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An inquiry that's needed...

THE TORIES are not the best placed to talk about sleaze, given the record of the past Thatcher and Major governments, but that doesn’t mean their call for a public inquiry into the Jowell affair should be ignored.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell’s husband David Mills, an international lawyer who works for Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, is accused of taking a £344,000 bribe from Berlusconi in return for providing false witness in court for his client. This, Mills denies.
While her husband’s business has nothing to do with her, the Sunday Times claims that Jowell signed a document to facilitate the transfer of this money to Britain.
According to the paper there is a link between a loan application she signed on the couple’s house and the money that Italian prosecutors allege was a bribe. This loan was then reportedly paid off some weeks later allegedly using money Mills received from Italy. Jowell categorically denies it was paid off with Berlusconi’s money. “I agreed that we would take out a loan on our house. That is not unusual, it’s not improper, and it’s certainly not illegal,” she told the media on Sunday. That being the case there should be no problem in meeting the Tory demand for an independent inquiry to see if the Labour politician has breached the ministerial code of conduct.

...and a panel that’s not

THE DISGRACEFUL suspension of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London by the obscure and unelected Adjudication Panel of England has been frozen for the time being. But the verdict of this body, on behalf of the Standards Board for England, was unjust, inconsistent and plainly disproportionate to Livingstone’s alleged offence.
Last year a Tory Brent councillor was brought before the board for saying “Jews run everything in Britain and practically run America”. But while the board accepted that he had “expressed a controversial opinion that offended a member of the public”, no action was taken because this London Tory councillor had not committed “a criminal offence” nor had his remarks put “individuals or groups at risk”.
It’s a different tune when it comes to the Labour Mayor of London.
Livingstone claims that the London Evening Standard has pursued a 25-year vendetta against him. That’s not surprising as the paper is a consistent supporter of the Tory party. But celebrities and politicians must expect the attention of the paparazzi whether they like it or not. The Standard reporter who door-stepped a party at midnight to catch Livingstone off-guard was doing his job. Equally Livingstone was entitled to tell him where to get off.
Comparing the reporter, who is Jewish, to a German war criminal and a “kapo”, a term the Nazis used for Jewish collaborators in the concentration camps, was as offensive as it was intended to be. But it clearly wasn’t racist or anti-semitic – a fact the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who made the complaint, recognise.
Nevertheless the three-strong panel asked to consider their complaint, deemed that Livingstone’s conduct was “unnecessarily insensitive and offensive” and had brought his office into disrepute, ruling that the Mayor should be suspended from office for a month.
Livingstone has quite rightly vowed to appeal and take this case through the courts if the decision is not rescinded. Though the panel has the powers to punish those it decides have breached the standards code, the Mayor points out that the code itself is going to be amended by the Government to restrict it “only to matters which would be regarded as unlawful”.
Ken Livingstone has been a forthright opponent of racism and fascism throughout his political life. No one seriously believes this incident was no more than a storm in a tea-cup inflated by those who seek to discredit the Mayor and the London Labour Party.
The suspension, which cuts across the democratic rights of Londoners who voted Livingstone in, must be dropped.

London celebrates Chinese culture

The largest celebration of Chinese culture "China in London 2006" was formally launched in the last days of January with the switching on of a specially designed Chinese lantern lighting display in the heart of the capital by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and China's Super Girl champion Li Yuchun.

"China in London", a season-long celebration encompassing over 100 events and exhibitions across the metropolis, demonstrates the close links between London and China, which is further reinforced by Beijing and London as the next host cities for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

After lighting up the Chinese lanterns at the world-famous Oxford Circus, Li Yuchun performed in front of a large crowd with British band Liberty X.

"I am very pleased that Li Yuchun is able to join London in launching the largest ever celebration of Chinese culture to have been held in the City. Her appearance at this event is a demonstration of the growing links and strengthening of relations between London and China, which were given a huge boost by London's successful bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012," said Livingstone.

The launch also marked the beginning of the capital's Chinese New Year celebrations, which has been traditionally the largest of its kind outside Asia. The annual Chinese lunar New Year parade and festival took place on Sunday 29th January, marking the start of the Year of the Dog.

Chu Ting Tang, president of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, said: "Super Girl Li Yuchun's launch of the China in London season is an exciting curtain raiser to the capital's Chinese New Year celebrations, which are growing every year. Around 80,000 people attended last year's festivities in Chinatown and Trafalgar Square and we expect the turnout to be truly phenomenal this time around."

The Chinese New Year parade and festival was one of the biggest events during the "China in London" season, which features a wide range of other activities, from exhibitions, performances and film screenings, to food tasting and the appreciation of Chinese language and literature.

James Bidwell, chief executive of Visit London said: "We're delighted to play host to such an extensive celebration of Chinese culture in London. With Li Yuchun performing, the cultural links between China and London could not be stronger. In 2004 Chinese visitors represented eight per cent of all trips to the United Kingdom from Asia and, with the receipt of approved destination status in 2005, we would expect this figure to rise in 2006. This celebration of Chinese culture in London highlights the city's cultural diversity and the economic benefit it brings."

