Tessa Jowell MP

Today I wrote to the Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 which was set up to ensure that the Olympic Games in 2012 is the first sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games and a ‘One Planet Olympics’. I have become increasingly concerned about the continued controversy which Dow Chemical Company’s sponsorship of the Olympic Stadium wrap has created, and so I have asked the Chair, Shaun McCarthy, whether he would make public the documents relating to the decision to award Dow the tender for the Olympic Stadium Wrap.

I have also asked for a meeting with Dow to seek answers to the questions I published on this blog last week, namely:

1. The London Olympic Games is intended to be one of the most sustainable, environmentally friendly Games to date. Is Dow’s conduct since acquiring the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001 consistent with the Olympics’ sustainability aims?

2. LOCOG saw legal documents from Dow about their involvement with UCC and Bhopal. Did they seek advice from other groups to balance their judgement?

3. Even if Dow win their legal battles against Bhopal survivors and the Indian Government, is there a reputational risk to London 2012 in their sponsorship of the Olympic Stadium wrap?

The campaign opposing the sponsorship of the wrap by Dow is gathering momentum with the publication of a letter to LOCOG backed by MPs of all parties and 21 former Indian Olympians. One of the signatories to the letter is Aslam Sher Khan – a citizen of Bhopal, a former Indian MP and Olympic athlete in hockey who recently wrote to me. His letter to me states:

“I understand the importance of the Olympics Games in the life of a sportsperson and what it means to participate in the most prestigious sporting event in the world. However, I consider myself as a human first, then an Indian and finally a sportsperson. The first and second parts of my identity would not allow my conscience to support a sporting event where one of the sponsors was associated with human suffering caused in India.”

I am visiting India next week and have asked to meet Mr Khan to discuss his concerns about Dow’s relationship to the Bhopal disaster and will be writing to David Cameron with his testimony on my return.

Surely it is better that we have an unwrapped Stadium, rather than a Stadium wrapped in the continuing controversy of Dow Chemical’s sponsorship?

***UPDATE***

Further look at the figures show long term youth JSA claimants for Dulwich and West Norwood up 156.5% since January 2011.

-----------

The latest figures released by the Office of National Statistics make for stark reading – unemployment at 8.3% and rising, youth unemployment at a record 1.02 million, and 5.7 unemployed people for every job. The growth forecast has also been downgraded yet again for 2012 to 1%. 

With London’s unemployment rate at 9.7%, the second highest of any UK region after the North East, including 59,100 16-24 year olds claiming Job Seekers Allowance, the current gloomy forecast is making it ever clearer that this Government are cutting too far and too fast. 

In my own constituency the number of unemployed claimants in October 2011 reached 4,262 – an increase of 514 since this time last year.

There can be no prospect of growth in London while unemployment continues to rise. London is becoming two cities divided by the glaring inequality that unemployment creates, destroying lives and communities in its wake. There is no point in wondering why things have gone wrong if there are more civil disturbances. Part of the answer lies in the sense of hopelessness created by the lack of opportunities so many young people in London now face.

Young people, in particular, are having to pay the price for this Government’s failing economic policy. Scrapping the Future Jobs Fund and Education Maintenance Allowance and the tuition fee hike are not the actions of a Government who believe that each generation should do better than the last, what Ed Miliband has so well described as the promise of Britain. 

However instead of taking responsibility, this Government continues to cast the blame as widely as possible, despite a flatlining economy and rising unemployment beginning well before the eurozone crisis. 

That is why Labour have produced a five-point plan for jobs and growth which starts with getting young people back into work, strengthening our economy and helping businesses to grow and create jobs. Labour’s youth jobs fund, paid for by a tax on Banker’s bonuses, could get 11,500 young people back into work in London alone.

If the Government does not re-think fast on the economy, we are in serious danger of having a lost generation and defaulting on the promise of Britain.

In response to campaigners for the Bhopal Medical Appeal and concerns expressed by Labour Friends of India, Dow Chemical needs to urgently answer questions regarding Bhopal:

1. The London Olympic Games is intended to be one of the most sustainable, environmentally friendly Games to date. Is Dow’s conduct since acquiring the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001 consistent with the Olympics’ sustainability aims?

2. LOCOG saw legal documents from Dow about their involvement with UCC and Bhopal. Did they seek advice from other groups to balance their judgement?

3. Even if Dow win their legal battles against Bhopal survivors and the Indian Government, is there a reputational risk to London 2012 in their sponsorship of the Olympic Stadium wrap?

