Bexley police - door to door

The Bexley safer neighbourhood teams have announced plans to visit every home in the borough by the end of the year.

Bexley is, for the most part, a safe borough with falling crime rates and people say that what they want now is to see the local police out and about. While visiting homes they will provide a high profile deterrent to crime and reassurance to residents.

My new job is rubbish

To be more precise it is waste and recycling, but I've been deploying that joke all day and I don't intend to stop on my own blog.

Let me explain. Boris has made a few changes at City Hall to focus on delivery, as part of these changes he has asked me to replace him as the chairman of the London Waste & Recycling Board. A few years ago waste and recycling would have been seen as a no go area for a politician but these days it is recognised as the place where real innovation happens and serious public money can be saved.

As chairman I'll be working with the other board members, London councils and the private sector to drive forward waste reduction and improved recycling in the capital. All this is subject to the ratification by the Assembly's confirmation hearing some time in the next few weeks.

London and Tokyo

Yesterday I had lunch with the First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, Mr Daisuke Otsuka, and Andrew Steven from the Japan Local Government Centre. I'll declare an interest, I love Japanese food and find Japanese culture fascinating so the opportunity to explore closer relations with Tokyo was one I had no intention of missing.

While talking about our respective countries it became clear that the were a huge number cross-overs; physically small, high population density, constitutional monarchy, economically skewed towards the capital city and famous for our adherence to protocol. But the thing I find most exciting about Japan is that, while having so many similarities, it also very different.

Just like London, Tokyo views the rise of the Chinese economy with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation, both as an opportunity and a threat. I can't help but think that Japan may do better out of the rise of China than we will, when the Chinese start driving in serious numbers they are likely to do so in Japanese cars.

For those of you who know little about Japan I strongly recommend you take the chance to find out more, there is so more than raw fish (although that's what I had for lunch, yum).

Does prison work?

On Sunday Alan Duncan got some stick from the Mail and its readers about his comments to a prison conference in Oxford. He is quoted as saying that the phrase “prison works” was ‘repulsively simplistic’, the article doesn't explain the context of this remark so the criticism of him may well be grossly unfair.

I don't pretend to be an expert on prisons or the criminal justice system but my work on Project Daedalus has given me an insight into the youth justice system. Reading the article made me ask myself if I believed that prison works and I have to agree with Alan Duncan that the question is far too simplistic for a yes or no answer.

The levels of repeat offending and the fact that we incarcerate a higher proportion of our population than any other European country shows that in terms of rehabilitation and deterrent prison doesn't work.

Prisons are designed to take criminals out of circulation and help protect the public. While someone is in prison they cannot commit crimes, cannot rob people, break into houses or mug someone, on that level prison does work. But people don't stay in prison forever, indeed with the current government's attitude towards sentencing and early release they don't stay in prison for very long so on this measure we can only count a partial success.

Prisons have an invaluable place in terms of punishment of offenders and protection of society, but they currently fail badly in terms of deterrent and rehabilitation. They are also very expensive.

It costs many thousands of pounds per month to keep someone in prison, during that time we also have their undivided attention. If we don't use that period of incarceration to get them out of the criminal habit we will have wasted a lot of money and unique opportunity.

So, do prisons work? Not at the moment, but they could and an incoming Conservative government needs to make sure that they do.

Education elites

In my role as the Mayor's Youth Ambassador I meet a lot of people involved in the education, training and employment of young adults. There is a lot of frustration in this sector.

Many of these people are far from being natural Tories and some are very explicitly left wing but the message that I get back is that the UK education system is failing.

Every year we have the argument about the validity and quality of A level A grades. This missed the elephant in the room which is that almost half of the UK's children struggle to the 5 good GCSEs which is the benchmark for educational adequacy.

I talk to many children who haven't got formal qualifications and we don't have an epidemic of stupidity sweeping the nation. So there really is only one place that the blame can fall.

Compared to the nations we are increasingly competing with our education system isn't good enough and to pretend it is is to betray our children. There has been a conspiracy of silence about the failings of much of our education system in which the education establishment and the government have been complicit.

There are of course pockets of true excellence in the private, selective and comprehensive sectors, but quality isn't as wide spread as it should be.

David Cameron and Michael Gove are right to propose a radical shift in the quality, quantity and diversity of education provision. Too few families have any real choice in their childs school, poor teachers cannot be removed and good teachers cannot be properly rewarded.

All this has to change if we are going to give or children the best chance in what is already a tough world stage. But more than this, education is the greatest driver to social mobility, crime reduction and the ability to make choices in later life.

Making teaching an elite profession is a precursor to success, all the new paint and IT suites will not offset a lack of well educated, well motivated, and well rewarded teachers.

We have to be bold, our children deserve nothing less.

How good are these free laptops?

Ed Balls still hasn't got his head around the idea of spending restraint. While Alistair Darling talks about deep cuts in government spending, Mr Ed promises 270,000 families a free laptop each!

The reason is to buy the votes of the recipients, the excuse it that these laptops will let parents read their child's school report online.

