Category Archives: Oona King

The Bedroom Tax Shames Britain

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From The Mirror

Julia Jones, who will have to live on just £53 a week, faces losing the home and garden where she scattered her husband’s ashes

Dear Mr Cameron

Julia+Jones++Writes+to+Mr+Cameron+about+room+tax++at+her+home++in+Newbury+BerksI heard you in Prime Minister’s Questions say you would look at individual cases on the bedroom tax. I am 59 years old, David (my husband) and I have both worked since we were 15, paid taxes, did our bit. We have never been well off but we both did worthwhile jobs.

Five years ago David got melanoma. He had excruciating treatment and, although still not well, returned to work as he thought it was his duty. Four years ago he got bowel cancer; he had an irreversible colostomy. Six months later he returned to work. Two years ago he got brain cancer. Seven weeks later he died.

Throughout all this I was advised I could get care allowance, but I rejected this: he was my husband, it was my duty to care for him. We lived off the little savings we had until we could return to work. When he had the colostomy we were allocated this home as David could not climb stairs any more and I struggled. His ashes are buried in the garden under the rose bushes that friends gave me instead of wreaths.

Mr Cameron, my husband and I were the hard workers you claim to support, we never asked for anything.

I would give everything if this had not happened to us. Because we were on benefit and sick, you and your government said hateful words against us. Words that made acquaintances look at us with contempt.

The most powerful men in the country imply we are scum so we must be scum. You and your government call us scroungers, next door go to work while our bedroom curtains are still drawn.

My curtains were still drawn at 11am as the light made David scream with pain.

Do you not consider that I would give everything for my husband to be alive, me to not have incapacitating pain and we could both be the hard workers we once were? I live in small 1 1/2 bed bungalow that was built for older people. It is supported elderly living so I feel safe. It could not house a family as under 55s are not allowed.

You now want to take my home from me. The home that literally made my fingers bleed cleaning as it had been neglected for 20 years when we moved here. You want me to leave my husband’s ashes, my neighbours who take me shopping and give me some form of social life? I have no family, we could not have children.

I am living without heating at present so how can I pay what I do not have to stay in my home? Have you any idea how that affects my fibromyalgia?

I eat one meal a day and am in constant pain which is exacerbated by the cold. I may get Discretionary Housing Benefit. But we both know that is only for 13 weeks at a time and when the pot is empty, it is empty. I have considered moving but the only property available is far from shops and bus stops and costs £98 per month more than where I am at present. I would be living in isolation.

You say you are building more social housing, but it is too little too late for many of us. You may blame the Labour policies, but it was your government who introduced this law so I have to hold you responsible.

Mr Cameron, I do not believe you or your MPs are evil men at heart, I believe this is an ill-thought-out plan and you did not understand the consequence of your action.

I ask you to take a step back and look at this again.

THE ABOVE IS JUST PLAIN CRUEL…I AM ASHAMED TO BE BRITISH.

Yours, Julia Jones

Oona King: It Still Doesnt Add Up

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Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, London, Oona King

Oona KingTory Troll, Adam Bienkov, has written some interesting thoughts on the Labour Party’s mayoral selection:

Nobody, not even Oona King herself could seriously have thought that she could beat Ken Livingstone to the nomination.

Her candidacy always appeared to me a face-saving exercise from those who had spent the past two years briefing that they would take Ken on.

In the event none of them quite had the guts to do it and so it was left instead to Oona.

Now I’ve met Oona and she seems like a decent and likable person, but from the start her campaign has been remarkably lacklustre and wrong-headed.

Rather than demonstrate her ability to take on the current Conservative mayor, she has been determined to re-run the same campaign against Ken that Boris Johnson ran in 2008.

  • A call for term limits? Check.

  • Cronyism accusations? Check.

  • Support from Andrew Gilligan? Check.
  • Focus on knife and gang crime? Check.
  • Vague promises to outer London? Check
  • Promises for a “new tube line” on the Thames? Check.
  • A new type of impractical bus? Check.
  • Self-inflicted Freedom Pass controversy? Check

Read the rest here.

