Bailout or dividend?

I have a modest share holding in a few companies (Remember to Tell Sid!) but have always thought that there were two elements to shares, capital growth and dividend income. A company that ploughed its profits back into developing and expanding the company increased its capital worth and a company that distributed the majority of its profits to the shareholders paid bigger dividends. Of course this is a very simplistic view. What I was very clear on was that dividends were distributed profits. No profit meant no dividend. No profit also mean no money to re-invest in the company and so ultimately also long term meant no more company! I have no problem with companies making profits! Profits are what makes everything possible.

However, the capital growth element of shares in reality has no bearing whatsoever on the asset value of the company. A company can have a share value running into millions of pounds but zero physical assets (anyone remember the dot.com share boom and bust?). The only time a company receives any money from the sale of its shares is the first time they sell them to the market. After that it is the trader and seller of the share that gets the money, not the company.

If a company's share price doubtless the company don't get a extra penny, it is the shareholder who gets the money, similarly if the share price halves the company don't have to pay out, its the share holder who losses the money. So what controls the value of shares? I thought it was the value of the company but its nothing to do with how much a company has in terms of physical asserts, its actually controlled by the size of the dividend they pay out! The bigger the dividend the higher the share value! So if there are no dividends from shares for 5 years then the value of shares to traders is zero for five years! The fact the share value is zero doesn't mean the company has any less physical assets, have any less cash, have any fewer orders or sales. A company can have huge physical assets but if its not paying dividends then its share price is low. Of course if the share price falls below the value of the physical assets then the assets strippers move in, buy all the shares, gut the company and sell off the physical assets.

Trading of shares is a cornerstone of capitalism but in actual fact is a totally parasitic operation that contributes nothing material to the world, its just one huge casino where the traders play with other people's money and bet on share prices going up or down. When people go to the races and bet on horses and lose the government don't step in and refund the lost money. If a bookmaker took bets at odds he couldn't pay out on then when he ran out of money he goes bust.

Which brings us to Bank Share Values and Dividends. The banks have all made huge losses and are relying on taxpayers money to bail them out. The shareholders are now complaining that there will be no dividends until the taxpayer is paid back. Well that seems fine to me. There have been no profits hence no dividends. The shareholders took the gain in the good times and so now they take the pain in the bad times. If they don't want to hold shares for years without dividend then sell them, they will get peanuts for them but that's the risk they took when they bought them. The value of your investments can go down as well as UP!

The government should stand firm. No taxpayer's bailout money for shareholder dividends. Nor should there be huge bonus payments for as long as there is public money in the banking system. Up the Workers!!!

Comment Policy

This blog is my personal ramblings and my comments on news and events. Anyone is welcome to read this blog but I write it for me, not for anyone else. Following some quite unnecessary and personal comments I have modified my blog settings to require my approval before a comment made by a reader is posted for all to see. I will accept comments that add to debate or make valid points about the events or news I am referring to. However, this is my blog and I will not allow anonymous comments that are insulting and which attack me personally. If someone wants to have a go at me then I see no reason to give them a platform to do so.

I think he (Ken Livingstone) got it almost totally right

It's not often that will say this but I agree with Ken Livingstone after reading a recent on-line interview with him published in 21st century socialism. I think he got it almost totally right when he identified the problem with British Politics today. The same problem that New Labour had in 1997 will also be applicable to the Tories should they win in 2010. Anyway in Ken's own words....

"I actually think a lot of the problems of New Labour come not from the ideology, but the lack of experience of government. If you look at American politics, with the exception of this year and Kennedy in 1960 - whoever is elected this year is going to be a Senator, without ever having been a Governor or a Mayor. And there was one other election in the past, it was Harding in 1920; only three American elections where someone has gone from the Senate to the Presidency. Every other election they had been a Governor, a successful military commander, in one instance a Mayor. And if you look at Germany, every Chancellor since Adenauer, and who was briefly his successor? Ehard. Every other Chancellor since then has successfully run a Länder. Everywhere else in the world, people are Mayors, Governors, and you are not allowed to play with the national state unless you demonstrated you could run the local one.

Here in Britain, the local government experience has been squeezed right out. Everyone leaves university, works in some PR firm or as a researcher for a MP, and the first experience they have of managing anything is when they find they are a Cabinet Minister or a Prime Minister. So I watched Blair and Brown and everybody, except for Blunkett and Dobson and Chris Smith, who'd had strong local government experience - all these people learning and making the sort of mistakes that I made when I was a councillor in Lambeth my 20s, but on the national stage. Blair would honestly say to you that he spent his first term as Prime Minister learning how to do the job. That's a luxury. Boris is now spending his first term as Mayor learning how to do the job. This is a luxury that you really can’t indulge. It is really only in Britain with this obsessive centralised state, that you've got to be Prime Minister, or virtually nothing else is worth doing. It has got worse under New Labour; in Mrs Thatcher’s time, being a Cabinet Minister you had a real air of responsibility, and were left to get on with it.

Now everything is run centrally, and it will be under Cameron I suspect, if he gets in, and this is a terrible weakness. You need to have demonstrated administrative experience. Now to my surprise, I expected a lot more casualties of people who turned out to be incompetent ministers. But it was still a wasted first term. A lot of the errors that were built in were that. There were the ideological errors of saying we are not going to increase taxes on the rich.

And then were just the errors of omission. How long does it take you before you realise those civil servants aren’t yours, and they have their own agenda and they are just very good at seeming yours? I learnt that when I was in Lambeth Council in 1970s before I was 30. And then Blair had to learn it in his premiership."

http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/ken_livingstone_the_interview_part_3_01736.html

When I said I think he got it almost totally right rather than completely right I meant he was showing his own bias in that he obviously believes that only experience in local government is valid experience. I think it also needs people from industry and commerce to bring their view points to the table. However, I have no problem agreeing with Ken on his basic premise which seems to be that going direct from University into Westminster politics might make you a very able politician but it in no way equips you to run the country.

