Grant Blowers

Earthquakes and predictions!

2011-05-12T12:44:00.000+01:00

A tongue in cheek article on the Today programme yesterday, followed up with an article on the BBC website, that an amatuer seismologist, Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979, predicted an earthquake to hit Rome on 11 May 2011. Lots of fun poked at Romans taking the day off just in case, and perhaps a bit of a slow news day for the BBC.

But no link seems to have appeared that he seems to have been right, well, at least by the date, as an earthquake hits not Rome, but Lorca in Spain. I know tradgedy has ensued, but even so, not bad for a watch maker!

A map below shows how the Eurasian and African plates run near Lorca.

Patients turned away at Queen Mary's

2011-05-10T17:53:00.000+01:00

The excellent Chislehurst News blog has picked up a story that Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup are turning away ambulances because they are unable to cope. A quote that Chislehurst News has used from South London NHS says “emergency ambulances do not take patients to Queen Mary’s. The Urgent Care Centre is for patients who do not require an ambulance.” The message obviously didn't get through to some crew, as I discovered whilst I attended Queen Mary's urgent care centre last week. Whilst there, two ambulances came in, one with an elderly lady who had a fall and the other with a lad with a badly bleeding arm. We can only assume then that either the hospital is turning away crews at certain times when they simply cannot cope with the amount of patients that have walked in, or that there is no set policy and somethimes they take patients from ambulances and other times they don't, which surely has produced confusion amongst staff.

I've never been happy about A Picture of Health, the programme that implemented the closure of the A&E and the maternity ward, and is about trying to get the best services at the best centres. Yes, it was implemented under the Labour government, but that doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea! The theory is sound; centres of excellence so that people can go not necessarily to their nearest hospital and recieve a mediocre service, but to attend a hospital that will specialise. But why should that mean the local A&E closes, sending people to Queen Elizabeth's Woolwich, or Princess Royal, Farnborough, both hospitals that, although new, haven't increased the size of their A&E to take into account the extra pressure from the closure of Queen Mary's?

What angers me is the hypocracy of local Conservatives. Eager to make high profile campaigns, they issued Save Our Services posters throughout the neighbourhood and held candlelit vigils outside the hospital. Watch the Conservatives videos below:

I'm not the only one to be angry. Check out Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital. Now that's anger.

When in opposition, it was Labour's policies and Labour's decisions. Bob Neill (MP for Bromley & Chislehurst), Derek Conway (then MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup), James Brokenshire (now MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup), David Evennett (MP for Bexleyheath & Crayford), Boris Johnson, along with a plethora of Tory councillors in Bexley poured scorn onto the proposals and pledged to fight the changes and overturn the decision once in power.

What happened when the Tories did get in? Andrew Lansley, he who is soon not of this government if reports are to be believed, decided that he would honour the decisions made, and that the departments would close. Suddenly the blame no longer fell onto the government, but the managers at South London NHS. Bob Neill clearly lays the blame at managers, as does James Brokenshire. How things shift when you're in power...

2011 elections and what it means for Ken

2011-05-08T22:29:00.000+01:00

So the 2011 elections are behind us. The country firmly rejected AV, Labour took a battering in Scotland with the SNP doing something that was never meant to happen - a party getting a majority in the Scottish Parliament, The Lib Dems were smashed throughout the country, and a mixed bag for the Tories.

First, AV. I admit that I hammered my colours to the mast of first past the post. I like it, and feel that it serves its purpose. The result of 70% to keep the status quo should put the issue into touch for a generation, and I hope that the subject won't become part of Labour's manifesto again as it did in 2010. However, there are many out there who are simply not accepting it. They're talking about the amount of money the no campaign had, outrage at campaign adverts, the slandering of others. There's just one thing. Despite the overall enthusiasm for AV on Twitter, and the political blogs, the people, well, simply didn't want it. That's it.

The elections. Overall, Labour did well. Not as well as I think we should have, certainly not as well as we ought to have in Scotland. Some headline figures:

In the local elections, Labour gained 800 new councillors, Tories 81 but the Lib Dems lost 695, and independent/others lost 199. What does this mean? The Lib Dems were trounced, smashed, beaten. Both Labour and the Tories benefited; and this is my niggle. From my point of view, Labour need to be attacking and beating the Tories. The Lib Dems suffered simply because the public wanted to make Nick Clegg suffer after the broken promises.

But the same is not said of the Tories. Their support is holding out. Next year is the London elections. If Ken is to beat Boris a London wide strategy will need to be put into place that tackles this issue head on. Highlighting the cuts is not enough. Ken's team, in conjunction with London Labour, will need to make sure we give people REASONS to vote Labour, it won't be enough to say that the coalition is bad, its made up of Tories, Boris is a Tory, ergo Boris is bad. Firm policies with a firm vision is what's needed. I feel this is why Labour didn't do as well as it could have done in places such as Dartford and Medway.

Labour did well, but a lot more needs to be done.

Death of an evil man

2011-05-08T19:33:00.000+01:00

I held off from commenting on Osama Bin Laden's murder that took place on Monday. Knowing what was first reported in the early hours of Monday was never the full story proved to be right as the White House's report changed.

On Monday it was reported that after a fire fight, and with Bin Laden resisting, he was shot dead. The event took place over 45 minutes and the whole thing was watched live by the President and his staff at the White House. Photos of Obama and his team watching the events were released:

The story changed to there was no fire fight, Bin Laden wasn't armed, and the video of the attack went down for 20 minutes after a solder turned off the camera. This has turned the mission, in the eyes of many, into the actions of a death squad.

All of this is a mistake of course. If the White House simply stuck with a specific story from the beginning, perhaps even with the truth, than they will probably ride through any criticism that has come their way, criticism that has now intensified.

What does his death mean? It is too early to tell. As we understand it, he has been more of a figurehead leader rather than an operational leader. Al Qaeda's attacks themselves have waned, probably through a mixture of the fighting in Afghanistan, the targeting of the Taliban, and the heightening of internal national security in western countries. Look below of the lists of atrocities done in the the name of Al Qaeda, and there's not much for the past six years. Will there be reprisals? Probably. The one thing I can be assured of is that our security services have foiled many plots, a few that we get to hear about, and I'm many, many that we won't.

In the meantime discussion has intensified over how Americans reacted to the news of Obama's death. On Monday, videos of cheering crowds were shown on news networks across the world. I neither condemn nor condone the victory that US citizens felt. Many thousands have lost loved ones in the 9/11 atrocity which started the war on terror, so I understand the levels of feeling that the news of Laden's death must have had. Let's not also forget it's not just Americans who have suffered at the hands of Al Qaeda, but us here in Britain when 56 people died on 7 July 2005, the Bali bombings in October 2002 when over 200 people died, the train bombs in Madrid in March 2004 killing over 190 people, and countless others around the world.

I have no qualms about calling Bin Laden an evil man. He was head of an organisation that took religious text to the extremes, and such extremists I cannot abide, from whatever faith they are. However, should he have died as he did? The Americans at the end of World War Two insisted that the captured Nazis stood trial, despite Churchill and Stalin both complaining that the Nazis never showed compassion themselves.

But it is this very ability to rise above your enemies cruelty to show fairness, compassion and clemency, to stand by the things that democracies believe in, the very fabric of what makes nations such as the UK, the US, Spain and other such countries who we are. The Americans understood this in 1945. They should have understood this in 2011.

THE Wedding...

2011-04-29T22:06:00.000+01:00

I love a wedding, and today was a special day. Many of my fellow lefty colleagues will be busy doing other things; perhaps out doing a spot of canvassing for the elections that are due on 5 May, watching the snooker on BBC2, going to the cinema to see Thor, or simply watching the wedding to criticise it as often as possible on Twitter.

Personally, I'm cool with that. The joy of living in the UK means that people have the right to be arch monarchists or arch republicans. Only a few months ago I was at a meeting where it was voted and agreed that the people should pursue a republic. I voted against.

You see, I fall into neither camps. The monarchy maybe a throw back to a feudal past, but when you watch such an amazing spectacle as we did today, we see something that makes the majority of the country proud and united. It also makes me proud, and when I see the fact that so many other people also feel proud, how and why should I want to do away with the monarchy?

Well, not quite yet, anyway...

Olympic tickets and the great public body allocation

2011-04-27T14:19:00.000+01:00

Olympic tickets all applied for last night - all a bit last minute, but it would seem I was with thousands of others. So many people did the same, or, probably as with me, simply forgot all about it, that the Olympic ticket website collapsed under the strain. As I was on twitter, I saw many tweets of panic and agony of wanting to book but not able to get on. At least they acknowledged this problem and extended the closure by an hour.

I opted for all the cheapest, child discounted tickets, which means we won't get to see any medals being dished out, but the first round of heats. That's if we get them of course. Seb Coe (watch the video) emphasised yesterday that there will be many, many people disappointed, particularly if you go for the more popular sports.

There are 6.6 million tickets for sale, but half of them will be for VIP and corporate hospitality. This I find astonishing. Surely the public would snap up all the tickets? I except the need for some tickets to be used for schmoosing, but half? More importantly, who gets these tickets? What organisations and businesses would be be deemed important enough to be allocated tickets? Do they apply, or is it a system of patronage, groups that are known and that automatically get them? Some are definitely worth it, such as the 120,000 tickets that will be allocated to school children aged 10-18 in London.

However, one thing I discovered at the last Mayor of London's People's Question Time on 15 March is that the Mayor of London and the London boroughs get ticket allocations. Dee Doocey, Lib Dem London Assembly member and current chair of the Assembly told the packed Battersea Arts Centre that the government has been allocated a staggering 14,000 tickets, Boris has been allocated a mind boggling 2000 tickets, and each London borough gets 100 tickets. These are not private companies, not third sector organisations, not volunteers being rewarded, but elected representatives and officials who will get these and use them as they feel fit.

So who will get these tickets? It seems it's a question that has troubled assembly members as well, hence Dee Doocy mentioning it. One positive thing is that these tickets are not free. The aim of the Games is to be profit making, so the London Olympic committee doesn't want to simply give away thousands of tickets and come out on a loss. But in these days of austerity, the Assembly's Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism committee have issued a report that asks the government, the Mayor, and the London boroughs to publish a register stating which tickets have been purchased, who will get access to them, why it is justified, and how they will be paid for. You can see the letters sent here.

It's a shame the committee has no more teeth than that. Of course, all three bodies can simply ignore these letters and go about buying tickets for whoever. I for one really hope they do publish this information. I see no reason why Ministers, officials, and their families should effectively queue jump the whole system that I and millions of others are being put through and get prime seats, free to them, but at a cost to us. I wholeheartedly hope that the London boroughs such as Bexley won't simply take their 100 tickets and divvy them out to their senior managers and cabinet member councillors and their guests.

The letters sent out have asked for a response by the 6 April. Did they get a response? I don't know. I'll drop Dee an email to see. Either way, let's hope there is transparency at these Games.

The alternative vote - should we have it?

2011-04-21T15:26:00.002+01:00

On the 5 May the country will vote in its second ever referendum, and it would seem the majority of people may not even bother to vote. Despite that, a referendum we will have, and it will decide whether the UK should get rid of it's current election system of first past the post (FPTP) for parliamentary elections, and adopt the alternative vote (AV) system.

Does it matter? Diehard vote no-ers will argue that FPTP has done us well in the past, there's no reason for change, it produces strong government and so on. However, FPTP has actually been chipped away as the number one system, and has been replaced by many others, perhaps without much thought from the public.

All directly elected mayors, such as the Mayor of London, are voted in using the supplimantary vote. During the Mayoral elections, we also vote for the London Assembly, but we don't use the supplimentary vote, nor are we tradtional and use FPTP, or the brightly shining AV system. No, we use the additonal member system, which is a combination of FPTP and closed list proportional representation.

During the Euro elections, we use the closed list propertional representation. Except if you live in Northern Ireland, where you would use the single transferable vote system.

Of course, in local council elections, we're still tradional and use first past the post. Except in Northern Ireland again, where single transferable vote (STV) is used (in fact, in ALL elections for whatever election, STV is used), oh, STV is also used in local elections in Scotland, but not in Wales, where FPTP is still used.

The Scottish parliament and Welsh national assembly elections uses additional member system, the same as London Assembly elections.

In fact feel sorry for our Scottish cousins on the 5 May, for they will have the referendum operated as FPTP, council elections under STV, and Scottish Parliamentry elections under the additonal member system. Three elections, three different electoral systems. Good job the Euro elections weren't taking place as well! I'd be keen to see whether there would be any academic work done to see whether there was any confusion over the different systems, and how many spoilt papers, if any, were produced.

So in the UK, there are as many as five different electoral systems in use, and if AV is selected in the referendum, that will go up to six. Do they cause confusion? I haven't seen any evidence one way or the other, but that's not to say there isn't any. Certainly anecdotally they do, as a number of people I know have had great confusion when they came to voting in different elections in the past.

Therefore, if there are so many systems already in place, does it matter if we change to AV? I would argue that it does matter. Although we have all these different electoral systems, I don't necessarily think they are the best systems. The fact that we had a BNP London assembly member was down to the electoral system. Under FPTP he wouldn't have been there. If we get AV, it won't end there. This referendum, if successful, will be a means to an end, not the end itself. Full proportional representation, whatever kind of system that maybe, will be next on the cards, and this country should not go down that road.

For me, I will be voting no. Many supporters of the yes to AV see this as a stepping stone to full proportional representation. I see that as a stepping to stone to weak and changable government, where a party we support or vote for will be a shadow of themselves in government due to coalitions having to be formed. I'd much rather a party that I don't support get in but will be able to govern with strength compared to a coaltion of many parties where deals are done, often behind closed doors and where manifestos are thrown aside.

Back again

2011-04-15T16:28:00.000+01:00

For various reasons I've not blogged for around a year, well, not properly. I've tweeted, which has been a little bit of a substitute, but not much. However, I feel it's time to rectify this. A lot has been happening globally, nationally, and locally, and there have been many good opportunities lost for me to add my thoughts.

This will change. Please stop by as and when. Hopefully you'll see something you'll like.

Banksy does the Simpsons

2010-10-11T18:58:00.000+01:00

First time I've got a graffiti artist on my blog, but had to share. Banksy adds his own flavour and political message to the opening credits of the Simpsons.

