Bracknell Blog

My predictions for 2012

2012-01-13T10:46:00.000Z

My predictions for 2012 are;

1. Hungry will default. Europe can afford this but expect more turmoil.

2. The Euro will survive against all odds. They will do whatever they can in the end to save the currency against all sense.

3. Iran will have its nuclear installations bombed by the United States, If they don't then Israel will.

4. Again No Lib Dem MP's will walk the floor and join Labour

5. Again, Bracknell Town centre will still not have the new town centre it so needs.

6. No new guitar bands will have a number one record. A reflection on the lack of promotion of guitar bands and investment by record companies in general instead favouring individual artists and TV program winners.

7. Ed Milliand will still be leader. Yes I know a big risk with that prediction.

8. 2012 Olympics will be a massive success and transport problems won't be all that bad.

9. England will go out in the Quarter finals of the Euros with only 10 men left in the match.

10. Barack Obama will win the US election and Sarkozy will only just win the French presidential elections.

Right now sit back and watch 6 out of 10 of these come true.

How did I do in last year’s predictions I made for 2011

2012-01-12T09:35:00.000Z

A bit late I know but what can I say, I'm a busy man.

Anyway how did I do in last year's predictions I made for 2011.

1. Piersmorgan will win his twitter war with Lord Sugar and gain more followers on twitter. Because of his new job hosting the US talk show on CNN, replacing Larry King. Well this never seems to end, however Piersmorgan does have more followers now than Lord Sugar. So I believe I got this one right.

2.Labour will have more council seats than the Tories after the local elections this year. Gaining from Lib Dems and the Tories. Well the coalition did do badly in the local elections as expected. Well wrong here, Labour did gain 900 seats but the Tories did very well with most of the gains coming from the Lib Dems.

3.The No's will win the vote on AV - The yes campaign really needs to step up its game. Indeed and the Yes campaign never did, hence a beating of 3 to 1. Oh well there is always a next time or maybe not. Right here unfortunately.

4.North Korea will do something crazy, again resulting in loss of life. Well a certain leader of North Korea did die, but I'm not sure I can claim this as North Korea doing something crazy. Surprisingly there was no attacks on the South Korea Navy or bombardments of South Korea islands.

5. A premiership football club will go into administration. Nope, Portsmouth was in administration in 2010 so I guess this has already happened.

6. Ed Miliband will still be Labour leader throughout the year and will lead in the polls all year. Well mostly right, Ed is still there but in some polls he has been less popular than Nick Clegg and the Tories actually went ahead of Labour in the December polls due to David Camerons action in Europe.

7. No matter what happens to the AV vote. The coalition will stick together. Yep, Got a bit nasty but it's all forgotten, for now anyway.

8. No Lib Dem MP's will walk the floor and join Labour. Of course this is the case same again for 2012 I think.

9. There will not be a double dip recession in the UK. Not yet anyway, so correct for 2011. The economy is just hanging on in there.

10. Again, Bracknell Town centre will still not have the new town centre it so needs. Correct again, no real surprise here, same again for 2012.

6/10 not bad.

2012 predictions will of course follow.

London be careful what you dictate to Scotland

2012-01-10T10:55:00.000Z

Westminster needs to be careful with its statement to change the legal status of a referendum. It is important and right that Scotland has the legal issues resolved in time for a referendum. But this should not be used to rush a vote through on Westminster terms.

This could fall into the SNP's hands and could be seen as London dictating to Scotland if the rules are decided at Westminster and not at Holyrood.

This move could cause a backlash and mean that Scotland breaks away from the union on a temporary upsurge in strong feelings over London pressure spurred on by the SNP.

This is very dangerous for the union and also for devolved democracy.

The SNP in the Scottish parliament has already overcome the odds in getting elected in a parliament designed to not give a majority to a single party. The Westminster parties should not underestimate the SNP or the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

We also shouldn't fear the 3 options vote as this will split the vote and will mean that the SNP is campaign for two options. A very hard position to hold.

So be careful because people are naturally rebellious when they are dictated to by those with power.

Three Conservative councillors suspended from Bracknell Forest Council

2012-01-03T16:27:00.002Z

Three Conservative councillors have now been suspended from Bracknell Forest Council's Conservative group because they voted against the housing plans in November. Eight Conservative councillors in total voted against these plans, however the other 5 has not been suspended because the houses would be in the words they represent.

These councillors are Chas Baily, Hanworth, Michael Sargeant,Bullbrook and Shelagh Pile, Harmans Water,This was because even though there are 40 Tories on a council of 42 members the conservative leadership still felt it necessary impose a three-line whip.

At least these councillors voted for what they believed their electorate wanted. Yet another example of why it's so important to have some opposition members from other parties on this council.

Thousands of houses planned are due to lack of opposition

2011-12-16T16:50:00.000Z

The council appear to be making moves to build thousands of house. It's another example who a lack of an opposition has led to too much power to the current Conservative group. You only have yourselves to blame because if the people of Bracknell, Crowthorne and Sandhurst continue to vote for the same councillors from the same party then this is the result. The council can push though whatever plans they want.

If you wish to halt or even reduce the number of houses being planned in our area then perhaps you should join the Northern Arc Action Group http://www.narcag.co.uk/ and sign their petition.

Comment on Clarksons comment

2011-12-09T16:40:00.000Z

The Bracknell Standard recently asked me about the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson comments on the BBC One show where he said "Public sector workers who took part in the strikes should be shot adding "execute them in front of their families".

My reply printed in the paper was as follows;

Yes Clarkson should not of said it. But aren't there more important things to complain about. People say things like this all the time but they don't actually mean it. No one is going to shot anyone. 21,000 complaints, please people get a grip.

Don't moan that political correctness has gone mad and then phone up and complain when someone does something that is not quite PC.

What are your feelings on this subject?

Bracknell MP doesn't know which train line Bracknell is on

2011-12-07T16:09:00.000Z

Our Bracknell MP has written in the Bracknell Standard to inform them that he welcomes plans to increase the number of carriages on train services in and out of London Paddington from Reading. Adding that "This is great news for rail passengers in the Bracknell constituency." Actually it's not great news for Bracknell at all.

Thing is the Bracknell line is from Reading to Waterloo not Paddington. It won't make any difference because users in Reading don't use this line for speed (Paddington line is much faster) but because they need to go to Waterloo. The line from Maidenhead where the Bracknell MP lives will have longer carriages however.

The biggest problems in Bracknell are frequency of trains to London (every half an hour) when more are required at both ends of rush hour. And the speed of them because it take an hour to get to London as there are no fast trains offered.

If Phillip Lee used the line from Bracknell rather than Maidenhead (where the Bracknell MP lives and which will have longer carriages) and read the detail of the train proposals perhaps he would realise how little effect this will have on our town as it won't provide an economic benefit to Bracknell directly only act to further demonstrate how Bracknell is missing out.

Read the article here

Do newspapers have blood on their hands?

2011-11-23T10:48:00.000Z

Yesterday two of the families who had their phones hacked stated that the phone hacking stories had led to a suicide in their respective families.

There is of course no way of proving this 100 percent. But it does seem very plauseable.

The Leveson inquiry has heard from the parents of a schoolgirl murdered by a classmate in 1991 who claim press coverage of her death had contributed to their teenage son's suicide.
Margaret Watson said articles were ill-informed and inaccurate.

Former Blackburn footballer Garry Flitcroft claimed that he was persecuted by the press after he obtained an injunction preventing the Sunday People revealing details of an affair.
He said his children were teased and his father, who suffered from depression, stopped attending his games because of chanting from fans.
Flitcroft added that he believed that had contributed to his father's suicide several years later.

So I'm not sure if there is a direct link. But there is a link. Somewhere along the line the papers could have blood on their hands.

Don’t be fooled by the fuel price escalator debate

2011-11-17T12:52:00.000Z

The debate and petitions calling for the for planned increases in fuel duty to be scrapped is hiding the real debate, which would otherwise be the subject of decreasing the duty on fuel prices. I suspect the government has kept Labours planned increases in duty simply because the chancellor always intended to not increase the duty but can use this debate to fed of any debate on a decrease in fuel duty.

I also remember that Labour did not always increase the price of duty on fuel to be fair to them. But the chancellor wants to use this opportunity to remind people that Labour would of increase the duty (when I suspect they actually wouldn't). It's just a vehicle to attack Labour and defect any tax decrease on fuel.

Personally I would very much support a rebate for UK haulier firms as a way of reducing the cost of transport for Britain's struggling lorry drivers and therefore business in general and with a knock on effect of holding of any further increases in food costs.

Some advice for an MP's political career

2011-11-07T17:23:00.000Z

If the Prime Minster offers you the Home Secretary job. Do not under and circumstances accept it, simply politely decline.

Don't blame the Greeks

2011-11-05T12:51:00.001Z

I was going to blog on the Greece referendum but events have been moving so fast that every few hours I would of had to of changed my blog.

I can't blame Greek PM George Papandreou for wanting to hold a referendum. It's his attempt to make something happen and to give the people a voice and a democratic choice in a country which has seen so much unrest and anger.

The Greek people never wanted to join the euro and were never given a choice by their political elite. Greece was able to use the power of the euro to borrow cheaply and that they did. But all this was false.

So what now. Would a government of national unity really help. I would be willing to bet it would only prove to the Greek people that the politicians are all the same.

The Greeks are playing for the mistakes of their leaders and for the control and pressure being placed on them by France and Germany for their own ends.

The sooner Greece and leave the euro the better for them because even if they are saved this time. the currency is not right for them or their economy. It never was.

Good luck Greece.

Safest place for a protest is St Pauls

2011-10-28T20:17:00.000+01:00

This week I was asked by the Bracknell Standard what I think about the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

My Response

A democracy should expect protest, and protests should not be comfortable. So I am happy for the protest to camp at St Paul's. I don't see why St Paul's had to close because these protestors are not violent.

Of course a better location would be the near a bank but then they would not be as safe from being moved on by the police at one of those locations.

So I support the reasons for this protest and I don't have an issue with its location. I don't even mind if the protesters are not there all night, don't see why that matters. what matters is the message, after all I rather suspect Jesus would be on their side and not on the side of the bankers who are protected from capitalism and are yet fundamental to it.

No more 3 line whips for petitions

2011-10-27T11:21:00.000+01:00

Readers of my blog will know that I am not a pro EU member of the Liberal Democrats, I like UKIP believe that the European parliament is not democrat. It's simply to big to be representative of the British people. I love my fellow Europeans and would be happy with a common market etc, but not the every growing power of the European project.

Now that's my position but that's not why I was angry with the EU referendum voting (so angry I considered leaving the party).

I have found myself so angry with the 3 line whip imposed by all 3 main parties in the EU referendum vote that I have been unable to write about it. I could not get a word down without including a number of swear words etc. I have now calmed down.

This weeks vote was a great victory for UKIP. A very cleverly constructed petition which was designed to cause as much trouble as possible for the 3 main parties. And how was it handled by them? Badly that's how!

The Independent MEP Nikki Sinclaire who is a former UKIP member did an excellent job of raising and campaigning on this petition (driving up and down the country to get signatures). Sinclaire handed the petition into Downing Street calling for a public vote.

I was very appalled that the Lib Dems decided that our MP's could not have a free hand, we agree with a referendum after all to finally settle the matter. It pay of been to support the governments position on this and help the Tories out but it did not look good. We are making ourselves out to appear to be just like the rest. You could blame the system, personally I blame the political leaders and their decisions.