Oona King’s end game is odd, being quoted by Pippa Crerar in yesterday’s Standard saying:

Her team acknowledged privately from the start that beating front-runner Ken Livingstone who has union support was a long shot. However, they feel she has run a successful campaign that has raised her profile.

Ms King has spoken passionately about the need for Labour to provide a “more serious alternative” for London in future.

A friend said: “We could have been out for the count, but we’re not. If she loses just slightly then she would be well-placed to run for it again.”

This is very inconsistent because in radio interviews and press briefings Oona King’s campaign team have been very confident all along that polls were showing them ahead; they told Guardian blogger, Dave Hill, back in August, that canvassing data indicated a clear Oona King lead.

What is most odd here is that she is hinting she might try again next time to be labour’s mayoral candidate: but she doesn’t want to run for the London Assembly, because she says she enjoys her job at Channel Four too much. It is also clear, having read her autobiographical diaries, that she found being an MP an enormous strain, and the stress damaged her health.

Being mayor of London would be much more difficult and stressful than being a backbench MP, and if she prefers being Head of Diversity at Channel Four to being a London Assembly member, then why did she ever want to be mayor in the first place? Something doesn’t add up.

Has Oona King Given Up?

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Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, London, Oona King

Within the last hour Ken Livingstone’s campaign team sent out a further rallying e-mail, calling on people to back him to take on Boris Johnson and the Tories:

One week ago Boris Johnson confirmed that he will run again. His interview on Andrew Marr’s BBC programme last weekend shows what’s at stake. He said of the government’s cuts: “They’re absolutely right to make cuts and you know we in the government in London have been making you know very substantial cuts for the last two years.”

He campaigned to get the Tories into Downing Street. His cuts are the government’s cuts.

In the coming days we will keep up the pressure on Boris Johnson and his colleagues in government because the cuts, privatisation and higher fares they stand for are a big backward step for Londoners.

I hope, if you have not done so already, you’ll use your vote for a serious, united, energetic campaign for 2012 that aims to be a key part of the vital alternative we need. Please vote online to be sure your vote is in time.

The key messages from Ken are the need to oppose the Tories, and unite the labour movement, and wider progressive opinion, into a campaign that can do so. There has been a remarkable contrast between his purposeful and anti-Tory campaign to gain the Labour nomination, and the frothy and divisive campaign that Oona King has conducted, which has seemed more at home criticising Ken than Boris.

But the indictations are that Oona King’s campaign team have tidied their desks and gone home early. Her campaign manager Matt Cooke is tweeting from the David Miliband phonebank - apparently not feeling the urgency to phone for Oona. If her own campaign manager isn’t out there getting the vote for Oona, then is anyone?

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Her  head of e-campaigns and events, Kevin McKeever, has removed his Oona King job refs from his twitter bio, even though the campaign is still running, and people can still vote on-line.

Her head of policy, Wes Streeting, has been very quiet about anything to do with Oona lately – but one of his last tweets about Oona went out of its way to emphasise unity with Ken. Giving me the impression that Wes is trying some personal bridge building recognising that Ken is going to win.

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Oona King Campaign Limping to the Finish Line

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housing, Ken Livingstone, London, Oona King

Oona King made great play of the fact that she has had more MP supporters than Ken Livingstone in her bid to become Labour’s candidate for London mayor, this has been trumpeted by the Daily Telegraph and Spectator, for example; but with yesterday’s announcement from Emily Thornberry that she is backing Ken, then Livingstone has 15 London MPs supporting him to Oona’s 14. So in every area, Oona King has less declared support than Ken Livingstone.

So why has Oona’s candidacy failed to take off? One reason perhaps is the negative tone of her campaign, denigrating Ken, and by implication criticising Labour’s past record in office. For example, her recent blog post is all about how bad Ken Livingstone is. This doesn’t match with the experience of London Labour Party members and trade unionists, who know that Livingstone is a redoubtable fighter, with an unparalleled grasp of policy, and a genuine passion for taking the fight to Boris Johnson. Livingstone’s campaign to get the nomination has turned all its fire on the Tories, and not on his Labour Party rival.

