Interesting to look at the voting records on the draft Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, which passed through the Commons last night, by 310 to 100.
Interesting because 85 Conservative MPs voted against. Only 28 Tories voted for the regs, including Cameron. Of those 28, only 6 were from the 2005 Conservative intake (of 51 MPs), which suggests that all is not as it should be in Cameron’s made-over Conservative party.
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Sunday, 18 March 2007
Tories, Lib Dems and police
Interesting to read recent comments from Nick Herbert MP, Conservative shadow for policing, who said: “We do have the best resourced police service, more police officers and other stuff that we’ve ever had in this country before.”
Contrast that praise for the police, and the tacit acknowledgement that Labour has invested massively in policing, with the snipes the Lib Dems in Lambeth have been making at police recently.
Labour in Lambeth is investing in 22 PCSOs, ensuring they are fully trained by their implementation date (in April) which will mean that there will be 85 fully trained PCSOs utilising over 30 powers on the streets of Lambeth, divided equally across the 3 police sub-commands. The police support this move, which is why they have come in for flak from the soft-on-crime Lib Dems.
Our increase in PCSOs will further increase the already higher number of police patrolling staff we have in Lambeth (953), in comparison to Lib Dem Southwark (836)
Contrast that praise for the police, and the tacit acknowledgement that Labour has invested massively in policing, with the snipes the Lib Dems in Lambeth have been making at police recently.
Labour in Lambeth is investing in 22 PCSOs, ensuring they are fully trained by their implementation date (in April) which will mean that there will be 85 fully trained PCSOs utilising over 30 powers on the streets of Lambeth, divided equally across the 3 police sub-commands. The police support this move, which is why they have come in for flak from the soft-on-crime Lib Dems.
Our increase in PCSOs will further increase the already higher number of police patrolling staff we have in Lambeth (953), in comparison to Lib Dem Southwark (836)
Saturday, 17 March 2007
lights, camera, inaction
I did a street stall in Streatham Vale this morning, and the predominant issue people raised with me was what I expected – the new traffic lights. There are now three sets of lights within 100 yards, and they have been turned on without being phased properly by Transport for London. My Labour colleagues and I, and the Streatham Vale Property Occupiers’ Association, have been nagging the Transport folk at Lambeth to pile the pressure onto TfL to get things sorted. However, the lights are still unphased and a number of people have been issued with tickets because they got stuck in the yellow box when the lights suddenly changed. While I was doing the stall, the traffic stretched from one end of the Vale to the other, all noise and fumes. The weather forecasts suggest the weather on Monday will be arctic, but I am having a site meeting at 9am with officers and residents to make sure everyone understands the problem thoroughly and find some solutions.
Wednesday, 14 March 2007
Clapham Common debates next Labour leader
I was asked along to the Clapham Common branch meeting this evening to take part in a debate about the next Labour leader. No “moments of madness” here. It was a really interesting discussion, and as well as a positive comparison between Blair and Brown, and some observations about the challenges facing Brown when (I would say if, but when is more realistic) he becomes leader and Prime Minister, I made the point that with one leader stepping down and another about to be selected, a debate about the future direction of the party was timely and healthy.
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Streatham Area Committee
At the Streatham Area Committee this evening, frustrations around the latest delays to the Streatham ice rink were voiced loud and clear by the handful of residents who came. It was irritating that no officer from the council was there – as they should have been - to respond to questions. It was also irritating that nobody from Tesco was present, as they are, shall we say, at the centre of this project.
Luckily, knowing he would want a chance to set the record straight after much misinformation and rumour-mongering from the opposition, I had asked my Cabinet colleague Cllr Paul McGlone (Regeneration and Enterprise) to come along and he was able, within the constraints of commercial confidence and legal negotiations, to explain the complexities of the situation.
The key thing is that the £1.2 million needed to fill the funding gap we inherited is secure in Labour Lambeth’s forward plan. There are big tensions between the existing planning permission, how we can achieve the most desirable outcome for local residents, customers and other local businesses and the most logical way of building such a complex project.
