Racism comes out of the shadows

After meeting my parents for lunch on Saturday, we went to Eltham High Street for a little shopping. They are fairly infrequent visitors to London, and I was pleased to be able to show them a little of my local patch. My pride was punctured rather abruptly, however, as we reached the precinct area by Passey Place. There, alongside a stall festooned with banners and ribbons, were the British National Party, handing out leaflets.

I have to confess to being too shocked to do anything more than scowl and hurry past, but the sight left me more than a little disturbed. We have been relatively fortunate locally that the bigots of the BNP have not been too much in evidence in Eltham, but now here they were in broad daylight unashamedly touting their message of fear and hatred to shoppers.

Last year's local election results in Barking and elsewhere were a warning to all of us - we should reclaim our streets from the racists and extremists who have no place in a civilised country.

The seasonal power of Opposition...

There's not a lot we Conservatives can actually do whilst in Opposition, either in Westminster or Greenwich, to affect the way Labour choose to (mis)manage the weighty responsibilities of government. But just occasionally you can prompt a reaction from them.

So it was that at Members' Question Time last month my colleague Cllr Graeme Coombes asked the "Cabinet Member for Greener Greenwich", Cllr Rajwant Sidhu, what exactly his job entails, seeing as it doesn't appear to involve oversight of any specific Council department, budgets or staff. Cllr Sidhu, who is a nice enough chap, waxed lyrical about the worthy initiatives he is pursuing, but failed to make clear exactly who or what he is responsible for (as reported by Greenwichwatch here).

So I am delighted to see today on the front page of the Council website a "news" story that the Cabinet Member has now found gainful employment - feeding fallen leaves into a new "mulching" machine. Glad to see that the Borough's vastly resourced communications team has decided to share this with us at this time, in February. The middle of winter. But, er, don't most leaves fall in, um - autumn?


Greener Greenwich?

More snow!

... And this time it's lasted beyond lunchtime. The pic is of Speaker's Green, House of Commons. I couldn't get the rest of Big Ben in.

Shilpa leaves the House...

... Of Commons, that is. The celebrity BB winner was in Westminster today to have lunch with MPs and caused something of a scrum outside when she stopped to answer questions. I was just passing, you understand.

Greenwich to tax everything that moves?

Those enigmatic anti-establishmentarians over at GreenwichWatch are reporting that the Council is consulting on a plan to introduce a congestion charge zone in Greenwich. This rumour first surfaced last year, but was then unconfirmed. It now seems hired market researchers are testing two proposals, one including the Blackwall tunnel approach road and Shooters Hill Road across Blackheath (see above).

The potential impact of such a scheme on business, tourism and, most importantly, local residents will clearly be massive, and I am personally fairly horrified by the prospect. I am even more horrified as a member of the Council to be reading about it online first. Why has this plan not been discussed openly by the Council? Why does it seem the detail and not the principle are being consulted on? We need answers. Now.

Why Tories wouldn't pass judgement on the Lib Dems (for once)

A comment on my last post asks why the Conservatives did not vote against the motion of censure tabled against Lib Dem Councillor Paul Webbewood at the Council meeting on Wednesday. As a group, we took the view that the matter should not have been brought to Council at all, and should instead have been referred to the Probity and Standards committee. That's why our amendment, tabled by Chris Taylor, dealt with the more fundemental issue of the role of the Mayor, which was at the root of the original dispute.

We felt that whilst we could not condone the behaviour we all witnessed in the Council Chamber in November, we also could not pass judgement on the alleged incident in the Mayor's parlour afterwards which we did not witness. We therefore chose to abstain on the main motion. My own view is that Paul Webbewood should have apologised for any offence to the dignity and person of the Mayor, whilst restating his objection to how the meeting in question had been closed. I think all members would have accepted that as a reasonable compromise. I do agree, however, that the way the Labour leadership chose to deal with this incident was typically high-handed.

AEG boss: "I'm still standing"... but for some, sorry seems to be the hardest word
(NB: Bad puns explained below)




In a frank and very interesting presentation last night, AEG Europe's Chief Executive David Campbell confirmed there is no 'plan B' following the unsuccessful Casino bid, and that there are no plans to appeal against the decision at this stage.

Whilst the entertainment arena and associated retail and leisure developments in 'phase 1' of the development are nearing completion and are due to open in July this year, the luxury hotel, world-standard exhibition space and other related regeneration which were dependent on the Casino will not now go ahead. This matches the assumptions laid out in the now-infamous PWC report about the viability of the development, and in reply to my questions Mr Campbell confirmed that AEG are now working on the "Base Case" scenario (without casino) identified in that report.

He said that if there were an alternative which could match the casino in its ability to attract significant numbers of visitors to stay overnight and thus act as a catalyst for the rest of the development, "I think we would have found it by now - there is nothing". He added that the number of hotels being build on the other side of the river in Canary Wharf made a hotel at North Greenwich less attractive. There may be a possibility of still mounting the Tutankhamun exhibition as a one-off event, but he could make no promises.

Nevertheless, the presentation on the existing development in the former Dome was unquestionably impressive. The concert arena on its own will be a fantastic world-class venue, with state-of-the-art facilities for music and sport, and I can't wait to see it in action: Justin Timberlake and Scissor Sisters have already been booked for July, and Mr Campbell dropped strong hints about another artist who has been checking it out (see headline of this post for a clue). A smaller live music club overseen by the former manager of Ronnie Scott's, and the entertainment district with quality shops and restaurants also look very good. Check out the website for details.

Earlier, I asked Leader of the Council Chris Roberts if he felt his public reaction to the casino decision should have contained an expression of regret, or at least disappointment at the result, rather than just congratulating the winners. He claimed his statement had been 'responsible' before accusing me of 'single-handedly seeking to undermine the bid' and saying my remarks in the press this week were 'reprehensible'. Much as I take pride in being personally abused by the Labour leadership, I noted he still didn't express much regret.

Meanwhile, Lib Dem Councillor Paul Webbewood was subjected to a motion of censure by the Labour Leadership, following his alleged verbal attack on the Mayor for deferring members' questions and hurriedly closing the November council meeting. My Conservative colleague Chris Taylor proposed an amendment proposing the Mayoralty be made more clearly non-partisan to avoid the sort of row which led to the original outburst. Labour rejected this - predictably - and after Cllr Webbewood refused again to apologise, the motion of censure was passed, whilst we abstained. This drawn-out debate meant we had limited time to discuss the Conservative motion on childcare proposed by Cllr Elizabeth Truss, before the meeting again hit the guillotine after 3 and a half hours.