Why I'm Runnning to be Our Next MP

I'm running to be our next MP because I believe that we can build a better future for our country.

I believe that we can make our economy prosper once again, and create new jobs. It's a tragic waste that we have a million youngsters unemployed.

I believe that we can make our state schools the best in the world - so that no matter where someone starts life, they can fulfil their potential.

I believe we can reform the NHS so that if our family has to rely on it, it takes care of us quickly and well. We must end the expensive red tape that stops doctors and nurses from doing their jobs.

I believe that pensioners who have contributed to society all their lives should be looked after with decent pensions, and receive care that doesn't force them to sell their homes.

Why should you support me personally? In the ten years I've lived here, I've become a local leader - the successful Police Station campaign and many others stand testament to that. National politics aside, if you want an MP who lives here, loves it here and gets things done, then I'm the candidate who offers that.

Finally, voting Conservative here is the only way to be sure of changing the Government. Despite the Lib Dems' "474" claims (which are based on spurious 5-year old estimates of what may have happened with different boundaries) all the real evidence - the most recent real election on the new boundaries and recent opinion polls - shows that it's a close Labour-Conservative race here. A vote for the Lib Dems risks letting Labour in. Moreover, the Lib Dem candidate here has openly said he'd back Brown in a hung Parliament.

This race will be close. Our country's future is at stake. I believe my local record of getting things done - not just talking - shows my commitment to our neighbourhood.

People Power wins Northern Line Victory

The scene plays out every morning and evening on the Jubilee and Northern Lines. Trains are heavily overcrowded. Passengers are squashed like sardines into carriages. It is often impossible to read a newspaper or avoid being pressed from every side by fellow-passengers. Sometimes, it is hard even to get on a train.

One reason for this is the antiquated signalling system on the Jubilee and Northern Lines. I visited the Golders Green signalling centre a few months ago. The current signal system controlling the movement of trains down the line could have been designed by Wallace & Gromit. The “timetable” is a punch card on a revolving drum, connected to a computer dating from the early 1970s. The computer is the size of a very large room and is connected by hydraulic pipes to a series of large levers – the kind you would see in an old railway signal box. The levers were designed to be pulled by a human, and control the actual signals, dating from the 1920s. Looking at this system, it’s a miracle trains ever arrive at all.

The solution is a new signalling system, which will be more reliable and will allow about 20% more trains to run (as they can run closer together down the line). This is a great idea. But there’s a catch. A few years ago, the Gordon Brown insisted that the whole underground track and train infrastructure was turned over to two private companies, Tubelines and Metronet. To his credit, then-Mayor Ken Livingstone strongly opposed this plan.

Bringing in private companies has been a fiasco. Metronet went spectacularly bust, leaving the taxpayer to step in and clear up the mess. Tubelines has been responsible for the horrendous over-run upgrading the Jubilee Line. It now looks like it may be 10 months later. Weekend closures have left people stranded at the weekend. Residents of West Hampstead and elsewhere have been stuck – especially if overground lines are also being repaired on the same weekend. Tubelines have been rightly fined (some £5 million a month) for their ineptness, and there is huge pressure being applied to them to get the work finished. At a meeting I organised in West Hampstead a few weeks ago, the Project Manager said work would finish between May and October. This is far too late for a project which should have completed last year.

The Northern Line is next. Many residents and I were concerned about planned weekend line closures – potentially 80 in total. Weekend closures would have left Hampstead, Highgate and Belsize residents stranded at the weekend. Local traders would also have been hit: many of the people shopping in Hampstead at the weekend come from other parts of north London, and use the tube to get in. This is the last thing our local traders need as the struggle through a recession and face an average Business Rates increase of 30% starting this month.

I have met with Tubelines and TfL several times to press our case. I’m delighted to be able to say, as reported by the Ham & High last week, that our campaign appears to have been successful and that weekend closures anywhere north of Kennington have been averted this year. Instead, work will be done overnight (from 11.30pm) starting in about July this year. This is great news for local residents – who now won’t be left stranded at the weekend – and great news for local traders.

We also need to ensure better co-ordination of works on different lines, including the north London Line and the overground lines, so they are not all closed for repair or upgrades at the same time. The various organisations need to talk to each other more.

