Suspending Parliament

Boris Johnson is apparently considering giving himself draconian powers to pass any legislation he likes without any Parliamentary scrutiny whatsoever.  Given his track record on prorogation, the EU withdrawal agreement and indeed his position as the UK's most notorious liar, I really don't think that would be sensible.

The benefits of proper scrutiny are indicated by Dr Rosena Allin Khan's question at PMQ yesterday.  Why do NHS doctors not have the protective equipment they need (or the testing that would mark out whether they are inadvertently endangering patients).

Quite apart from his genuine threats to constitutional government, what does one think of a Prime Minister who has a Conference call with CEOs about constructing more ventilators and makes a remark like this (Courtesy of Pippa Crerar):

Libraries and the Corunavirus

Concern appears to be rising over keeping libraries open  during the corunavirus epidemic, as shown in this Public Libraries News post (which incidentally I think has somewhat misunderstood the role envisaged by "herd immunity").

One of the problems of closure, is that much of this effort is about getting out timely and accurate public information to keep public trust.  This appears to have been undermined by recent political briefings and is a core purpose of libraries.  To close them down might leave some people unable to access information easily, which would be a major price to pay.  Of course it is sensible for any service to keep its self under review and make changes such as intensify its daily cleaning.

The Irish Prime Minister has already observed this:

I also think that there is an issue with the whole close this and close that approach that you do it as a one off, but it seems to be a bit more of a whack-a-mole situation where any country that manages to close the disease off in one place can face a resurgence coming from somewhere else, and that this is likely to remain the case until a vaccine is found.

UPDATE 19.03.20

I have a shrewd suspicion that Brent libraries will shortly announce a temporary closure to at least the end of April. 

Closures

The widespread closures and election postponement will hopefully slow the spread of the corunavirus, but I suspect they will also take their toll of local businesses, especially around Wembley where the events are central to drawing in customers.  I hope that other public services such as Council ones continue to be open so that businesses can survive. 

Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum Charity

It seems that Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum is finally officially a charity after almost a year of trying to get the Charity Commission to register it as such.  I can't believe that such a delay was really needed, but at least it is over now. 

The Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum has also featured in this recent GLA report.  

Future Costs and Brent Council

One of the reasons Brent Council was so careful about scaling down its budgets from 2010 onwards is the knowledge that there were huge additional costs coming down the line because of things like demographic change and now Brexit.

Brexit will create a particularly difficult environment of Labour shortages as workers are deliberately kept out or removed from the UK.  Simultaneously, pay will be going up for legislative reasons, but also I suspect as a result of market forces.  We may also see the wholesale exit from provision by the private sector leaving the Council to clear up the mess.  This is an existential issue for local government. 

Lexi Cinema Close to getting Second Screen

The Lexi cinema is now close to getting its target funding figure for a new screen due to large grants of taxpayers' money from both Brent Council and the Mayor for London.  The cinema will be able to add a second screen as a result.  You can learn more about the Lexi Cinema from its web site. 

Sunak's Budget Reversal

Rishi Sunak's budget is remarkable for its political amnesia.  As well as pretending to be a new government (rather than a re-elected one after a decade of mismanagement), it pretty much trashes all the thinking that led to he and his colleagues in the previous decade of cuts that have led to public services being such a wreck.

It is rather as if a husband battered his wife for a decade and then arrived with a bunch of flowers.

Of course, the new spending pledges often just take things back to levels of spending inherited in 2010, and sometimes not even that.  And the institutions meant to spend them are so enervated that they will struggle to spend the new largess properly.  In particular adult social care can not easily make up for the years of cuts, especially with the immigration restrictions likely at the end of this year.

Lisa Nandy is quite right to ask for an extension of the EU transition period. The reactions of all the Labour Leader and Deputy Leader candidates are published by Labourlist. 

Unsafe Cladding

Interesting example of the SNP passing the buck to be found on the Red Brick blog here regarding unsafe cladding in blocks.  I quote in full:

"Scotland has an unusual problem. Even though there is no leasehold/freehold distinction north of the border, the Scottish Government has limited influence on the actions of mortgage lenders since this power is reserved to Westminster. The London Government has issued an advice note that deals with fire safety in buildings post Grenfell throughout the United Kingdom. Even though building standards are higher in Scotland than in England, lending organisations now require home inspection reports to reflect the new London imposed standards. Consequently, some leaseholders in Scotland who wish to sell or remortgage have found that they have been imposed with a nil valuation."

Of course, Scotland has more than fifty MPs at Westminster, almost all SNP, who can pursue this or any other issue in the same way as any other Westminster MP.  If they have a "problem" it is probably the reluctance of the SNP MPs to raise such bread and butter issues as it does not accord with the Nationalist narrative. 

Flooding and Austerity

The government is now reversing course on its cuts to flood defences here.  I pointed out the likely consequences some years ago, as (in considerably more detail) did Simon Wren-Lewis. The new funding announced is therefore just the government admitting that it has been making a disastrous (literally) policy for almost a decade, and simply undoing some of the damage that the government has already done.  As well as the financial cost, the cuts have also led to a delay in building the defences.  Had the government continued the trend it inherited from Labour back in 2010, many of the flooded properties of this year might never have been flooded.

Priti Patel and Bullying

The ongoing defence of Priti Patel from the accusations against of a pattern of bullying remind me of a similar case I can recall in Brent Council.  In that case the bullying was of a man against a succession of women and sometimes others.  The behaviors were similar, and so were the excuses

• The behavior was minimized as just a bit "hardball"
• It was suggested that the complainants were oversensitive
• It was suggested that rather that it was just a management style.