Another reason for Oona King’s poor performance, is the gap between the media projected image, and the reality. For all the talk of exciting new thinking, and new policies, most of her policy announcements have been silly. For example her recent pledge to make tourist attractions free for London residents: is she seriously suggesting that there should be a huge subsidy from the public purse for private companies running Madame Tussauds, and London Dungeon?

Ridiculously, Oona King pledges to set up “a powerful new Film Council for London”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this already exists: Film London was set up by Ken Livingstone in 2003 and has helped London to thrive as a venue for all aspects of film production.

There is no doubt that her friends in the media are doing all they can to boost Oona King’s dwindling prospects: the Evening Standard recently provided space for Oona to pledge that she would help the low paid get their foot on the property ladder. Under her scheme, she would use the Greater London Authority to act as guarantor for loans from a credit union or bank. A guarantor is a third party that provides a bank with a guarantee that they will stand behind a loan, and thus allow someone to borrow more than their salary would normally allow.

Hang on? So she wouldn’t expand the social rented sector, and she wouldn’t produce more affordable homes; but she would help people borrow more money than they could afford to repay, and then stand guarantor for the loans, so if they default on the payments, the council tax payer will bail out the banks? Was Oona King asleep when Northern Rock failed?

The stakes are high. Yesterday Boris Johnson announced that he wants to see strikes by public sector workers banned. The two Labour hopefuls made it quite clear where they stand. Livingstone was at City Hall yestrerdaty morning to join trade unions, bus workers and supporters campaigning against fare increases and “attacks on the wages and conditions of bus workers”; in contrast Oona King issued the following statement: “This morning I met London’s business leaders at the London Chamber of Commerce – where we talked about the importance of how to ensure that London is a city fit for the 2020s. If London is to succeed it does not need industrial conflict, but politicians who will engage with every part of the capital to get things done and secure the capital’s future.”

Labour needs a mayoral candidate who can take Boris on and beat him. Oona King is too flaky, too negative, too hostile to trade unions, and too big a risk.

Oona King’s Supporters: “bring Back Mandelson”

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Oona King

Labour Uncut recently published a gushing article by John Woodcock MP, calling for the return of Peter Mandelson to a leading role in the Labour Party. The article itself has little substance, but what is interesting is how it has been received by Oona King’s campaigners. (Remember Oona King is backed by Peter Mandelson in seeking to become Labour’s London mayoral candidate for 2012)

This is how Wes Streeting, Oona King’s head of policy, responded on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wesstreeting/status/24386702362

streeting-twitter.jpg

Followed by one of Oona King’s most prominent supporters, Richard Angell: http://twitter.com/RichardAngell/status/24386396672

angel-twitter.jpg

Oona King Aide Talks Up War on Iran

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Iran, Labour Party, Oona King

This is interesting from Liberal Conspiracy

Yesterday a row erupted on Twitter between a group of young supporters of the two Milibands over Iran, with David’s supporters talking up the prospects of military action against Iran as Blair did last week, and Ed’s supporters mainly reiterating current US strategy.

There’s a couple of problems apparent when Wes Streeting (an Oona King campaign team staffer) claims that “the speeches of Ahmedinejad, the work of academics, intelligence” proves the existence of Iranian WMD capability. Click to continue reading →

Iraq War Opponents Are “petulant Toddlers”

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Oona King

Oona King is seeking to be selected as the Labour Party candidate for London mayor in 2012.

Famously Oona King lost one of the safest Labour seats in the country to George Galloway in 2005, not only because she supported the immoral war on Iraq, but more particularly due to the arrogant contempt with which she responded to the overwhelmingly anti-war sentiment of her constituents.

So it is no surprise to see one of the key organisers of her campaign team, Kevin McKeever, send this tweet today. McKeever is Oona King’s e-campaigns and events officer,.

Thanks to Selection Spotlight

Where Did Oona King Get Those E-mail Addresses From?

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Oona King

More from Selection Spotlight 

Previously we reported questions arising from how Oona King had been able to contact London Labour members using information not given to both candidates by the party. This story has now made it into the Evening Standard today.

Many party members have contacted Oona King’s campaign directly after receiving emails from Kevin McKeever of her campaign team, asking how Oona King’s campaign obtained their personal information. London Labour members have now started to receive replies from Mr McKeever.

