Putney power outages

I have today written to the Chief Executive of the National Grid plc asking them to explain why central Putney has suffered three power outages in recent months. Here's the text of my letter:

30 November 2008


Mr Steve Holliday
Chief Executive, National Grid plc
1-3 The Strand
London
WC2N 5EH


Dear Mr Holliday,

Power outtages in Putney, London SW15

I am writing because, in the past four months - the most recent being on Wednesday - there have been three power outages in the centre of Putney in the evening.

These blackouts have affected the town centre including the High Street, the Royal Mail sorting office for Putney and Putney mainline rail station, as well as thousands of local homes. Having an overcrowded mainline rail station go dark in the middle of the rush hour is exeptionally dangerous. Supermarkets including Sainsbury's and Tesco have lost perishable items, other shops have lost trade having to close early - and have been exposed to a greater risk of break-ins as electronic security systems have failed; and huge numbers of residents have been inconvenienced.

The High Street is one of the busiest roads in the constituency and for it to be without light is dangerous, especially given the number of pedestrians seeking to cross the road throughout its length. And a huge number of households have been inconvenienced for several hours at a time.

I am writing to find out the cause of these outages and what you as the body responsible for ensuring stable electricity supplies is doing to ensure that this does not recur. Furthermore, if there is a long-term structural problem with electricity supplies in Putney that cannot be quickly resolved this must surely call into question planned development in the area if the existing demand is regularly exceeding supply.

The constituency is obviously deeply interested in your reply so I hope you will let us know the answers to these questions at the earliest opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart King

More on the Thames Tideway Tunnel

I wrote a few days ago about the plans by Thames Water to build a super-sewer along the route of the river to, hopefully, prevent untreated sewage flooding into the Thames whenever it rains heavily.

I said that I was awaiting a more detailed briefing from Thames Water, and this has now arrived. Anyone interested in knowing more can download a copy of my briefing letter here.

Crime: how does Putney compare with the rest of the borough?

The October crime figures, just released, again show good progress by the Police in cutting crime. East Putney and West Hill wards all saw declines in every single category of crime; in West Putney all categories bar one were down. Overall, crime fell in five of our six council wards, with only a small rise in Southfields.



With crime figures, context is everything - it's why, alongside the ward by ward figures, I also provide the borough and London averages - so you can see how Putney is doing compared to larger areas. But this month, I thought you might be interested in seeing how Putney's six council wards compare to their fourteen counterparts elsewhere in the borough.

In the table below I'm just showing the "total" number of crimes per 1,000 - the figure that's in the shaded grey box in the table above. And, instead of ordering them alphabetically, I've ranked them in terms of that total crime rate - with the lowest crime areas at the top, and the highest at the bottom.

Three of the safest four council wards anywhere in the borough are in Putney - and four of the top ten. But Putney's Thamesfield ward is the most crime-ridden ward in the borough by far. Putney probably has the largest shopping centre in the borough, so it is to be expected that the sort of town centre crime that affects Thamesfield will be higher than other town centres. But I don't think the gap should be quite so stark.

Wandsworth's housing record the worst in London

London's Labour Assembly members are warning that the Conservative Mayor, Boris Johnson, will not be able to deliver the 50,000 affordable homes London desperately needs.

Nicky Gavron, who was Deputy Mayor of London and before that chaired the London Planning Advisory Committee - someone with a massive amount of experience in planning in the capital said:

"The impact of the credit crunch on every aspect of the housing sector cannot be underestimated - yet the demand for housing, particularly affordable rented housing - has never been higher. Over a third of a million Londoners are waiting for affordable housing yet the Mayor's housing adviser has made it clear they will not impose any target for rented homes on London councils.

"Without political leadership and direction from the Mayor, the record of many London councils in office shows that they fail to deliver affordable housing for their residents. Wandsworth has almost 9,000 people waiting yet delivered just 20 new homes. This is their record and it is just pitiful. If anything the Mayor is giving boroughs like Wandsworth even less incentive to deliver.

"Of course we should be helping people get on the housing ladder and encourage low-income ownership schemes, but the stark fact is there are over 9,000 low-cost homes lying unsold and empty - the bulk of which are in London. Until the housing market stabilises and there are mortgages available, these homes will stay empty and unsold. At the same time, Londoners are crying out for low-cost homes for rent.

"The Mayor is kicking away the first rung of the ladder for the thousands of Londoners on housing waiting lists. These lists are only going to increase in the next few years."

I couldn't agree more with this - and it is telling that Wandsworth is being named and shamed as the worst provider of affordable homes for rent. Remember this devastating fact: in 1981 there were over 32,000 council homes for rent locally - today there are barely 16,000.

The tower plans came in two by two...

Plans to redevelop Tileman House, at the Putney Hill end of Upper Richmond Road have just been unveiled.

Tileman House, like Putney Place, is currently an eyesore building. The office space element has been empty for years, while the residential side has become more and more run-down. In the photo to the right I'm standing in front of Tileman House.

The new building could be up to 16 storeys tall.

That compares with 25 and 18 storeys at Putney Place, and a proposal for a 22-storey Carlton Tower on the Capsticks site. You'll find the artist's impression of the new Tileman House at the foot of this post.

Here's the good news: the design is nowhere near as garish as the Putney Place towers that were rejected a fortnight ago.

Now the bad news: they're twice as tall as the next door building, No.125 Upper Richmond Road (the building that houses the Heathbridge Doctors surgery), and four times the height of the beautiful curved Victorian terrace that sweeps round onto Putney Hill. The buildings are also well over twice as high as the abutting apartment blocks in St John's Avenue: Albany and Marlin House as well as No.18 St John's Avenue.

The developers want to provide 2,322 sq m of office space coupled with 106 apartments (that compares to 19 flats in Tileman House). You can read more on the website skyscrapernews.com.
I am, to say the least, exasperated with the developers, and with those elected representatives locally whose do-nothing approach has led to the situation we're now saddled with. It is totally unfair to the local community to have to fight and fight again to defend Putney from these threats. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is a campaign of attrition by developers to wear residents into submission in the knowledge that if only one application can be forced through the precedent will be established that will open the floodgates.

The new blocks, while architecturally better than Putney Place, reminds me of Campden Hill Tower that looms over Notting Hill Gate. I have to question the wisdom of replacing one genuine sixties monstrosity with a new neo-sixties monstrosity of even greater size.