Above all, the bully saw themselves as the victim, and in the Brent case, tried to respond by making it impossible for anyone to complain about his behavior. 

Flytipping in Alperton

The Kilburn Times has spotted a truly shocking level of flytipping at a site in Alperton.  The tone of the reportage seems to be why hasn't the Council cleared it up?  This seems to miss the point somewhat.  If it were public highway that would be what the Council would do automatically, but is private land.  The Council can issue a notice against the owner to clear it up provided it is judged a public nuisance and even forcibly clear it and send the bill to the owner.  This would take time and proof of the nuisance (e.g. a massive rat population).  It is dismaying that neither the the recently elected Lib Dem councillor for Alperton nor the Brent Council respondee make this point.

Agreement on Brent Libraries

It is always nice to find areas of agreement, and so I would like to say that I agree with both Paul Lorber and Martin Francis that the reference in a Brent poster to ten libraries is misleading.  Brent runs six libraries serving far more people in more ways than it did with twelve in 2011.

There are six publicly run libraries in Brent.  These are the two new ones Wembley and Willesden, one completely refurbished one at Kilburn, one partially refurbished one at Ealing Road and towo others in Harlesden and Kingsbury.  They are open to all residents, pupils and workers in Brent free of charge for all kinds of library services and subject to various statutory guarantees.  They are staffed by paid staff on the Council payroll with the various worker rights that guarantees.

Not so the four "community" libraries which each private organisations that do not publish things like visitor or loan numbers, and do not give the kind of access guarantees that Brent's seven day libraries have.  I would be surprised if they access the range of services either since that would be extremely expensive.  In the past, it appeared that one of them seemed to be more a bookshop than a library. 

Sadly, I do have to point out that Paul Lorber is doing a bit of misleading of his own in implying that Brent could have just handed over buildings to volunteer groups. That is simply not so.

I think it is also worth pointing out that Brent is one of a dwindling group of authorities that still provide a museum and archive service (at Willesden Green), and that Philip Grant's point about having an exhibition.  There has been at least one previous exhibition on Ernest Trobridge, at the Willesden Museum back in 2010. 

Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party

Coverage of the goings on in Hampstead and Kilburn CLP gives cause for concern as they appoint constituency officers with some very strange behavior behind (and quite possibly in front of them).  They are not known as people keen to go out on the doorstep, quite possibly because they would find a lot of the public disagree with their views.  Both Brent Labour Party and the Party nationally will need to consider whether such people should continue their activities or whether the Regional Director needs to step in. 

Electric Trial for Dust Cart

I see that Brent are trialing electric dust carts with Veolia.  That seems eminently sensible.  A dust cart has a fairly short and predictable circuit so the amount of energy used should be predictable.  The batteries can be charged at the depot, and overall pollution would be reduced.  Of course, a similar argument might be made for buses. 

Fantasy Shadow Cabinet

That YouGov poll that showed Keir Starmer with a clear lead in the leadership election, also had an interesting take on who Labour Party members might like to see as shadow Cabinet members:

Commenting on the Morland Gardens Development

Subsequent to my post on Friday, there have been further comments on the Morland Gardens redevelopment proposal.  Philip Grant, a local historian, has written on the history of the building.

The assessment accompanying the application is that during the building's long life the historical features were all stripped out and only the shell remained.  As an aside, I don't recognise his various descriptions of the debate around Willesden Library which was subject to a number of misconceptions.  Essentially, he wants to turn down the current proposal for 65 housing units, some workspace and a further education college in order to retain the Victorian shell and have half the number of housing units.  Which choice one would make depends on a value judgement.

UPDATE 09.03.20

Mr Grant has commented below.  Just to unpack my comment on misconceptions.  I was commenting on misconceptions in general, which I summarised at the time.  I believe that Mr Grant suggested that the only publicity given to the proposed redevelopment was a small focus group, and nothing else.  This was not so as a number of reports and Council meetings had described the options as they were developed (all in the public domain), the Willesden Area Consultative Forum had been informed as referenced in the 2012 post I have just linked to, the Willesden and Brent Times had covered the story (as referenced in the article I just linked to, and I personally had had a number of conversations on the subject with various parties to the library litigation.

Shadow Cabinet Speculation

Keir Starmer's lead in the Labour leadership election now seems so compelling that people are speculating as to the identity of various front bench posts.  More important than who is ultimately getting a new critique of the government's strategy.  The Tories have deftly abandoned their austerity narrative which tacitly concedes that the last decade of suffering was a pointless, self inflicted disaster.  Labour are so preoccupied with internal arguments that the Conservatives have been allowed to do this pretty scotfree. 

Hopefully Oliver Kamm's piece on import substitution will help give some pointers. 

Fair Trade in Brent Civic Centre

I learn via the Cooperative Party that:

On 4th March the Mayor of Brent will be officially opening the exhibition of Fairtrade themed artwork by Brent schools at Brent Civic Centre.  Start time 4.30pm. At the rear of the ground floor. 

Brent first became a Fairtrade Borough in 2012.  

Scrutiny and Thames Water

Camden Council has been quizzing Thames Water about why their pipes burst, according to the Camden New Journal, and the answer is they don't know.  That is disappointing as Brent suffers from this problem routinely and a real answer would be reassuring.

