Live chat with London Mayoral candidates Jenny Jones (Green), Siobhan Benita (Independent) and Lawrence Webb (UKIP), Tuesday 1st May, 12pm-1pm

[FrancesMumsnet]

Following on from Ken and Boris's webchats you said you would like us to invite the remaining mayoral candidates (excluding the BNP) in for live webchats.

So far, the Independent candidate Siobhan Benita, Green party candidate Jenny Jones and UKIP candidate Lawrence Webb have accepted, we're very pleased to announce that they will be joining us at MNHQ on Tuesday 1 May, 12:00pm-1pm.

Siobhan joined the Civil Service in 1996 and worked at the very heart of Government for over 15 years. She lives with her husband and two daughters in New Malden, Kingston.

Jenny Jones is the Green Partys Mayoral candidate and has been a London Assembly Member since its start in 2000. Before entering politics, Jones worked as an archaeologist, studying carbonised plant remains, mostly in the Middle East.

Lawrence Webb, has lived and worked in London for most his life except for a brief stint spent working overseas. Before entering politics, Webb was a self-employed electrician. He was also in the Territorial Army for eight years.

Join us for the webchat and make your voice heard about what you want to see from the capital's next Mayor. Siobhan, Jenny and Lawrence are keen to hear your views and answer your questions. As ever, if you can't make it, please post up your advance questions here.

Thanks,

MNHQ

@SiobhanBenita

[quote cm22v07] Hi All, I'm a first time voter in the London Mayoral election, I'm not convinced by Ken or Boris so am looking to use my vote elsewhere. As a young person, which one of you should I vote for?

Me! I am the only candidate with a youth and education manifesto. Right from the start I have pledged to give young Londoners a stronger voice, in this campaign and in City Hall. One of my policies is to elect a Young Mayor for London, paid for out of my own salary, and to establish a Greater London Youth Assembly. Young people's concerns often get overlooked and these policies will provide powerful channels for young people to influence and challenge the Mayor on all policy areas.

I also have transport policies, such as reduction in fares for people on low wages and late-running tubes, which will benefit all Londoners, but young people in particular

Many young people are disillusioned with party politicians and like having an independent candidate to vote for.[/quote]

Me of course. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that. We believe we have policies that will help all Londoners. Particularly to help small businesses, which will increase employment for all. Youth unemployment is a scourge that none of the main parties has a clue about addressing.

JennyJonesGreen
Re Heathrow: If it were that simple, why haven't they done it already?

@politico

To all the candidates:

As this election is (unfortunately) a two horse race between Boris and Ken, if the winner offered you a job in his administration, what position / area of responsibility would you be prepared to accept, and what would be your main priority?

The job I would most covet would be that of Deputy Mayor with responsibility for policing. Many people feel that current policing priorities are failing the citizens of London, particularly those on the housing estates. It is only through having a robust zero tolerance to crime, particularly the low level anti-social crimes that we will improve the quality of life for ordinary Londoners.

@JennyJonesGreen

[quote personanongrata] Many women members on the assembly have commented that Boris has been rude and patronising to them personally. Siobhan and Jenny has this been the case for you during the campaign? Thanks.

Hello Personanongrata
No, during the campaign Boris has been quite polite to me. Most unusual.
jj
[/quote]

Boris has been fine, as have Ken and Brian. They all welcomed the idea of me joining them in the hustings. What has been a shame is some of the very sexist comments in response to articles online. There is a real issue with the insults people feel they can use online that wouldn't be acceptable elsewhere.

@poppyseeds99

I'm a young person living in London and over 50% of my wage goes on renting a small one-bedroom flat which I share with my partner. We are cramped for space whilst our landlady lives in a row of mansions not far from us. She does not work. What would the candidates do to redress the balance and give young people in London a better deal when it comes to renting and buying property?

Hello poppyseeds99
We have a very dysfunctional housing system in London and it needs quite a lot of interventions - there's no simple answer. And getting it right is good for everyone, not just young people.
Greens would: build 15k affordable homes every year, 40% for families, 15% fully accessible. We'd work with boroughs to build social housing. We'd publish an annual affordable rent figure and only provide land & public funding for homes under that cap. We would establish the London Mutual Housing Company to help development of sites for Community Land Trusts etc.
There's so much! Could I ask you to check our website: www.JennyforLondon.org
JJ

SiobhanBenita

It's the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect - also known as the 'Greater Internet **wad Theory' - I'm afraid.

In these closing moments of the webchat, can I have a non-vague answer to my question?

@politico

To all the candidates:

As this election is (unfortunately) a two horse race between Boris and Ken, if the winner offered you a job in his administration, what position / area of responsibility would you be prepared to accept, and what would be your main priority?

Its been clear during this campaign that we need more focus on young people - it's an area where I will certainly like to do more. There are kids across London facing huge challenges, whether in education, home lives or socially so if I can do something in that area it would be a great legacy. Someone did suggest a children's commissioner which is an interesting idea.

@politico

To all the candidates:

As this election is (unfortunately) a two horse race between Boris and Ken, if the winner offered you a job in his administration, what position / area of responsibility would you be prepared to accept, and what would be your main priority?

Hi politico
Both of them have offered me jobs. I turned down Boris' offer to make me his Cycling Czar. I wasn't prepared to be a powerless fig leaf for a Tory.
Ken has already promised to put me on the board of Transport for London, to oversee the development of walking and cycling. I've explained I'll need a huge budget and lots of staff (sort of joking but not really).
It would of course be unpaid as I'd still be a fulltime Assembly Member. And I'd implement as much of our manifesto on walking and cycling as humanly possible. Topped up with other good mayoral candidate ideas.
jj

@piji

JennyJonesGreen Re Heathrow: If it were that simple, why haven't they done it already?

