Revelation

On Thursday the BBC’s Nick Robinson revealed that Conservative Central Office briefed the Tory press on how to smear the Liberal Democrats. One of the pillars of our democracy is a free and independent press. A press that we all know will scrutinise politicians not be led by politicians. Publicly no politicians wants Britain to become like Berlusconi’s Italy. But this revelation indicates how close we could become.

The good news is that this revelation significantly boosted Liberal Democrat fund raising – records donations through the web.

The bad news. IF the Conservatives were to win outright do we believe the press would truly scrutinise them?

Isn’t the knowing silence over MPs expenses for all those decades by political hacks one of the reasons things got so very bad.

Change in the air

I’ve felt some trepidation for since Nick Clegg stormed to national attention and even the tory press empire were dazzled to report more openly. They’ve since closed ranks under instructions from tory HQ. If any squalid direction could emphasis the bankruptcy of the old Tory/Labour politics that was it.

Would a balanced parliament be so bad?

By accident the Labour Government in 1999, when it partially reformed the House of Lords, by accident ensured no party had no overall control. Since then things have not been chaotic. Post 1999 the House of Lords has been the defender of civil liberties against an increasingly authoritarian government. A balanced house of lords has been our protector from some really barmy changes.

Why would’nt a balanced Houses of Parliament be the same?

Fingers crossed for 6 May.

Nick Clegg

Last nights party leaders debate was good.

The polls show that Nick Clegg won the argements over David Cameron and Gordon Brown – several times the others stated “I agree with Nick”.  Newspapers and polls are calling it a big victory for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

The ITV / COMRES poll announced last night stated Nick Clegg as the winner by a huge margin:

– Nick Clegg 43%,  David Cameron 26%, Gordon Brown 20%

YouGov, Channel 4, Guardian, Daily Mail, The Times and Angus Reid polls following the debate also scored Nick Clegg as the clear winner of the first Leaders’ debate. Angus Reid said that 42% of voters were more likely to vote for the Liberal Democrats as a result of the debate. With another two such debates to go this election campaign is hotting up.

Friday’s newspapers clearly think Nick the winner of the first debate:

– Daily Telegraph: “Clegg’s star rises in great TV showdown”

– The Times: “Enter the Outsider: Nick Clegg seizes his moment in historic TV debate”

– The Independent: “Clegg comes of age: Liberal Democrat leader is judged the winner of historic television debate”

– Daily Mail: “First blood to Clegg”

– The Guardian: “Clegg the outsider seizes his moment in the TV spotlight”

– Even Conservative commentator and blogger Iain Dale said “I think Nick Clegg won the day”.

In summing up the debate, Nick Clegg said Labour and the Tories have made the “same old mistakes over and over again. Despite all the problems and challenges we have, we can be hopeful about the future if we chose something different.” Boy,  the nation needs change from the Labour Tory see-saw.

Labservatives

Great campaign to point out that for 65 years the government of our country has been handed from Labour to the Conservatives and back again – pass the parcel, blue-red politics – www.labservative.com.

What a pickle this has brought us – recession, corrupt politics, cynicism, inequality.

Thank god I support the Liberal Democrats which is the party for change. For years we’ve been campaigning for electoral reforms, banking reform, equality. We’re also clear some very tough decisions will need to be taken after the elections.

Heathrow runway 3

It was great news to hear that the high court challenge 3 day challenge was successful. The judicial review challenging the process was upheld and effectively the government has to start again. This is a good result for the government as a daft policy can be reviewed. It delays things until after elections. Starting all over again means that the stark sense of global warming will have more impact on any decision and High speed 2 will have hopefully made at least some planning progress.

East Dulwich Cleaner, Green, Safer 10_11

The East Dulwich councillors have selected the following schemes for Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding:

– Traffic calming in East Dulwich bounded and including Lordship Lane, East Dulwich Grove and Melbourne Grove specifically including Matham Grove. £25,000.

– East Dulwich Carbon Fund funding measures to reduce CO2 and fuel proverty in East Dulwich. £30,000. First £25,000 allocated to addressing the 647 homes without loft insulation in East Dulwich which is the most cost effective way of reducing CO2. Last £5,000 to try other ideas.

