Disagreeing with Polly Toynbee

It's not often I find a reason to disagree with Polly Toynbee (below right), but I felt moved to write to the Guardian about her comments on Lib Dem-led Camden:

www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2037972,00.html

Not increasing our share of the Council Tax is great news for the least well off who struggle to pay this heavy financial burden. Securing value for money has got to be more important than tax and spend. And that's what we're doing. But don't take my word for it - ask the Audit Commission who recently commended Camden as one of only 10 "four star", "strongly improving" councils in the country.

Finally we promised to put sustainability at the heart of everything we do and that's fast becoming a reality. I would urge Polly to look at the work of Camden's new Sustainability Task Force (www.camden.gov.uk/susforce) and read some of the radical policies we're persuading our Executive to agree to. Carbon accounting, on-site eco audits of homes and businesses, large-scale tri-generation and district heating systems, emissions-based parking, a revolving energy efficiency fund, composting on housing estates, carbon neutral exemplar buildings - the list is endless.Last but not least we have secured agreement to undertake an energy lifecycle analysis of our recycling practices so that we can move away from the current focus on tonnage towards a system using less energy that genuinely helps in the battle against Climate Change.

A 70 year old photo opportunity

I would be a rare politician indeed if I didn't have an eye for a good photo opportunity. And what better photo op for a local

politician could there be than Hampstead Photographic Society's 70th anniversary exhibition, which their Chair, David Reed (pictured), kindly invited me to open at Swiss Cottage Library on Friday night!?

My day job is with a company that pioneered digital effects back in the early 198os, but what I found really refreshing about the Hampstead Photographic Society exhibition was the lack of manipulated photos. There are so many software packages around now that allow you to create "art" from images. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather admire a well composed, unmanipulated image. And that's what you'll see at this exhibition. At the Swiss Cottage Library until 15 April.

Photo reproduced by kind permission of Harold Ludman.