Whitehead and biofuels.

In recent weeks the issue of biofuels has come to the forefront. Last week the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation – 2.5 % of fuel now comes from biofuel.

Why is Mr Whitehead and the liberals and labour group in Southampton very quite on this subject? One can guess the reasoning why, the failed Millbrook CHP scheme. The merits are well known but what has been an issue is the fuel source.Mr Whitehead apart from overseeing nearly £1.5 million of public money being spend with nothing to show apart from a few pictures. One of the areas which until very recently Mr Whitehead was pushing was championing was the use of Palm Oil, he says he got government to change the value to 2 ROC’s.

The idea of using palm oil has never been a good one. I objected to the idea back in 2006 saying the idea of transporting a fuel source half way round the world which has serious implications on the wildlife of the area that it is produced (especially the orang-utans) was madness. Now we have nearly every organisation saying how biofuels are producing higher food prices and have bigger carbon emissions.

Government acts?

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper has announced an enquiry into the 10p tax. This is both insulting and a pretence that they are doing something. Darling said yesterday that he would not rewrite the budget even though it still has to be voted upon. The answer is do not implement the tax cut.

Here is another very simple way out, increase the threshold of taxation, to that of the minimum wage for a 36 hour week.

But what is the point of taking away with one hand to give back with another, this is the trouble with Labour - they can not justify the bureaucracy and complicated forms they have created. The creation of a state that does not allow for independence is the fear for Labour

TAX

And so the election has started, postal votes have been distributed and people are voting. As always these elections are important!!!It will be interesting to see how people vote, local and national issues seem to favour the Conservatives at present, but politics can be strange. Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling seem to be attacking the most vulnerable still in society.

The cut in the 10p rate of tax is crass stupidity and wrong. To increase the tax burden on the poorest in society is wrong, but to imply that this will be corrected by some mechanism in the future shows how the labour party is out of touch.Removal of the bottom element out of taxation in the first place would be a good start. Labour really doesn’t get it, tax can not be punitive and that is what they have created, a tax regime that is punitive.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks.

What is very interesting is watching the Labour party tear itself apart in Westminster over this issue. Last year just like every budget you see the MPs cheering the budget. You now have the very same MPs seeing impending electoral misery and are scurrying round to try and change the policy. The lack of any comment about the abolition of the 10p tax rate until it was actually on the doorsteps, is exactly the sort of hypocrisy and opportunism that turns people off politics.

Conflicting messages from the coalition

One of the decisions that we made as a cabinet was the removal of the left hand ban into Bedford place. One of my regrets is that we did not do this quicker. In December I met with the traders of Bedford place, a rather nice part of the city with a lot of independent shops and bars. They had two wishes one to have Salisbury street car park renamed and the left hand turn reinstated. Both of which seemed reasonable. After much discussion with my colleagues and officers we decided to go ahead with both.

The new administration once they got in stopped this. Why? What reason do they give for this crass stupidity?

This raises a question with the coalition, is Cllr Baston making the decision herself or is the decision that of the cabinet and backbenchers.

Cllr Bogle claims along with Cllr Noon that they want the left turn reinstated. Yet Cllr Baston is ignoring the ward Councillors Thus two questions is Cllr Baston listening to Cllr Bogle and Noon and if so what has she done after listening to the two Cllr’s when she made the decision or is it based on personal opinion, (she is not a civil engineer).What influence do they have on the cabinet?

Yet to the people they don’t understand, what is the point of the ward Cllr’s saying they wish to have a left turn (they are in power), yet the cabinet member appears to making a decision on her own.

If you are in power which they are and they say they wish something the people they are speaking to expect action. The inability of labour Cllr’s to impress on Cllr Baston the importance of this to the traders shows how the divide exists between cabinet and backbenchers on issues that need to be solved. To delay this decision is gross irresponsibility while they wait for Cllr Baston to make her mind up they lose business which can not be good.. Her failure to take action is having a detrimental impact on our city.

Denham to replace Brown!

I personally don’t see it happening; equally I don’t see the Labour party disposing of Prime Minister Brown before the next General Election.

Ladbroke have released the prices of who will replace Brown. I believe it is too early to be speculating. The unfortunate thing is Labour seem to think it is Brown who is at fault for the position they currently occupy in the polls.

Historically Britain does not do one party state. The change in fortunes is based partly on the length of time Labour has been in office. 1997 is considered a long time ago and people like change, just like 1979-1997 was too long for the conservatives to be in power, by many.

Obviously party members will disagree; Labour and Conservatives will always say that they should always be in power.

One of the major problems facing the Labour is the lack of any big ideas. The 2008 budget was a failure and the legacy of Browns last budget is being felt by the worst paid in the UK. The defence that people can claim money through tax credits etc is flawed as people will see a reduction in the pay packet. Why hit the poorest in society still remains unanswered?
What Labour MPs fear is not just 80 or 90 of there largely unemployable comrades getting their P45s; it is the loss of patronage throughout the state, which they have created which is now financed by the state. A Labour defeat would have severe personal consequences for much of the clientele. They know it, and are panicking.

Economic incompetence

Very good article by Fraser Nelson on the current economic situation and the way Brown has poured oil on the fire;

1) He adopted the Tory inflation target of 2.5%, which was right for its time. But this was not designed to detect or deal with an asset bubble.

2) In instructing the Bank of England to deal in CPI rather than RPI he ordered it not to take notice of the housing market (RPI contains mortgage repayment costs, CPI does not). So rather than ask it to tackle house prices, he went the other way. This meant the bank kept interest rates way too low (the 2.0% CPI target is no substitute for a 2.5% RPI target as RPI is at least a full point ahead of CPI).

3) This meant money was too cheap. As night follows day, this led to an asset bubble.