So, I hope you have one more good battle within you - I do, and I'm up for the fight. We've defeated one set of poor plans: now its time to cross swords with another!

Measles, Mumps and Rubella

This week Wandsworth NHS is launching campaign across Wandsworth to encourage parents of babies and toddlers to take up the Measles, Mumps & Rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Parents are being urged to make sure their children have received the two doses of MMR vaccine. The number of measles cases this year has risen right across the country. To date there have been 31 confirmed cases of measles in Wandsworth this year, compared to just 11 cases in the whole of 2007.

The campaign includes advertising in parenting magazines Flapjack, Angels & Urchins and Parents News, news stories and features in local newspapers, parenting magazines and on online parenting websites such as Netmums. Packs of posters and flyers have also gone out to all GP practices and clinics across the borough as well as libraries, leisure centres, nurseries, schools and baby and toddler groups. The campaign also includes a roadshow of events at ?baby rhyme times? at local libraries led by the immunisation nurses.

If you want to find out more about the MMR or other childhood immunisations then there is a dedicated immunisation team locally. They have set up an immunisation hotline for Wandsworth on 020 8254 8393. For more information about any childhood jabs visit www.immunisation.nhs.uk

For more information on the campaign or to order more materials please call Maria Vidal on 020 8812 7609 or email maria.vidal@wpct.nhs.uk

David Cameron's schoolboy errors

Our MP should know better

Putney's Conservative MP, one of the architects of the Tories' do-nothing response to the international financial crisis, grew up in Rotherham.

Rotherham was one of the communities decimated by the Tory recessions of the 1980s and 1990s; recessions made far worse both by the destruction of the coal industry but also the Thatcherite policy of not investing to mitigate the impact of the recession.

As a result, millions more lost their jobs - not just for a few weeks but for the rest of their lives; and the social fabric of towns like Rotherham took years - and a Labour Government - to repair. I cannot believe the financial hardship wrought by her own party would have been missed by Justine Greening as she was growing up there.

But instead of learning from that experience, she now wants to re-enact exactly the same policies that so damaged places like Rotherham. Yet this downtown will not affect the UK in the same places as the earlier downturn: our economy is far more dependent on the service, construction and financial sectors: sectors predominating in the south, in London and the Midlands.

For most of us, our experiences whilst growing up shape who we are and what we think in adult life - and those of us in public life should use those lessons to make our country better. Putney's Conservative MP should know better, but has proven that she has learnt nothing from the ravages her party wrought on her home town not that long ago.

Time to regulate "chuggers"

The Charity Intelligent Giving has today come out against "chuggers" - the people who accost us in Putney High Street and elsewhere to try to sign us up as contributors to their sponsor charity.

Chuggers - a conflation of Charity and Muggers - have been operating in Putney for years and are, I'm afraid, just another obstacle to navigate in our already cluttered, crowded and congested High Street.

Intelligent Giving have called for the public not to give to these street traders, not least because there are nowadays so much more convenient ways of giving to charity, because giving in this way only encourages more charities to station chuggers on our High Streets, and because a large chunk of any donation you make goes not to the good cause but to pay the Chugger's wages.

I support IG's arguments, but I also think chuggers should be regulated properly, because some are too in your face, can't be identified and, if they were regulated, could be better organised to cause less obstruction to the street scene and restrict their hours of operation - and that'd be good news for shoppers just wanting to go about their business.

Labour Pre-Budget Help for Families

A summary of Labour help for families from today's Pre-Budget statement:

• Cheaper shopping from Monday as VAT is reduced by 2.5%
• £75 increase in Child Tax Credits taking them to £2,235 for low income families from next April
• Child Benefit to increase to £20 a week from next April: when Labour was first elected in 1997 this benefit was just £11 a week
• A one-off payment of £70 for children with disabilities next January
• The temporary personal allowance increase of £120 to help families caught out by the abolition of the 10p tax rate made permanent and increased to £145 from April: this will help 4.7 million households
• Taking anyone earning less than £22,000 out of paying National Insurance all together
• The new Savings Gateway to help families save: the Government will add 50p to every £1 saved
• Forcing Energy companies that have failed to put low income households on their lowest tariffs to do so
• £150 million more - on top of the already spent £50 million - to help low income households insulate their homes
• Vehicle Excise Duty increase capped at £5 next year, and in 2010 cut by up to £30 if you drive a less-polluting car
• £1.8 billion to build new affordable homes for rent and shared ownership - £775 million brought forward to next year to kick-start the construction industry and provide thousands more affordable homes
• Mortgage help for those who have lost their jobs doubled - now it covers mortgages of up to £200,000 up from £100,000
• £15 million extra for expert help with debt advice for families - £10million of which could go to the Citizens Advice Bureau

Labour Pre-Budget Help for Pensioners

A summary of Labour help for Pensioners from today's Pre-Budget statement:

• Cheaper shopping from Monday as VAT is reduced by 2.5%
• £6 a week increase in Pension Credits from £124 to £130 a year
• £5 a week increase in Basic State Pension from £90.70 to £95.25 a week
• A one-off payment of £60 on top of the £10 Christmas bonus
• The temporary personal allowance increase of £120 to help pensioners caught out by the abolition of the 10p tax rate made permanent and increased to £145 from April
• The new Savings Gateway to help Pensioners save: the Government will add 50p to every £1 saved
• Forcing Energy companies that have failed to put Pensioners on their lowest tariffs to do so
• £150 million more - on top of the already spent £50 million - to help pensioners insulate their homes

Live blogging the Pre Budget Report

4.35pm Same old Tories: Osborne believes he knows more than John Maynard Keynes about economic stimulus. Tories would send UK industry to the wall, make the recession deeper and longer lasting. And they've also announced their opposition to an increase in National Insurance for the very wealthiest. This speech could have been delivered by John Major or Norman Lamont during the last Tory recession of 1990-1994.

4.33pm Osborne is just absurd. He's now comparing the UK with Japan - which borrowed more than 100% of GDP in the last decade. Even with our increased short-term borrowing, our borrowing as a proportion of GDP is massively lower than neighbouring economies including France and Germany.

4.29pm Osborne is now attacking the VAT reduction which his own, far more experienced former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke supported on Newsnight a few days ago. As I wrote earlier today, watching a Conservative oppose tax cuts is a truly bizarre phenomenon.

