I've been really busy of late and it's been hard to find time to update the blog. Here's something from a few weeks ago.

A week last Saturday I had a lovely afternoon at the Lenton Festival held in local Green Flag park, Lenton Recreation Ground.

Robert Howard, a local resident I've mentioned before - who has a regular blog commenting on life overlooking the park - and Zahoor Mir , one of our two Labour councillors for the area, were kind enough to introduce me to local residents and community activists. Robert took lots of fantastic photos at the Festival - they can be found at his website here:
http://www.parkviews.org/Parkviews/Festival2009.html

What impressed me most, apart from the great food provided by the fabulous Crocus Community Café (well worth a trip to Church Square in Lenton) and the great music, was the way the event brought the whole community together.

There are serious long term issues around student housing in Lenton which need to be addressed, but in the meantime local events like the festival, which bring everyone together, can only be a good thing.

MPs' Expenses and Allowances

Like everyone I was disgusted to hear of the misuse of the allowance system by some MPs. This misuse is simply unacceptable and is a huge breach of trust. MPs are paid a good salary, far in excess of what most of the electorate earn, and they should not be using the allowance system to boost their income.

It is simply not good enough to say the claims "were within the rules." This is not the test I believe should apply. The test should be "this is my constituents' money - how would they feel about this claim?"

If any of the UNISON members I represent were found to have done anything similar, they would be disciplined, and most likely dismissed. There are rare occasions when UNISON activists misuse the union's funds and in such cases the union deals with them severely.

All parties need to deal with those MPs who have misused the system firmly - and quickly - so the long slow process of regaining the trust of the electorate can begin.

I fully understand that every penny claimed as expenses and allowances has been earned by hard working taxpayers, who are right to expect the highest standards of probity from their elected representatives.

Regardless of whatever new allowance and expenses system is introduced, if elected as MP for Nottingham South I will publish all my expenses and allowance claims on the internet every month. That way the voters of Nottingham South can see exactly how their money is being spent.

Parks and playgrounds to be proud of

I was out leafleting in Clifton two weeks ago and that gave me an excellent opportunity to also go along to the official opening of the newly refurbished playground on Breckswood Drive. The place was buzzing with families and children of all ages enjoying a sunny afternoon.

The new playground is a fantastic example of working together – local residents started a petition campaigning for the unwelcoming and rundown play area to be improved. They were supported by their local Labour councillors and by council staff from the local Neighbourhood Action Team. Funds came from the City Council and from the Labour government's Pathfinder initiative to improve play facilities, and there's now a lovely little neighbourhood park for play, picnics and relaxation.

Rita, one of the residents who started the campaign and has been involved throughout, was very proud to cut the ribbon across the park entrance. And deservedly so – she's a real community champion – Rita and other local residents go out every day helping to keep it free from litter – and she'd got some of the older children involved as volunteers too.

Speaking to some of the parents and grandparents I really appreciated what a difference the investment in that park will will make to the local community. One told me that not only did her grand-daughter love the new play equipment but that because it had brought more children out to play, she made new friends every time she went down there. Another Mum commented that she'd made new friends too because the park was now a nice place to sit and chat.

Although there were some worries about vandalism, there was also a real determination to make sure that the community work together to keep the facilities safe and something to be proud of.

The really great news is that this is just one of many Nottingham parks and play areas enjoying a revamp. Dunkirk's Spider Park had it's official opening earlier in the week and there are more to come in Clifton and across the city.

My daughter Matilda came along to test out the new facilities and gave them a big thumbs up!

Back again - my visit to 10 Downing Street

After what was a longer than expected break from blogging over Christmas I hope to return with more regular posts about what I am doing.

The first item for me to report is about my visit on Monday 9 March, to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister and Sarah Brown to celebrate International Women's Day.

The invitation asked me to bring a local community hero and I invited Emma Critchley from the charity Maggie's. You can read more about our visit here on the Evening Post website.