He writes:
“The Oona King campaign has sourced email contact data from a range of legitimate sources, including affiliate organisations, campaigning groups and informal networks of Labour Party members.”

Many are not satisfied. But Mr McKeever’s reply raises a new question. He says that contact data has been sourced from affiliate organisations. Most affiliated organisations are trade unions. Two are backing Oona King – Usdaw and Community. The overwhelming majority are backing Ken Livingstone. Traditionally the unions do not pass their membership data to anyone else. That is because they are free-standing organisations with their own obligations to their members.

Other affiliates are generally not backing any candidate – the Fabian Society and the Co-operative party have made no recommendations for example.

Kevin McKeever’s reply begs the question – is he saying Community and Usdaw handed over their membership details to Oona King? And what other affiliates’ data is implied in the response from Kevin McKeever?

Oona King the Banana Skin Candidate

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Oona King

The is no doubt that Oona King is running a disastrous campaign to be Labour candidate for London mayor in 2012.

She keeps making serious gaffes which show she is not briefed properly, doesn’t know the facts, and has no idea which buttons she needs to press to gain support.

The new blog Selection Spotlight run by Daniel Blaney, promises to report on developments in the Labour Party selection for its 2012 London Mayoral candidate, only publishing well-sourced, factual information.

Daniel shows how Oona is all over the shop. She cannot decide whether she is for or against David Cameron’s big society.

On July 28th Oona tweeted; ‘On my blog today – Cameron’s big society con and community action that works’ and blogged: ‘Have you ever heard such nonsense as David Cameron’s “Big Society?’

Yet on July 26th Oona said, ‘We can’t just reject the Big Society as a big con. It’d be a big mistake to just allow the Tories to claim it. We need to develop and foster our own innovative solutions to the problems of the future, you know, working in partnership with… groups, lots of community and third sector organisations.’
Ealing London Mayoral Hustings 26th July 2010

These are the sort of boobs which Boris Johnson and his campaign team would have a riot with, making Oona King look like a fool.

Oon King has also launched a crime policy document which pledges; ‘That there will be a 24-hour police station in every single borough’.

But according to the Metropolitan Police every borough already has a 24 hour police station, many have at least three or four stations open around the clock.

Again, Boris Johnson would run rings around her: making her look amateur, ill informed and incompetent.

London Labour isn’t just choosing between two candidates they are choosing whether they want to win in 2012 with Ken, or whether they want to lose in 2012 with Oona.

Oona King Campaign: Yet Another Cock Up

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Labour Party, London, Oona King, Trade Unions

Yesterday saw another very serious gaffe by one of Oona King’s campaign staff.

Commenting on the lack of trade union support for King, the reporter Jess Freeman, asked why Trade Unions had a vote. He records the reply, from an Oona King campaign spokesperson:

“The problem with the trade-union system is that it is rather outdated,” replied one person on Oona’s team. He continued: “Unions don’t really do anything except give money… I shouldn’t say that.”

Jess Freeman stands by the story as being completely accurate.

Sunny Hundal has done very well in following up the story up by checking with Oona King’s team. He reports:

[Oona’s] spokesperson added: “We are prepared to accept those things have been said, but it’s not an official campaign view.”

There are a couple of things to say here. The criticism of trade unions by an inexperienced campaign member is highly likely to be echoing the views of the campaign leadership. Oona’s campaign team will have needed to come up with an internal narrative to justify why she has only been supported by two smaller maverick unions, while seven unions, including all the big hitters, GMB, UNITE, UNISON and CWU, have backed Ken Livingstone.

But we also know that Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Oona King’s campaign manager, was critical of the role of trade unions in the selection process right from the beginning, and tried to get the electoral college system changed to suit Oona King. He wrote to Party General Secretary, Ray Collins, saying:

The selection process is not properly democratic compared with comparable selections, relying on a 50:50 split between trade unionists and party members. All other Local Government Mayor candidates are selected by one member one vote.

Jim Fitzpatrick was playing to the gallery, and despite the fact that he was pretending to make a technical inquiry about the rules of the contest, he included a number of inflammatory inaccuracies, and published his letter via Labour List.

