The Metro newspaper released last night the latest vaccination rates for the over 60s in parliamentary constituencies across the UK noting that top 10 lowest are all in London. Four of those constituencies are within the West Central GLA constituency, the most central and covering some of the wealthiest parts of London. 

That is the Cities of London & Westminster; Chelsea & Fulham; Kensington and Westminster North, across the London boroughs of Westminster, RBKC and Hammersmith. 

Along with the figures for Camden parliamentary constituencies, it does appear that we have a particular problem in take-up of vaccinations in Central London. 

This appears in shape contrast to the Triangle of Covid19 in London established by the FT last week in East London across three London boroughs Newham, Redbridge & Barking & Dagenham, where only one of the parliamentary constituencies with the lowest take-up of vaccination West Ham falls within it!  

So we still have to get people to vaccinate in Central London to the same levels at least to the rest of the country, 

in the meantime new centres have been laid out. If you live in NW London and were eligible for a free NHS flu vaccine this winter or are the main carer for an older or vulnerable person, there are three ways you can now book your first Covid-19 vaccination:

1. Follow one of the links below to book in at the vaccination centre closest to you

2. Wait for your GP surgery to contact you with an appointment

3. Wait to be notified by the NHS National Booking System

Hammersmith Vaccination Centre https://novotelconferencecentre.nhsbookings.com/v2/

Marble Arch Vaccination Centre https://etcvenues.nhsbookings.com/v2/

Science Museum, Kensington Vaccination Centre https://sciencemuseum.nhsbookings.com/v2/

Best of luck 

l agree with your editorial in the Evening Standard (1^st of March 2020) “Don’t cut Yemen Aid” but they  neglect to mention the government maintaining its arms sales in the region.  

An almost 50 per cent reduction in Aid monies to Yemen is unforgiveable in the pressing famine conditions emerging in Yemen but more so when our government continues to maintain its arm exports to Saudi Arabia in their war against the Yemeni people. This when our ally the US under Biden has ceased these sales since the beginning of the year.

I ask simply what have the Yemenis done to us to deserve this from us particularly during a global pandemic when calls for a ceasefire on all conflicts by the UN have not been heeded.  

The above letter was published in the Evening Standard on the 5th of March 2021. 

You should have noticed bus routes 70, 72, C1, 24-hour routes 94 and 148 and night route N72, have not been operating in West Central for the last three days. Strike action has been taken because of a dispute at Shepherds Bush Bus garage and other London bus garages in a row over pay and conditions.

More than 2,000 members of the Unite union who are employed by French-owned RATP have taken action since Monday. RATP operates three subsidiaries across the London bus network, London United, London Sovereign and Quality Line.

Unite officer Michelle Braveboy said terms and conditions are being “attacked”, with some drivers facing a pay cut of £2,500 a year. She also acknowledged that the strikes will cause “serious disruption” to service. 

So its all very well calling bus drivers key and essential workers and our hero’s during a pandemic who have seen numerous drivers amongst their ranks die of COVID19 during the lockdowns. Yet their terms and condition for employment need improving, giving them and their families a decent standard of living. That is why l joined them yesterday at their protest in front of the Shepherds Bush Bus Garage to show them some solidarity. 

I agree with the sentiment of Melanie McDonagh that “Languages mustn’t become the preserve of the rich” (4^th Feb 2021) in the Evening Standard recently but the reality is many more are spoken in the homes and schools of London, then is readily acknowledged.  

In 2000, Baker & Eversley’s survey of 896,000 children in London, reported over 300 home languages spoken. Since then you can clearly add many modern European languages as well like Polish etc. With the 2021 Census, just around the corner we will no doubt get an update on this front.

Whatever the count, it is time we celebrated this linguistic diversity of Londoners on the forthcoming 21^st of February, UNESCO International Mother Language Day and promote multilingualism. A skill we will need more so in the new world, outside of the EU as we evolve to Global Britain.      

Will the Myanmar army make for the final push of the Rohingya’s?

While we all support the return of democracy in Myanmar, condemn the military coup on the 1st of February and stand with those resisting the military action on the streets, let us not forget the threat to the Rohingya and other minority ethnic groups in the country. As the Myanmar military poses a particular existential threat to the Rohingya’s. 