Wednesdays Prime ministers questions proved just how close Labour are two the coalition parties on europe. Ed Miliband found a split between Clegg and Cameron (not really a shocker is it) and didn't attack the Tories on their EU split or indeed the Lib Dems. In some ways Labour are more pro EU then the Lib Dems as at least we believe in reform. I'm not so sure Labour do given their record.

Personally I don't have a problem with members of the same party having different views on Europe but thats not taking to account the Conservatives history on the EU.

I really think this and all petitions that parliament decide to vote on should be a free vote. Otherwise what's the point of them. It should be a free discussion, even if the subject is difficult for the party leaders and for those who are members of parties.

More importantly I feel a 3 line whip is anti democratic. We vote for MP's as well as parties. So next time please don't hand UKIP headlines on a plate. No more 3 line whips for petitions please.

£250 Million for weekly bin collections!

2011-10-25T11:45:00.000+01:00

This weeks Bracknell Standard question was "Councils now have the opportunity to return to weekly bin collections after the Government put aside £250 million to help councils go back to the weekly system but councils must sign up for a minimum of five years to receive the money. In Bracknell, council leader Councillor Paul Bettison has not ruled out the possibility but fears it may lead to spiralling costs.

"Would you like to see a return to weekly bin collections, or do you feel the fortnightly collections are okay? The council says statistics show people may not be able to organise themselves for weekly bin collections, do you agree with this?"

And my reply;

I believe my own local party (Lib Dems) support the idea of a weekly bin collection. However I'm not as keen. I understand that this is a very emotive issue, I myself fall on the bi-Weekly bin collections side of the argument. I don't think its right that the coalition have found £250 million to spend on bins when this could be better spend on many other things should as elderly care or children's services or social housing.

Some people also don't believe in recycling and this is a way of forcing them to use it as you need to use that second blue bin thereby ensuring that recycling is done.

Then again I don't get so upset about the bin issue as others, I think there are many far more important things to worry about. After all if we only have the bins to worry about then life can't be that bad, can it?

What do you think?

"Twitter Day" A waste of time

2011-10-18T16:28:00.000+01:00

Below is my recent answer to Bracknell Standards What does Bracknell think column.

This week's question was; Bracknell Forest Council recently held a "Twitter Day" where it's Twitter followers were given regular updates on what the council's staff were doing on a an average day.

Do you think it's a good idea to get people more involved and knowledgeable on what the council does?

Should local authorities embrace social media as a modern, and free, way of getting information to their residents?

and, are you a fan of social media or do you prefer more old-fashioned methods like a council magazine put through the door?

My reply;

As a member of the political twitterati you may imagine that I think this is a good idea. But actually I think its a waste of time and money. Email is a fair way to communicate with the council, not using up staffs time to post messages on Twitter or Facebook.

I have twittered with many a politician but really their number of followers is very low compared to the number of constituents they have. to me it seems a little unfair that just because I'm on twitter and engaged in the political twitter community that I get preferential treatment when talking to MP's.

Of course this could be corrected by getting everyone else to join twitter and following me

Oliver Letwin you idiot!

2011-10-14T12:20:00.000+01:00

Clearly Oliver left his brains in his office. You don't throw documents into a park bin. No one should, let alone an MP with confidential government documents. What an idiot!

Surely he has access to a shredder, what was he thinking of?

Lets hope Oliver is not put in charge of green policy or recycling as he clearly couldn't careless about waste management.

England After the Riots Debate

2011-10-11T09:33:00.001+01:00

Rt. Hon Michael Gove MP Secretary of State for Education (Conservative)

Michael Gove Surrey Heath's MP needs no introduction. His angry clash with Harriet Harman over the relationship between unemployment and social deprivation was one of the defining media events related to the riots.

Lord Maurice Glasman (Labour)

Maurice Glasman is famous for promoting ideas of "blue Labour" within the Labour Party. These are centred on faith, hearth and heritage or three Fs history, hearth and heritage or three Rs roots, reciprocity, and relationships. His ideas feature a strong aversion to unrestricted market forces.

Tom Brake MP (Liberal Democrat)

Tom Brake clashed with David Davis on Sky Television about the imposition of severe sentences on rioters convicted for petty offenses. He believes that these sentences do not work as a means of preventing repeat offending. His strong interest in the rehabilitation is summed up as restorative justice.

Peter Henley (Our Chairman)

Peter Henley is one of the leading presenters on the BBC's Politics Show.

Please join us for this important, unique event.

7.30pm Friday 21^st October Camberley Workingmen's Club Obelisk Way Camberley.
Further information form Murray Rowlands 01276 27367

Fed up of credit card references for our national debt, here's the solution.

2011-10-05T20:23:00.001+01:00

If the national debt is just like a credit card, then why can't we just transfer it at 0 percent interest for 18 months.

I cannot do it any more captain

2011-07-22T20:51:00.000+01:00

I know I have written this before. But I simply do not have the time to maintain this blog. I simply cannot react in time to the daily events. Events in my life like having a son and my work life balance have simply taken all my time.

Although I do still have plenty to say I do not feel I have the time to say it.

So for now I won't be blogging on this site or any other. although your still find me on Twitter.

Thank you for your time in reading my words.

Over and out.

Dazmando

Met's Public Affairs office employment policy

2011-07-19T14:57:00.000+01:00

Paul Stephenson former Metropolitan Police commissioner stated at the Culture Select Committee today that a quarter of the Mets Public Affairs office are ex-News International. I wonder how these people where employed? I wonder if they were recommend by other staff?

I also wonder how many staff worked for other papers? Shame these questions were not also asked so that we could have some prospective on the influence of News international in the Public Affairs office.

Of course John Yates former assistant chief constable did send the CV personally for employment of Mr Wallis, so influence did occur there.

Ed caught red handed

2011-07-17T12:56:00.001+01:00

I'm Sorry and the Euro

2011-07-16T06:16:00.001+01:00

I simply do not have the time at the moment to blog. I have been very busy and simply cannot find the time to follow politics closely enough or indeed to blog about it.

I have been more concerned about the situation with debt in Europe that the Murdoch scandal. I think this is a time bomb that will soon go off.

I also think it's time for us Lib Dems to put the idea of ever joining the Euro firmly behind us. It's a non starter and we should admit that this currency can't really work for the UK just like it doesn't for so many countries with such different economics and political choices.

Hope to be back sooner rather than later

Dazmando

Chris Bryant on Rupert Murdoch

2011-07-06T14:27:00.000+01:00

Quote of the Day during the News of the World Phone Hacking debate at the House of Commons by Labour MP Chris Bryant on Rupert Murdoch "We have let one man have far too great a sway over our national life. At least Berlusconi lives in Italy"

It is nice for the tables to be turned on a former tabloid editor. Many times they have called on individuals to resign from their roles when the case against them is not proven. This is what has been asked of Rebekah Brooks, of the News of the World who was the editor at the time of the alleged hacking of Milly Dowlers phone.

Dr Phillip Lees MP surgeries earns him money on parliamentary time

2011-07-01T20:37:00.001+01:00

Have a look at this cutting of the Private Eye (issue 1291).

Double Click the above picture to view.

Are these the kind of surgeries you would expect from your MP?

Should MP's be earning on parliamentary time?

Perhaps it's time to cut the other job. After all it's not as if he's in a safe seat and is worried about staying your MP.

Moving

2011-06-22T16:34:00.000+01:00

I am moving this weekend, therefore blogging will be light for a few weeks. Don't worry I will still be living in Bracknell.

U-turn if you want to. the papers are not for turning

2011-06-21T17:17:00.000+01:00

Government consolation appears to consist of listing out some proposals which though controversial to those of the right, but may well be good practical ideas. The next part of the process appears to be listening to right wing newspapers concerns and then not going forward with those proposals.

Is this really a good way of governing, perhaps Cameron should grow some balls and not conceed so much to the british press or is this his master plan to sure but his agenda?

Fake shop forms part of fake high street

2011-06-20T20:05:00.001+01:00

Harrow council has been a bit creative and had this fake shop front produced (I wonder how much it cost?) in an attempt to regenerate their high-street.

How long before our high-streets are full of these fake shops (not long if you read the details on the company that do these fake shop fronts http://www.shopjacket.co.uk/news/ ). Nice though it is, it's one better than filling shop windows full of local council paraphernalia.

Of course plenty have complained that our high-streets all look the same. Well here is the solution, if you can't help independent shop makers setup with reduced rates etc, then why not paint them in, problem solved.

Im going to say it, Lansley has been fair

2011-06-13T17:26:00.000+01:00

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has had quite a ride with his Health and Social Care Bill. I think given that this is his baby, I believe Andrew Lansley has done a good job of listening and compromising. Hopefully this will result in better legisation and therefore better government.

At least with a coalition the details of disagreements are much more open then internal party disagreement (not that these don't still exist.)

I am of course a typical Lib Dem and I am fully signed up to the changes voted on at the Lib Dem conference (See the Social Liberal Forum details here.) But I also don't think us Lib Dems should drop any gloating or victory signs. At least until the election campaigning starts when all guns can start firing again. After all this is a coalition government and not a Tory or Lib Dem one. Its not a battle, its just a way of developing policy given our different outlooks on the world.

Save Bracknell's South Hill Park arts centre and sign the petition

2011-06-13T14:52:00.000+01:00

Please do support South Hill Park arts centre which is losing its grant from the Art Council due to the government cuts. From £216,745 for 2011/12, to £100,000 for 2012/2013 and zero from 2014. see save_south_hill_park_say_protesters

This funding helps to pay for events such as the Big Day Out festival, it also helps funds those parts of the arts that do not bring in large amounts of funds to the arts centre.

The petition to keep some of the funding can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save_our_south_hill_park/

Hopefully this cut won't mean the loss of our arts centre, however I'm sure it will lead to a loss in some of the arts or an increase in ticket prices. I guess we will soon find out.

Subway madness!

2011-06-08T18:10:00.002+01:00

A guest post by Dan Haycocks

Firstly, I'd like to thank Daz for allowing me to make a guest post on the Bracknell Blog. I don't run a blog myself, and I admire the effort and commitment it takes to keep a blog current as Daz and many others do, so having the opportunity to reach a wider audience through his hard work is very much appreciated.

Right, on to the story at hand. Regular readers might remember me – I'm the amateur film maker/thorn in the side of the elected, who stood in the general election against MP's abusing their expenses, and in particular, our ex local MP who helped himself in royal style. I've been concentrating on work since then, but something recently caught my eye, so I had to investigate.

Visitors to Bracknell town centre might be delighted to note the new mural that has been painted on the subway between the town centre and Bracknell and Wokingham College. Much like a visit to Sea World in Florida but without leaving Blighty, residents can enjoy an 'undersea tunnel' of fish, turtles, sharks and rays as they make their way through to the shopping area, and I'm sure the children in our community enjoy it greatly. What follows calls into question the wisdom of this work, but I want to be clear from the start – I have no objection at all with making our environment a nice place to be – if we have the funds of course.