I know that LOCOG are as concerned as anyone else to ensure that these questions are clearly and quickly addressed.

David Cameron said before the election – ‘Yes, we back Sure Start…It's a disgrace that Gordon Brown has been trying to frighten people about this. He's the prime minister of this country but he's been scaring people about something that really matters. Not only do we back Sure Start, but we will improve it, because at the moment the people who need Sure Start the most – disadvantaged families – are not getting enough of the benefit’. Even as recently as March this year David Cameron was claiming ‘the money for Sure Start is there’.

So what has changed since then? Well quite a lot if you look at the figures released yesterday by the Department for Education. On the numbers of Sure Start Children’s Centres they show a net reduction of 124 Centres since April 2010. Some have been federated or merged services with others but Sure Start Centres are closing despite David Cameron insisting this wouldn’t happen. What parents want to know is whether Sure Start is safe? And has David Cameron kept his word on protecting Sure Start? The answers are no, and no.

Figures obtained by Labour under Freedom of Information requests show that 83% of councils are being forced to slash budgets this year due to deep cuts in the grant from central government, and 89% will do so next year - 47 centres have been closed or earmarked for closure by the end of this financial year. The Government’s decision to cut Sure Start funding by 22.4% and, crucially, remove the ringfencing of the budget, is forcing Centres, at worst, to close and, at best, to significantly reduce their services. It’s all very well keeping a building open, but if you can’t afford to pay the cleaners to clean it, the staff to cook healthy food or for the facilities inside for children to play with then it’s not living up to anything like the vision we had when Sure Start was created.

It was Richard Titmuss who said ‘Services only for the poor are poor services’. Sure Start is one of Labour’s proudest achievements because it is universal and there for all who need it, bringing together all parents from different backgrounds to share in wanting the best possible start for their children. As Naomi Eisenstadt, Sure Start’s first director at its launch in 1998, recently told The Guardian ‘It didn’t get everything right, but it achieved a lot and was continuing to develop and learn. I am worried we’re now going completely the wrong way’.

The Government is proving itself to be wildly out of touch with the needs of so many families and, in so doing, neglecting the societal problems Sure Start helps to solve. Sure Start, and the families and children who depend on it, deserves so much better from a Government that promised to protect it. The Government should reinstate the ringfence and take steps to ensure no more centres are closed.

Philip prepared us for his death and was sustained in doing so by loving Gail, Georgia and Grace so much. He changed Labour, and all of us who are part of Labour, both in life and whilst he was dying. I feel utterly blessed to have seen him in those last weeks. One of the best memories of this year was being invited by Philip to a dinner to mark The Times' serialisation of his cancer journey - The unfinished life. An odyssey of love and cancer. Among the guests were his surgeon and oncologist. The passion he felt towards making Labour electable he also directed at trying to help those suffering from cancer to live and die as they would choose. Thank you Philip and all those who love you, we’ll support and love Gail, Grace and Georgia.

This morning I questioned the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP, on the impact of the Government’s 69% cut to school sports funding, including the successful School Sport Partnership programme which had become a model for developing countries around the world who are part of the UK’s International Olympic/Paralympic Legacy programme ‘International Inspiration’.

The achievement of this country in reversing the trend of youth inactivity has gained international acclaim. For example, Wenda Donaldson, Director of Community Sport at the Australian Sports Commission said:“I am absolutely devastated to hear of the cuts to the School Sport Partnership models. I am astounded that such an amazing and world leading initiative has been lost to the communities they serviced.” Under Labour, the number of young people doing at least 2 or more hours of sport per week rose from 25% to 90% between 2002 and 2010.

In addition to the funding cuts the Government has also scrapped the PE and School Sport Survey so we now have no way of measuring sports participation in our schools and the impact of these cuts. That’s why I will be asking the Government to publish an impact assessment on the effect of these measures on the levels of participation of young people in school sport. Early signs are, however, that the cost of these cuts will significantly reduce the number of young people taking part in a range of sports and in competitions as research for the Youth Sports Trust has found.

With the Olympics less than a year away, and as excitement builds across the country, the Government must live up to the promises to young people which lay at the heart of our Olympic bid; that a generation of young people would be transformed through sport. It was these pledges that won us the bid and the network of successful School Sport Partnerships Labour had established across the country stood ready to help us meet the challenge.  The Government must think again to ensure we do not let our young people down.