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I have just returned from a three day fact finding mission to the Gaza strip. I went with a British parliamentary delegation and other members of the Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to assess the effects of the on-going blockade and limited reconstruction efforts, over one year on from Israel's invasion which left 1,400 Palestinians dead.

The lack of reconstruction in Gaza fourteen months after Operation Cast Lead is truly outstanding. I saw first hand the homes, schools and hospitals that continue to lie in ruin, because Israel refuses to allow access… » Read more

On Monday night Karen made an appearance in a Channel 4 political slot to highlight the benefits of early detection and treatment when it comes to fighting cancer and to discuss the changes being made by the Labour Government to introduce a legally enforcable right to see a Cancer specialist within two weeks if a GP suspects their patient may have cancer.

You can watch Karen by following the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/user/theuklabourparty#p/u/0/V3fuQJs1Shk

In Prime Minister's Questions today I asked the Prime Minister about continuing support and investment in police numbers and Safer Neighbourhood Teams. As I said in my question earlier "high visability police patrols are the public's number one priority for reassurance and crime prevention." I am therefore highly concerned that the rise of police numbers in London by 6,500 over the last few years appears to be going into reverse with Mayor of London Boris Johnson's Draft budget implying a cut of 455 officers over his time in Office.

These planned cuts to the operational budgets of the Metropolitan Police… » Read more

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the first Labour exchanges set up to help people find work. There were just 62 Labour exchanges when they were first introduced on 1 February 1910. Each had separate entrances for men and women, the skilled and unskilled were kept apart and children as young as 11 were regularly seen in the queues.

We have come a long way since then. Labour exchanges have become Jobcentre Plus centres. We now have 750 newly designed centres around the country staffed by over 78,000 employees… » Read more

On Wednesday I pledged my commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day by signing a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons to honour those who perished in the Holocaust.

With 27th January marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Holocaust Educational Trust placed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons to give MPs the opportunity to remember those who were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust - and to support a ‘Legacy of Hope', learning from Survivors' experiences to help create… » Read more

Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated internationally on 27th January each year. The date was chosen as it was the day in 1945 on which the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp - Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The day allows us to reflect on what can happen when racism, prejudice and exclusionary behaviour are left unchecked. As well as remembering the victims and survivors of the Holocuast it is also a reminder that unless we oppose discrimination, persecution and racism such crimes could happen at any time and in any place as the genocides… » Read more

My experience as a parent in north Westminster has almost exactly mirrored my life as an MP - local childminder, Pre-School, nursery, primary and secondary school. Real life being what it is, it has sometimes been a bumpy ride. Yet, taken overall, I have been impressed and often deeply moved by the dedication and ability of those working in our early years services and schools. Happily, my journey has occured at the same time that we've seen immense improvement in Westminster's education provision.

A decade or so ago, half of all the borough's secondary schools, and several primaries, were either… » Read more

The unprecedented level of devastation and loss of life caused by the earthquake that hit Haiti on 12th January becomes more apparent with every day that passes.

Ravaging large parts of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere - where 80% of the population live in destitution - the earthquake has brought untold misery to a people who have already suffered so much.

I am very pleased that the Government is trebling its funding for the immediate humanitarian response to the Haiti earthquake. The total sum will now rise from $10 million to £20 million (over $30m) based on the… » Read more

At Prime Ministers' Questions on 6th January Karen Buck asked the Prime Minister a question about the Israeli siege of Gaza which began in November 1998.

Karen asked:
"A year on from the devastating conflict in Gaza, which left 1,400 Palestinians dead, the siege continues. Humanitarian relief is hard to come by, and Gaza lies shattered. Although there were undoubtedly war crimes on both sides, does my right hon. Friend agree that what is now happening is the collective punishment of 1 million people? Will he now make urgent representations to ease the siege on Gaza as a critical… » Read more

The Chilcot inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and the decision to commit more troops to the NATO campaign in Afghanistan bring foreign affairs back up the agenda, though in truth the years of calm on the international stage were few and far between. More accurately still, the recent years in which the UK itself was directly involved in overseas conflict were few and far between- only really between the Falklands War and the defence of the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo, if Northern Ireland is considered separately. Yet this time of relative peace for… » Read more

On Wednesday I joined other Members of the Children's, Schools and Families Select Committee on a visit to the Dorothy Gardner Nursery Centre on Bravington Road in Queen's Park. 

The committee visted the centre to look at the facilities and to hear evidence from the first-class professionals who work there about Childrens' Centres and how they can work better for families in the area and how the good work going on at the Dorothy Gardner can provide lessons for Childrens' Centres all over the country.

