My year in review

What marks one year out from another? Years pass by but is there really anything that in your mind marks one year out from another?

For me 2005 will be remembered for the General Election (I have reviewed this in my blog) but there are many more things that have happened this year. It seems that politically the second half of 2005 was taken with the party leadership election. At the time that Howard announced his departure I, like many, was fearful of an extended leadership election, even though I knew this would give us the chance to really understand what the candidates stood for. As it happened it was an invigorating time for the party that has done nothing but good  both internally and externally. David Cameron has made a fantastic start and panic has set in on the Labour benches and open warfare is now in the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems appear to be slipping into the type of problems that the Conservatives had; starting to represent the country as it was and not as it is. They have no natural successor to lead their party. Their most likely candidate would be skipping a generation the reverse way from where the Conservatives have gone; just at the time that even the Labour party is thinking that maybe skipping over the Brown generation could be a good thing. Could David Miliband really be the next Labour leader?

It appears that the real battle is the confusion at the heart of the Lib Dems as to where they go; left or right. A key criticism of the Lib Dems is that they say different things to different people in different areas. But then this is not surprising considering there are two distinct factions in the Lib Dems. Still this is a problem for them and frankly not one that interests me. What DC has taught is that we need to think more about the future and worry less about what others stand for. Politically the year ends with the Conservatives stronger than in the past 13 years and Labour and the Lib Dems confused and divided about their futures.

On the business front I finally seem to have set up the new Not-for-Profit business that has taken months to happen; legal and financial issues take time to work through. We now have an objective and a very busy 2006 ahead as we try to make this new small business survive the vagaries of a business life.

The house did not make a lot of progress this year and doubtless early 2006 will be spent sorting the kitchen and rooms yet to be decorated.

So, here ends 2005 – a year to remember.

Tomorrow I will post my New Year resolutions.

Taking a holiday

Have a very Merry Christmas!

I am going to be taking a holiday from the blog for a few days. Will also comtemplate my New Year resolutions and report back. Probably be back 29/30th December.

They sang....they didn't get arrested

You will recall the post concerning the Carol Singing in Parliament Square.

Well it went ahead and Guido Fawkes reports on what happened.

Council performance falls from 4 stars to 3 stars

Councils Performance Shines But Drops A Star (from Surrey Comet)

Does any member of the public really care what the audit commission thinks about the Council's performance? I doubt it. As a resident you want the streets cleaned, the rubbish collected and all the other services that Councils provide. Rather than this star system I wish the Government would spend mopney educating the public on what the Council actually has responsibility for and what it does not do. There is a strong argument for Local Authorities taking on new responsibilities but whatever happens to Councils in the future they need to see a greater public awareness of their powers.

I did however think this was an interesting quote from the article:

"Disappointingly, given the Liberal Democrat manifesto putting the environment at the heart of all council business, it received just two stars out of four in the environment section but officers and councillors believe this is a result of outdated performance indicators being used."

Outdated performance indicators? Yeh, right! I presume that the recycling rate of 18%, less than it was five year's ago, is one of those "outdated performance indicators"?

One very interesting thing in passing. Whenever the Council has done something well I have noticed that Councillor's are the ones all over the press report with quotes etc. As soon as it is bad news it is the Council officer's who get wheeled out. Funny that!

1988: Jumbo jet crashes onto Lockerbie

Taken from the BBC "On this day" website

It is a stunning thought that the Lockerbie crash happened some 17 years ago. Was this part of the "war on terror" but nobody had told us it had started?

The Guardian points they way

The Guardian has this morning published an ICM poll which makes good reading for the Conservatives nationally, as well as in Kingston & Surbiton. ICM does not normally show Tory leads (last time was during the fuel crisis in 2000) but this one is a good lead that widens were Gordon Brown PM. The really bad news is for the Lib Dems. I quote an extract below:

“ICM finds that a majority (63%) of Lib Dem voters see Mr Cameron as a potential prime minister who could change the way they feel about the Tories - and almost half (46%) might consider voting for him.”

It also finds that:

“With Mr Brown in charge of Labour, the Tory lead widens to 41% to 36% with the Lib Dems on 18% as they lose votes back to Tory candidates.”

Clearly we should not get carried away as some of this is the inevitable bounce of a new leader. However, the temperature has changed. People of all parties are very much more disposed to the Conservatives than I can remember.

Were the results above to happen at a General Election the result in Kingston & Surbiton would be very interesting. Using Antony Little’s election prediction website, based on a universal swing, the results nationally and for Kingston & Surbiton are detailed above. The only seats in the South, home counties and the South West that the Lib Dems would hold are Southwark and Cambridge. It really does show just a small % of very soft Lib Dem votes moving to us would change the landscape. No wonder their MP’s are panicking! The amazing thing, of course, is that even with this result we are still not the largest party. However, as I said, this result is based on a universal swing across the country and we should not get carried away.

Christmas Fun!

.....no one say I do not give you some fun on this blog.

Click here for a Christmas tale

It happens to us all

Everyone who speaks in public does it. You mix your words and say something embarassing. This excellent clip from a Christian website called Ship of Fools is how even a priest can get caught out in the pulpit. Click here for the video

The site also has some excellent Christmas kitsch.

Star gazing for the Lib Dems

Almost the entire time I have spent working for the Conservative party we have had misfortune after misfortune. Members of the party have been patient with the pace of change and now it is happening fast. Other parties have branded us all sorts of names and yet still a third of the voting electorate have supported us through thick and thin – a core vote the Lib Dems would die for.

It is therefore rather interesting to see the Lib Dems self implosion over their leadership. Unlike the Conservatives you get the feeling that they do not have the courage to knife their Leader and consequently their warfare will drag on. It has of course been dragging on for some time anyway. Even at the party conference in the Autumn there were rumblings. As always happens with a minor party they had dropped off the radar since the election and much of their dissent and warfare has gone on without anyone noticing. We have missed the resignation of the Lib Dem Deputy President citing her worry that the party was shifting right to capture Conservative votes. This resignation is important because like the past woes of the Conservatives the kernel was always the future direction of the party; Left V Right. The Lib Dems now have the same problem.

So who comes after? The Cameron calculation must be for Hughes to win. He would take the party left and alienate Conservative votes on loan to the Lib Dems. The so called centre right “orange bookers” feel they must move to the Conservatives, but will the hard core Liberals really stomach that? One of the issues the Lib Dems face is that they are of course an alliance of very different factions. Primarily this goes back to the Liberal/ SDP merger. What we might be seeing for once is the final coming together of the old Liberals and the former SDP members fighting against the new modernisers. The modernisers might make up the majority in Parliament but they sure do not control the grass roots.

I was too young to know too much about the turmoil of Labour in the late 70’s and have been on the receiving end of the Conservative turmoil of the last ten years. The Lib Dems laughed at us; having been there I can tell them it is not amusing

The picture here is Kennedy’s star chart. Below is one very interesting quote:

“Charles Kennedy's Moon and Pluto straddle either side of the Liberal Democrats' Midheaven. This speaks of an intense bond with the party's goals and mission. The downside of this is a difficulty in letting go in this area, and a problem with stepping back to take an objective view. The party's achievements and failures will be taken very personally by him.”

......alcohol adds to the problem

There has always been plenty of rumours about Kennedy and his drinking. A friend of mine had first hand experience at a health centre visit Kennedy did at 9.30 in the morning. Even a former Lib Dem MP, Paul Marsden has now come out in the Observer today to say how bad the situation was.