Livingstone noted that later this year he will be visiting Beijing and Shanghai with a delegation of representatives from London business. "I will be opening London offices in both cities to promote links between London and China. I regard it as the highest strategic priority for London that we develop the strongest possible links with the Chinese economy. It is also central to the continued strength of London, as a financial centre, that we remain open to the most important developments in the global economy."

The Chinese season is organised through a partnership between the Mayor of London, Visit London, and the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as a wide range of organisations, including London Chinatown Chinese Association, New West End Company, Regents Street Association, Transport for London and the London Development Agency.

Highlights include a spectacular specially commissioned window and in-store display at Selfridges, performances by the Gold Sail Dance Troupe from Beijing, the Shanghai on Screen film festival in the West End and Docklands, as well as a Beijing Olympics Photography Exhibition at London's City Hall.

A cornerstone exhibition is the acclaimed China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795 now on show at the Royal Academy of Arts and featuring 400 works, many of which have never been shown outside China.

The Red Mansion Foundation, a non-profit organisation which promotes cultural exchange between China and Britain through contemporary art, is staging shows like Bad Girls, Good Girls and China Coup. There will also be a wide range of theatre, dance and live performances such as Yellow Gentlemen, a new play by Benjamin Yeoh, and a version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Nightingale by the Yellow Earth Theatre Company.

London's growing relationship with one of the fastest growing markets in the world brings significant economic benefit. London attracts around 30 per cent of the Chinese foreign investment projects in Britain, the largest European recipient country of Chinese foreign direct investment projects.
Xinhua news agency

London rally against Islamophobia

by Caroline Colebrook

THOUSANDS of Muslims gathered in Trafalgar Square last Saturday to present the peaceful face of Islam and to show their concern at growing Islamophobia in the West.

Also present were many non-Muslims: peace activists, representatives of other religions, to demonstrate their solidarity with Muslims facing discrimination and oppression.

This followed a smaller demonstration in the previous week outside the Danish Embassy where a different group of Muslims, protesting at the now notorious Danish cartoons, had called for violence against non-Muslims.

The pictures of this demonstration, splashed across the media, fuelled more anti-Islamophobia and helped the Government in its efforts to sell its draconian proposed anti-terrorist legislation.
The masses attending Saturday’s rally were determined to distance themselves from this but nevertheless to express their anger at the Danish cartoons and what they represent in a world where the western imperialists have invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and are threatening other Muslim countries and those who resist are demonised as terrorists.

Speaking for the Muslim Council of Britain – one of the groups who organised the event – Inayat Bunglawala said: “The reasons for the rally are two-fold. We want to allow peaceful expression of the hurt caused by the publication of the cartoons but we also want to allow people to publicly distance themselves from the extremists because for most of Britain this is the only impression they have of Muslims in this country.”

Faiz Siddiqi, of the Muslim Action Committee, said: “What is being called for is a change of culture. In any civilised society, if someone says, ‘don’t insult me’ you do not, out of respect for them. Europe has a history of not treating minorities properly. The Holocaust is an example of that. The imagery being used today is the same kind that Hitler used against the Jews. Look where that ended up: in world war.”

Coaches brought protesters from Bradford, Oldham, Luton, Leicester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow. Hundreds of placards and banners carried peaceful slogans, condemning incitement.
Speakers at the rally included Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather. Respect MP George Galloway faced a subdued reception, which included some booing, as he addressed the crowd.

London mayor Ken Livingstone also supported the rally and told the crowd: “I am supporting this event because, unlike some of the BBC’s coverage, it will allow the views of the mainstream Muslim community to be properly heard.”

Speaking of the cartoons, Livingstone said: “There is no excuse for breaking the law and anyone who does so should and will face prosecution. But there is no getting away from the fact that this whole episode has allowed much of Europe’s media to engage in an orgy of Islamophobia.”

Tube contractor axed for doing the dirty on cleaners

METRONET Rail last Monday terminated its contract with the Blue Diamond cleaning company after the Transport and General Workers’ Union informed it that Blue Diamond had been consistently withholding workers’ pay.
The TGWU, which represents cleaners on London Underground, discovered that Blue Diamond had been paying their workers £5.05 per hour despite having agreed a basic wage of £5.50 with Metronet at the start of the contract in October 2005.
Metronet agreed at a meeting with the TGWU in January to investigate and the TGWU last week welcomed Metronet’s decision to fire Blue Diamond from their prestigious cleaning contract on the District, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City and East London lines, believed to be worth in excess of £20 million over three years.
This is the first time in 20 years that a contract has been ended due to concerns over the abuse of workers.
TGWU deputy general secretary Jack Dromey said: “Blue Diamond robbed the cleaners, ripping thousands of pounds off hard-working men and women who serve Londoners 24 hours a day. Metronet have done the decent thing, acting promptly and properly to terminate Blue Diamond’s contract.
“The TGWU is determined to end the often shameful treatment of cleaners. In London many are migrant workers. This decision demonstrates that contractors who behave badly will no longer be employed by responsible client companies. Blue Diamond did the dirty on cleaners and is paying the price.”