This was done via one of Camden's scrutiny committees.  I have never understood why Brent does not use its Scrutiny system in a similar way to the one that Camden use theirs, as my understanding is that it has powers to question about the use of public money anywhere in the Borough. 

However, I can't help but notice that the Camden meeting struggled to get a quorum so things are not perfect there either.

Keir Starmer Now Leading in Survation Poll

Keir Starmer is now leading in a Survation Poll published by Labourlist.  I am not as confident in their methodology as I am in Yougov's but both appear to be good indicators of a Starmer win

Labour Party Distractions

One thing that those who call for mandatory reselection of MPs might reflect on is that during the period of the Leadership election, Labour has been doing virtually nothing to scrutinise the government.  This has allowed it build a big poll lead despite wilful errors such as the Prime Minister refusing to visit flood hit parts of the UK.

Naval contemplation has its price.

Morland Gardens Redevelopment

There is a proposal on the table to redevelop 1 Morland Gardens on the edge of Stonebridge and Harlesden.  The planning application summary is:

"Demolition of existing buildings and erection of a new mixed use building ranging in height from two to nine storeys, to provide 65 dwellings (Use Class C3), affordable workspace (Use Class B1), new further education college (Use Class D1), with associated amenity areas, public realm improvements, car and cycle parking and refuse/recycling store."

All the properties in the building are proposed as "affordable".  There is also 750 square metres of affordable workspace and space for a college (which is the current use).

The housing is proposed as 40% one bedroom, 18% two bedroom, 10% three bedroom, 7% four bedroom and 4% five bedroom.  This adds up to just under 80% of the space.  All the units will be "social renting". 

Keep Talking

Hope Not Hate and the Community Security Trust (CST) have issued an important report on conspiracy theories and the increasing dialogue between the Far Right and the Far Left (including in the Labour Party).  The number of people involved in these may be small, but they have a disproportionate; the more so when they hide in "moderate" clothing.

Passover Reviews

Passover at the Kiln Theatre has been receiving rhapsodic reviews.  They are thoroughly deserved.

Reasons People Did Not Vote Labour in 2019

Some one has rather usefully actually asked the voters what they think about reasons not to vote Labour, rather than making assumptions.  It should be minded by every Labour Party member voting in our Leadership election. 

UPDATE 25/02/20

I see Angela Rayner's has acknowledged that part of the reasons for the defeat were to do with the Leadership.  I wish others were as frank.  

Passport to Where?

I can't say that this image really consoles me for losing freedom of movement across the European Union, but why does it show Boris Johnson a plane when he is officially in Chevening?

Police Action Going Too Far?

Weird to see the below photograph circulating on the Internet, so much so that I suspect is is "fake news".  If it is not I imagine the government will be going ballistic since it seems like the Police going way too far for their remit.

Brent Council Poverty Commission

I see Brent council is sponsoring a poverty commission.  This is a good idea, but it does seem to replicate the Social Mobility Commission chaired by Lord Knight that was set up round about 2012.  That did not see any of its conclusions pursued because of a lack of political support.  I hope it works out differently this time.

Barnhill Election Petition

Remarkably the Barnhill election has been subjected to an election petition.  This is an extremely unusual proceeding.  The last time it happened in Brent was in 2006 in following a result in Dudden Hill where an employee of the Council was elected as a councillor (representing the Liberal Democrats).  

The Barnhill case is brought by the losing Conservative candidates.  It alleges a miscounting of the votes, but does not say whether they mentioned this to the Returning Officer or examined the ballot papers, as they had a right to do.

Misguided Reforms in the Labour Party

A plea here for more realism on local government governance will hopefully be heard by the winners for the Labour Leadership battle.  Separating the appointment of the Leader from the councillors s/he is supposed to work with is indeed disastrous for reasons I have described.  The new Leader will have the perfect opportunity to look again. 

One Sided Endorsements

More on Graham Durham, the now apparently suspended candidate for the Labour Party NEC.  He appears to be endorsing Jo Bird, but it is not clear whether she is endorsing him. 

I first came across this tactic with Ken Livingstone's runs for London Mayor.  A number of anti-Labour candidates would endorse him even though he was asking people to vote Labour in the Assembly. 

Brent Council Budget 2020

What with the Labour leadership and all, I have not had the opportunity to fully review the Brent Council budget which will be going forward at the full Council today, but I have noticed:

• A property review to maximise income, which I take it calls into question any promises of peppercorn rents.
• A general commitment to large savings from future budgets without a clear pathway to achieving them, which strikes me as a worrying sign of a Council kicking potential problems down the line.  For example there is a commitment to as extra £245k in environmental services through unidentified "efficiencies".
• A general commitment to "robust challenge" in terms of the cost of Council services i.e. gatekeeping on people accessing services combined with with refusing to pay beyond a certain level.

Labour's NEC Nominations

Those who follow the internal workings of the Labour Party, a select breed I imagine, may be interested in progress on the two by elections to Labour's National Executive.  Labour's official list of nominations is available.

The only Brent resident I am aware of going for this is a person called Graham Durham who recently achieved notoriety over his opposition to Rebecca Long-Bailey at one of her own rallies.  Sienna Rogers, the editor of Labourlist has commented:

Andrew Sabisky and Boris Johnson

I have argued before that Boris Johnson may through either ineptitude or sheer hubris start chipping away at his own authority, but I am surprised at how quickly this is happening.