Women Like Us is a voluntary group that organises in schools and Children's Centres to support parents going into work. Work can be a big step for parents, especially when they are worried about making the change from benefits to wages; possibly getting into financial difficulties during this transition; finding suitable childcare and so on. Women Like Us is there to led advice, support and assistance, and draws on parents with direct experience to help others in the same position.

This week, Secretary of State Yvette Cooper came to Gateway School to… » Read more

The Importance of Youth Clubs

Young people from the Avenues Youth Club staged a show of fashion, dance and music at the Tabernacle last night, to celebrate Back History month. The Avenues club operates in a very challenging environment and I am today calling on Westminster Council to re-think the level of support they are offering to it.

If we are to break the cycle of youth anti-social behaviour and support schools and families in promoting education and skills, we need well-resourced youth clubs, offering a range of activities throughout the week.

This can't be done on thin air, despite… » Read more

As you may know Parliament returned this week. Even though I have never claimed or received any housing allowance, it was still a relief not to receive a letter from Thomas Legg on my return.

There is no doubt that some MPs have made greed. Those that made extravagant claims should obviously pay the price. However, I am slightly concerned by the selective presentation of the issue this week - which focuses on claims for cleaning but ignores the fact that the better off MPs can use the whole of their housing allowance against a large mortgage on which they… » Read more

Beware of concepts that seem, superficially, to have political endorsement from across the political spectrum. There will invariably be something about that concept that is slippery, hard to pin down and, consequentially open to misinterpretation.

A few years ago, the cry went up for ‘community'. The word become the subject of endless seminars and think-tank reports, was talked about with erudition by Etzioni and Puttnam, was deemed to be the Holy Grail for society, and specifically, and as an objective behind various regeneration schemes (‘New Deal for Communities'). And then it vanished!

Where, today, is the rigorous new thinking, the… » Read more

Rivalry between schools can be unhealthy and nostalgia for grammars misplaced.

The architecture of education in my corner of inner London has been utterly transformed in recent years. Three new Academies are now up and running. Another school has just been selected for re-building as part of an extended school pilot, which will see primary and secondary education, health and child care integrated in one site. St George's school, which some time ago achieved notoriety as the place where head-teacher Philip Lawrence was murdered, is now praised for its achievements. Gateway primary, which draws its pupils from one of… » Read more

The scale of change and improvement in the local education system has been so profound that many people have forgotten the position we were in a decade ago.

This was the task list in the late 1990s: create 3 new Academy schools to replace the faltering North Westminster Community School, in what was without doubt the most complex and challenging secondary school re-development project in Britain (close a large school scattered across three sites, and with all the children still in place, re-open as three new schools in new buildings); launch a £150 million renovation and rebuild scheme for many… » Read more

When the Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs says that public anger about banker's bonuses is both ‘understandable and appropriate', it is time to listen. When he argues, as he did in a major speech to a banking conference in Frankfurt last week, that some of the means by which the financial services sector made money are ‘socially useless', it is time to act.

No-one but a fool would argue that banking, insurance and financial services are unnecessary. As we have discovered to our cost in the last two years, when credit dries up, business and industry suffer, jobs are lost,… » Read more

Unglamorous. Little loved. A workhorse of the benefit system. Housing Benefit gets little attention, even with a price tag of £18 billion a year. Receive it- as 4.4 million people do- and you may find yourself locked into the kind of complexity that gives means-testing its bad name, since almost every change in earnings requires a recalculation of entitlement. Do without housing subsidy, and both poverty and homelessness would soar. Seek to change it, as the government are, and one wrong move could be calamitous (no less a man than Beveridge, architect of the post-war welfare settlement, put off reform… » Read more

The Conservatives have binned their pledge to protect early years scheme Sure Start from spending cuts if they are elected.

Speaking to Regeneration & Renewal, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Phillip Hammond, refused to re-affirm a previous Conservative guarantee that the overall budget of the Labour government's flagship early years programme would be ring-fenced. "We will be looking at individual projects and workstreams, but we haven't made announcements about individual budgets yet," he said.

Last year, at the Tory Party conference, Oliver Letwin, chair of the party's policy review, said that Sure Start would continue under a Tory… » Read more

To paraphrase Churchill's famous phrase following the Battle of El-Alamein in World War II: we may not have reached the end of the recent twin meltdowns of economic and political confidence, we may not even have reached the beginning of the end, but we may be at the end of the beginning.

Unprecedented shocks have been administered to the system, too many of them self-inflicted. Now we have to start to re-build. It is a time to take the big decisions, and to take them boldly, in the same way that bold, big decisions had to be taken last… » Read more

It has come to my attention that Westminster Council appears to lag behind drastically in action to convert its council buildings to be energy efficient and carbon neutral. This is disappointing because if we as a country are to meet our emissions targets of 80 per cent by 2050 we will need private and governmental institutions at all levels to deliver energy efficiency and carbon savings.

