The Bristow Blog

Slaughter bottles it and votes with Government

Below are the names of the 36 Labour MPs who voted with their conscience yesterday against Government plans to lock up terror suspects for 42 days without trial.

One MP conspicuous by their absence is Andrew Slaughter MP - the Ealing and Shepherds Bush MP voted with the Government despite calling the Bill 'barmy' and telling anyone who will listen that he is opposed to 42 days detention.

http://thebristowblog.typepad.com/the_bristow_blog/2008/04/slaughter-will.html 

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2008/04/here-are-just-some-new-anti-terror-labour-rebels/

Much like with Post Offices, Andrew Slaughter is much more interested in trying to impress his Labour masters than standing up for his constituents or voting on principle. 

Diane Abbott Richard Burden Katy Clark Harry Cohen Frank Cook Jeremy Corbyn Jim Cousins Andrew Dismore Frank Dobson David Drew Paul Farrelly Mark Fisher Paul Flynn Neil Gerrard Ian Gibson Roger Godsiff John Grogan Dai Havard

Kate Hoey Kelvin Hopkins Glenda Jackson Lynne Jones Peter Kilfoyle Andrew MacKinlay Bob Marshall-Andrews John McDonnell Michael Meacher Julie Morgan Chris Mullin Douglas Naysmith Gordon Prentice Linda Riordan Alan Simpson Emily Thornberry David Winnick Mike Wood

Slaughter will vote for “barmy” Bill on detention

Shaun Bailey - the Conservative candidate for Hammersmith - has called on his Labour opponent to vote with his conscience and oppose the 42 day detention bill that is to come before Parliament in the following weeks.

The revelation that Mr Slaughter secretly opposes the measure comes from a leaked list from the Government Whips’ Office, which shows that as of January, 50 Labour MPs opposed the 42 day plan, and that there were around 50 waverers.

Andrew Slaughter’s name appears as an MP who will vote in favour of the measure, but as one who disagrees with it. Next to his name is the comment “Will support but thinks barmy.”

Shaun said “Mr Slaughter is elected and duty bound to make decisions on behalf of his constituents as he sees best.

He may really think detaining suspects for 42 days without charge is a good thing, and if that’s the case, he ought to support the bill.

On the other hand, he could listen to the former Attorney General, the current Director of Public Prosecutions, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats, over 50 Labour backbenchers, as well as senior police officers, and come to the decision that this bill is simply an unnecessary piece of political grandstanding that won’t make  us any safer, but might curtail our civil liberties and isolate communities. If he agrees with this view, then he should oppose the bill.

Where is Mr Slaughter's integrity? How can he back and support a bill that is, as he puts it, “barmy”? Time and again we see him thinking or saying one thing, and doing another, like voting for post office closures whilst campaigning locally to 'save' them. In doing so, he undermines trust in politicians in general and leads people in Hammersmith to question the motivation for why he wants to be their representative.”   

Hypocrite of the week

Andy Slaughter - MP for Ealing & Acton - is appearing in the national newspapers - but yet again for all the wrong reasons:

Slaughter's first-class hypocrisy on post offices

Could that shuffling noise be the sound of Andrew Slaughter MP moonwalking back from his constituency pledge to save post offices? The acrobatic member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush performed a stunning and hazardous flip on Wednesday night that would have been the pride of the trapezist Alfredo Codona.

At 7.15pm, like scores of other Labour parliamentary colleagues mouthing off locally about stopping post office closures, Slaughter voted with the Government to continue the programme of 2,500 closures. Labour's majority was reduced to just 20.

But never let the details get in the way of the bigger picture. At 7.45pm, Slaughter (known to opponents as Andrew S Laughter) found himself addressing an open meeting in Hammersmith Town Hall on the subject.

Over to his political opponent Greg Hands, the MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, for a description of the fastest U-turn in the Westminster village: "He appeared with me and stood there and decried the local post office closures and even said he will back Ken Livingstone's judicial review! He came out with a mealy mouthed line like he saw the need to close some post offices but disagreed with the choice of closures locally, which got a massive boo.

"Even in these times reeking of hypocrisy, it is surely one of the swiftest volte-faces ever!"

Slaughter, 47, declined to call yesterday to explain all. Perhaps one of his blue-rinsed constituents could solicit his opinion with the help of a solid handbagging?

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/pandora/pandora-paws-for-thought-799022.html

Slaughter exposed on Post Offices!

Andrew Slaughter's (Ealing Acton MP) hypocrisy of the Post Office closures he voted for has been picked up by the national press.  Although we welcome all supporters of our campaign in H&F it is a bit rich Slaughter trying to take credit for the campaign and feigning outrage when he personally voted for the closures in the House of Commons.

What's more Slaughter will not put his money where his mouth is and resign as an aide to a Minister in the very department closing the offices:

Shaun Bailey, the 36-year-old black community worker, is already making waves in his campaign to become Conservative MP for Hammersmith at the next general election.