Only he and his colleagues will know how bad it is but it sure is not helping his current difficulties. I wish him no ill and I hope for his own health he now sorts the problem out. Like DC and the drugs issue it is a private matter and despite what people have known they have been remarkable at keeping quiet about it - even the press, who must have known something but said nothing!!

Dale is Back

Iain Dale (Politico's and Conservative candidate in North Norfolk) stopped blogging when he went off to run DD's election campaign. He is back on the net and has started blogging again.

I suggest you go visit

Lib Dems for Cameron

This is tactically very clever. We know the Lib Dems have been "borrowing" Consevative votes and a move to bring back their soft support could not have been timed better.

I listened to Kennedy spluttering through a long radio interview in which his only defence was that no real Lib Dem would do this. Well Charles, there are not many "real" Lib Dems in your party! What there is are some very sane, rational people in the Lib Dem party who clearly belong with us. As time goes on they will come to realise this and move back to supporting us.

Nick Assinder at the BBC has done a good analysis of this and the Lib Dem Leadership crisis.

Sing Carols and get arrested

You are cordially invited to a public carol service in Parliament Square at 6pm on Wednesday the 21st of December 2005.

This inclusive service will contain both Christian and secular verse, and is expected to last no more than an hour.

Candles and song sheets will be made available, with donations going to Medical Aid for Iraqi Children.

Please note that if you attend this carol service, it will classify as a spontaneous demonstration (of faith, hope, joy and/or religious tolerance) and there is a possibility that you will be cautioned or arrested under Section 132 of the Serious and Organised Crimes and Police Act 2005.

Click here for more information.

Runners And Riders

Runners And Riders

Must be serious as there is now also a Lib Dem Leadership blog!!

New Tory Leader: Kingston Labour Leader resigns: Lib Dems are man overboard?

Stephen Pollard - What is the point of Chatshow Charlie? (Daily Mail)

This has been quite a ten days. Hard to believe that Cameron was only appointed last week and here we are moving to a LibDem crisis. From a Conservative perspective it is good to see that it is no longer us having the leadership crisis and the splits.

I was going to blog on the Kennedy leadership crisis but why bother when others do a better job. I think Stephen Pollard has written a good piece on this and it is worth the read.

The TV news last night seemed to infer that our own Kingston & Surbiton MP (Ed Davey) was at the forefront of pushing for Kennedy's departure. I must admit to being a bit shocked by this because if true it seems a little out of character - but then I don't know him so who can tell!

Labour Leader To Leave

Labour Leader To Leave Council (from Surrey Comet)

This is quite sad news!

Throughout my time as Conservative Leader on Kingston Council the Leader of the Labour group and myself have had a good working relationship. There are times when I felt he could be accused of being too close to the Lib Dems but then what can I expect when the Lib Dems nationally are now quite close to Labour. Ed has always been honest and open about where he stands on an issue and I have largely respected and admired his stances.

I think he is right that that the decline of Labour in Kingston is a mirror of the ebb and flow of Blair. However there have been times when Ed's predecessors, especially when there was no overall control in Kingston, acted too much to support the Lib Dem opposition rather than support their own line.

I wish him well but despite everything I think he will miss it!

The future is macaroon

Congratulations to David Cameron.

This is a good result for the party. Not only has there been a period where the party has dominated the news with an open and thoughtful election campaign, but there is a renewed sense of optimism permeating the party. Even the public seem to have sat up and paid attention to what the party is doing - probably the first time since 1992.

What does this mean for politics?

Clearly a revitalised Tory party, just when the Government is going through a period of significant and sustained instability, is going to begin to give people a real vision of an alternative. Labour will have an interesting future and the landscape of the relationship between Blair and Brown will come under renewed pressure. For the Lib Dems this will also be an interesting challenge. David Cameron’s arrival will put very large tanks on Lib Dem lawns in the South. The Lib Dems have done a good job of looking like the Conservative left in places such as Kingston but David Cameron’s approach will appeal to the London urbanites that saw the Lib Dem approach to Social issues as more relevant in a Labour dominated politics. At the last election the Lib Dems saw Northern labour votes come to them. However, as many of these were Conservatives who had gone to Labour it is possible that most of those people would come back to a Conservative party that was more concerned about the issues that drove them to Labour in the first case.

Cameron has started to lay out what he sees as his policy objectives:

• Making our economy more competitive
• Improving our quality of life
• Reforming our public services
• Protecting our security
• Social Action
• Addressing global poverty
  
  

I have been involved for the past six months in preparing our manifesto for the local elections next May. Getting people to move on from thinking about specific polices first and seeing how they fit broad objectives later is different from defining what the problem is and then finding the solutions. When our local manifesto is published that is what we hope will be its defining feature – it addresses the issues we face rather than just a wish list of things we think are popular.

One of the interesting aspects of the cleaner hospitals…etc approach at the General Election was that we gave the list of issues we identified were the problem but we did not talk enough about the solutions. We had the answers but we campaigned on the questions!

I gather that David is going to set up a commission on Social Justice. I am fully supportive of this approach. As I have said many time s on this blog social justice was at the heart of the conservative party ever since the mid 18th century. I will play whatever part I can in feeding into that debate.

Get Jane!

This is an Excellent blog. It is written by the former Labour MP for Reading East who was deselected - Jane Griffiths. She pulls no punches and it will be interesting to see if any of her former colleagues makes any legal moves against her.

Council Tax to rise again

We are facing another high Council Tax rise. Yes we can blame Brown and his Government for stealth taxes but there is a point at which local Council's must take responsibility for their spending.

The graph opposite shows how staff numbers have grown in Kingston as Council tax has risen. There is a clear correlation between the two.

Staff have increased by 37% and in this year alone another 500 (12% increase) were added. Council Tax has risen by 59%.

More staff should mean more services - or at least better services. Yet when the Council recently undertook a survey of resident satisfaction they found that 37% of residents thought the council were doing a good job, as opposed to 50% in 2000. The report said: "Residents feel that the way the Council runs things has stayed the same over the past three years, rather than getting better or worse."

So when Council Tax next year goes up by a rate way above inflation it may be right to criticise the Government but also remember there are things the Council can do.

Pollsters and Blogsters

I have to say it is rare that the polls get the result right but Yougov did a brilliant job of predicting the Conservative leadership vote. Yougov are an internet pollster and yet considering there are some that argue that the internet is not yet a tool for politics they have been doing a good job in getting the polls right, both here and at the General Election.

The explosion of internet activity around this leadership election has been fascinating. Both Conservative Home and Guy Fawkes' Blog have received a million hits in the past six months. Boris received over 650 comments on his leadership piece alone. Blogs are becoming a powerful tool. As Guido Fawkes has discovered there are even members of the press who use the blogs as sources for stories (although of course they rarely credit them).

Kennedy took cash from tax exile

Kennedy took cash from tax exile - Sunday Times - Times Online

I have posted links to a series of issues about Lib Dem party funding and am always told they are exceptions.

Well lo and behold we find another emerging in the Sunday Times. This one appears to concern Charles Kennedy and his lack of frankness about donations to his private office and the origins of the giver.

The Times also gives a balanced comment in the same paper.

The Brown faultline

ePolitix.com - Turner findings welcomed despite Brown's doubts

There is more to this for Brown than just pensions.

Why is he content to be seen to be the party pooper on this report; as he has been on other reports before this one. Is this the ressurection of Prudence or is it that he wants to make no fiscally risky decision before he gets out of the treasury and takes the helm of the UK?

As for the report itself it is clear that the logic in the report is well thought out and understandable. However, it is going to be a hard sell convincing those now in their twenties and thirties that they will be paying more tax over their lifetimes to support those in their forties and fifties who will retire at 65, but they themselves will have their retirement age shifted.