4) Brown saw this as a one-off adjustment to a new era of low inflation and permanently cheap credit. He was a disciple of Greenspan, who thought we had entered a new era of productivity and could have cheap credit. This was a fatal misdiagnosis.

5) Brown was relaxed about Britain’s soaring debt-to-income ratios, and would angrily say that the soaring (bubble) assets somehow cancelled debt out. He either didn’t realise fully, or didn’t care about, how house prices were fuelling demand as everyone was borrowing against the made-up value of their property

You can read the whole article here

The race is on according to the Sun

After 289 days in office the Sun has started the game of who will be the next leader of the Labour party.

When is a policy not a policy?

The new Labour and Liberal Democrat beast that is running Southampton appear to asking themselves this very question. The recent approach to parking shows that confusion is at the heart of the beast. The ability to introduce a policy to charge people to park in residents parking zones is now in place, the leader of the council has said that they will have no plan to do it in the next 12 months. We have elections for the next 24 months, thus is reasonable to conclude form this that the administration plan to introduce such a policy in April 2009.

Some members say it is not a policy but I have found a few clues:

The policy is quite clear it says it on the front page of the document: ADOPTION OF A STRATEGIC-LEVEL PARKING POLICY FOR THE CITY

The second clue that it was a policy was on the recommendation of the report:

To adopt the policy at Appendix 2 as the basis for providing and managing parking in the City.

When they read appendix 2 they would have noted

2.12 Finally, there is a clear recognition that the provision and availability
of parking facilities has a value, and that users should expect to
contribute towards their provision, maintenance and management.
Charging policy is also seen as having the potential to influence travel
behaviour.

3.2 The provision and management of parking facilities creates a
significant level of cost to the Council and users should thus
pay for their use in recognition of the benefit they provide.
Charges should be set at levels that reflect the value of the
facility and that act as an incentive to consider the use of other
modes of travel – this provides the basis on which the Council
charges for the use of car parks and for parking permits, applies
differential charging scales to different facilities, and applies penalty
charges for contraventions of the operational regulations.


I do hope that this make it easy for them to know what they have passed.

The EUSSR

The vote will be intresting not on do we get yes or no but what happens to the Liberals. Talk of resignations is never good when you are only four months in as Leader. Will Huhne be reinstalling those phones? Will they wish to see the return of Cable?

The EU treaty?

A lot is being made at the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty is being carefully debated and scrutinised in Parliament.

What's the point?

Both Labour and Liberals have broken their pledge of a referendum.

They cannot alter not one line, one word, one letter, one comma, one iota of this document.

Labour MPs—who have a substantial majority in the House—are under a three line whip to vote for ratification of the Treaty.

Thus simple question what is the point of this?

From GUIDO FAWLKS

Gordon goes to Heathrow. Airplane crashes. Lands in India. Bombay Stock Exchange has record all time losses falling 15%. Returns to London, London Stock Exchange crashes. When he first became PM, God punished the people of England with floods, pestilence and Islamic fires of terror. Every national sporting event he visits, the home team loses. God must really hate Gordon...

A stop to Flats

The residents who along with me opposed the building of flats in South East Road and Pinegrove Road have one a small victory. Theproposal has been rejected for the time being. this is great news and with the supplemantry planning guidence that is being brought forward so that all new developments have a minimum of family hosuing will be good news for Sholing.

Mr Abrahams impact

The pleasure that I take from the latest financial scandal to hit the Labour party is tainted with plague on all your houses associated to all politicians.

Labours first reaction is still to try and spin, unfortunality Mr Bean (he will be known as that from now on) has alienated the majority of the press with his fake election. His comments today about having to change party funding do not flow from this debacle.

The current situation is outside the law which Inspector Yates of the yard will be explaining to Mr Bean once he has been arrested. His attempt to spin the issue as if it is due the current way funding is arranged is misleading at best. Labour MP’s and the party have proactively tried to avoid declaring money given to them.

25 million the governments latest number

25 million families’ private details exposed to serious risk of fraud. £25 billion of our money propping up a bank they failed to supervise.

There’s one man who should be apologising to us all – the Prime Minister.

cartoon times newspaper

Will Jacqui survive?

The latest furore over the governments attempt at defending the decision not to publicise the fact that 5,000 illegal immigrants were cleared to work in security, raises the question how long she will survive. Reports say she new about this in July.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the prime minister had promised a "different type of politics, a more open and honest dialogue" it looks like it is same old Labour, spin and lies.

Queens Speech

If these are the plans that would have loomed large in the Labour manifesto for the November election that never was, then Mr Brown's judgement in ducking that contest - albeit at political cost - is vindicated.

What today could have been?

Today could have been the start of bright new Britain after the 10years of darkness that has been and is the rule of the Labour Government. It could also have been the shortest term ever that a person has been Prime Minister something which I am sure played heavily on Gordon Brown’s mind.

On September 29th an Ipsos-Mori poll showing the Tories 13% behind, today we are five points ahead. What a turn around it has been. The government was full off swagger going into the Conservative Conference. Now it appears to lurch from one disaster to another.

This could be attributed to the policies that Conservatives revealed at the conference. But I suspect more to the reaction by the government, Browns trip to Iraq looked like electioneering and in bad taste using men and women risking there life as an election prop. Andrew Marr coming out of number 10 and announcing that there would be no election was bizarre.

The following week what I am sure had been planned as a week of announcing policy but what we got was Labour adopting conservative policy which had been dismissed as gimmicks.

The out come has been that the Liberal Democrats removed Ming and are in another leadership election.

Voting Blue meant going Green

Southampton’s residents have increased recycling to 30.8% of household waste, the most ever in Southampton and up from 26% in August last year.

Decentralisation of power

The time is right for England to have its own parliament. Only MPs representing constituencies in England should be allowed to legislate on English matters.