Now he has branded Andrew Slaughter, his Labour opponent and currently MP for Ealing Acton and Shepherds Bush, "a hypocrite" on the thorny issue of post office closures.

For the man disparagingly known by some Tory MPs as "Andrew S. Laughter" has been campaigning against local post office closures while remaining as a parliamentary aide to Lord Jones of Birmingham at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - the very department responsible for the closure programme.

"Local residents are being conned," says Mr Bailey. "Mr Slaughter is happy to go about telling local residents that he wants to save local post offices, while behind the scenes he is the one closing them. It would appear that he would rather keep his nice government job than look out for local residents and communities.

"This hypocrisy speaks volumes about the Labour Party, who are treating us, the local residents, with contempt.

"I am fighting to ensure the closures aren't carried out, full stop. No ifs, no buts."

Slaughter was unavailable for comment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/11/dp1101.xml#head1

Hammersmith voters demand National Referendum on revised EU Constitution

I Want a Referendum yesterday announced the results of the EU referendum held in Hammersmith and nine other constituencies across the country.

The referendums have been carried out for IWR by Electoral Reform Services – a leading firm of independent election scrutineers recognised by the United Nations, the British Government, and used by all the three main parties for their internal elections.

The referendums have led to an unprecedented response from voters for an unofficial poll.  Postal ballots were sent to more than 26,000 people in the Hammersmith constituency. 22% of ballot papers distributed were returned.

Key results:

* 5,685 people voted in Hammersmith, of whom 4,358 are in favour of a referendum – 77%.

* In Hammersmith 21.8% of voters who were sent ballot papers responded.  A higher proportion voted in these unofficial referendums than in real elections in the local areas. The average turn-out for local elections (minus year when general elections were held) since 1996 is 35.4%. The average turnout in referendums on directly elected mayors - including in London - was 30.1%.

* Voters in Hammersmith resoundingly rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty. 4,485 people voted against it - 79% of those responding.

This is a fantastic result for the referendum campaign.  It will be very difficult for Andrew Slaughter to ignore this very clear message from his constituents.  We want him, and this Government, to keep their promise for a referendum on the EU Treaty.

It will be interesting to see if Andrew Slaughter votes next week to give the people a referendum when the issue is debated in Parliament as he promised to do when he was elected in 2005. 

Slaughter loses the plot

The decision by the 'I want a referendum' campaign to hold a ballot in Hammersmith has clearly wound up Labour candidate in Hammersmith, and Ealing/Acton MP Andrew Slaughter.

Apparently anger is not the word.  He has gone ballistic and reported the campaign to the police (for what who knows) and is screaming and shouting at anyone who will listen.

Well this has been picked up by blogger Guido Fawkes who has heard of an incident on 'The Week in Westminster' where Slaughter was interviewed with the Chairman of the 'I want a referendum' campaign.  See  http://www.order-order.com/2008/02/slaughter-loses-plot.html

It is well known that Andrew has a short fuse and bad temper - but if this true is it is no way for an MP to behave!

He should do the honourable thing and vote for a referendum when the Bill comes to Parliament.

The golden age of Gordon Brown?

"I am beginning to believe what I read in the Daily Mail that Gordon Brown's elevation to PM really has ushered in a new golden age."

Those were the words of Andrew Slaughter MP about 6 months ago in one of his monthly columns to local papers - http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/yourmps/display.var.1613640.0.andrew_slaughter_labour_ealing_acton_and_shepherds_bush.php

After 5/6 months of Brown I thought it was an apt time to review this comment.  This is not the first time Andrew Slaughter has made the wrong call, but let's look at how wrong this comment is:

• The election that never was - October 6th - the date the embarassing news that Gordon Brown had bottled calling a General Election was finally confirmed.  This revealed the new prime minister as a ditherer and a cynical operator.  It damaged his reputation irrevocably.
• Gordon Brown's first budget as prime minister shows a complete lack of ideas as the most imaginative announcements on inheritence tax were lifted straight out of Conservative proposals promised at their October conference. 
• Government incompetence was shown to be beyond doubt when the Home Office and government agencies lost data CDs that contained the personal details of half the population.
• Financial scandals and impropriety associated with the Labour Party continued as it did under Blair. It was revealed that David Abrahams, a property developer, had donated the best part of £650,000 to Labour through a series of proxies - a clear breach of rules brought in by Labour!
• This has continued into the New Year with Peter Hain the focus of everyone's attention.

All this has meant that the Conservatives are consistently polling ten points ahead of Labour.  A national picture that would see the Conservatives set to win the Hammersmith parliamentary seat defeating one Andrew Slaughter MP.

Not quite the golden age Mr Slaughter was predicting!

24/7 Policing is working

Despite what Andrew Slaughter MP and the Lib Dems say, the extra police officers in Shepherds Bush and Fulham are working.  Crime in both areas has dramatically dropped since Hammersmith & Fulham council launched a multi-million pound round-the-clock policing in April - this is shown by the latest police figures.