Actually I wonder if what is needed here is a mind shift for us all. There is clearly no fixed age for retirement anymore and often peoples retirements are a gradual process as they wind down, change job or go part time in the twilgiht of their working life. If you are comfortable with that as a late-life lifestyle then actually the "state" pension cutting in at a later date is not so bad. In any case the working life today is a lot about changing jobs and retraining throughout your working life rather than a single job and occupational pension.

New Year - New Challenges

I have two resolutions and they come as political and non-political

The first one is to cycle more often. I cycle quite a bit but mainly as a fair weather cyclist. Given Kingston is quite small it really should be something we all do, if we can.

The second resolution is to do something about Council Tax. The level of Council Tax has become a sad joke as the Government has abused it and local councils have u8sed the excuse to rapidly expand their staff numbers. We always blame the Government for it but as a Council we have some power in our hands. The tax is really hitting single householders and the elderly hard but is also now cutting into the spending of families. I am aware that there are other methods of taxation available to raise tax locally and I for one would be keen to see Councils having more tax raising power rather than relying on Government grant for so much of their spending. However, for now the tax system is not going to change and we must do what we can to help the vulnerable and those being penalised by this tax.

For once in my political career it is good to be a Conservative and exciting times lie ahead for the party, Kingston and the Country.

The morning after the night before

George Best has died. Rather like the events surrounding the death of the Princess of Wales I must admit to not understanding the upswelling of emotion. I have never been a great football fan but have recognised the fascination of an iconic figure whose fame drives them off the rails to alcohol. In fact George did a fair amount of his later drinking in Surbiton pubs, especially the Victoria, from which I think he had been banned.

There is a very good history on George Best in Wikipedia.

George Best himself was keen to ensure that we all saw what drink had done to him, as a warning. The Mirror printed pictures, at his request.

What an irony that one of the Britain’s greatest sportsman should die from the illness of alcoholism the morning after the first night of the Government’s new 24 hour drinking laws.

Fleet street heavyweights declare for Cameron

ePolitix.com - Fleet street heavyweights declare for Cameron

It looks now that the outcome of the leadership debate is clear. What a contest it has been and what good it has done for the Conservatives.

The Telegraph has run a rather curious article that this might well lead to a Con-Lib coalition in a future Government. Complete tosh of course; why would the Conservatives need the Lib Dems?

Whatever else, this coupled with the rising polls indicating that Labour's popularity is waning and ours is rising will send out good signs for us both nationally and locally as we move towards the local elections next May and the future General Election.

Brown calls for two per cent pay restraint

We have run out of flu jabs (Government incompetenece), We have now seen the threat of fuel restrictions (Government lack of preperation), we are told Council Tax might go up 10% next year (Government overspending with no results) and now we are told that public sector works are going to have their pay rises capped (Government confrontation).

Isn't this how the winter of discontent started in 1978/9?

Extended pub hours

ePolitix.com - Extended pub hours

Well, we are off. From Midnight the laws will change to allow pubs to open on time.

I actually agree with the principle of reforming the alcohol laws. I utterly oppose the way this Government has completely messed up the proposals. They have given the power over licencing to local councils but then not allowed them enough powers to represent the people who elect them. It is utterly mad that I cannot object to an application in the area for which I am elected. My views count for nothing. Nor do the views count of those who are affected by a licence application, only those whose properties abut the licenced premises.

Even where the Council do have powers Council like Kingston have done nowhere near enough to set up a policy framework to protect residents.

This weeks letter in the Surrey Comet lays out the concerns very well. (It has not bee published on the web yet but as soon as it is I will set up the link!!)

Cameron V Brown

There is part of me that could quite begin to feel sorry for Gordon Brown.

For eight years he has been robbing blind those who have not retired through abusing the pension system. He has also been stealing money from those who have retired by punative council tax rises. All this just to pay for the huge rises in public spending demanded by his pal next door, none of which has produced the improvements in public services we should be seeing.

Why did he do it? Because he was told that if he did he would land the top job. He has kept quiet in public, bided his time and waited, every now and then asking when and then going off in another long sulk.

And then...just when he thinks Blair is on the ropes and has started to lose the plot, as well as parliamentary votes, what happens?

The Conservatives look destined to elect a younger fresher face to politics. A real challenger to Labour and one which will cause real problems for both them and that other party of the left, the Lib Dems. On top of that the Governor of the Bank of England starts telling everyone that the economy is going pear shaped and Brown is to blame.

What will be the outcome of a Cameron V Brown fight? Will it make Brown older and less telegenic than he is now? Might even Charlie Kennedy start to look old?

Lib Dems want to tax rich bears?

BBC NEWS Politics Lib Dems abandon high tax policy

He has lost the plot! It must be something to do with Charles Kennedy and the Lib Dems being ignored for the past six months by a media much more interested in the rejuvenation of the Conservatives.

Charles Kennedy now seems to want to argue that whilst the Lib Dems are not going to change their tax policies from the last election (higher taxes) he now wants the public to understand them as fairer taxes. He then completely lost me with a reference to Goldilocks and bears eating porridge as some metaphore for Lib Dem tax policy.

He seems to think that current taxes are not high and that it merely needs richer people to pay more so that poorer people can pay less. Surely that is just left wing redistribution?

Me thinks Charlie should pop home and get himself in front of the TV with a bottle of whiskey and try and dream of some more bizarre activities involving bears!!

Treatment works revisited

I paid a visit to the water treatment (sewage) works and was given a tour of the plant and how it works. Not necessarily the best place to spend your time but still it was instructive. You will pleased to know I did not take any photos.

It appears the treatment plant is actually very new. In fact much of the plant was only commissioned in the late nineties. Whilst the essence of how the plant works might not have changed the equipment and the technology clearly has.

It seems to me there are three potential areas where the odours could occur. The first is when the sewage enters the plant into a huge open well. I had always believed that the works were local but in fact they now cover an area that seems to spread from Worcester Park through New Malden, Surbiton and Kingston; a huge area to collect from.

The second "smelly" bit appears to be where air is pumped into the sewage whilst it is in beds. This clearly puts odour into the air. This part of the plant is also very close to where AFC Wimbledon/Kingstonian are based. It could well account for the odour problems along the Kingston Road - Hawks Road area which do appear somewhat more continuous than those in Berrylands.

The final area appears to be the sludge. When the water has been squeezed out the remaining sludge is sent to farms for manure. (don't ask, it surprised me as well!) Before being sent to the farmer it is stored in large open beds that run along the rear of the rail tracks, not far from the station. Most of the time this probably does not smell but when they come to load this onto lorries, for shipment to farms in the Spring and Summer, stirring it up may well cause a problem. Clearly when this happens those living in Surbiton Hill Park and surrounding areas in Berrylands may get a problem.

So what could Thames Water do about it? Well they admit that they could prevent it. It would be possible to cover those areas that present these problems and they would need to install very large air purification plants to cleanse the air inside the cover, although it would be very expensive. They even reminded me that some plants have tried an aerosol technique to clean up the air but this had limited results.

However, they cannot just invest where they might want to. Despite being a privatised company they can only invest in areas of their operations where the Water regulator agrees. The priorities set by the water regulator for the next five years are to invest billions in upgrading the water delivery infrastructure (pipes, drains etc.). As you are probably aware the system of pipes in some places date back to Victorian times and have huge leakage problems. Thames Water anticipate that 30% of their clean water leaks out of their pipes. Pipes are priorities for now, not water treatment plants.

So it looks as if the next stop is the water regulator! Wish me luck?