• Pay victory for Parliament cleaners

CLEANERS at the Houses of Parliament last week won a significant victory in their long, well-publicised battle for decent pay.
The Transport and General Workers Union said the cleaners will now get £6.70-an-hour, statutory sick pay and 28 days’ holiday.
The campaign, which attracted widespread support from the public, MPs and peers from all political parties, involved two one-day strikes last year.
TGWU deputy general secretary Jack Dromey said: “One year ago, Parliament paid poverty wages. Now the cleaners have won a living wage and respect.”
Negotiations are continuing on implementing a pension scheme and there will be no job losses as a result of this agreement.

Hackney dinner ladies may strike

SCHOOL dinner ladies employed by the London Borough of Hackney are considering strike action after improvement’s to the dietary quality of the meals they prepare left them with a lot more work to do but no extra pay.
The cooks and catering assistants based at 27 schools in the borough are currently employed by contractors, but say they do not receive the same rates as those directly taken on by the council. The dinner ladies, some of whom earn as little as £9,000-a-year, claim their workloads have increased in the wake of Jamie Oliver’s TV programmes which called for more freshly prepared meals.
The dinner ladies are members of the Transport and General Workers Union and are represented by Cathy Stewart, who works as a dinner lady in Hackney.
She said: “The dinner ladies are under tremendous pressure after the Jamie Oliver programmes to deliver top notch nosh but at rock bottom pay.
“To say they are angry is an understatement as they see little or no effort being made by the schools and the contractors to sort out their grievances.
“These dinner ladies don’t earn a fortune but they are under extra pressure from heads who want them to do extra duties for which they are not being paid and are not responsible.
“Quite rightly they say it is about time they were shown some respect.”
Paul Fawcett, TGWU officer for London, said the chance of a walkout was a distinct possibility. He said: “It’s very likely there will be strike action, we are now going through the preliminary proceedings, and the result of the ballot will be known in March.”
The union says the contractors have been paid an increase in their contract price of 11 per cent to cover discrepancies under the single status agreement, but none of the dinner ladies have seen this reflected in their pay.

Harry Stanley's widow calls for police changes

IRENE STANLEY, whose husband Harry was shot dead by police in 1999 because they thought the table leg in a bag he was carrying was a gun, last week learned that the officers concerned will not face disciplinary charges.
She responded by calling for an end to the police practice of “pooling recollections” after deaths in custody.
The decision, by the Independent Police Complaints Authority, to take no action against the officer was made even though the IPCA had accepted that their “detailed and consistent accounts lack credibility”. obscured
From the beginning, a search for the truth has been obscured by the police officers “pooling their recollections” and writing their notes up together on the night of the shooting.
Irene Stanley doesn’t want other families whose loved ones die at the hands of the police to feel deaths are “covered up” from the start: the police service must put an end to this discredited practice.
Harry Stanley was a 46-year-old Scottish painter and decorator. He was recovering from a successful cancer operation. On 22nd September 1999 he left his home in Hackney telling his wife he was going to visit a friend.
He wanted to collect a table leg from one of his brothers who had fixed it after it had been damaged earlier in the year.
On his return home he visited a public house. Another customer, mistaking Stanley’s accent for Irish rather than Scottish and noticing that he was carrying something long in a bag, telephoned the police to say that a man with an Irish accent was leaving the pub with a sawn-off shot gun in a plastic bag. no reason
Within a few minutes PC Fagan and Inspector Sharman, an armed response unit from the Metropolitan Police service specialist firearms unit SO 19, arrived in the area. The officers approached Stanley from behind. They shouted, “Stop, armed police!” Stanley (who had no reason to imagine that the police wanted him or that they were indeed police officers) did not stop at that command.
The police say that they shouted again, to which Stanley responded by turning around. The police officers opened fire, with one shot hitting him in his head, the other hitting him in his left hand. In the bag was the repaired two-foot table leg, which he had collected from his brother.

Army unit probed in Menezes inquiry

THE MINISTRY of Defence launched and internal inquiry last week into the role played by an elite army surveillance unit into the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in order to discover "if lessons can be learnt".
They say they are trying to discover how Menezes, an innocent man, came to be wrongly identified as a terrorist suspect. But the decision has raised questions about the role of military personnel on our streets.
The army surveillance unit comprise members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, who had been seconded to the Metropolitan Police to work with under-cover officers, monitoring the flats in south London where Menezes lived.
The Independent Police Commission has questioned the soldiers as part of its investigation into the shooting dead of Menezes at Stockwell Tube station last July.
Now the MoD has set up its own separate inquiry into the events leading up to the shooting. It is reviewing the procedures and command structures that allowed apparent surveillance failures to happen.
The Special Reconnaissance Regiment was formed in April 2005 and is based at SAS headquarters in Hereford. Its members are said to have developed specialist skills in the occupied north of Ireland. It is believed that one of the soldiers taking part in the surveillance of the south London flats was armed and that it was a soldier who incorrectly identified Menezes as an "IC one male" – the police term for a white man, when he left his flat.
During the surveillance one of the soldiers, who had to relieve himself against a tree, temporarily lost sight of Menezes, according to reports. This led to a series of communication problems.
One senior counter-terrorism expert commented: "I can’t understand why non-police personnel were used to do something that important. They won’t know police procedures. If you start using the army on the streets without a proper public debate it will end in disaster."