One thing puzzled me, though – when cuts are being made to social care for the elderly, teaching places for local schools, social support for the vulnerable and many other services that I think most compassionate residents would consider 'essential', is it right that we're spending big money painting subways with such elaborate paint schemes? So, inevitably, a Freedom of Information request was submitted, to understand what the cost to the taxpayer was. Here's the initial response: FoI1 LINK

From my observations, it took the company performing the painting about 4 weeks to complete the job, and there were between two and four decorators working at any one time. I calculated that if it took four people four weeks, and they were paid £500/week each, it would come to around £6,000 in wages, and then some more for the materials and paint – still a silly amount of money to spend, but I thought I must be overestimating. You can imagine my surprise, then, when the final figure came through - £16,635. Or, in real terms, a teaching assistant for a year, a community nurse, or perhaps two part time carers for the elderly or vulnerable. And all for one subway?!

Now, I could do a Victor Meldrew as I did with the Andrew 'Fingers' Mackay episode and have a good rant about the stupidity of this and try and shame the council, but I don't think that would make any difference. In the cold light of day, it's pretty clear that this funding was allocated to the responsible department, and they were spending their budget, as they're told to, in isolation from other departments. So I thought to myself, do something positive – get a meeting with the head of the department responsible, explain in simple terms how I understand things to be working with regards to departmental budgets, ask him or her to acknowledge that spending this much decorating a subway while we're reducing the 'essential' public services seems a bit loopy (a polite way of acknowledging the madness), and then ask him or her to join me in making an effort to change the way council funding is controlled. Clearly, if departmental budgets are the reason that spending this much renovating a subway is OK during times of austerity, then the process has to be changed. I can't, as a compassionate human, believe anyone would think that having our elderly die alone through lack of resources, children not getting the education they need, or social workers being too busy to save the abused child, is acceptable when £16,635 is spent painting a subway.

I did pass the FoI response to a few friends and asked them to comment. My good friend Dom suggested alternative ways of achieving a revamped subway, such as allowing the art department in the college to take ownership of it and allow the students to use it as a gallery for their work. I loved this idea, and it reeks of 'Big Society' so I contacted Lorraine Zutshi, the head of the Arts team at the college. She informed me that they used to be invited to decorate the subways, but this time round they weren't consulted at all. She also noted that she'd be delighted to be given the opportunity again, as they have a Community Art element to their syllabus – perfect!

Or perhaps having the long term unemployed engaged to paint them, allowing them to gain work skills, a bit of confidence, the feeling of doing something worthy with their time, and something to add to their CV's. I also had many people comment that a coat of paint would have sufficed, if indeed the subway painting is that important. Some also suggested using Community Service to get the job done and get them giving something back to the community.

For me, however, this issue runs deeper. I do appreciate that this is one small spend the council have made that seems to defy logic – I'm sure there are plenty more, and to be frank, I don't have the time or patience to uncover them all. But that doesn't matter – the important thing here, in my opinion, is to have the council think about how they organise their budgets, and make sure that this type of spend occurs after those services we all need (rather than those we would like) are funded. I think most other taxpayers would feel the same – at least my straw poll seems to suggest that's the case.

I therefore made an appointment to meet with Steve Loudoun, the Head of Environment and Public Protection, on Monday 6^th June at 3pm. I took my camera along, and a copy of the memo sent by Bob Neill MP, the Under Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government, a link to which is here. In his memo, Bob makes clear that for open, transparent politics, it's perfectly acceptable for local bloggers and citizen journalists to film meetings with council staff, and to publish the film online. I genuinely had no intention of putting Steve on the spot, so I asked him for permission to film the meeting, which he declined. I then brought up the memo and he dismissed that straight away too. When I then asked if we could plan a subsequent meeting where he would be happy to talk to camera, he also refused. Hmmmm – so much for transparency and open government! Perhaps I broke the rules by filming him refusing to be filmed, but I did do the right thing and switched it off once it was clear he was not going to agree to be filmed that day. I wanted to be sure I'd given him every opportunity to decline and meet at a later date if that was his preference, with evidence of the same.

One other oddity with the brief meeting I had with Steve – he presented me with a response to question 4 of my FoI (FoI2 LINK), after the compliance officer had declared that the data wasn't held by the council and couldn't be provided – why is it one has to insist and be pushy to get answers to FoI requests? Or are they just routinely dismissing requests as a matter of course, showing more contempt to the residents of the borough? I think he probably thought he could hand over that answer to question 4, and that was his final word on the matter. Why are questions so difficult to deal with for public servants? You can see for yourself that there's nothing in his response to suggest he's thinking of anything outside his own remit. Oddly enough, he also mentions that 'there is no specific budget to repaint any other underpasses in the current fiscal year', yet the same company are painting the one outside Easthampstead House as I type! Has he got a grip on his own department? Who knows….

I don't want to get on the bad side of Steve. I'm convinced that as a compassionate man, he can, in his heart, see that spending £16,635 on subway decorating is madness when we're cutting essential services, but he's doing what he needs to do to be an effective Head of Environment and Public Protection. He might have a family, children to feed, the pressures we all have in our daily lives, so maybe he doesn't feel he can make that much difference without risking his position.

However, what he's not doing, along with other departmental heads at his level, is arguing that if the system allows this to happen, then the system must be broken and needs to be fixed. I wanted to suggest to him that this wasn't a witch hunt, or an embarrassing episode online to shame him into acting, but he refused me that opportunity. I honestly wanted to find an ally in the management hierarchy at BFBC who I could work alongside to try and change the systems and processes that can allow this to happen, and simply out of what I think is a reasonable, responsible, mature and compassionate need to see the right thing being done with the limited resources the council has, but Steve had decided before I'd even been given the chance to explain that he wasn't going to play ball.

I should know by now – video cameras and those spending tax payers money aren't happy bedfellows, and I can appreciate that he might not want to be 'on the record' with this somewhat controversial FoI response, but then what about open government? What about accountability? If Steve is comfortable spending this much money in times of austerity, why isn't he happy to talk about it on camera? I'm assuming he has nothing to hide? And lets not forget who actually pays for this – you and me, and Steve if he lives in Bracknell!!

I'm going to send Steve an email, asking him for another meeting, this time on camera. I'll also send him the memo from Bob Neill in the hope that he'll have a change of heart, and join me in a campaign to redress the processes that can allow this to happen.

I'm also not daft – if Steve isn't happy about talking on camera, then obviously he feels uncomfortable with being accountable and transparent which, as a public servant, is his responsibility, so I'm also planning to write to Bob Neill, and ask him to remind Steve of his obligations. Anything less than complete openness would be an insult to those who have lost essential services, contempt for the council taxpayer, and ignorance of central government policy. And I can't believe Steve is naïve to all that!

If you'd like to join me in an effort to turn the big BFBC ship round to serving the community, rather than it's own processes and methods, then please pipe up and drop me an email – the more of us shout about this, the more BFBC can't ignore, dismiss and refuse to engage. After all, do you feel happy losing your important public services so that you can have fancy subways? Me neither….

comeonstevedotherightthing@stoprippingmeoff.com

Dianne Abbott’s racism is embarrassing!

2011-06-05T09:41:00.001+01:00

Below is a guest post from Walaa Idris who blogs at http://www.walaaidris.com/blog/

I am black and I am a Conservative and very proud of both. And although at first glance one has nothing to do with the other if we look closely the two are intertwined - have always been in harmony and very much complement one another. Black culture whether African, Caribbean or American is conservative by nature and in my case it’s double because I am half Arab – so being a conservative comes natural to me as it does to most black people and the notion that they can only support socialist ideals and left of centre views is a myth.

The basic values of work hard look after yourself and your own help your community and those who can’t support themselves, give whatever you can from your time and money to those who need it and share your knowledge with the young and those who can utilise it, are all basic black traditions. My ancestors in Africa - where there is still little if any welfare state to fall-back on - employed them for centuries and continue to until today. Slaves too, carried these strong traditions and values with them to the Americas, and today Caribbeans and Africans brought them and continue to practice them in the UK. The strong sense of religion and the Church being the centre of most communities is at the heart of conservative ethos.

So when I read that Dianne Abbott, the first black female MP in the UK has told a young black woman - who after showing her admiration and appreciation to Ms Abbott asked if she can be of any help – to go and work for a white conservative, “You obviously don’t do the black thing, that’s part of being a black conservative”: said Abbott. Initially, I too was mortified at the comment – however, this time around I was not so shocked by Abbott’s callous thoughtless remarks. It’s not the first time nor will it be the last time for us to hear this type of oblivious bigotry from Dianne Abbott. Plus it’s a Labour thing all this ‘divide and rule’ and ‘us and them’ business - it’s what they always resort to when they lose the argument - even though, in this occasion; there was no argument to lose. Nevertheless, the racist Abbott could not believe a young Tory supporter can show her adoration, shower her with praise yet at the same time not share her political believes - because in the Us & Them rulebook everything is cut and dry.

What does skin colour have to do with helping out in a constituency or Westminster anyway - one wonders what criteria Dianne Abbott employs when hiring her own staff, or advising constituents …...!

Walaa

My thoughts are that while historically black voters may of been more likely to vote Labour, this perception is changing. That's a good thing as it shows an integration of values in our society.

No longer can you define someone who is Black or Asian as a natural Labour voter or a natural socialist. Just like racists voters don't just vote BNP.

So it is crazy to believe that being black means you can't be a Conservative or a Republican. The people Diane have moved on, perhaps you should to.

FIFA corruption is a cultural thing

2011-05-31T13:05:00.000+01:00

The ongoing row over allegations of corruption at FIFA and the current election process of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter may seem like a joke to many of us in Britain. But what I have found interesting is how little response to these allegations there has been from outside of the UK. Yes Australia and the USA are not happy about the selection process for the bid winners. But English speaking countries share similar views on corruption to us here in the UK. There is a cultural difference being shown here.

Fact is that while corruption happens in Britain, it is not tolerated or accepted like it is in many other counties. An example of this was the MP's expenses, while in Britain there was a lot of anger over the MP's expenses, many other people in other countries could not see what all the fuss was about. Corruption is part of life in some parts of the world. Football is a world game and therefore reflects this way of doing business. If coruption is cultually acceptable then people at all levels accept their bit of the corruption pie and benefit. While in the UK it tends to be just the people at the top who gain.

Perhaps the only way to change FIFA is to change the way the world works. Not an easy task. However perhaps it's not our FA that will change the way brown envelopes play their part in choosing world cup venues. But perhaps the people who provide FIFA with their funds can make the biggest change. Sponsors have had their money mismanaged and their name association with FIFA harmed who may have the final say.

Blogging will remain light

2011-05-26T13:50:00.000+01:00

I am currently moving home and looking after my 6 month old son, this is taking all my time up at the moment. Therefore I have not been able to blog, which is a shame because I would have had plenty to say about recent events.

However I have still been leaving comments on the regular Bracknell Standard column, 'What does Bracknell think?'

So here is a selection;

Library E-Books

Wellington College in Crowthorne announced last week it is planning on removing books from its library and instead giving pupils their own hand-held e-books to read from.Do you think the days of print are now in the past or will there always be a place for a good old paper or hardback in the future? Do you use e-books yourself of are you a fan of the more traditional books?

My reply;

I am a fan of traditional books, but I do believe they will be replaced by electronic books, just as CD and DVD will be and are being replaced by downloadable media.This is not all bad news, (although it is for high street shops) as electronic media is so easy to manage and store.One question thought, are all of Wellington College library books available in electronic form? sure this is not a straight replacement of books.It will be interesting to see if children's books will remain as these are hard to create electronically.

Super-Injunction

"After journalist Andrew Marr removed his own super-injunction covering an affair, do you think it is right for the famous and wealthy to be able to cover up news stories about their private lives or do the public have a right to know about the private lives of people in the public eye?"