However, I have asked that Thames Water consider what they might do to improve relationships with the people living close by. They have agreed to have a look at what they can do to keep residents up to date with issues. This would have been particularly helpful over the Summer when they had the major break downs that caused such problems. They also know the areas of Kingston that are most directly affected by odours. I shall keep up a dialogue with them on this aspect.

The New Party

I hope you like this site as much as I do.

The New Party have quite a good website. If you go to their principles page I think you will see there is little that the Conservative Party can disagree with. The irony is that they say they are so successful because the other parties keep stealing their policies.

Even as a small party they are against PR, which is not a bad thing. They are also running a stop the spin campaign.

Have fun reading!

Are the Police tainted by the Terrorist Bill?

Should Senior Police officers have been lobbying MP's? The Police are public servants, in no way different to the armed forces, fire service or even civil servants.

Had Senior officers in the armed services not wanted to go to war in Iraq would it have been acceptable for them to lobby the MP's? Should civil servants who disagree with, or agree with, a Government Policy lobby MP's to get them to vote for the policy?

In my view the answer is clearly "No".

The Police must be neutral if they are to deal with the issues of justice and the arrest of citizens. Working and lobbying for a policy they agree with, and the Government is backing, should not have happened.

Could this be the beginning of the end of Blair?

ePolitix.com - Ministers defeated on 90 day vote

This reminds me of the latter days of the Major Government, in fact I think it was probaby more than just the 'latter'.

One cannot help thinking that this time it is an important moment. The Conservatives on the rise again is going to focus the minds of some Labour backbenchers. However, putting that aside this was a very interesting issue for two reasons. Firstly it is a very important issue that a Govenment would want to increase six fold the powers of the Police to hold suspects without charge. It would be a fundamental change to the civil liberties of all in this country to move to such a position.

But the other interesting issue is how much the Labour party has lost control of their party. This is a very large majority and was certainly not close enought to warrant a first class airfare for the Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary to return to London to vote. They clearly did not believe it would be so far away and not at all close. That must be worrying for them.

I think this signals the start of some interesting times in the House of Commons and the rise again of Parliamentary power. Just wait till Blair starts trying to reform public services.

The Queen's Oil

Apart from this being the first anniversary of George W Bush winning the White House for a second term this is also the 30th anniversary of the day that the Queen turned on the flow of oil in a vast extravaganza in Aberdeen. Wilson was PM and talked of a nation that generated its own wealth instead of relying on others.

Whatever the discussion about whether our crude oil is any good or not it is interesting that oil alone is the sole remaining natural resource (despite gas which we are starting to lose) for power.

We have renewable energies but as yet their impact on power generation is still at an early stage.

In fact I thought oil was on the decline but I gather there have been two major finds over the last few years; Buzzard oilfield (400m barrels) and the Brenda oilfield (150m Barrels).

This blog today is not the place to think more about the Nuclear energy but I did find it fascinating that yesterday a leading environmental (green) scientist, James Lovelock, came out and claimed that maybe Nuclear is a worthwhile environmental method of energy production if it leads to a reduction in carbon emissions in power generation. You need to go to the Today programme website to hear it - broadcast 3.11.05 or go to the link above to see an earlier publication he has written. The world is changing and I think we are beginning to change with it.

Lib Dem funding row will not go away

It looks as if the fudning row over a very large election donation to the Liberal Democrat party is set to continue.

The Times

Donor could face five years for fraud

Funnier Money

I could have sympathy for them but considering how much mud they throw when they see it happening to another party my sympathy somewhat wains.

What's your view about the Tesco Bridge in Tolworth?

On the face of it the idea that we revitalise Tolworth appears to be a good idea. However there are some real questions that need to be asked about the sheer scale of this proposal. I have posted the various elements with a summary of what is said.

I see that our local MP has called for a debate and yet does not give his view, despite us knowing he has been involved with meetings with the developer before this scheme came forward.

So what are the issues?

Do we really want nearly 900 units of accommodation and 2,000 extra people living in Tolworth? I am not sure I know the answer to this but this would in effect be the equivalent of a 30% increase in residents for the Tolworth and Hook ward, in which much of this would sit.

Should we be cynical about the fact that Tesco are spending almost the entire publicity document talking about their green bridge idea and not talking about the impact on traffic of their superstore?

Do we really want environmental improvements like those at New Malden High Street?

I have real concerns about this proposal. It seems heavy on selling points without confronting the real problems they are raising about the capacity of Tolworth and the A3 to cope with the traffic demands that will exist from such a development. I am also sceptical about the "Community facilities" they wish to provide. What are these? In recent experience these have often ended up costing the council money.

Do we want Tolworth Broadway to be turned into single lane traffic and the barrier to be taken down? I am all for taking the barrier down but they are also threatening a scheme like New Malden High Street presumable with no bus pull ins and lots of cannonballs for bollards.

Page 2

Apparently more and more people are chossing to go elsewhere than shop in Tolworth. This has been the case for twenty years. We used to have a mainstream supermarket (before M&S) under the Tolworth Tower and that did not help much. 

Page 3

Interesting that here their emphasis is on the improvements to Tolworth Broadway. Only once is the Tesco store mentioned.

2,000 more people? What about schools? Will Tesco be sponsoring a new school under the Government's initiative launched this week in their White Paper.

Page 4 - Environment

This page is full of stuff about how they would use self sustaining energy and generate their own power and water from rainfall and burning waste. Good stuff but clearly there to impress us. 

Been away

Have been away for half term hence the lack of blogging.

Went to Wells Next The Sea in North Norfolk.

Good to get away and think about life beyond politics. 

....and then it was three

Well it is down to three.

A very interesting competition awaits us all.

On reflection, and now that Ken Clarke is out of things, I have to say I will be backing David Cameron. It is a risk as he is untried and lacking in experience. However, as we are finding, innovative thinking and the desire for change appears to be winning out over experience. I am still not convinced he knows what it is he is saying but it is a start.

It has been very interesting how the only politics in town at the moment is Tory politics. I was flying back from Belfast this evening and it was noticeable how passengers were in the airport standing around TV's awaiting the result!

What is going to be absorbing is whether this is going to go to a final vote? I have a hunch that if things start to drift then we may find ourselves with situation where others might withdraw leaving only one candidate. This is what happened with Howard when Davis withdrew.

We shall see.

Health commissioning

We had a very interesting briefing tonight on the effects of the new NHS commissioning on Kingston. In effect they are going to scrap the PCT's. The same PCT that tells us when they have moved all the services out of Surbiton Hospital (apparently it is not 'closure') that they will then develop a master plan for the site.

That's all great except the PCT is likely to be scrapped next year and along with it will go our promises of any new facilities.

Incidentally in 1997 the NHS spent £37m. In 2005 it's budget has ballooned to £76bn. Yet Kingston's PCT cannot repair the roof of Surbiton Hospital!! It is pretty clear to me that Kingston is not getting it's fair share of health spending and that our local MP has a lot to answer for with his inability to convince the Government of Kingston's case. Making speeches and issuing press releases is one thing; getting something done is another.

Beverley Boys' School

I was a pupil at Beverley Boys’ school in its heyday. It was a time when standards were high; there was a thriving sixth form and a fine music and sport’s department. Music was more my thing than sports!

Why was it so good? It came down to good leadership and a superb headmaster in Clifford Fisher. I was recently in contact with Clifford Fisher, him having retired to Eastbourne with his wife. Some may also remember him as a distinguished artist.

I therefore view its educational decline with some despair and agree that steps needed to be taken to restore some form of higher pupil numbers and increased standards. I therefore had little problem with the idea of what I though was a “soft” federation of Beverley Boy’s school with Coombe Girls School (where my mother attended school). However a “soft” federation is one where the respective schools retain their defining characters whilst having a single leadership team; it is NOT a merger or a takeover.