Social cleansing in south London

by Edwin Bentley

RESIDENTS of one of the few remaining working-class neighbourhoods in south- east London are bracing themselves for a massive programme of social cleansing that will transform the Walworth area into an up-market residential and commercial area.
Estate agents don’t have a very good reputation. Rather like bookmakers, their job is to make as much money as possible out of people’s dreams. But among themselves, estate agents and bookmakers have to be totally realistic; they must know the facts, whether or not they share them with you and me.
Back in April 2002, a report commissioned by estate agents in the Walworth area stated that “the strong working class element to the district has prevented gentrification in an area that geographically would make it a prime candidate.”
But on 27th September 2005 the local council, Southwark, opted to remove the biggest barrier to this threatened gentrification. The Liberal Democratic-run council finally decided to demolish the massive Aylesbury estate; 2,759 council flats will be knocked down, to be replaced by a mixture of private and housing association accommodation.
The neighbouring Heygate estate will also be flattened, removing a further 1,194 council homes from the area.
Immediately after his election in 1997, Tony Blair had gone to the Aylesbury estate to announce a whole new way of dealing with the housing problem in London. Blair spoke of “forgotten people “ who were dumped in the most decaying, unpleasant surroundings without any hope of a better life. But rather than invest money in improving local council housing, the Government has opened the door to big business.
The Aylesbury and Heygate estates are next to the Elephant and Castle, the transport hub for south London. As Southwark council states in its propaganda, this area is far closer to the attractions of Central London than people imagine. Only a few minutes from the centre of the city, bus, road, rail, and underground links mean that a lot of people find it a convenient place to live. But as our estate agent friends pointed out, it is also solidly working class.
Over the past 40 years Walworth has become home to many different groups of immigrants who have come to London in search of a safe place to live and work. Early in the morning, many of the workers going down into the Elephant and Castle Tube station or catching a bus are Africans and South Americans, heading off to do their cleaning and other low-paid service jobs all over London.
There was a time when these estates were seen as a symbol of a bright new future. Following severe bomb damage during the Second World War, the old rows of Victorian terrace houses were knocked down and replaced in the 1960s with spacious flats and maisonettes. But as was so often the case, the necessary maintenance work was never carried out on a regular basis, and the quality of materials used in the construction was so low, that very soon major problems developed.
Over the years Southwark council thought of the Aylesbury and Heygate estates as sink estates, where they could house the most disadvantaged people, who would not complain too much about conditions. Neglected by both central and local government, the condition of the area got worse.
In 2001, Southwark council tried to wash its hands of the problem by transferring all housing on the two estates to the control of a housing association. The proposal was put to a vote in a local referendum, and overwhelmingly rejected by the tenants.
This time round, Southwark has only engaged in “consultations”, to ensure that decisions about the future of this working class community could be taken without giving local people any direct say.
Following demolition, during which time the existing tenants will be moved out to other flats all over London, contractors will move in to build the new homes. On the Aylesbury Estate, although 4,900 new homes will be built, 2,700 of these will be luxury properties that will be sold off to the highest bidder; 2,200 flats will be classified as “social housing”, and run by a housing association. That means that the housing stock for working class people will be reduced by 500 properties.
In addition, these flats will be smaller and much less well-appointed than those designed for private sale.
What is so wrong with council housing being transferred to housing associations? For a start, local people have the example of the Church Commissioners, which owns quite a lot of property in the area. Right from the 1880’s, Church Commissioners’ flats had been let at well below the market rate. This has all changed, and from now on all new tenants will be obliged to pay the market rate, which will be many times the present rent.
The example of other providers of social housing is also alarming. Just in the last year alone, the Peabody Trust has sold off more than 400 properties in London, saying that it needed the money to maintain its existing stock of properties. That really is selling off the family silver.
Housing associations can only be effective if they are adequately supported by Government finance, if there is an element of democratic control, and if they refuse to sell off their properties to those tenants who can afford to buy them. At present, they meet none of these criteria, and are liable to be swept away by market forces.
Ultimately, local people know that they will only have peace of mind if they live in properly funded and maintained housing provided and controlled by the elected borough council.

London newsbriefs

London police bodies oppose arming all officers

London’s policing bodies have opposed arming all police officers. Experts have pointed out that in the US many more officers are shot, and that arming the police creates a gun culture.
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair said: “ninety per cent of the Met remains unarmed – I want to keep it that way”.
The Metropolitan Police Federation, representing rank and file officers, says three quarters of its members “did not want to be routinely armed”. The Metropolitan Police Authority, represent political parties and community groups, said that the current level of armed officers, 10 per cent, is “appropriate for London’s protection”.
The call for routine arming has also been opposed by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

London cabbies join low pollution drive

The mayor of London has announced plans to reduce emissions from London’s taxis by one third in three years, as part of plans to make London a Low Emission Zone which is also targeting buses, coaches and lorries.
London cabbies have a choice of buying new, cleaner cabs, fitting catalytic converters or filters, or converting to liquefied petroleum gas. This is being funded by a surcharge of 20p on all taxi fares which is already in place.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone says Taxi drivers themselves are exposed to pollution and tend to operate in the most polluted areas, such as central London and Heathrow airport.
London has the worst air quality in the UK, believed to be responsible for 1,600 premature deaths a year.

