Saturday, May 08, 2004
Fire down below
Impossible to write anything for two days. Partly I'm technologically challenged by the computer ceasing to work and having to find time to go somewhere else. Partly my days are just filled up. I spent Friday in Haringey with the local candidate there, Sait Akgul, and met a range of people from an 82 year old pensioner to 14 year old school students.
Sait is a great candidate who knows loads of people and is a Kurd from Turkey. He says this election campaign is an education and that's really true. A group of us had lunch in a Kurdish restaurant he knows on Green Lanes and the BBC came and filmed us which caused a bit of a stir. The food was delicious but we didn't have a lot of time for it before we were off to the local mosque for a meeting after prayers which I addressed about Respect.
To a firefighters' union meeting at Hornsey where they voted to support a donation for the campaign of London firefighter Linda Smith who is on our list. They also read out my letter about supporting FBU members against cuts and worsening conditions and I spoke and got a very warm welcome.
That was true throughout the day whether with tenants, school students, at an Asian lunch club. People have so many things that they want to talk about and so many grievances. When top up fees are mentioned to the school students I am surprised how many say they might be deterred from going to university altogether. it is obviously a worry for them and their parents. When I was at school we never expected at 14 to go to university because our parents hadn't and then people often said it wasn't worth educating girls because they just get married.
Are we now going to move towards a society where it won't be worth educating girls again because their wages are too low to pay back their tuition fees and loans?
Housing and transport come up all the time. People like the cut in tube fares and more staff on stations and buses. The school students can't afford the tube and nor can a lot of other people. A Tory I debated with wanted more police on the tube but surely better would be people doing a job of making transport more safe but also watching out for people who might be vulnerable to attack.
Saturday I meet stallholders on Ridley Road in Dalston _ one of the poorest markets in London_ who complain about the cost of parking. This is a recurrent theme from people in shops and markets and they worry that their customers just go to the supermarket where parking is free and this drives the small shops out of business. problem is public transport is still awful in Hackney with no tube and even the planned East London line extension once more under threat.
On to the Rio cinema for a Stop the War film show and a discussion afterwards with the ex MI5 agent David Shayler. As usual a brilliant wide ranging discussion with enthusiasm from all but one man who thinks we're all too old and the British public are apathetic!
Sait is a great candidate who knows loads of people and is a Kurd from Turkey. He says this election campaign is an education and that's really true. A group of us had lunch in a Kurdish restaurant he knows on Green Lanes and the BBC came and filmed us which caused a bit of a stir. The food was delicious but we didn't have a lot of time for it before we were off to the local mosque for a meeting after prayers which I addressed about Respect.
To a firefighters' union meeting at Hornsey where they voted to support a donation for the campaign of London firefighter Linda Smith who is on our list. They also read out my letter about supporting FBU members against cuts and worsening conditions and I spoke and got a very warm welcome.
That was true throughout the day whether with tenants, school students, at an Asian lunch club. People have so many things that they want to talk about and so many grievances. When top up fees are mentioned to the school students I am surprised how many say they might be deterred from going to university altogether. it is obviously a worry for them and their parents. When I was at school we never expected at 14 to go to university because our parents hadn't and then people often said it wasn't worth educating girls because they just get married.
Are we now going to move towards a society where it won't be worth educating girls again because their wages are too low to pay back their tuition fees and loans?
Housing and transport come up all the time. People like the cut in tube fares and more staff on stations and buses. The school students can't afford the tube and nor can a lot of other people. A Tory I debated with wanted more police on the tube but surely better would be people doing a job of making transport more safe but also watching out for people who might be vulnerable to attack.
Saturday I meet stallholders on Ridley Road in Dalston _ one of the poorest markets in London_ who complain about the cost of parking. This is a recurrent theme from people in shops and markets and they worry that their customers just go to the supermarket where parking is free and this drives the small shops out of business. problem is public transport is still awful in Hackney with no tube and even the planned East London line extension once more under threat.
On to the Rio cinema for a Stop the War film show and a discussion afterwards with the ex MI5 agent David Shayler. As usual a brilliant wide ranging discussion with enthusiasm from all but one man who thinks we're all too old and the British public are apathetic!
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Between the lines
No one can say that I haven't tested London's transport system. Yesterday I went from Hackney to Croydon via Soho, back to Edgware Road, then to Wimbledon and finally back to Hackney _ this last journey alone took me one and a half hours. Today I've been to Hounslow, Twickenham and back to Edgware Road. Everywhere you go people moan about transport _ and not just the perennial world weariness that is part of being a Londoner who uses public transport.
There is a deep seated feeling that it really shouldn't be as bad as this. If Ken Livingstone's 'fares fair' policy had been implemented fully then we would now have much cheaper tubes and buses, more investment and less traffic congestion. Instead one judge decided that would not happen. If the Tories had allowed Crossrail and the Hackney to Chelsea line to be built 20 years ago then it would be much quicker to get across the city.
