Frank Dobson

Iraq
Fox Hunting
Licensing
Gambling
University Top-Up Fees
GMOs
Smoking
Israel/Palestine
Council Housing and ALMOs
Corporate Social Responsibility

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Iraq
I spoke and voted against unilateral military action by the United States and Britain in Iraq and think the present situation in Iraq is a cause for grave concern. I do not support the UK sending more troops. Indeed I believe we should be reducing the commitment of British troops and preparing for their early withdrawal.

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Fox Hunting
I oppose all hunting with dogs and voted for an outright ban on hunting.

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Licensing
The Licensing Act transfers control of licensing from magistrates to Local Authorities who can better plan for a whole neighbourhood and who have a responsibility to local people, who will have an opportunity to object to applications, including the hours that pubs and clubs are allowed to open. This change strengthens the position of local people and is better than the old law when magistrates decided license applicants. However I do object to 24 hour opening.

Those of us who live in the middle of London expect a bit of noise but we are still entitled to the quiet enjoyment of our flat or house and to feel at home on the street where we live. That is why I have been campaigning for years to clamp down on the nuisance and disorder caused by badly run pubs and bars.

Four years ago the Home Secretary promised me personally that the police would be given the power to close immediately for 24 hours pubs and clubs that are a source of disorder or serious nuisance and that Camden and other councils would be able to refuse booze licenses if a street or area had enough already. The new Licensing Act includes those powers.

I don't support the extension of licensing hours but the new Act does empower local people and the police to object to any license application and I urge anybody who doesn't want longer opening hours to do just that. And I hope elected councillors will turn down unwanted applications.

The Home Secretary also promised me that the companies applying for licenses would have to meet the full cost of the licensing system so that local council tax payers wouldn't be out of pocket. I am working to keep the Government to that promise.

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Gambling
Our gambling laws did need to be modernised and so I supported most of the recent Gambling Bill. However I oppose the proposal to make it easier for multinational casinos to rip off hard-working British families and believe there is no public demand for the expansion of gambling or the proposed super casinos.

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University Top-Up Fees
I voted against university top-up fees and remain very worried about the implications of the legislation both for students and their parents and also for universities whose funding is still inadequate.

I accept that university funding is a major problem but it won't be solved by turning higher education into a market place, with a top tier setting higher fees partly to show how exclusive they are, while the newer universities make cut-price offers to attract students. Badly off students are already under-represented in the more prestigious institutions and top-up fees are likely to make matters worse. If the institutions, which are best off already, become even better off, they will be able to pay higher salaries and invest in modern buildings and equipment so the gap between the haves and the have nots will widen.

The argument that high fees won't put off would be applicants from badly off families is very unconvincing. Price increases usually result in reducing demand and the people with least money are least able to pay.

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GMOs
I have many concerns with GM crops because of the possible problems of cross pollination and other environmental changes have not been satisfactorily addressed. Such problems are greater here than in, say, the prairie farming areas of the USA. I therefore support the Government's commitment to ensure no commercial growing of GM crops occurs until the crops have been properly evaluated in farm scale trials. Our priority should be to protect people's health and the environment while ensuring public choice and not needlessly stifling the development of potentially beneficial new technologies.

In contrast, a huge amount of GM foods have been consumed round the world with no apparent harm to the health of those who have eaten them. It is hard to envisage more extensive testing could have taken place. I believe the Food Standards Agency is run by people of integrity who would not lightly come to any conclusions about food safety. I do however think this is a matter for individual consumers and therefore support compulsory and clear labelling.

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Smoking
I am in favour of a ban on smoking in indoor public places. Smoking kills 120,000 people every year and medical studies show that passive smoking is severely detrimental to health. With a ban now successfully in place in Ireland I think it should be tried in Britain.

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Israel/Palestine
I have, for many years, supported the establishment of a Palestinian state and want to see Israel and Palestine exist in peace.

Israel is entitled to secure boundaries and the Israeli people to safety within their boundaries. The best way to obtain that is to clear the Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, to grant a right of return to Palestinian refugees and to apportion a share of the sovereignty of Jerusalem with the Palestinians. This is what the Arab League have been suggesting in return for the recognition of Israel by all her Arab neighbours. It is what the British Government has been pressing upon all the interested parties.

The Palestinian people, like the Israeli people, are entitled to have their own sovereign state. Like Israel, Palestine should have secure boundaries in which the people can live in peace with one another and their neighbours. So I was glad when Jack Straw became the first British Foreign Secretary to actually call the Palestinian territory Palestine. He was denounced at the time but now virtually everyone uses the word.

I hope that the build up of pressure around the world will bring all concerned to recognise that neither Palestinian nor Israeli people can really choose to live in another part of the world. Their only choice is whether they live together in peace or not. That can only be achieved by negotiation and a political settlement - not by force of arms.

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Council Housing and ALMOs
I hope my record on Council Housing speaks for itself. As Leader of Camden Council I led the biggest ever council house building programme and over saw the Council buying up a huge number of flats and houses in order to protect literally thousands of private tenants from rapacious landlords and give people security, affordable rents and decent living conditions. I also insisted on developers providing affordable housing for local people and requiring it in the planning rules.

Lack of affordable housing and homelessness are two of London's major problems. It's vital that local people in Camden have access to affordable housing and especially good quality social housing. We now need to invest more money in increasing and improving Camden's housing stock. The Government proposed to hand over the management of housing stock to an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). But when asked to vote for this the people of Camden said 'no'. I support the tenants.

I was against the ALMO and will continue to campaign against Camden's housing stock being handed over to an ALMO. Camden Council is a tried, tested and successful landlord. It also had a good record of building new homes and buying up old ones. I will continue to do all I can to make sure the Government still invest the £283m they promised if the tenants voted for the ALMO, such vital funding is needed without any strings attached.

Finally I'm very keen to protect the limited building land which Camden still has. The last big opportunity for decent homes for local people is the surplus railway land at King's Cross. There are 53 acres that could provide space for over 3000 council flats and houses. Such surplus land should serve local needs and there is certainly a local need for decent homes.

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Corporate Social Responsibility
I have long supported the need for companies to manage their environmental and social impacts and for company directors to be held responsible for illness and injury suffered by their employees.

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