Dismore 4 Hendon! And a proper fire service for London!

Andrew Dismore, the former Labour MP for Hendon, lost his seat narrowly to Conservative Matthew Offord in 2010. Dismore has now told Labour Party members in Hendon that he will put his name forward in the selection procedure to be Labour's candidate at the next election.

Dismore is currently the representative for Barnet and Camden on the Greater London Assembly (GLA). Dismore won all seven Hendon wards in the GLA election 2012 and almost 60% of the constituency vote. This was a better vote than he achieved in 1997, when he first won the seat.

Obviously, a big factor in Dismore's great GLA score was the Conservative candidate he unseated: Brian Coleman. To some extent it was an Anyone But Coleman vote. But it was not just that. Dismore's personal reputation was good (not spotless but good). Dismore's defeat in Hendon was a shock; part of the reason he lost was a vicious campaign waged against him during the election period by an Islamist organisation called the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK).

In the next election his likely opponent, the incumbent Matthew Offord, while not as notorious and unpopular as Brian Coleman, is certainly not Mr Charisma or Mr Industry. (Take a look at Offord's website, for example. It doesn't bowl you over, does it?) Whereas Dismore has always been very active, and, moreover, seen to be very active.

He has just helped to achieve the staving off of Boris Johnson's planned cuts to fire stations and personnel in London for a year, in order for a proper public consultation to go ahead. Dismore's very busy website brings this excellent piece of news.

Today Boris Johnson’s plans to close 12 fire stations and axe 18 fire engines [and 520 firefighters] were set back. The move came after members of the London Fire Authority accepted that the 2013/14 budget will not include cuts to frontline services. A motion proposed by Labour Assembly Member Andrew Dismore, and passed by today’s London Fire Authority meeting, asked that no frontline cuts are in the 2013/14 budget. There will now be time for a full and wide ranging consultation with Londoners.

Kowloondale

Disclaimer: I hesitated to write this blogpost as it might seem that I am having a dig at the Chinese community in Colindale. I'm not, not at all! In fact, the developments that are going on in this ward are likely to dilute the valuable influence and presence of this group of people considerably.

So, on to the blogpost...

When I pass the Beaufort Park development - which aesthetically I like, actually - a half-remembered image comes into my mind. 'Kowloon,' I murmur. 'Kowloon.' Why?

I have just googled 'Kowloon' and, lo and behold, found this striking picture.


Kowloon, an area of Hong Kong: remind you of anything?

I suspect that many Barnet residents don't know what goes on in parts of the borough other than their own. You might not know, therefore, that Colindale ward is subject to a Barnet Council area action plan which aims to double the population in 10 years. Massive developments are springing up all the time.

Beaufort Park is about half-done now, I would say. Other developments include the so-far small - because stalled for lack of funds - New Hendon Village (ho, ho), parts of Grahame Park, Pulse and Rhythm (I kid you not) close to Colindale tube station. (A good source of information on the various schemes is the Colindale Renewal blog, the work of Barnet's most prolific, most unsung, and most mysterious blogger.)

The British Library newspaper reading rooms are going to be developed into flats; a large part of the Metropolitan Police training college, the Peel Centre, is going to be developed. (We will lose the potential use of an athletics track, going by the current plans.)

There's an ugly tower called Zenith House going up next to the Edgware Road.

Barnet is already struggling to find school places for all of the children that need them. There are many other concerns about the adequacy of the infrastructure, social facilities, etc, in this area to cope with the expected rapid influx of humanity.

On a personal level I don't mind where people live. I do worry, however, that they won't have what they need to live well. More than that, I believe that with some 'rebalancing' - better planning and a different allocation of resources - people would not have to move to Colindale from the probably much nicer places they live in at present.

There is another aspect to this, a class one (I'm Citizen Barnet, what did you expect?). Barnet Council have divided the borough up into 3 areas: those areas, such as Totteridge, that are already so nice that they have only to be preserved; those, such as Finchley, that are not bad but which if they were enhanced could be nice; and places such as Colindale which are not sufficiently nice for anything except to soak up all the newcomers expected into the borough. The fate of places such as Colindale is simply to 'grow'.