A couple of things strike me. Firstly why wouldn't these parents read the reports when their children bring them home, or when they come through the post just like every other parent in the country?

Secondly, what spec does Ed think you need to read an email from the local school? £300,000,000 is being spent on 270,000 laptops, meaning each one is £1,111. Even setting some money aside for a wireless router £1,111 buys a lot of laptop.

All this so that families in Labor's heartlands can read three emails a year from their children's schools.

I've seen sailors on shore leave at 3AM spend money more carefully than that.

None of the above

There is a bit of a debate over on LabourList about including "None of the above" (NOTA) on the ballot papers at the general election.

Their discussion covers a range of implications including what would happen in the event that NOTA topped the poll. Would there need to be a re-run with different candidates, etc? This got me wondering.

What would actually happen if a constituency didn't have an MP at all? If the largest group of people actually voted not to have a representative in parliament, would would happen if they didn't elect anyone?

The business of governing the country, passing laws, scrutinising the government etc. would continue as long as most constituencies returned MPs. As MPs have no statutory function within their constituency there wouldn't be anything that would grind to a halt without them.

And if someone from that constituency had a problem that they wanted to bring up with an MP or have someone champion a local issue in parliament, they couldn't.

If people in an area genuinely don't want to be represented in parliament, should we make them be?

Wicked joke or just crass?

For some reason I'm not on the Ministry of Justice's Christmas card list, so I didn't get to see the snowy wonderland scene on the front. Luckily I was passed these photos from an Icelandic friend who thinks the picture is beautiful. He thinks it's beautiful because he's sure that it's a picture of Gullfoss waterfall in SW Iceland! After the British Government used anti-terrorism legislation against Iceland they haven't been too high on the Icelandic people's Christmas card list.

So is this a wickedly cheeky joke by the MOJ, or just a display is crass insensitivity? Sense of humour or insensitivity? Hmmmmm answers on a postcard.

Poor bloody infantry

An army is made up of many different elements; tanks, artillery, engineers, logisticians, medics etc. But the oldest and some would argue most fundamental element of any army is the infantry, the foot soldiers, the grunts, the PBI.

The infantry's role is "to seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture him, to seize and hold ground and to repel attack". This cannot be done with the push of a button at some far distance as part of a digitaly enabled battle. It is done up-close and personal and it is physically, mentally and emotionally draining. The army has been through a very tough five years, and when the army has it tough the infantry has it very tough.

Bernard Jenkin MP has done some digging and found out the effect of this. I'm not surprised to hear that 1 in 5 infantry soldiers is now unfit for full deployment, the anecdotal feedback that I've recieved has pointed at this for some time. Indeed the figure for infanteers at platoon level (the core fighting troops) the figure could be as high as 1 in 4.

We have got here because the government has tried to fight two high intensity conflics with resources designed for low intensity peace keeping roles. It just does not work. The army is too small and unballanced and until we have a proper defence review is likely to remain so.

I would never apply for a constituency that had an all ethnic shortlist

This morning I read about the Commons' Speaker's conference. In order to address the relatively small number of women in parliament plans to legislate for female quotas was discussed. I hate the idea of quotas, they are divisive and counter-productive. I then read that the idea of all ethnic shortlists was also doing the rounds.

No, no, no, no, no!

I will make this commitment now, I will never apply for any constituency that selected its candidate via an all ethnic shortlist.

Parliament does not reflect the country that it is meant to represent. There are proportionally too many Scots, too many men, too many white people, too many barristers, too many well educated people, etc. etc. Some of these differentials are seen as problematic, others are not.

Some of this is caused by pull factors, the disproportionate number of lawyers is a reflection of the link between creating laws and practising law. This pull factor is logical and appropriate, other differentials are caused by push factors, things which dissuade some groups from entering parliament. The under representation of women and black people is almost certainly caused by push factors. Creating quotas will not address those push factors.

Becoming an MP isn't a logical course of action, the money isn't great, the hours are long, there is a huge amount of pressure and most MPs go through 4-12 year battle to get elected at their own expense. Rather than ask why so few women and black people try to become MPs we should ask why so many white men do.

I can only assume that the expectation that many lawyers go to the commons is pervasive in chambers across the country, the same may well be true in union offices. For the mass of people outside these traditional feeder groups, the idea of going through all that crap to get a job that everyone seems to hate and that keeps you away from your family just seems daft. Maybe women and black people just aren't that stupid? Just a thought.

Until parliament has the guts to ask some serious questions about what it is and what it does it will struggle to attract candidates from outside the traditional MP recruiting pools. The changes to the sex and ethnic mix of parliament will then be subordinate to the changes in sex and ethnic mix of those feeder organisations.

Making a career in parliament more widely appealing won't be easy, won't be quick and won't create any high profile battles, but it will be more effective. It seems that the Speaker wants to be seen as radical but, like his reaction to MPs' expenses, mistakes taking controversial actions with radical actions.

Luvies deserting Labour?