My Reply;

Injunctions do make me uneasy, although I'm not bothered about personalities and their personal life's. So who was sleeping with who I don't think is in the public interest anyway. However where I do have a real issue with super injunctions is when its used by corporations or individuals to cover up illegal activity.

The best example I can think of is when Trafigura illegally dumped toxic waste instead of processing it in Cote d'Ivoire then used a super injunction to stop MPs discussing this in the house of commons and to stop the media covering the story. Now that I cant agree with.

Fare increase for Taxi Drivers

Taxi drivers in Bracknell have asked for their fares to be put up for the first time in three years to meet the rises in fuel costs and insurance.

The cost of a three-mile journey will now cost 80p more, from £6.80 up to £7.60. A 12 mile trip to Reading has risen from £20 to £23.60.

Do you think this is reasonable? Do you use taxis much? and should driving firms receive discounts due to the high cost of fuel?

My Reply:

It can't be denied that cost have gone up for taxi's. I think in view of this it would only be fair for their fees to rise. I use the local taxi's and always find them pleasant and talkative. They have families to and I can't see how we can continue to squeeze them.

Tamil refugee who was accused of faking his hunger strike

2011-05-23T13:45:00.000+01:00

It's worth watching last weeks BBC One program See you in Court on BBC Iplayer here

It follows A young Tamil refugee fights for his reputation after the Daily Mail and The Sun claimed he faked his lengthy hunger strike by eating burgers. This led to death threats, he went to court to clear his name.

It's just another example of newspaper lies.

See the Tamil News for more info http://www.uktamilnews.com/index.php/archives/32005

Newspapers don't always tell the truth

2011-05-16T20:33:00.000+01:00

Is it not about time the papers were forced to make clearer apologies for telling lies?

Listening to BBC This Weeks discussion on law suits and super injunctions it seems amazing that newspapers get away with so much. For example on the eve of the 1992 election, Neil Kinnock had to spend his evening trying to stop a story on him using private healthcare, when he never did. This story was stopped, but if it was published you could imagine Labour unfairly performing even worse at the polls, even thought the story was untrue.

Many people believe what they read on the day, and when papers print an apology it's normally so small and deep within the paper that you won't see it is often less relevant.

So is it not about time newspapers had to print apologies in the same place as their original story and in the same size font!

Scotland goes, Conservatives gain

2011-05-08T08:06:00.002+01:00

It can't be denied that there were many very amazing results in the May 5th elections.

Two of which were, Conservatives gaining seats when they were expected to lose and the SNP gaining a majority in Hollyrude.

This majority for the Scottish Nationalist will result at some point in a vote for independence. It is well known that the majority of Scots do not want independence at the moment. But let's say over time the SNP manage to persuade the Scottish people to break the union.

Now putting aside the fact that the Conservatives are a unionist party and will be fighting in Scotland for it to remain part of the UK. They can't stop this vote and would have to agree to the democrat result of a referendum.

There are currently 41 Labour, 11 Liberal Democrat MPs, 6 SNP seats and only 1 Conservative seat. If any seats change hands in the next election, they won't be going to the Conservatives. So the maths is simple.

Lose Scotland and the Tories lose 58 opposition seats to their 1. They also lose a more left wing country.

England and Wales could be left with many more Conservative governments. Good job for Labour that Wales are not leaving the UK, just yet.

Ouch!

2011-05-06T08:49:00.002+01:00

Bit of a pasting for my party last night nationally.

Now there are only two opposition councillors in the Bracknell Borough council as Labour council leader Jeananne Shillcock lost her seat by 5 votes. Harsh

Results For Bracknell can be viewed here.

Vote for the best candidate at your local elections

2011-05-04T15:52:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is local election day in Bracknell and in many parts of the UK.

Please when you vote, do so on local issues and try to choose the best candidate or candidates you can for your borough and town council. It's a big shame when local councillors work hard for you and lose or indeed don't work hard and win based on national issues, which are out of their hands. Please remember that this is a local election and should be about local issues and about the qaulity of the can, this is the best way to get the best possible candidates in our council.

Polls are open from 7am to 10pm and you do not need your voting card to vote.

Details of your polling station can be found at https://my.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/gov3Apps/PollstationLookup/

Details of the Alternative Vote referendum can be found at the Electoral Commission website http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/file/0005/109877/Eng-web.pdf

Map of fire road closures in Bracknell area

2011-05-03T17:37:00.002+01:00

Please see link here

H/T to markandfran

Typo on Fox News re Osama Bin Laden's death

2011-05-02T04:37:00.001+01:00

AV event Bracknell

2011-04-30T13:15:00.001+01:00

I decided not to cover the proceedings. This is because this event was attended by councillors and politicos and not by many undecided voters.

The event at times descended into an argument where each side of the debate were not going to waiver.

As Phillip Lee appears to of believed some of the lies told by the No campaign. This was a shame, although he is a good speaker and made a good case for no.

Fiona McTaggart, Labour MP for Slough did a good and fair job for Yes. She admitted that the system was not perfect and admitted that some of the Yes leaflets where not to her liking. I was impressed with her conviction as a independent minded politician.

But no one won the argument as the audience would attack the various lines of the MP's because they had already made up their minds (me included). You find yourself getting so angry with what you believe to not be the clear truth on an issue that you become yet another voice shouting in the dark.

Still saying that, it was worth while for myself and an enjoyable debate. But perhaps not so worth while for the undecided who attended in lesser numbers.

Sony's Bank holiday PR disaster on PSN

2011-04-27T09:30:00.000+01:00

The Paystation Network (PSN) has now been down for almost a week, world wide. This effects PS3 PS2 and PSP's plus blue ray updates. Now this would be a disaster for any gaming network at anytime but in the UK bank holiday weekend which would of been for some, a big gaming weekend, its a growing nightmare for Sony.

The PS3 message (Network is down for maintenance), yeah right! Why not just admit it, your have been hacked.

Now I don't have the time to play games anymore but if I did, this would mean no online gaming, no downloadable films, no music videos and no downloadable games. You see PSN is not just about games, its about entertainment. Some games won't even work without an updated online PS3 (I discovered this myself). I imagine Sony have lost millions in lost sales.

But the real issue here for me is that Sony have just released information today that users idenities and more importantly, credit card details have been accessed. Wonderful, so now I have to cancel my credit card. But why not inform their users stright away, they must of known sooner than six days? It could already be to late!

Well done Sony, a total public relations cock up. Good job Xbox isn't free, oh dear I see it's free all bank holiday weekend. Oh dear!

It seems to me that Japanese companies are particularly bad at PR (ok I'm thinking of Toyota here).

Bracknell #Yes2AV #No2AV debate date reminder

2011-04-26T07:05:00.003+01:00

The AV referendum debate between DR Philip Lee, Conservative MP for Bracknell and Fiona McTaggart, Labour MP for Slough will take place at Easthampstead Baptist Church Centre on 28th April this Thursday at 8pm.

Attendance is free. It will be held at South Hill Road in Bracknell RG12 7NS.

I will be there to cover the event, do come and say hello.

Christopher Jefferies suing

2011-04-22T15:39:00.001+01:00

Christopher Jefferies (who was arrested for questioning on the murder of Joanne Yeates) is suing a ton of newspapers including the Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Star.

Quite right too, just have a look at some of the stories about him in my blog Not the nutty professor.

His treatment by some papers was disgusting, simply I think because he seemed a little too different to our press. I wish him luck.

Legality of Bracknell Conservative party leaflet

2011-04-19T12:26:00.000+01:00

From Bracknell Liberal Democrat Press Release;

'The Bracknell Liberal Democrats believe the election manifesto leaflet published on behalf of Bracknell Conservative Association breaches election regulations. It by giving the impression that Bracknell Forest Borough Council is supporting the Conservative Party in the forthcoming local elections on 5 May 2011.

Not only is the leaflet entitled 'Bracknell Forest Borough Council' but it also contains a letter from Paul Bettison as Leader of the Council. During this period of 'purdah' councils are expected to distance themselves from the elections taking place in their areas and to maintain an even-handed and impartial approach to the proceedings.

Campaign publicity material is subject to a number of restrictions under electoral law and is also subject to the general civil and criminal law relating to published material.'

Oh dear, and this after some Conservative leaflets where acidentally distrubuted with council news letter a few months ago. The above if taken to its full conclusion could lead to the disqualification of every Conservative councillor.

I will try to get hold of a copy of the leaflet in the next few days.

Can the Liberal Democrats survive another coalition?

2011-04-16T11:55:00.001+01:00

Also posted today on LibDem Voice here as part of Liberal Burblings bloggers takeover.

We already know how hard a coalition is with the Tories. So what would happen if we get another choice of forming a coalition with this Tory party or Ed Miliband’s Labour at the next general election?

At the moment, perhaps the most likely scenario is a coalition with Labour with less Liberal Democrat MPs. On the plus side Ed Milliband will be wanting to put his new ‘radical’ (maybe) mark on Labour’s story in power. Now this is something we can help him with. We have learned a lot from our coalition with the Tories. We will also prove to the electorate that we are not an offshoot of the Tory party, although some Labourites will return to their belief that we are an offshoot of Labour.

In this coalition I believe we will have a job of holding back the authoritarian tendency of the Labour party. We will have to fight that battle as hard as we can. Otherwise we will lose our Liberal distinctiveness in this new coalition. We would also have trouble dealing with poverty. Labour believe in throwing money at the poor while we believe in giving the poor a hand out of the situation rather than making them feel a bit better off.

In a coalition with Labour we would need to avoid Labour not allowing us to implement some of our policies. Labour will believe that Lib Dems have come home to Labour. We will need to remain progressive and ensure Labour are more so (than they are at the moment). There would be just as many challenges in a coalition with Labour as there are with the Tories.

Scenario 2 would be the Tories, again. By now we understand each other, we can work together. The problem is that this will look really bad with the electorate. It will install the idea in many minds that the Liberal Democrats are on the side of the Conservative party. We will give the impression that we are perhaps a right-leaning party rather than a left-leaning one.

The Tories are, of course, more likely to have less MPs than they do now and if this is the same for us then the coalition will be more fragile and open to attacks from the Tory right and unhappy Liberal Democrats. Negotiations would be much easier, as will the working relationship. The danger from a second coalition with the Tories is from the electorate rather than the Tories themselves. If the electorate didn’t understand why the Liberal Democrats are a party of a coalition and what we stand for they certainly won’t after this coalition. Unless….

Unless?

Firstly, let’s understand that we will lose some voters forever especially if we are in a coalition again with the Tories because many Labour voters will find it hard to support us.

So with fewer MPs do we have less power? Well, maybe at first, but as the coalition continues, then no. It all depends on the numbers. If it is still our vote that ensures legislation is passed or not and if we still have MPs in key ministerial positions then we will have almost the same influence as we enjoy now.

What we need to do in any second coalition is remain distinctive, we need to change the system so the Deputy PM or Ministers can have open discussion defining where each party is coming from and make it clear that we, along with our partners have agreed a way forward. We need to demonstrate what difference we have made. We need to be better at communicating and reacting to the test of government.

Thanks to Paul of Liberal Burblings and to Liberal Democrat Voice

Conservatives say yes to AV

2011-04-16T07:39:00.003+01:00

STOP SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER!