You can imagine therefore my horror at the idea that Beverley Boys’ School should now be renamed Coombe Boys’ School. This is an insult to the very fine work that went on in the past and a slap in the face to the current pupils and teachers who in dilapidated and constrained buildings have striven to improve education standards.

Beverley may well have problems but stripping this fine school and its alumni of their dignity will not help it in either the short or the long term.

Sewage III

Things moving a bit faster now on the sewage works.

Thames Water is now going to attend a meeting and give a presentation to the Transport and Infrastructure overview panel at the Guildhall on the evening of the 1st December 2005. Nothing to do with transport, except when they dig up roads I suppose.

Things have been pretty awful the last few days. With the air still and warm the smell has been dreadful even down where I live on Alexandra Drive. Tonight we have the dreaded mosquitoes in the air, pebble dashing my walls.

I have sent the following to the chap in charge of local government and community affairs for Thames Water and we shall see what happens:

Thank you for your letter informing me you will be attending the Transport and Infrastructure overview panel meeting on the 1st December 2005.

I presume that you are there primarily to answer questions concerning the impact of works upon the Highways. However, I represent a ward which has had a pretty torrid summer from the water treatment works at Lower Marsh lane which have caused substantial problems of odour across a fairly wide area, apparently due to broken equipment. We have also suffered the indignity of a fairly significant mosquito attack during the past twenty four hours.

Is it your intention to cover this subject because if so then I would like to hear more about the future of water treatment and what steps you will be taking in future to limit odours in the light of the Mogden judgement?

Conferences and next weeks fashion show

What a shambles the Labour conference is. I think we shuld admit they are all a shambles at this point in the electoral cycle. Great fun to be there but pretty poor TV.

The Lib Dem conference was a shambles because despite losing the votes on lots of key policy areas the activists wanted changed it is almost certain the leadership will now do it anyway.

The Labour conference this week was equally ridiculous. A lone voice who chose to shout out during a debate is expelled after a lifetime in the party and an early life in a concentration camp. Blair standing there telling the party what he was going to do whilst almost all of them did not want it.

And now the Conservative conference this week……

My time there will be somewhat curtailed by a decision to hold a Council meeting during the conference; duty first and all that.

Our conference is going to be a cross between a beauty contest and a TV game show. Lots of Miss World like belief in “helping small children” but the ultimate understanding that the winner of the leadership contest will be he who comes over best on TV. So here’s the big question: do you pick a leader who can win or who you believe in? Is there one of them who can do both?

Cameron – Is pretty good but not really sure he understands what he is talking about. He has been good on the diagnosis but I am not convinced he quite knows what the medicine is that the patient will accept without throwing up! He has a good bunch of speech writers around him and he would pull in new and younger people to the party who should be supporting us? Could not find a leadership website. Win 7 Belief 8

Clarke – I have said this before about Ken but where has he been for the past four years. You do get the feeling he crawls out of the smog of his cigars every time he gets a whiff of a leadership election. He might win but I am not sure how the hell he can lead the party. All Labour have to do is call a referendum on some small European matter which the party as a whole objects to and there we have our Leader going off and campaigning with the Labour party. However, of all the candidates he is the one the polls say is more likely to win, or is that just because they know him. He has a website. Win 8 Belief 6.

Davis – Apparently the ladies like him. He seems a bit like a Paddy Pantsdown but clearly more right wing. He is not remembered for his time in the Thatcher and Major Governments which is helpful. There is something I just do not get about him. I also heard him speak at something recently and he is only mildly better than IDS at speaking! He has a pretty good website though. Win 8 Belief 7.

What a choice; sure things will change and it will all become a bit clearer as time passes by! Labour is in not much better health. Brown seems a Tory gift to me. Rather good article in telegraph this week by Boris on what Brown would be like.

Save Surbiton Hospital II

Things seem to be hotting up on the Save Surbiton Hospital front.

In conversation with the Editor of the Surrey Comet they agreed to run a campaign to fight any closure of the hospital. As he remarked to me there is a certain sense of déjà vu as it is only six years ago they were apparently going to go away and plan its future. No idea what happened to that and it is very curious they are now taking such fast action to close down the beds.

The Comet has set up a campaign website on their own: Surrey Comet

I have also started an online epetiton on the Council website so we can apply pressure there.

We also have a motion being debated at Full Council next week.

I also have a meeting on Monday 3rd October with the CEO of the PCT so I can understand a little more what this is about and why the PCT can be so overspent considering how much of our tax goes to the NHS.

Sewage follow up

Time for a follow up on my earlier blogs about the problem of smells from the Berrylands Water Treatment Works (sewage to you and me).

I was sent some interesting news from a reader of the blog who pointed me in the direction of a recent case concerning Mogden Works in Hounslow, also Thames Water.

On 19 July 2001 the London Borough of Hounslow served abatement notices on Thames Water under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for causing odour and mosquito nuisance.

On 8 June 2005, after four years of legal wrangling, Thames Water finally accepted a legally binding schedule to comply with the July 2001 odour abatement notice. It includes operational changes that need to be implemented within 7 days and 30 days and sets a 42 month timetable for fitting covers to the storm tanks, east and west inlet works and the east side second stage primary settlement tanks.

The Mogden residents fighting this have a campaign website all about the problem and their actions. Admittedly this is a bigger works but then it is not the size but the smell that is at issue.

I have now met with the Borough’s environmental health officer and he is considering whether there might be grounds to consider some form of action against Thames Water. The legal technicalities of this are that we need to set up some form of monitoring if we are to ever form against that would hold up scrutiny.

We clearly need to monitor the situation and see what develops. I will pursue the other avenues and see what happens.

Lib Dems facing donation inquiry

My blog on this occasion is not a particular dig against the Lib Dems but a serious view that some day someone will need to be brave enough to sort out once and for all this issue of political donations.

I do not know what will hapopen in this case but clearly the donor thinks they broke the rules. Could it lead to a fine or MP's having to recontest seats?

University drop-out rate rising

BBC NEWS | Education | University drop-out rate rising

I suppose in a way this is inevitable if you have more young people going to University.

Putting aside whether you think this is a good or a bad thing the fact that some of the highest drop out rates in England are in London you wonder whether mergers might be on the horizon. Does London need all the Universities it has?

The Council last night started an investigation into the plans for Kingston University to massively expand its provision. The fact is that we need to ask real questions about whether we as a Borough want or can accommodate the types of growth that the University wants. The most fascinating thing to emerge last night that is if you add together the graduates from Kingston University who stayed in Kingston to the numbers currently attending they already account for about 20% of Kingston's residents.

Surbiton Hospital to close

Public Board Meeting - 23 September 2005

This is an utter disaster and one we need to camapign against.

Kingston PCT is consulting on the proposal to close Surbiton Hospital because the building needs large maintenance bills and they have overspent their budget already this year.

Where are our taxes going?

Surbiton Hospital not only provides local care for those recovering from operations but is also a local centre for x-rays etc and widely used by GP's in the area. At the time we should be driving to localise public services here we are closing them because the health service has run out of money. Sadly, we are not alone in this and there is a pattern acrioss the country of community hosiptals closing due to lack of money as you can see fromn this article in The Spectator.

I will kee you in touch with developments.

BMA warns of jobless doctors

I think this has to be one of the most perplexing things I have read for some time. Of course the Department of Health has to defend the position but can it really be true that we are now facing closing hosiptals as well as Doctors out of work and yet waiting lists that hardly seem to budge?

