I am spending all my time answering constituents and journalists, delivering and canvassing. The hustings was my first ever, and I was pleased overall; strong start on the economy and strong finish on crime, with a bit of a wobble in the middle caused by random heckle. Onwards and upwards.
]]> Last night a journalist following the elections one of the main Japanese news agencies shadowed me - he saw canvassing "warts and all"! Mostly very positive feedback but one fairly extreme "a plague on all your houses" reaction.Tomorrow you can hear all the main three candidates on BBC London 94.9 Drivetime, and I believe that's the last joint public engagement before the election...
]]>This close to the election you might be surprised to hear that I gave myself the afternoon off, but I went to watch my brother and others running the London Marathon for the British Red Cross. We're all very proud of him - just turned 50, stranded in the US by the ash until Friday evening, and still got round in a very respectable 4 hr 38.
]]> Hope it also went well for my mate Andy who was running in the Virgin caterpillar and Marcus - the small but perfectly formed cartoon museum. The Marathon was a real festival of spirit and achievement and shows just what London can do, fantastic performance by all. One day I'll relive my glory days of 82 and 83...The Red Cross reception afterwards coincidentally took place in the National Liberal Club - first time I've been in there for non-political reasons since we got married in 1993!
First of all, another great day's canvassing, delivering and everything else involved in running a campaign, with yet another record turnout of helpers. While visiting a newsagents in Westbourne Grove, I got a hello and a smile from someone I'm 99% sure was the sex writer and TV personality Tracey Cox - I hasten to add there were lots of other people out there in Bayswater introducing themselves and saying encouraging things.
]]> When I got home after a very long day's traipsing the streets, I found my own election address in the letterbox, at last. There's something surreal about finding a letter addressed to you from yourself. Once I'd got over the "do I really look like that?" moment I was pretty pleased with it. Well done Ben the agent.And as for the gambling, a few weeks ago Ladbrokes had me at 100-1, and now they've slashed the odds to 12-1. In another 12 days, who can tell what the odds might be?!
Until last night. Our Lib Dem team started at one end of the street, and soon we saw the Tories coming from the other, with none of other than Joanne Cash among them. As the BBC were filming us Lib Dems doing our work, the inevitable happened, and when the two parties met halfway up the street, the cameras were there to film it. I don't know what the BBC will end up showing, but all I can say is we didn't stand around chatting!
He claims Tories are inclusive in decision making.
Does this mean he was fully included in the Tory decision to ally with the marginal hard right, including Waffen SS commemorators, in the European Parliament or in the Tories' human rights alliance with Mr Putin's party?
Contrary to his claims, the Liberal Democrats are the only Party to publish in our Manifesto the cost of our plans to make Britain fairer.
And we plan to save more than we plan to spend.
The Tories must be seriously spooked to be misrepresenting Liberal Democrat policy so extensively so early in this Campaign! It's certainly true Kensington would have a genuinely local and much more assiduous Constituency MP with the initials RM instead of MR.
Only Liberal Democrats offer genuine local democracy and involvement.
The real Tory message is: "if you fall on hard times, you're on your own".
Tories have still not twigged that they have no automatic entitlement to rule.
The British people decide who goes to Parliament. If the British people decide they want parties to work together, then we should work together: as we do in Scotland.
]]>But here in Kensington, residents immediately adjacent to the existing Earl's Court complex are worried about the impact of the first stages of the development on the existing neighbourhood. That first stage, which could happen as soon as the Olympics have finished, will be the demolition of the enormous Earls Court 1. This is the part of the complex that everyone has heard of because it's the exhibition and concert venue.
And what sort of dust? CapCo don't know yet if the Earl's Court complex contains asbestos. Because they have yet to appoint a company to undertake the demolition, they say they are not in a position to undertake a detailed examination of the building. The age of the building would suggest that asbestos is at least a possibility, so I have reiterated to CapCo that existing residents need some reassurance about this as a priority. They have acknowledged this.
It's not going to be an easy demolition. There is an Olympic sized swimming pool in the basement for a start. Also, due to the construction of the building, there are currently problems with resonant frequency from events at Earl's Court. This leads to considerable vibration in neighbouring properties, and even in properties quite some way away because the vibrations seem to meet up with the Underground line and travel further than one would expect. CapCo will need to ensure that the demolition of the building would not cause structural damage to neighbouring properties.