2011-04-15T14:16:00.001+01:00

In the last few weeks I have been blocked on Twitter by someone very much to the right of politics and someone very much to the left. Does this mean I'm to far in the centre?

Sometimes I get a bit fed up of politics. I know that people in all parties at the end of the day generally want to help others and believe that they know the best system. In most cases the best way to improving our lot could fall between the different views and involve good ideas from people in all parties.

But so often in politics the issue degrades into an argument where no one listens and no one compromises. Your accused of doing something for ideological reasons or your a 'bloody leftie'. Even though I have done it myself while defending us 'Yellow Tories' ,Condems, Libcons or whatever the current name calling tag is. I just get a bit fed up of it now and then. So I need a rest from politics in general.

Because it should be ok to have open disagreement in parties and within government, coalition or not. So I'm a bit fed up of the arguments and I have decided to give myself the weekend off to recover from all this political noise.

See you next week as I'm turning off until then (TV included)

Not an impressive Yes to AV broadcast

2011-04-13T18:12:00.000+01:00

As a supporter of voting Yes in the AV referendum I was most unimpressed with the pro Alternative Vote film broadcast on Monday. I thought it was not professional and did not explain enough of the reasons why alternative vote is a better system than fFrst Past the Post. An opportunity missed I feel.

Have a look for yourself.

I think there are many better films on You Tube explaining why AV is a better system like this one;

and the system explained here;

Bracknell Yes to AV , Yes to Fairer votes stall Today

2011-04-09T11:04:00.000+01:00

The Yes to the alternative vote campaigners are at the Bracknell bandstand today. Please do pop along and have a chat.

Picture taken from Mondays pro AV banner display.

Jobcentre staff are not robots or battery hens

2011-04-08T14:48:00.001+01:00

I don't always agree with unions when they declare a strike. However I believe Jobcentre call centre staff are quite right to kick up a fuss about being monitored so closely.

It's wrong to monitor staff in the way done by job centre management. For example recording how long and often you go to the toilet and how long your call takes when not all calls are simple to deal with. Staff are dealing with people that may have complicated queries and require emotional assistance for there stressful situation of being out of work and needing a job. So the targets set do not allow for the human needs of both customer and provider. People are not battery hens or robots.

Link here to the story at the BBC, which interestingly doesn't appear to cover the real problem which is not having targets in themselves but what those targets are and how unrealistic they are.

European debt crisis - a film

2011-04-07T20:23:00.000+01:00

In view of Portugal's impending bailout, I thought this video seemed quite appropriate.

H/T to Kata_basis on Twitter.

Isn't listening better than a u-turn?

2011-04-05T13:39:00.000+01:00

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced yesterday that he is to delay the Health and Social Care Bill. Because of the concerned over it expressed by GP's and by Lib Dems at the conference and others. Some believe this is a a u-turn.

However this is what coalition government is all about, compromise and being forced to listen. This government is not run by a few at the top because it has to compromise with the rest of the MP's in two coalition parties and indeed the voting membership of the Liberal Democrats.

Surely a listening exercise is a good thing and I welcome it. I agree with Rosie Cooper Labour MP, who said 'It was time for the government to take a deep breath and have a re-think over its plans".

There is nothing wrong with that, it will in the end produce better policy. So I'm pleased that Andrew Lansley and the coalition is being brave enough to listen to the concerns of the many.

Yes 2 AV should be more careful

2011-04-03T17:01:00.001+01:00

So No to AV have accused Yes to AV of air brushing out a black celebrity from their leaflets see here.

This is because black poet Benjamin Zephaniah was not on some pro AV leaflets in some parts of country.

The "Yes to AV" campaign used his picture on literature used in London but featured the actor and time team presenter Tony Robinson in the West country. I'm informed by AV supporter Andrew Emmerson that 'The leaflets were changed to put more local celebrities to local areas, hence why Tony robinson went on West country leaflets'. Yes to AV also state that there are to many celebrities endorsing Yes to AV to have them all on the same leaflet.

This maybe the case and it's clear that Yes to AV is not a racist campaign. However in this day and age perhaps they should of simply included all the celebrities on all the leaflets, even if this meant smaller pictures because in these days of PC politics Yes to AV should really know better.

It's a shame that even a referendum on how we vote for our politicians has to decent in smears and scare stories rather than arguing out the various facts and detail behind AV and FPTP.

UN workers are not to blame for Koran burning

2011-04-02T07:59:00.001+01:00

Clerics in city of Mazar-e Sharif had urged people to protest over last month's burning of a copy of the Koran by small time US pastor Terry Jones after this was shown on TV. Resulting in the murder of 14 people at a UN compound.

Pastor Terry Jones is a total idiot. He has some issues that need to be looked at starting with a good hard look in the mirror. I hope he's happy with himself as he he partly responsible for these deaths.

However why did this crowd think that some unrelated staff at the UN were somehow to blame. Why kill innocent people when they had nothing to do with this foolhardy act.

It's just Stupid. Just stupid. Sometimes I just despair at how people can just follow others direction without any thought as to the actual acts they are doing. get some prospective people and stop and think about what you are about to do.

Bracknell #Yes2AV #NotoAV debate date set

2011-03-29T14:51:00.001+01:00

An AV referendum debate between DR Philip Lee, Conservative MP for Bracknell and Fiona McTaggart, Labour MP for Slough will take place at Easthampstead Baptist Church Centre on 28th April on Thursday at 8pm.

Attendance is free and the full address is South Hill Road in Bracknell RG12 7NS.

I will be there to cover the event and hope to see as many of my local readers there as possible.

Local Labour party leaflet

2011-03-28T19:54:00.001+01:00

The local Labour party put thought their leaflet recently for the local elections.

Thing is there is not by mention of what they intend to do locally.

I do wish parties who put up local candidates would fight on local issues.

Sure attack the Liberals and Tories for national policy. But remember this is a local election. Surely if your representing the local community you need to say what you intend to do at a local level.

Councils deserve better.

What's the alternative? March 26th

2011-03-26T21:15:00.001Z

Cuts or invest?

Those that propose the alternative to the current cuts is investment are living in cloud Cuckoo land. Where is this investment going to come from? How on earth can the government invest more in the current debt situation?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally with the current cuts, I never was and never will be. But if no action was taken then we would end up having our credit rating down graded like Portugal, Greece and Ireland. Therefore the government have to make cuts as well as raise taxes to ensure interest payments remain low.

I'm a supporter of reduced cuts, that's where I agree with Labour.

Labour

It's also shocking just how much bandwagon jumping Ed Miliband and Labour are doing. Just the other day Ed Balls gave an apology for the situation we are in. I don't fully blame Labour I also blame the banks and traders. But Labour admit that they would be cutting, they admit it would be harsh, of course they would be, cuts are hard for those on the end of them. So don't pretend your on the side of everyone at today's protests, because they would be cutting some of their jobs and pensions to.

It's also wrong to use Martin Luther King's words to link into this kind of protest. How dare such an authoritarian party quote the great man of civil rights and therefore liberty. This is really not the same situation. It's not remotely related to Civil Rights, the Suffragettes or Apartheid.

Anarchist protestors

Anarchy is a stateless society, therefore throwing paint at HSBC or Top Shop for not paying enough tax is not anarchy. Paying tax supports the state, hardly anarchy then.

I also want these corporations to pay their taxes but then again I'm not an anarchist.

Picture by www.twitter.com/MsmvLee

Amazing Japanese road repair in 6 days after earthquake

2011-03-25T08:02:00.002Z

It's simply amazing and surely puts some of our longer road projects into prospective.
First picture is after the earthquake in Japan. The second is after the repair of the road just 6 days after the earthquake damage.

Stop Budget pre-release spin

2011-03-23T16:27:00.000Z

I could discuss the positives and negatives from the budget, but I'm sure all y readers have already looked at the budget details and made their own minds up.

I just wish that we didn't know so many details about the budget or any other government announcement before the speech itself.

I'm happy for leaks to be made for the right reason, which is to highlight issues with policy or bad government. but I really dislike the spin of releasing drops of information by government.

Please can we go back to the good old days of not knowing what is in an announcement until such time as it is announced. I want to know assess government policy at the time and after the speeches not with bits and pieces of information before hand.

Where is the Lib Dem London Mayor Candidate?

2011-03-21T16:32:00.000Z

London Liberal Democrats really need to pull their finger out on the selection of a new candidate for London Mayor.

Labour have already had their selection process done and dusted between Oona King and Ken Livingstone. Even though Boris delayed his decision we now know he is the Conservative candidate.

So what's taking so long? I read at Lib Dem Voice that this is because the party were focusing on the GLA list of candidates for the London Assembly. But I don't see why this should hold up the candidate selection for Mayor.

In order to have a cat in hells chance against the might of Ken and Boris we need someone out there now. Liberal Democrats do have a competing character in Lembit Opik and I expect Brian Paddick or Susan Kramer to run along with others.

It's a shame but the London Mayor race is as much about personality as it is about policy. It's not to late as personality can also win over an unpopular party but they really needed a head start. Next time we must do better.

Green technologies should reduce environmental accidents

2011-03-16T12:18:00.001Z

The recent events in Japan just show how dangerous nuclear energy can be when it goes wrong. Personally I am a supporter of using Nuclear if it is not funded by the tax payer to a great extent, but I want this energy to be as safe as possible.

Britain does not suffer from tsunami or earth quakes but we could suffer from other forms of danger such as a terrorist attached or a simple accident. Nuclear energy accidents always seem much worse then other forms of energy accidents, therefore we need to take a step back and make sure they can be as safe as possible. This is because we can not just reply on green technology only at this point or other forms of power generation because of fuel security. Hopefully one day we can reply on green technologies but until then....

It's for this reason that greener forms of energy such as wind farms are more important than ever. But perhaps the best idea is local and domestic generation as well as more efficient energy usage. Which is why its important that money is directed to domestic use and not bigger commercial project, Bigger project should be self funding.

Of course the opposition to nuclear energy by the party I support (the Liberal Democrats and a position I didn't agree with myself at the time) is well know, as is the fact that Chris Huhne has decided that in a coalition that it is right to build new nuclear power stations, if they are not funded by public subsidy, this is a compromise of a coalition government.

This delay makes it even more important that the governments (and Liberal Democrat policy) Green Deal works. Domestic generation is a good way to protect yourself from the volatile energy market be that from world events effecting oil and gas prices and supply or doing your bit for climate change.

Even those that don't believe in climate change perhaps can see the worth in generating energy for themselves and saving bill by being more efficient with energy usage. Those that don't want wind farms on their doorstep also wouldn't want a coal fire or nuclear power station in it's place. Energy generation is not pretty, but we all use it and all need it.

So the coalition policy of feed in tariffs at fixed rates as per Lib Dem policy, smart metering, funding for apprenticeships and floor rates for carbon trading all help this aim. the more this can be done the less relient we will be on all forms of big power generation including Nuclear. So perhaps green technologies should reduce environmental accidents as our reliance changes.

Amendments to NHS Health Bill

2011-03-14T13:54:00.000Z

I fully support DR Evan Harris (former MP Oxford West and Abingdon) on the amendments put forward at the Liberal Democrat conference on the health bill. I watched Evan Harris give details of the amendments and his concerns which are supported by him and Baroness Shirley Williams at Februarys Liberal Democrat South Central regional conference.

The amendments which can be viewed at the social Liberal forum here. I support the cutting of the size of administration and removal of the huge hierarchy such as cutting out some of the levels such as PCT's, but some extra safe guards are required, these amendments would give them;

These amendments include;

• NHS commissioning to be retained as a public function and not given to private companies.