Fitzpatrick was falsely claiming that the selection procedure had recently been rushed through to disadvantage Oona, Ray Collins rebuked him:

As regards the selection process, can I be completely clear here and say categorically this selection is being run entirely in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Party and is exactly how the London selection was run last time.

On Tuesday 23 July 2002 the NEC agreed this exact wording:

An electoral college made up of 50% Party members and 50% affiliates (OMOV in all sections) to select the Party’s candidate for London Mayor.

This was to allow the members and affiliate members a greater say in the process.
It is therefore false for you to suggest that the selection process was ‘rushed through’ and wrong to suggest it is being run contrary to Party rules.

Remember that the selection process was changed in 2002 in order to avoid a repeat of the almighty mess caused by a handful of Westminster MPs swaying the selection in favour of the hapless Frank Dobson to be Labour candidate, who was then subject to a humiliating defeat at the hands of Ken Livingstone standing as an independent in 2001.

All along Oona King’s campaign have been apprehensive about her lack of appeal to trade unionists, which she has of course compounded by refusing to oppose Royal Mail privatisation.

What is significant is that Oona King’s campaign have acknowledged that the anti-Trade Union comments were made by a member of her campaign team, but despite a bland “motherhood and apple pie” statement about the value of trade unions, blah, blah, Oona King has significantly not criticised the point of view expressed, nor indicated that the campaigner who made these comments has been in any way rebuked.

Let us be clear what is at stake here. In the general election it was trade unionists in particular from GMB, UNITE and UNISON, who not only provided money, but staffed the telephone banks, knocked on doors, pushed leaflets through letter boxes, and persuaded their colleagues, friends and neighbours to vote Labour. Without a constructive and positive relationship with the unions, no Labour candidate can win London back.

Louise Haigh, London Young Labour TULO officer makes the takes up the same story:

our link to millions of people giving us an invaluable connection to issues in the workplace and on those things that affect peoples’ lives directly, such as childcare or pensions. Trade union members have a democratic right to participate in this selection, just as in the leadership. We need to defend the union link, not concede to Tory arguments about it.

In London the trade union agenda directly contributed to policies under Ken as mayor like the living wage, the importance of protecting the pension rights of transport workers and the recognition of risks faced by construction workers.

The value of the unions’ contribution is equally in the campaigns that Ken Livingstone has taken up in this selection. His economic policy statement develops a number of points flowing from the work of the unions, such as the need to deepen the promotion of the living wage. Alongside the Unite union he recently met with Billingsgate fish porters whose licenses are under threat; and his campaign to promote and protect London’s valued pubs was launched with the GMB union.

It also meant that, unlike Oona King, when asked about the threat of Royal Mail privatisation he gave an unequivocal answer against this threat – rejecting rather than accepting the underlying arguments for privatisation.

The differences on the unions are indicative of the choices more broadly in this campaign – between one that is seeking to unite the London labour movement as a whole in order to maximise the opposition to the cuts and higher fares of Boris Johnson’s administration and the ConDem government, and the other that would weaken our campaign between now and 2012 by conceding territory to the Tories, on Royal Mail privatisation, means testing and cuts.

We need the London trade unions if we are going to win in 2012 and remove Boris Johnson.

Oona King is not only a bad candidate because of her disastrous politics, but because with her as candidate Labour will lose in London in 2012. Only Ken Livingstone can win.

Oona King Lowers Her Sights

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Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, London, Oona King

It is an essential requirement for any serious election candidate that they can win elections; but surely it is necessary that they can tell the difference between wining and losing.

In her latest blog post, Oona King, the divisive Blairite contender to be Labour’s London mayoral candidate in 2012 makes the startling claim about the recent hustings in Wimbledon

“I was glad to answer a question about whether or not I was ruthless enough to be Mayor. I pointed out that I survived one of the dirtiest election campaigns back in 2005”

Oona King’s ruthlessness in backing the illegal invasion of Iraq has never been in doubt. But did she survive the 2005 election? My recollection is that she lost one of Labour’s safest seats in the country to George Galloway.

Oona King’s campaign has significantly stalled. Back in June Sunny Hundal told me off, saying I was “naughty” for claiming that King had a narrow basis of support.