Malcolm Rifkind QC MP has proposed this today. This does not mean that is will speed the breakup of the union but rather strengthen the union. This government has allowed Scottish MP’s to vote purely on English matters this creates resentment and is fundamentally wrong and can not be justified whilst a Scottish parliament sits and makes these decisions on Scotland.

The response by Harriet Harman MP is fundamentally flawed her argument is that people want regional democracy. The people voted on this in the North East and overwhelmingly dismissed this. Power should go back to the town halls in the country we have a far too centralised power structure, this could be simply done. Business rates should stay in the area that they are raised. Regional assembles should be abolished, in South Hampshire local authorities work together exceptionally well regardless of political colour.

Burying news

This week in the bid to clear the decks before Uncle Joe begins his reign of terror as Prime Minister, Blair has put out all his contentious legislation. We have seen announcement after announcement. One on Blair’s legacies will be the amount of legislation that his governments have produced.

We have seen the Waste strategy, Nuclear Power Stations proposals, changes to the planning rules and proposals for pay as you drive. Failure to scrutinise proposed legislation quite often results in bad law. A lot of what has been proposed has many critics and a full public debate should be had.

The removal of people and politicians from the political process is what drives people away from elections and participation in the process.

Talking Rubbish

David Milliband has today announced the Government’s Waste Strategy for England 2007. The Waste Strategy confirms that as a nation we need to radically cut waste but it leaves unanswered vital questions on how to actually do this. He talks about putting chips in bins and how people will pay for the waste that they produce. Southampton would benefit from more money in dealing with waste. Southampton landfills just under 18% and this will be reduced under Conservative control. In other comparable unitary authorities across the country the figure is 65% these are predominantly in the north of England.

This announcement could give local authorities freedom to develop recycling and increase. Yet the issue is the producer of waste manufacturers and retailers need to cut packaging and waste. Around five million tonnes of annual household waste is packaging. It makes up almost one fifth of all household rubbish. Manufactures need to face the same legal and financial pressures as councils if they are seriously going to be persuaded to cut packaging. Again more hot air from a government.

Labour Supports Academies

With Academies and trusts being discussed in Southampton, Labour has proposed further expansion of such schools. Lord Adonis, the schools minister, claimed the "all-through" approach was the way to boost standards.

Privately sponsored academies and trust schools are set to create links with state primaries like those between preparatory and secondary schools in the independent sector.

Academies remain in the state sector, but are independent of local councils and accept sponsorship from private firms or charities.

Full Council

We are in an interesting state as to control of Southampton. On Wednesday a new council will be elected. This will be either a Conservative or Labour administration, both have 18 Councillors. The Liberals will have the role of 'King Maker', Labour say that as they will have the mayor he will have a casting vote. Even though the Conservatives won the popular vote.

This raises various questions as they are openly making the position of mayor a political figure which has been a non political role. In previous situations the mayor has voted with the administration (Cllr Parnell a Conservative in 2003 supporting the Labour budget and in 2007 when Cllr Slade Lib Dem supported the Lib Dem administration). In each of these situations it was the office rather than the person. As we do not have an administration to vote for, a political party could bring the role of mayor into disgrace.

At present a convention exists that the mayor rotates among the three political parties but will this continue if one uses what is a non political role for political purposes?

The Liberal Democrats seem to be attempting political suicide similar to Labour in 1983. In Swaything the residents through the ballot box rejected the proposed transit site on the Monks brook site. As this is in the parliamentry seat of Sandra Gidley with a 125 majority I am sure she is looking forward to the proposed site and the ensuring loss of her parliamentary seat.

911

The final number of newly elected Conservative Councillors has reached 911 with the delayed result from Warwick and Breckland. The BBC had the results summary until lunch time, and replaced it with a postcode search they could just not bring themselves to printing over 900 gains for the Conservatives. I think a 50% better result than excellent.

Southampton Elections

Well it is all over : the votes have been counted and results are in.

The Conservatives in Southampton had a fantastic result in Southampton last night in the local elections.

A brief summary is as follows: Conservatives +2 (18) 19,022 votesLabour +2 (18) 15,656 votesLib Dem -4 (12) 11,879 votes


I was returned in Sholing which obviously gave me great pleasure. The turnout was up to 37% (I am sure Mr Heath will say that was down to his waste of taxpayers ' money on planes and buses). It seams Matt Stevens was a bit wrong with his predictions, no great surprise there.

Also Alec Samuels was returned , which was great not just for the Conservatives but also Southampton as he is extremely hard working. It also gave me great pleasure that Matt Dean a good friend was elected. Also Linda Norris and Andy Wells' result in Millbrook and Jane’s in Swaything shows the Conservatives are dealing with local issues and helping local people.

Thank you Sholing


SHOLING (Electorate: 10,654)
Majority: 352
Turnout: 3,976 (40.5%)

Dick Gavin Craig Conservatives 1,787

Furnell David Labour 1,435

Lisle Martin Michael Liberal Democrats 390

Weaver Tony UK Independence Party 354

"Ten years that ruined Britain"

Max Hastings has written an overview of Tony Blair's ten years in office for today's Daily Mail. Five extracts are published below:

Education, education, education?"For all the deceits peddled by examination authorities, our children are costing more to learn less. A third of secondary school pupils have some record of truancy. Most school-leavers are tossed exam certificates without achieving real skills in literacy and numeracy, never mind knowledge. Our great universities have fallen victim to class-war football, with Gordon Brown the foremost government striker. More and more unqualified teenagers from state schools are pushed towards Oxbridge, while private school pupils are deliberately excluded. Excellence drains away. Under-funded British universities, subject to relentless government meddling, slip ever further behind their American counterparts."