• Spending decisions should not be made in private.

• Annual plans to be done in conjunction with new health and wellbeing boards and GP commissioning boards.

• Private providers should be allowed where there could be an issue of cherry-picking.

• Continued separation of commissioning of services.

• Half the members of the new commissioning consortiums must be be up of local councillors.

Now we wait an see if this has any effect on the proposals or if the fears of my party appear to be toothless.

Blame Bush and Blair for no fly zone

2011-03-13T09:34:00.001Z

People and an emergent democracy are dying in Libya thanks to Bush and Blairs decision to go into Iraq.

The west and Nato is simply to scared to setup a no fly zone even with support from the region simply because of the Iraq war.

There many only be a few weeks left in which to act.

Perhaps if we never went into Iraq the Iraqi people would of also rebelled along with many of their neighbours.

What a shame for the Libyans, in their hour of need no one comes knocking.

AV debate Reading unbalanced

2011-03-12T17:11:00.001Z

It turns out the Alternative Vote referendum debate in Reading I advertised on this site wasn't as balances as billed see Mark Reckons blog No2A Balanced Debate.

Is this not false advertising?

Obama fails again

2011-03-08T12:06:00.000Z

Obama is to restart Guantanamo military commissions after a two year freeze on new military trials for detainees. Perhaps he has to now pander to the right due to the change in the democrats furtunes in the mid term elections.

Still its very disapointing, its just another election promise which he has gone back on. See the Obama Truth o meter.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/

Local AV Debate

2011-03-07T13:16:00.000Z

Unfortunately I can't make it but I would like to remind my local readers that there is an AV debate on Tuesday 10th at Irish Centre, 104-108 Chatham St, Reading RG1 7HT see http://avdebates.com/reading/

There has already been a number of Yes to AV stalls in Bracknell and Wokingham including last Saturday (There was also a stall in Reading town centre at the same time), see picture from this saturdays Yes to AV stall in Wokingham.

More Yes 2 AV stalls are planned for Bracknell and Reading.

Watch this space for any updates

Sky Takeover

2011-03-05T06:38:00.001Z

Digital spy article Neil: 'Cable made Sky takeover a done deal' warns of the power Murdoch will still be able to hold over Sky News in any handover of the station. This is because he will have a large shareholding and will be providing most of the cash.

I also wonder what's to stop News Corp from starting it's own news station in a few years time.

I guess the only hope from this media empire is the alliance of media groups which are considering legal options including a possible judicial review.

Sky's income is bigger than the BBC and Channel 4 together. It's dangerous to have to much power with one media organisation.

Next time Cable, please don't put your foot in it.

Barnsley Central by-election next time try harder

2011-03-04T11:25:00.000Z

@DuncanStott of Split Horizons blog, tweeted this today 'During the Oldham East + Saddleworth by-election, I got 13 emails from Lib Dem HQ asking for help. For Barnsley Central I got 0.'

I know we didn't have a cat in hells chance of winning this safe Labour seat, but why didn't we try a bit harder. The turnout was low (36.5%, compared with 56.4% at the last general election) so if we could of got a few more of our voters out and persuaded others to vote for us then perhaps we would of had 500 extra votes. That 500 would of got the Liberal Democrats 4th place. Still a bad result but this would of resulted in better headlines.

Next time even know we can't win we should try harder. Perhaps then we could of avoided today's negative press for our poor result.

Dan Jarvis (Lab) 14,724

Jane Collins (UKIP) 2,953

James Hockney (C) 1,999

Enis Dalton (BNP) 1,463

Tony Devoy (Ind) 1,266

Dominic Carman (LD) 1,012

Kevin Riddiough (Eng Dem) 544

Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 198

Michael Val Davies (Ind) 60

UKBA quietly announced some changes

2011-03-03T13:24:00.000Z

Yesterday , the UKBA quietly announced some changes to the tier 2 ICT route and section j (IT worker) minimum salaries for tier 2 general and ICT.

Tier 2 ICT can only be used for graduate level jobs.

The following SOC are no longer considered graduate level:

5242 Telecommunications engineers
3131 IT operations technicians
3132 IT user support technicians

3131 includes system administrators and 3132 includes DBAs.

The following are still allowed:

1136 Information and communication technology managers
2131 IT strategy and planning professionals
2132 Software professionals

Many of the minimum appopriate salaries have been increased in the section j code of practice. They were lower quartile before and it looks like they have gone up to the most recent median values.

This is a significant change

Details can be found at http://www.government-news.co.uk/border-agency/201103/annual-update-to-the-codes-of-practice-for-sponsored-skilled-workers.asp

Other details at Computer Weekly Offshore IT staff brought to UK have suddenly become a lot more expensive

Blog & Newsweek: 22 Bracknell & national politics

2011-03-03T07:17:00.002Z

I have been too busy this week to blog, however I have been reading the web so here is a selection of issues making headlines during the past few weeks.

Local News

This week councillors have been getting into trouble, In slough a councillor has been charged with illegal taxi touting and driving with no insurance in London.

A Lib Dem councillor is accused of making a racist remark about a Labour MP on Twitter has been suspended from his party. He tweeted: "I'm waiting for the Labour guy to claim 'is it because I is black?' as a defense for being a muppet.", personally I worry that we go over the top on tweets. I don't find it that funny but I do think we are overly sensitive. After all we all know its an ally G quote right? I find myself agreeing with Jane on this one, 'what was she thinking of and what did he say'?

Reading list has more on the ongoing disagreements withing the Reading council see my post see my blog Reading Council and Labour party shenanigans with covers this and Reading list blog A house divided is a house to be united.

and another Slough Councillor gets a two-month suspension for being rude.

Local Links

Mark Reckons ask 'Why did I trust David Davis on liberty?' , I also trusted him, how wrong was I. such a shame.

Richard Willis is one a Conservative who will be voting Yes 2 AV see why 'AV or Not AV? – That is the Question!

Gareth Epps won't be standing for the council, I think Reading will miss him , see Why I am not restanding for the Council

National Link (Links of the day)

Split Horizons covers Lies, Lies and More Lies from #No2AV - have you worked out which system I'm voting for yet?

Devils Kitchen asks 'Why don't EU stop posturing?

Walaa Idris has 'Labour and the KKK' as her headline.

Tom Watson LAnour MP asks 'What would happen if Senior Metropolitan police officers had held meetings with media outlets as many times as they had met the News of The World?'

Scarlet Standard thinks 'Compass Is Losing Its Way' - personally I think its a good idea to open the doors a bit, maybe I will join?

Britain and the UN are to slow on Libya

2011-02-24T10:20:00.001Z

I have to agree with Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander that the government was slow off the mark to send planes to pick up Brits from Libya. In light of the quick responses from many other European countries.

The government now appear to be much more up to speed today after several delays. With a plane on standby in Malta. There is also now a SAS contingent on standby and a special forces support group. I hope they can be used to get the foreign nationals out of the desert camps, where they are currently stranded. Many of these camps have air strips which could be used now. Britain should help other foreign nationals as those countries such as Poland and Portugal have already flown out Brits from Libya.

Of course its not just the UK which has been slow but the UN. These fast moving events prove just how slow the UN are in responding in a way which would of saved lives. Surely a no flight zone for Libyan jets to stop them from bombing their own citizens should of been imposed by now?

Race and adoption

2011-02-22T08:00:00.001Z

We are to PC in this country. A good example was the adoption priorities.

Race is not the most thing for a child when they have no home. A loving home is the most important thing. Children in care do have their problems on average, so let's help them out and get them out if we can.

Let's not forget to that in today's Britain there is also a large number of mixed race children. I hope these new rules will make it simpler for these children to find homes to.

Can we really leave the European Court of Human Rights?

2011-02-21T16:21:00.000Z

The European Court of Human Rights is often in the press and getting itself a bad name among the public. This is because it does appear to on the face of it come up with rights for those who we deem to have little rights because of what these people have done.

Human Rights apply to all of us, be them good or bad people. If you start being selective on human rights then there are no human rights in effect, because you are choosing how they should apply and who to, rather than all. These rights would wear away and start to breakdown.

It would be a dark day if Britain left the convention. How could Britain stand for Human Rights while lecturing other countries about their violation of them after leaving the European Court of Human Rights. How would that look when so many other countries are signed up to them within Europe. Do we say that the European Rights went to far for us Brits? But are good enough for France and Germany, Russian and Spain etc

There is often confusion with the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights which is not made clear by our media. There are 47 members who are signed into the European Convention on Human Rights. There are only 27 members of the European Union. The European court would be there with or without the EU. Each of the 47 countries are elected by the 47 states. The judges for these states are equal to the number of states who are signed up to the convention. It is not controlled by politics and nor should it be.

I'm not sure why anyone would be expecting a British bill of Human Rights to effect the conclusions of the European Court of Human Rights. The bill would change the relationship between the courts but we would still be signed up to the European Court of Human Rights.

Remember some of the stories you read on the Human Rights have not actually come to pass and when it does produce a common sense ruling then that is not reported. For example the patients at Broadmoor demanding state benefits under human rights laws, was already thrown out once and will be again because they don't have a need for this benefit. See the Daily Express take on the story here.

Should I be hanged?

2011-02-20T09:45:00.000Z

The other day I was walking from home to town when I heard a male voice shout to me.

"Dazmando","Dazmando, you should be hanged, people like you make me sick"

Me "whose that?"

Voice "You earn £40k and your not happy, you should hang"

"What, where are you"

Voice "Go F' yourself"

I started to walk in the direction of the voice, "Talk to me about it?"

Couldn't find anyone,

I couldn't believe it, I'm still a bit miffed, There was no one around, perhaps I'm going mad? I could not see anyone or find anyone there. If your going to have a go at me, whoever you are then please don't run of next time. Talk to me!

I'm not holding office nor do I have any kind of power, I just blog an opinion, we all have them, some may disagree with it, that's fine. I see some good in many political theories and you can see my political compass on my blog. But I'm not comfortable with being shouted at, is blogging really worth tha. I don't get paid for this you know, so please just talk to me, I'm happy to talk to anyon. Don't shout at me or claim that I should be hanged, especially when I don't support the death penalty!

The above is in relation to this blog 'Sorry'

Yes 2 AV in town

2011-02-19T10:17:00.001Z

Yes 2 AV are at the Bracknell bandstand for most of the day. Please do pop along if you would like any information on the alternative voting system.

Forests Saved

2011-02-17T10:38:00.000Z

Sometimes politics throws up some real surprises. One of these is that over half a million people chose not NHS reform or housing benefit reform or government cuts as the big issue for them. This was not enough to spark a petition of half a million people, It was the forests which really got the public up in arms. Perhaps this is why governments don't like to take on middle Britain?

It also produced a real moment during prime ministers question time when Ed Miliband asked if the PM was happy with the plans for the forests, Cameron replied, "no".

I was never a support of the plans myself see 'Save our trees'. I understand the principal of having an agency regulate the forests and others manage it but in this case the system works so if it isn't broke don't fix it.

Doctor Phillip Lee MP does not agree with the NHS reforms

2011-02-13T10:48:00.000Z

I recently met Dr Phillip Lee Bracknell MP at one of the bars in the houses of parliament. He told me that he does not fully support the coalition on the reform of the NHS using the proposed model for GP consortiums.