Our new Barnet and Camden representative on the London Assembly, Andrew Dismore, has been working hard lately. One of the focuses of his attention has been this 'growth'. He has put out a statement on it. The gist:

It is not fair on the existing residents who will see little benefit, and will suffer more traffic jams, overcrowded public transport, high buildings, long queues for public services and overstretched utilities.

Adding all the new homes planned for Colindale together, this puts the total to over 10,000 in a short stretch of only half a mile or so of road frontage. The Council must reconsider its Colindale Area Plan and the Mayor must see sense.

If this is all going to happen (it is) it would be good if all of the residents of the borough could support the residents of Barnet's 'growing' areas in their campaign for the resources that will be needed to support the influx.

On a purely personal and selfish level, I'm also worried that I won't get a seat on the tube anymore!

The best manure in Burnt Oak

The ward level detail of the voting in the elections on 3 May is available here (scroll down to Useful downloads).

The Barnet votes for the constituency member on the London Assembly, the contest in which Andrew Dismore beat Brian Coleman, are:

Remember, there is all sorts of other detail on the Excel sheet, eg, how Camden voted, the breakdown of ward votes for the mayoral election, etc. Hours of endless amusement and Excel practice, including basic arithmetic!

Here are the votes and percentages for the ward I live in, Burnt Oak:

Candidate           Vote              Percentage
Coleman CON      360               13.9
Corby UKIP         149                5.8
Dismore LAB       1885              72.9
Poppy GRN          95                 3.7
Richards LD         96                 3.7
TOTAL                2585             100

Obviously, this is one of Dismore's best wards!

I did something I haven't done in a long time before the election, and spent a couple of happy days canvassing and knocking up for the Labour Party. I live in Burnt Oak, but as with most people and the areas they live in, I really only knew the few roads I traverse on the way to the shops or the tube station. I finally got to go around my ward.

Burnt Oak is, almost solidly, one working class estate. Dismore did well almost everywhere throughout his new constituency, Barnet and Camden, but it's no surprise he did particularly well here in Burnt Oak.

I walked around in a team with Dismore on the day of the election. Andrew was dog tired; I wish I had snapped him nodding off in a chair in the house offered by a Labour Party member to organise the day's activities. It would have made a nice foil to the famous picture of the man he defeated, Brian Coleman, sleeping off his lunch at work at the GLA.

As we went around, I gleaned that Andrew Dismore spent almost every Sunday of his time as MP for Hendon visiting his constituency. "It takes four years to knock on every door," he said. I believe he knows that from first-hand experience.

As we walked around, people in the street stopped to say hello. I hope it doesn't sound rude, but Andrew is not the most recognisable of politicians. If people knew him, it's because they knew him - not because of lurid headlines in a newspaper.

Wherever his main home is, Dismore had - mabye still has - a flat in Burnt Oak.

I don't agree with Dismore on all political questions, not at all, but I believe he was a good MP and will be a very good London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden. One thing we can say for sure is that he will in as short a time as feasible know every inch of his rather large estate.

There is an old saying that the best manure is the farmer's boots, which means, obviously, that the best farmer is the one who has inspected every inch of his land and knows what is going on there. I do believe that Dismore will be the best farmer for Barnet and Camden!

Take me out and shoot me... Or: Brian Coleman: My Part in His Downfall

North Finchley traders representative, Helen Michael

It's a funny thing but, for all all the excitement of yesterday, what is exercising me most this morning is the fact that I missed the chance to take a great picture.

At 6pm I was standing with a friend outside the entrance to Alexandra Palace, at the count for the Barnet and Camden London Assembly member election, when Brian Coleman arrived, with his mother.

It was clear by then that he had lost his London Assembly seat to Andrew Dismore, and people had been speculating on whether or not Coleman would show his face.

Now, here he was, against a spectacular backdrop of all of London, walking towards me. What did I do?

I'll tell you what I did. I failed to take a picture. And I have the audacity to call myself a journalist!

On reflection, it's lucky I didn't. Lucky for me, lucky for Coleman, lucky for everyone. His miserable face was a picture of studied light-heartedness; he was clearly utterly miserable. He lost by 21,000 votes, after all. (Full result here.)

He went into the big hall where the counting took place for the very end of the count; then he stood in the Palm Court while a knackered Nick Walkley, Chief Executive of Barnet Council and its returning officer, read out the result, and then, I understand, sloped off while a justifiably delighted Andrew Dismore made his victory speech. No speech from Coleman. No chance for the rest of us to practise our agreed upon dignified applause.