I think because it's stuck in the past? No creative thinking?

@MrsMicawber

piji I am having to send my child to a school 4.2 miles away from me.

Come and build a school in my backyard!

This is happening all over London - a serious issue that needs urgent attention. I don't accept that the Mayor can't do anything to help - they must. I've said I would make this a mayoral priority and Ken and Boris have now agreed with that.

So sorry to everyone I couldn't answer. Do look at our website for all our policies. www.jennyforlondon.org
And please remember to vote Green on the orange ballot paper on Thursday!
jj

@JennyJonesGreen

[quote jepa] My question goes to any candidate brave enough to answer. How can you possible address the massive difference that now exists in London between the very rich and the average folk To explain I grew up in London, my Grandparents use to play in Broadwater Farm when it was a farm ! So I grew up with a real sense of belonging and I really do love our Capital. However now I found that I can no longer afford to stay living here. I can't afford central London parking plus congestion charges, when my babies were little I couldn't use public transport with a buggy. Now they are older I face the dilemma that there literally isn't a decent secondary school for my son. The nearest is selective and only other alternative is awful by any standards. My local high street is closing down, at least half the shops are closed due to high rent, yet my council continue to increase the parking charges. My local GP now operates a phone service first, which makes it extremely hard to be seen by an actual doctor, we have been misdiagnosed twice. I'm possible rambling but I am just so angry that the London seems to be only for the very rich, those that can afford privates schools, private transport and private healthcare In short my question is when is somebody going to wake up and realise the real problem we have

Hello Jepa
Our whole manifesto is based on reducing the gap between rich and poor in London, understanding that many people who are in work are also in poverty. We will reduce public transport fares to below the cost of inflation for 4 years, create jobs and apprenticeships (partly by supporting small and medium size businesses, partly by working with big business to offer some payback to Society) and we'll make housing, both to buy and to rent, more affordable.
We ensured the London Living Wage was taken up by the previous Mayor and now it's paid by the GLA, but also by 100 companies. It has to be expanded - a fifth of Londoners still earn less than the LLW of £8.30 an hour, some much less. We will also introduce a Fair Pay Mark for companies, to show when they are paying fair wages. We've also got a great policy of a 10:1 pay ratio. Any company that signs up will guarantee to pay their lowest paid employee at least a tenth of the highest paid person. So if the top person earns £500,000, they can pay their cleaners and cooks £50k. I've put this to some CEO's who had apoplexy at the idea.
The Mayor has no real powers over education, although can obviously influence the debate, and no powers over the NHS. However, we have fought to protect the NHS from the proposed savage government cuts.
JJ
[/quote]

Hi Jepa,
Social mobility has reduced under both labour and Conservative administrations. The key reason is, as you point out, the ability of al to access quality education. The wanton destruction of our admired education system to replace it with the comprehensive experiment has had a devastating impact, particularly on those with poorer backgrounds.

We in UKIP believe strongly that choice in education should be returned, which would address this in part.

As to the congestion charge, we that would scrap it. We are the only party that is including the single largest commuter group, the motorist in our transport strategy. I want introduce 20 minutes free parking across the capital to help boost local shops and businesses who find it hard to compete with out of town shopping centres that offer free parking.

London should not be a preserve of the rich, but for all Londoners. Year on year, what used to be free is charged, taxed and rated. As the ambitions of politicians go, so do their desires on your pocket.

@jepa

My question goes to any candidate brave enough to answer. How can you possible address the massive difference that now exists in London between the very rich and the average folk To explain I grew up in London, my Grandparents use to play in Broadwater Farm when it was a farm ! So I grew up with a real sense of belonging and I really do love our Capital. However now I found that I can no longer afford to stay living here. I can't afford central London parking plus congestion charges, when my babies were little I couldn't use public transport with a buggy. Now they are older I face the dilemma that there literally isn't a decent secondary school for my son. The nearest is selective and only other alternative is awful by any standards. My local high street is closing down, at least half the shops are closed due to high rent, yet my council continue to increase the parking charges. My local GP now operates a phone service first, which makes it extremely hard to be seen by an actual doctor, we have been misdiagnosed twice. I'm possible rambling but I am just so angry that the London seems to be only for the very rich, those that can afford privates schools, private transport and private healthcare In short my question is when is somebody going to wake up and realise the real problem we have

Sorry - didn't get to this one in time. You've raised so many important issues here which I entirely agree with. E-mail me for more info if you want a full response as we're out of time here - [email protected]

Thanks for all of you for participating in this, fingers bleeding from the speed typing.

Whoever you vote for, vote, not to do so would be a shame

Thanks to everyone for the questions and thanks to Mumsnet for the chance to reply. With just two days to go before the election it's a very exciting time for my team and me. Please do check out my manifesto if you haven't done that already. Siobhan

MrsMicawber

I think it means that candidates will give lip service to building schools, rather than actually building schools.

That's the impression I got. Note they didn't address my question about the proliferation of religious schools at the expense of non-religious affiliated schools for the increasing number of the population who are leaving the church.

And don't I know it. However, it was worth a punt pointing out that the majority of the population aren't religious.

slug yes, I noticed that. It's "Pay or Pray" in many areas.