Breakthrough for investors seeking justice over Secured Energy Bonds scam

There have been some encouraging signs of progress, with the Government and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), for investors embroiled in the Secured Energy Bonds (SEB) scam that saw most the funds invested disappear before being used to put solar panels on schools.

Some 973 investors were left high and dry earlier in the year when SEB plc went into administration, after Australian parent CBD Energy siphoned off more than £5 million of the initial £7.5 million investment intended to put solar panels on 22 schools.

It is reported that six schools were fitted with panels but administrators Grant Thornton have been unable to provide more detail on these installations.

The latest break for investors came when Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell put down a Parliamentary question asking “the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the FCA acts to prevent companies from fraudulently using capital raised from selling ring-fenced bonds to bail out poorly performing parent companies.”

More than 69 Mps have now been contacted by investors, many have written to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has mainly referred people onto the FOS.

This line of approach begins with complaints lodged by investors in the first instance to Independent Portfolio Managers (IPM), for its failure to safeguard investors interests and ensure accurate information was provided at the outset, despite being mandated to fulfil such a role as “the security trustee.”

To date IPM are turning down investors claims, leaving them to move on to the FOS to adjudicate.

There have though been recent encouraging developments, with early indications that the FOS will be taking the complaints on. What is more the FOS have made clear that investors need not now go first to IPM but can take their complaint direct to them.

A number of investors have also reported the losses to the police via Action Fraud. They await a response from the police. 

Meanwhile, as more MPs become involved in the process, questions are increasingly being asked of government and the regulators as to just what they are going to do to ensure that investors are fully compensated for their losses.

Central line in meltdown - how much longer?

How much longer is the chaos on the Central Line going to continue? The reason for the situation became abundantly clear on Tuesday of this week when it was announced in the rush hour that there were "delays on central line due to lack of available trains." Too many people, too few trains.
The service even by the very low standards of the Central Line has over recent months been totally unacceptable. People have been crammed into trains that come along intermittently. The overcrowding causes people to get ill, pull the emergency handle and then more delays. The train schedulers might then add to the chaos a bit more by delaying trains allegedly "to regulate the service."Trains get backed up and more people get ill. The whole thing is in meltdown - if something is not done to improve the Central Line, someone will be taken seriously ill or worse- when this happens the responsibility make no mistake will lie with Transport for London and ultimately the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

- published - Ilford Recorder - 15/10/2015

Film Suffragette offers fascinating glimpse of womens struggle for the vote

Suffragette offers a fascinating snapshot of the struggle of women to obtain the vote.
The film shows the oppression suffered in the workplace and at home due to the disempowerment of women in society.
The story of struggle follows the lines of many conflicts in the UK over the years. Patient appeals using the Parliamentary process falling on deaf ears, leaving those seeking justice only the streets and direct protest as their option. The suffragette line as depicted in the film was one of violent actions undertaken for a period.
The shorthand simplification of the story sees the goals achieved, following the death of Emily Wilding Davison under the King’s horse at the Derby in 1913.
The struggle for the vote in reality continued a lot longer through the First World War till 1928 before all women were enfranchised. The principle was conceded in 1918, when women over 30 with a property qualification were allowed the vote.
The film offers a snapshot of politicisation of a number of women from differing backgrounds and their struggle against injustice. Emmeline Pankhurst played by Meryl Streep makes a fleeting appearance to deliver an inspiring speech. There is no delving into the politics of the movement, with the divisions between Emmeline and Cristabel on the one side and Sylvia Pankhurst on the other.
Sylvia was much more of the labour movement, working with working class women on the ground. Emmeline and Cristabel supported the First World War and the Tories, whilst pushing for a far more elitist approach to the struggle for the vote. But this would be a very different type of film to make.
Suffragettes presents the injustice of the inequality women suffered in a straightforward way, easy to understand with resonance for the present day ongoing injustices.  

Will of people ignored over closure of Wanstead Hospital Wards

The most amazing thing about the ongoing destruction of the Heronwood and Galleon wards at Wanstead Hospital is the blatant denial of the democratic will of the people. If members of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CGC) and Redbridge Council came out of their ivory towers for a moment and actually spoke to real people on the streets of Wanstead and the surrounding area they would find strong support for the retention of the services at Wanstead Hospital. As someone who has stood out on the high street over recent weeks collecting signatures to try to get Redbridge Council to do what they should have done months ago, namely refer the decision to close the wards to the Secretary of State, I have been struck by just how many stories there are from people who have been helped by the hospital. There is a fierce loyalty to the wards, born of the excellent treatment people have received down the generations. There was never a problem getting signatures to oppose the closure, people simply flocked to sign the forms. Not one person to my knowledge actually came up and said I favour shutting these facilities and moving the service miles away. But despite these clear expressions of concern the CCG and Redbridge Council have continued to ignore the popular will. It is not too late ofcourse to bow to public opinion and halt this ill thought out decision. The local people would respect councillors and CCG members if they reconsidered the move and restored services, failure to do so will simply breed further contempt.

