Archive for June, 2008

Angel crossing update

28 June, 2008 at 9:27 am · Filed under Campaigns, Neighbourhood ·Tagged , , ,

A week is a long time in politics, a year is a short time in bureaucracy.

Make that 4 years, in the case of Transport for London. I’ve blogged before about the pelican crossing outside Angel tube station. It’s a nightmare: southbound traffic from two roads (Upper Street and Liverpool Road) feeds into it and hapless pedestrians who wait for the ‘green man’ find that traffic is still passing, because the signal timings are so bad.It’s usually safer to ignore the signals, keep your eyes open, cross your fingers, and make a run for it. Not the best place to practice the highway code.

Back in 2004, I launched a campaign to improve the crossing. We got the Council on board; it seemed everyone agreed that something should be done. In particular, we argued that moving the crossing, or adding a second crossing, north of the junction with Liverpool Road (so pedestrians would compete with less traffic), would be best. With some 46,000 people a day coming out of the station, you’d think the case for change would be urgent.

Well, finally we hear that TfL may consider moving the crossing, as part of a consultation on changes to the 38 bus route. The problem is that it may be bundled with other changes that are less acceptable to people in Islington. So we need to ensure that residents know this is their chance to get action on the crossing. And that TfL are left in no doubt that whatever happens to the rest of their plans, we still want the crossing moved.

So earlier this week, I was out with a couple of my team first thing, trying to get the perfect photo to illustrate the problem. We had a 15 minute ‘window’ on our way to work, surely enough time for one snap? Easier said than done, as Keith & I lurk in the middle island, with lorries, buses and the Islington rush hour all around us.

‘Stand outside the railing’, yelled Adam, my man with the camera. Visions of this blog coming to you from A&E, featuring ambulance response times… But in the end we got the ‘money shot’ – cars vs people while the green man shows – and hurried off to our various day jobs. The results are up on the campaign site and Facebook. As for TfL, it’s their job to sort out this crossing, now.

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Caveat surfer

28 June, 2008 at 8:55 am · Filed under Consumer ·Tagged , ,

A few months ago, I had a rant about BT Broadband’s customer service. So for the sake of balance, I share with you this gem about Orange broadband. Not so bright….

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Save Goswell Road Post Office

26 June, 2008 at 5:13 pm · Filed under Campaigns, Neighbourhood ·Tagged , , , , , ,

It’s almost incredible, but the Post Office have announced the closure of another Islington post office. This time it’s the popular branch on Goswell Road, EC1. Not only is it in a regeneration area, on the borders of Bunhill and Clerkenwell, but it’s surrounded by large estates, small shops, and City University: all communities that need their local post office.

The post offices at Old Street and Mount Pleasant are each half a mile away and none of them is on a direct bus route from Goswell Road. Or are Finsbury residents expected to join the hour-long queue at Upper Street?

As the Post Office statement makes clear, this is entirely driven by the Labour Government’s cuts plan, “part of the implementation of the Government decision to reduce the UK wide network of Post Office branches by up to 2,500″.

One post office in Walthamstow has been saved; so it seems another in Islington must close – even though none of their previous reviews suggested closing Goswell Road. With 12 Islington post offices already closed under Labour, Goswell Road is a very unlucky 13.

Labour Ministers are frank that it’s a cost-driven agenda; earlier this month, Pat McMadden MP told the BBC, “three out of four post offices in the country are actually running at a loss and that’s part of the reason why some are having to close.”

For Labour MP Emily Thornberry to claim she supports our post offices is the worst hypocrisy.

She described branches like Goswell Road as ‘just a counter in a shop’. When other Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, voted with the Lib Dems to try and stop the closure programme, Emily Thornberry voted with the Government, to carrying on closing. Then she tries to blame the Council… If buck-passing was an Olympic event, she’d be in the national team. Well Islington residents aren’t stupid, we can see how she votes, and it’s clearly not in favour of our post offices.

Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed Post Office closures. We’ve already launched our petition to save Goswell Road, and we’ve had a fantastic response from residents, businesses and the University.

You can join the campaign here.

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A little less conversation, a little more action

25 June, 2008 at 11:15 pm · Filed under Campaigns ·Tagged , , , ,

One of my friends says that she managed to keep a diary during the times of her life when she had nothing much going on (holidays, maternity leave, quiet times at work) but not at the very times when people might have been remotely interested in what she had to report.

I feel a bit like that now. On Monday, I was blogging about nothing more exciting than my journey to work. Since then, no blog, but lots going on.

In no particular order, in the last 48 hours

– We’ve learned that ANOTHER Islington post office is set to close, and launched our campaign to save it
– I’ve taken local campaigners to Angel crossing to observe the problems there first-hand
– I did a ward walkabout in Clerkenwell with one of the councillors
– Islington had a local party meeting on youth crime, causes & solutions
– And I’ve done another Guardian blog.