Britain's worst employment blackspot

London has lowest level of employment in the country

London has been revealed as the country’s worst employment blackspot, as well as having the second highest unemployment, despite being by far the wealthiest part of Britain.
London is the only region in Britain where unemployment is now higher than in 1979.
Only 69.4 per cent of the workforce are working in the capital, the lowest in the country, against a UK average of 74.7 per cent.
In five boroughs - Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey and Barking & Dagenham - employment is below the EU average of 63.3 per cent.
Although there are enough jobs in London, they are not being taken up for various reasons. The capital has the highest proportions of ethnic
minorities, lone parents, ex-prisoners and drug addicts, who often lack
education and skills.
Astronomical rent and house prices prevent many from taking low-paid jobs and losing benefits. Many of the best and well-paid jobs are taken by commuters from outside London.
Unemployment in London (people actively seeking work rather than just
receiving benefits) is 6.6 per cent, second only to the north-east and way above the national average of 4.7 per cent.
Unemployment is far worse for the capital’s minorities - 11.7 per cent
compared to 5.3 per cent for white Londoners. In Tower Hamlets 23.6% of
non-whites are unemployed.

Middle-Class Flight

Meanwhile an urban taskforce led by architect Lord Rogers has warned that the middle classes are abandoning inner London and other cities, threatening a “deepening racial and social divide”.
The study called for the development of more mixed communities on recycled urban land to tackle “massive inequalities”, even though Britain’s inner cities have overcome many of the problems of the 1980s and 90s caused by industrial decline.
The taskforce of architects and planners said there was increasing
“ghettoisation” between rented and private housing because new projects had low quality housing and were isolated from existing communities.
The group decided to produced their own study because recommendations they made six years ago in a government-backed report had been virtually ignored.
Lord Rogers singled out developments along the River Thames , saying “if you take a trip down the Thames, you’re absolutely amazed at the appalling design.”
One reason for this was a maze of public agencies, all with separate
funding.
The report says government funding was skewed towards new building in areas which were already over-congested, undermining existing communities – a criticism of deputy prime minister John Prescott’s “sustainable communities” plan focused on four big growth areas in southeastern England.

Off the rails!

South East Trains re-privatised

Keith Norman, head of the rail union ASLEF, says the government has “ignored its responsibilities to passengers, staff and the tax-payer” by re-privatising South East Trains.
Train operator Govia has been awarded an eight year franchise in an exercise costing the Department for Transport £3.85 million. Its first decision was to increase fares by 3% above inflation.
Norman described the move as “the politics of the madhouse and the economics of the asylum” and “a slap in the face for millions of commuters across the south-east of England”. The two years in public hands after Connex lost its franchise saw great improvements in South East Trains’ punctuality and profitability.
Norman pointed out that the Labour Party conference fully supported South East Trains staying in public hands. “Their decisions have been ignored, and the government’s real attitude towards public ownership has been revealed.
It seems the real policy is privatisation, pure and simple.”
A recent poll showed 72% of the public would like rail companies to revert to public control when franchises expire - demolishing the myth of British Rail’s appalling services.

Northern Line crisis could be end of line for tube PPP

The Northern Line, London underground’s busiest section, suffered a four-day shutdown in November as a direct result of carving the system up between ever more contractors with part-privatisation.
The crisis saw transport minister Alistair Darling, London’s mayor,
Transport for London (TfL), the head of London Underground and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), united in calling for French contractors Alstom to be sacked.
The shutdown happened when tripcock safety brakes were declared unsafe by RMT stewards after multiple failures.
They were backed by transport commissioner Bob Kiley and London Underground chief Tim O’Toole, while Alstom denied any threat to safety.
According to RMT head Bob Crow, Alstom opposed daily testing of the
‘failsafe’ brakes because the resulting delays would incur financial
penalties.
For the first time London Underground issued an ‘emergency direction’,
ordering contractors Tube Lines (Alstom’s parent company) to speed up
repairs.Since then London Underground has effectively taken over safety maintenance on the Northern Line until the problems have been resolved.
Under the labyrinthine PPP system, TfL inspectors could only take action after four stages of legal action.
Dozens of lawyers had to plough through two million-word PPP contracts and the 18 volume PFI contract between Alstom and Tube Lines.
Following the crisis Bob Kiley and transport minister Alistair Darling gave TfL the green light to end Alstom’s contract. According to Darling,“no-one can regard the present situation as anything but unbelievably unsatisfactory”.
Incredibly even parent company Tube Lines warned Alstom that their PFI
arrangement was not working, no doubt worried about its share prices.
The crisis has raised the prospect that the ill-fated part privatisation will not last until 2032 after all.
The government may now opt for a similar solution to that following the
collapse of Railtrack, and the creation of publicly owned Network Rail.

