EDF and the Bexley blackout

I was at a public meeting last night at St Martin's church in Barnehurst. A team from EDF were there to answer questions about the vandalism and the power cut last week.

They were never going to get an easy time but I felt that they could have handled it better than they did.

Three issues stand out in my mind. David Evernett MP and a number of members of the audience asked about the quality of the security arrangements. If a could of vandals/potential thieves could do so much damage their arrangements are self evidently not good enough.

I raised concerns about resilience planning. Over 100,000 people reliant on a single pinch point is just not good enough.

The final and most heated point was around good will/compensation payments which everyone felt were inconsistent in their distribution and difficult to claim.

EDF can turn this around with a generous good will payout, an improvement to their security measures and an immediate plan to build better resilience into their network.

Young entrepreneurs

Yesterday I had a meeting with Jessica Elliot, founder of Dancing After School Ltd and winner of London Metropolitan University Business Plan competition.

Despite the volume of negative coverage that young people get there are plenty of clever, passionate, hard working young Londoners setting up businesses and helping London out of the current economic troubles.

I have no doubt that Jessica will do well as she has clearly thought through her launch and expansion plans. I also had a meeting with Apprentice winner and founder of the Bright Ideas Trust, Tim Campbell about supporting young entrepreneurs.

All in all a very uplifting afternoon.

From national treasure to pariah?

I have met Esther Rantzen a couple of times in connection to her work with Child Line. She comes across in real life just as she does on TV, enthusiastic, passionate and full of ideas.

I grew up watching That's Life, so Esther will always hold a special place in my heart, you can't watch someone holding up phallic vegetables that often without building a special bond. Her time on I'm a Celebrity will also have won her a new legion of fans too young to have seen dogs saying "sausages".

But all this is now at risk.

The long-standing cynicism that greets politicians has intensified in recent months and the media have also come under a degree of flack. If Esther steps into the world of politics, especially with a "clean up" message she will need to get used to people queuing up to knock her down.

It didn't take long for Richard Ingrams to start asking questions about Esther's financial past. It might not be fair or justified but it will happen.

I think Esther would be a good MP, although I feel that that Nigel Huddleston would be a better MP for Luton South, but she will have to get used to not being loved any more.

Congratulations to Chloe Smith

What a great result for Chloe Smith in Norwich North .

From the small sample of people that I met when up there canvassing and when calling from Conservative HQ I felt that a good result was on the cards but didn't want to jinks Chloe but shouting about it.

A majority of 7,348 votes represents a powerful mandate for Chloe and an even more powerful message to Gordon Brown. I suspect that Chloe Smith MP will be representing Norwich North for many years to come.

Here are the top three:

Conservatives: 13,591
Labour: 6,243
Lib Dems: 4,803

Well done to her, the local campaign team and all the volunteers that helped.

Truth and then the lack of truth

Here is a minister telling the truth, and then here he is being forced not to.

Giving 'succour to the enemy'

Former Labour minister, Lord Foulkes, decided to have a go at Sir Richard Dannatt and Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup about the 'importance of loyalty' and that their calls for more equipment for British forces 'threaten to undermine' the UK's effort in Afghanistan and give 'succour to the enemy'.

There is a word which rhymes with succour and it describes Lord Foulkes rather well.

Public spending has got to be reduced

The Office for National Statistics has published UK's debt statistics. Not good news.

Debt as a percentage of GDP has nearly doubled since 2002 and is now almost 60% of GDP, a figure which is unsustainable. Gordon Brown is sounding increasingly out of touch when he claims that Labour would oversee an increase in public spending. His line is just not credible.

There is still acres of waste in public spending which needs to be reduced and some tough decisions will need to be made. We should be honest with voters about that.

An easy contender for spending cuts is in the advertising budget, Phil Taylor has highlighted a huge increase in recent years (worth noting the peaks ahead of each general election).

Bexley and Bromley power cut

I attended a constituency event in Bexleyheath this evening, in the dark. It wasn't an attempt to create "atmosphere", it was due to a massive power cut which has engulfed a large chunk of south east London and Dartford in Kent.

Some ares may have no power for up to 36 hours.

Vote for me

It's that time again.