Flat Tax

There has been a lot in the press for some time now about the issue of flat tax. The Adam Smith institute has written a paper on flat tax proposals for the UK. The Shadow Chancellor has decided to set up a commission to examine the pros and cons. The fact that it has set the Labour advisors into a very fast spinning process probably also means it is worth examining.

In a nutshell it seems to mean a massive simplification of the taxation system so that you have only one rate of tax and no allowances. If flatter tax means simpler tax then there will be many who will find this appealing.

To offset the disbenefit this would have on low and middle income earners there would be a relatively high threshold at which no tax would be paid. There figures vary from proposal to proposal but the threshold being talked of at present is between £10k and £12k. The benefit of this is obviously that quite a large number of people would pay no tax at all; large numbers of pensioners, those on benefit or in part time jobs that currently pay when over the current low threshold of about £4k.

Sounds good you say? Those against the idea believe that this is unfair as it benefits those on high incomes who will pay less. One of the oddities of this argument, and the current tax system, which I have never understood, is that when you have a system based on percentages of gross income then the richer always pay more tax. Surely those on the left ought to be arguing that having everyone paying the same rate of tax is fairer for all, in the same way having comprehensive education is supposedly giving the same level of education to all, regardless of a students relative strengths and weaknesses. (In passing I do not believe the comprehensive system has worked precisely because the weakest and poorest have ended up being pushed out of the most successful schools by kids with wealthier more mobile parents. Wealth creates mobility. At least with the Grammar Schools ability was the deciding factor not wealth - Greenwich judgement aside)

Above all this is the issue that in countries where they have introduced flat tax their productivity and growth has risen sharply. What is difficult to ascertain is whether this is because of flat tax or just their normal economic growth pattern.

I think examining this system is probably a good idea. It is politically “trendy” at the moment to say it should be looked at and I think it is responsible to rule it out or in as an idea. Incidentally, I gather that the Government have looked at it but refused to publish the section that said whether it was a good or bad idea; something to hide?

Brown calls for oil price effort

The trouble with this type of announcement from the Chancellor is that with New Labour it is still to difficult to know when something is earnestly meant or is being spun to divert attention.

Fuel protests appear to be a likelihood over the coming weeks. To divert attention the Chancellor shifts the blame to global oil prices, even though they actually make up a very small part of the total fuel price.

However, I believe there are some issues here. It is all very well for the Chancellor to say that there should be investment in refineries and in alternative energies, but I do not see the British Government trying to do much. Where is the encouragement to the car industry in the UK to start to move away from oil based fuels? The fact is I believe I am right in saying that there are more car companies manufacturing cars in the UK than any other country in the world. With such a diverse audience of global companies I would have thought there was a real opportunity for this Government to change global attitudes to motor fuel consumption. Perhaps the problem is that actually the Chancellor likes the fuel tax escalator because he needs more money to spend!

I have two cars; one is a people mover to get my family around and the other is Smart car. The Smart is very green and low fuel consumption. I was interested recently in Autogas, partly because of price. Startlingly even if you did convert, which many can, you might be able to halve your fuel bills but there are hardly any refuelling points in Kingston. In fact the closest appear to be in Ewell and Wimbledon.

Vote Liberal - get a mess!

"Top Liberal Democrat Vincent Cable has said his party could form a coalition with the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament."

I know the Liberals have dissapeared off the airwaves since the General Election but this is a prety desperate attempt to create a story. Perhaps my Liberal readers could tell me what the advantage for the Conservatives would be in going into coalition with a high tax, high spend party to the left of Labour?

I have been sent this from a friend in the US, even though it is UK TV. Amused me anyway!!

Lessons in dealing with disaster

A different perspective

This is a very interesting piece on the hurricane disaster in New Orleans. The last few days have been full of Bush Bashing and how the US Government was slow to respond etc.

This piece argues that this may well have been right, but when you have a media that builds every high wind into a devastating storm before they reach land then there creeps in hurricane fatigue in those who listen and should be taking weather advice? There were dozens who told us they decided to ride the storm out, in the same way they had probably ridden out other "Disaster storms" predicted by the media. In fact in the preceding few days before the storm struck even this one was downgraded from a grade 4/5 to a grade 1. Is it surprising some thought they could ride it out? You cannot blame the media for everything but they do control the way we think and understand the issues that happen around us and the weather is another area where the temptation to aggrandise a storm to catch headlines and fill the news bulletins must be great.

Yet, one day during the week the news carried images of an elderly care home where old people were dying because they had no power or food and water. I kept asking myself "why were they there?". They were advised to leave by the state Government but they chose not to; is it the state Government responsibility to evacuate care homes or should local Government be taking care of that?

The Return of The Big Beast

Tory Leadership Blog

Ken Clarke needs to answer some questions for me if this is a serious challenge:

Where has he been since 1997 (apart from tobacco board meetings)? Should our next Leader have not been fighting for us through the past eight years and not just pop up whenever the Leadership comes up for grabs?
What is he offering the country?
When he says he no longer loves the Euro what are his views about the rest of the European monolith?
Does he really believe that a number of the Lib Dems should have been Conservative MP's and not Lib Dems? They might appear Tory to get elected but they sure ain't Tory when they win!!

Still a long time to go but at least someone has at least declared they are a candidate instead of all the shadow boxing we have had till now.

Been away

I have been on holiday the past few days.

I needed a break and the children needed one too. We went to a great cottage in Herefordshire, just outside Ledbury, plenty of swimming and lots of peace. Best advantage was there was no mobile signal!!

Hampton Court Fair

I cycled over to the Hampton Court this morning with the children.

They were running a fantastic country fair. For many years there has been a travelling funfair on the grounds over Bank Holiday weekends. This year an inspired group of local people decided to start a country fair and I have to say it was a vast improvement.

A COUNTRY AFFAIR

The mess our roads are in

Had a number of residents complain to me last night about the standard of resurfacing of the roads. In some places the roads are resurfaced perfectly, in others they have made an appalling mess; blocked gullies, tarmac coming up within weeks, lowered kerbs that allows the rainwater to flow onto the pavements, ridges in the road that mean motorcycles have some difficulty staying upright.

It is bad enough I suppose that we have still have the number of roads that are sub standard. From what I can see this is likely to continue, despite the investment that is currently being made.

Still the Lib Council had their chance to do something about this recently:

Borrow £3m and have a choice on who you can spend it on: Beverley School (complete mess), Tolworth Girl’s Schools (6th Form falling down), roads or even use the interest on the loan to reverse their catastrophic decision to charge the elderly and disabled massively more for their domiciliary care and hurt them more by means testing them.

Bad smell update

Have now, finally, got some sense from Thames Water.

It appears the Berrylands (Hogsmill) treatment works have got a faulty "gas flare system" They are now undertaking repairs which they expect to have completed by the 26th August.

By September Berrylands will be fragrant again.

Does not stop me having a meeting with them to try and discuss what further can be done to limit smells from the place.

Funny smell in Berrylands

When you live in Berrylands you put up with a certain degree of bad smell from the sewage farm near the railway. Depends where the wind blows usually.

However of recent days it has ben very strong and regular. In fact we have had a number of residents mention it when we have been out knocking on doors. The rumour is that some piece of expensive equipment has broken down and is not working properly. I have been in contact with Thames Water to set up a meeting to discuss what other improvements we might be able to make.

If any regular readers of this site have any news on the subject I would be happy to hear from them.

Unions at it again

Click here to go to The Times article

Since labour came to power in 1997 the Unions have kept a somewhat low profile. The Trade Unions were the most dangerous and damaging element of British society in the seventies. Their actions in striking for workers rights and higher pay often led to further unemployment as the nation became uncompetitive and unreliable due to the lightening strikes and violent pickets.

