Friday, 2 August 2019

Brecon and Radnor By-Election shows the way for Barnet

Last night, we saw an amazing result in the Brecon and Radnor by-election.

Although I am a member of the Lib Dems, I am not going to claim this as a Lib Dem victory. It was a victory for progressive, sensible politics. The reason I say this was because much credit is due to the Green party and Plaid Cymru, who stood down to maximise the possibility of a pro remain victory.  The reason this is so important was graphically demonstrated when the Chancellor announced that billions are being spent '#Turbocharging' no deal preparations. This is money that could have been spent on housing, hospitals and education. Instead it is being spent to allow Boris to claim he has large cojones. It is a complete waste of money and a leaked government document explained what this money will buy us, if the ERG and hard #Brexiters get their way


It is not easy for progressive parties. This tweet shows the huge disparity in spending power that was faced.

Now we can all bury our heads in the sands, we can all pretend that there will be a glorious revolution and everything will be fine. Or we can do what the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems did. We can say "We don't agree on everything but there are enough important issues that unite us to put our differences aside and fight for our core beliefs". The challenges facing Great Britain are daunting. Besides #Brexit, we have a climate crisis, a housing crisis and we lack food and fuel security, as the #Brexit briefing and the crisis in Iran demonstrates. We have a Navy that can start a suicidal nuclear war with Russia (assuming the Yanks let us wipe ourselves off the face of the planet) but which can't escort our ships effectively through the Straits of Hormuz. We have a Police force which is so chronically understaffed that we've got a knife epidemic on our streets, sex slaves being traffic'd to work in brothels in our high streets and burglars driving around our streets, seemingly robbing with impunity. If your house gets burgled, it seems that the role of the Police is now simply to give you a crime number to claim on your insurance. It doesn't need to be like that. I know many serving Met officers and they are sick of the strains and constraints they work under. They want to catch criminals, but every single one I've spoken to over the last few years has told me they are under funded. It is not just officers that are short. To try and maintain the pretence that we have enough, back room staff have been dispensed with, so highly trained officers have  to do filing, typing and admin tasks. It would make far more sense for admin assistants on £16, 000 a year to do this than trained officers on £48,000 a year. When Boris threw out his 20,000 new officers announcement, it demonstrated his lack of understanding of the issue. If he'd said 16,000 officers and 4,000 admin staff, it would have been cheaper and freed up 12,000 existing officers for front line duties. Not only that, but admin staff would be available immediately, whereas officers need training. The reason Boris didn't was because it just doesn't sound sexy.

In the London Borough of Barnet, we have an amazing group of people across the political spectrum. They have worked together to save libraries, oppose gagging by the council and to fight for social justice. This week we've seen why now, more than ever, with the Tories  telling residents that they don't want to listen to them, why a change is needed urgently. There are Mayoral and GLA elections next year. It very much looks to me as if the Labour plan to shore up there vote is a full frontal attack on the Lib Dems and Green parties. My great fear is that this will simply open the door for the Tories to walk through. I know Anne Clarke from Labour, who is up for selection for the GLA and Marisha Ray for the Lib Dems. Both would make fine GLA assembly members. As a Lib Dem, as it stands I will be voting for Marisha, but I would have no hesitation doing the same for Anne in the event of a pact. I am not sure who the Green candidiate may be at present, but I know many of the Green's and I can say that a Green presence on the GLA is not a bad thing. They raise hugely important issues and have the welfare of the planet and the people on it at heart.

As to the race for London Mayor, I have to say that I cannot I can support Sadiq Khan. I am a proud Mill Hillian and his two interventions to pass monstrous developments in Mill Hill has shown that he has no respect for my community. Every major organisation representing Mill Hill campaigned against both the NIMR plans and the Pentavia development. Sadiq Khan chose to ignore this and side with the big developers. I cannot call to mind a single policy success in over three years of his Mayoralty. Both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson had big successes in their first terms, but Sadiq has not demonstrated that he has what it takes for the job. I wanted to be fair and try and see if I'd missed anything. I googled "Sadiq Khan successes" and the most sympathetic article was a year old from Left Foot Forward. Don't; get me wrong, he's a decent man and the Tory campaign against him was enough to persuade any reasonable person to vote for him last time, regardless of party allegiance, but he has done nothing with his term to justify re-election. I rather hope that someone can make a convincing case as to why I'm wrong, but the Crossrail debacle is a graphic demonstration of what is wrong with his Mayoralty. I've overseen big building projects (clearly not on that scale), and the first rule is that if you are the boss of such a scheme, you regularly walk around and talk to the people on site building it. You track the reports and look for the problems. When Sadiq Khan said that he was taken by surprise when he found that none of the things necessary to open were anywhere near complete last year, I lost faith in him. I spend much of my life in the West End and you don't need to be in the tunnels to know it was not going to be ready. Last May, I was in a pub and  couple of Crossrail workers told me that it would be three years late. I asked why and they said "Half the stations aren't built". It turned out that they were spot on.

I am sure that this will cause howls of outrage, but if anyone on the left can give me a good reason to vote Sadiq apart from Tribalism or Sentiment, they are welcome to submit a guest blog. My view is that as the Lib Dems won the vote in the Euro's, London should unite around the Lib Dem candidate Siobahn Benita. After sixteen years of the Mayoralty, it is time for a female Mayor. I am sure she will be far more in tune with the concerns of all Londoners. For any Labour readers who are horrified by this sacrilege, I'd like to remind them of the 2000 Mayoral elections. Tony Blair foisted loyalist Frank Dobson on London, who was soundly thrashed by Ken Livingstone, who stood as an independent. Livingstone's first term was a remarkable success, not least because he worked with Labour, The Lib Dems and The Green party to deliver good things for London. He brought in the Congestion charge and the Oyster card, both of which revolutionised the lives of Londoners. Baroness Jenny Jones of the Green party was appointed Deputy Mayor for a year, fullfilling  a promise to work with other parties. Livingstone's second term, as a Labour Mayor was notably less successful. The reason I raise this point is because it shows that when it is justified, good things can be delivered by putting aside tribal loyalties.

What I would love to see is an open meeting of Labour, Lib Dem and Green activists, councillors and voters to see if there is any way that some sort of consensus could be agreed on to ensure we get the right results in our area. We are one of the most strongly remain areas and we need representatives that reflect that. My suggestion would be to have a Labour candidate in Finchley and Golders Green,  a Lib Dem in Hendon and a Green in Chipping Barnet for a general election. If any of these were successful that would be one less Conservative than we have at the moment. For the GLA election, there is proportional representation for the list, so I'd recomend everyone vote for their relevant preference. For the Barnet and Camden candidate, I would be prepared to accept some sort of accomodation, or maybe even a joint candidate. I know this is heresy, but I was raised a Roman Catholic and if you look at figures such as Galileo, you soon learn that some times it's the heretic that is right and the bone headed establishment that is wrong.

Has this blog upset you? If it has, then put together a sane, rational riposte and explain why. You will have the ears of Barnet at your feet. My view is that Tribalism is for football, when it comes to decision making, rational thought should rule. There is not enough of it at the moment, but the Brecon and Radnor By Election showed what you can do if you are prepared to act like grown ups who want change.

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