Fatter and fatter government"In the workplace, the Government has promoted employee rights at the expense of a crippling impact on productivity, in which Britain slips ever further down on the global scale. Public sector workers have prospered. Indeed, thanks to nice Mr Alan Johnson (when he was Pensions Minister), they are almost the only ones left who can look forward to a decent pension. The economy is now frighteningly dependent on public sector jobs - non-productive ones, funded by the rest of us - to sustain employment."

Whiter than white? "The Blair years have been a boom time for: Ann Summers sex shops (up from 13 to 134 since 1997); free Viagra; CCTV cameras; wind farms; John Prescott; Peter Mandelson; Cherie Blair's lecture income; the prison population; Alastair Campbell; private security guards; sales of illegal drugs; binge-drinking; City salaries; Ken Livingstone; childhood obesity; and grossly incompetent management of the rail system."

Nanny state Britain"The past decade has been a woeful time for personal freedoms. Forget, for a moment, the excesses of government anti-terrorist legislation. There is something mad about any government which persecutes smokers to the point where they will shortly be banned even from private clubs, yet regards marijuana with far less hostility than cigarettes. Labour whipped many more MPs into the House of Commons to ban fox-hunting than ever turn out to debate child cruelty. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has become an enforcement arm of Blairism, intruding its meddling fingers into every corner of our lives."

Uncontrolled immigration"Some might forgive Tony Blair for the catastrophe of Iraq, but will never forgive his abject failure to control immigration. According to official figures - and these, of course, ignore the countless numbers of illegal immigrants - the population of Britain grew by 185,000 in 2005 because of immigration, a trend which means well over a million a decade. Many of the new arrivals not only do not speak our language, but actively reject our values and way of life. They want to come because Britain is famously the softest touch in the world for access, public money and housing. Nobody need agree to anything, least of all loyalty to Queen and country, before being waved through the door. Few Labour ministers care sixpence about the disastrous impact of this influx on social services, housing, race relations and the sense of British nationality."

Read the full article here.

Goldie backs Cameron


James Bond baddie as well as a jungle and drum and bass DJ has backed the Conservatives.

"I've listened to a lot of politicians and you are the only one who makes any sense."

Tough on Crime

Blair has defended the attorney general's role in deciding whether there should be any prosecutions as a result of the cash-for-honours investigation. Thus the man that Tony appointed will judge whether our beloved leader sold peerages for cash. Now that is what I call justice.

A Labour appointed political hack will be totally independent on this matter!

Will he delay his departure until he has made a decision or will he trust his good mate Gordon not to prosecute him?

Doorstep Green

This morning was the grand opening of Doorstep Green by the Rt Hon John Denham; he arrived on a train, announced by the town crier. It was an interesting introduction mentioning the pension’s crisis. He was followed by the Mayor, John Slade.

I attended the event with local Conservative Councillor Jeremy Moulton and Shirley Conservative candidate Matthew Dean.

The local action committee has done a wonderful job and spent many hours some of which has been in unpleasant weather to make today such a success and done a fantastic job improving the park. New benches have been installed and a brick path laid.

The event was supported by many of the local residents which shows that community spirit is alive and well is Sholing.

1984

From the devils kitchen (slightly edited)

Laws that make denying or trivialising the Holocaust a criminal offence punishable by jail sentences will be introduced across the European Union, according to a proposal expecting to win backing from ministers Thursday.Offenders will face up to three years in jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to inciting violence against ethnic, religious or national groups.

Well, if we are going to have this illiberal law, then I really do think that trivialising the crimes of the USSR and its hideous leaders would be a really good idea. However, I do not think that this law is a good thing at all.It's not just Holocaust denial that is covered by this either.

The latest draft, seen by the Financial Times, will make it mandatory for all Union member states to punish public incitement “to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin”.They will also have to criminalise “publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” when such statements incite hatred or violence against minorities.

More Spin from Labour

"In respect of knife and gun gangs, the laws need to be significantly toughened. There needs to be an intensive police focus on these groups. The ringleaders need to be identified and taken out of circulation; if very young, as some are, put in secure accommodation. The black community - the vast majority of whom in these communities are decent, law-abiding people horrified at what is happening - need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids. But we won't stop this by pretending it isn't young black kids doing it."

These comments are made by Tony Blair, he has been ten year’s in power and soon to leave office, yet he has failed to deal with the crime except to see an increase in the ammount.

He is in effect admitting he has failed to deal with crime, we all remember his catchphrase tough on crime tough on the causes of crime. Can we expect any better from Gordon probably not as he has tried to micro manage everything, and failed.

Until the government acknowledge that they have let down the police, the criminal justice system, the people of Sholing, Southampton and this country. The needs to have the power to sentence and not give i-pods etc to people who commit crimes then promise not to do it again the better society will be.

Motorbikes go free

The Conservative group would not charge motorbikes to go across the Itchen Bridge. This matter came to scrutiny yesterday when Labour performed to the audience by doing a U Turn. 5 years ago the Conservative group proposed this for the Bridge and the Labour administration turned it down. Now in coalition with the Liberal’s and looking for votes they say and promise everything. It was only a couple of months ago that they were proposing the closure of Libraries and swimming pools across the city. Now in the image of Blair and Brown they are looking for headlines.

What an amazing u turn

The government are now saying that armed forces can not do media deals. Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “Their misjudgements have created a situation where we have division inside the Armed Forces, a loss of public sympathy and an undignified public auction going on for the stories of serving personnel.” The whole handling of this situation is appalling.

This is government by tabloid headlines again.

Schwarzenegger in Blackpool

Do you think he will have any problems with security getting into the confrence????

Labour call in the big guns

Echo journalism at its best. Just for reference he defected from the Conservatives and joined Labour, the red rosette is a little clue.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/video/video/index.var.3825.0.0.php

Planning part II

Planning passed more flats again in Southampton. We are still not getting family housing brought to the panel just more and more flats. You would have thought that the developers might have picked up the thoughts of the panel and the city. This year over 400 flats and less than 20 houses have now been passed.