4.28pm George Osborne is reading a script that doesn't fit with today's announcement. It suits the Tory Party to pretend that the global recession is only hitting the UK but it just isn't true and it just won't wash. If they don't understand this basic fact, they can't possibly have the ideas to fix the problems. It's why the Prime Minister is leading the world's major economies while the Tories want to re-run the failed Thatcherite policies of the 1980s and 1990s.

4.26pm OK, that's the Statement over, and while George Osborne is squeeking away in response, let's summarise what's happening: VAT will be cut from 17.5% to 15% from Monday; except for alcohol, petrol and tobacco. National Insurance rates will increase by 0.5% and a new 45% Income Tax rate for the top 1% if Labour is re-elected at the next election but not before.

And there will be much more help for pensioners, families, children, and small businesses.

4.24pm One-off payments for Pensioners and children with difficulties on top of the Christmas Bonus of £70 for individuals and £120 for couples.

4.22pm Announcements coming thick and fast: big increases in Child Tax Credit, Pension Credits, the Pension, Child Benefit - and the changes will come in from January, not the start of the next financial year in January.

4.20pm Help for savers: a new Savings Gateway where the Government will add 50p for every £1 saved - scheme will run with major banks and the Post Office.

4.19pm Vehicle Excise Duty bands will still be introduced. In 2009, rates will increase by a maximum of £5. In 2010, we will increase the duty by a maximum of £30, while less polluting cars will see NO INCREASE or a reduction of up to £30.

4.17pm Helping people back to work: careers advice in the workplace before people are made redundant will be expanded to every single worker - not just the largest employers. Extra help to prevent those experiencing a temporary job loss becoming long-term unemployed will be worth £1.2billion.

4.15pm More affordable homes: investment in new affordable homes to rent will be more than doubled, adding £775million to the existing £700million budget announced in the Spring. Absolutely critical announcement.

4.11pm Help for home owners. Last month we recapitalised the banks; this month we will guarantee - ie underwrite - certain new mortgages for a temporary period. New council to monitor lending and borrowing by major lenders. Repossession must be the last resort: there will be a three month period between the last repayment made and any repossession action is commenced. Much more free legal and debt advice announced.

4.10pm £100 million extra for extra home insulation. Labour tripled cold weather payments in the Budget this Spring. Government will force energy companies to put households on cheaper tariffs if the companies have not done so voluntarily by the end of the year.

4.09pm Economic slowdown should not jeopardise efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Reform of Air Passenger Duty: new 4- band APD system with those who travel further will pay more. Seems sensible to me.

4.06pm Total package for small business equates to £7billion

4.05pm Two more measures to help Businesses: increase in Corporation Tax deferred and change to accounting rules to allow business to offset losses of up to £50,000 against previous five years' profits.

4.02pm Help for small businesses: exemption from business rates for businesses with empty properties. Change to tax payment schedules on all taxes, not just Business Rates to enable businesses to spread their repayments as they can afford. Businesses also need help with loans as Banks have tightened their lending: £4bn deal with the European Investment Bank to pass onto businesses. £1bn small business credit scheme announced.

4.00pm With Labour, the UK Budget will be back in balance by 2015.

3.59pm Duty on Petrol, Alcohol and Tobacco will be increased to offset the VAT reduction.

3.58pm National Insurance will increase by 0.5%, but no-one earning less than £22,000 will pay any NI contributions. New 45% higher Income Tax rate will be introduced for those on £150,000 or more - 1% of all UK households.

3.57pm Temporary tax cut from May for basic rate taxpayers who were hurt by the abolition of the 10p tax rate will be made permanent - and increased to £145 per year.

3.56pm VAT to be cut to 15% for a year, coming into force next Monday. Retailers urged to pass this £12billion tax cut on immediately.

3.55pm £3billion of capital spending brought forward to improve motorways, affordable housing, energy efficiency and modernising primary and secondary schools. This is investment brought forward.

3.52pm Government will find £5billion of efficiency savings from public services, on top of over £30 billion in the past five years. We will increase spending on public services to £286 billion.

3.47pm Borrowing will increase this year to £78 billion and then £118 billion next year, but then fall to £105 billion in 2010, then £87b, £70b, and £54 billion in 2014. This represents a rise in debt to 57% next year, before rapidly falling back. Borrowing is backed by the CBI, IoD and the IMF, among others.

3.46pm Debt will be repaid by 2015/2016, which will enable us to continue investing in public services.

3.44pm Chancellor now setting out the framework how the borrowing is fully costed and will be repaid. Labour has cut borrowing down to 36%. The extra borrowing be proposed will amount to between 0.5% and 1% of Britain's GDP.

3.43pm Here's the choice between Labour and Conservative: the Tories will let families go to the wall; Labour will borrow to make this downturn as short and shallow as possible.

3.41pm IMF forecasts first slow down among all industrialised nations since 1945. Output will fall in the first two quarters of next year by between 0.75 and 1.25% but then begin growing again because of the action to be outlined today; Inflation will be just 0.5% by the end of next year.

3.38pm The UK has the highest employment leves ever. Benefit claimant counts are 2 million below the last Conservative Government's double-recession. Government Debt among the lowest of the industrialised world. And we have doubled investment in public services. The Chancellor says this shows Labour DID fix the roof while the sun was shining - we fixed the roofs of schools, hospitals and council homes.

3.37pm No British investor has lost any money from the banking crisis thanks to Labour government action. What would have happened had we followed the Conservative plan of not stepping in to rescue Northern Rock?

3.33pm Labour Government will continue to lead the global community next year when we chair the G20 group of leading industrial nations, building on Gordon Brown's international leadership. Highlights issue of Crown Territories, which offer lower tax rates but the Bank of England cannot be the lender of last resort for such territories.

3.32pm The Chanceller is setting out the global economic context - "an unprecedented global crisis". Conservative MPs don't seem to have realised that the whole global economic crisis was triggered by massive US Housing problems back in the Summer - where have they been?

3.30pm Here we go!

The Chancellor is going to move his Pre Budget Report - which always used to be called the Autumn Statement - at 3.30pm this afternoon.

I'll be live-blogging the speech, highlighting the key points and what they mean for Putney, London and the country.

By the way, the live blog will be added to this particular post, rather than lots of separate posts, so keep refreshing your browser to keep up to date.

The pre-Budget Budget

You can tell how concerned that the Conservatives are that they are on completely the wrong side of the debate about how to mitigate the economic slowdown by the amount of time they are spending attacking the reduction in VAT that's likely to be announced later today.