How corruption was built in to underground contracts

Public-private partnership on the tube, one of the most convoluted deals ever made, has been described as a “gold-plated cash cow” for the
contractors.
The contracts came complete with generous “success fees”, involve no risks, guarantee a huge income until 2032, and frequently change hands with huge profits made.
Construction firms Jarvis and Amey were floundering when they won their contracts and were saved by the PPP contracts, which became their main profit earners. Jarvis has sold its contract to Amey, which was then bought by a Spanish company.
The Metronet consortium running six tube lines plans to subcontract train maintenance to Bombardier, making front-line engineering staff redundant and leaving separate companies running its trains, track maintenance, and train maintenance.
The RMT’s Bob Crow says London’s mayor should be able to halt further
subcontracting. “No amount of fine-tuning can transform the PPP from a
vehicle for profit without responsibility into one that delivers
improvements safely and at reasonable cost.”
Meanwhile Ken Livingstone and transport commissioner Bob Kiley have operated public services superbly.
The Docklands Light Railway extension, East London line and Oyster card
ticketing, improvements to busses, and central London traffic reduction, are all on time and within budget.

Overcrowding + Delays = Higher Profits

The contractors pay high penalties for rush hour delays in central London. But early morning delays due to late engineering incur small fines, even though they cause knock-on delays throughout the morning rush hour.
So now we know: tube users suffer delays and crowding so that contractors can boost their lucrative profits.

Targets not met? Get paid anyway!

The contractors still get paid for work, even when it is not done. New
District Line trains are a year late, but Metronet has been paid.

The Victoria Line refurbishment, station renewal and track renewal are all late - but the contractors have already been paid!

Multiculturalism works for London

by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London

Against a backdrop of the London bombings, the scenes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the riots across French towns and cities, a furious debate on racial equality and community relations has unfolded in the media over the summer and autumn.
After the terrorist attacks in July, some commentators and newspapers urged London to abandon its policies of respect for different cultures and celebration of diversity – in favour of what some described as the ‘French model’.
The suggestion was that, London, by celebrating the contribution of
different cultures to our city, was emphasising differences rather than what people have in common and encouraging ‘segregation’. In reality the Greater London Authority’s research shows that the real trend is not of ‘segregation’ of ethnic minorities, but of increased dispersal as new communities become established over time.
It was suggested that the French model, which supposedly disregards ethnic and religious differences – to the point of banning Muslim headscarves in schools – would produce greater social cohesion. As France does not collect statistics on ethnic and religious communities, there is little evidence of whether the model allows ethnic minorities to get their fair share of jobs,resources and opportunities.
But the riots which spread across France from the end of October suggest the French model has singularly failed to integrate the 10 or more per cent of its population of Arab and African heritage – and instead confined them to vast ghettos with many times the average levels of unemployment and poverty, and the indignity of being disproportionately singled out for police identity checks when they leave their local area.
In Britain, it was stop and search operations disproportionately targeting black youths that triggered the riots which swept the country more than 20 years ago in 1981. It should not be forgotten that, at that time, much as in France today, there was not a single black or Asian member of parliament, virtually no representation on local councils, virtually no black police officers, few teachers and virtually no leading business people. London still faces great challenges. Our education system does not give black schoolboys the start in life to which they are entitled. Far too little has been done to ensure that those leading and staffing our public services and private companies properly reflect all of the city’s communities.
But, as the united response to the bombings showed, London’s model of
multiculturalism works. Its cornerstone is the simple economic reality that in the age of globalisation the world’s great cities will become more and more diverse. We want any company, anywhere in the world, looking to invest here to know that their staff will find a community to welcome them and help them be themselves.
We can celebrate our diversity and make it a great source of creativity and dynamism, or we can fight it, as in the clash of civilisations thesis, and turn our cities into zones of fear and conflict.
London’s choice is clear. We celebrate diversity. We aim to give every
community its fair stake in our city’s politics, prosperity and culture. We want every community fully represented in our police service, teaching profession, boardrooms and politics. We have no illusions about how far we still have to go to achieve social justice and racial equality – but we have no doubt that we have chosen the right path for the future.

with thanks to The Londoner, newspaper of the GLA.

A Lack of Respect

RESPECT MP George Galloway last week made a catastrophic political mistake in taking part in the Celebrity Big Brother programme on Channel Four. His declared aim was “to bring political debate to wider audience” of young people who are out of touch with political issues. But the programme makers have gagged him. Every political word he utters is edited or bleeped out.
It has to be so. Broadcasting standards authorities do not allow the expression of political opinions in programmes unless they are “completely balanced” with a right of reply for all mainstream viewpoints. Programme makers cannot achieve this except in designated discussion programmes, documentaries and well-signposted satires.
This is why in dramas and soap operas no character ever expresses an opinion on any current major news topic or takes part in any political activity. This has led to a generation of young people who have grown up thinking that getting involved in politics is not quite normal.
George Galloway is experienced enough to know that no aspect of the bourgeois state can be used against the system. He has made a fool of himself and played into the hands of those who want to discredit his campaign against the war on Iraq.
Just a few months ago his political stature was miles high after he publicly berated the US Senate Committee over the war on Iraq. Now he has undermined his own credibility by mistaking a programme chiefly about sleaze and voyeurism for a political platform.

