HearFromYourMP

Previous message | Messages for this constituency

Andy Slaughter's eNews #43

Posted by Andrew Slaughter, MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, at 19:53, Fri 16 January 2009:

You can read more about my work locally and in Parliament by visiting my website at http://www.andyslaughter.com

MASSACRE IN GAZA

The world has looked on appalled for the past three weeks while Israeli tanks, planes and warships have pounded the most densely populated piece of land in the world, killing over 1,000 people, many of them women, children and old people.

Millions of words have been spoken and written condemning the attacks to no avail and I realise I am only adding to them, but I want to highlight three aspects of the crisis.

Firstly, the utter cynicism and callousness of the Israeli action. It was planned eight months ago before the ceasefire with Hamas. Contrary to press reports, the ceasefire was breached first by Israel, perhaps with an eye to the optimum time to invade. The attack was timed to take advantage of the dying days of a complicit Bush Presidency and before a – hopefully – more robust Obama regime takes over and also to promote the current political leadership in Israel before a February election. Worst of all are the transparent excuses for civilian deaths – that they are the work of Hamas, the result of using people as human shields, or that the civilians are warned in advance (where are they supposed to go in the world’s largest concentration camp?)

Secondly, the contempt Israel shows for world opinion. Unlike the poor response of the British Government to the Lebanon invasion in 2006, Foreign Secretary David Miliband called immediately for a cease fire, drafted the UN resolution calling for one and got it passed without opposition and – along with the other 26 EU counries – condemned the Israeli attacks as disproportionate. But the last minute abstention of the US effectively gave Israel the green light to continue bombing. I now feel we need to go further. Ending the EU-Israel trade agreement, imposing sanctions and an arms embargo, and investigating the human rights abuses in Gaza under international law should be the next steps.

Thirdly, the legacy of the invasion is likely to blight the whole Middle East and beyond for many years. The outrage felt not only in the Arab and Muslim world but among many people in the UK and other western countries will further set back an already weakened peace process. It is good that Obama has said the Palestinian situation will be a priority but it will take skill and energy of the whole UN and a change of attitude by the US to Israel if progress is to be made towards a just settlement for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

I have had several hundred letters and emails from constituents on this subject, but please keep writing to me. I am actively working through the new Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East group and the Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group to represent your views as well as my own. [here [ http://iwc2.labouronline.org/166818/gaza ]]

HEATHROW - NOT GREEN ENOUGH

When the announcement on Heathrow expansion came on Thursday, after many delays, there were some surprises. Mixed mode – the doubling of traffic and noise on existing runways – has been dropped. This is good news for millions of Londoners – including those in the southern half of Hammersmith & Fulham, not only because runway alternation will continue granting half a day of peace but because mixed mode could have been introduced almost immediately.

The binding undertakings on noise and pollution and the promised new high-speed rail links are also more than we were expecting even a week ago. But while I don’t doubt the sincerity of Ed Miliband and Hilary Benn, who secured the guarantees that additional flights would not be allowed unless environmental targets were met, I do doubt the honesty of BAA to keep to those promises over the coming decades.

But – and it is an enornmous BUT- all the safeguards and mitigation in the world can’t disguise the fact the BAA is intending to build effectively a new airport in the most densely populated area of the country (The capacity of the third runway alone will make it the third biggest ‘airport ‘ after Heathrow and Gatwick). Hundreds of thousands of people living across London will experience sustained aircraft noise for the first time and the pressure on overloaded tube lines and motorways will not be sustainable.

Personally, I believe that the logic of Runway 3 is so faulted that it will never be built and I intend to continue to campaign against it. There are legal challenges underway and the planning process is far from clear. In the current economic climate it looks like a white elephant and the coalition against it is express in the 130 MPs from all parties who have condemned it. Curiously, only 30 Tory MPs have signalled their opposition (compared with 50 Labour), supporting a story in the Financial Times today that many shadow cabinet members are secretly in favour.