Having been active in the previous partially successful attempts to push them out of the country,
who is to say they will not try again with the remaining 700,000 Rohingya’s in Rakhine state. This
needs to be of paramount concern now for all those concerned for the future of Myanmar and its
many peoples. Indeed the man now in charge of Myanmar, General Min Aung Hlaing, is the very
commander who led the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya’s in 2017.

It was Burma’s first military coup in 1962, led by General Ne Win, that laid the foundation of the
religious and cultural persecution of minorities that have persisted for more than five decades.
Under Ne Win, the Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship and subject to human rights
abuses under the military’s “Operation Dragon King” in the late 1970’s aiming to expel them from
Myanmar.

We also have the need for The National League of Democracy to tackle the ingrained Burman racism
behind many of the country’s many internal conflicts. So while naturally we are all supportive of the National league for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar after their election victory last November, it was an election that excluded many minority groups like Chins, Kachin and Rohingya. We trust they see fit to now include these minority groups who have all been under sustained military attacks in their various regions within Myanmar for many years like there are now on the streets of Rangoon and cities.

They need to craft a progressive agenda across ethnic lines, centred on inequality and the development as well as peace and justice. They will need to reshape society as well as restructure the state. Myanmars young people have inherited such terrible legacies. Hopefully they will reject them now as the future is in their hands.

This is a book l have been meaning to read since it was published last March in hardback and is now available in paperback. And after reading the 22 brisk chapters over the extended break, Its confirms to me that its a must read for anyone of us who has struggled with the the many histories of American expansionism as it exceeds them all with its own brilliant analysis. 

He says quite clearly that “The history of the US is the history of Empire” while giving empire his own additional definition which is not subjective in the manner accustom amongst the left. He suggests the shape of the empire is critical with its outposts and colonies and in the case of the United States it is all to often forgotten even by its own citizens.  A case in point is Puerto Rico which many Americans do not consider part of the mainland even though their are American citizens! 

The book itself is divided in two parts, the Colonial Empire and the Pointillist Empire. The first part takes you through the history of the United States on the mainland and territories it acquired via the expansion westwards and of course the gains made via the American-Spanish wars. For those who may well have no background of American history, these 200 pages give a quick and ready knowledge of what you need to known for the normal definition of empire and many interesting insights to America history which you may not get anywhere else. For example how the history of the name of the state of Oklahoma explains well how native Americans were treated in the formative state and the struggles of the Filipinos, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and others for their freedom in America’s conquered territories.  Much of which l heard about for the first time in this book!  

The second half is when the book takes on its shape and argument with the Pointillist Empire redefining empire today based how the US acquired its base network which often raise the same issues of direct colonialism. There are sovereignty concerns in places like Okinawa and the exclusion of locals from ancestral lands in the Chagos Islands to name a few. Unfortunately these modern-day America’s territorial holdings face a lot less public scrutiny by US democracy and along with other advantages including English language, standardisation of production along US standards have made sure that the US reigns supreme today. 

This a important book if ever America is going to change its view of itself as a republic, not an empire and thus acknowledge their own past. As a result its is a must read for all.

During the second lockdown l renewed calls for Transport for London (TfL) to re-open a long-closed exit at Maida Vale Tube in order to allow for increased social distancing at the station.

The station was designed with a dedicated entrance and exit, both with their own dedicated staircases from the ticket hall.  As some local residents approached about this, l wrote to Andy Lord, Managing Director of London Underground for an update on whether TfL were now considering taking action to open up the second entrance.

I asked TfL to further explore how it can increase social distancing at the station by measures like opening the exit again. But TfL say it remains too costly under the current financial challenges due to the fall in customer numbers caused by the pandemic. 

This is disappointing to hear, as we have been told that we need social distancing on public transport like the Tube. Maida Vale tube station had been built to keep separate the traveling public going into and out of the tube station over 100 years ago, and now would be an opportune time to reintroduce the second exit.  It is now likely never to be opened again, which is a real shame.

Hammersmith bridge in all its glory

The Hammersmith bridge saga, makes you wonder who owns and runs all the bridges in London. Well there are 25 Thames bridges crossings that are the responsibility of TfL and London’s boroughs. The ownership and responsibilities for these bridges are set out below.