Recession? We don't know the meaning of it yet

2010-10-04T16:16:00.004+01:00

Throughout the Tory conference, we will slowly hear the clues of the horror that will come upon us on the 20 October at the comprehensive spending review.

Currently, the vast majority of residents in the the UK know about the recession, and think we're in hard times. This, my friends, is not hard times. If the recession is a dinner party, we're currently handing our coats over and nibbling on the crisps and peanuts. We haven't even got to the hor d'oeuvres, let alone the main meal.

In the years building up the crash, the government had a permanent gap between the money it was raising in tax and the money it was spending, called the structural debt. This was going to have get sorted at some point, it was just a shame that world events got in the way. Ideally, the government should have stopped dipping into the growth so that public spending which slowly and without pain shrink thereby lessening the gap.

When the world wide credit crunch occurred, it meant the UK economy contracted steeply. The government couldn't take any more money through tax, and welfare spending shot up.

Now, I know some of my dear Tory friends will be jumping up and down pointing and shouting "It's all your fault!". I think there is an element of truth in that. The Labour government at the time should have put the brakes on but didn't do it in time. However, let's not forget that the biggest driver was the world credit crunch. Without it, we would be fine. Even if the government had put the brakes on, we'd still be in the mess, maybe just not as deep.

The current government (as would Labour if it was in power) has to cut spending to close this structural debt. The philosophical question is how and by how much.

Cuts are needed, and are needed now. We can't hide from that, and it's no point in saying that there shouldn't be any cuts at all. The cost of administering the welfare state is very costly, and let's face it, we're getting older. When William Beveridge bought about the state pension for men to retire at 65, the male life expectancy was 64. Beveridge actually set the retirement age above the average life expectancy. This meant in reality people only had a few years of retirement before they popped it, if at all. Today, life expectancy for a man is 77, and that's increasing (perhaps an argument to up the age of retirement to 75...).

The coalition government is looking at biblical cuts. It announced cuts of 25% across all departments (except health and overseas aid) with a worst case level of 40% cuts. These are huge. Deep. Life threatening. In Ireland, where they are in front of the UK with their cuts, all public sector employees took a 20% pay cut.

But this is where my belief in Keynesian economics kicks in. Such cuts will only produce severely high unemployment across both the public and private sectors, and may cause a double dip; where businesses went through the mangle and shed jobs, and are only now starting to come through the other side, may well end up going to the wall. The coalition government are in danger of concentrating so much on cuts, that there won't be any stimulus. John Lanchester points out that in June the G20 made a commitment that they they will all halve their deficits by 2012 and to stabilise debt by 2016. If this is the case, who will be buying? Where will the growth come from? The whole world will be belt tightening! the aim is for it to be a production-led recovery, not like the consumer-led boom we've been through, but there won't be any country buying the products.

Rather than death by a thousands cuts, how about a bit of Keynesism, where we stimulate our economy ourselves? What do we have to lose except growth?

This post is heavily borrowed from an article in the Guardian Weekend magazine 2 October 2010.

The Virgin London Marathon

2010-10-02T12:55:00.000+01:00

I got a big parcel through yesterday. Clear plastic, the kind most magazines and other kids of mail come in now. On one side there was a letter, on the other there was a pristine white trackie top. Now, I do like to do a little clothes shopping on the net, but trackies are not my usual apparel. This was not something I've deliberately bought.

Then I saw it. On that beautiful white top was a splash of red. A red ribbon. A red ribbon in the shape of a heart. In the centre of this heart said the immortal words...

Virgin London Marathon

The words swirled around my mind clogging up the thought processes. Fear and excitement filled my body. Months of training to run 26 miles. Do I have the mental and physical stamina? Will my dodgy knee hold up? Will my body give up even before I get to Greenwich Park? Will I get around the course?

I flipped the package over and tore at the plastic. My kids came out wondering what was going on as they saw Dad in tormented joy. I started to read the letter. Then it really hit me.

"Dear Runner..."

Yes, yes...

"We regret that we have to advise you that your application to run in the 2011 Virgin London Marathon has been unsuccessful..." The grey mist swirled again. Bugger. I didn't get in. There's always next year...

Is Ed a Leader?

2010-09-30T23:28:00.000+01:00

It's been a few days now since Ed Miliband became leader of the Labour Party and officially Leader of the Opposition. Will he lead Labour back to power after a short stint in opposition, or will he be Labour's Ian Duncan Smith?

For many, Ed is an unknown quantity. Despite him being in the Cabinet as Environment Secretary, he was only elected in 2005, and hasn't quite made the mark for a lot of members, even more so for the public, where many just haven't heard of him.

The so called brotherly fight has been interesting from a media point of view, with Ed beating older brother David, and how David has held himself graciously in public (and private it would seem) but this is a side show, and not really is the issue. For me, what will Ed be like as leader? Is he soft and cuddly or does he have more balls than Balls? Above all, what ideas is he going to bring to the Party's party?

He won. Let's not get caught up on how he won; the electoral college that Labour uses, the way the union's galvanised their member's votes, or the fact that one member's vote can be worth more than someone else's vote. That's another debate and another blog.

First, is he a gutsy guy? Look at it like this. When your older brother has been publicly spoken about as the next leader of the Labour Party, when he was the one who would have spoken about it, dreamed about it, and was the first to put his hat into the ring, and then you come along and say "you know what, I want a bit of this", that shows a streak of determinism, and an element of ruthlessness. This is backed up by Miliband asking Nick Brown to withdraw from the election as Chief Whip, an opportunity to show steeliness at a very early opportunity. Don't get me wrong. I don't think Ed stabbed David in the back, but I do think you need to be gutsy to make the stand.

Secondly, what's he going to be like as a leader? For me, it's very early days. However, his first speech as Leader to the Labour Conference shows the outline of where Labour is going. As Nicholas Watt in The Guardian points out, Ed slowly demolishes the misleading misnomers that have built around him in the past few weeks; him being in the pockets of the unions, the acknowledgement that Labour did badly in the election and that it's time to tell a few home truths. The move away from the past and New Labour is ironically the most New Labour thing he's done. Do the Tories fear him? Some say Ed is a light weight in comparison to his brother, so perhaps the jury is out. For the moment. I know one thing, Ed's going to have to really work on this, and he knows it. For that very fact, he will show his strength and won't be Labour's Ian Duncan Smith.

Lastly, if you've got a spare hour, watch Ed's first speech as Leader to the Conference. See what you think.

Dr Fox raises hell!

2010-09-28T23:00:00.000+01:00

I don't want to hear one more Tory to bring up the subject of not enough helicopters for the army if Dr Liam Fox's concerns aren't addressed. Take a read of The Telegraph's article here, and don't forget to read the letter in full.

Crossrail Go Ahead

2010-09-28T09:51:00.000+01:00

I know, I know... If you don't keep a blog up you lose your readership.

Anyway, I saw this in the Newshopper about confirmation that Crossrail has been given the go ahead to come to Abbey Wood and Woolwich.

There was fear that due to cut backs, the line would end further into London and thereby have south east London miss out again on a vital transport link. However, common sense has prevailed, meaning local residents will be able to get a train straight through London for the first time.

Now, all I want is for the underground to come...

Wyclef Jean's ad campaign

2010-08-07T21:34:00.000+01:00

Every Presidential candidate needs an advertising campaign. Will Candidate Wyclef Jean use this one?

A bitter sweet few days

2010-05-09T17:55:00.000+01:00

Fighting elections produces a mixture of feelings as well as various situations. Exhilaration, despair, belief of an election being in the bag, belief that an election is lost, abusive people, supportive people and everything in between.

Unfortunately I wasn't elected to represent Lesnes Abbey ward in Bexley. However, I would like to thank the 2083 people who did vote for me. It was a good campaign, and all candidates in the ward fought it with fairness and honour. I want to thank my two team mates, John Browning and John Husband who were fantastic to be with, and special condolences to JB who lost out by only six votes.

Labour gained three more seats in Bexley, bringing the group up to 11. However, the Tories still have 52 seats, a huge majority. Although they did well in Bexley, across London as a whole Labour had gains in 29 councils, and took back councils such as Lewisham, Ealing and Southwark amongst others.

The interesting thing to watch is, of course, nationally. As I write, the Tories and Lib Dems are meeting to see if they can form a ConDem alliance and govern together. Many on the Progressive Left are fearful of a deal and want a LibLab pact. Personally, I'm fine with the thought of the Tories and the Lib Dems going into some sort of partnership. The reason? They are polls apart on many policy areas such as PR, foreign policy and economics which will produce turmoil and infighting, with another General Election called between six to 18 months time. We've already heard that the Tories are having a huge scrap between themselves, and this will only get worse.

Once a deal is done, Gordon Brown will have no choice but to then resign as Prime Minister and then Leader of the Labour Party, leaving the way for a leadership battle without Government being a distraction as it was previously. Labour will then be able to enter the election with a new leader and policies that will, hopefully, win over the people.

Let's see how things develop.

2010-04-22T20:52:00.000+01:00

Many visitors will have seen that I haven't written on my blog since January. There are a few reasons for this, but one of them is simply that since running for Lesnes Abbey ward in the local elections, I've been VERY busy!

However, one thing I'd like to say to ALL visitors. You have a vote on Thursday 6th May. Make sure you use it. Every vote WILL make a difference, and YOU must play a part in how this country is shaped.

A normal service will resume once the election is over.

2010-01-08T18:26:00.000Z

I love this satellite image that has been taken in the past day or two of the UK completely covered in snow. I find it awesome, in the true meaning of the word. Take a moment and contemplate what you're seeing. It's always good to take time out to really have a moment to think.

Amazing, isn't it?

Bexley quietly withdraws cash from services

2010-01-08T07:45:00.000Z

For those keeping an eye on local services, some people may not be too fully aware of the cuts that Bexley Tories have made within the borough. One cut that will slowly become evident is the withdrawal from the Green Flag Award scheme.

The flag to the left is the borough flag, which has quietly replaced the prestigious Green Flag that has flown at the flag pole that was specially erected at Lesnes Abbey park after Bexley was awarded it a few years ago.

For the uninnitiated, the scheme is run by Keep Britain Tidy organisation, and was launched in 1996 to promote the best individual parks and open spaces around the country. It's a great scheme, because local authorities LOVE to enter awards (self promotion is important to councils. They want to show value for money and tell people that a service they provide is greeeatttt) and for them to get the award it helps raise standards. It's a win-win situation. The council provides a better service, and the public receive a better service.

In the Green Flag Scheme, parks must be freely accessable to the public and perform well against eight criteria:
A welcoming place
Healthy, safe and secure
Clean and well maintained
Sustainability
Conservation and heritage
Community involvement
Marketing
Management

There's also a cost to enter: a site 300 hectares and over is £345, 20-299.99 hectares is £258.75, and 0-19.99 hectares is £201.25, not much, and is really for administration purposes. To retain the flag, a park has to be entered every year, thereby keeping standards high.

In Bexley, when the Labour group were in charge (2002-2006) we were proud that five of our key parks, our prestigious parks, became Green Flag holders: Hall Place Gardens, Lesnes Abbey, Danson Park, East Wickham Open Space and Foots Cray Meadows. I love all these parks, and visit them all regularly with the dog and the kids. So much to do, and such parks to be proud of.

Which brings me to the Tories withdrawing so much funding from their parks budget that four our of five parks have now lost their Green Flag status. This, I think, is truly awful. At what stage does funding become so scarce that Bexley couldn't fulfil what criteria?

I realise that for some people this would seem necessary, a belief that it's better to make cuts here then in core areas. But it isn't the case. Bexley Tories are slashing budgets, and I highlight parks simply because it's visually obvious to anyone who will visit.

It's a thin end of a potentially large wedge, and I personally believe that we can't go on like this.

Name change for Greenwich!

2010-01-07T20:56:00.000Z

I want to congratulate Greenwich on the announcement that it will no longer be called the London Borough of Greenwich, but the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Yes, it has had royal patronage thrust upon it.

In honour of the Queen's diamond jubilee due on 2012, Peter Mandelson announced a two day bank holiday (well, moving the May bank holiday to June, and adding another one) so it's a long weekend, and due to Greenwich's long historical ties with the monarchy, the borough will have the royal status added.

I'm not too clear why it's such an honour, but apparently it is - there's only three other boroughs with such status: Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston, and Windsor & Maidenhead. I suppose there is some sort of kudos, and perhaps property prices may increase slightly. I know that it will cost with all that logo and name changes that will need to go on, but I digress!

I'm still not too sure WHY it's happened. I don't know what qualifications a borough needs to become a royal borough. Perhaps it's simply a connection with royalty - all four of the boroughs have or have had accomodation, or in Kingston's case had Saxon kings enthroned there. But what about Edinburgh? Richmond with Hampton Court? Westminster with Buckingham Palace? Perhaps someone with greater knowledge can shed some light.

Either way I hope Greenwich subjects will enjoy their new-found status and bask in royal glory!

Grudge match!

2010-01-06T21:18:00.000Z

There's a great article in yesterday's News Shopper which had me gaffawing out loudly whilst at my desk at work.

More politicians should deal with there opponents like this...! Read it here.

Have a VERY merry Christmas

2009-12-24T12:18:00.000Z

There's a couple of articles that I've been working on, and was chatting them through with some work colleagues. When I explained that I was going to post them either yesterday or today, they said "they're good, but not very Christmassy". I had a little pause, and agreed. They can wait.

I have always loved Christmas, and for me it really is the whole package. I love the tradition, the festivities, families coming together and time off of work! As a Christian, Christmas is the second most important date in the calander, where we can remember the birth of Jesus.

I recognise that for some of you that this particular side of Christmas is just piffle, and there is a growing trend for atheists to join in with what's called Godless carol services and a general Godless Christmas.

For me, this is anethema, and a case of having cake and eating it, where people want to participate in Christmas without excepting what it's about. However I also except that many traditions that we participate in come from various backgrounds such as paganism and has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. Just as Christians square the circle by accepting and integrating long held traditions into the message of Christmas, perhaps for atheists this is simply their opportunity to do the same.