Yesterday was a great day for me and lots of other Barnet campaigners, trade unionists, anti-cuts activists, and residents who are simply browned off with Coleman. All of these 'constituencies' were represented up at Ally Pally. It was also a great day for the local Labour Party.

After such a day, month, year it would be tempting to write a blogpost along the lines of "Brian Coleman: My Part in His Downfall", casting oneself as Spike Milligan (although much less funny, of course).

If I'd got That Picture yesterday I could have stuck it at the top of this blogpost and written: "Errr, look at me! If nothing else, I'm the one with the camera who whips it out at the right moment." Instead, I'm the one with the camera who forgets all about it at the crucial moment and rather too compassionately steps aside to let a wounded man, not to mention his mother, pass unhassled.

I'm too soft, that's my trouble; it's why I'll never make it in politics. Or journalism.

I'll write some more analysis of the election result soon, and say What I Think Should Happen Next. In the meantime, I hope you like the picture I did put at the top of this blogpost. (I hope Helen Michael doesn't mind it.) It's a hommage to a rather famous picture of Brian Coleman, celebrating his councillor's code of conduct hearing - which he lost, by the way! - against "Barnet Eye" blogger Roger Tichborne.

Helen, a representative of the North Finchley traders who have suffered so much as a result of Barnet council's - in the first place, Brian Coleman's - parking policies, has borne the brunt of Coleman's legendary rudeness recently. She is one of the people who has helped to defeat him in this election and deserves a place of honour.

UPDATE: A few pics from yesterday taken with my crappy compact camera, none of Brian... oh, I told you that already: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11722019@N03/sets/72157629969910817/

To sack Brian, elect Andrew - today's the day!

Today, if they want to take it, the electors of Barnet and Camden have a chance to remove from one of his paid political posts one of the rudest, most arrogant and personally grasping politicians in the UK today - I'm speaking, of course, of Brian Coleman.

There is, in fact, only one way to sack Brian Coleman from the post of London Assembly member for these two boroughs, and that is to elect Andrew Dismore in his place.

Andrew Dismore deserves the job. He was a good constituency MP for Hendon. He will work hard, and he will be on top of his brief.

That he is the Labour candidate might put some people off, but if you lean to the right in politics - how shall I put this? - Andrew is a fairly safe pair of hands! As safe as you are likely to get in the Labour Party (pretty safe, I would say, pretty safe).

Dismore deserves the job, Brian Coleman doesn't deserve the job. This evening the Barnet Press published their interviews with four of the candidates for the post. One candiate was missing. Guess who wouldn't answer the Press's questions? That's right, the incumbent, Brian Coleman.

How predictable, how totally Brian, how completely unacceptable.

Coleman is assuming that he will get a victory, because Labour does need a big swing to take the seat. But it is do-able. If enough people go out and vote.

If you want to do right by Barnet and Camden, if you want to restore some sanity to Barnet and Camden politics, please go and vote for Andrew Dismore today. And, for the love of all that is sane and good, don't vote for Brian Coleman.

Anyone But Coleman? Just make sure it's Andrew Dismore!

Barnet CPZ Action have produced a great poster for the London Assembly election next week on Thursday 3 May. It calls on people to vote for Anyone But Coleman.

The anti-cuts group Barnet Alliance last night decided to put this poster on its blog. We have supported the campaign against the hikes in parking charges for residents living in Controlled Parking Zones. It's a great poster! And we agree with the sentiment behind it.

But on a personal level I would go further and ask people to vote for the Labour candidate Andrew Dismore on Thursday.

For the constituency seat, you only get one vote. It matters very much how you use it.

If you want to see the back of Brian Coleman but you would ordinarily vote Conservative, and you're definitely not going to vote for another party, your choice is simple: don't vote for Coleman! Just don't vote for him. Stay your pencil! Coleman doesn't deserve your vote, even if you are a Conservative. He doesn't deserve any voter's vote.

Why not? Because he's uniformly rude to residents and colleagues, unapologetic when pulled up for his behaviour, pig-headed and often wrong-headed in the area of policy, and shamelessly greedy at tax-payers' expense. (I could go on.)