– Goose Green school greenwall planting along Grove Vale. £5,000. Reducce the visual impact of Goose Green school on Grove Vale and as important create a much better play environment for school kids both visually, but also green wals absorb pollution and noise.

– East Dulwich Crime Prevention Fund. £10,000. Further projects to build on the huge success of preventing crime in East Dulwich.

– Gating alleyways. Installing more alley gates in East Dulwich specifically on Northcross Road and Shawbury Road. Eliminating more anti social hotspots.

– Street trees. £12,400. Planting more street tress in East Dulwich. So far around 220 tress planted in last four years. Plan to experiment with planting them in new build outs further from peoples homes and calming traffic.

– East Dulwich station extra covered waiting area. £6,000. Matched funding with Southern Railways. Make using East Dulwich station into central London more comfortable and pleasant to use.

– Bicycles for Schools. £8,000. Offer every East Dulwich school access to bicycle pools.

– Eco dry cleaners. £2,000. Encourage East Dulwich dry cleaners to become eco dry cleaners. Currently dry cleaners use Perchlorate chemicals which can be carninogenic. Other chemicals can be less eco damaging.

 I had also applied to other wards for CGS projects which were rejected:

– Expanding Dulwich Library £5,000

– Crime prevention funds for Village ward, College ward, Peckham Rye ward. Really disappointed by this as easy cheap measures to reduce crime have not been adopted. Some fellow councillors seem to view crime prevention as purley a Police matter.

Southwark declared 4th best for affordable housing

Shelter, the homelessness charity, has created a housing league table. Southwark ranks 19/323 councils nationally and 4/33 for London council’s.

The table is based on the percentage of affordable housing provided of the 2009 afforable housing requirement. Shelter calculate that Southwark Council delivered 74% of the amount of affordable housing that was needed. Despite being declarded 4 th best in London Southwark’s council housing waiting lists have risen to 15,000. Under current council financing rules Southwark Council are not allowed to borough money at current low interest rates to renovate and build council housing. Crazy as what a boost to the local economy we could provide if we were allowed to borough at markets interest rates.

Heber School and election night

Assuming election day on 6 May will include both local and nation elections then Heber School and Heber Road will have lots election activities. Not just as a result of Heber School being a Polling Station from 7am-10pm. But also after 10pm it will receive all voting boxes for College, East Dulwich and Village wards. All the votes will be checked that they’re in the correct box and verify the correct number in the box compared to voters who turned up to vote. So lots of activities, mostly in the school hall, from 10pm to circa midnight to 1am.

The Dulwich and West Norwood parliamentary votes will then be shipped to Lambeth for counting.

For local elections votes will be shipped to the Peckham Academy for counting the following day from 1pm.

I’m hopeful that this wont cause any disruption or noise for residents. I’ve asked election officers to write to residents to warn them of this.

Recycling in Southwark parks.

The Dulwich Park Pavilion cafe have come up with a great question – why can’t park visitors recycle rubbish when they visit Dulwich park?

After investigating Southwark parks are maintained by Quadron who collect all rubbish from parks and take to Southwark rubbish contractors Veolia. So absolutely no reason why Quadron couldn’t keep generall rubbish in one type of bag and comingled recycling in another type of bag.

Veolia and Quadron just need to advise the ideal contianers for this and the Village ward councillors just need to fund via the cleaner, Greener, Safer funding the bid made by the Pavilion Cafe so that a dozen recycling bins can be bought (around £3,000).

Fingers crossed they do.

Missing 50,000 residents

One of my councillor colleagues testified to the London Regional Parliamennts Select Committee regarding the 2011 census. The MPs heard a unified message from Newham, Southwark and Westminster councils about how hard it is to count residents.

Each resident attracts roughly £600 of funding from central government.

Currently central government believes 270,000 residents are residents in Southwark. Southwark currently has 320,000 people registered with GPs. That means roughly £30M of central government grants are not being made to Southwark.

It seems unlikely as planned the 2011 Census will close any of that gap. Worringly it could well open it up further.