Labour Conference 2011 Tribune Rally

Liverpool was sunny, its people friendly and their black cabs were much cheaper then London. Now I’m back from the Party Conference, its useful to review what l got up to other then enjoy Liverpool.

Well l made sure l was on the conference floor when Ken spoke on this battle with Boris, the present incumbent of the London Mayoralty.  He made some telling comments; for example, he questioned the moral difference between Boris’s Bullingdon vandalism as a student and the criminality of the rioters? Ken also reminded us of his own reaction to the July 7th bombings when he was Mayor in 2005. At the time he was in Singapore for the Olympic vote, but when he heard about the what was unfolding in London, he just wanted to get back home. In contrast when the riots first kicked off in London, Boris Johnson refused to return immediately, almost having to be dragged back as he tried to convince us from Vancouver that all was well with London.

When Ken was introduced to the floor by Tessa Jowell, she made a very good point; that is, that we must ensure that the contest next May will not just be a contest about celebrity. It must be a campaign about who will be the most effective leader, the most effective Mayor of London during these most difficult of times. She reminded us that competence not celebrity will get young people back to work; competence not celebrity that will build new homes and keep tubes fares down. So we were told in no uncertain terms, the choice before Londoners is one of celebrity versus competency. The Olympics will also provide a huge platform for the new incumbant Mayor on which to stage London to the world.  We should not underestimate the importance of 2012 and the implications this has for the incoming Mayor next May. Ken demonstrated great leadership qualities which cut it on the world stage when it came to representing London for the 2012 bid and (sadly) after 7/7.  He has a proven track record which will be enhanced on the Olympic platform next year.   This is just another reason why he should be Mayor next year.

At conference, I was pleased to be able to contribute to some fringe meetings. The first was the Labour Transport Group meeting ” What Future Airports?” on Monday lunchtime. What ever our position on the future of expansion of airport capacity in the United Kingdom developed during the Party consultation on aviation, we need to revise our national party position on the expansion of Heathrow.  This needs to be in line with our Mayoral candidate’s position of no expansion at Heathrow at least and no back door expansion through operational freedom trials either. This would be in line with government policy, but in truth, it is where we are with the public, particularly around the West London suburbs. I let the shadow aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick know in no uncertain terms that this element of aviation policy had to be resolved by the time of the Mayoral contest next May.  Before leaving Liverpool, l was also asked to speak at the Tribune Rally on Tuesday evening. This was mainly as a result of being a regular contributor to Tribune magazine on City Hall affairs and therefore happily took up the offer.  Now its not often in life you get 10 minutes of time to speak to an audience about literally anything you think needs saying. So l took the opportunity willingly and chose to speak about the dangerous state of the world economy, and what needs doing like regulating the banks by splitting their retail arms from the casino side of their operations; putting the Tobin tax in place on the volume of transactions in the City of London and down with rating agencies and all they represent. I also spoke about foreign policy and on this front l am glad and proud to see that the Labour Party would recognise Palestine at the UN, if in power right now.  As we’ve balls-up our Middle East policies on a number of fronts, it’s refreshing to have got this one right at last. Finally, I didn’t miss the opportunity to give a plug about the importance of the GLA elections next year to the party.

Going underground @ Hammersmith Pump Station

Last Friday at the invitation of Thames Water, I went underground to see the how Bazalgette sewer system copes with overflows at its Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) in Hammersmith onto the Thames.  It was certainly a sight to go down to the chamber some 70 metres long and 8 metres high and imagine what it must be like when it is completely filled up with rain and having to pump out 24 tonnes of muck a second.

All the CSOs along the Thames collectively pump out 39 cubic metres of untreated sewage into the Thames but the sewers can’t cope any more as London’s population has more than doubled since the famous brick sewers were built after the “great stink” in 1860.  Ourr water consumption has also greatly increased, so the present infrastructure has been overwhelmed by our growing city.

The Thames Water solution to this predicament is the Thames Tunnel supported by the Mayor and DEFRA. It’s a giant new sewer some 75 metres under the Thames, 13 miles long and wider then a tube tunnel. It will cope with any storm surges, storing and transfering the waste east where it will be treated.