And we have to pay through the nose for the privilege of travelling on some of the oldest, slowest and most unreliable underground lines in the world. That's why our policies on transport are so popular especially the call for a £1 tube fare. Why should we have what is effectively a two tier system where the poor are priced off the tubes and onto the buses. A cheap and fast public transport system would be cost effective in terms of reducing pollution and allowing people to get to work and leisure quickly and efficiently.
That message seems to go down very well. I spoke to Croydon college NATFHE (lecturers union) where the point was made that students couldn't afford the rise from 70p to £1 let alone the tube. Yet you go to Wimbledon as I did last night and you see more black cabs than you can count queuing up at the station in this well heeled suburb. Not natural Respect territory but we held our own at the hustings for Make Votes Count.
Labour's policy seems to be don't mention the war but we're going to make sure it stays on the agenda. The news from Iraq will make sure it does.
There is a deep seated feeling that it really shouldn't be as bad as this. If Ken Livingstone's 'fares fair' policy had been implemented fully then we would now have much cheaper tubes and buses, more investment and less traffic congestion. Instead one judge decided that would not happen. If the Tories had allowed Crossrail and the Hackney to Chelsea line to be built 20 years ago then it would be much quicker to get across the city.
And we have to pay through the nose for the privilege of travelling on some of the oldest, slowest and most unreliable underground lines in the world. That's why our policies on transport are so popular especially the call for a £1 tube fare. Why should we have what is effectively a two tier system where the poor are priced off the tubes and onto the buses. A cheap and fast public transport system would be cost effective in terms of reducing pollution and allowing people to get to work and leisure quickly and efficiently.
That message seems to go down very well. I spoke to Croydon college NATFHE (lecturers union) where the point was made that students couldn't afford the rise from 70p to £1 let alone the tube. Yet you go to Wimbledon as I did last night and you see more black cabs than you can count queuing up at the station in this well heeled suburb. Not natural Respect territory but we held our own at the hustings for Make Votes Count.
Labour's policy seems to be don't mention the war but we're going to make sure it stays on the agenda. The news from Iraq will make sure it does.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
The double shift
Alarm goes off at 5.30 and as usual when I have to get up very early I have slept badly. Walk down to the station. I'm surprised _ as usual again _ by how many people are up and working. The people who drive the buses and trains, bake the bread and clean the streets have already been up for hours. This army of workers which keeps London moving is for the most part badly paid and taken for granted by those in government. The train across north London is full even at 6.30. We head to Cricklewood post sorting office where we talk to the union rep and very friendly post workers as they load their vans. Leaflets go down well. Then to Wembley fire station where we drink tea and talk about Respect and why we are standing. No one has any time for Labour because of what happened with the dispute but also because of all the other things which are happening. Some say they won't even bother to vote and will we be any different? One firefighter lives in Northampton, another in Reading and they tell me about people who commute from Ireland. Childcare is too expensive even for people in work and they rely on relatives to enable both partners to work. There are now 12 million women working in Britain and the big increase over the past few decades has been mainly married women, especially mothers. Yet this has been achieved with very little expansion of state childcare and the cost has been pushed onto working parents themselves you can't afford it and don't have relatives who can help, tough. And if you're a single parent then you're much more likely not to work because it just isn't worth it.
Monday, May 03, 2004
Guess who's coming to dinner?
My agent comes round and we go through my nomination papers. My kitchen table has become my filing cabinet with piles of leaflets, bills, receipts. Probably doesn't matter since we're not doing a lot of cooking and eating at home. In the evening I go out to dinner as a farewell from the editorial board of Socialist Review. I am finishing as editor after nearly 20 years and Peter Morgan is taking over who has got lots of ideas and will do a great job. Since I got involved with Stop the War it has been very hard to put the work into the Review and now it is near impossible. It is a lovely evening with old friends, great Vietnamese food. presents and long discussions. A main topic is the torture of Iraqi prisoners and all of us reckon this is another twist in the downward spiral for Bush and Blair. I agree with Patrick Cockburn who wrote in the Independent today that the Americans have lost in Iraq. A couple of us talk to the waitress who says she will vote Respect. My partner John turns up very late after driving from Birmingham where he spoke to 200 people at a People's Justice Party meeting. That's the second meeting of 200 this weekend in Birmingham because George Galloway addressed a Stop the War/Palestine Solidarity on Saturday. Who says people aren't interested in politics? Monday morning I discover a bill I'd forgotten all about under a copy of the Economist so phone my bank to pay it. Finances even more out of control than usual! Into the Respect office where most of the news seems good and we plan the week ahead. What better way to spend a rainy bank holiday.