What about CapCo's vision for the development itself? The Royal Borough says that the area is ripe for dense housing, though probably not hi-rise. The majority of CapCo's plans are for mansion-block style housing but with some hi-rise. But what about the density of the housing - and in particular, would the social/affordable housing have a different density, i.e. smaller room sizes, than the market housing?
CapCo say it's too early to answer that question yet, which may be fair enough as it is still very early days and no planning application has been lodged. But because of the shameful history of planning decisions passed by the Major Planning Committee in this Borough, it is likely to be a fundamental question and I'll be watching it closely. This could be a rare thing indeed in Kensington - a mixed community. But, further north in Kensington, part of the controversy over the divisive Wornington Green development plan was that the majority of the basement flats with poor light are in the social rented sector. CapCo is already having to deal with a furious local community on the Hammersmith & Fulham side; they could earn themselves some brownie points on both sides of the Borough borders by assuring people as soon as possible that any social housing clients would be living in buildings with identical amenity to their market housing neighbours.
The other critical issue is what the development will do to the proportion of affordable housing in Kensington & Chelsea. The situation in this Borough is completely out of control. There is a shortage of just under 4000 affordable homes per year. The Council's controversial 'estate renewal' programme simply means that the proportion of affordable housing keeps on falling. Market housing is built to fund the replacement of existing social housing stock. This development has the potential to fund brand new social housing stock for Kensington & Chelsea, but it is complicated by the fact that the demolished Hammersmith & Fulham social housing stock will be replaced on the H&F side of things. Will CapCo still be so keen to provide a decent quantity of affordable housing on the K&C side? More to the point, will K&C push them to do so?
]]>Property prices in Hammersmith & Fulham are now the third highest in London, after Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
Merlene commented:
"There are clearly market forces at work pushing up property prices in the borough. The weakness of sterling caused by Labour's quantitative easing has also enticed more foreign money to compete for our limited supply.
This is all the more reason why we need to increase the supply of affordable housing in the borough. The Tories fail to understand that there are social costs to forcing more households into overcrowded accommodation, which has resulted in the further widening of the wealth and heath gap within the borough."
Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Tory leader of the council continues to advocate reducing the proportion of social housing available in the borough. It is the professed policy of the Tory controlled Council, endorsed by the Tory Parliamentary candidate, only to increase intermediate housing which would in reality be out of reach of the 9000 households currently on the Council waiting list for affordable housing.
]]>In living memory, Poland has had to endure vastly more than its fair share of tragedy. This included the appalling Katyn massacre which Poland's leaders were today flying to Smolensk to commemorate.
]]> It is much more than sad that Poland has today lost so many of its leaders in various walks of life.However, anyone who has been to Polish cities like Warsaw and Krakow can be in no doubt as to the heroic resilience of Polish people. The best tribute we can all offer to those who gave their lives for Poland today is to support Poland in its wonderful renaissance as a home of democracy at home with friends in Europe.
]]>There has been widespread disbelief and downright anger on the part of local residents that RBKC has allowed the developer of the All Saints store to pierce the historic flanking wall of one of the most prominent buildings in a Conservation Area. Now, an application for retrospective planning permission for the shopfront is about to come before the Council. It strikes me that this grants the Council one final opportunity to show that it has listened to the extraordinary scale of the public opposition to the appearance of this premises which - while absolutely fine for Westfield - is entirely inappropriate to this location.
The simple fact, unavoidable no matter how many times the local Conservatives contradict it, is that under existing planning laws, the planning application for the premises need not have been approved at all.
The scale of the project clearly represented massive overdevelopment in a Conservation Area. The shop front makes it worse. It is an entirely unconvincing mismatch of fake styles to create what I think is supposed to look like "an old building". Well, we already had old buildings there; it is not as if All Saints were occupying the building from scratch. The fibreglass shop front directly contravenes even the original planning conditions for this site.
What has added insult to injury is the lack of community consultation about the original planning application, and about the shop front. Even by this Council's historically woeful standards of consultation on controversial planning matters, this represents a serious breakdown in the trust between residents and the local planning authority. The anger it has generated has caught not only regional but national attention.
