Scandal of the bad administration of tax credits

The scandal of the working family tax credits is a real disgrace. I am not sure whether ministers resigning is ever going to be the answer because the real fla is the total failure of the system. The problem is that we have a system that works out how much you are due based on your salary but should your salary rise during the course of the year (as most people's do) then the amount you can claim goes down. However, because you only get a single anual reminder from the Tax Credit department it means that you could end up owing back months of over payments, unless you write to them to tell them. Of course, as with most bureaucracies you have to rely on them doing what you ask and frequently they do not. What then happens is that they demand money back when they should have made the adjustment in the first place. I am fairly sure they wrote off millions during an amnesty on this issue.

Croquet Prescott

Should Prescott have been playing croquet last week? I am split on this as the guy should be allowed a life outside of politics but then......should he have been playing whilst the boss was a way and he was in charge of the country?

The Pope in Auschwitz

"In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can
only be a dread silence - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to
God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all
this?" he said in a speech in Italian.

By chance I am currently reading a fascinating BBC book called "Auschwitz - The Nazis and the Final Solution". It is interesting because it is interviewing those Nazi's who, as they near the end of their life, are prepared to talk more openly about the motivation for what they did - one presumes the word redemption comes into their minds. It also is interesting how many of them truly believed that what they were doing was right because their Government, on which they pinned so much hope after the first world war, told them it was right.

Could it happen again? Who can say with any certainty. I think probably not in Europe because as the recent Iraq war has demonstrated there is a certain degree of cynicism towards Government and politicians. But a state whose democracy is weak and whose people cling to a hope for a better life may yield the same opportunity for the growth of such evil once again. History tells us that the oppressed often look for those to blame and eke out their revenge.

Polls get even better as Yougov predicts Lib Dem meltdown

The Telegraph reports this new poll today and has a comment from the election poll guru Anthony King. It is being discussed across at ConservativeHome.

"Only eight per cent of YouGov's sample," writes Anthony King, "would
like to see him (Ming Campbell) in Downing Street - the lowest recorded for any Lib Dem
leader since the Liberal Democrats effectively replaced the old
Liberal-SDP Alliance in 1990."

In fact the LibDems are nearly being caught by the "others"!

However the bit that caught my eye was the last paragraph and my concern that all parties need to do soemthing to address this problem and I have heard little that enthralls me.

"As must be evident, far fewer voters than in the past are bewitched by
any one party. Far more are bothered and bewildered by the whole lot.
Labour is clearly in trouble but so is Britain's whole political class."


The Conservatives now have the largest lead over Labour since the 1992 general Election victory.

K5 to stay

Huge congratulations to the people of North Kingston who have fought off the scrapping of the K5 bus route. A really very good piece of work that showed good Councillors working together with their residents. Cllrs Cunningham, Doe and Thompson (all Tudor ward) arranged a public meeting that the bus company were obliged to attend and hear first hand the anger of wide sections of the North Kingston community; 200 attended.

This victory has been reported this week in the Surrey Comet

'Wrong parties' won local polls

....and the BBC are telling me the wrong party won?



The interesting part of this article I have copied below:

"The six London councils where the party with the largest
share of the vote did not win were Haringey, Kingston, Islington,
Camden, Brent and Hounslow."

I gather that Hounslow is now Tory run - which I find amazing!

It appears the elections really were a get out of jail for the Lib Dems in Kingston. Still with a one seat majority I am yet to be convinced that proportional representation would be the way forward. Seems to me that the move, in 2002, to all 3 seat wards was a retrograde step that helps to distort this affect.

Still, as ever, I am willing to to keep an open mind and listen to the case for PR.

The return of the Lido

This blog will I know probably lead to a flurry of complaints about how the Conservatives closed Surbiton Lagoon, but in any case there is some interesting history here.

This article appeared in todays Daily Telegraph giving a perspective on how successful outdoor pools are continuing to be.

Berrylands had its own Lido, curiously named 'The Lagoon'. I remember this site as although I lived in New Malden my parents/grandparents brought me over once or twice to visit. My only real recollection was the expanse of white concrete and terracing and the fact the water was freezing.

The pool was built prior to the war and in the 80's its low quality construction let it down and they closed it. I suppose the comfort for me know is that the surrounding residents do not have to endure the level of traffic and disturbance a pool would cause on the old Lagoon site. Clearly it was built there in a world where the motor car did not predominate.



The site as it is now:




For information on Lidos that are still open then click here.

Tories 'lead on public services'

Another very good opinion poll today in the Guardian. ICM normally appear less favourbale to the Conservatives but this one has the parties on 38 Con, 34 Lab and 20 Lib Dem. It is reported on the BBC website.

It indicates that support for the Conservatives is climbing amongst women voters and that Gordon Brown would make matters worse for Labour, not better. With Brown in No.10 the lead would be nine points and the Lib Dems would slip to 19%. The good news for Labour is that they have gained two points from the last ICM poll. Much of the Conservative and Labour gain has come from the Lib Dems who have fallen 4 points. The paper indicates that this fall for the Lib Dems is because of their inability to make progress at the local elections and their leadership issues.