In November we will have the second stage of the public consultation on the preferred route and works sites, the latter issue having raised some contraversy in some neighbourhoods in London. Let’s hope all the work sites have been moved from green sites like Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea to brown sites nearby, causing a lot less bother to local residents during the works phase.

Other issues raised include the cost of the tunnel.  The total project costs are some £3.6 million which will be paid from an additional £50 per household charge. This has not stopped some like Hammersmith & Fulham council objecting and suggesting a shorter tunnel option referred to as the Jacobs Babtie solution, which would be a better fix financially. But this proposal would still leave 19 of the 34 unchecked and not leave enough capacity in the existing sewers to be able to transfer the flows captured by a shorter tunnel to sewage treatment works in East London in any reasonable time scale. The result would be sewage sitting in the shorter tunnel for longer periods, creating the very odour problem for local resident they wanted to avoid.  This is particularly so for the residents of Hammersmith & Fulham, where the shorter tunnel would still run along their boundary with the Thames.  Whilst full, the tunnel would not be able to cope with flows generated by storms.

So all in all, barring any major revolts in the second stage of public consultation of the preferred route and in particular the location of the works sites, this looks like a welcome and long overdue addition to London’s sewage infrastructure.

The Palestinian initiative this week  is likely to result in a vote in the UN General Assembly which would have the effect of upgrading their status to that of a “non member observer state” taking it beyond its current old observer status and a position which has in the past been shared by countries like Japan, Switzerland and Bangladesh.  A nine out of fifteen member Security Council vote will ensure the application is sent to the General Assembly to be ratified, provided two thirds of the 193 countries agree.  However, a “no” vote from any one of the Permanent Member of the Council which includes the USA will mean that the application fails vetoing the Palestinian’s ultimate aim of becoming the UN’s 194th member state.  The Palestinian application is obviously a move vehemently opposed by the Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and predictably endorsed by the US who has already announced their intention to veto the application irrespective of its wording.

Therefore, given the already loaded dice against the Palestinian application with the incessant dark shadow of the US’s vote, it should fall upon Britain, another of the Permanent Members to support the Palestinian initiative, thereby sending out a clear message that it is time to move on and make peace.  Britain has a moral duty to support the move given its role in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1920.  The process towards recognition of an independent Palestine is also an important and symbolic step towards the establishment of a dual state which ironically, is strongly supported by the USA.  It is also a gesture which would in the words of former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, be the “best way” to restart peace negotiations which are currently sunk within a quick sand of dogmatism and short-sightedness.  Furthermore, the World Bank, the UN, the EU and the IMF have all endorsed the Palestinians as “ready for security”.

What about a vote from Israel?  Well they have all to gain and much to lose if they stand in the way of the application.  Not only have they entered a phase of diplomatic isolation with the recent expulsion of its ambassador in Turkey, it must surely recognise the value in enhancing lucrative trading opportunities with a neighbour that has a growing economy.  There is also the insatiable international appetite for a Palestinian statehood which Israel can ignore but entirely at the expense of its own security and international standing.

So the use of the UN is a smart tactical move by the Palestinians and probably a game changer. The case made by them for recognition as a state is strong. This week, at the United Nations, the British Government should be willing to support the recognition of Palestinian statehood as part of continuing steps to achieve a comprehensive two state solution.

But there also remains a heavy responsibility on the UK government and other members of the international community this week to work to ensure that any change in the level of Palestinian recognition is then followed by meaningful negotiations between the parties. 

New figures published by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) show that Westminster has lost 112 full time warranted officers since March 2010. Accross London there are now 1,130 fewer borough based police officers than there were a year ago.

Local London Assembly member Murad said the figures exposed as "hypocrisy" Boris Johnson’s call for a halt to police cuts.

Following the riots last month the London Mayor said the case for reducing police officer numbers had always been "frail". "I think that this is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers", he said.

But the figures from the MPA show that, under the Mayor’s own plans, police officer numbers were falling long before the London riots.

In March last year there were 1,631 full time warranted officers in Westminster. This number has fallen to 1,519 as of July 2011. Boris Johnson’s police authority published plans earlier this year to cut 1,800 officers by 2013/14.