I thought that had changed but with the British Airways/Gate Gourmet farago we have seen a return to the nad old days many of us thought would never happen and that legislation prevented.

I note from this article that there is confirmation that the industrial action was illegal, both at gate Gourmet and at BA and that frankly the whole lot of them could be sacked. However in a period of high employment, such as we have now, where are the new employees going to come from?

I saw an amusing letter in the Daily Telegraph yesterday. It was a short and open letter asking the BA workers to go back to work because the Government has a number of deportations of "hate clerics" to make!!

New York releases 9/11 documents

Click here to go to the BBC website article

I am not sure that any of us will ever forget 9/11 but these tapes do cast a new light on the horror of what happened.

Inherent in the request for them to be released is a critiscism of the way the emergency services performed that day in new York. I am not sure how you can critiscise or prepare for such an event. Still there will always be those who seek someone to blame.

Tebbit rules himself out of the leadership context - at last someone has!!

Other than providing jobs for politicians, what is the Conservative Party for?:

This is a very good piece by Norman Tebbit. Not quite what I expected from him and I do not necessarily agree with all that he has said in relation to policy.

But although he disparages thse who feel we need to move to the centre ground to fight Labour he does make an interesting point in this paragraph:

"It would be a radical programme. It would take time to bear fruit. But that was true of the Thatcher government, on whose achievements our present prosperity is built. Now our problems are social, and in the organisation of public services. They need to be addressed with equal radicalism."

I suppose the point he makes is that the Conservative Party that has dominated politics for as long as it has needs to create new ground not move to inhabit the old territory. In part this is because citizens change and will come to reject the lurch to the left that the Lib Dems provide but will be searching for new alternatives, not just a better management of the existing alternatives.

An interesting view point. Will check out what Conservative home has to say on this subject as there is usually some lively debate over there!!

Pundit defends Cook funeral jibe

I think he was right to say it.

Personally I think that Robin Cook was a disastrous Foreign Secretary whose "ethical foreign policy" was just pure cant. However, he was the first Labour Foreign Secretary for 18 years and Blair's first in office. He also stood by Blair for a full term as Foreign Secretary. You wonder what history would say had Cook been Foreign Secretary when Blair proposed taking us to war?
For Blair not to go to the funeral was outrageous, he should have given time. For someone whose judgement has often been his saving grace he got it wrong here. But as the racing critic said, Blair does not care about public opinion any more because he is never again going to stand for election. In the right circumstances does that not make him dangerous?

I agree that whether the time to say these things was the funeral is debatable but I applaud the fact the McCririck said them. I do qualify this by saying that clearly he is a Tory and I hope that was not why he said it.

As he said, if Thatcher could go to Heath's funeral.........

Another river death in Kingston upon Thames

This is terribly bad news, yet another death along the river at Kingston. I have received an email from a friend of the family who asks that the Council think about the fact that there are no railings along the riverside.

Clearly I would be the last to suggest that we should close up the river frontage with ironmongery but it is clear that after the accidents we have had over the past years that we need to consider what precautions we should take. If not railings then why not wooden platforms at the river level so that if you fall you fall onto those and not the river, we have these at some points.

As it happens I took an opportunity to walk along the frontage from Charter Quay to John lewis, passing the area where this young man was found. The one area that raised most concern for me was that outside the Bishop out of Residence pub the pathway funnels down to an area that I would say is very narrow and not safe. I had children with me and I felt uncomfortable.

I have written to the Chairman of the Neighbourhood Committee that covers that area and asked that they review our policy on the river front before we have another accident.

Time for the Conservative party to move on

It looks as if the move of our party headquarters is finally coming to fruition. The opportunity to get some modern offices, maybe with a shopfront, has got to be appealing. The fact is the present buidling is pretty crummy and has no presence to make people realise we are in the Borough at all. It is also badly located if we expect people to come and join us in the weekly stuffing, folding etc. Still the passing of history will be sad but that is progress!!

So let's hope we will find a new premises, located at the heart of the constituency, very soon.

Davis attacks UK multiculturalism

BBC NEWS Politics Davis attacks UK multiculturalism

No not me - wrong Davis!

However I agree with him.

I agreed with Trevor Phillip (chairman of the Campaign for Racial Equality) when he said the same thing. I also agree that we have spent far too much time celebrating diversity when I believe there is a strong argument for us to celebrate what we share in common, not what is different between us. This goes for all ethnic and cultural groupings; Welsh, Islamic, Scottish, Cornish or even those from London. Let's discuss and share the things that bind us together, not the things that make us seperate. But this must be balanced with a realism that we do live in the United Kingdom whose legal, moral and political structures we must all adhere to and share regardless from whatever part of the world you might originate.

I still believe the marked difference between us and France on this issue is one we should heed. If you live in France you are French and you abide by the laws and structures of that country. There are those of other beliefs but exceptions are not made in French law to provide for them. That is not a multi cultural approach and maybe we need to now reconsider how we handle this difficult issue.

If the bombings of 7/7 have done anything they have at least started a debate which would normally have been smothered by cries of "Racism".

Do you believe them?

BBC NEWS Northern Ireland Army begins dismantling its posts

Yesterday we got the news that the IRA were going to move to solely peaceful means to continue their "struggle". Today we get the news that the British Army have already started dismantling their security posts and bases.

For me this begs some questions.

Is it not rather fast for the army to start dismantling them, less than twenty four hours after the announcement? Was this a negotiated decision and were the British Government more involved in the IRA decision than it appears on the surface?

Why now, at the beginning of Summer when London is totally preoccupied with the bombing attrocities? Have the realities of the current terrorist attacks driven home to the IRA that they risk being categorised as part of the mentality that drives Al Qaeda and its sympathisers?

Do you believe them? This is, I believe , the third announcement by the IRA that they will hand over the weapons.

So where does this go next? Is Ian Paisley really going to become First Minister. I must admit that when I remember back twenty years I cnnot perceive that many believed we would reacha point where the Reverend would lead a devolved Northern Ireland Government.

Phone mast victory for residents

At last, despite all the odds the redients around the proposed phone mast in Chiltern Drive can claim victory.

I have had many postings on this subject:

August 17th 2004
February 2005
Press Release

The weight of opinion against this phone mast has made the phone company decide not to proceed with the erection of the mast. They state:

"Following our comprehensive pre application consultation procedure you are obviously aware that Hutchison 3G were looking at a proposal on the Chiltern Drive in Berrylands in Surbiton. We have looked at many options both technical and geographical to find a solution to this very difficult area for us.

I have received many letters, emails and telephone calls regarding this proposal which has obviously raised concern. As we stated this was only a pre application consultation process and we had not applied for planning permission, despite the rumour mill to the contrary.

Our current position is that we are not going to proceed with this site at this time. We still have a requirement for coverage in this area and will need to look at a solution sometime in the future. We have decided to place all progress on hold."

Clearly they leave the door slightly ajar with their final sentence and we must remain vigilant to them finding another site, still, it proves they can be stopped. If only the Lib Dems had not granted the planning applicatioon over the Raeburn Avenue site we might have had time to fight it and stop it. I gather the Lib Dem Cllrs for Alexandra Ward were there this morning with the phone company measuring the current strength of radio waves before it is installed shortly.

Teachers vote to re-open grammars

News report from BBC

Hurrah! Finally we are reversing the nonsense of the comprehensive system. I failed the 11+. We keep hearing how it is wrong to brand children "failures" at age 11 and it is complete twaddle. It did not harm me and I got a good education.