I will post pieces on some of these in due course. For now, fingers crossed for Stephen Kearney and the team in Henley tomorrow.

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Sweet Monday

23 June, 2008 at 11:45 pm · Filed under Consumer ·Tagged , ,

I usually work from home, but every couple of weeks or so, I set off for Bucks and a day at my firm’s office in Chesham. The journey is a multi-modal treat: bus, train and tube. The last part is on the shuttle train between Chalfont & Latimer and Chesham, descending through woods and fields of sheep, with views over the Chess Valley. All the more surprising that this is on a tube line.

There are two Baker Street trains that catch the same Chesham connection – so why was I running for the earlier one? Well there may not be a station buffet at Chalfont, but there is an extremely nice cafe just outside. I popped in for a cup of tea and a home-made raspberry muffin, fresh from the oven, and memorably good. Tea and muffin together £2.50; vaut le detour. (Nearly as good as Mum’s home-made scones that I had on my way home). Not bad for a Monday morning.

Negotiating the last bit of the trip with tea, muffin and laptop bag, was the opposite of hands-free, so I’d got my Oyster card in my pocket with cashcard and work swipecard in the same wallet. As I reached the office, for one ghastly moment I thought I’d lost them: unable to get in the office, unable to get back home, and unable to get any money. Yes having your vital data in one place is handy, but also risky. Fans of ID cards please note.

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Brave Bishops and turbulent priests

23 June, 2008 at 7:56 am · Filed under Church & faith ·Tagged , ,

I’m a great fan of Archbishop John Sentamu, who recently did a parachute jump in aid of the Afghanistan Trust. That’s after tearing up his dog collar in protest at the state of Zimbabwe. When John was Bishop of Stepney (our local Bishop for Islington), he came to conduct a confirmation service, then left the chancel steps to play the African drums during the hymns. He also chaired the local EC1 New Deal regeneration project; when blocked by a government official who kept saying, “I have to answer to my boss”, the Bishop responded, “I think you’ll find he answers to mine….”. He was also my brother’s bishop in Birmingham, where he baptised my younger niece and god-daughter Miriam (who is also an extremely feisty character).

Michael Lewis, the Bishop of Cyprus & the Gulf, is less high profile; he has been visiting Baghdad and appealing for the release of British hostages held there.

Back in Britain, Bishop Richard Holloway is taking to the stage at the Edinburgh Festival, in the role of St Thomas Beckett (hat-tip: Mandrake in the Daily Telegraph). Before he went to Edinburgh, Richard was briefly my vicar in Oxford. He has always been courageously liberal, particularly on gay rights.

We take it for granted that, unlike Beckett, today’s turbulent priests can speak out without threat; in Britain at least. It’s a decade since Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered in Guatemala, nearly 30 years since the murder of Archbiship Oscar Romero in El Salvador.

I get angry when people lazily label Christianity as repressive or illiberal, when in fact there are Christian leaders in every generation, and all over the world, speaking out for human rights and social justice.

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Henley: come on in, the campaigning’s lovely

22 June, 2008 at 10:33 pm · Filed under Campaigns, Liberal Democrats ·Tagged ,


I’m back from another day helping with the by-election in Henley. As I wrote in my Guardian blog last week, it’s unlike Islington in many ways. Lots of countryside. Lots of walking. Big houses with bigger gardens. Our party is campaigning to protect back gardens: I think the jury may be out on front ones.

We’re certainly close to nature. As Mary Reid has noted, there are red kites, lots of them. My colleague Ruth, something of a twitcher, gave up counting them last weekend. This afternoon the team dropped me to start canvassing at one end of a pleasant Henley estate while they started at the other. The sunny Sunday afternoon was deeply peaceful. No-one was home. The street was deserted. The kites were circling. Keep moving, Bridget! Incidentally during the afternoon I met several dogs (all nice ones) but no cats: nothing to do with the kites I hope...

This is an area that even Peter Mandelson couldn’t spin as anything other than a Tory-LibDem two horse race; not many Labour votes for him to lose. There was one possibility – a family called Beckett with a caravan on the drive – but they were out (without the caravan) so we’ll never know.

The voters are all very polite and friendly – if a little weary with all the leaflets they’re getting. One lady told me that South Oxfordshire should be recording its best ever recycling rate this month. Another family had their recycling box firmly lodged under the letter box.

Often polite ‘don’t knows’ are Tories who don’t want to hurt your feelings, or who still feel that it might be seen as a ‘nasty party’ vote. So I probed gently, “Lots of people here have voted for Boris in the past, perhaps you’re one of them?” “Yes, but this time we really don’t know”, was a typical response. One chap said, “Actually, I’m a Conservative voter, but I always quite liked Ken”.There’s no accounting for taste. We briefly speculated on what could have been the tempting symmetry of Livingstone standing for Labour in Henley.