The whole Jubilee line experience has left me deeply sceptical about whether Public Private Partnerships actually work on something like the tube, the railways or indeed any service that is naturally a public monopoly. The taxpayer still bears the risk (as shown by Metronet’s collapse, where the taxpayer stepped in) yet the private company keeps any profit. The PPP is a sleight of hand by Gordon Brown to keep the liability off the national balance sheet, at the expense of higher costs and a potentially worse service.

At least this episode has shown one thing: people power can still make a difference. Our campaign to avoid northern line weekend closures was successful. Sometimes people ask me if it’s worth taking up these issues. Well, our apparent success on this issue – just like our successful campaign to save the local Police Stations – shows it is worth it. People power can make a difference. So I’ll keep championing these issues. I hope you’ll join me when the next cause arises.

Business Rates Hike will squeeze small traders to breaking point

Kilburn Bookshop, on the High Road, has been open for 30 years. But in six days time, it will close down forever. Our neighbourhood will lose a valuable local amenity; the bookshop has been part of the community as well as an employer down the years.

The Bookshop's owner, Steve Adams, is deeply saddened. He cites a range of reasons: roadworks on the High Road damaging trade; increases in rent; the internet and, crucially, the imminent rise in business rates paid by small traders in our neighbourhood.

I say "rise" in business rates. It's actually a vast hike. From 1st April small business across the Borough will suffer an increase which I calculate will average over 30%. For many, this is the difference between survival and extinction. The butcher on England's Lane in Belsize Park tells me that the profit on the first £2,000 of meat he sells each week will be soaked up by his business rates alone. He adds that if he had to pay rent the business simply wouldn't be viable (luckily, he doesn't have to pay rent - he owns the shop outright).

This story is repeated across our Borough. From Spaniard's Inn in the north (increase 47.4%) to Cycle Surgery in West Hampstead (increase 94.8%) to the Central Stationers on Camden High Street (increase 85.7%) to Judd Books just south of the Euston Road (increase 68.4%), our small traders are being hit. Part of the reason for the huge increases is that the valuations behind them were done in 2007-08, when the property market was at its peak. Of course, things have changed a lot since them.

The Government is hitting our small traders at the very worst time - as they struggle to make it through a downturn. The hardest period for small business is actually the 12-24 months after the economy bottoms out, as credit and cash flow are hard to come by. Ernst & Young recently reported that 150,000 small businesses across the UK are in trouble. This business rate rise may endanger many of them.

Small traders employ millions of people, and are the pulsating heartbeat of the real economy. They are also at the heart of communities. They know their customers personally. They help to preserve our fragile sense of community around Camden. Queen's Crescent in Gospel Oak, with its market, is a great example of this.

The Government currently wastes a lot of money. For example, I have calculated they could save £789 million simply by using office space more efficiently in central Government alone. This is being all paid for by our local traders and by us as taxpayers. As the Government sucks in more and more money, so the economic life is sucked out of small traders and taxpayers.

On Monday, I was asked by a sage chronicler of Camden life: "So what would you do?" Here are four ideas. Firstly, the planned increase should be postponed for at least two years until the danger has passed. Even then, the valuations should be adjusted to reflect actual market conditions - not 2007 peak valuations. Secondly, small business rate relief should be made automatic. At present, around half of Camden's businesses do not even know to claim it. Thirdly, local councils should be given power to fund rate reductions from their own resources if they want to help encourage trade. And finally, smaller businesses should be exempted from much of the regulation that adds cost and complexity. These simple ideas would help protect our small traders at this time of difficulty, and thereby help protect jobs and communities.

I doubt the Government will listen. The 1st of April will see our small traders hit at a time when they have been weakened by 18 months of recession. This year, April will indeed be the cruellest month. And for Kilburn Bookshop, it is sadly already too late.

The Government has let Science Down

The UK's manufacturing base is declining in the face of cheaper foreign competition. The City of London faces pressure due to the credit crunch. These challenges need addressing; but we also need a new generation of outstanding science, engineering and maths graduates who can help build the knowledge economy which will drive future growth.