His concern is the size and split of services through the consortiums. Too smaller split could be less efficient. This is quite significant as he is the only (I believe) still practicing doctor who is also an MP.

Dr Phillip Lee while agreeing that most of the reforms are good and that changes are required (although he has some more ideas on this, which I won't explain here for fear of misunderstanding them).

He will of course vote with the government on these reforms because he feels he must represent his constituents who voted for conservative policy (although this type of reform was not in the Conservative manifesto).

I hope DR Phillip Lee MP is making clear his concerns to Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, as the experience of a practicing doctor and those MP's who were doctors could be invaluable on this subject.

With the NHS being the 3rd biggest employer in the world (Only the Chinese Army and the Indian State Railways employ more people) it is hard to imagine that it doesn't have an administration that is bigger than required.

Dr Phillip Lee spoke very honestly with me which I found very refreshing. I had a very interesting conversation with him about the MP expenses system and other details of his take on the policy within the coalition and what it is like becoming an MP.

I also read that Sarah Wollaston, the newly elected MP for Totnes in Devon who was a doctor before winning her seat has raised concerns about specific elements of the NHS bill while broadly supporting its overall aims but has been knocked back see the Guardian article here.

Sorry

2011-02-12T14:59:00.000Z

In reply to this post 'I can't support the coalition anymore'.

This post was an over reaction after becoming a daddy. It's amazing how protective you become of your young family. I believe if I was still a single man then these tax changes certainly wouldn't of concerned me directly at least. Therefore I did rather throw my toys out of the pram (no pun intended). Perhaps the fact that the withdrawal of child benefit from higher rate tax payers however remains unfair from the point of view of shared family incomes mine being half of what other families with two lower rate tax payers who are just below the upper limit earn (i.e. on £80k against a family on £40k).

Lets make it clear, while I am finding my finances more difficult to manage given my new situation which is being a new daddy in a one bed flat with no equity living with my son and partner (who has lost her job for the government). I do understand that I am earning much more than many families and for that reason I am very privileged and fully support being taxed progressively to help people in low income situations. I have done ok for someone who is not overtly ambitious work wise and has not been to university and did very poorly at school due to both my behaviour and learning difficulties and started life on a lardge council estate.

So please accept my applogies for becoming so defensive with regards to my family income without considering the fact that others are in much worse situations than myself and are also paying for the cuts required to pay of this countries deficit.

I support the letter from Liberal Democrat Councillors

2011-02-10T12:51:00.000Z

The main problem with the cuts at local level is the speed. This speed does not allow the councils enough time to implement or manage the cuts in a more efficient and controlled manner were cost efficient methods or solutions can be found or even to allow councillors to understand how their voters want services to be prioritised and therefore plan a controlled reduction is services.

I do agree with the coalition that more power should be with local councillors to decide what should be cut which means that less services should be ring fenced. Because if we elect local politicians to make local decision than it is for them to be held to account and for them to prioritise their spending on our behalf. Otherwise if there is to much top down decision making, it makes voting for a local councillor redundant and less clear cut.

I also agree with the accusation directed at Eric Pickles (Communities Secretary) on gunboat diplomacy. You should let councillors make their decisions locally or you control them from above, you can't do both. Eric Pickles can't be promoting localism while telling councils what to do.

Multiculturalism

2011-02-06T09:50:00.001Z

Multiculturalism like it or not is here to stay. Governments can't change the mind of those that already live in different cultures.

As someone who has a baby from a mix of cultures and races I don't see multiculturalism as an issue. The real issue is living separate lives and lack of mixing.

Having more people from a bicultural background incorporating British culture would improve our understanding of each other and breakdown our cultural barriers.

Now please people just get on with it and don't concern yourselves with such terms like Multiculturalism all you need is respect and understanding.

Beware of the democratic

2011-02-04T07:02:00.001Z

The ruling party in Egypt isn't really fooling anyone with their name 'National Democratic Party'. Surely there is no point in using a title when it is clear that the country is far from democratic.

Still at-least they haven't gone the whole hog like North Korea and called their country 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea'. A blatant two fingers pointed squarely at the USA.

It's a funny old world or it would be if things were a bit more equal.

MP expenses system I don't get it

2011-02-03T15:06:00.000Z

I'm sorry but I don't understand, Is this expenses system really that complicated to complete? Why are MP's finding it so difficult to complete their expenses? Many people in business manage this every day of their lives.

I imagine MP's may have a point over how difficult this new system might be. I don't know I haven't seen it in operation. Maybe I will ask my MP in our meeting next Tuesday.

In the mean time the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has launched a public consultation and they are asking you for for views on the rules governing MPs' expenses. A consultation document list the questions on the scheme raised by MPs and others. The closing date for the consultation is 11 February.

You can sent suggestions to: schemeconsultation@parliamentarystandards.org.uk. Mark with 'Consultation response'. I have suggested that training could be the key as well as online documentation.

They also have a short online survey . Theres also a public pole see the results.

Maybe we can fix it for them.

I can’t support the coalition anymore

2011-02-02T13:21:00.003Z

I never wanted to have to write this post, but I just can't do it any more. I can't go on while being kicked in the face by the government and still support it.

I have to admit, I'm not very happy with the coalition from a personal prospective. I earn just a few hundred pounds over the new 50% tax band threshold* (this was an error I meant 40%). Which in itself is fine, I don't mind paying 50% tax on this income. But this put me in the squeezed middle. The movement of the threshold will result in my partner from 2013 will no longer receive child support for my son, a loss of over £1,000. National Insurance is also going up above £35k.

The government have also cut the office where my partner worked. This means that I am the only income earner as we can't really afford to pay for childcare despite the support provided with child care vouchers which would cover about 10%-15% of the cost if working full time.

Also I only live in a one bed flat so I need to move however I don't have the equity for a 10% deposit (flat has gone down in value) so I will need to rent. That's fine I'm not asking for a council house (although I won't expect to get one if I tried, and if I did it would take too long). If the banks offered some better mortgage deals which accepted lower deposits then perhaps this would help. Why are the government not doing more to encourage the banks to lend at better rates?

Before you say it was my choice to have a baby. Actually due to a medical condition we thought that we could not have children. But low and behold we have had a son (Landon), a miracle baby. We won't have an apportion for us its not right (although I fully support the rights of other to have them) and we didn't know if we could ever have this chance again. So actually we had no choice and I'm extremely happy we had a wonderful son.

I also understand that I'm still lucky to live in Britain and not many countries where these benefits would not be paid. But as these benefits exist, should couples like us should not be encourage to live apart to get greater benefits for our son. Surely it is unfair to have one family earning £80k (£40k each) to still receive child benefit when a family earning just over £40k lose this benefit.

So I can no longer support the coalition as it is detrimental to the up bringing of my son. I blame the banks and the last government for the financial mess we are in as a country but I also blame the coalition for the way the taxes and cuts are being distributed. I still support the Liberal Democrats as I believe in what they/we stand for as an independent party. However many Tories or Lib Dems never voted for a child benefit cut which although progressive is essentially unfair to many families in similar positions and does not encourage families to say together.

* This was an error I meant 40%

Reading Council and Labour party shenanigans

2011-01-27T18:53:00.001Z

What is happening in Reading at the moment.

It appears that Reading Council Tax payers have under previously Labour control council were paying for local Trades Union officials. Over the last 8 years this has cost Reading around £1.4m. The new Conservative/Lib Dem coalition of course now want to stop these payments. Details can be found on Conservative councillor Richard Willis blog 'Reading Labour Party Corruption Exposed – Part 2' This was riased in Prime Ministers Questions yesterday, so expect to hear more.

Labour councillor John Ennis defends Labours position on this in his blog 'Willis’s obsessions have now reached such heights of fantasy that nobody can take him seriously on anything!'

Now partly because of this Reading Labour party councillors have responed in a facile meeting after one councillor was not allowed to ask supplementary question unless the Labour Mayor allowed it. More details on Jane Griffiths (Former Labour MP) blog see here it comes...;

waswasere also has full details of the meeting see What a shambles

'There's nothing against the rules that says the Mayor has to be apolitical during a council meeting as the ceremonial and political functions are clearly split in the constitution. However, there have been long standing conventions that appear to be proving inconvenient at the moment to the Reading Labour party.

It was clear from the first full Council meeting when Glenn Goodall was passed over in asking a supplemental question in favour of allowing the previous lead councillor for the Environment that we were not playing by the previous rules anymore and indeed the one sided admonishment of councillors during meetings has to be congratulated as a well targeted political move.'

Labour Councillor Richel Eden's has her view on what happened here.

It would appear councillors from different parties may not be working together as closely as the public would hope. Labour need to improve in Reading for their own sake, as well as for the people they represent.

Other details can be found on Lib Dem Cllr Daisy's Benson's blog Coalition Commitment contrasts with Labour opportunism on Council Housing.

I have never seen so many blogs from one council meeting, What a night!

Economic shock a warning

2011-01-25T17:39:00.001Z

I could be all tribal and also claim like the chancellor that the economy contracted by 0.5% in the last three months of 2010 because of the snow. But while I can see this being a factor, Manufacturing still went up by 1.5% which means the weather was not an overriding factor as manufacturing workers still turned up to work and good where still delivered and made.

I think that this is generally a very bad sign for the coalition as well as the country. It's a shock for a reason, because its so unexpected. The construction industry fell the most, decreasing by 3.3% in the quarter. This I expect is down to so much spare capacity in the commercial sector and the very slow housing market.

Of course politically the government will claim that this is not down to policy and they won't change their plans. But If this continues I expect the government to change their plans accordingly. This is because if the parties in the coalition want to win votes then they will need to keep the economy on track, otherwise you can expect Labour to win a majority in the next general election.

Coalition, You have been warned!

I'm not the only Lib Dem who is worried see Caron's Musings post, http://carons-musings.blogspot.com/2011/01/ok-im-scared-about-economy-now-lib-dems.html

Not the nutty professor

2011-01-24T11:41:00.000Z

Landlord Chris Jefferies who was arrested for questioning on the murder of Joanne Yeates has the right to be a bit miffed at the detail to which the papers explored his life. Surely it is not right for newspapers to speculate so much about an unconvinced man's life history. I noticed the papers have not specualted so heavly about Vincent Tabak who is in court today charged with Joanne's murder.

Just have a look at these stories;

http://m.mirror.co.uk/article?a=m4:22816644 - The Nutty professor?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3324998/The-strange-Mr-Jefferies-is-Joanna-Yeates-murder-suspect.html - The Strange Mr Jefferies, need I say more?

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/169732/Jo-Yeates-Police-quiz-landlord/ - This article includes speculation that he is gay!

And in my article I pointed out all the unnecessary speculation on Mr Jefferies past see Killer LibDem

Would you want this to happen to you?

Surely the media needs to be more careful as these kind of stories could one day lead to a nasty case of vigilantism and if nothing else cause a big effect on his day to day life. It's not fair when your innocent of the crime to have your whole life history explored and reported by the national media.

I have resigned

2011-01-21T18:14:00.000Z

There's plenty of political news today. For Labour Alan Johnson has resigned as shadow chancellor, Ed Balls is the new shadow chancellor. Tony Blair is back in the hot seat of the Iraq inquiry. For the Tories, Andy Coulson the prime minister's communications chief has resigned over further News of the World phone hacking allocations. And plans are being drawn up for a massive change to the management structure of the NHS.