RMT battles for Tube safety

THE RMT transport union last Monday slammed the management of London Underground for ignoring Tube safety rules in an attempt to beat strike action by station staff over the imposition of unsafe rosters.
RMT London regional organiser Bobby Law said that the system was being kept open by untrained staff and managers who were working shifts of up to 20 hours.
“Due to the intransigence of London Underground, trains full of passengers are running through closed stations, in direct contravention of safety rules.
“For instance, instead of disembarking passengers, Piccadilly lines are running through three consecutive closed stations: Caledonian Road, Holloway Road and Kings Cross,” he said.
Bobby Law also outlined one incident at Upminster Bridge on Sunday evening when an emergency alarm stopped the train halfway into the platform.
Unruly passengers began opening the doors and the driver retreated to his cab and locked himself in. Police arrived 40 minutes later with a supervisor who had been called in from his home to open the station.
“It is clear that London Underground attempts to run a network without adequate station staff is putting the public at risk. They can’t even keep their headquarters station, St James’s Park, open without using untrained staff,” said Bobby Law.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the blatant safety breaches showed management desperation.
“We will be balloting the union’s entire London Underground membership for action short of strike action over these health and safety breaches.
“However, the union appeals to London Underground, even at this late stage, to postpone the imposition of these unsafe staffing plans in order to assess all safety implications,” he said. The RMT also welcomed the announcement of a safety investigation by HM Chief Inspector of Railways into reported breaches of safety regulations by London Underground during the New Year’s Eve strike by 4,000 RMT station staff.

Bus, tube and train fares surge upwards

COMMUTERS in London and throughout the country are facing above inflation-level increases in fares on just about all forms of public transport.
Train travellers are angry at rises of up to nine per cent on unregulated fares and up to 3.9 percent on regulated fares (season and saver tickets).
Passenger groups complain that services are not improving as fares rise. Trains are still unreliable and often very overcrowded.
The Rail Passengers’ Council said: “We have had loads of complaints. People are really worried about the massive price rises made by all the train companies. For lots of passengers forced to travel to work at peak times, these new price hikes will make the train unaffordable.
“At the moment people do not think they get value for their money. They see no benefits for the price they pay. Commuters are facing a monopoly where they have no choice but to travel with certain companies at certain times.” shamelessly
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, also criticised the private train companies. “The train operators are shamelessly using their route monopolies to maximise revenues and profits on premium routes.”
Londoners face even bigger rises for bus and tube fares. The price of a single journey by tube in central London has risen by 50 per cent to £3 while the cost of a single bus journey in London has risen to £1.50.
London mayor Ken Livingstone says the price rises are intended to encourage Londoners to get Oyster travel cards which give discounted fares. But even on these the discounted single bus journey fare is now £1 – a 25 per cent rise from 80 pence last year.
And weekly bus passes – which can be included on an Oyster card – have risen by nearly 25 per cent from £11 a week to £13.50. These increased travel costs will hit hardest those on the lowest incomes who cannot afford to travel any other way.
There is great resentment as many feel that the poorest Londoners are being taxed in this way to fund the 2012 Olympics – which will be of no benefit to them at all as they will be unable to afford the entry price to the events and will face only increased disruption, increased prices and congestion during the Olympics.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For Peace and Socialism!


London District
New Communist Party of Britain

Londoners protest against global warming

by Renee Sams

THE FIRST world-wide day of action to put pressure on the international climate change negotiating summit taking place in Montreal, the most important since the Kyoto Protocols eight years ago, saw demonstrations taking place in 30 countries last week-end.
In London around 10,000 people marched from Lincoln’s Inn Fields to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square with banners from UNISON, the NUJ Magazine Branch, Green Party, Respect and CND, and the demonstration was enlivened by the group of drummers from Globalise Resistance.
The march was organised by the Campaign for Climate Change and supported by the Green Party, People and Planet, Green peace, Friends of the Earth, and the Christian Ecology Link.
Many demonstrators carried placards calling Blair and Bush “climate criminals” and the march took a short diversion to deliver a letter calling on Prime Minister Blair, who put climate change a top priority at the Gleneagles Summit, to reaffirm his commitment to a new international agreement treaty with legally binding targets.
It also called for more to be done to cut pollution from carbon dioxide emissions in this country which have risen in this country since 1997 although the in its election pledges the government promised to cut them by 20 per cent by 2010
Friends of the Earth Nick Rau, energy campaigner said, “If the UK is serious about leadership on climate change then our Government needs to take action at home. It is not too late.”
In Montreal there was a big demonstration and five environmental groups delivered a petition signed by 600,000 Americans to the US Consulate calling on the Bush administration to take action to slow global warming.
Supporting the action was a delegation from the Inuit people from the Arctic Circle where the ice and permafrost is already melting and destroying the homes and livelihoods of whole communities.
Also joining in the worldwide protest were the people of New Orleans suffering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina held a Stop the Global Warming Party. This marks a major change in the United States where the number of people telling the opinion polls that they now believe that something must be done immediately to avert the threat.
There is now a broad agreement among scientists that the greenhouse gases will have to be reduced by some 80 per cent by 2050 if there is to be any hope of preventing climate change escalating out of control.
But Stavros Dimas, the EU environmental commission admitted that little will be achieved in Montreal but they hope that they will be able “to get an agreement to start negotiations”. Margaret Beckett, Secretary of Sate for the Environment was even less helpful only hoping that, “we can move forward instead of setting some arbitrary goal that cannot possible be achieved.”
In the developing countries they are already doing all they can to cut domestic pollution and develop renewable energy and are prepared to “play their part” in efforts to prevent an environmental catastrophe.
But the largest problem is still the White House, the biggest producers of polluting gases where President Bush, despite the shock of Hurricane Katrina is still adamant and refusing to join the other countries of the world in overcoming what is fast becoming the most urgent issue of saving the planet.