We also had a few interesting situations, Tesco putting in retrospective planning permission which is quite common by all accounts around the country.

A 71 bed care home plus day centre with 14 car parking spaces turned down. This shows how the policy that limits car parking spaces can wrong. The number of staff, service vehicles etc not being given adequate parking can have a major impact in the surrounding area, also with a day care centre for elderly people how are they expected to get to the centre, bike??? The care home in my opinion is a great idea and BUPA followed the council guidelines but these are at best woeful. The council should address this problem.

We also had the disgusting sight of council bureaucracy trying to force the panel to act as soulless drones rather than as councillors, resulting in people being disadvantaged. Without a proper explanation of the case in detail, we had to make a decision which would disadvantage a neighbour if we passed it, or disadvantage a person who is disabled if we refused it. Yes we have to make difficult decisions, but what was disgusting in this case was there was a solution which the council had not put forward which could help both people. Thankfully we ignored the council advice and asked for it to be deferred so the parties could work out a solution.

Another Initiative

David Davis spoke yesterday in reply to the governments latest attempt to deal with extremism,

"It took seven years to deal with Abu Hamza. Seven years in which the Government constantly offered excuse after excuse about not having sufficient laws to deal with him. Eventually he was convicted under eleven counts using legislation almost 150 years old. After initially dithering, the authorities were eventually embarrassed into taking action against those who incited hatred during the Muslim cartoon protests - again using existing legislation. It is long past time the Government stopped talking and started to show some resolution. They should use the laws we already have – including the offences of incitement to commit murder and racial hatred – to actually deal with those who preach hate. The laws we already have to combat extremists could be effective - if only the Government had the guts to use them.”

Boris speaks up for Southampton!!!!!

Gadabout Boris Johnson has labelled Portsmouth as a city full of drugs and obesity. Obviously being a Conservative from Southampton I find my self in a difficult position!!!

Peace breaks out in Northern Ireland

After the weekend's joint letter to Peter Hain by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness telling him to leave Stomont. Then yesterday under the d’Hondt system they carved up the portfolios seemingly without any complications.

Where is my Pension Gordon?

Gordon Brown's £5bn tax on pension funds in 1997 and subsequent years has meant that many people have lost pensions. This has taken ten years to become an issue, (if you are of a conspiracy mind you will say the papers have been saving this one).

Ed Balls has been forced to retract claims that the CBI had fully supported the chancellor's pensions policy this has been one of the worst spin jobs in recent years with the CBI fighting there corner and proving that Ed was lying. The accountants Grant Thornton say that the tax rise has so far has cost Britons with private pensions £60 billion, or £3,000 each. The analysis predicts that it will have cost pensioners £200 billion by 2017, or £10,000 per person. Yet Gordon’s silence is deafening.

Local Democracy

The Conservative group in Southampton have made an election commitment that we will allow the people to decide on whether Southampton should have one of the regional casino’s.

The issue over regeneration, and that this is the only option is what many people find unacceptable. There must be other ways for regeneration. Southampton already has three casinos, to build another which has larger jackpots etc would create an unfair market place. Thus many questions still remain unanswered including what provision for those with gambling addictions.

With such an important matter facing people a proper debate is needed very much like the one Cllr Peter Baillie called for and the people of Southampton should be given a choice.

Planning tomorrow

So far this year planning has approved over 300 flats and 16 houses. On the agenda tomorrow we have 179 more flats plus a 71 bed unit and 50 sheltered flats. We also have 15 houses to decide upon.

This follows the housing debate last week when a senior officer indicated that of the 16,200 homes Southampton has to provide over the next fifteen years, they have identified the sites for 12,000 but will not tell elected members what the percentage is for flats.

Another UN success

Britain got a watered-down statement from the UN Security Council last night calling for an "early resolution" to the crisis of the 15 Navy personnel being held in Iran. Russia blocked UK demands for a tougher resolution insisting on their immediate freedom, good to see the Russians on our side on this one. Iran rejected the statement by the UN so another reason why the UN is a toothless tiger in these things.

Snouts in the trough

Government's Communications Allowance or the £10,000 bung so you can put out more party literature. This is a complete waste of tax payers money, I would hope that David Cameron will come out and say that this will be stopped by the next Conservative government. In my opinion the Conservative MPs should donate the money to charity and embarrass the thieving, grubby Labour MPs.

Beckett’s incompetence

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett under saw one of the worst acts as a minister with the catastrophic introduction the new European Union single payments scheme for farmers the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee “questioned her promotion to foreign secretary”. The words 'catastrophe', 'disaster', 'failure' and 'debacle' appear in the opening paragraphs of an official report it is clear just how bad the government's performance has been,

The lack of accountability in the department and the promotion of Beckett shows the government's contempt not only for accountability but for the farming community. Loyalty above competence seems to be driving principle of the government.

David Furnell a question?

If the "£60,000 for Middle Road improvements is to be welcomed" then why did the Sholing Labour Councillors vote against it?

Miliband spending your money

Blair’s choice as next leader according to Mandy, Miliband is following Blair’s approach to the use of civil servants. Thus believing that the civil service is a branch of the Labour party and so can be used for party political purposes. Guido Fawkes has been highlighting the apparent misuse of the public purse once again by Miliband. Will this have an impact on the leadership election?

Mandy’s weekend

Over the Weekend Peter Mandelson has been telling anyone and everyone that Gordon should not be Prime Minister. Is he behind yesterday’s stories that Blair is saying that Miliband could beat Brown. Or was it a “botched coup” against Gordon by Mandy. Gordon probably still has not forgiven him in the last leadership election in the Labour party. Why is Brown so desperate that he gets the job without a serious fight? Is it Gordon believes that he has divine right to be PM? But does Mandy see a Labour government where he does not have any access to the heart of power any more. Which would not be a bad thing?