It also argues that the Conservatives are the best able to tackle the crucial issues of health, education, crime and immigration.

Good news!

Lib Dems campaign before Eric Forth is even buried

This rather regrettable action is reported in the Independent today. The report says:

"Sir Menzies criticised a party campaigns organiser after he appeared to
urge activists to leaflet the seat of the late Conservative MP Eric
Forth the day before his funeral.The party's London region campaigns chairman, Pete Dollimore, sent an
e-mail advising members to travel to Mr Forth's Bromley and Chislehurst
seat to distribute leaflets. "

He is then quoted as saying:

"Eric Forth was a friend of mine. Eric Forth was born within a mile of
me. He went to school about half a mile away. I deprecate any effort to
begin electioneering under any circumstances in any by-election until
the writ has been moved by the party with responsibility for doing so.
If that were done I disapprove and I will make sure my disapproval is
known."

Mrs. Blair and other ministers auction signed copies of the Hutton report

I hope any sensible person will see that this story as reported in Nick Assinders Diary on the BBC and Iain Dale's blog will agree this is a disgrace. It appears that the Labour party auctioned, for £400, a copy of the report signed by Cherie Blair and Alisatir Campbell. The fact they signed it is one thing but to auction it to raise funds must be really painful for those who knew or were rekated to Dr. David Kelly.

Is the Labour party so desperate to raise funds that as well as apparently selling peerages it now has to flog off Government reports? Who won the auction and what are theuy going to do with the report?

Photo courtesy of Beau Bo D'Or

There is more to life than money

Is there? The easy answer is of course yes and David Cameron appears to agree with this. The world has changed from that of the 1980's when money appeared to be everything. If the priorities of the world have changed you still cannot get away from the fact that money makes the world go around and the balance between having money and enjoying life is not one we all get right.

Kingston Theatre set back

Sources tell me (interestingly they are Lib Dem) that the Rose Theatre deal with Nadhmi Auchi is on the skids.

This is not much of a secret as it appears that Sir Peter Hall was very despondent during a recent Reader's Festival event. It looks like the eighteen months of negotiation have floundered and certainly my past involvement showed me that more and more demands were being made and we were getting a worse and worse deal.

I also gather that the Friends' had a somewhat depressing meeting last week when it was clear that the deal was not going well.

As many will know I am a supporter of there being a Kingston Theatre but have always been against the idea that Council Tax should be used to hand over "our" building to an international company. I have nothing but respect for Mr. Auchi in this process as he is after all a businessman and he always made it clear that what he was doing was a business deal and not pure philanthropy.

However, the Council handing over control of the taxpayers asset to General Meditteranean Holdings was wrong. If this has fallen through and the theatre is set to flounder then my last recollection is that the Council we will be writing off £2m of loans it made to the Trust, hardly a good way to start a new administration.

So what now? This project faces an uphill struggle because we have managed to waste an entire year chasing this property deal. The Lib Dems seem to have few choices. Choice one is that they stump up the extra £3-4m required. I really cannot see that happening but who knows with this party; they supported the previous deal.

Alternatively they can bring in another theatre operator but given this messy situation who is going to want to take it on? Any new operator is going to be worried by the bad publicity that this collapsed deal is going to bring. Equally we are now at their mercy as we have developed few alternatives.

The real problem is that the terms of the deal with St. George (the developer of Charter Quay) means that the building can only be a theatre and cannot be turned into anything else. I presume we can get around this by asking St. George but I imagine this comes with a price tag.

If everything fails then we will have an empty building sitting opposite the Guildhall to remind everyone what happens when politicians make brave decisions and then do not put in the leadership and work to make it happen. It appears that the days of dinners for Mr. Auchi at the House of Commons, hosted by our MP's, were over as soon as the Lib Dem administration decided to go ahead and little has been done by politicians since then to bring this deal off.

It is a total mess and such a shame for the Borough as a theatre has been a dream for many of us for such a long time.

Interesting that this broke just after the election?

Richmond doorstep recycling of food waste

I was visitng a friend in Richmond and was very impressed by a small green caddy they have for recycling food waste from the doorstep. This is collected weekly alongside the other items - which do not include plastic or cardboard sadly. (Kingston's hung council scrapped the cardboard collection with all party agreement although both Conservatives and the Lib Dems had pledged to reintroduce it after this election).

They also have green waste collections fortnightly either in a bag or a green wheelie bin (they charge for this service).

What is odd is that Richmonds recycling rate is some 50% higher than Kingston's. It could be that Richmond collect the heavier items form the doorstep and as recycling rates are based on tonnages they win out - collecting empty plastic bottle has no weight to it. Who knows?

Still until Kingston starts collecting food waste from the doorstep you can buy your own kitchen caddy here.

Illegal immigrant workers should be given amnesty?

There are new revelations about the Home Office cleaners who were illegal immigrants (it appears that they had in fact worked their for some time and not been stopped before they started).