* published in the Wanstead Guardian/ Ilford Recorder - 7/10/2015

Wit and wisdom of Denis Healey

It was sad to see the passing of Denis Healey at the age of 98. I remember seeing him at the Irish embassy Christmas and St Pats do s over recent years - hardly recognisable until that booming voice rang out and then the eyebrows slotted into place. Famed as a right wing member of the Labour Party, he would be far to the left of many in the Parliamentary Labour Party today.
Healey spent much of his retirement at his home in Alfriston, near Eastbourne in Sussex. He talked of the need for a hinterland beyond politics - he was fond of music, poetry and photography. No one should be one dimensional.
Remembered for his role on the political stage there were many examples of his brilliant wit in the House of Commons chamber. He had some great barbs directed at Margaret Thatcher, such as when he accused her of "adding the diplomacy of Alf Garnett to the economics of Arthur Daley." 
He also described her as "la pasionaria of middle class privelige" and comparing her to Florence Nightingale  declared "She stalks through the wards of our hospital as the lady with the lamp. Unfortunately it's a blow lamp."

On being attacked by Tory Chancellor Geoffrey Howe he likened it to "being savaged by a dead sheep."

A great wit, ranconteur and politician, the like of whom we are unlikely to see again.

If Theresa May wants to integrate migrants she should be seeking to strengthen trade unions and implement a living wage

Theresa May's speech flew totally in the face of the economic reality of immigration. Britain has a rapidly ageing population and needs all the migrants it can get. If May is concerned about low pay and migrants undercutting indigenous workers wages and conditions there are two measures that can be taken to remedy the situation. First, raise the minimum wage to living wage level and vigorously enforce it, second, strengthen trade unions and get the incoming workers to join up. Not only would this stop the undercutting of wages and promote community cohesion but it would also mean that May's Tories could really call themselves the party of working people. Win win surely?

* published in the I and Evening Standard - 8/10/2015

Jeremy Corbyn’s way of doing politics is exposing just how banal and stale the approach of the political class and its supine media has become

What the whole Jeremy Corbyn approach has demonstrated most aptly is just how false and pretentious the “normal” way of doing politics has become. Corbyn says what he thinks and acts according to his principles. He treats party members and the public with respect, regarding them as fellow intelligent grown up people. He has been pretty much unspun.
The Labour Party Conference was a success because it was not prescripted like some Hollywood movie. Corbyn and John McDonnell spoke to people like adults. They received acclaim but neither felt the need to roll out their wife or partner in some fawning role.
Whilst the media tried to pour scorn on Corbyn’s speech, it was reported that another 2,000 people joined the party after delivery. There must be a real worry for the establishment parties that the Corbyn appeal that brought so many into the party and his eventual victory will reach out to the public beyond.
It may have resonance amongst the people who didn’t vote (all 33% of them) and those who think it a disgrace that a million plus go to foodbanks in a country that hosts 130 plus billionaires. Or that 100,000s of properties lie empty, whilst so many have nowhere to live.



The political establishment and its media have certainly done their best to discredit Corbyn. The childish abuse, the attempts to make not singing the National Anthem into some sort of capital offence. The digging up of quotes from years ago about Ireland to beat Corbyn and McDonnell over the head about. (Both men, together with Ken Livingstone, played significant roles in laying the ground for the peace process.) The constant resorting to the neo-liberal orthodoxies, that brought the crash of 2008, and have since played such a part in making the most poor and vulnerable pay for that crisis, as some sort of one true way.



What must be striking more and more people in the wider electorate is just how much those in the political establishment and media class have in common with each other rather that the mass of people they purport to represent. They reflect power and power relations. They are happy with things the way they are, so continue to defend the status quo.



Corbyn represents a breath of fresh air, a new way of doing politics with  policies based in social justice. If the commentariat and Westminster village ever get past banality when it comes to what Corbyn and co are talking about, they will realise it represents a new way forward. A way that values people over profit, respects neighbours whether in the next street or next country. A path based on peace and peace making. It is also about community, caring for one another. A way that recognises the need to address the threat of climate change and poverty. And whatever the future might hold, Jeremy Corbyn deserves credit for putting these values back on the political agenda.