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Sunday, February 29, 2004

Pensioner poverty

Sometimes you speak in Parliament when you least expect to! Last Tuesday there was a Social Security and Pensions debate. As the case of the 83-year-old woman who was declining to pay part of her council tax had been in the press I assumed it would come up.

Press reports referred to her monthly income as £312 so she was obviously not getting her full pension. And if that were her income she probably wouldn’t have to pay council tax at all. Yet several newspapers were claiming she was too poor to pay.

I then discovered that the Daily Mail was offering her money for her story. The Guardian had come up with further information. Apparently she was withholding part of her council tax because she didn’t want to subsidise the regional fund of the European Union. So it wasn’t about poverty at all!

More then that. She had launched her campaign with the UK Independence Party and the support of Max Clifford the publicist. I have no objection to that and I have no objection to her campaigning against the EU though I think she is unwise to consider going to prison on the issue. I do however object to the newspapers presenting it as a case of poverty. That was unfair to her and just plain dishonest journalism.

So I popped up first on a point of order and then with a short speech. You can read my contribution if you wish at www.parliament.uk and go to Hansard and then to debates on the 24th February.

I had named the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul D’Acre and pointed out that he got a payment put in the bank for him of £20 million. I thought people ought to know that he would be able to pay his council tax without going into debt! My main point however was that editors ought to know that no single pensioner should be getting less then £100pw. And they had an opportunity and a duty to point that out rather then use her to score political points, which she herself was not trying to make.

So a few hours later the Contracts Editor (whatever that is!) phoned me to complain that I had got my facts wrong. Was it the £20 million? No. Was it the EU versus poverty issue? No. It was a complaint that I had claimed the pensioner was paid £10,000 by the Mail. It wasn’t £10,000 he assured me. So was it more or less? “I can’t tell you he replied”. But he did concede there had been something of an auction between the Mail and the Sun and the Mail won!

I have seen this many times before but I just thought more people should know what happens in these cases.

Clare Short MP

If I wrote anything about Clare it would be more in sadness then in anger. She has achieved so much in international development but I just do not believe that she had a written transcript of a bugged conversation with the UN Secretary General passed to her. Even if he were bugged the transcript would not be passed around all Cabinet Ministers.
Don’t ever get trapped in bitterness and cynicism. It is a fatal trap, especially for politicians.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Advice work

Here’s some more on MP’s advice work. Although our staff handle a lot of cases there is never a shortage of constituency casework. MP’s are expected to be social workers and councillors as well as doing their other political duties.

I stopped doing walk in advice sessions some years ago because people wanted appointments and they didn’t like having to wait sometimes for an hour or more. So I deal with cases over the phone where possible and then arrange appointments as and when necessary.

Curiously there is very little research on MP’s advice work. I had a year long study on mine some years ago and discovered that people didn’t like the waiting room approach and they also tended to come from a half mile radius of the advice office.

Although my inner city constituency is probably not typical most of my cases focussed on housing,benefits,immigration/asylum and pensions. I discovered that a third of the clients had a history of mental health problems and many of them needed the help of other professionals.

So here is a cross section of (unidentifiable) cases on a typical day.

Can you pass a law to prevent people blocking up the side windows of Victorian houses?

A lady who was angry with an advice centre because they wouldn’t photocopy her documents.

Five housing cases mainly asking for transfers: Six refugee/asylum Cases: Three benefit cases.

Four general political queries about different policies e.g. global warming, GM crops.

Books could be written (and probably have been) on some of our more exotic cases. I had a snail lady who would bring a jar of snails to my advice surgery. When she came at the same time as a guy who had (for no apparent reason) a broom handled down his trouser leg, everyone else use to leave! It was one of the reasons I abandoned the walk in sessions.

When the London Evening Standard claimed that Shepherds Bush was the murder capital of Britain I checked on the names and discovered that three of them had been to my advice surgery! I considered putting up a notice saying ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter’!

Paranoia is a devastating condition but I am always struck by certain logic in some of the belief systems. For example the man who believed there was a nuclear submarine controlling his brain. He wanted me to take it up with the Minister of defence. Full marks for logic!

Then there was the man who believed I had stolen his girlfriend and proceeded to picket my office and sometimes my home, carrying a banner saying I had murdered her. He kept this up for over six months and then disappeared. I forgot all about him until I was doing a major press and media conference when he suddenly lurched in front of the cameras shouting “He murdered my wife and children”! And all I thought I was supposed to have done was steal his girlfriend!

So there are many frustrations in constituency work but very little boredom!

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Trams,buses and trains

Life seems to have got rather busy recently which is why I fell behind with my entries. I don’t think I will ever be able to match the industrial output of major blog competitors like my colleague Tom Watson MP. He is to MP’s blogs what Arkwright was to the industrial revolution!