The ever impressionable Mr Hundal was transfixed by Oona King’s greater support among MPs, whereas I argued that her limited appeal to Labour’s base of councillors in London was more significant.

Since then Ken has gained the support of all trade unions except the maverick USDAW and Community, with their Blairite leaderships. Ken has the support of seven of Labour’s London Assembly members (none support Oona King), Ken has the support of 12 London Labour MPs (Oona only has two more), Ken has the support of Claude Moraes MEP (Oona has no MEP support), and Ken is supported by 252 councillors, from all parts of London, (while Oona is supported by just 101, mostly from inner London)

It seems Oona sets her sights very low, she doesn’t seek to win elections, she only seeks to survive them. London Labour needs to select a winner, they need to select Ken Livingstone.

Negativity Won’t Do It for Oona

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Oona King

by Seph Brown

I have not been particularly awe inspired by Labour’s Mayoral selection so far, but one thing I have noticed is that Oona has truly adopted her role as the anti-Ken candidate. Naturally there will be comparisons and competition, but it is becoming more and more apparent that she can’t finish a speech, announcement or blog post without turning negative on Ken. It would be a bit of a joke if it weren’t so damaging to our party.

The reason I bring this up now is because I recently read her blog in which she said:

I don’t think Ken Livingstone is the way to go. He may qualify for Britain’s Got Talent but only on UK Gold.

This is not funny. Not least of all when seemingly trying to make political capital out of your opponent’s age. Brazenly attacking his breadth of experience could also be a miscalculation when it appears that her positions on some of the most important issues facing Londoners are less than consistent.

I saw Oona’s penchant for negative campaigning first hand when she attended a gathering of local Labour members from a north London ward to celebrate our work during the General Election. It was not a huge event and with about 20 people there I was initially impressed that Oona really did take the time out of her campaign to come and mingle with us. Then she made her pitch and opened with a ‘joke’…

“My whole campaign has just been ruined” she said. “I have been telling people that no candidate has ever won the same election against the same opponent that he or she had previously lost. But one of your younger members has just suggested that Harold Wilson may be the exception.”

I was gobsmacked. In her opening statement to us, she said in no uncertain terms that her whole campaign – her “whole” campaign – was about not being Ken. Nothing she said after that could have helped her recover. Others agreed. At the time I opted for a sarcastic tweet. I really showed her.

This campaign, like all campaigns, needs to be more than not being the other candidate, especially at a time when faith in politics is at an all time low. But to begin, to kick off your speech, by opening with a fairly weak joke about the other Labour candidate, is completely unacceptable. By so nonchalantly and so often taking the path of negative campaigning I really believe that Oona is letting our Party down.

Oona King Back-peddling Fast on Freedom Pass Gaffe

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London, Oona King, transport

Let us remind ourselves what Oona King said:

23rd July, Croydon hustings

Question: The Government is threatening to means test the Freedom Pass. Do you believe it should be means tested?

‘Oona King – ‘I don’t want to, but if budgets are tight, money is short, you need to prioritise. I want to help the poorest. That’s why we are in politics, to help the poorest, like my bus policy.. If there is a choice, then I want the money to go to the poorest, not to pay for the richest.. like Prince Charles to go free. My priority is for bus fares to be cut if possible paid for by money from the western extension, congestion charge…’

29th July, Brent hustings

Question: There has been some talk that the Freedom Pass may be means tested. Are there any circumstances in which you would accept this?

Oona: ‘There are some circumstances that I would accept saying to someone like Prince Philip or other extremely rich pensioners in London that you can no longer have free travel in London, the average not the poorest pensioner. I think we should extend it onto train companies for example… We have to recognise priorities, for example, the childcare tax credit, I don’t get the same childcare tax credit as someone who earn less than me… I’m a progressive, I’m a socialist, you should be helped, I think you should pay according to your ability to pay and you should be helped according to your needs.

‘Ken and I support the freedom pass, he will tell you he never expected to get it… we need to recognise it is an equality issue – if you are rich you get about, if you are poor you don’t. We have to make sure pensioners can get around London and have that dignity in retirement, they need to enjoy life.’