Whatever you background, whatever you believe in, take this time as an opportunity to reflect, enjoy yourself and surround yourself with friends and family.

Have a very good Christmas.

Bexley's staffing failure

2009-12-22T13:00:00.000Z

After my terrible journey home last night (see here), my patience was already at breaking point. When I saw that not one of my many recycling bins hadn't been collected during the day, I was seething.

Having phoned up Bexley this morning, we were told that Bexley werepulling all it's operatives off of cleansing to make sure the roads are gritted.

At one level you could say "fantastic! Bexley keeping on top of a problem!". I, however, do not think that. My dad worked for Greenwich Council many years ago, and gritted, cleared up road accidents, kept sewers clear, and many other jobs. I spoke to him about it. He was astonished that Bexley had taken this stance. He told me how cleansing would always be kept on top of the bins, no matter what the weather, and the workers would be there to grit the roads.

I couldn't agree more. I don't want operatives pulled off to service another part of the business. There should already be enough staff to crack on with the job! Bexley clearly isn't up to the job, and doesn't have the staff necessary to make sure that all parts of the organisation are working, and working well. Bexley is cracking under the sheer weight of incompetence.

So this week we have Christmas, and all the excess that it nowadays brings. That also means paper, boxes, bottles, waste food to be recyled and rubbish to be rid of. There's no point in having Bexley councillors and an MP twittering about waste collection when they're unaware that already Bexley are missing out a complete week of it's Christmas collection because it can't get it's act together.

The magic and the difficulties that is snow

2009-12-22T12:20:00.000Z

I love snow. I'm a bit of a winter person. In fact I love all the seasons, that's why I love this country, where each season is defined. For me winter is special; my birthday and Christmas are in December, the New Year takes place where we can reflect to what's happened in the past and look forward to what's to come.

That's why when the snow fell at the rate it did yesterday evening, a little bit of the boy in me lept. I did resist the urge to go into the office car park and throw snowballs though.

However, the joy was short lived as the heavy snow coincided with people leaving work to go home. Within minutes the roads came to a standstill. Thick snow, compacted by tonnes of metal slowly rolling over it, turned to sheet ice as more snow fell which turned to heavy rain and then back to snow.

The South Circular in Woolwich was gridlocked. It was at a standstill. When I eventually got onto it several times I turned my engine off. Buses had simply stopped with their hazards on, which in many cases I could understand, as I saw one bus attempt to turn a junction, break, and then slowly keep sliding. It was a slow motion car crash, literally, as the bus, not being able to stop, kept its trejectory, slowly went into a car that was completely unable to get out of its way.

On my way home, I kept in touch with fellow travellers through Twitter (don't worry, I wasn't breaking the law - we had all stopped and had our engines off!). During the chaos, a fellow Londoner, one B Johnson aka Mayor of London, seemed to be completely unaware of the traffic chaos that he was in charge of. His tweet, when roads became gridlocked, when buses became abandoned, when trains and tubes and been cancelled was:

One fellow twitterer and south east Londoner, 853, has already blogged on his experience with the buses and trains, and this particular episode: you can read it here.

I recognise that extremes happen. I also recognise that we all have to take responsibilty - we need to leave earlier to get to destinations or not leave at all in some situations. We need to be prepared in what we wear and what's in our cars. If on public transport we need to find out what's running before we leave. We need to drive sensibly and drive using the clutch and not accelerate and wheel spin uncontrollably, or drive up the middle of the road to try to avoid traffic chaos (blue van last night... you know who you are!). All this is good, as long as those in authority do their bit.

However, yet again, I believe we we're let down. The crews did they're best, but policy makers haven't. Since last week we've had snow and ice, and there was predictions for more yesterday. OK, we didn't think it would be as bad as it was, but still.

I want to see gritters operating around the clock. But this hasn't been happening. Perhaps it's due to cutbacks - councils can only put out what they have. If they have five lorries and and not 10 then there we are. Perhaps if they only budget for so many tonnes of salt and grit, then so be it. Snow in London has now fallen twice this year, when previously the last snow fall was ten years ago. I agree there's no point in having gritters standing around doing nothing for ten years. But we need to overcome, adapt and be innovative. If not lots of proper gritters, then alternatives that can be transformed in emergencies. Snow ploughs that can be adapted when need be. And a service that makes sure that if things are bad, that we just slow down, and not come to a grinding stop.

Boris and councils, you REALLY need to do better next term.

General Election fever

2009-12-13T11:02:00.000Z

There's a lot of talk about when the general election will be. I love these discussions. Will it be the New Year? Will it be the spring? Will it coincide with the local elections in May? Will he push it until June?

Some people say because Labour are skint we can't afford two elections at different times so it will be 6th May. Others say Gordon will push it to June.

Since the beginning of November I've said 25th March. Brown will want to go before budget kicks in, and I feel he'll NOT want two elections at the same time. I even said so in a re-tweet!

Whatever happens, only one man knows, and he's not telling. Yet!

Good news for Labour?

2009-12-01T21:10:00.001Z

Polls. You into them? I often take polls with a pinch of salt, particularly at such an early stage of a pre-election fever. I remain convinced that the Tories have not sealed the deal with the electorate; at this stage in 1996/1997 Labour were in the high 40s low 50s, where as the Tories currently hover around the 40% mark.

There's a good piece by Anthony Wells at the website ukpollingreport.co.uk today. Read it here.

The tunnel of hate

2009-12-01T13:00:00.004Z

My travel arrangements for work can be mixed; I'll drive, cycle or take the bus, depending on what I'm doing during the day, and what the weather is like! Yesterday I needed the car, and having had last week off, I decided to get in a little earlier, so left home at 8pm. Ordinarily, it would have taken 20 - 30 minutes, but yesterday was not an ordinary day.

On Sunday evening a people carrier caught fire in the northbound Blackwall Tunnel, melting the tarmac and damaging the lighting and CCTV systems. The tunnel was closed and was scheduled to be so until Wednesday (TfL actually got it all fixed by Monday night).

Come Monday morning, south London was gridlocked. My journey to work from Sidcup to Woolwich took and hour and half - five miles, averaging three miles an hour. Roads around Avery Hill, Welling Way, and of course Shooters Hill were all backed up. Once getting onto Woolwich Common aka South Circular people were turning engines off as lorries and others attempted to get onto the Woolich ferry, which had at that time already a two hour delay. Coming home was not much better.

The chaos does highlight a couple of things. First, it shows it wouldn't take much for terrorists to badly affect south east London (as it's south east London that is usually affected when the tunnel is closed) and bring it to a stand still. An explosion here, would bring such disruption to a tunnel that was first built for the horse and cart.

Secondly, Greenwich Council have taken the opportunity to highlight the need for more river crossings. When I was a councillor for Bexley in 2005/6, there was a huge local campaign against the proposed crossing introduced by Ken Livingstone. A residents action group was set up because of fear of increased local traffic in side roads heading towards a crossing at Thamesmead. Bexley Tories jumped on the bandwagon and actively campaigned against it, along with Boris during his election campaign. Despite the fears raised, many legitimate, the closure of Blackwell does highlight the need for another crossing. One argument that was used was exactly that; if the Blackwall was closed, traffic would automatically go to the new crossing, therefore snarling up the roads. That in itself becomes an irrelevancy, simply because that already happens! At least with another crossing it would give an opportunity for the traffic to ease at a quicker rate.

With proper regulation and traffic management a crossing could be feasible. Afterall, Boris Johnson seems to have changed his mind since elected...

Boris' ex-Deputy Mayor really has hit rock bottom

2009-11-29T01:13:00.000Z

Is there no shame to this man? I knew that Clement was peddling his story, for the dizzying price of £750 to £1000 (clearly his price is not in the league as Katie Price or even a Z-list celeb), but is this really it? I know things are tough for the man, but come on Ian, the words washing, and public? You can't have hit rock bottom this badly. However, I did notice the PR firm he's using is NOT of his now probably ex-friend and ex-colleague at Bexley Council Katie Perrior. Shame.

Anyway, have a read of this story in The Mirror, and after you've lifted your head from your hands, wonder at both the desperation and shame that he continues to bring upon himself.

Thick of It

2009-11-27T12:20:00.001Z

I'm pretty new to The Thick of It, and this series is the first time I've ever seen it - and I'm hooked. It's truly brilliantly written (although very sweary!) and acted, and the although I've never moved in the high echelons of either government or party, it's exactly how I imagine things to be!

Anyway, I've came across this about last week's episode, which I thought was very good. Sorry about the language!

Community Payback for Clement

2009-11-13T21:24:00.000Z

Is this closure? Ian Clement is pictured on Community Payback in Sidcup! You can read more about it here in the Evening Standard. Even if the people of Bexley don't get justice as much as all other Londoners by taking Clement to court, at least he's doing time here.

The undemocratic borough of Bexley

2009-11-11T12:02:00.000Z

A small article in the local paper, The News Shopper, has shown that the public in Bexley have voted overwhelmingly against the the idea of an elected mayor and to keep the status quo of a council leader and cabinet - 81%. Quite an achievement, and something that will please councillors of both parties, but in particular the Tories who are currently in power.

However, let's take a closer look at this fantastic piece of people power, a great example of consultation at work. First, the consultation was only advertised on the website and a public notice buried in the back pages of the News Shopper. Not in the quarterly Bexley magazine, not as big press releases in all the local newspapers, not on council-owned poster sights, not as a hand-delivered flyer. Consultation on websites only automatically blocks those not on the net and those people who are on the net but have a little life and don't see the Bexley website as the first port of call when web surfing.

Secondly, it took place over the summer months. Now, I'm sure some people will feel this is irrelevent, but surely undertaking consultation during the time when people are off on holiday doesn't help us see that this piece of consultation is taken seriously.

Thirdly, This ability to bury a consultation on the very essence of democracy meant that only 99 people commentated on it. It worked out to be 0.056% of Bexley's registered voters who gave an opinion.

Don't get me wrong. I'm in favour of the status quo. I think leader and cabinet is a good system of local government and do prefer it over an elected mayor which I think is good for cities, but not for London boroughs or smaller authorities. What I dislike is the belittling of democracy, something that the local Tories in Bexley has become all too familiar with.

The official Bexley tag line is "listening to you, working for you" which was adopted from the Tories during their local election campaign in 2006. They pride themselves in consulting, listening and acting on what has been said. But how true is this? This consultation should have been big, it should have been loud. It's about the very heart of what local people should want from their democratically elected local authority. It's become clear that the Tories pick and choose what they think is right for the people to speak about. This isn't about a local road scheme, it's about how we're actually run! And yet there have been more consultation publicity with public meetings and road shows about one way systems, new supermarkets, and a new civic centre.

Why be scared of what the people may say? If the council favours leader and cabinet, great! Campaign on it and tell the people why and get them on side. However the Tories have favoured sidelining the public, very much the same as they did at full council last week when they refused to allow members of the public to ask questions about the Ian Clement affair. Read more here, and get angry at how they are NOT listening to people, and are not giving the people an opportunity to be heard.

It's become clear that the local Tories are happy to listen to people on a few things, but are deaf at any other time.

A letter, a paper and a media tycoon

2009-11-10T22:56:00.000Z

Whilst at work today I kept abreast of the news by delving (occasionally) into the news websites, and in particular, Twitter, to hear and see what people we're thinking about Gordon Brown's letter to Jacqui Janes, the grieving mother of Jamie Janes, the Guardsman killed in Afghanistan in October.

I've been pretty angry at the depths that the Sun is now reaching. I don't have a problem with them attacking the Government or Labour; it is, after all, the thing they do and have done since Murdoch took it over. However, to use a woman's grief like this, to critise a half blind man about his writing and spelling, and then to release a tape of a private conversation is scandalous. I do question Mrs Janes' motive to reach for phone and speak to the Sun, and to tape a private phone conversation; I only hope her judgement is currently clouded.

Despite it being headline news all of today on BBC, Sky, ITN, and various papers, the story has blown up in the Sun's face. Looking at it's website the message board is very pro-Brown. Even Mumsnet is feeling sorry for the PM.

However, it's becoming clear that the Murdoch stable is becoming a little more wayward than usual. The Sun's vitriol is mirrored by it's owner. Today, Murdoch said in an interview that he agreed with Fox News presenter Glenn Beck that Barrack Obama is racist. As John Prescott said in a Tweet today, does anybody want the Sun's or Murdoch's backing now?

Drugs and the BNP

2009-11-10T16:03:00.000Z

Thanks to the powers of Twitter, I came across this article in The Guardian. The journalist turns ideas, issues and data into "easy-to-digest and ... beautiful infographics and images". It certainly does provoke the mind a lot more then reading lots of opinions and comment.

I'm going to look forward to reading this column regularly.

Boris' hike

2009-10-15T10:49:00.000+01:00

Boris' manages to screw Londoners left, right and centre. Because he wishes to keep his promises to his voters in Kensington and Chelsea, and get rid of the Western Extension Zone of the Congestion Charge TfL will lose £35m year. So, to keep the fashonistas in their gas-guzzling Chelsea Tractors away from Lefty Ken's mad car-charging experiment, he will go ahead and scrap it. Depite it's income in these cash-strapped days.

So, whats a Tory mayor to do? Ah, of course, raise bus and tube fares! What's 20% extra if you hop on the bus to get to the high street? What's 14.5% extra for a weekly travel card? And one of the reasons given? To encourage more cycling and walking. Hmm, so Boris wants people off of public transport to cycle and walk more, but encourage more people to stay in cars, particularly if you're in west London?

I would comment on the tube, but since I live in Sidcup and work in Woolwich, it doesn't exist around here and has no baring on my life. Shame, really.

The BNP, the BBC, and the News Shopper

2009-10-12T09:27:00.003+01:00

I've been keeping a close eye on the debate over whether Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, should appear on Question Time this Thursday evening on BBC1. I fully understand both sides of the debate; on the one hand a far right wing, racist, fascist, hate organisation shouldn't be given the breath of publicity, and on the other hand the BBC is independent and should allow legitimate elected political parties on air to speak their views.

I personally hate the BNP. Hate is a very strong word. It is not something I use lightly. But their so-called policies have pulled the wool over the eyes of so many people that the public truely believe that the BNP will provide an alternative to the usual parties who, it is argued, have let the public down.