Conservative bloggers like Iain Dale are getting in quite a state about this - he's even dug up one unattributed small businessman who's threatened not to pass on the reduction in VAT onto customers - all to show how ineffective tax cuts will be. It's nonsense of course - as the news media has found today, most shoppers welcome any help they can get and VAT-cuts will put more money in people's pockets.

I do find Conservatives lining up to attack tax cuts bizarre. No doubt they'll also attack the increase in the top rate of tax to 45% for those earning substantially over £150,000 a year, because god forbid we should ask the very richest to contribute a little more when times are tight.

Both these insights are devastating to the Conservatives because as each day passes we're seeing the true face of the Tories, and it's unchanged from that of the last twenty years:

• They're against cutting VAT - a regressive tax that hurts those on low incomes more than the wealthy because it takes a greater share of their income
• They're against increasing Income Tax for the wealthiest 10% - despite income tax being a progressive tax; that is the more you earn, the more you pay
• They're against public investment in the economy at the very time when private investment is drying-up: a re-run of the stance that produced two huge, damaging recessions in the 1980s and 1990s and almost 4 million unemployed.
• But they're in favour of Inheritance Tax cuts for those with estates valued at £2million - a tax cut that won't benefit anyone but the very richest

I cannot recall a weaker, less competent, less accomplished, more inexperienced Shadow Chancellor ever. George Osborne and the Tory Treasury team - which include's Putney's Conservative MP - have nothing to offer but a Thatcherite response to the global crisis we face. They remain the party that thinks "unemployment is a price worth paying". Last week in Parliament a senior Conservative MP opposed any intervention to help those affected by these difficult economic times by and said that the recession should be allowed "to run it's course". Same old Tories.

What Roehampton wants on Danebury Avenue

A couple of days ago I broke the news of secret Conservative plans to remove the traffic barrier at the end of Danebury Avenue that would turn the road into a cut-through for all the traffic that wants to get to Richmond Park or Priory Lane.

As I showed from correspondence with Council Officers, they're planning on presenting a "report" on their plans in December. This followed pressure from senior Conservative Councillors to take the barrier out supposedly to make their plans for the redevelopment of the other end of Danebury Avenue more attractive to buyers.

They also implied that they'd asked residents for their views on their ideas already. They have not.

That's why, today I have sent out over 1,300 ballot papers to residents in and off Danebury Avenue to ask them what they want.

There are three clear options:

• Leaving the barrier in place - no change
• Allowing buses through but not other traffic
• Taking the barrier out entirely and letting all through-traffic use Danebury Avenue

This is one decision I'm not going to allow the Conservatives to make before residents have had their say. I also suspect the two schools in the area - Alton and Ibstock Place - might have something to say on the idea.

I'll report the results of the ballot after the closing date on 3o November.

Not knowing his history

George Osborne, the embattled Shadow Chancellor has been charging around complaining about the government's plans to bring forward plans for infrastructure investment to keep our economy moving.

He doesn't know his history.

Exactly the same debate took place in the 1932 US Presidential Election. The Republican President, Herbert Hoover, whose similar policies had created the Great Depression, argued that big, government-driven infrastructure programmes would just saddle future generations with debt; that they wouldn't even work.

His opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wanted to get America back to work and - after he was elected in a landslide - implemented world-famous plans like the New Deal, built dams, highways, bridges and other massive infrastructure programmes that helped transform the US into the 20th century's dominant superpower.

The current global financial crisis is not as bad as the Great Depression. And, thanks to Labour's investment for the past decade in our public services (our 100th new hospital since 1997 was opened a few days ago) we don't have the rotten infrastructure that the US had. But the same principles are at stake. We need hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes. Our public transport could be massively improved: better signalling could massively increase our tube capacity, for example. Local schools like Elliott Secondary are in desperate need of major renovation.

The Conservatives oppose borrowing in order to deliver such schemes early and keep our economy moving.

George Osborne is the Herbert Hoover of the 21st century. Labour is following the path so successfully set out by Roosevelt. I know which President's policies worked, and which President is regarded as one of the all-time greats.

Conservative cant over Queen Mary's

When it comes to Queen Mary's Hospital, Putney's Conservative MP has some nerve.

She's been in the local press this week attacking the hospital for its record-keeping, which the hospital itself denies is harming service.

Given that the last Conservative Government all but closed Queen Mary's, axing its Accident & Emergency Department in the process, I find it hard to take any expression of concern about the hospital from her at all seriously.

Justine Greening has voted the way her party told her to 96.4% of the time since she was elected in 2005 - sycophantic even by Tory standards. So it's safe to assume that she would have been a cheerleader for her party's closure of Queen Mary's Hospital back in 1997 and would have voted against the increased Labour investment in the NHS that funded the rebuilding of it had she been in parliament at the time.

So forgive me for being contemptuous of her pathetic criticisms of the hospital, on the basis that the hospital is disadvantaging patients.

The Tory closure of Queen Mary's A&E disadvantaged patients.

All-but closing the hospital down entirely disadvantaged patients.

In comparison, complaining about the storage of patient records at nearby Barnes Hospital while the system for storing them electronically at Queen Mary's is being set up is a pathetic, trifling criticism aimed - just as her turning up to the opening of the rebuilt hospital in 2005 was - to get herself a cheap headline.

The real newsworthy story, which would be a first for her, would be to apologise for the appalling damage her party did to Queen Mary's last time it was in power. If she can't quite manage that, the least she could do is stop criticising the hospital - especially on such spurious grounds.

Thames Tideway Tunnel

The problem of untreated sewage flooding straight into the Thames whenever there is heavy rainfall in the capital is one that affects Putney as well as the wider environment.

Thames Water are now proposing to build a new "super-sewer" - the London Tideway Tunnel - which will follow the course of the river from West London (where much of the sewage that affects Putney is jettisoned from) to the Isle of Dogs and then on to Beckton treatment works.

This is a massive engineering task and a controversial one - a meeting was held on Monday in Hammersmith where experts and consumer groups questioned the effectiveness of the project.

I start from the basis that something needs to be done to reduce the amount of raw sewage contaminating the Thames - a problem that stems back to the way our Victorian sewer network was built in the 19th century but which, through population growth and a reduction in the amount of green space available in London to absorb rainwater, has overflowed more and more frequently. The problem is now so bad that Thames Water has regularly been fined for the leaks, not least last year during that Summer's heavy rains.