Sadly, the current Government's record in this area is abysmal. On their watch, the number of students studying hard science subjects has declined (I use the word "hard" unashamedly - if we are going to compete in the world market, sports science will only get us so far). At GCSE level, only 10% of students study Physics, Maths and Biology as separate subjects, and a staggering 68% of state schools did not enter any pupils at all for triple science.

At A Level in 2008, only 7.8% of all pupils studied maths and just 3.3% physics, 4.9% chemistry and 6.5% biology. These figures are all materially lower than in 1997 - and the absolute numbers studying these subjects has dropped by around 25% in the same period.

The decline in the number of people studying hard sciences at university also has serious implications. Between 2002 and 2006, 38 universities closed a science department. One in four universities with significant numbers of physics students in 1994 had stopped teaching the subject by 2006. This in turn undermines research work.

Studying science subjects like Physics increases earning power. A graduate in Physics or Chemistry will earn £187,000 more than someone with just A Levels over their career according to PriceWaterhouseCooper. An English or Arts graduate only increases their earnings by half as much.

It isn't just the numbers that cause concern. It's the rigour of the exams and teaching too. The Government continually bleats that standards are being maintained. The research suggest otherwise. The Royal Society of Chemistry reported a year or so ago that it conducted an experiment - setting the same students exam papers from each of the last 5 decades. The students scored most highly in recent papers, and the lowest in the papers from the 1960s. This confirms separate research showing that a student just getting an A at A-Level maths today would have got a C in 1988. Dr Pike from the RSC said at the time: "We are witnessing an illusory great leap forward in education, where achieving contrived targets has become the end in itself." He added, "The proof lies in the enormous expense to provide remedial mathematics and even remedial science classes at university, and the lack of skills of graduates highlighted by employers."

Nor can the Government hide from international comparisons. The OECD publishes league tables ranking countries based on the attainment levels of 15-year-olds. Over recent years, the UK has fallen from 8th to 24th position in Mathematics and 10th to 14th position in Science. Both are out of 57.

We need to tilt the system back in favour of hard Science and high standards. Here are five simple ideas for doing this:
• Skew University grants, loan and fees in favour of students studying hard science subjects (which are likely to benefit both them and the economy) compared to less value-adding subjects
• Reflate academic standards in the exam system from top to bottom
• Promote Physics, Chemistry and Biology as separate subjects at GCSE level
• Give Headteachers more discretion to pay more to science teachers if they choose to
• Defer student loan repayments for top science graduates going into teaching

If we don't act to address these issues, society will be poorer in every sense.

Setting the Arts Free

The arts are of incredible importance. They educate and promote understanding, make up a vital part of our economy and of course entertain millions no matter what age, background or taste. One thing that always amazes me about our neighbourhood is the variety of ways to access art and culture. Whether you want to visit a gallery in Hampstead, go to the theatre in Swiss Cottage or see a band on the Kilburn High Road there is always something to experience. I love the cultural diversity of our neighbourhood and city, and would hate to see it change.

I know that my view of the arts is shared by the Conservative Party and completely disagree with those who say that the Party plans to single out arts funding as a must cut. It's just not true.

While a future conservative Government would take steps to make savings and the arts may unfortunately have to share this burden, the Party is planning to support the arts through a variety of measures. First of all we need to make sure the money the government spends on the arts gets to where it's needed. At present the Arts Council of England spends 11% of its funds on its own administration. Like with the Conservatives' policies toward Education and Healthcare, we need to cut that unnecessary bureaucracy. Earlier this year Jeremy Hunt said that a Conservative Government would require organisations like the ACE and the Film Council to get their administration costs to 5%, a proposal I support.
A Conservative Government would also take steps to encourage organisations to establish endowments as a safeguard against harsher economic times. A simple way this can be done is by treating museums and galleries as cultural institutions and not government departments, the current "use it" or "lose it" culture means these institutions are forced to spend their funds rather than save them.