Wilford's gold medal winners

On the day Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announced an extra £50million for elite sport in the run up to London 2012, I went along to Southwell Leisure Centre to cheer on my youngest daughter Elsie and her school mates in the County's Year 3/4 Sports Hall Athletics final. Her team from Lowe's Wong Juniors were fantastic and, even if a tiny bit disappointed to be runners up, very proud of their silver medals.

But this afternoon's top spot went to South Wilford Primary School and they were worthy champions. I was really impressed by their team spirit and sportsmanship: they supported one another in every event but also cheered on all the other schools too. It was very LOUD! They were a real credit to themselves, their school and the City of Nottingham.

I'm not sure if there were any future Olympic champions there today but it was a real pleasure to see all the children taking pride in their success but more importantly, clearly loving being there and taking part in sport.

20 years of Labour in Nottingham - and something a bit different

Yesterday evening Ravi and I went to the Nottingham Labour Party's celebration of 20 years of the Labour Party controlling Nottingham City Council. There was food, drink and speeches but the most impressive part of the event was a dance display from Nottingham dance group "Quantum Matrix Dance Academy." They are a dance group who work with young people to put on urban dance shows with incredible energy and skill. The video on the blog shows Quantum Matrix doing a show in the Market Square.

At the party last night we were reminded that control came to the Labour Party back in 1988 following a by election which Alan Clark won. Twenty years on, Alan and others were at the party last night to celebrate and reflect upon 20 years of Labour control.

Council Leaders past and present were there - and they all had interesting things to say. One of the most striking things was to be reminded that back in 80s when Thatcherite "reforms" introduced the madness of bus deregulation, the Labour City Council, lead by Betty Higgins, took the brave and almost unimaginable decision to increase the rates by 70% to raise the money to keep the bus company owned by the Council. This was a courageous and visionary decision backed up by the electorate at subsequent elections.

Over 20 years on Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is one of the very few bus companies in the UK that is council owned. NCT is widely acknowledged in the bus industry as being one of the best, if not the best, bus operators in the UK. Because of the this brave decision by Betty and the other Labour councillors we are one of the few cities in the UK that has a properly integrated bus service.

Indeed Nottingham City Transport has been recognised by the UK Bus Awards with two short-listed entries in the 12th annual awards, where the mission is to recognise, reward and inspire the UK bus industry. The awards take place on Tuesday 18 November. Good luck NCT.

And whilst on the transport theme, Graham Chapman reminded everyone at the party that if the Tories had have been in control of the council we would not have the tram.

Here's to the next 20 years of Labour control.

Young people on the campaign trail

One of the impressive things about the extraordinary victory of Barack Obama was the engagement of young people on the campaign trail. Yesterday Ravi and I had the unusual experience of going out with a canvass team whose average age was well under 25.

Jamie, the Chair of the Nottingham University Labour Club, got together a team of 4 students to come out canvassing. Some of them had recently returned from the campaign trail in Glenrothes by election and they were buoyed up by the victory. We also had along with us, Tom, a student at the university who has been out with me a few times already and James who is a member in Leen Valley.

We had two canvass teams out in Lenton Abbey and the photo shows one of the canvass teams of James, Tom, Merrida and James.

Young people are the future of our party - and the future of our country and it was great to see so many of them willing to get involved to ensure we have a historic fourth Labour Government.

No time for a novice

Over the last few weeks I've been extremely busy, talking to hundreds of voters across Nottingham South, both on the doorstep and over the phone. It's very noticeable that as the world economic situation has become increasingly bleak, voters are coming back to Labour and putting their trust in Gordon Brown. People are increasingly telling me that they feel he has the experience and proven ability to take our economy through the hard times.

Of course in the last couple of weeks the Tories have shown that, despite the Cameron makeover, they haven't changed a bit: they're still happy to take dodgy donations from the super-rich who don't pay tax or even live in this country and they can't be trusted. The thought of David Cameron and George Osborne running the economy, giving tax cuts to the well-off while slashing investment in our public services, is even more frightening than last week's trick or treaters!