‘We have to be more realistic, in this environment when everything is being cut by abolishing, through ideologically driven ways… I will fight tooth and nail against those cuts.’

‘But if you are the mayor and you have got less money coming in you need to ensure the average pensioner can have the same experience or better than those richer ones you need to accept means testing.’

But now she is denying having said it, on her blog:

FREEDOM PASS FIBS BEWARE!

People who should know better are claiming that I favour a means test for the Freedom Pass.

I want to write to you now and say this is simply not true.

I support – and I will defend with every breath in my body – the Freedom Pass. Pensioners and the disabled need and deserve free travel around London.

The gist of her defence now is that she doesn’t advocate means testing, but if the Con-Dem government cut the London transport budget, then she would consider means testing. But this just shows she doesn’t have a firm grasp of how politics works. We cannot afford weak and equivocal statements that would encourage the government to think they could pass the blame for administering Freedom Pass cuts onto a Labour mayoral administration; and we cannot allow voters to believe that there is some shade of grey, where a Labour mayorality might fail to defend the Freedom Pass.

As Len Duvall, London Assembly member for Greenwich and Lewisham, recently wrote:

Boris Johnson would run rings round us.

We should not give our Tory opponents a clear opening amongst hundreds of thousands of older and disabled Londoners, or – worse still – give the Tories the ground they need to start to water down the Freedom Pass.

Figures shows show 51,691 Freedom Passes issued in Barnet for older Londoners and 5,903 for disabled people. 43,791 in total have been issued in Bexley, 63,671 in Bromley, and 48,827 in Havering, for example. These are not the super rich and they should not have to face means testing. And older Londoners are the most likely to vote in elections.

To administer a means test for schemes like the Freedom Pass you could only make savings by removing more than just the richest from those who qualify. Means testing often deters people from applying for concessions they are entitled to. It opens up the question of what other concessions should be means tested; in a city with excellent concessionary schemes – like free bus and tram travel for under-18s – that would be a disaster. And it would erode the stake that many Londoners have in the public transport system.

It’s not the technicalities though. Most importantly we would show we lack judgement and are not on the side of ordinary people.

Oona King has argued recently: “If there is a choice, then I want the money to go to the poorest, not to pay for the richest like Prince Charles to go free,” and “if you are the mayor and you have got less money coming in you need to ensure the average pensioner can have the same experience or better than those richer ones.”

But it is not Prince Charles who would lose out; it is the ordinary Londoners who rely on concessionary travel every day. We must be on their side and show that we are on their side.

Ken Livingstone will protect the Freedom Pass as he has always done and he will protect London’s other travel concessions. He will stand up for London and work to protect Londoners from the combined effects of economic uncertainty and government cuts. He is already taking the argument to Boris Johnson and the Con-Dem government over fare increases, police cuts and damaging changes to housing benefit.

Along with the majority of Labour’s London Assembly members, I am backing Ken Livingstone. I am more confident with every day that passes that this was the right call.

If you want to defend the Freedom Pass and help with Ken’s campaign then go to http://www.kenlivingstone.com/  where you can sign up to volunteer and where you can donate to help Ken win.

I want Labour to win in May 2012. Ken Livingstone is the candidate best placed to deliver that victory.

In Defence of the Freedom Pass

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Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, London, Oona King, transport

By Ken Livingstone, abridged from New Statesman, read the full version here.

Of all the things that has been conceived and delivered by the London Labour movement it is the work to implement the Freedom Pass that is one that makes me most proud.

The future of the Freedom pass has given Labour members in London an important decision to make about the future direction of policy in London.

An honest difference of view has opened up on this issue between myself and Oona, in members’ debates in Croydon and Brent. Asked if the Freedom Pass should be means tested, Oona has argued “If there is a choice, then I want the money to go to the poorest, not to pay for the richest like Prince Charles to go free,” and “if you are the mayor and you have got less money coming in you need to ensure the average pensioner can have the same experience or better than those richer ones you need to accept means testing.”

I disagree. On such a fundamental question it is necessary to give a clear answer that the Freedom Pass is safe. If I am selected as Labour’s candidate and then elected as Mayor I will oppose any attempt to means test the Freedom Pass. I will defend the concessionary schemes. Click to continue reading →