But I do want any work to be effective - so I've asked Thames Water to brief me more fully on the plans. When they do, I'll report back, but in the meantime you can find out more about the London Tideway Tunnel here.

Danebury Avenue free-for-all?

I've been trying to get to the bottom of secret Council plans to remove the road barrier at the end of Danebury Avenue by Alton School and Tunworth Crescent.

There are definite plans being considered to remove the barrier - which would turn Danebury Avenue into a through road for traffic wanting to access Richmond Park and Priory Lane. How do I know this?

Well, Putney's Conservative MP boasted about her involvement in this plan back in July in her report to the Putney SW15 website. She wrote: "A review of bus services overseen by the Council has come up with some options that would see a service feed ASDA on the A3, the Alton estate and Priory Lane, then going to Barnes Station."

Prompted by that, I've been pushing the council to tell us what exactly they have in mind. This is the reply I got from them back in Septermber:

"One of the options they [TFL] propose is the consideration of the removal of the road closure on Danebury Avenue for buses only. This would enable a bus service to penetrate through that part of Danebury Avenue and Priory Lane currently without a service, and provide an alternative direct route to Barnes Station.

"Separate to work being undertaken by the consultant the Council has investigated the feasibility of removing the traffic barrier in Danebury Avenue to permit use by vehicular traffic, following a request to do so. The investigation has been completed and the report detailing the outcome is being written."

So I asked who exactly made the request to open the road to all cars. The response:

"In response to the proposals associated with the Roehampton Regeneration scheme the Director of Technical Services was asked by Leading Members [ie Conservative Councillors] to consider the feasibility of removing the traffic barrier in Danebury Avenue to permit use by vehicular traffic."

In other words, the Conservatives are considering making Danebury Avenue a through-road but without explaining to anyone - yet - why.

These plans could help residents of the Alton enter and leave the estate more easily. But there are a lot of considerable drawbacks to the plans. For example:

• Thousands of non-residents will also use Danebury Avenue to reach Richmond Park or Priory Lane. At present they need to stay on Roehampton Lane until Clarence Lane.


• There are two schools at the end of Danebury Avenue: through-traffic will increase the risk of road traffic accidents here


• Traffic is likely to significantly increase into Richmond Park, not that long after it was reduced when Robin Hood Gate was closed by the Royal Parks Agency


• The quiet character of the western end of Danebury Avenue will change


• I've written before about how the redevelopment plans at the east end of Danebury Avenue will send hundreds of extra cars and lorries into the area when the road is already congested by the library. These plans could gridlock the Alton.

The Conservatives have a track record of consulting residents only after they've decided what to do - the Roehampton redevelopment plans are just the most recent example. This issue is way too important to let the Conservatives' plans go unscrutinised.

Putney BNP members outed

The entire national membership list of the fascist, racist British National Party has been posted on the web.

I managed to get a look before the website was taken down, and found that the BNP has a grand total of eleven members in Putney - not exactly a mass membership party!

But you'd be surprised where some of them live - mainly in more affluent parts of the constituency like the Southfields Grid, a street off Lower Richmond Road, the Lytton Grove area and leafy West Putney.

These are usually regarded as affluent, Conservative-voting areas, somewhat removed from the stereotyped BNP member as working class, living on a council estate and poor. But wherever they live, BNP members are just pathetic, usually poorly educated people who can't handle the modern world and who are too cowardly to do anything other than blame "outsiders" for that.

How to treat 85 year old war veterans, by Wandsworth Council

Last week I wrote to the Housing Department about an 85 year old war veteran in West Hill with serious health problems whose bedroom keeps getting flooded because of leaks from the flat of the council tenant above him. His bedspread is now a tarpaulin, his carpet squelches with the water it has absorbed and his insurance premiums have soared because he keeps having to claim to repair the damage he had no hand in causing. I know this because I visited and saw for myself on Saturday.

My constituent had repeatedly asked the council to sort out the leaks but no action had been taken. I was happy to step in to see if I could help him out. Yesterday I got a reply from the Housing Department. Here's what they wrote:

"Mr X is a leaseholder. Therefore, regardless of his age, health or military experience he is responsible for carrying out any works within his property...I do not feel that the fact that I was unable to agree to Mr X's suggestion means that I, or anyone else in this team, have been inconsiderate or uncaring and I do not feel that an apology is necessary. The responsibility to repair the damage lies with him."

Well, that may be the sort of reply Putney's Conservative MP, or the three Conservative Councillors for West Hill might find acceptable, but I don't.

Wandsworth Council is renowned for seeking to claim back all costs to its property caused by others - and rightly so. Now the boot is on the other foot and suddenly repeated damage to a war veteran's home caused from a property they own is "nothing to do with us gov".

I've got news for them: it is and I'm not going to stop until they honour their responsibilities and show a little bit more respect to someone who served their country and never asked for any help from anyone, until now. Look at the way the Tories respond: contemptibly.

Back to the Future

Anyone who trots out the line that political parties are all the same hasn't been paying attention this week.

With David Cameron's cave-in to the hard-right Thatcherite rump in his party to re-run the catastrophic mistakes that made the last two Tory recessions last longer and go deeper, there is
now clear blue water between the parties more significant than any there has been in the past two decades.

It was really quite worrying to listen to the Tories' shadow chief secretary (George Osborne's Deputy) on Newnsight yesterday fail to understand the difference between economic stimulus (investment and tax cuts that reduce the impact of a slowdown) and what are called "automatic stabilisers" - things like increased benefits for the unemployed while tax revenues reduce, which have no impact whatsoever mitigating the downturn. This is Economics 101 and the Tories just don't get it.

As former Treasury Minister Ruth Kelly, who has more knowledge of economics than the entire Tory Treasury team put togther, explained on Newsnight, doing nothing to mitigate the downturn - the Tory plan - pushes tens of thousands more people into unemployment for far longer, which costs taxpayers millions more in benefit payments and other social support. That higher level of unemployment sticks and is incredibly difficult to get down: in no small part the big increase in investment in public services has been spent fixing the entire communities devastated by the last two Tory recessions when they followed identical dogmatic policies.