Furthermore, the Conservatives have pledged to make it easier for business and individuals to support the arts. At the moment many are discouraged because by the time the money gets to the individual's organisation of choice it has been through the Labour tax machine. A quick way to ease this process is to make Gift Aid less complicated and streamline the complex rules which determine whether a donation truly is a donation. This will help nurture a "giving culture"; if people believe their money is being used correctly they are more like to give in the first place.
Some people are worried that only the big institutions would benefit from these changes because only they would attract the investors. However I believe we can help small but still vital projects too through a refocused National Lottery. When John Major set up the national lottery one of its main aims was to support and encourage the arts and people's access to it. However during Labour's time in power the lottery has been hijacked by huge projects which have drained funds and its administration costs have expanded rapidly. A Conservative Government would take the National Lottery back to its original and very important purpose, to fund local arts, sports and culture projects which have a profound importance to the community. When combined with the 5% bureaucratic spending this would mean an extra £180million going to where it's really needed.

To conclude, a Conservative Government would give the arts the support it deserves through reducing bureaucracy and refocusing the funding system. By introducing fairer economic policies it is possible to encourage individuals and businesses to offer their support. This way we can help to ensure our neighbourhood and country's and cultural future.

The NHS needs reform to flourish

The NHS has been dominating local headlines of late. The Whittingon's A & E is threatened with closure. The Royal Free's physiotherapy department is going out to private tender and its award-winning stroke unit has just ceased emergency treatment. There is talk of the Free and Whittington merging. We read reports of substantial job cuts at the Free. The Ham & High has taken up the baton and is leading campaigns on these issues.

In the 62 years since its birth, the NHS has become a much-loved national institution. Its founding principles were put well by Aneurin Bevan: "No longer will wealth be an advantage, or poverty a disadvantage. Healthcare will be provided free of charge based on clinical need and not on ability to pay." I agree with him.

The NHS of today looks very different to the one Nye Bevan set up in 1948. It is now the world's third largest employer, behind the Chinese Red Army and Indian railway (some say fourth largest, depending on how you count Wal-Mart's staff).

So why, 62 years after its foundation, are so many local services apparently under threat? Could it be lack of money from taxpayers? Emphatically, no. One positive thing the current Government has done is spend on the NHS. As a Conservative, I agree that the NHS should be properly and fully funded. I was delighted when David Cameron recently said that he would protect the NHS budget. There is no doubt some serious savings will have to be made from the national budget, but the NHS is not the place to cut.

The scale of the spending increases over the last 13 years has been vast. NHS spending went from £37 billion in 1997 up to £120 billion today - more than tripling. Camden's economic contribution to NHS spending works out at £12,000 per household on average.

So has this extra money been wisely spent? According to Office for National Statistics, it has absolutely not. The ONS reports that NHS productivity has in fact fallen by a shocking 10% since 1997 - at a time when private sector productivity has been dramatically growing as a result of better management and use of technology.

Around 60% of the spending increases have gone in cost inflation, and so hasn't even resulted in more resources being deployed. One thing that has grown is the number of Managers and Administrators in the NHS: they have grown at a rate three times faster than clinical staff.

So what's going wrong? A former nurse with many years service, said: "I knew I had to leave when the paperwork became more important than the patients".

In the last 13 years, the current Government have tried to run the NHS as a vast centralised bureaucracy. They have set targets that deny doctors, nurses and GPs control over how services are run. Professionals' careers depend on satisfying Government targets, not delivering patient welfare. This vast bureaucracy soaks up money and actually makes the system less efficient. The pressure group Doctors for Reform put it like this: "Doctors are beset with political targets and central direction, distorting clinical priorities. The monolithic structure of the NHS simply does not allow the effective transmission of resources to frontline services."

This is why so much of the money is not well spent. It has simply disappeared into a huge centralised bureaucratic system. This is why local services are under threat, despite ever increasing amounts of money being poured in at the top.

If only the system consumed less in administration, then the Whittington's A&E would not now be under threat. If only the Government had spent our money more wisely, we would not now be contemplating staff cuts at the Royal Free.

What is the solution? The answer lies in radical reform. Instead of the Government trying to run the whole system centrally via targets and micromanagement, let's give doctors, nurses and GPs the freedom to deliver the service local patients need - to make the patient more important than the paperwork once again. Let's allow hospitals freedom to run their own affairs, and put GPs back at the heart of commissioning what they believe is best for their patients.