What I'm hearing from people in Nottingham is that the Prime Minister was right: this is no time for a novice.

A Class Act

I've not seen John Prescott's TV programme yet (I'll have to watch it on the BBC iplayer) but I'm sure it will be entertaining as he certainly was when he addressed a Nottingham East fundraising dinner on Friday.

It was great to be at such a well attended event with good support from Nottingham South members. I hope it raised plenty of money for John and the constituency.

It was the opportunity to see the new Indian Community Centre on Hucknall Road. The food was wonderful and I'm sure this will be a valuable facitly for the community.

Prime Minister's Visit to Nottingham

It was a packed house last Friday when the Prime Minister came to meet Labour Party members during a trip to Nottingham.

Gordon Brown was given a warm welcome by City Council leader, Jon Collins, who talked about the difference Labour's investment in public services has made in our city. He contrasted one of his first projects as Chair of Education – to provide indoor toilets at one of the city's secondary schools – with the huge investment in new and improved school buildings over the past 11 years.

The Prime Minister spoke about the credit crunch and commented that we need not just national regulation, but global supervision of financial markets. He also reassured party members that the government money used to stabilise the banking sector won't take investment away from schools and health services.

Gordon Brown also spoke about the importance of tackling reward systems in the banks in line with Labour values – so they reward hard work not irresponsible behaviour. He said the government was committed to helping people get mortgages or remortgages, to giving local councils the power to build new homes and to action to cut repossessions – all welcome initiatives.

Back again

Sorry for the long absence of posts. It's been a very busy summer! I am now back to more regular blogging.

You'll know we had the Wollaton West by-election, where Labour ran a fantastic local campaign, spoke to hundreds of residents across the ward and increased our share of the vote - a great result given the difficult national picture. We had a great candidate in Alex Ball and it was heartening to see Labour Party members from across the city joining the campaign.

As well being very busy campaigning, Ravi and I also moved house in August, took the girls away for a summer holiday and at the beginning of September we got married.

More recently I attended the Labour Party Conference and spoke in the debate on sustainable communities. I'm trying to find a video of my speech to post on this blog, so watch this space.

How do we get to a more equal society? Pt 1

As promised I’ve amended and tidied up the speech I gave at the Compass event in May as suggested by Robert Howard. This is just part 1 and focuses on why trying to get to a more equal society is an important question for the Labour Party.

How do we get to a more equal society?

This is a big question! There are many aspects to inequality and inter-related causes. There are lots of potential policy initiatives and we need an approach that spans the whole of the government’s agenda.

I can’t set out a Labour programme to tackle inequality in a 10 minute speech or on a blog posting but we can all contribute to the debate and then take the ideas that come out of today to our trade unions, our CLPs and our communities to start the campaign for change.

How we get a more equal society is an important question for Labour – for many reasons.

Firstly, because it’s set out in our core values. Our constitution commits us to a just society, to promoting equality of opportunity and to ensuring that power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few.

Secondly, Labour needs to create a more equal society is because we’re the only party who will. David Cameron may have learnt the language of social justice, but I don’t believe it. Look back at the measures governments have introduced to tackle inequality – the NHS, comprehensive education, the Equal Pay Act, the Race Relations Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, laws to end discrimination on the grounds of religion, age and sexual orientation. All of these were Labour initiatives. I’ll give the Tories the Disability Discrimination Act – but they only did that because they had to comply with an EU Directive. The National Minimum Wage, Tax credits, Minimum Income Guarantee for pensioners, statutory paternity leave, parental leave, extended maternity leave. Again all ours and all opposed by the Tories.

Thirdly, we should be fighting for equality because it’s popular. Why else would Cameron be on our territory? A poll last year by the Fabians and You Gov found that 96% of voters thought it was a good idea that no child in Britain should grow up in poverty. Maybe that’s not surprising. But 85% said that in Britain the gap between rich and poor should be smaller. And not just Labour voters said that. 77% of Tories approved of cutting income inequality. It’s a vote winner – and we need some of those in the present climate.

