3. Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Mr Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
Further to the oral evidence that I gave to
the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday 13 September, I would like
to take this opportunity to make a number of follow-up points
relating to your inquiry on "Counter-terrorism and community
relations in the aftermath of the London bombings."
RESOURCES FOR
THE METROPOLITAN
POLICE
1. Additional resources must be made available
to the Police if they are to keep Londoners safe. Professionalism
and commitment alone will not be enough in the future if we are
to meet the new threats and challenges that we face from terrorism
without the police cutting back in other key areas. There is a
danger that general crime and clear up rates in London will suffer
adversely if we are to have effective anti-terror policing without
additional resources being made available. Even now the MPS is
spending an additional £300,000 a day as a result of the
July events—expenditure that cannot be sustained under current
resourcing levels. British Transport Police resources are also
being overstretched and require additional support.
TRANSPORT
2. Transport for London is coordinating
an extensive review of lessons learnt and contributing to a wider
review with partner organisations. The lessons learnt will form
important input to TfL's future plans to further enhance London's
resilience.
3. TfL continues to work with the MPS, British
Transport Police and security services, to assess the most appropriate
way to increase security on the Underground, bus and wider transport
network. The additional trained police officers on the network
provide an intelligence led and high visibility presence to deter
and detect potential terrorist activity and provide reassurance
to the travelling public and our staff. There are currently a
record number of Police officers on visible patrol across the
transport network deployed on reassurance policing tactics including
the use of sniffer dogs and high visibility patrols. TfL believes
that an additional 100 officers would be required to police the
Underground network. However, funding issues will need to be resolved
before this can be achieved.
4. With three million passengers a day the
challenge in today's security climate is striking the right balance
between running a mass transit service that keeps London moving
whilst introducing stricter security measures that, in practice,
can make it harder for people to travel. Heathrow Airport handled
67.1 million passengers last year while London Underground carried
976 million passengers. Both the Tube and the world's major metro
systems have investigated the introduction of airport style body
scanners and it was clearly identified they are just not practical
to work in a mass transit environment. No technology is available
today that can process three million passengers a day without
causing considerable delay. If technology became available that
would allow us to move very large numbers of passengers more safely
then we would introduce it, as would virtually every major metro
system in the world.
THE IMPACT
ON LONDON'S
ECONOMY
5. The GLA has produced an interim forecast
of a reduction in tourism expenditure in London of £536 million
by the end of the fiscal year of which £231 million is from
a reduction in international tourism and £305 million from
a reduction in domestic tourism. These forecasts are in line with
those produced separately by Oxford Economic Forecasting.
6. While the impact may not be as bad nationally
(or even in London's outskirts) as predicted, there has been a
major impact in central London, which is still being felt. Furthermore,
there is some evidence of future bookings significantly down as
well, with European visitors choosing alternative cities for short
breaks.
7. To mitigate the effects on tourism and
retail, I am seeking additional funding from the Treasury for
Visit London to fund additional international marketing of London.
As Visit London have a proven record of attracting additional
visitors, this funding could help to sharply reduce the economic
losses to the tourism sector currently being envisaged.
COMMUNITY COHESION
IN LONDON
8. Multiculturalism is not an optional extra
for London. This city's prosperity is totally dependent on its
economic links with the rest of the world and the diverse communities
those cities have brought to London. Opinion polls show that even
after 7 July, two-thirds of British people support multiculturalism.
9. There was an increase in racist attacks
after 7 July, but this appears to have fallen back quite rapidly
since, with trends indicating a fall towards the same levels as,
or lower than, last year.
10. Polls since 7 July show that support
for multiculturalism and opposition to religious discrimination
have remained solid as shown by the following national polls:
— 68% of people disagree that policy
of multiculturalism in Britain has been a mistake and should be
abandoned. 21% agree it should be abandoned. (8-9 Aug, BBC/ MORI)
— 62% of British people agree that
"multiculturalism makes Britain a better place to live".
(8-9 Aug, BBC/ MORI)
— 52% of people think there is no fundamental
contradiction between the beliefs of western democracy and Islam,
compared to 24% who think the beliefs are fundamentally contradictory.
(20-22 July, Telegraph/ YouGov)
11. In the Annual London Survey 2004:
— 82% of Londoners said they enjoy
the cultural diversity of London, 3 percentage points more than
in 2003.
— The mixture of people who live in
London is ranked as the third best thing about living in London
after the range of shops and Job opportunities. In all four years
of the Annual London Survey the mixture of people of living here
has ranked as one of the three top things about living in London.
— 75% said that London is a City with
good relations between different racial, ethnic and religious
communities. This is an 8 point increase on 2003.
— 51% agreed that there is less discrimination
on the basis of race or ethnic origin in London than three years
ago. This a 6 point increase on 2003.
12. In March 2005, Londoners were asked
about the proposed new laws on religious discrimination and on
religious hatred:
— 68% of people said they would support
the banning of discrimination on the grounds of religion.
— 72% said they would support the introduction
of new laws to outlaw the incitement of hatred against people
on the grounds of their religion. 15% would not support such a
law.
13. The latest figures from the Metropolitan
Police (March 2005) show that racist incidents in London have
fallen by 35% in the last five years. Black, Asian, Arab, Jewish
or Eastern European people were all more likely to suffer attacks
than White Europeans.
— Arab and Egyptian people were 11
times more likely to be attacked in London than White Europeans.
— Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African
and Caribbean people were 10 times more likely to suffer a racist
attack.
— Southern and Eastern Europeans were
eight times more likely to be attacked than a White European.
— Chinese and Japanese people were
five times more likely to be attacked.
— Jewish people were three times more
likely to suffer racist attacks.
ANTI-TERROR
MEASURES
14. I am opposed to the introduction of
legislation or any extension of powers which could result in the
exclusion or criminalisation of individuals who condemn attacks
such as those on 7 and 21 July, and who urge people to help prevent
them. This would be likely to reduce the flow of information from
communities to the police, which is essential to isolate and deal
with the supporters of terrorism.
15. The Government must have the power to
exclude anyone advocating or supporting terrorist attacks on this
country like those on 7 July. However, it must be made clear exactly
what is meant by terrorism and terrorist acts in the context of
the new "unacceptable behaviours". The definitions are
sufficiently vague that they could have led to Nelson Mandela,
Yasser Arafat or anyone supporting them being banned.
16. On 26 August, Liberty, the main Muslim
and Sikh organisations, MPs, trade unionists, lawyers and myself
launched a campaign to ensure that any measures adopted by Parliament
or the government against terrorism do not exclude or criminalise
people who condemn attacks like the ones on 7 July and urge communities
to work with the police to find those responsible. The following
joint statement was released:
Only united communities will defeat
terrorism and protect civil liberties
"Our lives, rights and
freedoms are precious and we will not surrender them. We stand
united in our refusal to be defeated by those who seek to indiscriminately
murder people of all faiths and races in our country.
"We support the police
and measures against those who plan, support or carry out such
terrorist attacks. However, a number of the security measures
which the government has said it is considering risk criminalising
or excluding people who condemn terrorist attacks and whose cooperation
is indispensable to the work of the police in fighting terrorism.
"We believe that the fight
against terrorism requires a broad consensus around its means
and the involvement of all communities to isolate and defeat those
who would use terror to divide us."
23 September 2005
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