely a management issue in terms of planning and managing access and that he was on the case and it would all be alright.

Clearly not given the tube’s performance! They should be sacked and the Mayor should make the Government suffer the consequences - and then let us fund the Tube by bonds.

I go upstairs as I have to leave a bit early for an appointment - only to find everyone going mad. Did I really say sack Metronet? Yup!

Latter, I get on with delivering our 'Flying Start' leaflet in Hornsey. It is pouring with rain one minute then bright sunshine. A woman runs up to me in Harvey Road saying 'are you Lynne' etc. She tells me that they have had a problem with dumping and rubbish for years and Haringey Council has done nothing. But the previous night they had formed a Residents' Association and rung up to complain about their dumped rubbish. And, lo as if by magic - at midnight the waste collection company turned up and removed 42 black bags.

Now - you might think this was a shining example of service - but ‘scuse my cynicism - how many times in Haringey does Accord turn up to pick up rubbish at midnight? Must be an election! People are not fooled. She certainly wasn't.

Three hours delivering and my body says rest and food required. Go home to discover 200 or so emails which have to be answered.

But in the middle I get a phone-call from a man. He is a Tory ringing because he says that it is obvious that the Tories cannot win in Hornsey & Wood Green and he is thinking of voting LibDem. But he is worried about asylum and immigration and wants reassurance from me that we won't 'let them all in'.

He doesn't wish to give his name.

So I explain to him, that we need strong policies on migration but what this should mean is looking carefully at how many migrants the country needs and can cope with in different areas (of the country and the economy). The real problem at the moment lies with illegal immigration - which is not only bad for us but appalling for the people as well.

He goes on about asylum seekers - too many - send ‘em back etc. I make it clear that unlike the Tories I would not wish to put any quota on asylum. I would not want to come from a country that closed its doors on someone fleeing for their lives.

He came back at me about the quantity coming in - and on - and on. In the end I said to him 'Look I am not a Tory - I am a Liberal Democrat - I just don't believe what you believe' or words to that effect.

At which point he said that I would have his vote (much to my surprise.) Then he said he had done something mean. He wasn't a Tory supporter. He was a lifelong Labour supporter who wouldn't vote Labour this time - but who wanted to test me out in private.

Clearly I had passed the test!

So Mr G of Muswell Hill - thank you - because you made me laugh - and at the end of a long day it was definitely the best medicine!

Labels: tim o'toole

Radio 4 have a piece about disgruntled Labour activists - and they pick a group of Labour members from Hornsey and Wood Green.

Some of the comments from the Labour members:

"There's so many things the Labour government does that I am in total, complete disagreement with. And it's not just Iraq, it is the rightwards drift, it's the attack on local authorities, it's the attack on social housing. It's the arrogant attitude that they have towards ordinary people."

"I know dozens, literally dozens and dozens, of people who are Labour voters who will be voting Lib Dem. Because they are the party in the area that's got some momentum behind it, and are the anti war party, and it is the war that has been the biggest issue for me."

"For a Labour government to take us to war in that way is just for me unsupportable, but there are also the attacks on civil liberties, top up fees, the privatisation, galloping privatisation, it's just more than I can bear and when they dress it up in this whole language of choice, and so on, well I'm sorry I cannot trust people who behave like that – I don’t trust them."

All this from Labour party members! You can listen again to this on the Radio 4 website for a week.

Labels: iraq

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: mpa, tfl

30 days till polling day.

I'm not sure if I should be excited that we're into the final straight, or scared that it's so little time left!

On balance - excitement it is.