This needs to be accompanied by proper patient choice for elective care. The money will follow the patient. So instead of the Government telling us which of our local services will expand or close down, instead patient choice and local GP commissioning will drive it.

This will be a radical improvement in the way the NHS operates - instead of running from the top down according to diktats from headline-hungry politicians, local people and their GPs will become its heartbeat once again. No longer will we see important local services closing down on orders from Whitehall. And the money saved by radically slim-lining the current bureaucracy can go back into front-line care.

The NHS could once again be a great institution. But like anything, it needs reform to flourish. The recent threats to local services show why that reform is so important.

Report on West Hampstead Transport Forum

Last night I chaired a public meeting on transport issues in the Hampstead and Kilburn neighbourhood. I organised the event to allow local residents and traders to ask officials questions about our neighbourhood's transport network. Representatives from TfL, Tube Lines and Network Rail were there, as well as London Assembly Member Brian Coleman. Below is a brief summary of some of the issues covered:

The delayed completion of the Jubilee Line signal upgrades. Weekend closures are still needed to carry out testing of the new trains and signal system. Tube Lines reported that the closures could continue until October but they hope to finish by May. I share residents' views that this is totally unacceptable, and that the Private Finance initiative (forced on London by Gordon Brown, against everyone's wishes including Ken Livingstone's) has been a failure. The work should have been finished by December 2009. Buses linking the Jubilee line to the Northern line while closures are in force are a good idea that was discussed. Working on weekday nights rather than at weekends was also suggested, as an idea to avoid excessive weekend closures.

The actions Tube Lines and TfL are taking to make sure the works are finished. Tube Lines is currently being fined £5 million per month they overrun. I plan to continue my call for larger fines to be levied on the contractor, otherwise there is no incentive for them to improve their operation.

Coming Northern Line works. Weekend closures on the Northern Line for signal upgrades will start in around March this year. TfL and Tubelines promised that they had learnt the lessons from the Jubilee Line, and that these mistakes made there would not be repeated. They also promised more overnight works and fewer weekend closures. Time will tell if they acheive this, but we will be monitoring it closely.

How to ensure multiple lines are not closed at the same time. Representatives from TfL and Tube Lines assured us that they work hard to avoid multiple closures but sometimes they happen because so many different authorities are keen to carry out works. I plan to get in touch with the board that monitors this issue to discuss the effect these closures have on West Hampstead. We need to make sure that we do not have all our lines (overground and overground) closed on the same weekend, which often seems to happen. It leaves us virtually trapped if we rely on the tains and tube to get around.

The redevelopment of West Hampstead Station. The plans to improve the station include the new footbridge and a new entrance were discussed. This will increase the capacity to the station and ease the swell in foot traffic on West End Lane as people interchange from the tube.

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the event a success. Hopefully people feel more informed about what is happening and with continued pressure we can make sure our neighbourhood's transport is managed more effectively in the future. I will be taking up these and the other issues we discussed with the relevant authorities and reporting back to residents.

Creating Opportunity for all children

Every child should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. It shouldn't matter what their background is. It shouldn't matter whether their parents are rich or poor. It shouldn't matter where they happen to live. But in Britain today, the sad fact is that it does. I believe that this is profoundly wrong.

At last week's council meeting, we talked about exam results. Camden's schools are doing a decent job compared to other state schools, especially bearing in mind the poverty in some parts of the Borough. The results showed that 51% got As or Bs at A Level, compared to a national average of 49%. Camden is also just above the national average on the main GCSE measure.

But there was an elephant in the room we didn't discuss that night: private schools are vastly outperforming the state sector. Even though the funding gap has closed dramatically (which is good), the performance gap is still huge. 40% of private school pupils get 3As at A Level, compared to 8% in the state sector. That's is why a mother in Swiss Cottage I recently spoke to said that she was going private even though she would have preferred to use the state system. When I heard that only 79 pupils on free school meals got 3 As at A level in the whole UK last year, my heart sank. More pupils than that got 3As at one private school alone in the same year.

 I passionately want to reform and improve the state system for the sake of the children whose potential is not being realised, through no fault of their own. This passion arises because I'm product of London's state system myself, and my Mum and cousins all taught or teach in the state sector.

