LCA predicts Tory win in Kingston

I am never really sure whether this type of thing is the kiss of death or something to spur us on.

We have a lot of work to do and an enormous amount of literature to put out but optimism is high in the team and we have some excellent new and young candidates who are enthusiastic and active.

Who knows where this might lead us?

Read more at www.londoncommunication...

Tories seek OK to reveal lenders

I think this is a good thing. David Cameron was right that providing the loans were legal the donors do have some right to anonymity, unless they were happy for their names to be revealed. But these are political parties and there is a new air of openess that we must have regard to.

From a political point of view it was also allowing Blair to get away with his shameless behaviour over peerages - no wonder he has never wanted an elected House of Lord's. He could hardly hand out the perage if they had to be elected!!

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...

I Pay More Tax Than The PM

This plea is from a pensioner complaining about the level of Council Tax in Kingston. (the article is from the Surrey Comet and I have a link below to the website) He is right it is disgraceful. If he had lived in Conservative controlled Richmond or Wandsworth his RBK Council tax would have been frozen! He would also have paid less land fill tax because Richmond recycle more and they are increasing recycling. Kingston is now paying the equivalent of£25 per house in fines to the Government because our recycling rate is falling.

The Lib Dems say they do not get enough money from the Government - but they got more than Richmond! I have no disagreement with trying to get more Government grant. For the past ten years and more Kingston Council has always said we do not get enough grant and we have always campaigned for more grant. Yet we do not get any more because this Government feels it is right to move money out of Kingston and spend it in other areas - in any case they can ignore a Lib Dem Council.

The way to change that is to change the Government and I hope people are beginning to learn that voting Lib Dem changes nothing because they do nothing and merely keep Labour in.

The real shame for this elderly gentleman is that he has been utterly let down by a Lib Dem Council who rather than try and do something about the level of Council tax have spent more and more money on silly schemes and more staff.

The Government may well be at fault but the Lib Dem Council was elected to do something about it and all they do is whinge.

My neighbours have been up in arms because for the first time ever their Band F houses have now gone over £2,000. They too might blame the Government but if the Council is not prepared to take its share of the responsibility then is it any wonder that so few people will turn out and vote in the local elections in May?

We have Council elections in May and if this gentleman, and anyone else in Kingston, wants a Council that will make a real change then whatever you do vote against the Lib Dems.

If you wish to see our manifesto for the local elections then click here

Read more at www.surreycomet.co.uk/n...

Shops Fear "A" board Ban

There has been a certain degree of angst about the issue of shop "A" board for some considerable time.

On the one hand the small shops need all the help they can get to attract their customers into their premises, some of which are in less high profilel locations. On the other hand too many "A" boards can be a real problem for pedestarians and the wheel chair bound.

What's your view? Should they go or should they stay?

Read more at www.surreycomet.co.uk/d...

Bush and Blair - Love made in heaven

Time for a bit of fun and a love duo from our favourite world leaders.

We Are What We Do

What a great idea for a website. Just give it a go- you get a real sense of achieving something. I read their book when it was published which I never really rated but this site really does make you think.

Read more at www.wearewhatwedo.org/i...

New Orleans revisited

As with most of the disasters we see on TV we often do not see the aftermath. In the instance of Hurricane Katrina it was also a problem that at the time access to the area was restricted. This is a video showing the devastation that was caused and really drives home how, when a natural disaster occurs, an advanced first world nation can quickly decline into third world pictures.

Reclaiming our stations

I am launching, with Conservative colleagues, a campaign to make Kingston’s smaller train stations a safer place for residents. Whether from fear of crime, or from crime itself, residents can find small stations, such as Berrylands, intimidating once it gets dark.

Cllrs are beginning a campaign to introduce improved lighting, cctv cameras and extra staffing so that residents will feel safe using these stations.

At present there are no minimum staffing levels for stations. However, research, quoted this month by the London Assembly’s Transport Committee, has shown that a visible staffing presence at stations is the single most important factor in making people feel secure.

This campaign comes after Surbiton, the Borough’s major station, was placed seventh in a list of crime hot spots in London outside of zone 1. 

Libya's thirst for 'fossil water'

In a week when Thames Water introduce a house pipe ban here in Kingston the BBC tells us that Libya ( a desert country) opening its new man made river project for fresh water.

....we get a water company that loses 30% of its water through leaks in its pipes!

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci...

Labour was secretly loaned £14m

The years of sleaze stuck to the Conservative party - a problem we are only just recovering from. Now we have the Labour party with it's massive loans following on from the Lib Dems with their millions being reported to the electoral commission. It appears that no party can be whiter than white.