So what’s been happening back at the Soley school for slow learners? Well the constituency has been getting very busy recently. MP’s constituency work is remarkably unpredictable. The Cross Rail proposal is causing some anxiety particularly where the tunnel goes under people’s houses and where the air vents come out. The environmental aspects also worry some people. Is the wild life area on Wormwood Scrubs going to be destroyed by the tunnelling work? What is going to happen at Turnham Green? Sadly the cross rail consultation process leaves much to be desired and some people didn’t even know the tunnel was going under their house. So I shall be arranging meetings for those concerned.

There is another public transport proposal in Horn Lane, Acton which is also agitating constituents. It is a bus garage proposal which backs on to residential housing. The West Acton Residents Association is up in arms and over 100 people attended a meeting the other week. Alas, Transport for London was slow to pick up the concern. So I am arranging another meeting.

Then there is the tram. This will go from Shepherds Bush to Uxbridge. It could ultimately be extended to the West End.

It is amazing how many people want better public transport but as soon as they are affected by the proposals they get worried. I am NOT saying they shouldn’t have those worries addressed but you can’t have modernised public transport in London without disruption and without it affecting someone’s house. So I will do my best to make sure the routes and sites are carefully considered and that environmental factors are taken into account. I will also endeavour to see that people who have specific concerns about their house or street have them addressed.

There are a few more things I was going to say about MP’s constituency work but I will post them in the next day or two – just to show I can keep up the output!

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Mary Seacole

We are receiving enormous support for the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal. There is a real determination by many people to see that this incredible woman gets the recognition she deserves. I am receiving offers of help and support and we are in the process of creating a data base of supporters.

If you want to make a financial contribution please make cheques payable to The Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and send them to the Treasurer, Professor Elizabeth Anionwu, Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice, Thames Valley University, 32/38, Uxbridge Road, London, W5 2BS.

You can also visit the web site at www.maryseacole.com or buy her autobiography from Falling Wall Press Ltd. (Top Floor) 225,Gloucester Road, Bishopton, Bristol BS7 8NR. (Tel: 01179248828) I understand the price is £10.50 and if when ordering you state that you wish a contribution to go to the Appeal then for every copy sold the publisher will pass on £3 of the £10.50 to the fund. You can of course contribute more if you wish!

Friday, February 20, 2004

Guantanamo Bay

It is long overdue but at last the US is beginning to move on that legal black hole called Guantanamo Bay. I don’t think anyone underestimates the impact that the September 11th attack had on the US but the quickest way for democracies to lose support is by abandoning the rule of law.

The prisoners should have been treated either as prisoners of war or as criminals. The failure to do so has severely damaged the reputation of the US in upholding the rule of law.

It always saddens me that we often have to learn the same lessons over and over again. When Northern Ireland collapsed into violence and terrorism we made many of the mistakes the US is making now. We introduced internment and moored a ship called HMS Maidstone in Belfast harbour, rounded up suspected terrorists and put them on the ship and in a prison camp called Long Kesh. We then wondered what to do with them!

We also made the mistake of taking too much advice from the Unionist politicians so it is not surprising that most of the people in internment were Catholics and Republicans. That, combined with the Bloody Sunday killings, did enormous damage to our reputation and acted as a recruiting sergeant for the Provisional IRA.

It is never easy to deal with situations like this. The collapse of legitimate political authority or of a state creates a situation where normal rules cannot easily be applied. But if you are not seen to be trying in every way possible to be fair in your dealings with suspects then you lose the support of the people you most need on your side.

Slowly and painfully we began to learn how to deal with Northern Ireland. We developed a political strategy and a law enforcement strategy. Although we still have some way to go Northern Ireland is moving in the right direction. It is one of the reasons that British troops are seen as the best peace keepers in so many trouble spots. They were not seen like that in the 1960’s. At that time they were seen simply as a war fighting army in much the same way as the US army is now.

That brings me to my final point. When we first started internment the US and other friends around the world warned us of the dangers of that policy. They were right to warn us then and we are right to warn them now.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Responses

Many thanks to Chris Lightfoot and Ingrid for advice on spam attack!

There are many ways people can help on the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal. Peter; Hillingdon Council could become a supporter or even offer to host a fund raising event or give money. (Cheques to the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal)

Anthony, the Times has not responded yet but they are nibbling at the bait! Given their involvement in the 1850's they really should. So should the Evening Standard.

See my earlier entries on Mary Seacole for further details.

Anthony invites me to get the young lad who suffered an acid attack in Karachi into the UK. I'm always a bit hesitant to start campaigns like that but I will raise the question of his future will the Pakistan high Commission.

To Troutmask I would say the BBC is very popular and so it should be. But journalistic standards are crucial and they have been following the press style and it is a mistake. People are forgetting that Andrew Gilligan passed the information he received from Dr.Kelly to two MP's on the Select Committee and I remember the look on Dr.Kelly's face when he suddenly realised that the questions he was being asked had their origins in information given by him. That was a serious breach of journalistic standards.