Bridges owned and maintained by TfL are as follows; 

• Westminster Bridge • Lambeth Bridge • Vauxhall Bridge • Battersea Bridge • Chiswick Bridge • Kew Bridge • Twickenham Bridge

Bridges owned by the London Boroughs where the bridges structure is maintained by the Bridges House Estates and TfL is responsible for maintaining the carriageway, footway and street furniture;

• Tower Bridge • London Bridge • Blackfriars Bridge

And finally bridges owned and maintained by London Boroughs include the following: 

• Golden Jubilee Bridge (Downstream) • Golden Jubilee Bridge (Upstream) • Southwark Bridge • Millennium Bridge • Waterloo Bridge • Chelsea Bridge • Albert Bridge • Wandsworth Bridge • Putney Bridge • Hammersmith Bridge • Richmond Bridge • Kingston Bridge • Teddington Footbridges • Hampton Court Bridge • Lockcut Footbridge

At the end of Ken Livingstone’s time at City Hall, we had the proposed Thames Gateway Bridge linking Beckton in East London with the remote area of Thamesmead, putting them on the map for the first time. But this half a billion project immediately died a death with Boris Johnson new administration even though it had all the approvals to let the contract and would have been operational in 2013.

I dare say that if this bridge had been built, we would also have had no need for Silvertown Tunnel proposal that TfL are now building. As drivers would have got used to going over the bridge and it would have been infinitely better than crossing via a tunnel. 

Little was then heard of bridge proposals in the rest of Boris Johnson time till the Garden Bridge came up towards the end of his second term at City Hall. With a concerted media campaign and influential backers like the Chancellor of Exchequer of the day George Osborne it suddenly drew a lot of attention not dissimilar to other projects like the Emirate cable cars and Arcelormittal Orbit slide which caught the eye of the Mayor.  

In recent correspondence with TfL it has been established that between 2010/11 and 2020/21, TfL invested a total of £42.9m in Thames bridge crossings. It is important to note that these figures do not represent the full cost of works on Thames bridges in the last 10 years because London boroughs may have undertaken works on their Thames bridges beyond the strengthening costs that TfL fund via their Local Implementation Plan (LIP) allocations that TfL make for bridges to local authorities.  

Last Thursday morning as locals made their way along to Warwick Avenue tube station, they will have seen the shocking sight of a pair of foxes dead on the Clifton Villas crossing. Now its not immediately apparent why we have two dead foxes here – was it a “hit & run” accident? foxes fighting amongst themselves or even poisoned! At this stage it will be the murder mystery of the seasonal break or rather lockdown now in Little Venice. The police were at the site pretty quickly so will have had some initial records of what could be seen at the scene. So it will be interesting to see what they make of it. For example what type of crime it gets registered – presumably some sort of wildlife crime!

So when we have the usual discussion on fox hunting at the beginning of the new year, spare a thought of for what happened in Little Venice to a pair of foxes on the 17th of December. I don’t know if we have had similar incidents in and around London but this one is certainly a one-off in the old neighbourhood. While, we all know that they are a lot more foxes around in the City then is readily acknowledged has this become such a problem that people are taking matters into their own hands. So lets see what the Police investigation into this particular incidents tells us about the growing relationship between foxes in the cities and ourselves in the new year.  

As we enter a second lockdown in the capital, it is crucial that we all closely follow the new and stricter rules, so we can contain the virus as swiftly as possible.

Frustratingly, we have lost our grip on the pandemic in recent months and this has been underpinned by the Government’s hesitation to implement an early circuit breaker and their generally shambolic handing of the Test and Trace system. 

It is abundantly clear that Ministers must now hand over some parts of the system for local authorities to run, as they know their communities a lot better than largely unaccountable private contractors ever could.

Let us not forget what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been advising since the beginning of the year, ‘test, test and test’. 

TfL finances 

During the first lockdown, TfL lost 90% of it fares revenue and as we go into another lockdown period, it continues to face a financial cliff-edge. 

Compared to other transport authorities across the world, TfL is unique in that it mostly reliant on fares income. This is because in 2018, the Government took away the £700 million annual operating grant that it gave to TfL.

Despite this, before the pandemic struck, Mayor Sadiq Khan managed to reduce TfL’s £1.5 billion operating deficit by 71%. TfL’s cash balances also saw an increase of 13%.

Londoners did the right thing during lockdown and stayed away from public transport where possible. There is no doubt they will do the same in the weeks ahead.

