Please join the "Stuart King for Putney" facebook
There's now a group on the Facebook website which I would really appreciate you joining if you'd like an easy, straightforward way to support my campaign, get in touch, or find out more. Loads of local residents and supporters have already joined up, so please add your name.You can find it at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2392042710
Only existing facebook members can sign up to my group - but it's really easy to set up a free account and you never know how many of your friends, current or former, you'll find if you join up! In the coming days I'll start adding some discussion topics to the forum; this is just one more way I'm making sure you and I can communicate on the issues that matter locally.
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Attending Roehampton's Police meeting
Last night I went along to a - disappointingly - poorly attended public meeting organised by the Roehampton Safer Neighbourhoods Police team. The Government now funds a team of 6 police officers responsible for beat patrolling in Roehampton.
Despite the low attendance, important local issues were discussed. In particular residents were angry with the council for its failure to deal with youths congregating in Danebury Avenue, mainly around the shops. Embarrassingly for the council it appears that new security doors were fitted a few months ago…but without any locks! According to residents the area's Tory councillors have known about this blunder for some time but done nothing. I’m making sure Labour councillors sort it out.
After the meeting I spoke to long-time Alton estate residents Mrs Millard and Mrs Armstrong (pictured), who were both critical of the delays and inaction they have experienced.
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My August parliamentary report
It’s difficult to find a more imaginative way to kick-off these reports than: “it’s been a really busy few weeks” – and it really is true for me, at least on the personal front. I got married at the end of July and been on honeymoon for the past fortnight so I hope you’ll forgive me this short distraction from my duties as your parliamentary candidate. But as you’d expect from a politician I’ve still got plenty to say, so let’s get back to business!
I mentioned last month that I’m making housing my number one priority, and the Government has now published its consultation paper. While it’s a promising start, some of the ideas don’t really apply to the crisis in London which is on a bigger scale and where land is scarcer.
We need a twin-track approach in London: a large increase in affordable rented homes built for those who will never have the sort of income to benefit from the property market; and far more practical help for those who are struggling to get a foot on the ladder – which means a higher stamp duty threshold in London, more homebuy schemes, and more imaginative shared-ownership solutions.
Some will argue that this is why we need to sell off even more council homes, as ex-council stock tends to be most affordable private housing around. But the stock of affordable rented homes locally has become so small that it causes real problems for the remaining council tenants and their families. I support right-to-buy but for every council home sold off, I want to see two new homes for rent built. We must put an end to the stigma the Conservatives created that there’s something wrong with being a council or housing association tenant: there is not.
I was really surprised to discover that in the two years Justine Greening has been MP not once has she asked a parliamentary question on the issue of affordable homes or providing help for first time buyers in Putney. Politicians rightly have differing outlooks and priorities: but as your MP, housing will be at the top of my list of priorities and my words and deeds as your MP will demonstrate this.
Although the scale was nowhere near as damaging as the rest of the country, our borough wasn’t spared from the freak floods that hit towards the end of July. The Wandle burst its banks flooding several homes in Southfields and roads throughout the constituency were for a time transformed into rivers. Whether or not you were directly affected permanently higher insurance premiums may be on the cards if this erratic weather is ultimately linked to climate change.
Climate change is possibly the biggest global threat we face but already I sense a tiring of the incessant attempts to link any freak catastrophe with global warming, or to use it as an excuse to levy new taxes seemingly for the sake of it. I’ve led on the environment locally all my political life – I became interested in it at school when non-one was talking about it and on the Council it was my portfolio for eight years. I am not a climate change sceptic, but those of us who do care passionately about the issue must be careful not to over-reach because we need to be trusted in order to take the tough decisions necessary.
When confronted with a massive problem like climate change people understandably demand facts and action. The problem is that this isn’t maths: there isn’t one right answer and everything else is wrong. The warnings about climate change are based on forecasts; forecasts are based on assumptions and assumptions are not facts, no matter how much analysis lies behind them.
There is a tendency to dismiss out of hand anyone who dares differ from the climate change orthodoxy. We need to be teaching climate change in our classrooms, but as part of a syllabus that demands that pupils challenge assumptions, test to destruction arguments and not accept that the easiest answer is always the right one. And we adults shouldn’t do that either.
Finally, just a quick plug: if you’re on Facebook, please join my Stuart King for Putney group by clicking here.
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"Abolish prisons"? I don't think so!
So now we know: the Liberal Democrat who ran their Home Affairs brief, Mark Oaten MP, secretly wanted to abolish prisons and replace them with "education and training centres."This isn't going to be a yah-boo "soft on crime Lib Dems" post, even though that's an incredibly easy target to hit. I agree with Mark that prisons need to do more to deal with drug addiction (the main "excuse" for crimes like burglary and robbery) and that rather than equiping petty criminals with the skills to become more serious offenders they should emerge with skills to make sure they never offend again.But these "let's abolish prisons" revelations aren't new - Mark Oaten admits he held these views when he was arguing the exact opposite as Home Affairs spokesman. They're widespread among Lib Dem activists. My criticism is not so much about what they believe (crazy though I find them to be) so much as it is about their dishonesty on the subject. In life, I've usually found that if someone is too embarrassed by their ideas to even admit to them they're on the wrong track.
My second problem with the Lib Dems is that while they understand that short-term prisoners need - and deserve - support to stop them reoffending they never, ever, seem to appreciate that prison is about punishing people who have done wrong.
There has to be a retributive aspect to our criminal justice system: prison should not be easy, prisoners should not be comfortable - it should be hard, gruelling and personally damaging to them - because it has to be something they want to strenuously avoid experiencing again once they get out. And not just for that reason but to give the victims some solace that their suffering has been acknowledged, appreciated and responded to by society.
Until the Liberal Democrats gain some appreciation of why those things matter, they'll always keep serving up stories like this one on a plate to their political opponents - and in the process they actually make it impossible for those of us, like me, who do believe that prisons should rehabilitate as well as punish.
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