Defending rail safety regulations

by Rob Laurie

AROUND 300 protesters gathered at King’s Cross tube station last Saturday in a demonstration organised by the Fire Brigades Union against plans to downgrade safety regulations on the Underground.
Eighteen years have passed since the 1987 fire at London’s King’s Cross tube station killed 31 people, when rubbish in an ill-maintained escalator caught fire. In the aftermath of that tragedy the judicial inquiry chaired by Desmond Fennel recommended strict new safety rules on underground railways which were adopted and are in force to this day.
These regulations are now under threat thanks to changes planned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which are due to be introduced next year. Instead of the existing regulations they will be replaced by laxer rules allowing individual risk assessments of each station. As maintenance of the Underground is now in private hands, inspectors will be under commercial pressure to cut costs.
Local Labour MP Frank Dobson opened the proceedings by regretting the necessity for calling such a rally. Two other Labour MPs spoke: Jeremy Corbyn from the neighbouring Islington constituency urged the audience to keep up pressure on their MPs on the issue, while John McDonnell of the Labour Representation Committee denounced the rule changes as an unacceptable attack on the safety of Londoners.
Keith Norman, general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef, claimed that the proposed changes are an invitation to operators to cut corners in the interest of the commercial companies now responsible for maintaining the track and stations.
The general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, Matt Wrack, recalled attending the funeral of Colin Townsend the fireman killed that night 18 years ago.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, concluded the rally by attacking Government plans to run the new rules in tandem with the old for six months in order to avoid them coming into force before the local elections next May.
He promised that any threats of a reduction in safety would be met by a huge ballot in favour of industrial action.

Gate Gourmet workers still barred

ALMOST two months after unions and management at Gate Gourmet signed an agreement, officially ending the long dispute, hundreds of workers are still picketing outside the factory gates, waiting to get their jobs back.
The dispute brought chaos to British Airways at the height of the holiday season last August when BA baggage handlers walked out spontaneously in solidarity with workers sacked by the Heathrow catering company Gate Gourmet.
The Gate Gourmet workers had been sacked after some of them walked out when the company brought in low-paid temporary staff at the same time they were negotiating redundancies.
The whole thing was a provocation to allow Gate Gourmet to sack its entire workforce and replace them with lower paid workers – without having to pay any redundancy packages.
The Transport and General Workers’ Union played a leading role in negotiating to get the baggage handlers back to work and in getting a deal with Gate Gourmet that would reinstate most of the workforce reinstated with acceptable redundancy packages for the rest in a deal agreed in early October.
Gate Gourmet refused to take back some active trade unionists. But last week Parmjit Kaur, a worker still waiting to get her job back, declared: “It’s not over. People think it is over but we are still picketing, we are still out of work, we come here, we put up a tent every day".
Kaur worked as a tray setter for Gate Gourmet for 11 years. She says: “It’s very hard. All I want to do is work but I’m not allowed to. I am not on strike; I am fighting for my rights. They have kicked us out with nothing.”
Last August she and her colleagues met in the canteen when workers were angry that the company had brought in temporary workers on lower pay.
They were told over the tannoy system – a message that many did not hear clearly – that they had to go back to work at once or face the sack.
“We were made to feel like criminals,” said Kaur. “We were told to hand over our passes and leave. We were escorted off the building.”
Meanwhile British Airways is accusing TGWU officials, including general secretary Tony Woodley, of encouraging the unofficial walkout by the baggage handlers.
The company has threatened three shop stewards with disciplinary hearings and claims it can prove their involvement beyond a doubt. Now it claims that the stewards have implicated Tony Woodley in giving private support to the walkout.
The union has warned that there could be a ballot for an official strike if the stewards are sacked.
A TGWU statement said: “We completely refute any suggestion of any involvement along the lines apparently suggested by anonymous sources.
“The TGWU dissociated itself from the unofficial action and did all it could to secure a return to work within deadlines set by BA.
BA is threatening to sue the union for compensation for the strike, which, it claims, cost it £45 million. This could push the union – one of the biggest donors to the Labour Party, towards bankruptcy.
New BA chief executive William Walsh is also trying to introduce new working practices at Heathrow and is in the middle of negotiations with the union over a £1 billion shortfall in the company’s pension scheme.
Last October’s Labour Party conference passed a motion calling for the abolition of the Tory anti-trade union laws that outlaw solidarity action, like that taken by the baggage handlers.