And this is the key point - this isn't idle speculation, guessing how the Tory plans might play out: we actually have the experience of two catastrophic Tory recessions under Margaret Thatcher and John Major not that long ago. We had astronomically high jobless rates for more than a decade. Remember the "Unemployment is a price well worth paying" mantra of the incompetent Chancellor of the time, Norman Lamont?

The choice is quite clear. Labour is bringing forward investment in infrastructure that would have happened anyway to keep the construction industry working; and as a result we'll get refurbished schools, rebuilt hospitals and new affordable homes more quickly. And as these measures make the downturn shorter and shallower, we'll return to economic growth more quickly, we can then scale back public spending and rebalance the books. Under the Tories we'll get billions in cuts to public services, tens of thousands more on the unemployment scrapheap and a deeper, longer, more damaging recession.

That's not much of a choice, is it?

Conserving Putney

As regular readers will know, I think the character of Putney, Roehampton and Southfields is under real threat from greedy developers who've been given the green light to put forward the most appalling plans for overdevelopment by the lack of leadership of local Conservatives.

One of the main weapons we have against overdevelopment is our conservation areas. These provide extra protection (or, as developers would claim, restriction) over those parts of our area most steeped in history or of special character.

The Council has begun the process of reviewing these areas, of which Putney has several. First up in our area are three conservation areas, each of which has a special public meeting coming up to which you are welcome to attend and give your views:

• Landford Road along with Lower Common: Thursday 04 December, Dryburgh Hall
• Putney Heath: Friday 05 December, Elliott School, Pullman Gardens
• Victoria Drive: Tuesday 09 December, St Paul's Community Hall, Inner Park Road

By clicking on each area title above you can download the conservation area profiles and find out how to have your say. Aside from anything else, they offer some really interesting insights into local history and how Putney was transformed, in a very short of space, from a rural outpost of London to a bustling town.

You can also read some of the other profiles for elsewhere in the borough here.

IceSavers get their money back - thanks to Labour

It seems a long time ago now that the British Government had to step in, sequester Iceland's assets and force the Icelandic Government to honour the terms of international banking treaties on compensating customers, but it was only a few weeks ago.

The speed with which our government acted to protect British investors was in no small part responsible for customers getting their money back this early.

It's becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day that had George Osborne been in charge of the Treasury, investors would not be waiting for their money: the Conservatives would probably have caved in and allowed IceSave to walk off with our investments.

George Osborne is patently out of his depth as putative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in turn David Cameron's judgement in promoting his friend above his ability is clearly called into question.

IceSave's slogan: "clear difference" clearly applies to the lack of competence of the Conservative Oppositive versus the leadership of our Labour Government.

News for Putney Lib Dems: He's not a celebrity but he has got out of here!

I have no doubt that Putney Liberal Democrats will have been thoroughly shocked to see former Lambeth Police Commander Brian Paddick on the ITV show I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!

You see, despite it now being over six months since the London elections in which he was the Lib Dem candidate, if their website is to be believed they still think we're in the midst of that campaign: the banner ad on their site entreats us all to vote for him in those elections (he polled 9% of the vote).

There's some good news coming up for our addled Lib Dems. The last time they added a news story to their site was 09 January 2008. All they have to do is let their site fester for another seven weeks (something they evidently won't have much trouble achieving judging by this year's efforts) and they'll have gone a full year of idleness - and so can pretend that their website is up to date!

Putney Pensioner

The new edition of my newsletter for local senior citizens, The Putney Pensioner, has just been published.

Because of the huge increases in fuel prices this year - especially for gas - this could be one of the most difficult for pensioners and everyone else who struggles to pay their energy bills.

The Labour Government has already announced increases in the Winter Fuel Allowance and a big rise from £8.50 to £25 per week in the emergency fund that gets paid out if we experience especially cold weather. But look out for further announcements in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Statement later this month for more help.

It's really important that pensioners claim everything they're entitled to, which is why this edition of the Putney Pensioner leads with this important story.

The edition also talks about work finally set to start on Putney Hospital; on veterans badges, the RAF Bomber Command Memorial fund and the safety checks for electric blankets the Fire Brigade is organising.

You can read the new edition here in Adobe PDF format. It goes to all pensioners in sheltered housing around the constituency plus anyone who subscribes.

Transported from reality

I've been reading the Transport Assessment the Council has commissioned to try to show that their redevelopment plans for Danebury Avenue won't gridlock an already heavily congested area.

The report can be read here as a pdf (and is missing a page).

There are two big problems with this report. First, the "modelling" which they use to forecast how much traffic they think the plans will generate is flawed. And second, the report is incomplete, because while it looks at what the industry calls "modes" of transport - that is car traffic, bus traffic, walking etc individually, it doesn't look at the combined impact.

So for example, you will find nothing in the report about the quality of pedestrian routes around Danebury Avenue when car traffic doubles (as even this report acknowledges); nor the likelihood of road traffic accidents. One of the reasons I oppose this development is that it is simply crazy to direct hundreds of extra vehicles through the heart of the most densely populated, residential parts of the constituency. All the council will do is make Roehampton's shopping area as congested, polluted, unsafe and unpleasant as gridlocked Putney High Street is. The only difference is that Putney High Street is principally a shopping area. Danebury Avenue is principally a residential area.

I mentioned above that the models used to forecast traffic are wrong. As an example of this, it makes the assumption that we all regard supermarket brands in the same way - that someone who prefers Waitrose, for example, will shop at Asda if it is more convenient for them. That isn't my experience, and it wasn't what Roehampton said when I consulted them earlier this Autumn.

This matters, because the Traffic assessment asserts that residents who shop at Asda in Roehampton Vale would cease doing so if, say, a Sainsbury's opens up that is nearer to them. No doubt some will.

But Asda has massive brand loyalty. So do all the major brand supermarkets - it's why they are so big. Brand loyalty trumps convenience in my experience. People won't just change from their supermarket of choice because some other retailer opens up. And whichever retailer does eventually open here will likewise attract outsiders into Roehampton for whom this will be their nearest branch. The traffic assessment dismisses those arguments - and actually goes further, claiming that traffic will DECREASE because Alton residents will stop driving to Asda.

For me, it's a risk too high to believe that anything approaching a majority of the custom of the Danebury Avenue store will come from Asda. I would have had a lot more confidence had the assessment compared like with like: for example comparing the number of people who drive to a store of similar size to that planned for Danebury Avenue (like Putney Sainsbury's) and using those traffic "movements" as the basis.