According to the Huffington Post, he is refused to distance himself from Andrew Sabisky's offensive comments on race, eugenics and so on.  Given his own record of comments on black people, this amazes me.  He is wide open to the accusation that he agrees with his aide.  Mashing up vaccination programmes with compulsory sterilisation is the kind of thing that delayed the eradication of polio.  It is profoundly dangerous coming from some one in Downing Street.  Mr Sabisky' views also mean that he has such a skewed view of the world that his advice on policy will be useless.

Any sensible Prime Minister would have got rid of him immediately. Instead Johnson waited until the press had cottoned on, and only did it last night, making himself look both weak and stupid.

Passover in the Kiln Theatre

I saw Passover at the Kiln theatre recently.  Billed as a mash up of the Moses story and Waiting for Godet, it is as powerful a piece of drama as I have seen for a long time.  It seems to be one of a number of such plays taking long established classics and giving them a different modern twist (as in Wife and When the Crows Visit earlier in the season).  It is also the first production to be put on in the round.  Thus it takes advantage of the enhanced flexibility which was one of the points of the refurbishment. 

Spread of Coronavirus

The spread of the coronavirus, which now appears to be inevitable, reminds me of Amartya Sen's work on famine.  He pointed out that famine had only occurred in non-democratic countries, and that a key reason was the absence of a free press.  This meant the authrities themselves don't realise how widespread the problems are until it is late in the cycle, and I suspect something like this may have happened in China.

Council Carbon Footprint

Many English Councils don't know the extent of their carbon footprint, according to the Guardian.  That is truly worrying.  Without knowing that how can they say they are seriously committed to reducing it?  I am glad to say that Brent Council is a lot more advanced, thanks to the Civic Centre and other projects.

Johnson's Buses Oversold

It should come as no surprise that the £5 billion for local transport in the regions of England is overblown.  Firstly, it is over years i.e. £1 billion capital spend year split between England's eight non-London regions.  That is £125 million per region for five years.

It sounds as if it is mostly capital spend, and I am not sure if it is even new money or a recycled announcement.  Given repaving one kilometre of pavement costs about £150,000 and resurfacing one kilometre of carriageway about £100,000; that kind of sum will not go far with say, the whole of East Anglia.

It certainly does not begin to make up for the last decade of cuts.

Cabinet Shuffle

The Cabinet shuffle appears to be much more consequential than expected.  It is currently reported that Javid is going as he will not accept all his advisers being sacked.  This kind of thing, so early in his tenure, suggests that Johnson's Prime Ministership could be a lot shorter than expected despite his huge majority.

Passover at the Kiln Theatre

Tonight will be the first performance at the Kiln Theatre of Passover, which is billed as a mash up of Waiting for Godet and the Moses story and looking at the Black American experience.  Goodness knows what it will be like.

Momentum, Burgon and Angela Rayner

I don't often comment on internal Labour Party matters here, but it is striking that Momentum appears to be backing two different candidates for Deputy Leader. 

Officially, they had a ballot, but it was a yes/no ballot for or against a pre-picked Rebecca Long-Bailey and a pre-picked Angela Rayner.  In my view that is a travesty, but as Momentum is a privately owned company similar to Farage's Brexit Party rather than a democratic movement, the only person's opinion who really counts is its owner's, Jon Lansmann.

There is also apparently a break away faction, backed by John McDonnell MP, is supporting the controversial Richard Burgon MP.  Dawn Butler MP appears to be reaching out for similar territory. 

A similar level of disorganisation is reported for the NEC by elections.  

If this is the level of disunity they manage among themselves, how are they going to unite the Labour Party?

Mayoral Candidate in the West Midlands

As the Labour Party continues being distracted by its internal elections, it has finally selected its metro mayor candidate in the West Midlands, Liam Byrne MP.  This is a tough fight coming up for May, and will be one of the first electoral tests of the new Leader.  It really is a pity that a candidate is in place there so late and that the Party is still focused on internal stuff. 

Alan Simpson on the General Election Campaign

Alan Simpson has spoken out explosively about Labour mismanagement of the General Election campaign.  Perhaps the most significant thing here is that he is very much associated with Jermey Corbyn's own wing of the Labour Party. 

Community Organising and Brent Local History

The people who controlled the Labour Party during the tenure of the now outgoing Leader set up what they called a "community organising unit".  I think the unit was actually duplicating the work already done by good local Labour Parties and Labour Councils up and down the land and in an area where Brent Council was a pioneer.

The story starts more than twenty years ago when the Blair government was first elected.  Back then the new Labour government wanted to change both the Party and the Councils by making them more outward facing and in touch with the public.  There are some shocking instances of Councils that were completely divorced from their communities.  For example, I recall meeting a councillor (Not a Brent one) who told me that he literally never knocked on a door during his more than twnety years as a councillor.  Whereas he was an extreme case, he was not the only one.

The Labour Party first set about reforming itself to discourage this.  It was hoped that the large new membership in 1997/1998, which back was over 400,000 would become more active in this regard, and to support that the Party started to streamlining its activities to reduce the number of dull and routine meetings by having more all member meetings, fewer acronyms and confusing committees and so on.  It is fair to see that this was not always successful, but the effort was a genuine one.

In parallel, the Blair government put forward the crucial 2000 Local Government Act which abolished the old committee system which tied councillors up in seemingly endless town hall meetings, and sought to get councillors more involved in "frontline" activities, engaging their communities.  There were a lot of successes in this.  I listed some of the ones I was involved in on my Kensal Green page, and there are many more recent examples.  Councillors were also encouraged to meet local people in events such as Local Democracy Week and in community groups.  Naturally this can also involve a certain amount of protesting against unresponsive public authorities, although this should be just a subsidiary part of the whole. 