Some will say that this is simply a question of money. I welcome the increase in education funding over the last few years. It is vital to invest in our children's future. But at the same time that the Government has rightly increased funding, we have slipped down the international league tables. The UK has dropped precipitously - from 8th to 24th in maths, below the international average, and we now are behind Estonia in reading. In Science, we have dropped from 4th place to 14th.

We now spend more than the OECD average on education. Spending per state pupil is now approaching that of many private schools. Why, after huge amounts of extra money, is the state system is still not working as it should? The challenge is no longer money; the challenge is reform.

Last week, Education Secretary Ed Balls visited Camden. The system he presides over tries to run everything from the centre. Teachers cite bureaucracy, paperwork and diktats as the main reason for leaving the profession (poor discipline is next, and salaries third). It is impossible for schools to innovate, or change the way they do things to suit local conditions or meet parent demand. Consequently, there is limited real parent choice. It is also fiendishly difficult to set up a new school, with endless hurdles to jump.

The inflexible bureaucracy is one reason why we have a shortage of primary school places in the north of Camden. Ironically, Mr Balls visited the emergency overflow centre in my ward which Camden had to set up in order to put a sticking plaster on this problem. If parents, teachers or charities had the freedom to set up a new school, receiving per-capita state funding, then the problem would most likely have been fixed before an emergency solution was needed.

This is the kind of reform we need. The barriers to setting up new schools must be torn down. Schools must have real freedom to run their own affairs, free of Ed Balls' emasculating grip. This will result in a real diversity of schools. There will be competition for pupils, not competition to see who can tick the Government's boxes. Parents in turn will have real choice. The vast amount of money soaked up by Mr Ball's monolithic bureaucracy can instead be channelled to classroom - where schools should spend it as they see fit, not how Mr Balls tells them to spend it. Staff hiring and salaries, budgets, admissions and discipline should also all be run by schools, not by Balls.

A dynamic, better state system will develop, benefitting everyone. In Sweden and in the US, they have "Charter Schools." like the kind I'm describing. Where they are set up, they are often designed to cater for pupils from disadvantaged areas. And children there start doing better remarkably quickly.

Here in Camden we've tried to make a start by setting up an Academy at Swiss Cottage, to provide better opportunities for the Borough's children. But real national reform is needed to set our schools and teachers free and give parents real choice. This will create the genuine equality of opportunity that has eluded us for so long.

It's not just our children's future that's at stake. It's our country's too.

Holocaust Memorial Day

This morning I was honoured to attend a Holocaust Memorial Day performance of "And Then They Came for Me," a play directed by Camden resident Nic Careem. The play remembers the life of Anne Frank and the life of her step-sister Eva Schloss, who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Eva was present, and we both spoke after the performance.

Seeing the lives of these two courageous young women played out on stage was a moving and haunting experience. The holocaust is the worst and most wicked genocide in history. We must never forget it. Tolerance and compassion must always defeat hatred and prejudice.

The play was also attended by school children from across London, some of whom are in danger of becoming part of gang culture. Once the play was finished the young audience asked Eva Schloss questions about her experiences in the past and what she thought of the present. Seeing the school children listen to Eva's message of compassion and tolerance meant the day ended on a note of hope for the future.

West Hampstead Transport Meeting

 Whether it's the weekend closures of the Jubilee, Metropolitan, Bakerloo or overground lines, the approaching Northern Line works, construction of the new West Hampstead Station or congestion on our roads there is no doubt transport is a pressing issue here. Many of our neighbours and local businesses (and me!) are frustrated about these issues. Simultaneous tube and overground weekend closures can leave some people stranded and hurt local business. This is not acceptable.

To help get answers and hopefully find solutions, I have invited representatives from the key transport authorities to come to a public meeting dedicated to local transport issues. Representatives from TfL, Network Rail and Tubes Lines will be there as well as London Assembly Member Brian Coleman.

The event's details are;

Monday 1st February
7:30pm
Hampstead Synagogue Community Hall
Dennington Park Road
West Hampstead
NW6 1AX

The meeting is open to everybody so please come along and forward this email to anyone else who might like to attend. This is a great opportunity for us to come together and discuss an issue that affects us all. I hope to see you there.