If you are a Liberal Democrat or Green voter please think about switching to Labour for this election. Andrew Dismore can beat Brian Coleman, but only if he gets more votes than Coleman! It's as stark as that. If you vote Liberal Democrat or Green in this election - for the Constituency seat - you are not casting an effective vote, if getting rid of Brian Coleman is what matters to you.

I don't honestly know how UKIP ("Fresh Choice for London"!) voters swing, but I'm guessing the advice would be the same to them.

(I've never been a strategic voter, but some can do it when the devil drives!)

If you're a Labour voter make sure you turn out on Thursday. Remind sympathetic family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, etc, to vote.

If finding out more about him could persuade you to vote for Andrew Dismore - or not to vote against him! - please visit his website: http://www.andrewdismore.org.uk/home/

Dismore wrote recently to the Camden New Journal about Coleman's almost total lack of work in Camden, which he also represents on the London Assembly:

[A] Freedom of Information request I submitted to Camden Council... revealed that since the last London elections, Mr Coleman had not written a single letter to any Camden Chief Officer about any subject whatsoever.

One perverse byproduct of his inactivity in Camden is that Coleman is not so hated there as he is in Barnet, where he is far too active! Turnout in Camden could be relatively low. A lot hinges therefore on the turnout in Barnet where Coleman and his works are well known.

Yes, it must be Anyone But Coleman on 3 May but if you really want to see the back of Coleman, if you can, please make sure you vote for Andrew Dismore!

Brian Coleman - have we done enough?

I visited my mum at the weekend. She is a lifelong Labour voter. She introduced me to trade unions, miners' strikes, standing in front of Conservative HQ offices brandishing placards, and the like. She wasn't what a stereotypical lefty is, for those hostile to them. She was very hot on human rights. She wore a Solidarnosc badge, for example.

Easter holidays when I was a teenager were sometimes spent at NUT conference, sharing a hotel room with my mum and her fellow teacher husband (that made him my stepfather, right?) who were delegates. In the daytime I stayed in the hotel room and watched the snooker and developed an unhealthy interest in pallid men in waistcoats who have spent their lifetimes in windowless rooms knocking balls about on the baize or sipping whisky and smoking nervously in the corner awaiting their next turn.

In the evening my mum and I and sometimes my stepfather hiked to watch Kurosawa films at the local arthouse cinema or a filmshow about the military repression in El Salvador. Happy days.

These conferences were usually held at the seaside but I saw little of the beach or the waves or, indeed, the sun.

In the nextdoor - smokefilled - hotel room, cabals of leftists met to argue over the text of a risographed bulletin for the next day. My mother tended to laugh at such people, yet she was always at the head of any walkout from the conference hall over some sellout by the leadership.

Anyway, I digress. We lived briefly in a small country village. Not a lot went on, as you can imagine (apart from sowing seed, spraying, ploughing, baling, raking, harrowing and muck spreading, etc, but we didn't have any direct involvement in any of that).

One evening the local Baptist church held a public meeting with a speaker talking about the religious repression (probably not much improved since) in the USSR. The Baptists and other non-orthodox Christians had to smuggle in (their version of) the Bible to their flock.

Attending this meeting wasn't just something to do on an otherwise (?!) boring evening in Marden. This was something my mother was genuinely exercised by. She was usually anti-war as well, my mum. Even against the Iraq War, although she had, and still does have, a lot of time for Tony Blair. Which. I. Just. Don't. Get.

(Editor: Brian Coleman?) My mother went to live in Greece for 16 years during my young adulthood. She has been back 10 years or so (my not-so-young adulthood) and announced this weekend that she has again got the measure of how things are in the UK politically and thinks it is time she rejoined the Labour Party. No prompting from me, honest.

I in my turn told her about our political landscape here in Barnet. We have an overlapping concern in the shape of Boris Johnson who is pushing his estuary airport (aka Boris Island) in the Thames estuary, which is likely to impact badly on the natural habitats of north Kent. My mum now lives in Rochester and opposes the airport scheme.

I told her all about Johnson's running-mate Brian Coleman, his being a most egregious example of a boorish, pompous, venal and self-regarding politician. So bad that he makes other boorish, pompous, venal and self-regarding politicans, even other Tories, look good (yes, that bad).