Opposition to the removal of the 10p tax band wasn’t just from those who were worse off as a result of the change. People felt it was plain unfair and it wasn’t what they expected from Labour.

Fourthly, the most important reason that Labour should be addressing equality is because it’s the right thing to do. I want to live in a country where we really are born free and equal; where your parents’ class or income, and your gender or race doesn’t limit your life chances. Over the last 11 years Labour has introduced measures to tackle inequality. We have redistributed income but sometimes we’ve treated it like it was a guilty secret!

A few weeks ago the Tories and Lib Dems were fighting to be the party of low taxation. We don’t need to play that game. We should stand up for using public finances to pay for public services and investment in a better society. We should stand up for our record on fairness and we should be bold about setting out what still needs to be done.

Canvassing in Clifton

On Sunday a team of activists went out to start our face to face canvassing in Clifton South in glorious sunshine. Many people were in their back gardens enjoying the lovely weather. It is a working class area and should be a Labour stronghold. But it was apparent from the canvassing that there are many Labour supporters here who feel disillusioned. Whilst it is unlikely that many of the people living here would vote Tory, they may stay at home. As a party we need to do more to re-connect with these core voters and I intend to work hard in this area to build the Labour vote.

Campaign Update

A quick update on the campaigning going on around Nottingham as organised by Alex Norris, The Nottingham City election agent. For more info contact Alex at his email alex.norris at nottinghamlabour.org.uk

Thursday 12 June - telephoning, Nottingham East. A chance to get in touch with voters in Nottingham East from 6pm to 7:30pm. Get in touch for the City Centre location.

Saturday 14 June - National Campaign Day doorknocking, Gedling. Nottingham North, East and South CLPs are twinned with Broxtowe and Gedling. This means that on National Campaign Days (the second Saturday of each month) the Nottingham Labour Party are to go out and help them with their campaigning. This month it is Gedling's turn. We need to help Vernon Coaker, Gedling's Labour MP, to keep Gedling a Labour seat. The Tories are pouring in resources into the area so we need to fight back! Meet at the Guildhall at 1pm and drive over to Carlton Hill.

Sunday 15 June - leafleting, Dales Ward. Nearly all our newspapers out, but we need one final push! Come and hep get Dales Ward out by meeting at Bakersfield Community Centre, 312 Sneinton Dale, Bakersfield, NG3 7DN at 10:30am and 2:30pm.

Meeting Nottingham Labour Group

On Thursday 5 June I was invited to speak to the Nottingham City Labour Group. As ever when I’ve been to various meetings of the Labour Party around Nottingham I received a warm welcome.

I explained my campaign strategy to the Labour Group and they made some useful suggestions. All suggestions from where ever they come are gratefully received, but comments from this Labour Group are particularly welcome, as in last year’s local elections Nottingham bucked the national trend and actually increased the number of Labour councillors.

So they are a force to be reckoned with and I am grateful for their assistance and I look forward to working with them.

My Compass Speech

I've blogged previously about speaking at a Compass event.

Robert Howard kindly suggested that my speech last deserves a wider audience (thank you Robert). Rather than post up the whole thing which might be a bit dull, over the next few days / weeks I will pick out a few themes and expand on them over a few posts.

Support Amdani Juma

Amdani Juma is an asylum seeker who lives and works in Nottingham. He was due to be deported today. A more deserving case is unlikely to be found. The text below is an extract from the Institute of Race Relations website.

Amdani, a torture survivor, came to the UK in March 2003 as a UN - sponsored asylum seeker and was granted humanitarian protection. Many of his family and friends were tortured and some were murdered. Many others like him were forced into exile. Amdani settled in Nottingham and worked at the Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum (NNRF) for two years. Amdani was selected to serve the Home Office itself, on the Community and Media sub-group of its social policy body, the National Refugee Integration Forum, under John Reid. This post ran from 2005 to March 2007, just before his leave to remain was rescinded.

