Karen has helped to launch a new national campaign challenging unacceptably low pay levels. The Fair Pay Network was launched at Parliament on February 26th, backed by a coalition of organisations, from London Citizens to Counsel and Care for the Elderly and with patrons drawn from employers and trades unions. Karen is Chair of the Fair Pay Network and will be supporting campaigns which celebrate good practice by employers who pay a living wage and which challenge employers who pay poverty wages.

For more information visit the Fair Pay Network website

Parents and former users of Maida Vale play centre have made clear their opposition to Westminster City Council’s plans to do away with their much-loved facility. The Centre has provided generations of children with after-school and holiday care in Paddington Recreation Ground, but Westminster’s re-development of the park has left it under threat.

Westminster has been failing its play service for years, with a combination of under-investment and a botched price hike which drove large numbers of low-income families away. Now the Council says that there is ‘not enough demand’, but the need is there, amongst working families and very low income families whose children would also benefit. The problem is the lack of subsidy, an over-reliance upon tax credits, which do not deliver as well in Central London as in the rest of the country, and poor promotion.

Westminster must maintain the Play Centre, review patterns of use. extend holiday services and take immediate steps to increase take-up of places. The government has invested millions of pounds in child care locally. Now Westminster needs to do its part.

Westminster Conservatives collected over £38 million in parking fines in 2006/07, the largest amount in the country, representing an increase of £7 million over the previous year - a 23% increase.

At the same time the Conservative run Council cancelled 67,000 (42%) of the 159,000 parking tickets issued by the Council which were challenged by motorists.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group on Westminster Council said,

“Westminster Conservatives are using parking fines to finance the Council. It is a crazy state of affairs when so much of the Council’s activities are dependent on parking wardens issuing as many tickets as possible. It seems as if the Conservatives are issuing parking tickets like confetti. There must be something wrong with a system when almost half of the parking tickets issued by the Council have to be cancelled when they are challenged by drivers.”

“No wonder Westminster is awash with money with a 23% increase in parking income. No other council in the country is able to benefit to the same extent from having such a massive annual income and is the only reason that Westminster Conservatives are able to to charge a low Council Tax.”

The recent high-profile abuse of the Parliamentary allowance scheme has, sadly, called all our integrity into question, and has renewed public fear that allowances are used as a supplement to MPs pay. This is not the case for the overwhelming majority of MPs, whose allowances are used for staff and the costs of running a constituency office.

However, it is absolutely right that MPs’ pay and allowances should be open and transparent. I have posted the breakdown of mine since they were first produced by the House of Commons authorities, and am happy to confirm:

• I do not employ any members of my family

• I do not receive any housing allowance

• The only travel expenses I claim are for my Oyster card.

• The entirety of my other allowances are dedicated to employing staff; employer’s National Insurance contributions, office rent/rates, phone bills, and related office costs. The only other direct claim I make is towards the cost of my mobile phone bills.
• I make no claims for food, taxis, or for entertaining guests at Parliament or elsewhere.

I am also more than content to answer questions on these issues.

Last year I ranked 513th out of 646 MPs for my total spend (more detailed breakdown can be if you click on the above image).

Karen Buck MP

I had been intending for some time to write in praise of the fine women who volunteer to keep Paddington Cubs, Scouts and Beavers going. After all, I can see them at work in the garden of St Luke’s Church, Queen’s Park, if I look out of my front window on a Thursday evening. St Luke’s is blessed with a beautiful garden, and it is always a pleasure to see dozens of young people, most of whom won’t have any outdoor space of their own to play in, enjoying all that room. At any one time, this group alone involves 40-45 local youngsters, and I understand it has been in continuous operation for around 80 years. Other local branches are also well-used, and there has been an active Bangladeshi involvement as well. Having written a pamphlet about the importance of offering a range of out-of-school activities for our children and young people, to enable them to stretch themselves physically and try things they may not otherwise have access to, I wanted to praise what the Cubs, Scouts and Beavers actually provide. And I don’t mean the games and outings and skills, either, important though these are. I mean the more intangible benefits- the sense of being part of some bigger movement, with an ethos and particular expectations about behaviour and effort, and the moderate element of discipline that this entails. (Of course sports teams and drama classes can offer some of this- and many do, but I don’t think they have the same breath of depth). (more…)

Karen has pledged to the a ‘Guardian of the Memory’ of Michael Ringer, who was a Member of Parliament in his homeland of Poland before being mirdered duirng the Holocaust. Vad Yashem is an organisation dedicated to recording and remembering the millions of individuals who were killed during this bleakest period of human history. You can also sign up to become a ‘Guardian of the Memory, and learn more about the Holocaust and its victims at www.yadvashem.org.

That this House notes Holocaust Memorial Day is 27th January, the day the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated; recognises the significance of this day and the importance of remembering and learning from the past especially when there are those who seek to denigrate and deny its significance; observes that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learnt and racism, anti-semitism and intolerance continue in the UK and abroad; further observes that the international community has failed to prevent the occurrence of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq and now Darfur; thanks the City of Liverpool for hosting the national event and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for organising the day; supports 2008’s theme, Imagine, remember, reflect and react; applauds organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) for their work and in particular recognises the impact the acclaimed HET visits to Auschwitz have had in shaping young minds; further notes that a Book of Commitment will be placed in the corridor between the hon. Members’ Cloakroom and hon. Members’ Staircase between 1430 and 1630, Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd January; and encourages all hon. Members to sign it and mark a day that helps to ensure the memory of the Holocaust is kept alive to serve as a warning now and in the future.