"But we hope to dislodge him on 3 May," I said at the end of all this, and sat back, job done. "When is the 3 May, by the way?"

"Less than four weeks away," my mother said.

"Oh, that's rather soon."

"Isn't it?"

Now it is three weeks tomorrow! Have we done enough? All we people of a varying range of political opinions who hope to defeat Brian Coleman in the election for London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden?

Roger Tichborne at the "Barnet Eye" blog has a piece on Coleman today, which talks about Coleman's rudeness about disabled people, and reminds people how much he is getting paid through his Assembly posts.

Along with his £53,000 salary, he gets his travel expense account to dinners all around [the] Country. He also gets £26,000 a year for the bolt on job of chair of the London Fire and Emergency services authority.

If you think that he is doing a marvellous job and think he's well worth the £79,000 + expenses he gets for these two part time jobbies, then he's your man. If like me, you think that someone who has no regard and consideration for the disabled and the infirm and is prepared to insult them in a Council meeting, is totally inappropriate, then make sure you get out and vote for someone else.

Roger then lists all of the other candidates.

I want you to vote for Labour's Andrew Dismore - or not to vote against him. Dismore is the candidate who can beat Brian Coleman. He was a popular and hardworking MP in Hendon. I believe Dismore lost the general election seat because of the general swing against the Labour government but also because of a nasty campaign run by MPACUK against him, not because he was a bad candidate. Matthew Offord's majority is just 106!

• If you usually vote Labour please get out and vote on Thursday 3 May! Tell friends, relatives, workmates, neighbours to get out and vote!
• If you wouldn't usually vote Labour and might be persuaded to please check Andrew Dismore's campaign website and see what he is saying.
• If you usually vote Conservative or another party and might be thinking of not voting for Brian Coleman, but want convincing that by so doing you won't be letting in a monster (!), again, please visit Andrew Dismore's campaign website. I'm sure he will be prepared to answer any particular worries you have.

Brian Coleman - have we done enough? On other days we bloggers remind you of why this man does not deserve to represent the boroughs of Barnet and Camden in the London Assembly. Today I wanted to focus on the making of political choices - they aren't always straightforward, but they are always possible. How will you vote on 3 May?

Petitions galore as even the Times series takes a stand

One of the local newspapers, the Times series, avoids getting on the wrong side of the council, so it is a mark of how much Barnet's Conservative councillors have offended that the Times series has now launched - very prominently - a petition: Reject the Rise.

Here they explain why. The wording on the petition, which you can sign here, is:

We the undersigned believe councillors should not accept pay rises agreed under the new allowance structure voted in by Barnet Council on July 13, 2010.

We call upon council leader Lynne Hillan to rethink the rise.

Personally, I think the wording on John Dix's petition is better, more concrete (and longer!). You can sign that here.

And Hendon's former MP Andrew Dismore has a petition as well. You can sign that here.

The more the merrier. Will Lynne Hillan take the slightest bit of notice? No, but David Cameron might.

The choices we make - why Dismore has lost Hendon

Andrew Dismore very narrowly losing Hendon is depressing news. Three Tory MPs in Barnet - argh! They'll be cock-a-hoop.

I don't think if I'd stayed in the constituency and knocked up for Dismore yesterday I could have won him the seat! But if I'd known it would be so close, I might well have stayed and tried... We choose what to do based on assessments we make and we sure as hell don't have perfect knowledge.

I said I would go to Hayes and Harlington to knock up for John McDonnell MP. The local Labour Party was nervous that he might lose; the Tories were suggesting they might win.

In addition to the general disillusionment among previous Labour voters (not, as it turns out, as deep as we all predicted), McDonnell had particular pressures on him.

With the Labour government proposing the third runway at Heathrow, a significant chunk of the constituency was in danger of being literally obliterated. The Tories were oppposing the runway. And there are two immigration detention centres close to the airport, so the anti-im/migration rhetoric in the election has had particular resonance there.

John McDonnell opposed the third runway - from conviction, not just professional self-interest! - and is not anti-im/migrant. In the event, he has won with a stonking majority, his share of the vote only slightly down.

So, I wasn't needed there at all!

However, as miserable as I am about Matthew Offord's wafer-thin win, I don't feel too guilty personally about Dismore. I did things in his favour which in their very small way might have helped to make the vote close.

