Those Post Office queues get longer

I'm on holiday from tomorrow, and bracing myself for a visit to the Post Office to apply for a new passport.

It must be done. (I know this can be done without a trip to the Post Office, but it's still quicker and more secure).

I'm not encouraged by this picture of local MP Lynne Featherstone (centre) queueing in the steet outside what is now my nearest branch, in Crouch End. It's a big branch - with a big queue no doubt inside as well. I bought Christmas stamps at the Hornsey High Street branch last week, and also waited a good 20 mintutes to be served.

This is what happens when the Government shuts down the one bit of 'the state' that pretty much everyone uses - and likes.
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Jack in the bag

Meanwhile, a certain cat in our house seems to think it's time for a bit of Christmas shopping...
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Seven Sisters - an undertone from the Tories

In the Seven Sisters by election, news reaches me of an awful leaflet from the Tories – but with rather unpleasant ethnic undertones about the Lib Dem candidate, David Schmitz (see image).

This won’t offend David in the least. David has dual nationality. His parents, originally Austrian, fled from Nazi persecution in the Second World War.

They initially fled to England, but ended up in the States. David, who has dual citizenship, began his career in New York, but has lived in the UK for most of his working life, having left America in his twenties to become a barrister here.

You’d have to wonder why this makes David an inferior candidate in the eyes of the Tories. It can’t be because they think David is a recent blow in, or doesn’t live in Tottenham, as they will know that he has lived in the area for years.

It will be interesting to see what the voters of Seven Sisters will make of the Tory suggestion that having an overseas connection makes you rather suspect, as a Haringey council candidate.

The publisher of the leaflet is a Cllr Matthew Coggins. He is, at least according to London Councils website, the present Leader of Hackney Conservatives. I think the voters of Hackney might be interested in this issue, too.

I wonder what wording, in his leaflet, would be unacceptable to Matthew? ‘The Lib Dem candidate hails from Scotland? The Lib Dem candidate hails from Bangladesh?’ Given that we are in two very diverse boroughs, perhaps he should clarify.
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The London Mayor's Wards Corner u-turn

Boris Johnson has done a depressing u-turn on the future of Wards Corner in Seven Sisters. The party members' site Lib Dem Voice has the story here.

Bojo’s abandonment of residents and campaigners, after saying he would help, may not go down well with local voters in the Seven Sisters by-election on 15 January.

As Lib Dem candidate David Schmitz said this week: "The Mayor cannot wash his hands of the problem simply by refusing to intervene in the planning process.

"The Mayor, through London Underground Ltd, has the power, as the owner of a large part of the site, to control what happens there. He can stop the scheme no matter what the planning position may be - and that is exactly what he must do."

Pic: Seven rooftoops in Seven Sisters. Gladesmore Road

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Full Council - another blow for accountability

Yes, they were terrible.

I'm talking about Haringey Labour's new Leadership team, which blocked any discussion at all at the Full Council last night about the outcome of the Joint Area Review led by Ofsted into the Baby P case.

Since the last Full Council just two weeks ago, we have had a report condemning the Council for a catalogue of failings. A Cabinet Minister who said its findings were devastating. Two resignations of the council Leader and Lead member, One dismissal, news reports of another serious case review, and a government agency that has admitted that Haringey hides behind false data when it's under inspection.

Did any of this merit statements, debate and questions at Full Council? Apparently not, because its going to be debated at another special full council meeting next week.

Why is there yet another Full Council meeting next week? Because the Liberal Democrats called for it.

Why did we call for it? Because we were told a debate tonight would not be tolerated.

It's a shambles. The whole meeting was over in about half an hour, as Labour refused, even to defend their choice of new council leader. I was seconding Robert Gorrie as the Lib Dem nominee for council leader, and became annoyed, as the Head of the supposed 'watchdog' Scrutiny Committee (Labour) poured obsequious praise on the new Labour leader - despite the challenges undoubtedly ahead in terms of running impartial scrutiny in the aftermath of the Baby P tragedy. The spectacle, now getting national attention, is just an utter embarrassment for Haringey.

I think Labour's new leaders are gambling that if they can knock the issue forward another week, the national media will lose interest, as it will be so close to Christmas. Never mind the waste of taxpayers money in holding yet another meeting, or being held to account.

There is a bottomless pit of shamelessness among Labour members of Haringey council. Absolutely anything goes.
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It's David Schmitz for Seven Sisters

I'm delighted to say that David Schmitz has been chosen to fight the council by election in Seven Sisters for the Lib Dems. It will be on the 15th January.

David is our Parliamentary Spokesperson for Tottenham, and would be brilliant on the Council.

He has been campaigning hard on big local issues, such as the controversial plans for the development of Wards Corner. He is a barrister, and has been giving free legal advice to the Wards Corner campaign.

A great choice! I hope we can get him elected.

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Baby P - the bill for spin doctors

£19,000 means never having to say you're sorry.

Or so you hope, if you are Haringey Council. This is the ammount that Haringey says it has paid for media advice from specialist consultants to coach those fronting for the Council over the Baby P tragedy.

My colleague Cllr David Winskill (Crouch End) asked the question as part of his duties on the Council's Scrutiny Committee.

It was not money well spent.
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Blighting a Hornsey street for decades to come

I stepped in for a colleague on Planning Committee earlier in the week, where there was a truly dreadful decision about a new admin building for Hornsey School for Girls. My colleague Cllr Richard Wilson has the story here.