One final comment. The report forecasts that while traffic down Danebury Avenue will double, in Roehampton Lane it will only increase by 1.3%. That sounds tiny doesn't it? Yet 1.3% (a very conservative estimate of the likely traffic increase, given my comments above) is actually over 400 extra vehicles on Roehampton Lane. I think the true figure will be well over 1,000 extra cars on an already gridlocked road now coming to grips with the 400+ new homes at Queen Mary's Place.

The table below is from the assessment and shows how much traffic already uses Roehampton's roads.

Local dentists

Click on image if you need a larger version.

Keep warm this winter

Help the Aged has produced a handy guide of helpful tips and contacts to help pensioners keep warm and keep bills as low as possible this Winter.

It's been produced in association with British Gas and includes advice on insulating your home, claiming everything you're entitled to, and who to call for further information on all these issues.

You can download the guide here in Adobe pdf format.
















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Safety checks for electric blankets

Wandsworth Fire Brigade and local Trading Standards officers have rescheduled their free safety check session for electric blankets to this Wednesday, 19 November.

The checks take place at Wandsworth Fire Station in West Hill - nearly opposite the former West Hill Library and on the corner of Lebanon Road.

The horrifying injuries an electric blanket catching fire can cause makes it surely worth the ten minutes or so it takes to make sure it is safe and set to go this Winter.

To book a time to pop in, or to see if you can schedule a different day, call 020 8871 6178. Or email tradingstandards@wandsworth.gov.uk - you'll need to provide a contact phone number in your email though.

More Putney Child Trust Funds claimed

A little over a year ago I ran a campaign with local schools to encourage parents to claim Child Trust Funds for their kids.

Child Trust Funds (CTFs) are a Labour Government initiative that creates a saving account for every child born since September 2002, then invests a lump sum of between £250 and £500 in it. There are further government top-ups to the fund at 7 and in their teenage years. Families and friends can add to it and it can't be touched until their 18th birthday.

At the time I launched my "Claim your CTF" campaign, just over 71% of Putney families had claimed their Child Trust Fund voucher to set up the account. One year on that figure has climbed to almost 76%.

That still means that almost 1 in 4 local families are letting thier kids miss out on a serious dollop of cash when they reach adulthood - to spend on tuition fees, a deposit on a first home, or to help buy a first car, for instance.

If you think you're children may be missing out call the Child Trust Fund helpline: 0845 302 1470

Prisoners do not deserve the vote

At least one of the Sunday papers is reporting that the European Court of Human Rights will declare our next General Election "illegal" unless the Government bows to its Human Rights judgement that prisoners - or at least certain categories of prisoners - are given the right to vote. It is precisely this sort of idiotic interference that fuels anti-European sentiment in this country.

To present the full picture here, the European Court is ruling only that "blanket bans" on voting are illegal. But this is just as absurd: the drafting of legislation to spell out which types of sentence deserve the loss of the franchise and which do not is of course exactly the type of legal minefield that keeps Human Rights lawyers in the lifestyle they've become accustomed to - and which most of the victims of crime can only dream of.

The European Court of Human Rights does not seem to comprehend that incarceration for criminal action should not be the be-all and end-all of their punishment: it entails other losses, including the right to participate in the democratic process for the duration of a sentence. There is no case, to my mind, for a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment to be treated any differently from a burgler sentenced to four or five months. Both should lose the vote for the duration of their sentence.

There is not the slightest thing wrong with this - and believing so is not "pandering to the tabloids", or "populist electioneering": it's a fundamental principle that has existed in our country since 1870. The only argument I have read in justification of giving votes to prisoners is from the Prison Reform Trust that claims that giving prisoners the vote encourages their rehabilitation. Utter nonsense.

For the European Court to equate human rights as giving the right to vote to prisoners just shows how grotesquely out of touch the EU and its unaccountable bureaucrats (which include its judges) are. And while I respect the work the Prison Reform Trust undertakes, on this issue they are misguided and out of touch.

The Government is right to resist this nonsense.

Number crunching...

Due thanks to Private Eye for the original feature and the national facts and figures. All £91,893 of donations to Putney Conservatives (up to June of this year) can be found on the Electoral Commission website here. Lord Ashcroft's donations are the ones titled "Bearwood Corporate Services".

Putney Place application unanimously rejected

This evening I attended a packed meeting of Wandsworth Council's planning applications committee. Over 60 residents filled the public gallery and many were left outside unable to gain entry so full was the meeting.

The outcome was exactly what all of us who have campaigned against this monstrous proposal wanted: a unanimous 8 votes to nil rejection of the application. As you might expect, those of us who attended the meeting left delighted having seen a clear decision in our favour.

The councillors on the committee had clearly grasped the range of problems associated with this development, replicating in their comments on the evening points that I and local residents made in our submissions. I was particularly impressed with Councillor Rosemary Torrington's analysis and speech at the meeting.

I have now written to the Chief Executive of Oracle ? the owners of the Putney Place site ? urging them to respect local opinion and not to lodge an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate. Oracle has six months to decide whether to appeal. I hope they won?t.

I believe their decision on this will signal whether they want to work with us towards a new plan for Putney Place or instead just want to try their luck with the planning inspector. The latter course of action would be misguided. Over two thirds of appeals submitted to Planning Inspectors are rejected.

Whatever Oracle's next course of action I will continue to work alongside local residents to protect this site from any over development.

Stabbing in Lebanon Gardens

I'm sorry to report that someone has been stabbed to death in Lebanon Gardens, which is a crescent just off Merton Road in the Wandsworth town part of the constituency.

From the Putney SW15 website:

"The victim, who was black and in his early twenties, died at the scene of the incident in Lebanon Gardens late last night. It is understood he was known to police.

"Two arrests were made of men suspected of causing grievous bodily harm but these men are not being charged in connection with the murder.

"The victim's next of kin have not yet been informed. Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Squad are leading the investigation.

"Road closures are in place while police conduct their inquiries in the area. A police spokesman said it was not known when roads would be reopened."

I'll update this post as and when I know more.

UPDATE: 19:00
The BBC has some more details here.

The opportunity for new affordable homes

The global financial crisis has transformed the economic environment: nowhere more so than for Britain's building industry.

Had absurd massive private housing plans like those for Putney Place and Danebury Avenue not been unlikely before the credit crunch, in it's aftermath they look completely unachievable. There is not the market and developers lack the funds to see such schemes through.