So on the face of it it appears to be a better news day for the Liberal Democrats.

But wait.....

Breaking News

Bracknell Blogger has decided that today is a good day to bury bad news for the Lib Dems. I have had to resign from the local party executive in Bracknell because after the arrival of my new son I have decided to move out of the area and I simply do not have time to help and can not stand in the local elections in May.

I have enjoyed my time with the Bracknell Lib Dems. I enjoy meeting people and talking politics on the doorstep. I have also made new friends in the party and I will miss them. But all this will have to take a back seat for now. I wish them luck and I hope I will have the time to help again.

Questions for Dr Phillip Lee MP for Bracknell

2011-01-21T10:12:00.000Z

Questions for Dr Phillip Lee MP.

In a few weeks time I will be speaking to local Bracknell Conservative MP Dr Phillip Lee about what it's like becoming a new MP and how this has changed his life. I will be asking him a few other questions on general policy such as the NHS reforms.

If anyone has any other question that they would like to ask him then please post them in the comments below.

VAT rises and tuition fees

2011-01-20T14:58:00.000Z

Over the last few weeks I was ask a few questions by the Bracknell Standard as part of the papers 'What does Bracknell think' weekly panel.

First up VAT rise;

VAT has risen from 17,5 per cent to 20 per cent, is this a fair way for the government to try to reduce the national deficit or will it put people off buying consumer goods?

And my answer

Surely it depends on what you buy and how much you spend. Children's cloths and Food do not have VAT added to them yet they still seem expensive.

At least if someone who is wealthy and spends their wealth won't be able to avoid this tax on their larger purchases, like they can with their income. The rise ensures that we are all paying the national debt off not just some and therefore gives us all ownership of it.

Governments often choose VAT because its the tax that provides the quickest way of raising funds. If the deficit reduces sooner than expected, expect to see this cut sooner than expected (I hope).

And secondary tuition fees

The question;

The gist is that universities will now be able to charge up to £9,000 per year in tuition fees. The Government claims that there are a raft of measures to make sure that the new system is actually fairer - for a bit more detail, have a look at this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11483638

We want to know what people's feelings on the issue are. There are many facets to it - is the system fair? Have the Lib Dems betrayed voters? Will the new system benefit the country? Should potential students start looking into alternative futures?

And my reply;

I am a Lib Dem activist and I'm not looking forward to selling the tuition fee rise on the doorstep. As someone who believes in free education I do not agree with such a large rise. But I do understand why there has been an increase. The increases aside, I do feel the new system is fairer. you don't have to pay it back, What you pay back is linked to your earnings. This should not put people of from going to university once students examine the system in detail.

I do not feel the Lib Dems have sold out, I feel we are taking a huge political risk for the good of the country. A minority Conservative government would of lend to another election and 12 months of indecision.

Eco-libertarianism (Libertarian v Greens)

2011-01-18T12:07:00.000Z

I have yet to met a Libertarian that believes in climate change. The very subject can make some very angry indeed. Libertarians have a natural distrust of control by government. Combating climate change could lead to more government control over our life's or that's the fear.

As a consequence on face value it would appear that Greens and Libertarians have little in common. But this is not the case as Green Libertarianism has shown. This is based on the environmental values of the Green party and the civil liberties platform of the Libertarian Party in the United States. Its a consolidation of socially progressive values with economic liberalism.

If you think about it it does make sense. A pure Green if they could will grow their own food, build their own property, have little to do with the national politics, supply their own electricity and therefore separate themselves from a controlling society and require less from the state in return, thereby being more Libertarian by consequence. It does make perfect sense.

Have a read of this article here on Greens and Libertarians who are coming to arrange this between themselves.

So next time Greens or Libertarians bash each other for believing or denial in climate change, why not think about the way you live and see how you could both benefit from a different arrangement.

Couples to share maternity leave

2011-01-17T13:25:00.001Z

I'm very pleased this government is going ahead with Labour's idea to let the father take up any remaining unpaid leave if the mother goes back to work early.

The government also plans to consult on a "proper" system of shared parental leave. This is something I very much support see Paternity leave a personal view.

If couples can share maternity leave then there is less reason to disgriminate against mother's by employers as dad's can also take time away from work. If used wisely then shared maternity leave could help the income of the family like reducing the cost of nursery.

Also the flexibility of chunks rather than a single block of maternity leave will help employer's and employee's. Because the employee suddenly becomes more flexible at work while taking leave. Again this will help families manage their time looking after the children.

Is abstaining on Europe such a good idea?

2011-01-13T13:39:00.000Z

Labour abstained as a whole on the recent parliamentary vote on the EU which allows for a referendum on any future transfer of powers from London to Brussels but only if judges decide that this should be the case.

The story of course was the Tory revolt of 27 MP's on this sensitive subject for the Tories who promised a law that could trigger a referendum on EU treaty changes.

However this political move by Labour designed to split the Tories while letting the legislation through could back fire. Surely abstaining while being a political tool is not viewed well by the public. Its seen as sitting on the fence. This in the end will give UKIP more bullets to fire at the Labour party as well as the coalition,

I also want to note that I myself am sceptic of the European project because I am also worried about the loss of government control to the EU parliament.

Luxury VAT rate

2011-01-09T11:15:00.000Z

Reading blogger Not Yet Out of the Woods has come up with an idea to make VAT more progressive. A Luxury rate of VAT that could be charged on expensive luxury items only. It has been done before by the 1974 Labour government. See the post 'Progressing the VAT debate'.

This is something I advocated as an idea on Twitter but was shot down by people claiming that it would be 'to difficult to administer'. Well I don't see how. We currently have many different rates of VAT. All that would be required is a list of services or items and perhaps items over a certain value like expensive cars which could have a higher rate of VAT applied to them. It seems very simple to me.

Prescott get in the ring

2011-01-07T10:55:00.001Z

Remember when this happened see here. I can remember wondering how I would react. The answer to which is, I honestly don't know.

But Prescott was the Deputy Prime Minister at the time and even called his autobiography, 'Prezza, My Story: Pulling no Punches'. So I suspect he was quite proud of his reaction after being provoked. I can remember my friends who were not Labour supporters agreeing with his reaction. However I wonder what the reaction would be if our current deputy PM reacted in the same way? I suspect it would be a whole lot worse.

Here is the advert and the remix.

Future of the House of Lords

2011-01-06T10:13:00.000Z

One of the great things about having a new born baby is discovering all the late night TV you didn't know existed. One program which was on the parliament channel last night was the intelligence squared event debating the motion 'An elected House of Lords will be bad for British democracy'.

This is with Vernon Bogdanor, Shami Chakrabarti and Simon Jenkins speaking for the motion, and Lord Adonis, Polly Toynbee and Billy Bragg speaking against it. Broadcast on 23rd November.

The coalition agreement clearly outlines a provision for a wholly or mainly elected second chamber using proportional representation. As an interim measure, there has been and will continue to be an appointment of new peers to reflect the shares of the vote in the last election.

But there is much more to arranging a working and worth while second chamber than whether its elected or not. There are questions over power, appointments or candidate selection. If elected when do we vote for the members (for example a 3rd every 5 years) giving members of the lords more time in office gives them more independence. In effect its an argument for or against democracy.

Please do watch the debate here on the BBC's democracy live website and let me know your conclusions. Personally I now favour a partly elected second chamber with a 3rd elected every 5 years. A List of reform options can be found here.

Coalition's fault for not buying the damn CD's

2011-01-05T15:06:00.000Z

Labour tweeter and blogger @shibleylondon tweeted this 'Just seen the shocking HMV news. Tory and LibDem lies are coming home to roost.'

This is in relation to the closing down of 60 shops by the HMV group. Now I know there may well be man things you could blame the coalition government for. but it is not fair to blame the government for everything that happens. I also don't blame the last Labour government for Virgin becoming Zavvi and Zavvi later closing all their high street stores (selling the same products as HMV).

Firstly the government austerity measures had not hit at this point during the lead up to Christmas or the sales (although I expect the snow didn't help them). At the end of the day I blame the product these shops are selling and the fierce competition in the market. HMV are selling CD's, DVD and console games. All of which are cheaper on the internet (HMV are on the internet but are not a go to store for many) and they have to compete against ITunes, supermarkets and specialist game stores.

So lets not blame the governments for everything. Some things are down to other factors such as a sustainable business.

My predictions for 2011

2010-12-31T13:04:00.001Z

This years predictions is a little tricky as there is no general election to speculate on (I hope). But lets see how I get on this time.

1. Piersmorgan will win his twitter war with Lord Sugar and gain more followers on twitter. Because of his new job hosting the US talk show on CNN, replacing Larry King.

2.Labour will have more council seats than the Tories after the local elections this year. Gaining from Lib Dems and the Tories.

3.The No's will win the vote on AV - The yes campaign really needs to step up it's game.

4.North Korea will do something crazy, again resulting in loss of life.

5. A premiership football club will go into administration.

6. Ed Miliband will still be Labour leader throughout the year and will lead in the polls all year.

7. No matter what happens to the AV vote. The coalition will stick together.

8. No Lib Dem MP's will walk the floor and join Labour.

9. There will not be a double dip recession in the UK.

10. Again, Bracknell Town centre will still not have the new town centre it so needs

Killer Lib Dem

2010-12-30T16:12:00.000Z

Or this may as well be the headline of this Guardian article here on Chris Jefferies who has been arrested but not charged with the murder of Joanna Yeates.

The article is covered in Lib Dems references and quotes because among other things Chris Jefferies was a Lib Dem Activist.

H/T to @kiramadeira for her tweet 'Still really confused by the Lib Dem focus here? Vile RT @guardiannews: Joanna Yeates landlord Chris Jefferies'

My 2010 predictions. How did I do?

2010-12-30T12:10:00.000Z

Last Year I made my predictions for 2010. Later I will be making my predictions for 2011.

So how did I do;

1. Both the Greens and UKIP will have there first MP's after the election in Caroline Lucas and Nigel Farage. < Really two predictions, one of which was right. I was surprised at how badly Nigel Farage did. I really thought he was a more popular politician. Nigel Farage came 3rd (17.4%) in the end behind John Stevens who ran for Campaign for Democracy (21.4%), No mean feat for Stevens. John Bercow won with 47.3% of the vote.

2. Lib dems will lose a number of seats in the South West but will gain others ending up with about the same number of MP's (63). < Well I was kind of right. Lib Dems lost 3 seats in the South West. but despite increasing their vote by 1% managed to lose 5 seats overall.

3. The Tories will win the next general election with a very small majority. <Wrong, 36 short of a majority.

4. England will lose on penalties in the Simi final of the World Cup.<ha ha ha, why did I bother, see my blog Fundamental change required for English.

5. A premiership football club will go into administration. <Portsmouth, almost. I'm going to put this on into 2011. Its got to happen sooner, surely.

6. A major Conservative blogger will stop blogging after the general election. <Well in the end there was plenty, not least Iain Dale. It took some a why. A better prediction would of been a made on the Libertarian blogger front.

7. A singer from one of Simon Cowells shows will be number one again for Christmas. <step forward Matt Cardle, winner of the Xfactor.

8. The general election will be in May. < Not a shock really.

9. The new Doctor Who actor, Matt Smith will help Doctor Who become even more popular than it was with David Tennant. <It appears I was wrong, see here.

10.Bracknell Town centre will still not have the new town centre it so needs. <Well a dead cert. I will keep this prediction to, I can't see it ever happening.