So, in order to minimize the resulting damage within a conservation area, but also to mend the trust it has lost with the community, the Council must take enforcement action against this premises. This is not just about All Saints; it is about setting a precedent. The Council has one last chance to send a clear warning to developers that the Royal Borough will no longer be such an easy pushover.
]]>It shows the value of an independent local press.
I had a go at the weekend, on www.chelseafulhamlibdems.org.uk, about the unfair competition the Chronicle faces from Tory Hammersmith & Fulham's propaganda and hope every reader will sign both the Chronicle's petition (http://campaigns.fulhamchronicle.co.uk) and the one on my website for the North End Road market.
It's not just the independent local press or North End Road market traders who face a hostile council in Fulham.
Local residents were even locked out of Fulham Town Hall last night FOR THE SECOND TIME RUNNING for their scheduled residents' meeting!
The Liberal Democrats will change politics forever and end safe seats by introducing a fair, more proportional voting system for MPs, and for the House of Lords. By giving voters the choice between people as well as parties, it means they can stick with a party but punish a bad MP by voting for someone else.
Liberal Democrats would scrap ID cards. Getting rid of this illiberal, expensive and ineffective scheme will free up money for thousands more police on our streets. We will also get innocent people off the DNA Database and scrap the intrusive ContactPoint database which will hold the details of every child in England.
Liberal Democrats will replace the House of Lords with a fully elected second chamber with considerably fewer members than the current House.
People should have the power to determine a new, written, constitution in a convention made up of members of the public and parliamentarians of all parties, and subject to final approval in a referendum.
]]>Mark's career was in retail, working for small and large companies, before he opened his own chain of shoe shops, which he sold in 2007. Aside from politics, Mark likes to keep fit with running, cycling and trekking. He has run several marathons, completed the Coast to Coast Walk and the Two Moors Way in Devon for charity, and cycled from Bangkok to Angkor Wat for the Cambodian Red Cross.
]]> He is a member and supporter of the National Trust. He also has an addiction to older Lancia cars, but is trying to keep the miles down! Mark is married and lives in the Westminster North constituency, in St John's Wood. He is an active member of the Friends of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill and a patron of London Zoo. He is also a member of the St John's Wood Society, and regularly attends Westminster council's St John's Wood Forum. Mark supports a north London football team - he is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, but gave up his season ticket last year as it was becoming too painful!Before moving to St John's Wood four years ago, Mark lived in Camden, where he rejoined the Liberal Democrats after a long gap since his LSE days. While in Camden, Mark was instrumental in the campaign to save the area around Camden Town Tube station from the developers, helping to stop the destruction of Trinity Church in Buck Street, the Electric Ballroom and part of the market. These would have been replaced by a 16-storey office block.
Since moving to Westminster he has been Treasurer and is now Chair of the local Liberal Democrats. He fought the Abbey Road council by-election as the LibDem candidate in May 2007. He was very involved in the campaign to stop sixty mature trees being cut down and meadowland being concreted over in Regent's Park to provide Astroturf football pitches.
He was selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate in January 2009.
She was educated at Coleraine High School before winning a scholarship to Methodist College Belfast where her passion for politics was nurtured and she chaired an inter-faith session on the future of policing in Northern Ireland, feeding back their recommendations to the Patten Commission.
Returning from Shanghai, Naomi took up her current role as research and development manager at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) where she is also a spokesperson on China.
Naomi's has a strong commitment to social justice and is determined to tackle the growing inequalities which exist in our society. Naomi cares passionately about the Cities of London and Westminster and will campaign to tackle the chronic lack of affordable housing in the constituency, will highlight the failure of the Government to reduce the gap between the rich and poor, and will aim to be an ardent supporter and representative for the whole community.
Naomi has a financial background, with experience of working in both commercial and not-for-profit environments, having spent time at Arthur Andersen in London, Deloitte in Leeds and HSBC in Shanghai, China as well as having worked at LibDem HQ over the 2005 General Election, running the office of the LibDem youth movement. She is currently the Honorary President of Liberal Youth and an accredited party trainer.
She enjoys playing double bass, practising Mandarin Chinese and is a member of both Amnesty International and Liberty. She is also a Freeman of the City of London.
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