The fact is that I believe it is a very talented teacher that has the skills to teach an all ability class, even trying it must be tiring. It is surely fairer on all that we allow teachers more flexibility and allow those of both high and low abilities the opportunity to develop with their academic peers rather than struggling to keep up with the brightest or dragging the brightest down to the average.

Having said this I also believe that children should be receiving a mix of vocational (skills) and academic education from the age of 11. By the time they reach 14 they can then take informed decisions about whether they want to follow an academic path or a skills based vocational route.

Ken Livingstone's hypocrisy on terrorism

Melanie Phillips's Articles: Weasel words on terror

On Tuesday at a full council meeting we stood in silence for a while and the leaders of the political parties spoke to commiserate and thanks who gave service and comfort. I gather that ambulances from New malden attended central London on the 7th July. I did however say that I was disturbed by the Mayor for London and his actions. One minute Ken speaks, close to tears, and condemns the atrocities and the next he is inviting the clerics who preach that terrorist actions are good for meetings at City Hall. He has done this in the past and he will do it in the future.

I am not a fan of Melanie Phillip's but I think this is a good article on this difficult issue. She ends by saying:

"Terrorism can only be defeated if the country displays an unambiguous solidarity against all such deliberate slaughter of the innocents, wherever it takes place, and rejects the moral inversion expressed in the weasely justifications of the terrrorists' motives. The mayor has an urgent case to answer."

Phone mast update

Regular readers wil know we are under threat from two new phone masts in Berrylands.

The most recent news is that the mast the Lib Dem Councillors forced through on Raeburn Avenue is to be installed shortly. They are apparently awaiting parts!

The mast in Chiltern Drive they have still not decided on. They are "..still in the investigation process and have not finalised a decision. Currently we are looking at our network and trying to see how we can perform with the optimum quality with the minimum of infrastructure. At this stage we are still investigating." This coule be good news but let's not get too excited.

I will keep in contact with what they decide.

Statesman or Skatesman

I though that these were very amusing. They come from a website called "Statesman or Skatesman."

A new style of environmentalism

This is an interesting site from the USA that argues that the traditional forms of environmental activism can be marked only by their lack of progress. When you think that environmentalism has been around as long as it has and that some of the big organisations, such as Greenpeace, are mammoth multi million pound organisations that do nothing to touch or engage the ordinary citizen, then you can see where they are going.

There are then those organisations that struggle to be heard in Kington, such as Friends of the Earth, because their voice is drowned out by the power and money of other organisations.

Maybe it is time for equality of opportunity in environmentalism?

This site is an alternative view. Do not necessarily agree with all of this but it is an interesting alternative prospectus.

Surrey Comet: News: Local News

Surrey Comet: News: Local News

This is an excellent story of what can be done when the public, private and voluntary sector works together. The Save the World club are to be congratulated on a magnificent project. I have done some professional work on this and you can see the videos on the club at the Social Enterprise at Schools website - you will need sound.

Kingston Recycling rate is still falling

Surrey Comet
Sometimes I hate being wrong but I equally hate being right. Controlling waste in Kingston and increasing recycling is a serious concern. Yet the latest figures on recycing show that the recylcing rate is still falling, despite introducing Borough wide recycling. I am going to avoid the politics of this because this is too important an issue, but the fact is that whilst all our surrounding neighbours are getting closer to the 35% target by 2006 Kingston has yet to get above 20%.

So what is the answer? We made some proposals last year, as reported in the Surrey Comet, but a real consensus now needs to be built around the best way forward as doing what we are doing is clearly not enough.

Changemakers reception

Changemakers

This afternoon I attended a fascinating reception in Westminster for a remarkable organisation that is empowering young people to think for themselves and take responsibility for themselves and turn themselves into future leaders.

Most appropriate was a presentation by a young muslim who was running youth projects to challenge the role of leadership in the lives on young muslims and how we could prevent the growth of terrorists. It was easy to see the connection when you hear that in fact those responsible for the London bombs were ordinary British people leading lives as teachers and working in their father's fish and chip shop. It makes you think even harder.

G8

Well what was that all about?

Am I being cynical here or did we know what was going to happen in the summit before it happened.

There seemed to be three key requests from the Make Poverty History campaign. (Incidentally the MPH campaign has been tremendously successful at putting this item on the agenda)

1. Write of debt
2. Increase aid
3. Create Fairer trade

I admit that I am personally not convinced about the arguments around item 3 because I am not sure what it really means. Fairer to whom? I am all for getting rid of trade barriers but as the recent row over sugar subsidies show it could lead to third world farmers being poorer. I think this is too simplistic. I could argue that the real problem is there has never been 'free' trade to allow countries to export. I also remember in India how they needed export tariffs to prevent every piece of produce being exported to earn dollars, and leaving nothing for the domestic market.

So anyway, we knew they were going to write off more debt (but not all of it), we knew they would increase aid (just not sure where it would go) and we knew they would not do anything about 'fair' trade because it is all too complicated. I also now gather that the communique they sign had been written even before they set foot on Gleneagles soil. So what was the fuss about?

On climate change I have to say that whilst I do not agree with Bush on a lot of what he says about this issue I have to agree with him that it is a pointless exercise negotiating this type of thing without China being present. Putting your home industry into decline when in fact all that happens is that China grows and pumps out more CFC's than you did originally seems a pointless exercise.

I sometimes wonder whether this type of debate represents a very great failure amogst our supra national authorities; the UN, EU etc etc.

7/7

They warned us it would happen. Did anyone believe it would be as horrific as it was? I was due at a meeting in Westminster at 11.00am and left home to the radio telling me there had been power surges on the underground system. As I got on the train at Surbiton I heard that a bus "may" have blown up. It was unconfirmed at that time but I still hesitated to get on the train. As I sat down I heard it confirmed on the radio that indeed a bus had been destroyed. I had a very nervous journey (non-stop) to Waterloo. You cannot help looking around you and thinking whether it was not the time for an over ground train in the South of London to be a target.

It became clear that I was not going to get to Westminster for a meeting and to be honest I did not think there was much to be achieved on a day like that.

I got the next train out of London and came back to Surbiton.

It is interesting how much the international press have commented on the British stoicism. How we did not panic etc!! But yet, as the papers have made clear, we are a multi racial, multi ethnic society and I find it curious that a diverse community such as ours did not panic. I suppose some of that stoicism is just shock and the inevitable belief that we cannot believe this is happening to a London we all know and a transport system on which we all travel.

But is there also a general weariness for a country that has been subject to the horrors of terrorism for very much longer than the US. I remember the day my second child was born. I turned on the evening news to find that the NI peace process had broken down and a bomb exploded in Docklands. That was in February 2006. Throughout all the Irish troubles we just got on with life. Not that we were not fearful but that we understood that like travelling in aircraft the likelihood of dying through terrorism on the streets of London is very low. I accept that 9/11 marked a new style of mass terrorism, the horrors of which I hope never descend on London, but I do believe we must see terrorism for what it is; an attempt to disrupt and punish through inflicting death that the terrorists would welcome for themselves. It is almost impossible to stop the effects of this type of fanaticism.

There are those who argue that we need to solve the causes of terrorism. I believe those that say this misunderstand what terrorism is about. Has peace allowed the IRA to hand over their weapons? Islamic terrorism, if that is what it is, is based on faith, religious doctrine and principle. You cannot win an argument against these things. Like others I hope that the use of Islam as a cover for terrorism will be seen to be what it is; a gross abuse of those who follow this ancient faith. I have seen nothing but kindness and a desire to help their fellow man amongst the many Muslims I have met in Kingston.

Let us pray that this is the last we see of these horrors; sadly I expect not.