I agree to a point that some people have moved away from mainstream parties and have turned to extreme parties as they feel let down. Clearly the mainstream parties need to provide policies that have depth and strength to provide answers to difficult questions. You can't bury ones head in the sand over subjects such as immigration, housing and asylum.

However, this year there was a bi-election in East Wickham ward, in Welling. The BNP stood, and during the many weeks of canvassing, it was clear that they were going to do well. Discussions with voters produced the same arguments: belief that the BNP would do something different, people believing that immigration was running wild, the BNP had the electorate at the heart of the their policies and would be hard working, grass roots loving party. The BNP didn't win, but they did come a VERY close second, pushing Labour into third place, and only a handful of votes away from the Tories.

During this campaign, Searchlight became involved, an anti-fascist organisation who came and delivered their own material through the doors. I spoke to a number of Searchlight supporters, a few of them were Labour party members and councillors from Barking and Dagenham. I asked them about how the BNP were in their neck of their woods. Their answer surprised me. "Lazy", was often the reply.

It became clear to the Barking and Daganham members that it was worthless to simply slag-off the BNP. Afterall, they had won council seats. People had voted for them already knowing that they were being painted as fascist and rascist, and they still got in. Keeping to the same line would go no where. So they waited, and it became clear what the BNP's weakness was. They were so keen to fight elections, that they weren't actually prepared if they actually won elections. BNP councillors just weren't doing what councillors should do: turning up and speaking at committees and Full Council meetings, little in the way of surgeries, and little in the way of case work.

This isn't just a Barking and Daganham phenomenia, either. In Swanley, the first BNP councillor was elected during another bi-election a few months ago. It would seem he is equally unprepared for actually being elected. A fascinating story in the local, The News Shopper, has not just shown the laziness of Swanley's BNP councillor, but the lengths that BNP members will go to protect their own, no matter what they've done. Take a look at the story here, and more importantly, the chain of comments (371 when I wrote this blog, a record for a local story?). The strength of feelings on both side of the argument is very clear.

So, should the BBC have Griffin on? Yes, I think they should. I'm sure Griffin is salivating at this extraordinary opportunity that's been given to him to have access to such a large audience on the TV. However, I think he should be on not because I think they have a right to be heard, no matter what hate they spout, but because I have great faith in him to balls it up. No matter what he thinks or his handlers will have tried to feed him, he'll start off sane, but will get progressively darker, ranting at anyone and everyone. He always does; all the BNP do. This opportunity won't give him positive exposure, it will simply make him look mad and bad.

If he doesn't, then this excursion onto the BBC will be the start of something a lot more darker for the UK.

UPDATE 2pm

Have a look at this new article from the News Shopper. In answer to its previous article, the BNP are now trying bullying tactics to influence advertisers to withdraw from the paper. This sort of behaviour is truly abmismal!

Clement pleads guilty!

2009-10-06T12:08:00.002+01:00

Well, Ian Clement has done the decent thing and pleaded guilty. Here's the press statement:

"I have failed to live up to the high standards of office that were properly expected of me. I have given many years of dedicated public service to London, which has been my pride, my passion and my life. That is now over.

"There is no denial in regards to my responsibility. I very much regret and indeed am truly sorry for my actions and that these have let down many good people, my family, my friends and colleagues including and not least, the Mayor of London.

"I would like to thank my solicitor, Jeremy Summers, at Russell Jones & Walker, Jim Sturman QC and all those who have supported me.
"I now have no further comment to make. Thank you."

We'll hear after 2pm what the sentence will be...

UPDATE

Clement received a suspended sentence for 18 months, and, as I understand it, a fine (undisclosed at this moment), a curfew and 100 hours of community service. It would be great if he served it in Bexley, since Bexley Council hasn't got the courage of the GLA to seek damages.

FURTHER UPDATE

According to the BBC, Clement received a 12 week suspended sentence, a £1000 fine, 100 hours community service, and imposed a curfew between 9pm and 6am. Although later on it also mentions an 18 month suspended sentence. You can read it here.

Keeping those hands free from flu

2009-10-04T19:32:00.009+01:00

Last week I was somewhat bemused when I saw hand gel dispensers being put up at work. It wasn't really the dispensers that could be found in the kitchens; I could go along with the message "soap isn't enough, use this stuff every time you come in here". It wasn't even the miniature bottles appearing on our desks to reinforce the message of cleanliness. It was the two dispensers that were put up in the entrance lobby to encourage every single person, both staff and visitor, to dowse their hands in alcohol gel and liberally splatter those germs.

I'm not sure how effective they are; I've yet to see anyone use them, and if this BBC article is anything to go by, it may actually be more of a health and safety issue WITH having them there! One of my colleagues who used to work in the health service told me that a number of hospitals are removing them as they're finding patients and visitors downing them a great quantities, mixing them with water to make them more drinkable!

From a local point of view, why is there no stats from Bexley? Take a look at this map. Now, I KNOW that there has been swine flu around here, so why isn't it being reported? I really would like to see the stats and compare with other parts of London and the south east. Come on PCT, give the figures!

The Top 100 political blogs

2009-09-15T11:53:00.001+01:00

Hmm, not quite there...

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2009/09/15/the-top-100-political-blogs

Ah, perhaps one day...!

Run, Eddie, run

2009-09-15T09:19:00.001+01:00

I was listening to Radio 4 this morning and heard that Eddie Izzard is finishing a marathon today; he gets into central London around 4.30pm. As a pathatic 5k and 10k "runner" I'm always impressed with people running a marathon, it's a running ambition of mine, but I just don't have the time to train.

However, I had to massage the water from my shower-soaked ears for me to hone into what was actually being said. Eddie is not just completing a marathon today, he's completing his 43rd marathon in 51 days. Let me say that again. He's completing his 43rd marathon in 51 days. Wow!

He set off from Trafalgar Square on 27 July in an amazing attempt to run more than 1100 miles around the UK in support of Sport Relief. When he runs into Trafalgar Square today he would have covered his 43 marathons in 51 days and gone through all four nations.

And I don't have time to train?!? It just goes to show, if you have the will power, you can do anything. If you're in and around London later this afternoon, why not pop down and cheer him in. Let's face it, he deserves it.

Clement in court - part one

2009-09-08T18:03:00.004+01:00

Ian "Claiment" was up in Westminster Court this morning. You can read more about it here in The News Shopper and the Evening Standard. Briefly, he declined to make a plea, and wants to be tried at Crown Court. It would seem that Bexley still will not press charges, and the fact that this affair has got to court is thanks to the GLA. In the words of a colleague of mine "Boris has balls, but Bexley has bottled it". Quite.

It would be nice as a Bexley tax payer to get justice, but it still seems that Bexley's Tories are wanting the whole thing to go away. I fear it won't, and the fact that Clement's case has been adjourned until 6 October, smack bang in the middle of the Tories conference, may make it still news worthy.

Footnote: Take a look at our GLA rep, James Cleverly's blog about the issue. Clement has left Cleverly a response. All very interesting!

Children deserve so much better

2009-09-06T21:07:00.006+01:00

On Thursday my family and I celebrated adoption day, three years to the day that my two children were legally adopted by myself and Mrs B. Cake and cards, along with a special dinner; it's something we love doing.

When I was a housing officer, I had to attend a couple of family cases with social services, where we had to review the needs of children: the state of the home, how they're doing at school, what's going on in the family. It was just a couple meetings that I had, but I always felt frustrated at the endless talk, lack of action and the need to support the families as much as possible despite what I thought was a real need to get the children out of the domestic situation.

What's the connection between these two sentences? Today Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnados, called for changes to how children are dealt with by social services. He said that we shouldn't be "fixing families that can't be fixed" and for social workers to be braver about removing children at risk .

I couldn't agree more. Having seen first hand the need for early intervention and what taking children out of abusive, dangerous situations and giving them opportunities in a loving, caring and nurturing family, why should we stick to policies of supporting families who frankly have no idea on bringing up children, or are in such danger that it leads to terrible abuse or even death.

Ed Balls criticised Narey, saying that the current policies are the right ones. Sorry Ed, you're the one who's wrong. There are too many children out there who need early intervention, and plenty of people willing to supply a loving family to those children. Surely this is what matters, not about keeping stats down. Don't dismiss this outright Ed. Children deserve a good start, and a family who provides love must be the way to go.

Justice for Londoners as a whole, but not for Bexley tax payers

2009-09-04T18:57:00.006+01:00

Ian Clement, former Bexley Council leader and former Deputy Mayor of London, has been charged with five counts of fraud today for abusing his expenses, £227, at City Hall. This has capped a rough week off for Boris, after his second in command, Kit Malthouse said in a Guardian interview that the Tories in London had taken over New Scotland Yard and had their hand on the tiller. This had provoked an angry response from Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met's commissioner.

Scotland Yard said: "Ian Clement, age 44, from Crayford, Kent, has this morning been charged with five offences under section 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act in connection with alleged misuse of expenses."

He'll be at Westminster Magistrates court on Tuesday. As I understand it, he is currently on bail.

However, this does prompt me to question Bexley's so called "investigation" where the Tories in charge, some of whom had dined out on Clement's public credit card, had simply said Clement had been "a very naughty boy", but there wasn't enough evidence to call in the police. The cost to Bexley's tax payers was £2,087.

It seems London tax payers as a whole will get some sort of justice, but for us Bexley tax payers? Local Tories just want it all to go away. Not good enough.

Man Camp

2009-08-30T17:30:00.012+01:00

I'm recovering from quite a hectic 24 hours today! I have a twisted ankle, back ache, welts all over my body and a very sore right shoulder. This is the result of Man Camp...

25 or so men from New Community Church descended on to a farm in Wateringbury, just outside Maidstone, Kent. Wateringbury is at the best of time a beautiful place, and in my youth I've spent many a fun day messing about on the river (Medway) and doing a spot of fishing.

However, for us, we pitched up on Friday night with tents, BBQ'd meat (lots of meat) and drank a few beers, great to be outside under the the clear sky, chatting and joking with friends and getting acquainted with others.

Saturday was when it all happened. After a decent breakfast of bacon, eggs and mushrooms, and short devotional time we packed up tents and cracked on with a morning of activities - air rifle shooting, clay pigeon shooting and mountain biking. I've never fired shot guns before, and I've got to say, I loved it! It's very exhilarating, and I loved shooting at moving objects. I used to shoot air rifles on a regular basis as a teen, entering competitions, and even winning a few, but they were at the standard targets. Shooting a 12-bore at a moving clay certainly stretched my previous experiences. The afternoon was spent down at a paintball centre outside Meopham, with most of us who joined in coming out in pain, paint, adrenalin but most of all having had fun.

Why do it? Some of you may think - what a lot of macho nonsense. I say, actually, it's good for men to be men and spend time with men. We need to connect, we need to develop strength, we need to encourage. From a Christian perspective, men are to be people who takes a lead within the family, who encourage their children in their spiritual growth, to provide guidance and teach right from wrong. This can extend to the work place and where men are in a leadership role.

Whether you're a Christian, or whether you think Christianity is a lot of nonsense, these are good principles for men to live by.

Blackheath's new village

2009-08-28T12:48:00.009+01:00

When something like Climate Camp pitches up, quite literally, to a town near you, and you see it in the press and television, it’s worth a gander. For those of you who aren’t too sure what I’m talking about, the guys who organise it have brought you Climate Camp Heathrow in 2007, where they protested about the third runway, and last year they pitched up in Kent and protested about Kingsnorth power station on the Isle of Grain.

This year they wanted to target London, and to keep both the police and the press on their toes, met up at ten different locations around London, keeping the final destination a surprise. By using texts and Twitter, Blackheath became the target, and on Wednesday 26 August 500 or so protesters descended onto the heath, erected temporary fencing, composting toilets, a tent village, kitchens and even a welcome tent.

Curious about the camp, and having passed it a number of times on Wednesday and Thursday, I decided to pay a visit on my way home from work. I’ve got to say, they’re very well organised, as well as embarking on a major PR campaign, but that probably reflects the kind of people who are involved.

The camp encourages the public to visit, to talk to people and see what’s going on. The welcome tent has press releases, boards explaining the issues and regular seminars for both the public (the aim of the camp and reassuring local residents that the heath will look exactly the same when they leave as it did when they came), and the protesters (what kind of things to protest about, what to do if arrested, and issue-based talks). There are regular tours of the camp, press packs, and do’s and don’ts for the press in the way they can act on site.

One guy, Tom, said that he wanted to be here because his passion was “for the human race to stop killing itself and the planet”. Another, Liz, said that she was there because she wanted to protest against capitalism and the “amount of money that has been pumped into an ever increasing greedy banking system.”

I myself don’t particularly agree with many of the views that were expressed; I was sympathetic to a certain degree, but couldn’t bring myself around to many of the views expressed, and there were many. The views and beliefs were so wide ranging, it seemed some may even be contradicting each other.

To me, it seemed a hotch potch group of people with an array of beliefs that had one common strand; to protest against the status quo, those in power, and those who make money from the many. But perhaps that is the attraction of the camp. Although many views, they all come under one umbrella that is Climate Camp.

Summer catch up

2009-08-25T21:05:00.009+01:00

As I slowly come back from my summer break, and a work schedule that has meant regular 12 hour days and weekend working, my mind turns to local, national and international news. So what's grabbed my attention?

Locally, it's Bexley Council not fully condemning Ian Clement by not following through with legal action against him. See the News Shopper article for the latest. Regular readers will know the outrage I've shared over this story in the past few months, and as a Bexley tax payer I'm disgusted with the hot air shared and lack of action shown by the local Tories. Although not protecting their own (fair enough, they've been more than happy to put the verbal boot into Clement), they haven't followed up; perhaps not wanting to find out what remains under the few unturned stones.

Nationally, one particular issue has been the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi by the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, which has sent waves through the US and here in the UK. Debate continues over whether Megrahi should have been released, and the home coming that he received. I don't think MacAskill really understood the depth of feeling that people both sides of the Atlantic had, or if he did, he made a very brave, if foolish, political move.

Internationally, it's been Obama's drive for health reform, and the fall out in the UK over the Republican Party, Fox News and the Right in general rally against this reform, and using the NHS as an example of a terrible health service, thanks to maverick Tory MEP Daniel Hannan.