People talk about Boris’ charisma; well Stephen Kearney has it in bucketloads too, and it’s having a real effect. While former Tory voters were indecisive, the Lib Dems were happy to share their support. There was the man who’d already voted for Stephen by post; the woman who gave me a wordless thumbs up and big grin through the kitchen window. Another woman was voting for us for the first time, joining her neighbour who always has done. She’d met Stephen and was clearly still buzzing with enthusiasm as a result – I wanted to take her canvassing with me!

There’s often a social dimension to by-elections; last weekend I ran into an old friend John Allen (nearly 25 years since we first met); today it was fellow candidate Emily Gasson with her baby son John Davey. And not just at the HQ. As I canvassed one street, I saw a deliverer, in a blue shirt, coming the other way. Was it a Tory boy? No it was Lib Dem Dan Houghton from Lewisham. Elsewhere, my Islington colleague Euan was doing his delivery, only to run into canvassers Steve and Sarah, also from Islington. Big constituency, small world.

So as our carload passed through Rotherfield Greys, Oxon on the way home to Rotherfield Street N1, we reflected on a great day in a beautiful part of the world. Tempted? It’s waiting for you here.

PS Back in Islington, as we headed down Liverpool Road, we passed a familiar blond on a bike: the former member for Henley. Small world? Make that a tiny one.

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Supporting Refuge

21 June, 2008 at 9:11 pm · Filed under Campaigns, Neighbourhood ·Tagged , , , ,

Two local women, both near neighbours of mine, are making headlines for the worst of reasons.

Abiodun Ilumoka, who was pregnant, was murdered at home in Essex Road last week; the body of Rahmona Ahmedin, who lived in Peabody Square, three streets away, was found in Essex. Like the young victims of knife crime on our streets, their temporary fame comes with terrible violence and untimely death. Of course we don’t know all the circumstances, but it looks likely that Abiodun, and possibly Rahmona too, were victims of domestic violence.

If so, that’s in line with the chilling statistics. According to Refuge, the specialist charity helping domestic violence victims, 2 women are killed by a current or former partner each week, that’s 1 every three days. And that’s without counting so-called ‘honour’ killings, where the violence comes from other family members.

We rightly agonise about how to tackle the youth violence which is frighteningly public; but the hidden violence that too many women face is as senseless, as unacceptable and should generate the same outrage.

One simple, positive way to support Refuge is to give them your old mobile phone for recycling. It’s a fantastic scheme – raising money for Refuge, while reducing the number of phones going to landfill, and helping people in developing countries who get the reconditioned phones.

Another way is to buy a Refuge bracelet from Avon. As it happens, our local Avon lady also lives just off Essex Road. So if you’d like to buy a bracelet, and you’re in Islington too, email me; I’ll put you in touch.

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Time for a change?

21 June, 2008 at 6:38 pm · Filed under Campaigns ·Tagged ,

Those of us who spend every spare hour (and some that aren’t) flogging round elections might smile at this snippet from John Walsh in today’s Independent. Do we take the exercise of democracy all too seriously; or do we take the vote for granted? Elections do enable us to choose who’s in charge, and then change them without violence. But choosing not to vote, or voting for the status quo, are also rights our democracy protects. And in parts of the US and Romania, they’re exercising them in full. Don’t tell Mugabe.

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Hornsey Street postal services: 2nd class?

21 June, 2008 at 1:19 pm · Filed under Campaigns, Neighbourhood ·Tagged , , , ,

This morning, between showers, shopping, and a bit of blogging, I was out delivering letters on Hornsey Street, the new estate created as part of the regeneration of Holloway on the back of the new Arsenal stadium.

It’s a common problem that developers build new housing without the necessary infrastructure to make them viable communities. Being in the centre of an already densely-populated borough, that shouldn’t be a problem for Hornsey Street. The new flats come with those modern essentials, a Tesco with cashpoint, an estate agent and a gym (and some state of the art bike parking) – what more could you need?

Well, there’s something missing; the humble pillar box. We may all be on email these days but there are somethings, from birthday cards to official documents, that you still need to post. It’s the sort of thing you don’t notice until you need it. Where is your nearest post box? I’ve got one on the corner of my road, and another at the corner of the next street. If you live on Hornsey Street, the nearest pillar boxes are at Caledonian Road tube or the far side of Holloway Road – you have to leave the estate and cross a main road either way.

So I’ve started a campaign to get Royal Mail to provide a letter box for the estate. It may seem a minor issue, but Royal Mail is supposed to be a universal service; why should Hornsey Street’s be 2nd class? The website went live last week, we delivered letters publicising it today – and the signatures are already coming in. Watch the website for developments.

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