Last night the Lord Mayor of London hosted the Mayor of London, borough Mayors, councillors, Assembly Members and a host of other notable people involved in London Government at the annual London Government Dinner at the Mansion House.

After the dinner I and a number of colleagues went for a drink in one of London's hidden gems, the Players Bar at the New Players Theatre in Charing Cross, it has a late licence and live music every night. The is a traditional end of the night retreat for people actors and people who work in London's theatreland.

As I fell into conversation with some of the other patrons the subject of my occupation came up, after the whole issue of MPs' expenses I was a little worried about confessing to be a Tory politician but I couldn't exactly lie about it so I fessed up. The reaction was surprising.

At worst the responses were neutral and a number were very positive, the general mood was "please get rid of this government". Clearly this wasn't a scientific survey or fully representative of the nations creative and dramatic industries but there was clearly little love for Labour in the Players Bar last night.

The Teen's Speech - Video from Barnardo's

The team at Barnardo's have put together a video of teenager's views, ideas and opinions. It's well worth a watch.

Where is Brown's support?

It's now over three hours since Hewitt and Hoon made their statement about Brown. At the time I thought that it would blow over, Hewitt and Hoon have both been sidelined by Brown and have axes to grind, this is probably more about them than it is about him.

But.....

Other than, Labour Toff, Shaun Woodward (who owes his position to the Labour leadership) and Brown's protege Ed Balls, no big guns have come out to support Brown. The longer we have to wait until their support comes the more damage will be done.

Where are Mandelson, Miliband, Harman et al?

Harriet's attack says more about her and Livingstone than it does about Boris

Harriet Harman has written a piece in the Evening Standard attacking the "massive" fare rise that has come in today. There are a number of things to bear in mind when reading the piece, which I recommend you do.

Firstly relatively few people will actually receive a fare rise at all, the over 60s who use the freedom pass (valid 24 hours a day from 2nd Jan 2010), school children on free travel, those on job seekers allowance etc. who don't have to pay bus fares. Those who have travel-cards will not face any rise at all either and now that many commuters can use Oyster cards on the surface rail they will actually see a fare reduction.

Secondly the desperate attempt to equate the fare rise to the scrapping of the Western Extension of the congestion charge zone and £25 a day tax on larger vehicles is comic. Harriet claims that these measure cast £50 million and £70 million respectively (see below). The drop in tube usage alone, caused by Brown's recession, has cost TFL £700 million in lost ticket revenue and we inherited a £2.25 billion black hole from Livingstone. Even if these measures cost £120 million it would be a drop in the financial ocean.

Her claims about the revenue generated from Livingstone's "green" measures show the truth about the Labour regime. If these policies were designed to stop larger vehicles and traffic from West London driving in Central London they would have been budgeted to generated nothing (or at least negligable sums of money), but in order to collect the kind of figures Harman talks about there would need an almost zero reduction in London traffic. Far from being green, these measures were just about squeezing more money out of London's motorists.

As those who have read and commented on the piece have said, this is a massive own goal for Labour rather than an effective attack on Boris.

P.S. Funny how the Deputy Leader of the Labour party is attacking Boris like this, not Livingstone or Tessa Jowell (Minister for London) or Sadiq Khan (Transport Minister). Do we see some post election positioning for Labour's candidate for Mayor of London?

Islam4UK's march through Wooten Bassett

Imtiaz Ameen has written a thoughtful piece on ConHome about the threatened march by Islam4UK through Wooten Bassett, he advocates banning the march. I understand his point but don't agree.

It's clear that Islam4UK is trying to get as much publicity as possible and has chosen the most provocative place for a march. The route that carries fallen British service personnel has been lined by both residents and visitors to Wooten Bassett many times, each time with dignity and respect. Islam4UK clearly wants to turn their march into a media circus and putting the name of Wooten Bassett into the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Peaceful protest is legal and we shouldn't ban a protest just because we don't like the protesters or what they are protesting about. As far a possible this march should be ignored, I doubt that the numbers involved will be more than a few dozen.

I suspect that the organisers would like nothing more than to be shouted at by people angry at their lack of respect, we should rise above it. If any of the protesters break the law they should be arrested. If they don't, as James Gray the local MP says, they should be ignored.

Congratulations to 265 (Kent & County of London Yeomanry) Support Squadron (Sharpshooters)

I was very pleased to hear that 265 (Kent & County of London Yeomanry) Support Squadron (Sharpshooters) are to be awarded the freedom of the London Borough of Bexley.

265 Sqn are part of 71 (Yeomanry) Signal Regiment based in Bexleyheath and I look forward to them exercising their freedom with "with colours flying, bands playing and drums beating" at some point soon.

Welcome to 2010

This is going to be a big year! There are few certainties in politics but the fact that we will have a general election this year is one of them.

Whatever your political inclination I'm sure you'll agree that the forthcoming General Election will be the most significant in decades. I've had a couple of weeks with the family to recharge my batteries and will be throwing myself into the campaign to come.

All the best for 2010.