An active local councillor, such Cllr Janice Long in Dudden Hill can clock up a lot of this provided she/he doggedly pursues it over time.

Brent became a pioneer on this setting up training and structures such as the ward working scheme to make it happen.  Unfortunately ward working was abolished and replaced with councillors merely arguing for grants of CIL money to particular groups without really understanding what they are spent on or why.  This replicates the potential dangers of things like ward working, of making it a vehicle for favouritism and patronage without getting the advantage in promoting the community aspect.

The Community Organising Unit was essentially replicating all this, presumably because its proponents didn't really understand how local government or good local Labour Parties worked.

A second aspect coming out of the recent General Election is that the Community Organisers got diverted from this into old fashioned transactional campaigning of the kind that community organising was supposed to replace.  This is an understandable situation where political parties are struggling for funding, but destroys the whole idea of community organising which is more about longer term relationships.  Of course, the Labour Party's internal review has also suggested that the organisers were sent to the wrong places either because the senior figures in the Party had a seriously misjudged optimism about the result or in some case a personal dislike for certain candidates.

Islington North Leadership Nomination

I don't know if it is true, but I have just read a tweet by a reputable journalist (Gabriel Pogrund) that Islington North CLP has nominated Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.

Stepless Access at Willesden Green

A long term project worth keeping an eye for is stepless access at Willesden Green Tube.  This has already been considered for some time, and a feasibility study is promised in the next few months.  However, the big obstacle will be paying for it as the re-elected Tory government is choosing to reapply austerity measures that prior to the General Election they said were gone. 

New Wards Have Passed the Final Legal Hurdle

The new ward arrangements are now in force, meaning that organisations can be reconfigured around them.  This may be important for the Police, as the Safer Neighbourhood Teams were designed to work on the ward boundaries.  It will also be important for the political parties, certainly for the Labour Party, and possibly Brent Council. 

Poets at Willesden Junction

There will be shortly a poets in residence group formed around Willesden Junction as part of Brent's Borough of Culture. This follows other Artists in residence schemes at Wembley Library and elsewhere.

Continuing Confusion Over Street Trees

Judging by social media, there is continuing confusion over street trees in Brent with people make perverse demands.

Firstly, there is a confusion of scale.  Each year, Brent loses 400 or so trees to causes such as storm damage, disease, old age, building works and road accidents.  This sounds like a lot until you realise that Brent has about 27,000 trees, so the loss is about one or two per cent a year.

The second is an idea that appears to have arisen that the Council should only use CIL money to replace them.  This makes no sense to me.  The Council has a regular budgets for repairing and maintaining pavements and carriageways, so why not other standard elements of the street infrastructure such as trees?

Greens Endorsing Labour Candidates

I see that Martin Frnacis of the Green Party is advocating a candidate in the Labour Party's internal selection for a candidate for the GLA seat in Brent and Harrow.  It is interesting that he is doing so despite not being a Labour Party member and indeed standing against us as recently as the Barnhill Council by election. 

Labour members should take the hint that he does not wish the Labour Party well.  Indeed he is eager to wreck it, despite Labour providing the only alternative to a hard right Tory government. 

That might also cause Labour members who are still denying the reasons behind the recent 2019 election defeat to reflect further. 

Dawn Butler MP on Deputy Leadership Ballot

Dawn Butler, MP for Brent Central, now reportedly has enough support from constituency parties (CLPs) to make it on to the Deputy Leadership ballot paper.

Denial in the Labour Party

Reports such as this show that the Labour Party is still riddled by people in straightforward denial over what led to the General Election defeat and how to rebuild.  The blaming of staff, the cherry picking of data and so on.  Frankly, too many people in the outgoing Leader's office are obsessed by Labour's internal politics at the expense of talking with the voters.

UK Break Up

Labour leadership contenders seem to be keen on more constitutional upheaval, although I would have thought the Brexit process has completely exhausted public tolerance for that.

The contenders also seem a bit confused as to what it means.  Rebecca Long Bailey has spoken of a need to bring Holyrood and Cardiff on a level" with the UK Parliament, which makes no sense.  The Parliament in London is not English; it is a UK Parliament, which is why Scots and Welsh MPs are elected to go there.  To bring the Welsh and Scots Assemblies "parity" would mean giving them full national sovereignty, but the Scots rejected this in 2014, and the Welsh have never asked for it.

It also begs the question of what you would do with Northern Ireland.  Given the peculiar and dysfunctional state of that polity and the history of how it used to exercise such powers 1920-1972, I hardly think it would be a good idea.

Talk of a codified constitution, aside from leading to all sorts of further wrangles about what would be in it, would actually lead to greater judicial activism and a decline in legitimacy as more examples of popular support would come into conflict with whatever special majority you needed to change your written constitution.

It worries me that these days senior political figures don't seem to understand the implications of what they are saying.  That is quite before you get to the kind of wilful obfuscation being employed by the SNP and the Tories over visas and what is a reserved power and what is not. 

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Investigation into The Labour Party

I have noticed that there is still a lot of speculation about what the EHRC investigation into the Labour Party will do.  It is worth referring back to what the EHRC said about this itself.  This was:

Summary

We have launched an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party.

About the investigation

We contacted the Labour Party after receiving a number of complaints about allegations of antisemitism in the party.