Although it's not the done thing to blog on issues that aren't cutting edge, well, it's my blog, and I feel like I want to! Over the coming week, I'll be posting my views on these particular issues.

Forgiveness

2009-08-25T21:03:00.001+01:00

I know, I know - if you don't keep a blog up, people will stop reading! Forgive me...

Go slow

2009-08-17T12:24:00.002+01:00

Hmm, the summer and the my work load is slowing my blogging down! I can only apologise...

Bexley to debate Clementgate

2009-07-13T10:28:00.003+01:00

I realise I haven't blogged for a while - too busy with work! However, Bexley's Full council meeting, to take place this Wednesday, caught my eye. Chris Ball, Leader of the Opposition, has submitted the following motion:

“The London Borough of Bexley is extremely concerned that former Councillor Clement has misused his Bexley credit card to incur up to £2000 of unauthorised personal expenditure. The Council therefore resolves to set up a Members' Allowances Investigatory Committee. The Committee will comprise the Leaders and Deputy Leaders of each of the political groups together with the co-option of three people who are not Members of the Council. The latter will be appointed at the first meeting of the Committee, following recommendations made by the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Standards Board for England and the Chief Executive. The Committee’s Orders of Reference will be (1) to commission and consider the results of an investigation into Mr Clement's allowances and expenditure during the period that he was Leader and (2) to investigate whether payments made to Members throughout the same period in allowances and expenses were properly due to those Members. The Committee will report to the next scheduled meeting of the Council, including any recommendations for future actions to address issues arising from the investigation, on 4 November 2009.

In the meantime, as a result of grave concerns about any misuse of taxpayers’ monies, Members who consider that they may have benefited from expenditure in breach of the issuing conditions of Mr Clement's GLA or Bexley credit cards are requested by the Council to repay the sums involved to the relevant authority. In addition, candidates in the 2008 Mayoral election who received any benefit from the Bexley credit card are also requested to return the sums involved.”

I'm very curious to see how the leader and the Conservatives in general will handle this. You can guarantee that you'll hear more about this from me on Thursday.

The history of iPod

2009-06-29T14:25:00.003+01:00

Ah, the Walkman. I could never afford one myself, and had a lesser Akai, but if I kept it face down, no-one ever knew...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

Prayer in hospitals? Why not

2009-06-29T09:08:00.005+01:00

Never let it be said that I've become obsessed by one man. Whilst listening to Radio 5 Live on Sunday morning, the subject of Christian doctors being allowed to pray for their patients became a hotly discussed topic. You can see the BBC articles here and here.

The R5Live phone-in was pretty much evenly divided between those arguing against the concept (it's an infringement of my civil liberties, how dare Christians impose their beliefs on others, I don't want to know about their fairy tales) and those who are for it (many people would see it as a kind gesture, what harm could it do, people can always say no thank you).

For many people it's the mixing of the scientific with the spiritual. Traditionally the two topics are seen as direct opposites, with science proving theory with facts, whilst religion is dependant upon a belief system. When they are separate, people can have that choice to depend on either or to bring the two together. But when the two are brought together and is outside of an individuals personal power, righteous indignation can set in.

I think it's perfectly acceptable for the two to be mixed. If Christian doctors thoughtfully, tactfully and carefully can offer this extra "service" then it would be an asset. I think many people will take it in the spirit that it was intended. Many doctors through the care of their own patients would be able to gauge where their patients are at, and I'm sure have the intellect to be able to ascertain whether someone would accept or reject the notion.

You never know, people might even become healed through it...

Stand by your man

2009-06-29T09:03:00.001+01:00

Ian Clement gets thrown out of the Conservatives. Now there's a surprise... Here's the press release.

GLA committee get stuck in

2009-06-24T10:22:00.005+01:00

This morning the Business Management and Administration Committee (BMAC) of the GLA met, and has proved to be eye watering for Boris Johnson.

They cracked on with Clementgate straight away, and it's become clear that not only was it known in City Hall that Clement was using his card for personal use since November 2008, but that Johnson himself signed off three of Clement's claims in April, May and June of this year. However, officials were keen to stress the the Mayor signed off sheets after personal expenses had been taken off.

Martin Clarke, the GLA Director of Resources and Sir Simon Milton the Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning were both there to answer questions by the committee. Clarke confirmed that the GLA has called the police in connection to some of the claims. The police are considering the matter but as of yet no investigation has been confirmed.

Clement himself requested the credit card and was given one after Clarke had agreed. To me, it seems that Clement has simply got into the habit of having such a card, and didn't want to give up what he had become accustomed to.

Clarke said that he had spoken to Clement a number of times to stop using the card for personal use, and even sent him the policy as a reminder.

The committee highlighted that the system works but depends upon the honesty of those using it. I would consider that to be the weakness of the system. When an expenses sheet gets signed off, the signee is effectively saying that they've checked and agree that the expenses are true. Sir Simon said the Mayor could not be expected to check every heading. Well, if he is to sign off expenses, then yes, he is.

Bexley Tories have not declared

2009-06-23T21:07:00.004+01:00

As suspected, Gareth Bacon has only just declared his meal with Clement after being quizzed by Tim Donovan on the Politics Show (see other posting).

Take a look at Adam Bienkov's website, AKA Tory Troll. He's found out today that the other Bexley councillors, Katie Perrior, Melvin Seymour, Joe Pollard or James Spencer have also NOT declared their meals with Clement.

This means one of two things. Either they were old mates catching up, therefore not legitimate expenses, therefore fraud, or the councillors have forgotten that they should have claimed and are therefore in trouble themselves...

And there's more...

2009-06-23T19:21:00.004+01:00

Further revelations have come out about Clement in today's Evening Standard. Needless to say, I'm not going to comment on his private life; that's between him and his family.

However, where I do comment is where it crosses over into the public. Clement's liberal attitude towards expenses meant that he lied about who is was at lunch or dinner with to cover up his private life, which, unfortunately for him, is fraud, and is a police matter.

I still await to hear answers to questions previously noted in my blog elsewhere. As a Bexley tax payer, I want Bexley to pursue Clement and get the money back that is owed, and still await to hear why Bexley and Boris allowed for this spending to go unchecked, or turn a blind eye. See what Dave Hill at The Guardian has to say. Tomorrow the GLA sit, and I'm sure the next Bexley Full Council will prove to be a fruity session.

I might just turn up.

Where can I find out more?

2009-06-22T21:26:00.005+01:00

By the way, if you want to read more about Clement's resignation, you can try:

BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Times, Evening Standard

However, it's disappointing that Tory bloggers such as James Cleverley, Guido Fawkes or Ian Dale haven't mentioned in any sort of way what's been going on at City Hall. Even Boris Johnson can't seem to bring himself to mention it...

Clement goes, but who pays?

2009-06-22T20:34:00.006+01:00

This morning Boris Johnson accepted the resignation of Ian Clement, his Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations. Here's the statement from City Hall:

Ian Clement, Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations, has resigned from the Greater London Authority (GLA) with immediate effect. He tendered his resignation to the Mayor of London this morning following the discovery of further discrepancies in the use of his corporate credit card. The Mayor has accepted Mr Clement's resignation. His position will be filled in due course.

This is what Clement wrote to the Mayor:

Dear Boris,
Having considered my position over the weekend and in light of our conversation this morning I am formally tendering my resignation as Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations.
It has been a pleasure to work for you and I am sorry that I have let you down and deflected away from the excellent work you and indeed your team are doing in delivering for Londoners.
Best Wishes
Ian Clement

Here's Boris' reply:

Dear Ian,
Thank you for your letter of resignation, which I accept with immediate effect.
As you know, I was extremely angry at the liberties you took with your corporate credit card; but last week I made the essential distinction between behaviour that is crass and anything that amounts to dishonesty or deception. In the light of the further discrepancies in your expenses that have emerged this morning, it is clear to both of us that your position is untenable.
Thank you for all your hard work in the year you have spent here. You played a major part in helping to extend the Freedom Pass for 24 hours across London, and in pioneering Open London, and in launching the City Charter.
Best wishes,
Yours ever,
Boris Johnson
Mayor of London

It was only a matter of time. Clement did the right thing and Johnson had to accept. Tim Donovan said on tonight's BBC news that the "further discrepancies" that were mentioned were that Clement claimed for a dinner with a Tory councillor, except that the Tory councillor said that it was untrue as he had been at a funeral.

However, this isn't the end. As much as Clement may want to now bury this story and Johnson may want to draw a line, the GLA are still to discuss this affair tomorrow. Questions still need to be answered both at City Hall and at Bexley Civic Centre, such as:

Why was Clement given these cards in the first place?
When the bills came in, despite Clement paying off his claimed personal expenses, why was he not pulled up straight away and his attention drawn to the documents he'd signed saying that both cards, the GLA and the Bexley cards, are NOT to be used for personal use
What will happen to the train and restaurant claims during his time at Bexley when he was working on Johnson's campaign, therefore Bexley tax payers paying for his non-Bexley external work?
How can both Bexley and the GLA reassure tax payers that this will NEVER happen again? Clearly the rules that were put in place in the first place weren't adequate, simply because nobody had the guts to pull Clement up.
How can Johnson even pretend that this is all new to him when this has been going on for many, many months, certainly since the Olympics in China?

I want answers to these questions, as I'm sure do other Londoners.

Is Clement's Bacon saved? Er, no.

2009-06-21T15:38:00.006+01:00

The Politics Show. I must admit, I don't usually watch it; I'm at church when it's on. However, this afternoon, after I had found out that an old colleague of mine from my Bexley Council days, Cllr Gareth Bacon, Bexley cabinet member and GLA member, was on the show, defending Ian Clement, well, I had to watch iPlayer.

Now, I like Gareth. However, the fact that he was wheeled out to defend Clement, and therefore defend Johnson's backing of Clement goes to show the low's that the Mayoralty has reached on this particular subject. Could they not find someone a little more senior? Perhaps the janitor? Or the desk clerk? No, I'm being mean to Gareth, but he is a little lowly on the GLA pecking order.

This does tell us, and BBC's Tim Donovan asks this very question, that many Tory assembly members think that Clement should go, and that Johnson should have either accepted his resignation, or should now sack him. It would seem that Bacon is the only member who would support Clement.

Why? Bacon was asked this question, but no satisfactory answer was given. Well, let's face it. They're mates. Always have been, and Bacon is standing by his mate. However, as Donovan started to press in with his questions, Bacon couldn't justify the use of either the GLA credit card or the Bexley credit card. Even when asked about the curry the two shared at our expense at a curry house in Sidcup on a Friday night (is this a justified use of tax payers money? Donovan asks. Quite frankly, no), Bacon couldn't quite come up with adequate answers, saying that they did speak about GLA business. Really? Was it a sit down, talk about issues and come to some conclusion affair? Or was it two mates having a natter and gossip about what's going on in the office over a Cobra beer and a chicken korma (I don't think they could handle anything hotter).

Bacon couldn't justify the use of the card for the taking out of fellow AMs or the use of the card for taking him out as a Bexley councillor. He said he didn't declare it because he didn't know it was a corporate credit card. However, as a Bexley Councillor, and if he really thought he was being taken out on business, he should have declared it. He didn't. Another break of rules.

Clement goes in front of the GLA this Wednesday. I'd be interested to hear the outcome. In the meantime, the fact that no senior Tory came out to either defend Clement or Boris' handling of the affair goes to show the deep trouble he's in.

Some receipts, two credit cards and Ian "Claiment"

2009-06-19T20:06:00.013+01:00

Ian Clement, also known as Ian "Claiment" by GLA officers, former Bexley Council leader and now Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor for External and Government Relations, has been in deep water this week.

Since the Guardian's Dave Hill broke the story on Friday 5 June of how Clement has misused his corporate GLA credit card for personal use, it's become clear that he's been doing so much more.

Let's re-cap:

Clement's misuse of his GLA credit card, despite him signing a contract to say that it would NOT be used for any personal use, showed spending £200 from Tesco, £500 for a CD player for his Jag and various other payments at restaurants. Although paying all this money back, he broke the VERY clear rules.

This week so much more has come to light:

Boris only withdrew the credit card after it became public this week, thanks to the Guardian. Boris has expressed his "outrage" and "anger" at the misuse, but we've learnt that the credit card was used to upgrade Clement's flight to China for the Olympics whilst Boris was on the SAME flight and stayed economy; part of his austerity drive. Now, call me cynical, but wouldn't Boris kinda realise that his deputy was no longer sitting next to him in knee-crushing-class, and was instead swigging champagne, stretching out and even having a lie down on an incredibly flat bed in business class? Yes, of course he would. Now this makes me and many others suspicious that Clement has been misusing it since he had it, and was accepted by Boris and his officials.

When you delve deeper into Clement's credit card use, The Deputy Mayor for Government Relations spent an awful lot of our tax payers money on wining and dining Tories. In fact, for a position that is apolitical and is meant to enhance the Mayor's position with London government, Clement managed to spend £1200 on Tories, whilst he only spent £98 on Labour, Lib Dems and Greens... It would appear that in reality he's not liaising with London government at all, but enhancing Boris' relationship with London Tories.

Clement also can't seem to let go of his Bexley connections. Of his many excessive lunches and dinners, six had Bexley connections:

Lunch with Cllrs Joe Pollard (backbencher and chairman of Bexleyheath and Crayford Conservative Association) and James Spencer (backbencher and councillor who succeeded Clement's seat in Christchurch Ward
Lunch with Katie Perrior to discuss PR strategy, although Katie also ran Boris' media campaign during his election and is also a Bexley councillor
Dinner with Cllr Gareth Bacon, a London Assembly Member, but also a Bexley councillor
Lunch with James Brokenshire MP, currently Tory MP for Hornchurch, but also Tory PPC for Old Bexley and Sidcup
Lunch with Cllr Melvin Seymour, another backbench Tory Bexley councillor

This really does seem to go against his pan-London remit, as well as not being apolitical. In fact, Clement treated only 11 councillors to a slap-up meal; all 11 were Tory, five of whom were from Bexley. There are a massive 1861 councillors on London.