I've been arguing long and hard since I became Putney's candidate that what our area needs desperately is a dramatic increase in affordable homes: especially affordable homes to rent. We've lost over half our rented council homes locally in the past 25 years: there were over 32,000 in 1981; there are now barely 16,000.

For the past two decades, the only way affordable homes continued to be built was when a handful got bolted onto planning permissions for vastly larger developments of private housing. That is no longer an option.

Instead, Wandsworth Council needs to start working closely with Housing Associations to dramatically boost affordable housing development. Not just because we desperately need the new affordable homes, but also to help the economy and keep builders working.

And they can start by acquiring Arton Wilson House on Roehampton Lane from the NHS. Arton Wilson House was, until a few weeks ago, housing for nurses and other medical workers, but the NHS has declared it surplus to requirements and it is now empty and awaiting demolition.

Arton Wilson House is public land that must remain in public hands - and meet the affordable housing need locally. This is an opportunity the Conservative Council must not squander.

Police pay

Last year I was strongly critical of the government when it broke its promise to the Police to implement their pay rise in full.

As I've said before, it's not mistakes that create problems in politics - it's the failure to recognise and rectify them that does the damage. That's why I'm pleased that this year the government has agreed a three year pay deal which the Police Federation - the body that represents grassroots police officers - called "the best multi-year settlement... in the public sector".

Under the agreement, police officers over the next three years, will receive pay rises worth 2.65% in 2008, 2.6% in 2009 and 2.55% in 2010. This means that by 2010 a police constable will be able to earn up to £36,500 ? 50% more than in 1997.

In 1997, under the Conservatives, a constable on completion of initial training was paid £17,274. Today their starting salary is £24,675 and from September 2010 it will be £25,962. The longest serving Constables now earn £33,800 and by 2010 will reach £36,519.

Our Police do a great job and I'm delighted that the government is properly honouring the work they do.

Patients' No.1 priority: better access to GPs

Earlier this Summer I launched a survey seeking your views on the NHS at 60 and received lots of really useful replies. Now. the Conservatives are doing the same.

I'm all for that, except that the Tory survey isn't genuinely seeking views on improving the NHS but rather trying to steer people towards opposing more convenient GP opening hours, which the Conservatives are against.

The Conservatives (and, unfortunately, the British Medical Association), are guilty of a great deal of misinformation about extended GP opening hours and Labour's polyclinics plan, which was drawn up by one of the most experienced surgeons in the NHS, Dr Ara Darzi. So here's a short Q & A on Labour's plans for a better NHS in London.

Why is GP extended opening a priority for the Government?

The first national GP patient survey last year showed that there are around six and a half million patients who are unhappy with their GP practice's opening hours. The latest national GP patient survey showed even more patients unhappy with their practices opening times.

These patients would find it easier to access services if they could make appointments at the weekend, in the evening or early in the morning. The survey found this to be particularly true for young working men.

Our overriding objective is to deliver the best possible service to patients. People want health that is more personalised and convenient, so primary care services need to adapt to respond to this need.

Evening and weekend opening is unnecessary and expensive.

No it isn't. Extended opening hours are being paid for by re-using existing payments for GP practices, not from new investment. Labour is responding to what patients have asked for. We have heard what patients said and are doing something about it.

Some patients - the elderly and families - will miss out on daytime surgeries.

The BMA's claim that patients who want to see their GP during the day will miss out is simply wrong. This is about extending GPs' opening hours, not substituting evening or weekend opening for daytime appointments. More capacity, more accessibility, more responsive and convenient services.

How will this affect me?

Wandsworth NHS will agree with GP practices locally the precise arrangements, but we expect to see at least half of GP practices offer extended opening hours this year, with an average of three extra hours per practice. Each practice's opening hours will be based on its patients' views on whether it is more important for them to have more evening or weekend surgeries.

What if a GP practice refuses to extend its hours?

Labour has already announced investment of £250 million in over 150 new health centres across the country that will offer all patients (regardless of where they are registered) access to GP services 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. All patients will also continue to have access to out-of-hours GP services for urgent care.

The £250 million means more GPs, nurses and other healthcare professionals, more appointments, and longer and more convenient opening hours. This is about investing more in primary care, which is vital if we are to meet the public health challenges before us and improving the quality and accessibility of services for the people who pay for them

What is a GP Led Health Centre?

The basic guiding principle behind GP led health centres is to provide extra access to GP services. The Labour Government has set a small number of core criteria that we expect Wandsworth NHS to include in these services to ensure some uniformity across the country:

• easily accessible locations;
• open 8am-8pm, 7 days a week;
• provide access to bookable GP appointments and walk-in services; and
• open to any member of the public

These GP led health centres will consist of approximately 5 GPs as opposed to the 25 as has been claimed. Many local NHS Trusts are looking to provide other services in these health centres, such as diagnostics or pharmacy services.

What is a Polyclinic?

The NHS in London has developed its own proposals to address deep-rooted challenges of public health and primary care. This includes proposals for 'polyclinic' service models that bring together a range of primary care services, specialist services, urgent care services and social care in one place, or a cluster of convenient nearby surgeries.

What's Labour's record on the NHS?

We have put substantial additional investment into general practice. Funding for GP services has more than doubled since we were elected: from £3bn in 1997 to £7.86bn in 2007.

There has been an increase in the number of GPs from 28,046 in 1997 to 33,364 in 2007. In addition, more GPs are choosing to continue working after retirement age.

Since 1997, the average number of hours worked by GPs has reduced by 17% while the average GP has seen a significant increase in pay (22% between 2002/03 and 2005/06)

And we are responding to patients' number 1 demand to visit their GP at more convenient times

Greening's preposterous petrol policy performance

A few days ago, I drew attention to the Conservatives' policy on fuel duty, which is that right now all drivers would be paying a lot more tax.

That being the case, it is the most obscene hypocrisy for Putney's Conservative MP to be complaining about increases in road tax. Yet at Treasury questions on Thursday, there she was, shamelessly and shamefully whining about road tax changes that reward smaller, less polluting cars and penalise larger, more polluting vehicles.

Before she gets up to make another spectacle of herself - and Putney - in the House of Commons she should at least try to come up with an answer to the question posed to her by Treasury Minister Angela Eagle MP:

"Why is the hon. Lady talking about that, when her policy would put 5p on fuel duty now, creating an increase that would feed right through to the pumps? That is bad judgment."