He has been involved in other national organisations including HIV-awareness campaigns (National African HIV Prevention Program and African HIV Policy Network) and refugee organisations (The National Refugee Integration Forum and Refugee Action). Locally, he has worked in the Nottingham Council Tenants' Forum and advises Nottinghamshire Social Services and other East Midlands bodies on asylum issues.

Amdani is a UNISON member and when I was made aware of his case last year, I passed it on to UNISON's head office and Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary wrote directly to the Home Office to plead his case. Unfortunately the Home Office ignored these pleas and Amdani was scheduled to be deported today.

Yesterday there was a rally in The Old Market Square where Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South and Jon Collins, Leader of Nottingham City Council both spoke out against the decision to deport Amdani.

Amdani's deportation has now been delayed for 6 days and it is vital that as many people as possible campaign for him to remain in the UK. There is an online petition that I would urge everyone to sign. Amdani has been a fantastic asset to Nottingham since he started living here and he deserves to stay.

For more information about his case check out The Friends of Amdani Juma website.

A More Equal Society

Yesterday I spoke, along with Jon Cruddas MP, at a Compass debate held in Nottingham. The title of the debate was "How do we get to a more equal society?"

As with the last Compass debate in Nottingham, it was well attended. There were some familiar faces from Nottingham South including Frances Ryan (Chair of the Universtity of Nottingham Labour Club), Adam Spencer (CLP Chair) and Robert Howard (whose blog I've posted about before).

Equality is a core Labour value and despite Cameron's attempts to portray the Tory Party as caring, it is only the Labour Party that will promote a programme that will deliver social justice. We need to stand up for our record and develop a bold vision of the kind society we want to live in. This will help us rebuild the broad alliance that swept us into power in 1997.

The theme of equality is being explored further at a major Compass conference “Born Free and Equal” on Sat 14 June in London. There are over 70 speakers including: Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP; Neal Lawson; Prof Ruth Lister CBE; Derek Simpson; Jon Cruddas MP; Polly Toynbee; Jon Trickett MP; Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.

Debates such as the ones that Compass organise play an important part discuss ideas and develop policies – I hope they will be organising more debates locally so that those who can't make it to London can have their chance to discuss ideas.

Back by popular demand

Sorry for not blogging for such a long time. Ravi and I getting married in September and there's lots to sort out. We're also hoping to be moving in together in the next month or two, so as you can imagine, it's been quite busy!

But I've managed to fit in some campaigning too. I've been out leafleting in Wollaton West and East, Leen Valley and Lenton Abbey. I've also agreed a campaign plan with the CLP and I'm delighted that Phil Spear has agreed to be my Campaign Co-ordinator.

I have arranged weekly telephoning canvassing sessions from 5-7pm starting on 11 June. There will be tea, coffee and biscuits. If you are interested in coming along please drop me an email for further details.

Apologies in advance for not blogging for the next week, as I will be in Devon with Ravi and the children. A quick plug for the place we'll be staying - Croyde Bay Holiday Village, which is owned and operated by my union, UNISON. It's a really lovely place and if you are a UNISON member you get a discount. It's well worth checking out.

Speaking at a Compass Debate

I have posted previously about being a member of Compass, the democratic left pressure group. I have been asked to speak at a Compass debate titled "How do we get to a more equal society?"

The event is on Sat 24 May from 11am - 1pm. I am delighted that my union, UNISON, is supporting this event and it will be hosted at the UNISON Regional Centre, Pelham Road, Nottingham.

The other speaker will be Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham. He ran an excellent campaign in the Deputy Leadership contest and successfully moved improving access to social housing up the political agenda. He has also been at the forefront of campaigning against the BNP in his own constituency as this article and this article show. I'm sure he will be a thoughtful and engaging speaker.

The last Compass event in Nottingham was very well attended and places at this are limited. If you want to reserve a place please e-mail gavin@compassonline.org.uk or phone 020 7463 0633.