We then come to Wednesday 17 June. The story was splashed all over The Evening Standard, The Mail as well as the lead on BBC South East News. Questions were asked during Mayoral Question Time, where very quiet Tory Assembly Members were somewhat dismayed. Boris called Clement's actions "crass" and was "angry". Clement gave a statement to say what he did was "crass" (seems someone briefed him...). Tory AMs started to brief press against Clement and called for his sacking, but Boris is (so far) standing by him.

Today, Friday 19 June. Bexley Council have put out a statement saying that Clement did a similar thing whilst Bexley leader. Somehow, and for some reason, Clement was given a Bexley credit card. No other councillor has ever before had a Bexley credit card, nor have since. One question is of course why he did have a card. However, put that to one side for a moment. Take a look at the credit card statements and receipts that were released.

Clement used the card for both business and private. However, Bexley Council's statement of use clearly says:

This card should only be used for transactions appertaining to Bexley Council. Personal expenditure is not permitted

It would appear that Clement has got into a habit of misusing these credit cards. Once again, he's broken the rules.

Let's take a good look at what he used the card for: Clement repaid £1,220.27 out of a total bill of £2,946.58 accrued on the card between June 2007 and May 2008. One item was a hotel bill for £364.31, which was originally paid in Euros showing that the hotel was somewhere in the Euro zone.

Another bill Clement used the card to pay for was at the Oxo Tower restaurant on 13 March 2008, when he was still leader of Bexley but also working on Boris Johnson's campaign to become London mayor. The Bexley card was also used to pay a bill of £513 at the Park Plaza in County Hall, which was the headquarters of Johnson's campaign. This was paid on 4 May 2008, two days after Johnson's victory. Although Clement repaid both of these bills too, if they were accrued as a result of his working for Boris Johnson rather than Bexley Council, surely Clement misused the Bexley card.

Among the items Clement used the card to pay for but did NOT reimburse Bexley for were a series of train fares paid at Crayford train station. Between October 2007 and April 2008 he purchased travelcards whose prices - between £13.20 and £13.80 - indicate that they would have allowed him to travel into Zone 1. The period of time in question coincides with the period in which he worked on Johnson's campaign. If the journeys he made using those travelcards were in the service of Boris Johnson rather than Bexley Council, which paid for them, Clement will have misspent Bexley's money. My money. Your money. Not his.

I suspect there is a LOT more to come...

Ian Clement update

2009-06-09T10:45:00.005+01:00

Dave Hill from The Guardian highlights the VERY clear rules that GLA credit card holders sign up to. Is it time for Boris Johnson to practise what he preaches?

Parish Wood update - no change!

2009-06-07T18:49:00.003+01:00

It's now been three months since BoJo announced Parish Wood as a winner for hard cash so that the park can be done up. Still no change. Still overgrown woodland. Still rubbish strawn grass. Still shabby looking river. Still dog muck city. Still no spending by Bexley Council.

Ian Clement's own expenses row

2009-06-07T18:28:00.005+01:00

Oh dear! Bexley's ex-Leader of the Council, Ian Clement, seems to have been a naughty boy! He seems to have used his GLA credit card for personal use and bought a car CD player, restaurants and groceries. It's not sure if he was trying his luck or genuinely was going to pay it back, but his main crime was not knowing the rules. Unlike Westminster, GLA rules are extremely clear, and GLA credit cards are not to be used for personal use. You can read a bit more about it at The Guardian, BBC and The Evening Standard.

It's clear that he broke the rules. Should he be in six-figure job for not understanding a very simple rule? Let's face it, it's not the first time he's used expenses unwisely. Well, if he doesn't understand this, how can he have the brains to do his job...? Perhaps Ian should join the long queue of other GLA advisors that have been now joined the dole.

What a day to remember!

2009-06-05T21:10:00.011+01:00

The trouble with being a part time blogger is that sometimes you can't keep up with events, and boy, have there been some events!

Yesterday was election day. Across the country people, well, some people, were voting in the Euros. Others had the opportunity to vote in their own local elections as well. Overall, there were ups and downs:

First, let's not beat around the bush; the local elections have given Labour such a beating that were it a skinny whippet of a boy it would have had sand kicked it's face, beaten to a pulp and buried head first in a sand dune, putting up a slight murmur of disagreement. Take a look at the BBC election map. As you go through, EVERY county is now blue. To be fair, there were only four that were red and two yellow, so the Tories did have a considerable head start. However, drill down a little bit more, in each county council, the Tories have gained, and in some cases substantially, from Labour. Good, hard working Labour councillors have been washed away in a tidal wave of Toryism.

However, looking at the share of the vote, the Tories have also done badly. Although Labour is down 7%, Conservatives are also down 4%. This shows that Cameron still has a HUGE mountain to climb if he wants to over turn his 199 seat opposition into a working majority. It's possible, but it still gives Labour a big silver lining that its statistically possible for Labour either still win, or a possibility for a hung parliament.

From a spin point of view, you will see Cameron in the media hailing this as magnificent for the Tories but still much to do. And this will be his problem. He's right. It's been good, real good, but not good enough. With the share of the vote down, and individuals such as the new Mayor of Doncaster being an English Democrat beating the main parties into third or lower place, shows Cameron that he hasn't sealed the deal with the public. People don't want Labour, but they're still not convinced on the Tories either.

Secondly, because of the Euro system we won't know the result for another few days. I was out knocking up last night in Belvedere, and I've got to say it wasn't bad. Not bad at all. I found out that turn out in Bexley was 36%. Talking on the doorstep to Labour voters, the vast majority, and I mean the vast majority, were admitting to not bothering to vote in this election because of the obvious reasons, but, and more crucially, they weren't abandoning Labour either. Therefore locally, things aren't that bad.

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave aka Whitehall, minister were dropping like flies. As of this moment, at 10.15pm on the 5 June, SIX cabinet ministers have resigned: John Hutton, James Purnell, Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears, Geoff Hoon, and Paul Murphy. A further FOUR other ministers have also resigned: Tony McNulty, Margaret Beckett, Caroline Flint and Beverley Hughes. Clearly a coordinated resignation taking place over several days is meant to force Brown's hand. Will it work? So far, Brown has had to shuffle his Cabinet today, rather than on Monday. He's also in bullish mood. At a press conference he was insisting he will fight on "I will not waver, I will not walk away". He is also due in France this weekend, for the D-Day anniversary. Unfortunately for Brown, this is a scenario that shares a spooky coincidence with Margaret Thatcher. When her cabinet was plotting against her she vowed to "fight on, I fight to win". She was also in Paris when she made her announcement. Will there be a fresh strike against him while he's away? And will the expected "second wave" attacks be enough to finish him off, just as they did the wounded Thatcher?

You have a vote, you MUST use it

2009-06-03T17:03:00.005+01:00

There's one thing that unites me with conservatives, liberals, left-wingers, right-wingers, Tories, Lib Dems and perhaps even the BNP (shudder...) and that is the necessity to VOTE.

Tomorrow is election day for everyone in the UK. Everyone gets to vote in the Euros, and some get to vote in both those and local elections. However, many people will be looking at the latest shinanigans with MP expenses, looking at ministerial resignations, looking at a government that is so now beyond tired it's needing several crates of Red Bull to keep its eye even slightly aware of the ball.

I was reminded by Radio 4 this morning and another blog that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, where it's quoted that hundreds, if not thousands of people were killed because they dared to give a nod towards democracy, and were severely crushed because of it.

Friends of mine from both South Africa and Zimbabwe both glow with pride and shudder with vague hope respectively at the thought of how the vote was gained in SA, and how it's been squashed in Zim.

We need to remember that in the UK only a generation ago women couldn't vote. Only two generations ago the working class couldn't vote. And now we have a current generation that simply can't be bothered. Who's fault? Well, there are too many reasons for this simple blog to list, but if you're reading this and you haven't made up your mind, or even thought that you won't bother, think again, and VOTE.

A man NOT to be trusted

2009-05-30T17:39:00.007+01:00

It's becoming clear that the media are wanting a change of government, and are now overlooking items that if were from any other party they would be seized on feverishly.

Have a look at this piece in The Independent. A quote from the article:

A few days ago, the Leader of the Opposition was asked how many homes he owns. "I own a house in North Kensington and... in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have," he said. He then started to get confused, said he might own four homes after all, and pleaded: "Do not make me sound like a prat for not knowing how many houses I've got." Imagine if Neil Kinnock said this in 1991. Do you think you might have heard?

If main stream media don't want to pick quotes like this up, and his off-the-wall economics, then it's down to all of us to make sure that everyone else knows what the Leader of the Opposition is about.

However, saying that, a piece from today's The Guardian appeared on the front page. It highlighted Cameron's extremist lurch to the right, to become associated with European parties that support the Waffen SS and deny man made global warming. The public NEED to know where this country will be going if this man becomes Prime Minister.

What's the future for Boris?

2009-05-30T17:14:00.004+01:00

This is a great article from Prospect magazine, looking at Boris' year as Mayor of London. Many people anti-Boris were fearful when he became Mayor, and I was one of them. My fear was even though he's an intelligent man, he will be given the keys to one, if not the, greatest city on Earth, and really muck it up.

I knew many people who voted for Boris simply because of his celeb status, because of his bafoonary on Have I Got News For You, and his articles in the Telegraph. Whilst I shared my fear, they said he'll be great, and anyway, the Mayor doesn't have much power, and any decisions are made by staff, not by him.

A year on, and chickens come home to roost. This article shows how well Boris is way out of his depth. He has an inability to lead, an inability to make decisions on what's best for the capital as a whole, and an inability to show vision. Say what you like about Ken, but he knew exactly what he wanted for London. He lilved, breathed and ate London.

I'd rather have that, then a man who has a greater understanding of ancient Greecian politics then he does of modern London.

Boris, a year on, it's time to go.

Swine flu? Recession? What are they?

2009-05-30T09:03:00.004+01:00

I had a rough night last night. Yesterday at work I began to feel a little unwell. Dizzy, hot, aching, skin crawling. I popped some paracetamol and ibuprofen which helped tremendously and came home. However, when I went to bed, my temperature kicked in. I felt cold, shivering, but my head was on fire. I even became a little delirious, which is also a little scary for Mrs B. You know how it is.

This morning I feel a lot better, but it reminded me of something I read about a few weeks ago. Something that seemed really important at the time as it was in the news so much... but I can't really remember... hmmm... oh, hang on! That was it! Swine flu! I even commented on it previously!

I had a look at the BBC website this morning to see what the current state of play is. To date, there have been 217 swine flu cases in the UK. 217! The media we're going crazy with two! But do we hear of these? No.

I also had a vague recollection about some story called "recession". You know, banks collapsing, markets crashing, mass unemployment, house prices disappearing through a hole in the floor, the pound becoming on a par with the rouble (well, not quite, but you know what I mean). Again, having a quick look at some websites you can see that things are still bad, but it looks like there is some evidence that recession is slowing down. House prices crash has slowed, and even the pound has recovered a little. Have we really heard about this? No. I had to dig to get hold of this.

I think the media thinks we can only handle one major story at a time. At the moment, it's MPs expenses. This has usurped swine flu, which in turn usurped recession. Bur guess what? We can handle all these stories at the same time. I really do urge the media to treat us with intelligence, and that we can take all of these things in our stride.

The man with no shame

2009-05-25T21:07:00.004+01:00

I watched Panorama tonight about MP expenses. Over all I thought it pretty poor reporting; making all expenses look dirty (I get expenses - there are such things as legitimate expenses you know!), however, it did highlight the scam of employing family members, taking other jobs, the rather lucrative severance pay and pension.

Which brings me to Conservative-in-all-but-name Derek Conway MP; my MP. He was interviewed on the programme tonight, and showed absolutely no remorse or shame in the expectation that he DESERVES his severance pay and his pension. He said he gave up a VERY lucrative job (didn't he work for the Cat's Protection League?) to become an MP and will take everything that comes his way.

The man is a cheat, a liar and a greedy ******. I can't believe his colleagues will still refer to his as "honourable" in the Commons.

Bupa London 10k

2009-05-25T18:03:00.003+01:00

After months of realising that there was a need to do something about my doctor's letter, I've been out pounding the streets. I enjoy running (I never did when I was younger, but it's become more a needs to an end, and its cheap!), and like to go out for half an hour or so.

I decided to bite the bullet, and I entered the London 10k, my second 10k race. I've got to say, my training regime has been pretty poor, and I haven't done enough. I tend to run straight after work, if I waited until I got home I would never get myself off the sofa again. However, other parts of my life just seem to creep in; evening work meetings, Labour Party meetings, church meetings. It meant that I only had the chance to get our twice a week, not really enough.

Which brings us to today. The whole Blowers family trooped up to town on Bank Holiday Monday, far too early when everyone else is still in bed. We got to Green Park and a heaving mass of runners had taken the place over.

Whenever I've been involved in a race, it's always moving to see hundreds if not thousands of people running for charities and sporting names and even photos of loved ones on their t-shirts. It's a personal story for each runner multiplied by thousands.

Anyway, I did it in 1 hour 6 minutes, which I was pretty pleased by. It equals the same time I did in my last race last year, so not too shabby. I thought it was pretty good for a fat bloke from Sidcup...

A near death for Boris?!?

2009-05-22T22:07:00.003+01:00

When I read this on James Cleverly's website, I was filled with sooo many feelings, many of them contradictory! If only...

A future for Georgia

2009-05-22T21:29:00.005+01:00

I met Georgia just the one time, doing a bit of door knocking in Slade Green a few weeks ago. I think the problem with what happened is far too long a selection period where too much happened. If the London Labour Party wasn't so 'enthusiastic' and allowed all candidates to crack on, we would have all had a cracker of a selection process. Any way, have a read of this article in the Standard, but also read the comments from readers underneath. All interesting.

What?

2009-05-22T21:04:00.001+01:00

It's too much... http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/newsbeat/newsid_8062000/8062472.stm

Woah!

2009-05-22T20:57:00.003+01:00

Six babies in six minutes? I understand the paediatric unit had Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet" playing in the back ground....