In light of this, TfL have been clear with Ministers on the need for the Government to step in and provide a long-term and sustainable emergency funding package to make up for their lost revenue.

It was positive to see the Government drop the worst of the proposals they put forward during the latest round of negotiations. This is down to the campaigning efforts of City Hall, charities, business leaders and ordinary Londoners.

However, ahead of the current emergency funding settlement running dry again in March, we must continue keep the pressure on Ministers, so they do not put punitive conditions back on the table, such as the extension of the congestion charge zone and the removal of free travel for under-18s and older Londoners.

A key question to ask is why is the Government treating TfL differently from the failing private train operators it gave an 18-month blank cheque to?

After all, London’s economic recovery relies on stable and well-funded public transport. The country’s recovery depends on London’s. 

Crossrail & Bakerloo line 

I have been hearing about Crossrail since my school days in Paddington in the early eighties and l can well remember when Cecil Parkinson MP made the announcement for its launch. So, it is frustrating to hear it is not going to be operational until 2022.  This could have implications for the opening date of the new Bakerloo Line entrance into Paddington station being led by the developers of Paddington Square. 

As for the Bakerloo Line itself, it has been disappointing to hear that is extension into South London has been delayed due to the financial difficulties TfL is facing at the hands of the pandemic. 

This is why TfL and the Mayor have been forthright about the need for a long-term funding deal from the Government. Otherwise, key transport infrastructure projects, crucial to job creation and London’s economic recovery, will be put at risk.

In the meantime, we do need the carriages on the line replaced. Many of them are almost as old as l am and do not have modern facilities like air conditioning. l will continue to raise this with TfL, making sure the issue is not forgotten. 

Who knows whether the new Paddington tube station for the Bakerloo line will be open before Crossrail?

Cladding Scandal & Rough Sleeping

Whilst the victims’ families seek justice at the Grenfell Inquiry on Bishop Bridge Rd, W2, we are also in the midst of a wider cladding scandal across London. This is causing a significant amount of stress and discomfort to many Londoners as many can’t move or re-mortgage their properties, with annual insurance bills hitting the roof.

A case in point in Paddington is the M&M Buildings on Hermitage St, where the residents discovered they had ACM panelling and were landed with full liability for the remedial works by their freeholder. This will cost residents £40,000 per flat, leading to huge annual building insurance premiums.

Whilst they will now receive some remediation grants from the Government, the whole sorry saga does shed light on the nature of the relationship between leaseholders and freeholders in England. This all makes a very argument for common hold like they have in Scotland. 

The latest figures show that there was a slight decrease in rough sleeping in Westminster during the summer months, when compared to the previous year. This could be largely attributed to the ‘Everyone In’ campaign, which was backed by Government funding, in which City Hall worked with local authorities and homelessness charities to bring almost 1,700 rough sleepers into hotels and other safe accommodation to self-isolate.

We can’t afford to be complacent and now need to see Ministers agree to urgently put in more funding to support another round of this campaign to last beyond Christmas.

With winter coming and the arrival of the second lockdown, we also need to be aware of the facilities available to homeless people, particularly when communal sleeping areas might be unsafe. It is in this context, that l have suggested that whilst Paddington Green Police station lies empty, it could be converted into a temporary hostel before it gets knocked down to make way for a residential development. 

The West End economy 

You will all have heard and seen first-hand the dramatic impact the first lockdown had on the West End and particularly the hospitality industry. I have been keeping in touch with small and medium-sized enterprises like Normah’s Malaysian restaurant in Queensway Market to hear about the challenges they are facing. 

It is apparent that a number of firms have missed out on Government funding and support in Central London, due to conditions surrounding rateable value thresholds. Normah’s have also told me about the confusion they have experienced with the Government’s grant systems. 

In recent months, I have implored the Government to find a way to support the small businesses who are still falling through the gaps. 

It has been positive to see the Chancellor recently refine components of his Winter Economic Plan and extend the furlough scheme until March, responding to some of the concerns raised by the business community. 

However, while these changes are welcome, we have already seen a large number of jobs unnecessarily lost in the capital due to the Government’s previous missteps and failure to act early on.

In addition to the measures recently announced, we need to see the Government boosting sick pay, raising the cap on UC, increasing housing benefit and getting self-isolation payments to low income Londoners.