The local Labour Party should reflect hard on whether it is doing enough to engage local members and residents. Do Labour voters feel any ownership over the party? I certainly don't. Not so long ago, trade unionists would almost automatically have turned out to canvass for Labour. Trade union branches would have sent delegates to the Constituency Labour Party meetings. Those days are passed - can we get them back?

Dismore is reported by the Times series as saying:

“I don't think there was anything me or my team could have done. If we had had more support in door knocking I think we could have won.

“The Conservatives had the Ashcroft funded billboards all over the borough and we just couldn't compete with that sort of money.”

Dismore and Labour politicians like him need not just to seek scapegoats and apportion blame, but to think about what they can do to revive active support for Labour at the grassroots.

Why I vote Labour

Working-class people are more likely to vote Labour, posh people are more likely to vote Tory. The Lib Dems draw their support from people in the middle. Well, that's a very short-hand exposition of what political scientists (pah!) call 'party identification'.

There is a huge percentage of 'mavericks' in all classes, of course. However, I think the general pattern holds.

I grew up in a poor, white-collar family. My parents were from working-class families but grammar educated. My mum became a teacher; my dad a structural engineer (I'm still not sure what that is). I always thought of myself as working-class. My mum asked me, aged 13, what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I said "middle class". I wonder if I'm there yet.

So, that's one reason I vote Labour! But then 'party identification' has been weakening for decades, people are 'dealigning'. Shocks, such as the Iraq war, can break affiliations. And we all know that Labour has been moving to the right and becoming more and more of a pro-business party.

I hated the war; I hate the drift to the right; I oppose the Labour Party leadership and establishment. But I am still voting Labour. Why?

A friend asks on Facebook:

If a new party started up tomorrow and said it were going to invade foreign countries, torture prisoners, set up detention centres for refugees, privatise the Underground, and give the banks billions, renew Trident, and bring in id cards, would you vote for them? Probably not...

No, probably not, but the whole point is that the Labour Party isn't being set up tomorrow, and it wasn't set up yesterday, but a hundred years ago. For a hundred years, the Labour Party has, totally inadequately, but it has, represented the working class in politics. You don't easily find a replacement for that.

My friend goes on to say:

...but now you find out that they're funded by trade unions, so that's alright then?

I believe in trade unions having a voice in politics. I don't agree with Nick Clegg in state funding for parties. I do believe in capping expenditure in elections, so that richer people and groups cannot just buy votes by out-advertising their opponents (the largesse of Lord Ashcroft disbursed in the direction of the Hendon voter in the last few weeks has been truly humbling - but if he paid tax on all his earnings, we could decide how to spend it, and it wouldn't be on cheesy Tory leaflets). But I do believe in trade unions funding a political party.

What's wrong with British politics now, from my point of view, is that the trade unions that fund the Labour Party do not call the tune. Unite holding Gordon Brown to ransom? If only! Unions represent the interests of thousands, sometimes tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people. It adds to democracy if they can fund a body to represent them politically.

When I say 'trade unions', of course, my interest is with the ordinary members, not the overpaid bureaucrats at the top. So that's another fight to wage: democratise the unions!

I'll go and vote for Andrew Dismore tomorrow (not a personal but a political vote) against ghastly Matthew Offord (personal and political). Then I'm going over to Hayes and Harlington to knock my guts out campaigning for John McDonnell, just the sort of Labour MP we need more of.

And, of course, in the council elections, I will be following the good advice of David Young and voting Labour, to help save the sheltered housing wardens in Barnet, and puncture the easyCouncil balloon.

Not that you asked. See you on the other side...

To the barricades

Fellow Barnet blogger Don't Call Me Dave has ended his self-imposed purdah in order to comment on the coming elections. Read his excoriation of the Barnet Tory hopefuls for Parliament and council here. He signs off:

We don’t need an election. We need a revolution.

Amen to that, but if there was one we'd proably be on opposite sides of the barricades.

I shall vote Labour, but I am resisting the temptation to make Andrew Dismore my friend on Facebook. When he sees who I am consorting with in cyberspace, he could have me witch-hunted out of the party. Politics is a funny old business, isn't it, when your worst enemies are on your own side?