A very British coup

2009-05-20T21:20:00.007+01:00

This week has been a very British coup in Parliament. Many MPs are extremely pleased that Speaker Martin has done the deed yesterday and announced his 'retirement' on 21 June. Let's face it; the knives were out for him. Did he deserve it? A little. He's legally the manager of the Commons. It's his ultimate responsibility to keep things as they should be. The trouble for him is despite many MPs claiming what they could claim for (I've done nothing wrong, Guv! It's all within the rules, pal!), it was the very system that is rotten. And, of course, some MPs have really screwed the system for every penny they could get.

But let's not get carried away and think that all is now rosy in the Commons garden. No, absolutely not. Getting rid of the Speaker is simply squeezing the spot. It may feel better, but the poison is still festering in the pore. In this case, the poison is the system, and MPs, all MPs are part of that system. They looked for a scapegoat and got it. Does it take the heat out? No, the public is still angry, and they want more - they want MPs, ALL MPs to take responsibility.

Speaker Martin has gone. There's still more to do. Let's see how Parliament can deal with it.

Well done to Teresa!

2009-05-20T20:40:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday many Labour members in Bexley who aren't members of Erith & Thamesmead CLP were waiting with baited breath to hear the results of the selection meeting taking place in a church hall.

Eight women were slogging it out to get the votes of the members. Some members have felt that the lead up to this moment has been a truly horrendous time. The media spotlight fell on this at-the-moment safe Labour London seat after the London Labour Party has become involved, meddled some would say, after John Austin announced his retirement as MP at the next election.

First it became an all women selection process. Then the very honourable secretary, John Pegg was removed as oversear of the selection process. Then the shadowy hands of Labour members from further afield became involved after one her candidacy, and started to pump muchos help. This resulted in dark, diabolical underhand dealings which the press as well as the local Tories thoroughly enjoyed (not that the local Tories can really talk. Let's just name DEREK CONWAY... Enough said): an interfered ballot box, big guns brought in to speak at meetings and phone arounds, and then another officer removed, this time, the chair.

However, Saturday came, and Teresa Pearce got the nomination. I'm pleased. She's a good local lass, and deserves this opportunity. I for one will work hard in making sure she's elected to Parliament. Bring it on...

Queen Mary hospital closures

2009-05-14T12:44:00.004+01:00

I was bitterly disappointed to read about the closure of the A&E, maternity unit and in-patient paediatric care at Queen Mary's in Sidcup. Within two years, these services will be gone, meaning patients will have to go to either Princess Royal University at Farnborough, Orpington; Queen Elizabeth at Woolwich or University Hospital Lewisham.

I'm not going to re-hash the arguments about the pros and cons of the so-called consultation process, A Picture of Health that was run last year. The Independent Reconfiguration Panel, who were asked to look at the recommendations found:

All A&Es at all four hospitals were busy
Conditions at Queen Elizabeth cramped and and unable to provide staff teaching or changing facilities, and clinicians asking for expansion with existing services
University Hospital was the most in need of modernisation and development

Yet they agreed that having four A&Es in SE London was unsustainable and agreed that Queen Mary's A&E should close.

However, they did agree that the Urgent Care Centre will be expanded to 24 hours. Now this is an excellent service, almost unknown by people, and is staffed by GPs and other doctors. In fact this was trumpeted by supporters of closure, sorry modernisation, as a very good alternative to A&E which could do almost everything outside of blue light services. Almost saying that patients wouldn't know the difference and still cater for their needs. Let me give you a personal account of this...

Last weekend Mrs B had a tight chest, and I suggested her to go to the Urgent Care Centre as our GP was closed (it was a Saturday), and she could get seen there pretty quickly. As soon as she walked in and said she had these pains, she said she had to go through next door to A&E. To cut a long story short, there was nothing serious, and was an infection. However, what would she do if A&E wasn't there? Is it for patients to have to make a clinical self-assessment to decide if their ailment is an A&E or non-A&E case, and therefore dictate which hospital to go to?

As for maternity, the panel gave praise for the quality of service at Queen Mary's and fears about expecting mums even being able to access services at Farnborough or Woolwich, Sidcup should still close. Queen Mary's neonatal clinic is also to close despite the panel saying "physical capacity is very constrained with all units, other than Queen Mary's". Sidcup also acts as an overflow from Woolwich! Not any more...!

Inpatient paediatric is to go, with the panel saying Death Valley, sorry, Darent Valley picking some of the load.

Let me give you another personal story from last year. Last February I had to take my daughter to hospital due to asthma. She was admitted and stayed there for over five days. In the mean time, my nan had a nasty fall and was found a whole day later after having been on her floor. To top it all, my wife had to have surgery on her shoulder which was scheduled for that week. It meant that during that week, I was visiting three members of my family at different locations, but at least all in one hospital. If A Picture of Health had been implemented then, I may have been driving between up to three hospitals spread over the whole of SE London! At least I had a car...

Money is at the centre of all of this. After you've boiled it all down, it means there's not enough money to provide all of the services in the four hospitals. They've dressed it up saying it's important that patients will get the best care at centres that would now specialise. That's an acceptable argument if you agree that we should only accept the money that's currently available. I would argue that you provide enough money to pay for centres of excellence across four hospitals. SE London deserves better, and the people of Sidcup and Bexley loose out.

As an aside, when Mrs B was at the hospital the last week, she was told about the closure from the staff. One amazing thing - the staff didn't even get to hear about it from management, they found out via the media. Now that's what I call looking after your staff.

Expenses (again...!)

2009-05-14T10:33:00.004+01:00

I was listening to Radio 4 yesterday morning and the rather amusing Ann Widdecombe was on talking about... expenses, just for a change. Something she pointed out which I have to agree after seeing snippets of PMQs was the party leaders trying out do each other with who was the most sorriest, and as Ann put it, whose shirt was hairiest.

As I said in a previous blog, how the party leaders handle this will determine who has true leadership. David Cameron must have read my blog, because he was forcefully putting this point across in the Commons.

The leaders were coming up with a number of strategies to sort this out, but in experience, when parties and governments rush into policy making, the only thing that comes from it is bad policy. For me, it's clear that Parliament just have to follow business. Allow MPs to claim for a second home if outside commuting distance (what's the distance? Up to an hour on the train is fine, and many people would still think that to be generous) but tightening up on what they can claim for regarding the internals of the home. As for expenses, keep your bills and submit them for repayment. No alcohol, only things that are business related, and come down on MPs like a tonne of bricks if they try to get away with other claims.

Alternatively, a parliamentary halls of residence in Westminster. A suite of rooms which MPs don't have to pay for, they can furnish it out of they're own money, and tight security. It may cause a problem for those who want to order pizza or are into hobbies that are similar to Max Mosley, but if MPs want a place outside of the residency, they can pay for it fully out of their own wage.

Easy.

Town Hall politics?

2009-05-11T21:42:00.009+01:00

When I was a local councillor, I used to hate the Civic offices at Bexleyheath. Hot beyond belief during the summer, freezing during the winter. As you walked around the corridors, the floors bounced because the centre is all wood with a brick skim. It was built in the 70's with the intention that it was an interim building with a maximum shelf life of 20 years. 30-plus years later it's still here. It deserves to be knocked down. The people of Bexley deserve a civic building that is permanent and something that people could be proud of.

The council has been working on Bexley First, a programme of selling council sites around Bexley and building a brand new civic centre. It's been worked on since 2005 (I chaired the first committee that worked on it), although it's very different now!

Last month a public exhibition in the Broadway showed two schemes. One, designed by John Laing was pretty dull - the planned Civic was a glass tower block. The preferred design is by The Mall, who coincidentally also runs the shopping centre (which the council is still a shareholder) and is a major land owner in the Broadway. The Newshopper has reported on it this week, take a look at the article here.

The designs do look good at first glance, however, there are some serious flaws. A wide, open, mezzanine floor would very quickly attract anti-social behaviour, and the design takes in escalators having to get there, so wheelchair users? Definitely not taken into consideration. A lot of serious work is needed to make sure this is Secure by Design, user friendly, and does not build in such open spaces that become unusable and in itself a 70's throwback.

My main concern of course is the cost. We're in the middle of a huge recession. Is a major building programme the right thing? Do the figures add up? I'm sure Bexley officers wouldn't let the project get carried away if they didn't but even so, do we want to be spending millions of pounds right now? Could Bexley attract shop keepers and a major retailer? Businesses are shrinking, not looking at growth. This project needs to be put onto the back burner, before we're sucked down a whirlpool with no return.

More pigs, but a lot bigger snouts...

2009-05-10T22:14:00.007+01:00

The Telegraph, although breaking the law (it would appear) by buying illegally gained information on MP expenses, has, it seems, done more damage to Parliament then Guy Fawkes ever did.

The issue regarding second homes to me was at the beginning ridiculous, as it was a completely London-centric argument. I felt for an MP to do their job properly they of course need another a home; one in London and another either in their constituency or their family home, wherever that maybe. The Lib Dems and some sections of the press were calling for the abandonment of the second home allowance - fine, if an MP is already a Londoner, represents a London constituency, and their family is London based. But the argument didn't seem to take into consideration an MP who lives in Manchester, Wales, or Scotland.

However, the Telegraph's recent stories has really shown how MPs have abused their position of trust and their position of authority. No political party is clean of this. We've already seen MPs across the chamber claim for TVs, dog food, light bulbs, gardeners, cleaners, swimming pool heaters; all clearly job-unrelated.

Then there's this second-home switching. MPs abusing the system and acting as property developers with buying a property, claiming the decoration, selling it on, buying a another and starting all over again.

I get paid a salary. Out of that salary I have to pay a mortgage, gas, electricity, council tax, all other taxes, all other bills, food, clothes, right down to food for my dog and cat, plants for my garden, and money for the occasional night out. Am I unusual? No. Do you have to do the same as me? Yes. The difference between you, me and MPs is that MPs seem to receive their salary, and then claim costs for EVERYTHING else. Do they pay for nothing? Do WE pay for everything?

To me and to ALL other members of the public, I don't care whether an MP has stuck to the rules. It's VERY clear the rules are wrong, the abuse has been going on for decades, and the culture of abuse goes from the roots of the tree to the top of the tree.

How the leaders play this out over the next couple of weeks will show to the people who has the real opportunity to lead this country. We'll just have to wait.

Money for nothing

2009-05-03T13:43:00.006+01:00

It's been a couple of months since the news that Bexley won £400,000 to be spent on the severely needed upgrade of Parish Wood park in Blackfen, which in reality is nothing more than a forgotten stretch of field, overgrown trees, huge amounts of uncleared rubbish and dog muck.

However, I like this place; my house backs onto it and we as a family go there often. But as residents we've heard nothing about when the work is going to start. I've checked out the Bexley website; nothing. Forget about the Mayor of London's website from whom the money has come from - since Boris announced it, the subject has been quickly forgotten about.

I know these things take time. It takes a while for plans to come into fruition. But I'd like to have a rough idea. Are we going to get it done this year? A nice, long, hot summer is predicted; will my kids and I be able to play by the planned lake? Walk along the planned paths, and have my kids play in the maintained woods and river? Hmm, we'll see.

Pigs might fly

2009-05-03T12:23:00.008+01:00

Wow! I'm a blogger that's resisted over week and half not having commentated on Swine Flu! I'm almost in a sweat at not having written on such a topical subject; let's hope it's not the onslaught of That Flu.

As I write this, there are 16 confirmed cases with just under 650 suspected cases. Shock! 16 people with flu! Horrific death figure now standing at 0! The media are, of course, wishing the news was a lot more horrific. Everyday the newspapers and TV are full of wishful stories; some may say non-stories. Stories that could be bad news if only something did actually take place.

The story is moving on from the non-story of all those non-deaths, now to the potential deaths that may take place in the future, depending on whether there are enough stocks of Tamiflu (I made a fairly interesting discovery that Tamiflu is actually the brand name, the actual drugs are either oseltamivir or zanamivir, but I suppose they're a lot less media friendly, and sound too much like Russian footballers). The drugs have been widely stockpiled, with over 30m in storage to protect half the population.

However, the drugs are not the panacea that we've been led to believe. Reviews of the drugs made in 2006, May 2008 and by NICE as recently as February 2009 show that taking the drugs reduce the average time to alleviation of symptoms by 0.68 days. Wow. The drugs also don't prevent people from getting The Flu. A 75mg daily dose was 61% effective compared with a placebo.

I suppose, in the grand scheme of The Flu, it's still pretty good. If a large scale pandemic did take place, and it's a lot worse that a slight sweat and shivers, which patients in the UK currently have, therefore mild flu which happens every year anyway, then it means less people will die if they weren't taking it. But people will die. All we can do is watch, read, and wait.

What's the future for South Africa?

2009-04-25T21:13:00.016+01:00

I have a connection with South Africa, and have done so since I first went there in 2001. I had the privilege of taking a group of young people from our church to work at Project Gateway in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, and again in 2004. Project Gateway is an amazing place, and I urge you to check out the link to see the amazing things the place does, and you can get a glimpse of what we helped out with.

Whilst I was there in 2004, elections were taking place. We had missed the national general election but local elections for the city government were in full swing. I picked up newspapers whilst there and became very interested in what was taking place. At the time I was a local councillor for Bexley, and enjoyed comparing experiences.

Those memories came flooding back today as the results of the South African elections came in. Jacob Zuma, unsurprisingly, is announced as the new president in the fourth democratic elections to have taken place since 1994. The ANC have again won with a massive mandate, something I'm sure Gordon Brown could only dream of, with 65.9% of the vote.

South Africa is a beautiful country. It's economy is pretty good, and appears to be riding out the recession. Crime is rife, but the fear of crime is a lot worse. Despite it's leaders weird and frankly deathly ideas about controlling HIV and AIDS, South Africa has managed to walk the tight rope between extremist views that want to follow Zimbabwe's ideas of land repatriation, keeping the various ethnic groups from imploding and keeping the economy as the richest in Africa.

However, some South Africans do fear the new dawn that has just been heralded in. Zuma's past, despite what he says, is hanging over him, as a cloud, a mist or otherwise. Some also say that he has sympathy towards a land grab, or for others, a land re-grab. For some black South Africans, I can see why this would be appealling. However, the bigger picture, seeing how land mismanagement has dragged South Africa's neighbour, Zimbabwe, to it's knees, is what scares the middle classes, both white and black.

