Response to the Mayor’s Draft Equality Framework

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:21:37 +0000

LONDONASSEMBLYLABOUR 
Jennette Arnold AM, on behalf of Labour Group colleagues, today submitted a response to the Mayors framework on equality.

The key recommendations were:

¬ Include statistics showing how different groups are subjected to different forms of discrimination or inequality.

¬ Demonstrate how the framework will influence future strategies and how its measures will act as an equalities measurement tool.

¬ Include an overview of the progress made to date and assess the ways in which existing GLA strategies have had an effect on them. Then develop a strategy based on this assessment of existing strategies.

¬ Include examples of responsible procurement by strategic bodies in the report to highlight best practice.

¬ Prevent negative stereotyping of certain target groups.

¬ Ensure that outcomes are possible to meet and not too ambitious.

¬ Investigate the possibilities of resurrecting the London Equalities Commission as a means of working with partners and stakeholders.

¬ Explain in detail how worklessness among different BME groups will be targeted and how the GLA will engage with partners to achieve this outcome.

¬ Communicate with key stakeholders and the GLA group by reinstating the London Equalities Commission.

¬ Reinstate the annual Capital Women Conference to offer women a forum at which their voices are being heard.

¬ Recognise existing links between different disadvantages and the ways in which one person can simultaneously suffer from multiple forms of disadvantage.

¬ Acknowledge the impact of multiple discrimination on women from a BME background.

¬ Include ways to combat disablism in the final draft of the Equalities Framework.

¬ Develop a clear set of objectives explaining how ageism will be eradicated.

¬ Continue to support Older Londoners through the Older People’s Resource Facility.

¬ Clearly explain the ways in which discrimination on grounds of sexual preference will be eliminated.

Jennette said “Mayor Johnson is happy to bank Labour achievements of the last eight years – the 2012 Ganes, record police numbers, increased numbers of bus users, massive investment in public transport and Tube upgrades – but has come up with nothing to offer London and especially my constituents in North East London”.

She added “His equalities policy is an example of a missed opportunity. My group has looked at this document in detail and identified what needs to change to offer a better deal for Londoners”.

A full copy of the response is available here:

Labour Group Response Mayor's Equalities Framework Feb 09.doc

Jennette Arnold AM welcomes funding for Olympic Media Centre at Hackney Wick

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:17:04 +0000

LONDONASSEMBLYLABOUR 

Local London Assembly Member Jennette Arnold AM welcomed the Government’s announcement that further funding has been allocated to support the building of the Olympic Media Centre at Hackney Wick.

In the plans the London bid was won on, Hackney residents were promised a permanent media centre, which would provide jobs and training opportunities. But in the last couple of months, this promise was under threat due to plans to move part of the centre to Stratford and only parts of the structure being permanent.

Jennette said: ‘I was relieved to hear that the Government has now decided to allocate funding from the Olympic budget to build a permanent media centre at Hackney Wick. It is essential for the residents of Hackney to have access to the job and training opportunities this centre will offer after the Games. There is immense creative potential in Hackney and the sector needs appropriate space to work in to allow it to prosper. The centre will offer just that.‘

Jennette continued: ‘I have asked Mayor Johnson on several occasions to use his influence to ensure that the media centre is build at Hackney Wick and ensure the legacy ambitions are met. All five Olympic boroughs agreed that the media centre belonged in Hackney and I am glad everyone has seen sense now. ’

.
ENDS

Editor’s notes
1. Jennette Arnold is the London Assembly Member for North East London, covering Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest

For further information contact José Lapré 020 7983 4357

Jennette Arnold AM welcomes u-turn on half-price fares

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:11:45 +0000

LONDONASSEMBLYLABOUR  Jennette Arnold AM

news release 15.01.2009  Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced that over the next year London's half-price bus and tram travel scheme will be extended to include thousands of unemployed Londoners in receipt of Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) or the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
 This scheme was introduced by Ken Livingstone and was one of the first thing scrapped by Boris Johnson when he became Mayor. After months of campaigning by Jennette Arnold AM, her Labour colleagues on the Assembly and campaign groups across London, Boris has today reversed his decision.

Jennette Arnold AM, London Assembly member for North East London, said, “I am delighted that 150,000 Londoners will benefit from the scheme when it comes into effect on April 1st. I want to pay tribute to all the campaigners in Hackney who have worked hard to get Boris to change his mind. I am glad that Boris has finally seen sense and has decided to continue with this much needed support.”

Ends.

Notes

1. Jennette Arnold AM is the London Assembly member for Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest.

2. Mayors Press release ending the concession - http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=17053

Jennette Arnold AM fights to keep human trafficking unit open after 2010

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 15:16:45 +0000

LONDONASSEMBLYLABOUR press office: 020 7983 4952  news release 05.12.2008  London Assembly Member Jennette Arnold welcomed the announcement by Justice Secretary Jack Straw that the UK's only specialist police unit to combat human trafficking has been saved from the axe until 2010 but urged the Mayor to ensure it stays open until after 2010.