I was amazed to hear Jack Dromey on the news this morning arguing that we should be granting an amnesty to all illegal immigrants in the country - some 500,000 approx (this is an estimate because actually the Government does not know how many there are).

At the same time a Government Minister (former Labour Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong) argued that 1m people in the UK are socially excluded. Is it likely that these numbers are connected? Are half of the socially excluded in the country illegal immigrants?

We really do need to do something for the most marginalised in this country. As this report indicates it is the children who are most vulnerable to social excluson and for many of them it is not because they chose this path but because their parents fell into problems. We cannot blame children for the problems of the parents. But sadly much of the action to battle social exclusion is targeted to the wrong areas and in places like Kingston relatively small areas of deprivation are hidden amongst the wealth of the Borough.

During the local elections the Lib Dems made a lot about how much more Government grant Kensington & Chelsea received in comparison with Kingston and how this was unfair. The used average earnings between the Borough's as a comparator when of course in an inner city area you will inevitably get a very diverse range of employment and thus very high averages. Well, this makes good fun when you are trying to justify the reasons why you have put up Council Tax so much. However, K&C suffers from some of the most deprived areas in London. One school I know is on one of the three most deprived estates in London. The Local Authority and the PCT spend more on mental health in that school than Kingston spends on school books! I do not believe that members of the local Lib Dem party really believe that money should be taken from deprived areas to give to Kingston. I do believe though that residents expect a Council that will do more to tackle the inexorable rise of Council Tax rather than blame it on the supposed wealth of other Borough's.

I agree with Camilla Batnanghelidjh of Kids Company when she says: "I think the government's intentions are really good but I hope this doesn't turn into a Mickey Mouse ministry
."

Kingston comes to New York

This is very amusing. Last Saturday they held a charity event in New York where they offered New Yorkers the chance to "visit the shire of Kingston-upon-Thames during the reign of King Henry
VIII. Stroll through a farmers market, live the story of stone soup,
enjoy the music and magic of a joust by paragon Jousting, a human chess
match, birds of prey show by the Hudson valley raptor center, Pirates!,
fabulous food and drink, dancing, jugglers and mimes."

Davey rescues Ming?

There has been some pretty strange Lib Dem goings on with Simon Hughes apprently starting another round of knifings. Ed Davey may well be right on this but is this really a fair way to deal with supporting Ming. Having a go at the former leader is surely not helpful?

But Mr Davey, the party's trade and industry spokesman, said: "I don't agree with Simon Hughes's analysis."

He went on to suggest that the party's difficulties were the legacy
of former leader Charles Kennedy, ousted after it emerged he had a
drink problem.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "You have got to remember
where we were three or four months ago. We have had a pretty traumatic
time in the party.

"For some of us it actually went back quite a few years. The party hadn't been managed as well as it should be."

Lib Dems plan £2,000 road tax

I am sure there have been papers galore written on this subject but I find it curious that there is a natural assumption that higher tax will lead to less usage. Surely we would be better encouraging the motor manufacturer to produce greener fuel effcicient cars so that people have an option to have cheaper motoring that is fuel efficient rather than clobbering the motorist and not really encourganing them to change anything.

I accept that under this scheme fuel efficient cars will pay less road tax but actually we should be giving them a choice to also have a cheaper car that uses less energy. I drive a Smart car (although I admit I had to to move on from the two seater version). The real incentive for me was not that the road fund was only £60 but that the car did 70 miles to the gallon and had a very low insurance rate (£150 fully comprehensive) because it was made of recyclable plastic. Even if you had taxed it £2,000 road fund it would have still been a cheaper option than other cars to run. I accept that the Lib Dem proposal is not to do this but I merely use it as an example.

Is this not one area where we should be challenging the supply side and not taxing demand?

World Cup Song with the Hamiltons

Thanks to Iain Dale for this tip.



This is the Hamiltons World Cup song. It is frankly bizarre that they would even think of making one but it is weirder when you hear it. As Iain has said it is actually quite catchy.

Boy stabbed to death near school

This is a frightening report on the BBC. I have been to this school and it is a quiet suburb not unlike Kingston.

It makes you realise that the growing use of knives in crime is in someways more dangerous than any rise in gun culture. Knives are easily accessible, as we saw earlier in the week with the stabbing of a police woman outside her own home.

Kingston is vulnerable as the proliferation of night clubs has led to knife instances that are frequently reported in the press. And whilst crime overall has fallen in Kingston there are worrying rises in robbery and burglary. Although still small (52 instances) gun crime is also rising in the Royal Borough.

How do you prevent this? Are we a short distance from scanners at police stations and public buildings? Body scanners on the doors of pubs and restaurants?

New Malden man banned from selling Microsoft software

It would seem that "Oyster" computers in New Malden has been found guilty of selling counterfeit Microsoft software. He then proceeded to do it again and Micrsoft sued for £12m and he has settled out of court.

It would appear that a lot of people who have bought computers from Oyster now have illegal software.