Local Labour Assembly member Murad said

Ends

Notes

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Boris Johnson’s second budget in February 2010 proposed cutting 455 police officers in London, saying "over the three years to 2012-13, the number of Police Officers is forecast to decrease by 455" (see

: "The Mayor’s cuts to police in Westminster undermine the fight against crime and should be reversed. He should think again about his own cuts – not just try to blame others. I think the hypocrisy of a Mayor who proposed two years ago to cut 455 police officers now saying he’s against these cuts is clear for all to see."http://legacy.london.gov.uk/gla/budget/docs/1011bud-draft-all.pdf and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/03/boris-cuts-police-london)

In November 2009, following the previous Mayor of London’s last budget, police numbers reached a peak of 33,404. Under Boris Johnson’s police budgets, the number has now fallen by over 1,000 to 32,131

The MPA/MPS 2011-2014 Policing Plan states that by 2014 numbers will have fallen to 31,460.

On Friday 12 August, Boris Johnson told the BBC, "The case was always pretty frail and it’s been substantially weakened. This is not the time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

Borough police officer numbers

*source MPA

For more information please contact Alison Marcroft on 0207 983 4363

http://www.mpa.gov.uk/statistics/police-numbers/http://www.mpa.gov.uk/downloads/committees/mpa/110331-06-appendix04.pdf

The House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee are examining proposals on the “Individual Electoral Registration and Electoral Administration”.  These proposals make reference to independent academic research showing that the Government’s plans are likely to reduce the number of citizens on the electoral register by about 10 per cent.  This is not an insignificant number considering the scale of voter apathy which already exists and the need to enhance the democratic process and governments’ mandate to rule through greater voter participation.

This impact was found inIreland as the result of changes to the system of registration to vote brought about by the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002.  If these results were mirrored inLondon on the same scale, then in my home borough alone, 15,000 City of Westminster residents could be wiped off the electoral register by these new Conservative and Liberal Democrat proposals.

The proposals require voters to register individually from 2014 and to provide personal information about their date of birth or National Insurance number before registering to vote. Currently the 150,000 voters registered in the City of Westminsterare simply required to register on a household basis by giving their name and address to their local authority. The current system of registration is not only simple, it is also a legal requirement which assigns to it a level of importance much higher then something which households may otherwise treat as just another bit of paperwork which they could do without.  The Government’s new proposals would make electoral registration voluntary thus removing the “urgency” to register.

So while all the focus is on the redrawing of the constituency boundaries which ultimately impacts upon MPs, it is the proposals relating to voter registration which have a direct affect on the electorate and arguably much more integral to the democratic process.  In other words the boundaries are being redrawn with the stated aim to increase the average size of constituencies, these measures  will bring the average size of parliamentary seat down by anything up to 10 per cent.  Clearly acting against the stated purpose of the parliamentary boundary changes.

Our trip began in Cairo on the day a new government – with the same limited powers – was sworn in as the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Council came under fire from the revolutionaries who refused to leave Tahrir Square.

The trip ended with news that Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip had executed two men who were convicted of collaboration with Israel, reminding us all that it was as much a war as a siege that had yet to resolved.  
 

Autumn is about to set in and this will mean that many of us will be switching on our heating systems for the first time probably since about April. However, the big difference between now and then is that Londoners will be heating their homes in the face of record energy price hikes.  The reason for this is that the big 6 energy companies have all announced average prices rises for this coming winter of up to 18 per cent. This will drive many London households into fuel poverty for the first time when we already have 1 in 4 households there already.

So what can be done? Well better energy efficiency for our homes is a good start, which is why we welcomed the Mayor’s home energy efficiency programme “RE:NEW” designed to make it easier for London householders to improve the energy efficiency of their homes through retrofitting their homes. It started with the lofty target of 200,000 homes to be treated during this Mayoralty.  This figure has since been revised down to 55,000 with only 10,678 homes actually having been retrofitted to date.  When you consider this in the context of 3.3 million homes in London and the fact that London is the region which gets the least assistance from the energy companies through their energy efficiency drives, then it builds a picture of how far we actually are from helping Londoners keep warm despite nearing the end of this Mayoralty term. So to get through autumn and winter, Londoners will have to take matters into their own hands and insulate their loft, walls and windows themselves which will reap benefits in the form of lower energy bills. This has always been the low-lying fruit option in terms of optimising a household’s energy use and is at least something that we can try and sort out for ourselves.  In the meantime, it may also be an idea to hope for a mild winter.