This week, the London Assembly condemned a Home Office decision to cut more than £2million from the Metropolitan Police human trafficking unit, and called on the Mayor to find the funding to keep the unit going. Members unanimously agreed a motion that praised the work of the unit and highlighted its important role, given London’s position as the gateway for human trafficking into the UK.

The Assembly urged the Mayor to commit himself to keeping the unit open beyond 2010 as part of his budget discussions with the Metropolitan Police Service. It also argued that funding should not be diverted from other anti-trafficking efforts.

Jennette Arnold, who seconded the motion, said: “I was happy to hear jack Straw’s announcement but am still worried that the unit’s funding might not be extended until after 2010 and that the unit will be closed down as a result. The unit has an important role to play in tackling what is effectively a modern form of slavery and a global organised crime. For many victims of trafficking the danger of the situation only becomes apparent once they arrive in the UK. A dedicated unit dealing with human trafficking is a necessary means to protect victims in the UK and we cannot afford to lose it.”

Jennette, who has advocated the protection of women throughout her career, continued: “In 2003 there were about 4,000 victims of trafficking for forced prostitution in the UK and I fear that the number will have gone up significantly since then. I have always been a keen defender of women’s rights and safety: I helped to shape the Met’s Domestic Violence Strategy and investigated the impact that safety concerns have on women's employment opportunities. The main victims of human trafficking are women and girls targeted because they are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination in their home countries. I will continue to lobby the Mayor to ensure that the human trafficking unit can continue its excellent work and to prevent even more women from being mentally and physically scarred by the hands of traffickers.”

Ends.

For further information please contact Sean Clare on 020 7983 4952

The Mayor’s policy advisor asked to clarify his views on immigration

Tue, 2 Dec 2008 15:17:07 +0000

The Mayor appointed Anthony Browne as his policy advisor in October 2008. Mr Browne previously had been a journalist and in that role wrote a number of articles about immigration, including the following:
• Article for the Times and VDARE.com, August 2002

“So-called “ethnic minorities” together form a majority in boroughs such as Brent and Newham, and in whole neighbourhoods of cities in the North you can wander around for hours without seeing a white face, one monoculture having replaced another. Cities such as Coventry, Leicester and London are vying to see which can become the first white-minority city.... By the time that the Third World no longer wants to move to Britain, Britain will be a foreign land.”

“African immigration has overtaken gay sex as the biggest cause of HIV in Britain”

“…there are so many highly paid immigrants such as American bankers and European executives paying more than their share. Immigrants from the Third World — who are responsible for the entire net immigration of a quarter of a million a year — suffer higher unemployment and lower earnings than average and almost certainly do not pay their way.”

• Do we need mass immigration, 2002

“The fact that African immigration has overtaken gay sex as the main cause of HIV in Britain is a sign that Europe can no longer ignore the entirely preventable AIDS holocaust consuming the continent next door”

• The Secret Threat to British Lives, Spectator, Jan 2003

“the diseases that mass immigration is bringing to Britain will probably claim more British lives in the long run than terrorism. The thousands of infected immigrants who are arriving in Britain each year are doubling the rate of HIV, trebling the rate of TB, and increasing twentyfold the rate of hepatitis B. All of these are life-threatening diseases which could be, and in some cases have been, passed on to the host community.”

“It is not through letting in terrorists that the government's policy of mass immigration - especially from the Third World - will claim the most lives. It is through letting in too many germs.”

"David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has said that he wants fewer holiday workers from Australia and New Zealand (which have good public health) and more from Africa and Asia (which are blighted by epidemics)."

• There’s no place like home, Spectator Feb 2005

“Is Hackney the future of the world? You may find it a horrifying thought, but many on the Left hope that it is. I don’t mean the extortionate taxes, the crushingly bloated public sector, the government-by-political-correctness, the bankrupt school system, the dehumanising crime, the failing social services, and all the other things the Left love so dearly.

No, the question is whether the whole world will become as diverse as Hackney, one of the most diverse societies on the planet? Many on the Left hope so because they believe that the only way to end racism is to end races….The champions of diversity ultimately believe that our future is not as a species with many races, but with one race — a quarter Chinese, a quarter Indian, a quarter African and a quarter European.”

I was at the GLA Business Management and Administration Committee on 26th November 2008 and took the opportunity to advise Mr Browne of my concerns and to give him an opportunity to clarify his views. In part he justified his previous articles by saying that he had simply intended to be provocative.
I have some real difficulties here (and I know this is shared by Londoners of all backgrounds) - with the views he has expressed, with his explanation for those views and with the fact that he now occupies a position as Mayoral advisor where he will be seen to speak for the Mayor and our city.
I have written to Mr Browne separately expressing my concern and suggesting that he should take the opportunity to renounce the views he has previously expressed.
A related article, to which Jennette Arnold contributed, appeared in the Guardian on 1st December
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/01/anthony-browne-boris-johnson-immigration