Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Lynne,

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Boris Johnson in his recent appointment as Mayor of London. I wish him well in his work to ensure a more cohesive and united London.

I voted tactically and therefore voted against Ken Livingstone, however, it is important that although I voted against Mr Livingstone, we recognise the important contribution he made to the life of London. I truly commend Ken for his decision to support annual celebrations of London’s diverse communities in Trafalgar Square, whether it be Eid in the Square or Simcha on the square, or even Pride in London organised by London’s diverse LGBT communities. He was a Mayor who truly celebrated our differences and uniqueness as distinct communities. He further recognised the contribution different communities make to this great city. All these communities have contributed much to the rich, vibrant and vivid culture of London and I hope Boris will continue to establish an annual round of events celebrating the contribution of these communities.


Indeed he served as a good friend of the British Muslim community, markedly in his decision to commission a major study into the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the UK print and broadcast media. According to a press release circulated by the GLA, “The report, The Search for Common Ground, was researched by 9 leading academics, professionals from the media industry and experts on Islam, and shows that during the period of investigation the national media overwhelming portrayed Muslims and Islam in a negative way.” Additionally, after the events of 7/7 the former Mayor came out asserting that these crimes were not in the name of Islam or Muslims, but a hand full of criminals.


Finally, we have observed the rolling out of the Police Community Support Officers, otherwise known as PCSOs rolled out across London, who have undoubtedly contributed to reducing crime and the fear of crime within our diverse communities. PCSOs are an invaluable addition to policing with their main focus on engaging with their local community, providing high visibility reassurance policing and dealing with low level crime and antisocial behaviour.
However, of course, there were many of his flaws which resulted in his departure, and further resulted in me voting against him. However, I have full confidence that Boris will be keen to continue some of the successes under the previous administration.

Thanks

Mash
 

Brian Paddick's assessment of the mayoral race. It is very funny and reflects incredibly badly on the Liberal Democrat Party.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=565425&in_page_id=1879
 

It is very funny and reflects incredibly badly on the Liberal Democrat Party.

True, sadly so on the second point. I felt throughout that our campaign was lacking. Sure, there was a squeeze. And it's awfully difficult to mount an "anti-both" campaign in a polarized situation. There's always an impact on media interest, funding and even volunteers.

But where were the bright policy ideas? What was our strategy on second preference? Why weren't we targeting Ken strongholds with our anti-Boris messages and the suburbs with our anti-Ken messages? Why weren't the Westminster front bench out in force promoting their candidate?

And since Brian raises his inability to get his press people to listen to him, I would ask whether he listened at all to them? He acknowledges wooden-ness at the start, but whatever media training he was being given didn't take even at the end.

In fact, if he'd deployed the humour and intelligence displayed belatedly in this MoS piece during the campaign, I'm sure he'd have done better. Without the sour grapes of course.