The guys over at Total Politics are putting together their list of top political blogs, while I know that this blog doesn't have the kind of mass following that Ian Dale or Guido have I do have a few loyal followers and you can make a huge difference.

Here are the rules:

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).

2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.

4. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.

5. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com

6. Only vote once.

7. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.

8. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name

9. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sir Ian Blair's press statement

Earlier this evening Sir Ian Blair put out a statement saying that a report produced by the MPA had fully cleared him of impropriety and that he could see no reason why the authority should refuse to publish something which he feels exonerates him.

I am the Vice Chairman of the sub-committee which commissioned the report and I was at the meeting on the 13th of July where we discussed it. I wanted to make our position on this issue clear, this is the formal response to Sir Ian's statement:

Following a press statement by Sir Ian Blair earlier this evening the Metropolitan Police Authority issued a preliminary response. The Authority had previously regarded the consideration of the report prepared by Sir Ronnie Flanagan as an exempt piece of business. The Authority now wishes it to be made explicit that its decision, as recorded in the minutes of its exempt meeting, does not amount to an exoneration of Sir Ian Blair's conduct. In particular the sub committee did not accept the third conclusion reached by Sir Ronnie Flanagan that:

"There is no basis upon which police misconduct proceedings could be recommended against anyone involved in this investigation. It should be noted that this conclusion has nothing whatever to do with Sir Ian Blair's decision to retire. It would apply with equal force, should he still be serving."

In reaching this decision the Authority wishes to make it clear that the sub committee were only considering the conduct of Sir Ian Blair. It did however conclude that in respect of the investigation of the conduct of Sir Ian Blair the matter was now closed. Further work will be commissioned to analyse the report and reflect on lessons to be learnt for both organisations. When that work is complete the prospect of publishing the report, possibly redacted, will be re considered.

Bromley District Scouts AGM

After my anger at this morning's MQTs, I had a few meetings during the day which gave me a chance to calm down before ending on a bit of an up-beat.

I was asked to speak about our youth plans at the Bromley Scouts (of which I am Hon Vice President - NO WOGGLE!!!!!) AGM. It is really refreshing to be in the company of people who are so willing to give up their time to support and develop young people.

There was a good response to the plans and aspirations that we have to support youth groups and our drive to increase the number of adult volunteers was welcomed.

Looney left turn Mayor's Questions into a farce

This morning I watched an appalling abuse of political process at MQT.

A number of members of the Assembly wanted an extended opportunity to question the Mayor about Ian Clement's expenses, I see nothing wrong with that desire. There are a number of committees through which that could be done, the Audit panel, Business Management and Administration Committee (BMAC), Budget and Performance Committee or even MQTs.

A letter was sent asking the mayor to come to a meeting of BMAC which would have been specially convened for the purpose of asking about the expenses. The Mayor highlighted the fact that the first question on the order paper at today's MQT was about Ian' expenses and there didn't seem much point in coming to two meetings to answer exactly the same questions on the same issue.

The Lib Dems, supported by Lab and the Greens took exception to this and forced through a vote changing the rules so that the normal time allocation at MQT be removed. This gave them the chance to use our time allocation to asked their questions, the time allocation is based on share of Assembly seats and therefore the share of the popular mandate.

I agree that Ian Clement's actions, Boris' and City Hall's response are all important topics, but so is the £30-40 million black hole in the LDA's Olympic budget that was left to fester under the previous mayor, so is the £22 million raid by Whitehall on the LDA's budget, so were lots of other issues which got sidelined because the left do not respect democracy and felt that their questions were more important than ours.

Spineless Labour minister briefs against Gen Dannatt

There is a story in the Times about the anger in Labour circles about General Richard Dannatt's call for more troops in Afghanistan.

Clearly the minister was so brave that he/she didn't want to be named, so courageous that they didn't want to actually put their name to their comments. To that un-named Labour minister who doesn't like it when an honest and principled soldier says something they don't like, I say this "Put up or shut up".

Let's look at the claims made about Gen Dannatt by this faceless, spineless little shit on the Labour benches. He/She is quoted as saying:

“General Dannatt has crossed an important line. He is playing a high-risk game.” and “He should not be going out there briefing the Conservatives. If he has any concerns he should raise them in meetings in the ministry, not blurt them out."