As a Streatham councillor I have always been clear that there should be continuity of ice provision in Streatham. That is what residents and skaters want. The scheme also requires a number of permissions and licences – not all of which have been secured (because these processes take time, as if this process hasn’t taken a huge amount of time already, even allowing for four years when the Lib Dems seem to have sat on their hands and left the negotiations to officers), and the cost of building large projects is accelerating, partly as a result of the Olympics.
Nobody can deny the invaluable resource that the ice rink has been in the past and must be for Streatham in the future. It is aggravating to see the existing rink deteriorating state, and I would urge Tesco to listen to the people of Streatham and work with Lambeth to expedite the new facility that local people want – after all, these are the very people Tesco want to shop in their store.
Luckily, knowing he would want a chance to set the record straight after much misinformation and rumour-mongering from the opposition, I had asked my Cabinet colleague Cllr Paul McGlone (Regeneration and Enterprise) to come along and he was able, within the constraints of commercial confidence and legal negotiations, to explain the complexities of the situation.
The key thing is that the £1.2 million needed to fill the funding gap we inherited is secure in Labour Lambeth’s forward plan. There are big tensions between the existing planning permission, how we can achieve the most desirable outcome for local residents, customers and other local businesses and the most logical way of building such a complex project.
As a Streatham councillor I have always been clear that there should be continuity of ice provision in Streatham. That is what residents and skaters want. The scheme also requires a number of permissions and licences – not all of which have been secured (because these processes take time, as if this process hasn’t taken a huge amount of time already, even allowing for four years when the Lib Dems seem to have sat on their hands and left the negotiations to officers), and the cost of building large projects is accelerating, partly as a result of the Olympics.
Nobody can deny the invaluable resource that the ice rink has been in the past and must be for Streatham in the future. It is aggravating to see the existing rink deteriorating state, and I would urge Tesco to listen to the people of Streatham and work with Lambeth to expedite the new facility that local people want – after all, these are the very people Tesco want to shop in their store.
Monday, 5 March 2007
shopping with a sixteen-year-old
I took my niece, who is sixteen (and, arguably, sweet), out shopping today to buy some new clothes. This meant a lot of hanging around outside fitting rooms in various shops waiting for her to emerge in umpteen pairs of jeans, most of which looked the same to me.
We had a nice day out, and it was good to spend time with her, as I hadn’t seen her for a while. We chatted about her lifeguard training and had a good laugh at some of the weirder garments on display in the shops. But it’s almost impossible to take a day off. My phone was going at regular intervals, so I often found myself in the middle of two conversations like this:
“Hi John. Oh, hi, love. No, not you. Yes, they’re cool. No? They look like they fit to me. Sorry, John, say that again, no I wasn’t talking to you just then. No, it’s ok, I can talk. Sorry – say again? No, not you, love. Not you, John. Are you pleased with them? What’s that face for? Sorry, John, yes it sounds like a good idea, let’s do that. Maybe you can get them taken up. Yes, the jeans. No, it’s ok, I can talk. Well, try the other ones on then. What’s the timescale for that? And hurry up this time. No, not you. HOW much?!”
We had a nice day out, and it was good to spend time with her, as I hadn’t seen her for a while. We chatted about her lifeguard training and had a good laugh at some of the weirder garments on display in the shops. But it’s almost impossible to take a day off. My phone was going at regular intervals, so I often found myself in the middle of two conversations like this:
“Hi John. Oh, hi, love. No, not you. Yes, they’re cool. No? They look like they fit to me. Sorry, John, say that again, no I wasn’t talking to you just then. No, it’s ok, I can talk. Sorry – say again? No, not you, love. Not you, John. Are you pleased with them? What’s that face for? Sorry, John, yes it sounds like a good idea, let’s do that. Maybe you can get them taken up. Yes, the jeans. No, it’s ok, I can talk. Well, try the other ones on then. What’s the timescale for that? And hurry up this time. No, not you. HOW much?!”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