Tax Cut Con

After all the cheers from his fellow Labour MPs on Wednesday there’s a massive blow to Gordon Brown and his party from the poll in today’s Daily Telegraph. With the polls continuing to head away from Labour and Brown, the magic rabbit that he had hopped for on Wednesday seems to have failed to arrive.

CON 39% (+1): LAB 31% (-1): LD 15% (-1)

Trial by Jury
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6472755.stm

Trust Schools in Southampton

Cllr Milton in answering my question yesterday said that she will support any school that seeks Trust, Faith or Academy Status.

Labour 1979 or 2007?

Yesterday in Full Council we debated the outsourcing of services in Southampton. What should have been a debate about service improvement and the future of council services instead saw the resurrection of socialist dogma. Cllr Bridle and the rest of the Labour group started with saying that they had a veto on the issue. If they did and they were against the policy why not use it before? And what right does one party have over the other two when all groups are 16?

This was the start to what was some of the most shocking comments Southampton Council chamber has heard for years. Cllr McEwing asked if the officers had done the maths, I am glad she asked this because I was not sure and thought they might have done the proposal on the back of a fag packet. Then came the class warriors as if Arthur Scargill was at the back of the chamber with a whip. Cllr Marsh-Jenks promising a return to the winter of discontent, with strikes and civil disobedience. Good to see that Labour in Southampton support the democratic process.

Several other speakers made statements including Cllr R Williams talking about sustainable communities (obviously a bet to get certain words into the debate). With Cllr Noon speaking it dawned on the rest of the Labour group that they would have to speak. This was a problem as quite a few of them had not read the papers, whoops! Lots of comments that were made in my opinion only made them look foolish in front of a potential business partner. I doubt this was the sole reason but half way through Labour party’s return to 1979 UNISON left. My favourite was about moving jobs to India which was spelled out in the report that this was not possible without the consent of full council, and said in every briefing.

After this fun half hour it went to a vote and went through.

Burying Bad News?

Sir Michael Lyons' two-and-a-half year inquiry into local government is set to conclude today (good day to bury bad news). In it probably will be the proposal of new council tax bands so that town halls to increase tax. Along with the power to raise supplementary business rates, (by up to four per cent) to support local economic expansion (or drive business out of areas).

In the biggest local government finance report for years Sir Michael Lyons’ also recommends giving councils the right to charge for refuse collection by volume (thus more fly tipping) and renaming council tax benefit as council tax rebate (why not reduce tax in the first place). With Gordon’s Budget today I am sure the message of more tax by Labour is assured.

Letter to Echo

Currently being debated in the House of Lords

Sir,

In reply to Mr Hawksworth’s letter. I accept that the trials are complicated and involve many documents. The real blame is with the CPS who I believe in the case of the Blue Arrow and Maxwell cases over complicated the prosecution. In the Guinness trial the jury resulted in a conviction and the three judge panel resulted in an acquittal.

Conrad Black in the USA is under trial by Jury and the conviction in the Enron case was done by a jury. Thus my argument is more that the juries should be better prepared and the judge should direct the prosecution and defence barristers and solicitors to make the case less complicated so that the jury can understand the case being made.

The issue of trial by jury in my view is important in a free and democratic country. The low convictions rate must also lie with the prosecution barristers and solicitors for not making as good a case as they should that would result in conviction.

We have a government that openly asks for higher rates of conviction I do not accept that it is the government’s position to do this (this you might say is idealist) the legal system should be outside the political remit.

If you were to remove trial by jury then at the same time I believe that the Lord Chancellor and the Attorney General should not be political appointees as they do have an influence on appointment of judges.

The cost element is only one issue the Savile enquiry has been going since 1998 and no result near and at a cost of over £140 million; this has no jury and is only feathering the nests of barristers and solicitors’.

I believe that the removal of Jury trial is a political move which is not in the best interest legal system of this country. You can make a case that murder cases are complicated and that they involve many different specialist people thus should they held by a panel?

In conclusion I would trust 12 ordinary citizens of Southampton than a panel appointed by Judges.

Regards

Margaret Thatcher movie planned

The BBC is reporting that a movie in the similar style to The Queen based on the run-up to the 1982 Falklands War. Pathe and BBC Films are making the film. I do hope we don’t have some lefty BBC writer putting their own slant on historical facts.

Pathe have said "The proposed film will be a revealing and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher as she battles to save her career in the 17 days immediately preceding the war".

This should make interesting viewing but who will play the Iron Lady.

Poll Update

The Conservatives have extended their lead over Labour to 10 points, according to the latest poll.

The ICM survey for todays Guardian newspaper found that the Tories are up one point on last month to 41 per cent. Labour remains unchanged on 31 per cent while the Liberal Democrats are down one point on 18 per cent.

David Cameron would have a 15-point lead over Labour under Brown, up two per cent on last month, the poll found.The Tories would get 43 per cent support, Labour 28 and the Lib Dems 18 in a contest between Cameron, Brown and Sir Menzies Campbell.

NHS

Conservatives have launched a three month consultation on plans to transform public health and improve the well-being of the British people. David Cameron has said "back it, build it, and improve it for everyone".Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has signalled that an in-coming Conservative administration would specifically target obesity, sexual health, and alcohol abuse for action and improvement. This would be allowing local directors of public health to determine how funding for public health services would be spent. Independent public health budgets would be established, to ensure they are spent on preventative measures to improve public health without being raided to support hospitals in deficit. And a strengthened Chief Medical Officer's Department would be set up, made more independent of ministers, and able to advise the renamed Secretary of State for Public Health.

In Southampton the NHS Trust made £2.4 million in parking charges – the highest in the country. This is a disgrace especially with the parking problems that are around the hospital with people objecting to the charge and parking in the surrounding streets. I know that Neil Fitzgerald has been looking into this matter and ways to solve it.