Heathrow expansion threatens our quality of life in west London and the wider environmental interest of Britain and the world. It demands the broadest coalition to oppose it [more here [ http://iwc2.labouronline.org/166818/heathrow_announcement ]]

HOUSING DEBATE

Mark Field is a fish out of water in London Tory politics. Surrounded by the most extremist right-wing politicians in the UK, including those in H&F, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster cuts a curiously moderate figure. This week he hosted a debate on social housing in central London that had all three parties uniting against the anti-affordable housing policies which Hammersmith Tories and Boris Johnson pursue. You can read my contribution [ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2009-01-14a.71.0&s=speaker%3A11559#g83.0 ]here and the whole debate [ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2009-01-14a.71.0&s=speaker%3A11559 ]here. Worth reading if only for the part where the hapless Tory housing spokesman tries to defend Johnson’s policies of providing subsidised housing for people earning £10k more than MPs.

MORE BORIS

Hot on the heels of his support for people in housing need – provided they earn over £60,000 – and breaking his manifesto pledge to fund rape crisis centres comes Boris’ investigation for breach of the Mayor’s and police codes of conduct. His extraordinary decision to talk to Damien Green and seek to undermine the case against him following his arrest will now be the subject of an inquiry following a complaint by the former head of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

MORE BROKEN PROMISES

January 1 marked the introduction of the £12 an hour charges for elderly and disabled people in Hammersmith & Fulham who need help at home – contrary to the Tories manifesto promise.

Cuts of £30 million were unveiled this week including: • no more grants for school uniforms and music lessons for poor families

• half a million less for after-school play services

• meals on wheels to be delivered frozen once a week

• fewer street wardens to deal with anti-social behaviour

• higher charges for garden waste disposal

• an end to the free collection of unwanted furniture

• massive increases in fixed penalty notices

Reading the small print revealed even worse news. Two libraries will close – including Baron’s Court – but not until after the council elections next year. Worst of all almost £2 million is being cut from the schools budget. The Government insists its schools grant is passed directly to schools to stop this, but the Tories have decided to load a lot of costs the council used to pay onto schools to get round this. Plus the extra money the Labour council used to give to schools is to be cut.

You may have noticed poster vans and lamppost banners around the borough claiming credit for increases in spending. Needless to say these – like the £200 million extra for school buildings – are all from the Labour government. But when will we see the cuts advertised?

MORE OVERDELOPMENT

My colleague Steve Cowan [full story here [ http://thecowanreport.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-hammersmith-property.html ]] chaired a meeting organised by the Brackenbury Residents’ Association last week to protest at plans to build rows of luxury town houses off the Goldhawk Road, destroying many successful small businesses. One or two Tory activists were primed to speak up for this latest piece in the council leader’s jigsaw of 10,00 new luxury homes, but go short shrift. Tory councillors sensibly kept their heads down after that and Bailey, their candidate, who has never once spoken out against a council proposal, slinked off before the meeting began.

If you found you had elected a council which did the opposite of what it said in its manifesto, ignored residents’ wishes and used your money to tell you lies about what they spent it on, what would you do? (sadly you need to wait until May 2010 to do it).

30 YEARS' SERVICE

I attended a farewell party for Sheona York last week. Sheona has been one of the principal lawyers at H&F community law centre since 1979. In that times she has helped thousands of people who could not afford to pay privately for help. Three former Labour council leaders – Iain Coleman, Steve Burke and myself – attended the do despite the fact that she often used to sue us when she thought we weren’t doing our job properly. The Tories of course wish to suppress such activity and have cut most of the advice services in the borough. But it may backfire. Law centre solicitors are now working for some of the best law firms in the country and are happy to take on H&F counicl. Sue Willman of Pierce Glynn – another ex-stalwart - is currently preparing a judicial review of the council’s discriminatory housing policies.

30 FLOORS UP

I was given a panoramic history lesson form the 30th floor of the Empress State Building last week, courtesy of the West London Line Group. We discussed the past and future of transport links in the borough with every line and route laid out before us. There is a serious purpose here – to improve the West London Line and its links to Gatwick, with Crossrail and to the north of England. I now intend to take Lord Adonis, the rail Minister along for the west London treatment [here [ http://iwc2.labouronline.org/166818/westlondonline ]]