South Africa cannot be led down this path. There's one thing we know, if it follow's Zim's path, there is only pain and poverty. During the election, some of the South African press called Zuma the new big man of Africa. Africa has had it's share of big men. Many of them haven't down good things, with only a small minority improving their countries. South Africa has had it's big men. Let's hope Zuma allows democracy and freedom to be what needs to be big.

Riots in Bexley!

2009-04-25T09:54:00.002+01:00

If this is the result of St George's Day, perhaps it's a good idea that it's also not Bank Holiday!

The next PM?

2009-04-24T11:01:00.001+01:00

Boris for Prime Minister? Oh. My. Gosh...

Happy St George's Day!

2009-04-23T07:49:00.008+01:00

Ah, the patron saint of England's special day, which, if we're to believe has been reclaimed by Mayor Boris and has now been given the status it deserves, unlike it did under that Leftie rogue Livingston.

However, yet again, Boris' spin has become thread bare. Take a look at this blog, and the links on it. You'll see that the GLA haven't given St George's Day any more money then it already has done under Ken, who had raised the profile of the day previously a few years ago by funding special events. So in reality, Ken had already raised the profile in the capital and had already provided a budget for St George's Day events. Boris seems to have tried to white wash the past few years and have claimed it for himself.

Well done, Darling

2009-04-22T21:23:00.009+01:00

I couldn't let the day go without commenting on the budget. When you watch TV, read papers, or even go on media websites, very often they will do a "are you better/worse off" debate. I tried to do a quick add up, and... well, I'll let you do your own, and will let you guess what state the Blowers household finances will be...

In the meantime, as I peruse the statement, and look at the headline stats, I think the chancellor took a good line. He was serious and honest (refreshingly so), but also looking forward with optimism - not in a "oh yeah, right" sort of way, but in a "you know what, there is light at the end of the tunnel".

50% on those earning over £150k I think is a good thing. A surprising measure, but still a good thing. However, this should only take place as long as it's a temporary measure; let's not raise tax for raising tax sake. We need to make sure that when the dark clouds have passed, tax does go down.

The extra resources for the unemployed is definitely welcome in these times. As someone working in community development in the housing world, I see many schemes come and go for employment and training. But the guarantee for someone to get a job or training... well, I shall wait to see how that works out - but I really do hope it does work out.

Looking at housing, I know that my housing association will be positive about the extra £500m for stalled building projects - development is essential to provide the homes needed, but also to help kick start the building economy. However, £50m to upgrade MOD homes? Nowhere near enough. I've seen too many which are abysmal, and serving soldiers and their families deserve so much better.

One down side. The government promised to halve child poverty by 2010. This was a promise made back in 1998. In this budget child tax credits will only go up by £20 per child per year. They are nowhere near achieving this aim, and is a calamity for thousands of families who are way below the threshold. Great strides have been made, and 600,000 families have been lifted out of poverty, but it isn't enough. Not enough to get to the figures needed. If polls are to be believed, and the Tories win the next election, this will be one failed policy that society will be all the worse for.

McBride - can there BE any more story?

2009-04-19T19:14:00.004+01:00

Seriously, enough. Damian McBride was very wrong to send such smears whilst at work about opposition MPs. It's underhand, it shows no integrity, and it's gutter politics - which I hate. Gordon Brown was correct to send his letters, although he did not fully apologise (which I think he should have done - he was McBride's boss, a boss defends their staff but also accepts responsibility for them and their actions).

However, the media attention has gone on for far too long. This is where you let it lie, and trying to make spurious connections because McBride met with this person or that person (therefore guilt by association) is a story that is gone way beyond. C'mon - stop.

G20 fall out

2009-04-18T19:33:00.009+01:00

On Friday 27 March I commented on the G20 and the expected demonstrations. The expectation for violence hung in the air, with several groups promising action, and the police saying "we're up for it". This isn't unusual. Many May Day demos that have taken place in the past few years have resulted in similar stand-offs between police and demonstrators.

Now, I'm not a liberal. I'm an authoritarian social democrat. I completely believe in the right to protest but I also believe in the need to protect society, and a strong police force is there to do that.

However, since the death of Ian Tomlinson which the IPCC has started investigating along with the back-hander and stick beating of Nicola Fisher, today there has been an announcement of another investigation, along with over a hundred complaints against the police.

Already in the blogosphere lines have been drawn along the liberal Left and the totalitarian Right, criticising and defending the police respectively. For me, as an authoritarian social democrat, I sit in the middle.

Although the police is there to protect society, it's mandate is at the hands of society - it operates for society and is its servant. The police as an organisation went way above its remit. It's operation over the few days of demos was dubious at best and negligent at worse. The tactic of kettling people into a an area decreasing its size so people are trapped within its cordon sometimes for hours makes can itself, as we have seen, be the spark that triggers a riot, the very thing the police want to avoid.

If you trawl YouTube you can see plenty of material, from a demonstrators point of view, the way individual officers handle mass protest, and its not good. Bias aside, officers contradict each other by giving different instructions to people, use dubious points of law to back up their motives and of course there's this almost culture of removing identification, something they would never do in ordinary situations.

The fall out goes way beyond what's taken place. It's a shame the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Boris Johnson, is near silent on the subject. I won't go into detail here, but check out this blog for further insight on this particular subject.

The police's public face is at a very low ebb, and they'll need a damn good PR agency to turn the current public perception around.

Events, dear boy, events...

2009-04-18T08:55:00.003+01:00

I know that some Conservative commentators have thoroughly enjoyed what's been going on at Erith and Thamesmead, and I have deliberately held off saying anything. However, I do feel that the London Labour Party really doesn't help itself...

What's been going on...?

2009-04-18T08:53:00.001+01:00

So, I took a couple of weeks off because of the Easter holidays, and I seem to have missed an awful lot! Look out for some posts that I feel will be (still) relevant to recent events...

Dispatches - The Trouble with Boris

2009-04-05T20:34:00.004+01:00

I finally got around to watching the Dispatches programme tonight, The Trouble with Boris. Now, if you peruse this blog, you may feel that I'm starting to centre on our beloved Mayor, BJ. No, there are far better commentators than me who do an excellent job with reporting on Boris' movements such as Tory Troll and Boris Watch. The trouble is, the cracks are starting to show in the spin machine that is Boris - someone whose status is such that as soon as you say their first name people know who you're talking about, almost on a par with Madonna, Elvis, or Saddam... anyway, I digress!

If you can, take a peek at the documentary. I know that for some people, Dispatches is pretty poor in the way it does its reporting, in comparison to other docs. I also know that for others, this was an episode that was a typical Right bashing made by Leftie-media types. However, for me, it's interesting that although Dispatches did something similar about Ken during the London elections in 2008, it was eight years on, so perhaps plenty of material. I find it astonishing that a year on under Boris' reign, there is already signs of mismanagement, lack of strategic foresight, and definant dodgy dealings. What do you think?

Boris and his spin

2009-04-01T13:37:00.003+01:00

Take a look at this snippet from another blog. It's interesting that Boris has decided to go to Sidcup today to launch a £23 million funding programme for young offenders at places such as Feltham, Cookham Wood, Downview and Holloway to enter an apprenticeship and skills training programme for their "rehabilitation". Why Sidcup? Why not launch it actually at one of these institutions?

It seems to me that Boris is more than happy to go to one part of Bexley that he feels comfortable in to launch a scheme that has nothing to do with the area, and not go to another part of Bexley which at a stroke of his pen confines it's residents to a continuation of public transport hell. Thanks Boris.

Boris and his £57m cock-up

2009-03-27T22:48:00.008Z

I used to be a regular cyclist, now I'm just a fair weather one, and even then the weather has to be very fair. If I listen to Boris' spin, I should be in awe of his Tour de France cycling regime. He's a man who breezes through London on his two-wheeler, at one with the streets, feeling the rain on his face as he powers his way to City Hall.

Now, for someone who apparently relishes cycling, he does seem to miss a fundamental part of cycling, a misunderstanding of what his fellow cyclists and potential cyclists do - and that is, to get on their bikes, pop down the shops, the library, school, work. It gives you a freedom that even a car can't give you, and allows you to go places where more and more cars are being banned from. So when the plan to introduce a £57m scheme to provide bikes throughout London, many people saw it as a fantastic scheme. However, Boris does seem to have got his hands on a scheme that could have changed the face of the capital, and turn it into a huge flop. Take a read of The Times. Let's hope Boris does a cycle u-turn...

Get down and dirty

2009-03-27T22:09:00.004Z

Is this a serious case of PR getting in the way of common sense? Did the managers of NCP sit down, listen to the pitch, and then say "yes! This is the answer! This is what our customers want! Car parks and stairwells smelling of coffee, not urine! Let's get these fake smells, pump them around the areas, helping drivers go on their way"

There is, of course, another way. Bleach and a pressure washer.

Shut down!

2009-03-27T20:28:00.008Z

It seems that the current financial crisis/anti-bank movement is gathering such a momentum that if we're to believe what we read, London will be closing down next week! Boris was a little peeved that the police bill is around £7m, although the Home Office will be picking that up. In the mean time, upto seven groups are planning activities to disrupt the G20 summit next week. Check them out here. As one wag quips "what, no People's Front of Judea? Or was that the Judean People's Front?"

Bankers are clearly worried that they've now become a target for these groups, and are seen slightly lower that politicians and estate agents. Plans to burn banker effigies and even worse have led to memos to the employees to dress down during the demonstrations so as not to draw attention to themselves. Luckily The Guardian is on hand to give some friendly fashion advice.

Back to the 80's?

2009-03-13T14:50:00.007Z

Is it me, or have we all been transported back in time, like an episode of Dr Who, except it's not the Doctor and his companion, but the entire nation.

As I glance at Facebook (anybody who knows me knows I hardly look at the thing, ahem...) there seems to be more and more dayglo parties. The Hoxton Set are Wayfarer glasses and sun glasses. In the shops there are fluorescent pink and green socks, along with various other clothing items that women are wearing that would be seen in an early episode of Friends or Ferris Bueller's Day Off or the Breakfast Club.

Then there's Michael Jackson, that 80's bad boy, who sells out a massive 50-date residency of the O2 for the summer, and it seems that an awful lot of those who have bought the tickets are young people who would have been in nappies when he was at the height of his fame with Thriller and Bad.

The news is dominated by IRA atrocities, politicians condemnation of actions that make people fear the path that the future seems to be looking down, a recession that is driving us to financial uncertainty, and a once popular government that is beginning to look decidedly on the back foot (any similarity between Brown and Thatcher really does stop here).

Before long, I'll be seeing mullets in the barbers and flecked suits with their arms rolled up. Thank goodness my mobile isn't big and chunky, oh, hang on...

Brown in the USA Jon Stewart style

2009-03-11T22:29:00.002Z

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220289&title=brown-in-the-usa

This is brilliant! If anybody can tell me how to embed, even better...

Six of one, half a dozen of another

2009-03-11T21:33:00.003Z

What's Steve Rider's problem? There's a real need for social housing, and lets face it, the six properties are not going to upset his room with a view. It seems Rider's problem is with having people who don't quite match his image of what residents of East Portlemouth should be like - rich. If he wants a gated community, perhaps he should move to certain suburbs in South Africa...

Protests against soldiers

2009-03-11T20:06:00.003Z

I was mesmerised yesterday when I heard that a group of Islamic protesters were protesting against the Anglian Regiment during their home coming march through Luton. To hear shouts "baby killers", "terrorists" and "butchers of Basra" must have been gut wrenching to the soldiers, and completely understandable when locals turned on the protesters, producing an unusual situation where riot police had to protect the protesters.

These people clearly have no concern for community relations, and will do untold damage to an already delicate situation. They've already announced that they plan to hold more protests at other regimental matches in the near future. If anything, these actions will do far more to push people into the arms of the willing BNP then anything they as an organisation can do. The BNP can sit back, relax, and watch the irony unfold as extreme Muslim groups use the freedom and democracy that have been given to them and cause a huge upset by these demonstrations. Unbelievable.

One step in front of the other

2009-03-10T20:55:00.003Z

I started (or should I say re-started) my running regime yesterday. When I was running regularly before Christmas, I could easily knock out 5k in 30 minutes, and would do that three or four times a week.

I decided to go for my run after work, and probably made my first mistake by going to Shooters Hill on the way home. I've often run around there, as it's a good route, albeit a little hilly! I started off well; why shouldn't I? I parked at the top, which meant that my route was winding downwards. Steady pace, going well. Going across the common at the bottom, 15 minutes in - phew! Slow down, walk for a minute. Pick it up and got into Oxleas wood. running fine, and start to turn back.

Now, the thing that I forgot is that from the bottom of Oxleas wood, for me to get back to the car, it's all up hill. If you know Shooters Hill, you'll also know its the highest point in south east London. It was a hard slog, my lungs were on fire, and there was a lot of walking back!

40-odd minutes later, I'm back at the car, coughing, breathing hard - but feeling pretty good. I'll be back at it tomorrow, probably won't be the Hill, somewhere a little flatter, but it will be half an hour. I'll get there.

A nice day for a white wedding

2009-03-08T17:20:00.012Z

Mrs B and I have the privilege of helping couples with marriage preperation at our church, New Community. When a couple have announced an engagement, they'll go through the short course and we'll talk about communication, commitment, conflict resolution, sex and sharing goals & values. It can bring up various issues, but it gives people an opportunity to talk about any worries they may have before they get married.

Yesteday, we saw one of the couples who we've been involved with get married. It was a great day. We've known them for years, with them being in the youth group when we led it, seeing them get together, and being on the journey that led them to marriage.

With more and more marriages ending in divorce, helping couples get a tiny headstart so that they can see what they need to do for them to have a happy and long marriage is a real thrill. At yesterday's wedding, J & N exchanged vows that is so much more than a contract. It's where they make promises to each other, and goes way beyond any legal document.

As Mrs B and I made our way home, we thought about how J & N got together when they were 16 or so, and that they had now become husband and wife. To help them celebrate their day is a rite of passage, an opportunity for friends and family to also promise that we will help them in their union, to be witnesses to those vows that are made and to share in good food! Yesterday was no exception, and above all, instead of wedding cake, there were tiers of Krispy Kreme donuts - my favourites!