Education Education Education

This afternoon we had the Adrian Vinson show otherwise known as cabinet. This afternoon Cllr Milton put up for consultation what was to happen to the two new schools in the East and West of the city. Then ratified what was going to happen.

From this many questions remain unanswered.

Why did the cabinet member not wish to submit a bid? Would the concept of the LEA being rejected by an outside body to run the new schools, result in the other schools questioning the ability of the LEA to run them?

What is the cabinet member going to base her selection on? There are the government guidelines to follow on selection but how will cllr Milton choose between a Trust school, a Faith school and an Academy?

Once Cllr Milton has made her decision will she allow other schools in the city to go down this route? Thus if a school becomes a trust school will the neighbouring schools be allowed to seek Trust school status?

What will happen to staff and children? Probably the most important, if a selection process was to start in schools will staff wish to stay there. In an academy staff will no longer be employed by the LEA thus what happens to the staff?

This is one of the most serious issues facing the city and the only member of the Labour party to attend was Richard Harris who stood down as a councillor last year. Why did no Labour councillors attend? Do they not take this matter serious?

Will Gordon make it 100 tax rises?

The rusty Chancellor in his last budget will over see the increase in more tax rises. Gordon has managed in his previous budgets to raise 99 taxes so will he be able to stop himself to raise tax once more to reach 100.

For a complete break down you can visit Jeremy Moulton.

Whitehead for Hain

Alan Whitehead has come out in support of perma tan Peter Hain for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Hain supports Brown for Leader, does Mr Whitehead? Self-confessed Kinnockite, an enthusiastic supporter of British entry into the European single currency someone everything hates.

Party Funding

Sir Hayden Phillips published his report on political finances yesterday. This has kept the political parties poles apart on the funding of parties. Despite the revelations of Labour selling peerages, the idea of state funding to me is wrong.

The Labour Party emerged as the biggest obstacle after Sir Hayden yesterday proposed a limit of around £50,000 from individuals or organisations, thus pushing the argument for increased state funding. The problem is trade unions if they were limited to a £50,000 donation this would affect the funding of the Labour party. The conservatives have said they would agree to a £50,000 donation per organisation, business.

I do not believe the state should solely fund political parties.

Trident

Whitehead and Denham supported the government last night. They tried to take the position of sitting on the fence and not have to make a decision. The amendment which in Southampton they peddled as there idea and not Jon Trickett MP was not heard. Thus they fell in line with the government.

The motion to begin planning for a new generation of submarines to carry the weapons was passed by 409 votes to 161, a majority of 248 with 87 Labour MPs rebelling.

SSP

Last night Capita held a presentation on what they proposed if they were selected to be approved bidder. There were two interesting things one was who turned up and two what capita proposed. First only one member of the Labour party turned up while the Conservatives and Liberals had 9 and 8 respectively. If we have to make a decision on this next Wednesday are Labour not prepared to listen or are have they made up there minds.

Capita did a good sales job. They were what you expected professional and with a good knowledge of what is needed in Southampton Council after years of underinvestment. The opportunity to find out what they proposed outside the papers was just as valuable.

On a side not I did meet the person from Capita who implemented the much hatred congestion charge in London under Ken.

Lords reform

The House of Lords has voted for a fully appointed chamber, setting the scene for a parliamentary battle over reform with MPs. Last week the House of Commons voted for a 100% elected. This will pose what could be a problem for future parliaments would the incoming Labour leader delay reform or force it through using the Parliament Acts?

Denham and Whitehead to rebel

Southampton's local MP’s are to rebel against the protection of the UK. John Denham and Alan Whitehead are supporting the amendment tabled by Jon Trickett, which calls for more consideration of "the strategic case, costs and design" and a further Commons vote before a final decision is taken. Are Denham and Whitehead going back to their old Socialist roots?

EU's football team

The EU can’t even organise a football match. In a game between an EU all stars and Manchester United three of the players representing the EU are Brazilian. Is there not 11 good enough players in the EU to represent them?

Trident

Julian Lewis New Forest East MP and shadow defence minister makes a very cogent case for why Britain need’s to have a nuclear deterrent read more here replacing trident

The Great Global Warming Swindle

I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle and my conclusion was that statements at both extremes of the global change debate exist. The need for rational argument is needed. The position that Chris Huhne has taken i.e. its fact thus to argue against or question means you in hoc with the petrol chemical industry is absurd.

I am not a climate scientist, but I can see that the sun has a big impact on the earth's temperature. Yet for the last 100 years we have been using vast amounts of coal, oil and gas, releasing substantial amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere/environment. This must be having an impact on the health and climate of the world.

Cameron’s position on jet fuel seems entirely rational given that we already have very high taxes on car fuel. If we accept that there is some purpose to having taxes on car fuel to discourage car use, then it seems illogical to have no similar tax on jet fuel.

Censorship by Lib Dems

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne (who lives in London) tried to ban Channel 4 last week from showing The Great Global Warming Swindle is being reported on Iain Dales blog. Mr Huhne appears not to be very liberal in his views. There is a lot being said on climate change at the present time. But to stop debate as you don’t like what is being said either shows you don’t have an argument or you are incapable of discussing the matter. Which one are you Mr Huhne

Foreign Language

The government have gone half way into the reintroduction of foreign languages in schools. In 2002 the government stopped the compulsory teaching of foreign languages to 14-16 year olds. If someone learns a foreign language from 7 till they are 14 they will probably continue studying foreign languages as a GCSE. Ergo why not reinstate foreign language study as a compulsory subject if it is that important children should learn languages from the age of 7.

Nirj against London embassy

On Conservative home the story of how the EU is opening a London branch for you to pop in and find out why they can’t sign off their accounts. Good for Nirj and the other 11 Conservative MEP’s pointing out this further waste of our money.