We have carefully considered the response we have received from the Party and have opened a formal investigation.

We are using our powers under the Equality Act to open an investigation, which will look at:

    whether unlawful acts have been committed by the Party or its employees or agents

    the steps taken by the Party to implement the recommendations made in the reports on antisemitism by Baroness Royall, the Home Affairs Select Committee and in the Chakrabarti Report

    whether the Rule Book and the Party’s investigatory and disciplinary processes have enabled or could enable it to deal efficiently and effectively with complaints of race or religion or belief discrimination and racial harassment or victimisation, including whether appropriate sanctions have been or could be applied

    whether the Party has responded to complaints of unlawful acts in a lawful, efficient and effective manner

Any communications about the investigation may be sent to LPI@equalityhumanrights.com

Information or evidence received from individuals will be considered as part of the investigation. We cannot confirm that we will act on every email received.

The deadline for submitting information or evidence was 31 July 2019. Any information or evidence submitted after this date will not automatically be considered as part of the investigation; however, we may consider it if we think it necessary and appropriate.

Please redirect any media queries to media@equalityhumanrights.com

Labour Leadership Nominations at Brent Central CLP

In a move that will surprise some, Brent Central Labour Party chose to nominate Keir Starmer MP as Leader as a candidate for Labour Leader.  He narrowly beat Rebecca Long-Bailey.  It helps to confirm the depth of his appeal across the Party.

Less surprisingly, Dawn Butler MP won the Deputy leadership nomination quite easily. 

Leaving the European Union

The UK will be leaving the European Union today at 11pm.  Of course we will still be subject to all the rules of the EU in practice.  All we are really doing is giving up the power to decide our own rules.  That and the other contradictions of the Brexit projects will eventually come home to haunt the Conservatives.

Economics of Volunteer Libraries

A little while ago, I found reference to the running costs of Belsize Library in Camden.  For three day opening, it estimates its running cost at £60,000 per year.  Recently, Kensal Rise Library has estimated its costs at £100 per day, which as it is open three days a week would be a bit under £16,000 per year.  Alternatively they mean that they average £100 per day for the full year which would be an annual cost of £36,500.

Of course we don't know what the calculation is based on in either case, so comparison is difficult.

Community Asset Transfer and Public Libraries

Newcastle Business School has quite a good new report explaining the complications behind promises to volunteer libraries and either community asset transfer or other forms of grace and favour funding.  Among other things it is worth pointing out that such things can easily mean that the volunteer library continues as a drain on the public library service.  When discussing this sort of thing with the various community groups during the Libraries Transformation Project, I found that they were quite disdainful of even being asked the questions. 

UK Aid Subsidizing Coal Abroad

I am genuinely shocked that UK aid has been subsidizing the use of coal for power generation.  For once the current government is right to stop this practice, which actively undermines the UK's generally good record in cutting carbon emissions. 

Soul Destroying Universal Credit

The soul destroying nature of universal credit in Oldham is highlighted in this piece.  The misery is actually designed as part of the package, not a mistake.

The Queensbury in Willesden

The Save The Queensbury campaign appears to have wound itself up.  The successes it lists were actually obtained through a number of previous applications going back to, I would say, 2017.

Community campaigns really do need to think more about when they call it a day.

Labour Win Barnhill and Wembley Central But Lose Alperton

In this week's Council by elections, Barnhill and Wembley Central were won by Labour.  Alperton was won by the Liberal Democrats.  I don't think these have any implications beyond the by elections themselves. Alperton is not part of a wider trend but the result of a Labour candidate who it was belatedly realised had made extremely offensive comments about another religion.  Therefore there was effectively no Labour campaign in that seat.

YouGov on The Labour Party

YouGov have come up with a remarkable finding.  Jeremy Corbyn stills scores highly despite leading the Labour Party to its worst defeat since either 1931 or 1935 (depending on how you look at it).  The members also seem strikingly ignorant of Labour Party history.  There more such graphs here. 

Moving on from the General Election Defeat

Zarah Sultana MP has caused controversy with her suggestion that the entire periods of Labour government under Blair and Brown were simply a continuation of Thatcherism.  She is backed up some writers on the Guardian and in recent comments by Clive Lewis MP.

This viewpoint is something I find frankly bizarre for a Labour MP to hold and probably has seeped in from parties that oppose Labour.  It ignores the fact that the last Labour government simply didn't care about reducing the size of the state as an objective meaning it could, for instance invest unprecedented amounts in the NHS as well as very large amounts in education, local government and other public services.  These often then formed the basis of Tory cuts under Cameron and May which the hard left have protested about without really doing very much to support those achievements in the first place.  I would easily reel off a list including improvements in foreign aid, constitutional reform, rapproachment with the EU and so on that relate less to financial issues.

Some in the Party are struggling to react to the 2019 General Election defeat and to accept that its team decided to accept a General election on Conservative Party terms and ran a campaign entirely under its own control and the result was the biggest disaster for Labour in living memory.  Processing these facts is essential to the recovery of the Party under a new Leader.

Public Libraries News on Volunteer Libraries

Public Libraries News, which is an invaluable way of keeping up with public library developments has a short piece on volunteer libraries.  Among other things it shows the enormous growth of these, and the way some authorities have come to depend on them.