Instead, they will largely be staying in upmarket hotels to the west of the city – including the five-star Dorchester – and are set to make their way to the action through the ­capital’s busy streets.

Euston Road and Southampton Way are among areas in Camden that will be partly sectioned off to make room for official Olympic traffic during the Games and regular users of those roads were reminded this week that they should plan now for the disruption that will be caused.

London Assembly member Murad Qureshi said the volume of cars heading across town could have been reduced if organisers had used hotels around King’s Cross including the new St Pancras Grand.

He said: “I don’t think it’s too much to ask that IOC [International Olympic Committee] officials and their sponsors stay near good transport links to the main Olympic site rather than where they will cause most inconvenience to Londoners.”

Mr Qureshi said that sponsors and officials could easily have taken the dedicated Javelin train service between St Pancras International and Stratford.

Shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell – a former Camden councillor – told the House of Commons on Tuesday that there was a risk of people resenting a “two-tier” traffic system that was being set up in London with the “Games Lanes” for designated Olympic traffic.

The system has already been severely criticised by Conservative London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden Brian Coleman, who said: “The exclusive Olympic lanes on Euston Road and Southampton Row are only being created because the international media is staying in swanky Bloomsbury hotels.”

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The banning order prohibiting the holding of all public processions in five London boroughs for 30 days was made in response to the English Defence League’s plan to march through Tower Hamlets last month.

A Cable Street commemoration march is due to be held on October 2, marking 75 years since anti-fascist Jews, socialists and trade union groups clashed with police protecting a march by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

Labour Assembly Member Murad Qureshi said the commemoration march was "very, very important for the unity of the area". He has written to the Met to urge them to reconsider the blanket ban. "This unnecessarily draconian application of the legislation failed in any event to prevent the EDL from holding a "static" demonstration…and posed no less of a threat of ‘serious public disorder’ as defined by the Act."

A Met spokeswoman said: "It was always our intention to review the prohibition order to ensure that this response was proportionate. We have carried out that review and we will be applying to the Home Secretary for a variation."

David Rosenberg, a member of the Cable 75 organising committee, said he had no doubt that the march would take place. "We contacted the police straight away after the ban came out and were told there were exceptions in place for commemorative and cultural events. But there was some confusion initially. I supported the ban on the EDL march, there was a clear case for it, but it should not have been coupled together with all other kinds of public events."

The commemorative march will begin in Aldgate and end at the Cable Street mural, and will include Jewish groups, trade unions and Bengali organisations.

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The Mayor this week announced that fares will soon rise by as much as 8 per cent – the third significant hike since Boris Johnson was elected in 2008. A single bus fare has now gone up by 56 per cent.

A zone

1-2 travelcard will now cost commuters in Westminster £29.80 – an increase of 8 per cent

A tube journey in zone one will cost £4.30 (£2 with Oyster).

Murad Qureshi

"Boris should spend less time campaigning for tax cuts for the richest 300,000 people in London and more time keeping fares down for the other seven and a half million."

Fare rises since 2008

Single bus ticket up 56%

· was 90p in 2008

· will be £1.40 in 2012

Costing Londoners £260 a year more

Weekly bus and tram pass up 47%

· was £13.00 in 2008

· will be £19.10 in 2012

Costing Londoners £317 a year more

Weekly zone 1-4 travelcard up 23%

· was £34.60 in 2008

· will be £42.60 in 2012

Costing Londoners £416 a year

 Weekly zone 1-2 travelcard up 23%

· Was £24.20 in 2008

· Will be £29.80 in 2012

Costing Londoners £291 a year more

Ends

Notes

Murad Qureshi is a Londonwide Labour London Assembly member.

Details of Boris Johnson’s latest fare rises can be found here

For further information please contact

Alison Marcroft on 0207 983 4363