That brings me to the problem of accusations about lying. One of my major criticisms of John Humphries on the Today programme is that he often suggests a person is lying by putting words into the mouth of the person he is interviewing. He did it with Charles Kennedy on Friday 6th. February and Charles, to his credit, refused to play that game. John also did it on the 12th. December 2003 when he tried to bounce a Human Rights Watch worker into saying the Government had lied.

I am very reluctant to accuse people of lying unless I have very strong evidence. It is a serious charge. You can see how destructive it can be if you look at Dr. Kelly’s role. Dr. Kelly did not tell the whole truth about his contact but I would never call him a liar. Why? Because we all get ourselves into difficult situations at times and no one is wholly and completely honest. He was also a very brave and dedicated public servant. A charge of lying should only be made when the issue is very serious and persistent and there are not more charitable explanations.

When journalists and politicians start hurling allegations at each other it turns the public off big time. John Humphries has allowed his previously high standards to drop.

Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole the Crimean war nurse has come top in the in the poll of the 100 greatest black Britons. This reinforces my aim to see her statue on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

I have just come out of another meeting of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and plans for fund raising events are underway.

We hope to have a presence at the Royal Festival Hall, London and in Birmingham for the 'Celebration of my sister’s' event as this is international women’s month. Details from www.thewritething.co.uk

Other events are also planned. Watch this space!

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Responses

I was interested to read the responses on Hutton, Jenny Tonge and tuition fees. I’m sorry you were disappointed Sean but the real criticism of us on tuition fees is how on earth we came to make such an unreal promise in our election manifesto.

I have some really bizarre entries on my earlier blogs – all about stack frames! Are aliens infiltrating me! (See entry 4.12.03, 1.12.03 and others)

I found time to flick through a few blogs and was suitably impressed and informed. I have this to say to Ingrid: Wow! What have I done to deserve such praise!

Refugees and Iraq

Although the tragedy in Morecambe Bay is primarily about exploitation it inevitably makes me think of immigration and asylum that has dominated my constituency work since I was elected in 1979.

The British have gained enormously over the centuries with a relatively tolerant approach to immigration and a stable political and economic system. In the modern world where travel is so much easier and information about opportunities in other countries more available the problems are different.

We still gain from immigration but the political and social problems surrounding it are complex. At any one time I have about 400 currant asylum and immigration cases. Anyone who thinks MP’s are only motivated by votes should think again. There are no votes in this!

Let me give a few examples of my cases since 1979.

There was the senior police officer from the Shah’s secret police who fled Iran in the 1980 revolution. The more I talked to him the more I knew he had tortured people. They were hanging people from crane jibs at the time and there was a part of me that said I should let him be sent back to get a taste of his own medicine. Instead I intervened because I knew there was nothing to be gained from perpetual revenge. I stopped the deportation and to the best of my knowledge he is still living here. It converted me overnight to the idea of an international court to try such cases.

There was the lady from Africa who had come as a refugee but had not told anyone what had happened to her. She came to see me about her housing because she was losing the use of her legs. She had good housing and the hospital could find nothing physically wrong with her. I put it to her that something had happened that she couldn’t talk about. For the first time in eight years with silent tears running down her face she told me how her children had been killed in front of her and she had been repeatedly raped. Try keeping that to yourself for eight years. With appropriate counselling she found the use of her legs again and is now a community worker.

There was the man who stopped me in a market in Turkey who had written to me trying (without hope) to stop his deportation – and then offered me a carpet at reduced price! (I didn’t buy it and it wasn’t that cheap!)

It might seem odd to say it but those are the easy cases. What about the person who comes in as a student. Overstays and then claims to be a refugee. They lose that and then suddenly announce they have children at school here about to take exams.

Or the Serb lady who told me she was a refugee because there “might be another war”. And what does it do to my attempts to defend our policy when she tells neighbours that she is going back for a short holiday and to see her mum?

There was a solicitor who rang me in protest because I was reluctant to prevent his client being removed. I asked him why he was living in a bail hostel. He didn’t know. In fact he had been released after serving five years for rape.

At last we are getting the policy right on this complex issue. We need to allow workers in with a proper permit system and rapidly deport those who try and jump the queue. Refugees need extra help but every person who try’s to claim refugee status when in fact they are seeking immigration for work purposes undermines public confidence in the system and feeds the Daily Mail agenda of xenophobia and hatred.

I very rarely get cases where the person is being sent back to a dangerous situation although several African countries are difficult to predict.

This is not and should not be the core of an MP’s work but it is something we can’t walk away from. And this brings you back to Iraq and one of the reasons why people like me voted for military action. WMD is a factor but for many of us the sheer brutality of the regime was another.

It is possible that Tony Blair could be brought down by Iraq. For me I’m satisfied that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. The real issue is how to reform the UN so that it will take more effective action against these psychopathic killers who cause so much misery. My generation have failed to solve that. I hope the next generation is more successful. But judging by the marginalisation of the views of those of us who voted for military action for a range of reasons, I am not optimistic.