Al’s coming over

Al Gore loser in the 2000 presidential election and now Oscar winner with ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is coming to address the conservative Shadow Cabinet. This will not be popular in Washington among many in the Republican Party, especially Senator John McCain. What this shows is Cameron is not going to a puppet to America and that he is independent enough to put Britain first.

Another Poll, Another lead

The Sunday Mirror puts the Conservatives 11 points clear of the Labour party in today’s poll. The poll conducted by ICM has the Conservatives on 40% and Labour on 29%. This is the third poll by my counting that has the Conservatives on the 40% mark.

The poll also has implications as to who will be the next leader of the Labour Party. Many MP’s with small majorities will be anxious as well. The growing support of the Conservatives could see them lose at the next General Election. I am sure they will look at election calculus to see if they still have a seat every time a new poll comes out. This could have ramifications in the leadership election as they will be looking for a leader which will allow them to retain their seat.

Prescott fails again.

Some will remember the flagship scheme that neanderthal John Prescott had. To build affordable homes for £60,000. The good news is the houses are ready and up for sale.

The bad news is that they are on the market for £175,000. Prescott has managed to fail again. In the Mail on Sunday the builder ‘Crest Nicholson’ says that the homes were never going to be £60,000 homes but was the part of spin by the government. Does that really come as a surprise to anyone?

Open Source Politics

George Osborne said last night that a ‘Conservative government would create a level playing field for open source software in the UK, in a move which could save taxpayers more than £600 million a year’. This is a good move in my opinion and should be extended to local government as well. Local authorities spend vast sums of money on IT. In 2004 Southampton city council was still operating on Windows 95 years after it was no longer supported.

As Guido says the Tories are the Google party ("Do no evil") to New Labour's Microsoft party ("Evil Corp.").

Visit by Charles Hendry

Yesterday Charles Hendry the Shadow Minister for Industry and Enterprise visited Southampton. During the visit he attended The Sholing Technical College and met with many of the girls, including the four who won the ‘The great Egg race’ see clip from the echo.

Charles also met with a local post office master and heard how the closure of post offices is affecting the community and how they are struggling to survive today. One thing I learnt was that one of the new business areas for them has been the rise of e-bay which has seen more people use post offices. Yet the pressure for them to close will further erode communities.

Charles was also invited to NXP in Millbrook which was a step into the future with what is possible not just in the next generation but the one after that and even further than that. What was really good was it was not on a power point demonstration but with actual models that worked.

It was good to see and show the positives of Southampton to a vistor and to show the city has a lot to offer in the future.

We fished the day with a visit to the university where Charles spoke and took questions from an audience of mixed political views with many Labour and socialists attending and agreeing with what Charles had to say.

Another poll, Another Lead

A poll in the times today puts the Conservatives 8 points ahead of Labour. This would be further stretched if Gordon was leader with a poll of 29% cent compared to 42% for the Conservatives. While if David Miliband was to stand the difference is 28% to 48% although this would obviously change.

Lord Levy

Ruth Turner is emerges is the source of the fabled email to Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell. In the Guardian today it is alleged that Lord Levy asked her to change her evidence to the police in there enquiry into loans for peerages.

The police tried to get an injunction against the Guardian but the judge ruled because printing had already begun.

PR Disaster

Mark Littlewood, who is Head of Press for the Liberal Democrats is the person who said that the idea that PR would not be a deal breaker. Iain Dale reports he is not the most popular person on many Lib Dem blogs at the moment. Oh well..

Deal or no Deal

The Lib Dem conference in Harrogate has just finished with an open invitation from Ming Campbell to Gordon Brown for a deal if a hung parliament happens at the next General Election. In his speech his five criteria did not include PR, and a senior source said this would not be deal breaker. The Orange Bookers will be seething with what Ming has said I suspect.

Not only couldn’t he referee a Telford V Faraday game, now he is doing 1st class rugby and still annoying people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/my_club/gloucester/6381971.stm

Sholing Community Action Forum

Last night it was the Sholing Community Action Forum AGM. This is one of only eight in the city that is left. Due to local election boundaries the forum covers more than just my ward, thus many issues that are brought up are not ward related issues.

After the reports and the new election of officers which I presided over we had a variety of speakers. City patrol, how the police control room works, police community support officers and Sgt Allan Dineley spoke at what they did.

The major issue is that law and order has broken down. The police are undermined by the lack of power, which the offenders know. The issuing of asbos has failed Home Office figures show that 49 per cent of the flagship orders are violated.

Sgt Dineley spoke at great length about how he and his officers attempt to keep law and order and in one case have had one person in front of court six times. Yet he is still able to violate the orders against him with what appears to be impunity.

Thus respite for communities is all that is achieved through the various government initiatives. The real issue of criminal or anti social behaviour is simply moved from one area to another area.

There is currently a section 30 order in place in Shooters Hill this will run out soon, they can apply for an extension (which they should get). Yet the problem has been moved onto Kathleen Road and the parade of shops in Alfriston Gardens. The problem is not being addressed.

We also got told by the about the 101 number which “confused everyone” and people did not know which number to call. If people are in doubt they should call 999 was the message that came across.

Support for Denham

In the Guardian today Peter Kilfoyle has come out in favour of John Denham to stand against Gordon Brown.

It would be interesting if John did stand against Gordon Brown as the only major issue that Mr Denham has voted against of Labour's is the going to war with Iraq. But he did vote against an investigation into Iraq.

He also voted for the closure of post offices in Sholing and the rest of Itchen, the introduction of ID cards and the introduction of top-up fees. All Labour polices thus is there really that much difference between John Denham and Gordon Brown?

On political betting he is given odds of 149/1. Brown, meanwhile, has eased a touch to 0.29/1.

What this does show is the strength of Gordon's position at the moment as no one is willing to challange him.