But what are the alternatives? Is state funding really the way forward?

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...

Horror Crash On A3 (from Surrey Comet)

The A3 was not built for the type of traffic that it now generates. In a recent Council meeting it was said that the width of lanes on the Kingston ring road are greater than that on the A3. Given that the speed limit is now 50mph I wonder whether actually a two lane highway(given this is actually a residential area) might be the answer. I would need to see the figures on this but we should at least rule the idea out.

Read more at www.surreycomet.co.uk/d...

Ming's Dynasty: The Battle For The Succession

For those political bloggers out there I thought you might find this view from the inside of Lib Dem HQ an amusing blog to keep an eye on.

Read more at dynastyofming.blogspot....

Evidence of Lib Dem voters turning away

I keep a distant watch on this Lib Dem site but this I thought was quite interesting - from London Borough of Islington - Lib Dem controlled

" Met my neighbour this morning who says he is no longer voting for the Lib Dems and isn't renewing his membership. As for delivering leaflets nobody should dare ask him again. Don't know what to say to him. Told me quite bluntly I'm wasting my time - loyalty can only go so far. Feel very disturbed that we have lost a whole local delivery network of people in my ward St Georges since last week all who aren't going to renew their subs. "

Read more at susannelamido.blogspot....

Tax Highest In City (from Surrey Comet)

This is a link to some of the local reporting on Kingston becoming the highest Council Tax in London.

Read more at www.surreycomet.co.uk/d...

Hot news - Flu-ridden Cameron cancels visit

Is this really news. Maybe they believe in the wake of the Kennedy affair that any politician that needs to take a day off must surely be hiding some dark secret.

Still it shows how things have changed that the press now want to report on a dose of flu hitting a Conservative leader.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...

Labour U-turn ends era at council

I found this report interesting in the context of my earlier blogging about the Council budget setting and how sometimes I wondered about the nature of local politics that meant that there was no co-operation between parties.

This is the last Council in the UK not to have political groupings. Apparently they have changed their minds and decided the time has come to alter the status quo.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wal...

Miliblog

I got a call yesterday from a newspaper asking what my views were on this article saying Miliband is going to blog. Sounds like a good idea although one presumes the issue of collective responsibility will get in the way of making it too exciting.

The photo is of Miliband's father a well known marxist writer. It comes from a fascinating site for Marxists.

Read more at www.timesonline.co.uk/n...

The Age of the Mingers

I had already said it would not make much difference. In fact as a Conservative Huhne would clearly have been a little worrying. But between Ming and Hughes (whilst we would have preferred Hughes) I am fairly happy with Ming.

So Ming instantly moves from "Interim Leader" to "Caretaker Leader". Is that a promotion?

Lib Dem Kingston: The highest tax in London

Very weary today after a long budget Council meeting last night. We get to debate the rise of Council tax that we will have for next year.

The Lib Dems put forward their final proposal of 3.5%. We put forward a lower rise that also had some interesting features:

• Ending Lib Dem means testing for care services for the elderly and disabled


• Moving from fortnightly door step collection of recycling to weekly (Can you believe that under the Lib Dem administration recycling rates have actually fallen?)


• Very specific and targeted job reductions (actually half of the jobs were vacant anyway and all of the jobs were back room posts) to start to wind back the army of staff in Kingston – 40% rise since 2000 and 500 in the last year alone.

Sadly they refused to accept our lower tax budget and even voted against weekly colections of recycling materials. I sometimes wonder if things could be done a lot better. Take the tribalism away and our objectives are pretty much the same; doing the best for the people of Kingston. The combined knowledge of both parties could be put to better use in bringing in a budget together. Still, I offered this at a Council meeting in January and they never came back to ask me!

Jowell's job prospects in doubt

One of the issues that seems not to have surfaced in this affair is the concern I have that the husband of the UK's Culture secretary (responsible for regulating the media) has apparently had dodgy financial transactions with Italy's biggest media mogul - who happens to be Prime Minister!

Blair said in 1997 that his Government would be "whiter than white". That means ensuring that not only should there be no sleaze but not even the smell of sleaze. I am not sure the evidence is enough for her to go yet although I gather there is now a row over the fact she did not declare that she was party to this investmenet in the Member's Register.What with this and the Livingstone standard's board issue one cannot help but ask whether we have gone too far in trying to regulate the conduct of individuals. Bad conduct is bad conduct and if discovered you should go; do you need a standards board or a committee for standards in public life to monotor that? Seems to me the press do a pretty good job!

Read more at www.epolitix.com/EN/New...