These comments were not just blurted out, they were made in a private briefing dinner to MPs.

Secondly, Gen Dannatt didn't brief "the Conservatives" he was speaking at the All Party Army Group. The fact that this ALL PARTY group is dominated by Conservative MPs is a telling statement about how much Labour care about the army.

We might well be losing fewer soldiers in Afghanistan if Labour ministers spent more time listening to senior soldiers and less time briefing against them in the press.

Honest hypocrisy

John Cruddas has started to support the calls for a change in the voting system. Here is a youtube video where he says that he liked First Past the Post back when it helped get Labour elected but he doesn't like it any more because it is going to get them kicked out.

At least he's honest.

A Bexley day today

After my regular catch up with the Tony Dawson, the police borough commander for Bexley, I went to The Business Academy in Erith.

As part of the GCSE Citizenship course some of the students are making a video on youth gangs and how to stop them. They invited me to be interviewed for their DVD and I was impressed by how well thought through the questions were.

It was the first time that I have visited the academy and it was very impressive, like City Hall it is a Norman Foster building so the was plenty of light and space. I've never been convinced that the building is all that it takes to make a good school, but it helps. The school has a real buzz about it and it was great to see so much enthusiasm from both the staff and pupils.

I had the chance to pop over to the Europa Gym in Erith this afternoon to see the plans for the new gym that they are hoping to build in Crayford. The plans look very impressive and it would be great to see some of the Olympic legacy stretching to this side of the river.

Oh Brian!

My colleague on the London Assembly, Brian Coleman, has been getting himself in hot water again.

In an era when many politicians refuse to have an opinion on anything for fear of a bad headline, Brian's candour can be refreshing. The by-product of that candour is the occasional gaff.

And his recent comments about expenses, transparency, bloggers and the work rate of fellow Assembly Members sits squarely in the gaff side of the equation.

I have no doubt that Brian will see the light over expenses and with both Roger Evans (group leader) and I (dept group leader) being regular bloggers you might even find Brian taking that up too.

Only don't hold your breath on blogging front.

Livingstone, still talking but saying nothing.

"Act now or Paris will overtake London as Europe's capital city!" This is the headline from today's Evening Standard. Ken Livingstone gives us a terrible warning, beaten by the French. The FRENCH!!!!!

Naturally I read the article to find out what had triggered this apocalyptic prophesy. It was a speech given by President Sarkozy where he said that he wanted Paris to be a bigger financial centre than London. And that's it.

Livingstone claimed that there had been no major investment in London's business supporting infrastructure between 1977 and 1999. Basically blaming the Conservatives for Paris' ability to creep up on us.

Clearly Mr Livingstone's sight isn't what it once was because most Londoners will have noticed a load of tall buildings, a major conference centre and a light railway line in the docklands area. A major regeneration project initiated by the Conservatives.

Docklands now rivals other world business districts on its own. Poor old Ken, desperate to be seen as a credible candidate for the 2012 mayoral elections but increasingly sounding shrill and out of touch.

Sir Paul comes to Bromley

Sir Paul Stephenson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police visited the Bromley Community Engagement Forum AGM this evening.

He spoke to the meeting about his priorities for the Met, the challenges of the recession and the changes that he plans to make. It was clear that Sir Paul's brand of front line first, no nonsense policing was exactly what the audience wanted to hear.

Questions from the floor covered everything from the number and distribution of police stations to the effect on UK policing of the Lisbon Treaty. I don't even get questions that diverse!

Pictured are (left to right) Howard Clarke (Chairman of the BCEF), Sir Paul Stephenson, me, Chief Sup. Charles Griggs (Borough Commander).

Centre for Social Justice Awards

While the news is dominated by Labour's transport spending cuts, Government U turn after U turn and Gordon Brown's inability to tell the truth, I'd like to highlight something else.

Last night I was at the CSJ's Awards. Awards dos can be very formulaic and dull but listening to the work that the voluntary sector does in tackling poverty, addiction and crime is something which deserves greater exposure.

The effort put in by organizations large and small genuinely saves lives and saves the tax payer £millions. I think that Ian Duncan-Smith, the SJ and all those people who work in the voluntary sector deserve a huge vote of thanks.