Fulham

• Burlgary from homes have more than halved
• Snatch offences have dropped by 56%
• Car thefts have fallen 48%
• Common assault is down 15%
• Shoplifting down 17%
• 6 new neighbourhood watches have been created

Shepherds Bush

• Robberies have declined by 46%
• Snatch offences have dropped by 40%
• The number of street drinkers has dropped by 75%
• Officers have shut 4 crack houses
• 56 drug busts have taken place in the last 6 months

Fulham and Shephards Bush are the only two places in the UK where this type of round-the-clock policing takes place.  Cutting crime in Hammersmith & Fulham is our number one priority.

This is why it is so disappointing that only the Conservatives are supporting this pilot.  Andrew Slaughter the Labour MP has declared his opposition to the scheme at a public meeting at the BBC and now the Lib Dems have come out against it.   See:

http://thebristowblog.typepad.com/the_bristow_blog/2007/09/slaughter-again.html

http://www.hammersmithtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=concrime083.htm

The Liberal Democrat Dem MP Susan Kramer has complained that criminals have been pushed south of the river into her Richmond Park constituency, while Lib-Dem mayoral candidate and ex-police officer Brian Paddick objects that wealthy areas should not be able to outspend poorer ones on policing.

This is of course rubbish.  How wealthy do the Lib Dems think Shepherds Bush is?  Local Conservatives will never apologise for putting more police on the streets.

Labour try to hijack the fireworks celebrations

A poor show I thought at the weekend from the local Labour Party who decided to use the annual Fireworks/Bonfire event in Ravenscourt Park as an opportunity to hand out party political leaflets.  This is the second year running they have done this.

As a result thousands of leaflets were strewn over Ravenscourt Park and surrounding streets.  Labour activists made no effort to clean up after themselves as is standard practice at tube station action days by the two political parties.  There is a case for asking them to contribute to the clear up costs - we will be cracking down on private companies who do this sort of thing so why not a political party?

Moreover, the fireworks event should be an opportunity for the community to come together and enjoy a show away from party politics.  The Conservative Party could have mustered activists and made the same effort.  However, people do not come to a community event to bombarded by politicians and party political leaflets.  It went down badly last year and I had hoped they had learnt from this.  This was a poor call by the local Labour Party. 

This has the finger prints of Andrew Slaughter MP all over it.  Again he decides to focus in Hammersmith & Fulham despite the fact most of his constituency is on the Ealing side of the border.  Ravenscourt Park is not even in his constituency.  Incredibly poor judgement by a man almost consumed by personal animosity to the council.

Breach of privacy and electronic communication regulations?

A few weeks ago the MP for Ealing and S Bush, Andrew Slaughter sent a round robin email to a large number of people.  I myself did not get it but I was contacted by at least half a dozen ward residents asking how the MP had got their email address.  Andrew Slaughter is not their MP (his seat only starts north of the Goldhawk Road) as Fulham Reach ward is part of Greg Hands' Hammersmith & Fulham constituency.  I at first thought this was just a one off, but then my co-councillor Andrew Johnson also informed me he got the email!

The problem is not the content of the email (it was his usual guff attacking the Conservatives) but how he managed to get all these email addresses.

You might think he may have picked these up in the course of his work as an MP as many issues cross constituency boundaries.  However, as I said the list contained Conservative councillors (which just shows incompetence on the part of his staff) serious questions need to be asked. 

Greg Hands MP has also raised this matter as he also received a number of complaints.  Some of the people who receievd this email from Andrew Slaughter, despite having no contact with him, include Greg's wife, several national newspaper journalists, the Lead Advisor to the Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons and several of Greg's friends who don't live in the constituency. 

Where has he got all these addresses from?   

One likely explanation is that Andrew Slaughter is using part of a list originally compiled by Greg Hands for his weekly bulletin.  Readers have to subscribe to Greg's bulletin.  Andrew Slaughter was accused in the past of illicitly obtaining email addresses back in November 2005 - he was told to stop but it appears he has not heeded this warning.  The only thing that the people who received this email from Andrew Slaughter have in common is that they appeared on Greg's email list in November 2005.

The evidence suggests that it is inconceiveable that these individual email addresses were obtained by Andrew Slaughter by any means other than illicit methods in November 2005. 

The regulations on the use of email and electronic communication is clear -

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_basics.aspx

“These regulations cover email, text (SMS) and any other form of unsolicited electronic message that falls within the definition of electronic meeting. Please see our detailed guidance for more information. Electronic mail should only be sent if the individual has asked for it. There is an exception to this rule, known as soft opt in. This applies when all three of the following circumstances are met:

    * The organisation obtained the contact details as the result of a sale or the negotiations for the sale of a product or service

    * The messages are only marketing their similar products or services and

    * The individual is given a simple opportunity to refuse the marketing when their details are collected and is given another simple way to do so in every future message.”

Looking at this situtaion, it would appear that Andrew Slaughter has breached the first two requirements of the regulations.  None of the people who have complained have stated they registered to receive these emails.  The 'soft opt in' rule would therefore not apply. 

I know that Greg Hands and local residents have complained to the Information Commissioner - will the Commissioner now take action?