A reply recently received by Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg from the Council which I was shown - stressing, among other things, that Westminster's performance is not too far behind the national average of a Grade… » Read more

On Monday 17th June Karen hosted an event in parliament for local Headteachers and Chairs of Governors to introduce them to the award winning social enterprise 'Women Like Us' which Karen has long supported.

The organisation was recently commissioned by Westminster City Council to offer employment services to mum's in local schools.

'Women Like Us' is an organisation which specialises in helping women with children to find part-time work and giving them practical support to make work and familiy fit together.

» Read more

Josie Hinton

THE British National Party won two seats in the European Parliamentary elections as Labour suffered its worst post-war election result - and hundreds of votes were cast for the far-right party in Westminster.

The result signalled a shift to the right in British politics, with the Tories winning the Euro race and thousands of voters switching their allegiances to parties such as UKIP and the BNP.

In Westminster, the Conservatives won almost half of the vote with 15,248 supporters.

Some 6,565 Westminster residents voted Labour, 4,351 opted for Liberal Democrats, 3,877 for the Green… » Read more

Josie Hinton

A FAMILY of five has spoken out about the cramped and squalid conditions they have been forced to live in by Westminster Council.

Danielle Lenihan, 28, who is pregnant, lives in tiny one-bedroom flat in Penfold Street, on the Lisson Green Estate, with her husband and their three children - despite being named a top priority family by council officers.

The newly-married couple agreed to share the flat - which is plagued by damp and mould - after officers refused to let them trade their separate flats for a bigger family home. They were told… » Read more

West End Extra - by JAMIE WELHAM

Secured tenancy threat to ‘problem families’ would be ‘devastating’

KAREN Buck MP has leapt to the defence of council tenants, saying they should not be made to feel “morally inferior” amid fears that secured tenancies could be scrapped for “problem families”.
In a speech to the new Housing Minister John Healey, Ms Buck made a thinly veiled attack on City Hall’s new housing boss Dr Ian Rowley who caused a storm last month when he said he would support housing allocation determined by “behaviour and contribution to society” in an article… » Read more

Child Poverty Action Group – a leading charity campaigning for the abolition of child poverty in the UK and for a better deal for low-income families and children – has named Karen as the May addition to their shortlist for MP of the Year.

CPAG makes the nominations on the basis of the individual they believe has made the most important contribution to the child poverty agenda and welfare rights in the preceding two months. The winner will be chosen from the shortlist at the end of 2009.

On Monday 20th April Karen hosted a seminar in parliament for constituents concerned about the effects of climate change on the country and their own communities. The meeting was addressed by Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who also answered questions from constituents.

The issues discussed included issues as diverse as energy efficiency, Heathrow, renewable energy sources and air pollution on the Harrow Road.

If you'd like to find out more about Karen's work… » Read more

Karen has written to the Home Affairs Select Committee Chair asking him to open an inquiry into the policing of the G20 demonstrations following a number of complaints made by concerned constituents.

You can watch yesterday's session of the Home Affairs Select Committee in which the G20 policing was discussed by clicking on the link below:

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3919

You can follow the inquiry by following the link below to the Home Affairs Select Committee website:

» Read more

A global animal welfare campaign backed by Karen Buck MP and Defra in an Early Day Motion last year, has received a major boost from the European Union (EU), with all 27 member states voting unanimously to actively support the campaign.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) applauds the EU for being the first regional forum to formally pledge its support for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare2 (UDAW) and thanks all 230 British MPs who have backed the campaign… » Read more

Ms Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington, North) (Lab): There are not many traumas worse than being thrown out of one’s home. The Government have rightly concentrated on trying to help the people facing repossession because of mortgage arrears. Yet a constituent of mine who is gravely ill with cancer has been told by Conservative-controlled Westminster council’s housing arm that she is being taken to court, and faces eviction and court costs, for owing just £390. Does my right hon. Friend share my shock at that behaviour? Is it not… » Read more

Katie Davies

PARLIAMENTARY politicians in Barnet, Camden, Westminster and Haringey have each cost taxpayers up to £220,000 in the last year, according to new figures.

Staff, stationery and travel costs claimed by MPs, added to their basic salaries of £63,291, have pushed up the amount the public spends into a hefty six-figure sum for each politician.

The MP with the highest price tag was Finchley and Golders Green's Rudi Vis, who cost taxpayers £220,019, while the cheapest MP in the area was Frank Dobson, who cost £161,131 last year.

Hornsey and Wood Green's Lynne Featherstone cost… » Read more