The new admin block at the school will come right up to the pavement on the lovely Victorian Street that is Inderwick Road N8. Apart from the awfulness of the decision, there are two depressing facts here.

First, the residents, who had worked with the school, were only asking to be thrown a tiny bone – to move the building back by two metres so that it didn’t come right up to the pavement. And second, it was clear that at least two of the Labour councillors on the Committee had real concerns – yet they voted it through.
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Fury over new council meeting

Back from a meeting of Haringey's Lib Dem council group, where there was absolute fury over the Haringey council meeting to take place next Tuesday to elect a new leader for the borough.

This is because the the two people now running the Council, Labour's Lorna Reith and Claire Kober, have refused to allow requests for any items at all about baby P, or the devastating report issued on Monday that provoked the suspensions and resignation of the Labour leader of the Council.

The out-of-touch audacity of the people still in charge is incredible. I opened my council summons at my surgery this evening, where the agenda points out that only the items set out can be discussed. They are incapable of any change.

We are looking at calling another special full council meeting, to try to get some respect and realism into Haringey's council business.
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By-election in Seven Sisters ward

There is to be a by-election in Seven Sisters ward. It is the south -eastern Corner of Haringey, that runs from the edges of Finsbury Park, along the Seven Sisters Road through south Tottenham towards Stamford Hill.

It has been caused by the very sad death of long serving Labour councillor Fred Knight (see earlier post) Convention normally demands that you wait until after the funeral to provoke any election activity, but the campaign has been started by someone, probably from another local political party, who has formally moved for the by-election to take place.

Apart from being very disrespectful, moving the by-election last week seems designed to make it difficult for voters, as it means that postal votes, which follow strict calendars relating to when the election is called, could well have to be mailed to voters between Christmas and New Year, This will leave less time for people who are away to cast their votes, and no doubt notching up overtime staff costs.

Labour (whom it wasn't, I think) has also been campaigning heavily in the area - from a few days after Fred's death. The whole thing has been handled abysmally by the other parties.
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Where would we be without Woolies?

Woolies in Crouch End was doing a roaring trade on Sunday (see pic). If it disappears from the Broadway, I will certainly miss it. The company has gone downhill in recent years, but as I look around my kitchen right now, I have a lot of bits and pieces I bought in Crouch End Woolies. Only the other day I bought a sink drainer for my new kitchen. It does the job, and it was only a fiver.

Though entirely Welsh, I grew up in Ireland, where we had no Woolworth stores. As a kid visiting my dad's family in Wales, I used to love going to Woolies. It sold all things I wanted; books, games, stationery, and stupendous packets of felt-tip pens to which my pocket money would often fail to stretch.

My mum, when vitising London, always makes a bee-line for the 'pic'n'mix'. And without Woolies in Crouch End, just where could you pick up a Christmas CD for four quid on your way back home from work?

The Wood Green branch has already gone, and the Crouch End site is in a prime location. With several stores closed in the area, it would be a blow. Haringey needs local jobs. There is a feeling that the smaller stores are better placed to survive. I hope that's true.

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Baby P - council leaders finally step down

It was entirely predictable, yet why did it take so long? The Leader of the council, and the lead member for children’s services have both resigned today over the Baby P tragedy. It was far too long in coming, and has only happened due to public pressure and the insistence of their own party colleague, Secretary of State Ed Balls.

The x-leader, George Meehan, has said it was a matter of “personal honour and responsibility” - yet why did it take so long? Only seven days ago, Labour wouldn’t even allow a vote to take place on their removal. With 16 months elapsed since the tragedy, there is far less honour than there should have been.

And where does this leave our system of child protection, both in Haringey and nationwide? We have already had a serious case review in Haringey over the death of Baby P. Was it a sham, or just a shambles? It mst have been one or the other, given that a fresh one has been ordered by Ed Balls today.

Have we had to endure 16 months in which the lessons of this tragedy have not been learned? In the three meetings I attended with Liz Santry and top officials to discuss Baby P, this was always a prime concern. I remember, at one of them, using the word ‘whitewash’ when referring to the serious case review process. This prompted the usual indignant denial, which seems to ring very hollow today.

As Lynne Featherstone, who has done so much to articulate public outrage over this issue, said today, more than ever, we need a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of these issues. How was Haringey able to string along so many agencies for such a long time? How can the Government remotely believe such a question doesn’t need a comprehensive answer? It does, and it must happen.

So what next for the Labour council? After nearly 40 years in power, there is a palpable feeling that their time is now up. Yet who from Labour will take over, and lead the borough out of this disaster? Most of those manoeuvring for position couldn’t remotely do the job. The only person who is even vaguely capable of doing so is the current deputy leader. Yet she is most comfortable in the bizarre modern language of the public sector, with its talk of ‘enabling’ and ‘place-shaping’ that local people will rightly fail to understand.

There will be the usual talk of ‘medium term delivery of a sustainable community through partnership working to achieve key performance indicators,’ and so on. But will it make any difference?

It’s a grim day, but at least we can now start the work to rebuild the reputation of the council and the whole area.

And for any officials who are found to have grossly failed, just three words apply. Not one penny.
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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

With the official start of the Christmas season today, I was reminded of this picture of my cat Jack venturing out into a snowy garden, probably for the first time.

The memory is slightly spoiled by my camera, which tells me the date was around 7th April this year.

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