"A few of the items this week show how dependent some public library services are on volunteers. North Yorkshire says “acknowledges that without the support of more than 2,000 volunteers and others the service as it exists today would not be possible.”, Oxfordshire open a new branch but say that they will need volunteers to actually run it, and Staffordshire report that they have 1,000 volunteers doing the work that would otherwise keep staff employed to the tune of £1.4m. When library services depend on the unpaid in their thousands to do the work it’s clear to see how things have changed since 2010 when less than ten branches nationwide relied on such generosity."

I have deep reservations about this kind of thing, including quality of service, fairness to volunteers and the whole notion of unpaid working and effective undercutting of the payroll workforce.

Labour's 2019 Manifesto

Andrew Harrop, of the Fabian Society, has come out with a pretty devastating take on the 2019 Labour manifesto, correctly criticizing its general credibility, its reversal of the long held Labour goal of equality, its turn towards statism, its simply inadequate research and its lack of narrative.

It would be difficult to imagine more ways in which a manifesto could fail.

Undiplomatic Language

The new intake of Labour MPs appears already to be showing that whoever becomes Leader may face certain problems that they will need to address.

Zarah Sultana, the new MP for Coventry South, appears to use "white" as an insult rather than a description.  Coventry Council thinks that more than 70% of the City's population is white.  Telling the majority of your constituents that you don't like them because of their race probably isn't politically very sensible and her words are unlikely to appeal to those parts of the country where the majority of people are white.

Some of the other language she has used, also appears be very confrontational in a way that I suspect many people find deeply unattractive.

Already I have attended that a Labour Party meeting reviewing the General Election defeat which left me with the feeling that many Labour members still don't "get" the scale of the rejection by the voters.

Labour Deputy Leadership Nominations

Labourlist is helpfully providing a running total on the constituency nominations for the Labour Deputy Leadership, where Brent Central MP Dawn Butler is one of the runners.  If anybody fails to get the nomination of one big trade union and two other affiliates, this is the only alternative way on to the ballot paper.  A successful candidate would need 33 nominations.  Whereas most of the constituency Parties cover parliamentary constituencies, in Scotland there are 73 since the main organizing unit is the Holyrood constituencies. 

A Long-Bailey Surprise on Abortion Rights

Thanks to RedRoar, we learn that Rebecca Long Bailey appears to have surprisingly conservative views on abortion rights.  That is not a view generally associated with the sort of politics she is generally supposed to be championing.  Subsequent reporting appears to show her having a more nuanced view. 

I wonder if she has other alternative takes.

George IV at the Queens Gallery

I saw the George IV exhibition at the Queens Gallery recently.  It is interesting that whereas previous monarchs had used Royal patronage to self consciously promote themselves as monarchs, he was just a rich man showing off his taste.  For example, Charles II consciously modeled his coronation portrait on standard coin images of medieval monarchs, Goerge IV spent money on all kinds of stuff like Chinarosie that had such meaning.

CND Inside Out

It is a curious thing that the recently reported demonstration against war with Iran included CND (which was once known as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).  They surely know that the Iranian regime is more or less openly seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Yet they choose not to address that. 

I also note that they don't seem called on to make any comment on the violence that Iran routinely promotes across the Middle East.

It is a reminder that these groups have ceased even to make meaningful statements, let alone address any sort of action.

Questions for BDS

I wonder whether it ever occurs to supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement that their campaign might help to create the kind of "hostile environment that leads to graffiti such as this.

Ignorance of Scotland

During the Indyref, I would often privately marvel at the sheer ignorance of English MPs when it comes to Scottish affairs.  I recently saw a tweet suggesting that one Labour MP cared about kids in Glasgow as much as kids in England without appearing to understand that education in Scotland is a devolved matter for Holyrood.

Clive Lewis seems to have a similar confusion here, which has also appeared in some of Rebecca Long-Bailey's comments.  Firstly the power to grant an independence referendum is reserved to Westminster.  Secondly, the people of Scotland announced in 2014 that they did not want independence.   Thirdly, even if the UK were still to be a member of the EU by the time of a new indyref, creating an independent Scotland involves creating a new country that would have to apply for its own membership.  Fourthly, trying to disentangle a union that has lasted more than three hundred years means more wrangling over the Constitution than even Brexit does.  Fifthly, cutting Scotland off from the UK in the current states of its budget would mean a massive shortfall between current spend and the tax take.

Continuity Corbyn Meets Retro Corbyn

Rebecca Long-Bailey has already earned the "Continuity Corbyn" tag, which in the wake of him sending the Labour Party to its worst defeat since 1935 in the manner of Field Marshall Haig ordering the British infantry over the top in the Battle of the Somme, is probably not the best badge to have right now.  Still "ten out of ten" award makes it unavoidable.

However, there appears to be an even more retro option than that, of repeating the error of the "Morons" who signed his nomination papers despite not actually supporting him in 2015. Lloyd Russell-Moyle appears to be bidding for this privilege:

Incidentally, why do left wingers now often seem to have double barrelled names.

Limited Choice in Alperton By Election

Following my entry on Friday, I see that Martin Francis has also commented.  Martin has got it slightly wrong.  Firstly if a councillor is not fully paid up member of the Labour Party, he can't be a member of the Labour Group so he would have to sit as an Independent.  He could, of course, refuse to accept office in which case there would be another by election.  As with other recent examples of Independent councillors, not being a member of a political group does not lead to them losing their seats, although they could not serve as members of the Labour quota on Council Committees.

Finally, the Standards Committee could not take action against him for his offensive tweets since was not a councillor at the time and was therefore not bound by the Code of Conduct.  It presumably can't take action against anyone until its former Chair (Councillor Allie, as was) is replaced.

Deputy Leadership

Labour Deputy Leadership nominations by MPs and MEPs are available to the Labour Party web site.

Alperton Council By Election

Labour's candidate in the Alperton Brent Council by election is reportedly suspended.  This does not mean that he is off the ballot paper.  Once a candidate is duly nominated, he appears on the ballot unless he withdraws, which has to be done by himself, his spouse or his agent on the day that the list of candidates is announced.  As he still appears on the Council web site, he presumably has not done this.  This means that he will be on the ballot paper described as "the Labour Party Candidate" and no one can do anything about it, including the candidate himself.

I expect that once the by elections are over, enquiries will be made within the party about how this failure of vetting occurred.  Not least because it was the responsibility of a Labour Party body called the Labour Campaign Forum (LCF), which also failed to submit a Labour Party submission on ward boundaries.  The Labour Party will have to be told why this was either not carried out, or carried out inadequately. 

Labour Leadership Contest Key Dates

As the Labour Leadership contest is finally under way, here are the key dates:

• Tuesday 7 January: Nominations open from MPs and MEPs.
• Monday 13 January: Nominations from MPs and MEPs closes at 2.30pm.
• Tuesday 14 January: Registered supporters applications open at 5pm.
• Thursday 16 January: Registered supporters applications close at 5pm.
• Wednesday 15 January: Second stage of nominations from Constituency Labour Parties and affiliates opens.
• Monday 20 January: Freeze date for eligibility for new members and affiliated supporters, closes at 5pm.
• Friday 14 February: Close of CLP and affiliate nominations.
• Friday 21 February: Ballot opens.
• Thursday 2 April: Ballot closes at 12pm.
• Saturday 4 April: Special conference to announce results.

You can also keep up with the Leadership nominations via the Labour Party web site. 

As in 2016, it is possible for people to join the Party and vote in the contest, provided they do so speedily. At this stage the eventual winner is hard to predict, not least because Labour Party members' reaction to the General Election defeat is completely unknown.

Willesden Green Library Improvements

Brent Council has announced proposed improvements to Willesden Green Library in 2020, although I find it hard to envisage what they mean.  The press release says:

"The new improvements include the creation of two new modern classrooms for Brent Start, an adult education college offering skills and employment training for local people. The classrooms will be located at the front of the building, showcasing to passers-by what a fantastic initiative this is. This will increase awareness of the courses on offer and encourage more to take advantage of education and training opportunities to improve the lives of Brent residents.

A team of social workers will also be moving into the top floor of the library, giving them the opportunity to be even closer to the children and young people they work with and have an office space fit for their needs. This is in line with our commitment to helping to improve the outcomes for all our young people."

I am not sure what they mean by the "front of the building".  They mention that the "reading room" is available for hire, so I take it it is not there.  The education room by the Museum also remains available so I wonder whether they mean the space where the Library Cafe was, which does indeed front the Brondesbury Park side.

A Quote for the Day from Gordon Brown

I came across this reaction to the 1983 defeat whilst reading stuff on Labour's more recent defeat:

 'We had lost the art of communication but not, alas, the gift of speech'

 A beautiful quote from the then newly elected MP Gordon Brown. 

Library Behaviours

Recently, I was in a Brent library when some one was ejected by the police.  This is a hazard that I think many volunteer libraries under estimate.  Some of the unfortunates who use public services do things that put others off.

This is hinted at in the public notices about violence and personal abuse.  There are also forms of misuse and harassment that warrant ejection, as well as behaviours that fall into more of a grey area in that they make others uncomfortable.  The roots of all this can be a complex mix of health/addiction and personality needs.  They require often a lot of training and persistence to cope with, and I am not sure that volunteers are fully prepared for it. 

Scots Independence Referendums

Tom Harris has an interesting view on the SNP and the possibility of another Scottish referendum.  I think he correctly diagnoses Sturgeon's dilemma.  However, it is striking how very different different referendums are treated.  The EU referendum is treated as a once and for all existential choice.  The English mayoral referendums were simply ignored no questions asked and the four devolution/independence referendums of 1979, 1998, 2014 and whatever date may or may not be chosen next, fall somewhere in between.

Labour Party Leadership

That YouGov poll of Labour members on the leadership is available.  At the moment, it should be remembered that some candidates have not officially declared and some of the people rumoured to be considering a pitch may not be able/willing to go forward.  Again events and exposure to each candidate could change allegiances quite dramatically so there is everything to play for.

More Reading

Whereas Brent libraries have been successful in promoting library use, they have had only a limited impact on increased loans.  I suspect this has something to do with social change meaning that people tend to read fewer books.  Here is one person's tips for extending the number of titles you are reading. 

Related Party Transactions

All members of local authorities are required to fill in a form detailing "Related Party Transactions".   This details where councillors have a close relative doing some sort of work for the Council.  For instance, a relative in a building firm might be given a Council contract.I notice that in Brent, unlike with other forms of reporting such as gifts or appointments, these transactions are not made readily available on the Brent Council web site.

I wonder why this is.

Too Many Representatives?

This is a comment piece about the number of elected representatives from a Conservative source.  It thinks the fewer the better in both Parliament and local government.  Oddly this logic is not applied to the unelected House of Lords which continues to grow beyond any other legislative chamber in the world, not least with the addition of Zac Goldsmith following his rejection by the voters.