Gordon Brown, the final days in the No;10 Bunker

This is a brilliant piece of video from Youtube. Well worth a look if you think Gordon Brown and the Labour Party might be on a sticky wicket holding onto the seat the forthcoming Glenrothes by-election. Just copy and paste into your browser search bar

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I4n--IXg6HY

Harsh economic facts of life

My daughter now has a car to run! Ah the wonderful experience of watching her counting her pennies to see if she can put petrol in the tank! I've told her she needs to be saving up for her insurance renewal next year, tax, tyres, servicing, etc but so far all her cash is going on fuel. I think she's not drinking as much Starbuck Coffee these days as a super skinny latte with twist and sprinkles (or whatever it was she used to order) now equates to three litres of petrol.

In desperation she has got herself a job. Waitress at the Mayfair Centre on a casual basis. She's completed one shift and received her first pay packet but so far she's out of pocket since she had to buy some black trousers and a white blouse to wear at work and the cost of the clothes came to £1 more than she was paid as 17year old, casual staff. Her next shift will be as and when required but I don't think she's holding her breath.

Rosie's foray into minimum wage employment has been a bit of a wake up call for her on the harsh economic facts of life. Of course if this doesn't motivate her to do well in her A Levels and get to a decent university then minimum wage might be what she's destined for! Her experience also means she's now also worked out why the staff in Starbucks are disappointed when she didn't leave a tip! Just one person giving her a single pound on Saturday would at least have meant she broke even on the night!

Third in the world

We may be in a banking meltdown, we might not have won the world cup since 1966 but we did come fourth in the world medal table at the 2008 Olympics and after overtaking the Netherlands earlier this year we are now number three in the world in the "population density" table.



Of countries with a population of at least 10million England now only ranks behind Bangladesh (1,045 per sq km) and South Korea (498 per sq km).

England's figures forecast 405 people for every square kilometre by 2011 and the Office of National Statistics have calculated the rate of increase has increased fivefold in the last decade with the likely continuing increase in population density putting us at an estimated 574 people for every square kilometre by 2081. This compares with just 287 for every square kilometre when the figures started to be collected in 1931.



Housing shortages, overcrowding, overstretched schools, transport, hospitals and other public services, all things we might have to just get used to living with?

Beeching's Axe, nothing changes!

Just watched a very good documentary program presented by Ian Hislop about the Beeching Axe of the railways. Excellent example of when pounds, shillings and pence (as they were then) are applied without any allowance for the social and human impact of the decisions. Of course it was before global warming and environmental issues were being given any weight but the thing that came across to me was how little government thought processes have changed in the last 50 years.

In the the 1960's, Beeching, a respected industrialist, was hired to justify decisions already made. The Minister in charge was a committed road builder who didn't want anything that might throw doubt on his policy. There is no evidence that vocal local protest managed to save a single line once Beeching had identified It for closure. Wilson campaigned to save the railways but as soon as the votes were in the bag what he "really meant" by what he said wasn't how it sounded and he discovered that Beeching was actually right. Labour party campaign promises somehow got lost or redefined once they were in power and of course there was a wonderful quote that Hislop unearthed about potential closures in Wales. Apparently one line couldn't be closed as "it runs through seven marginal constituencies".

Fast forward to the present day. Professor Darzzi, a respected surgeon, was hired to justify decisions already made. The government is committed to large PFI Building projects and don't want anything that might throw any doubt on the wisdom of mortgaging our children's futures with off balance sheet spending that makes huge profits for certain favoured construction firms. There is no evidence that vocal local protest managed to save a single hospital once Darzzi has identified it for closure. Iain Wright campaigned in the Hartlepool by-election to save the hospital and rolled out the big guns from Westminster to provide reassurance, but as soon as the votes were in the bag it turned out that the hospital wasn't quite as safe as he claimed and the re-assurances Labour gave during the campaign wasn't actually what they meant now they were in power. The admission that campaign promises are "aspirations" rather than concrete policies and of course there were the "heat maps" prepared by Labour Ministers to identify where hospitals under threat are in marginal constituencies and so closures are directed only to Tory Constituencies or safe Labour seats (like Hartlepool is thought to be!) where it was assumed the Labour vote wouldn't be affected by a small thing like the loss of a hospital.

So the battle ground might have been different but the government's attitudes are remarkably unchanged in 50 years and of course don't even mention Post Office Closures!

Happy Retirement!

Just been surfing the net and came across another consequence of the massive global crash in stocks and shares in the past few days. Spare a thought for those poor souls who are spending their last day at work today before going off to a well earned retirement. After thirty or forty years ploughing money into their pension pot they are now facing the purchase of their annuity which will define their basic income for the rest of their lives. The actual income level they will get will be considerably smaller than even if they had left just last week or before the start of the summer. Those looking at a relatively comfortable planned retirement just days ago could now be looking at a very, very different future.

Of course those on final salary schemes are safe aren't they! Or are they? Massive shortages in pension funds for final salary schemes were being forecast before the crash. With a huge collapse in fund values it’s going to be very hard seeing how those can go on.

Gordon Brown's tax raid on pension schemes caused the problems that pensions were seeing before the banks started to tumble. Will he get the blame for the new plunge. I hope so! But then the Tories or the Lib-Dems are no better.

What gender is 'computer?

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el compu tador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have got a better model.

The women won!

Not Reckless!

Apparently the Government are to support the local authorities that risk losing money on the Iceland Bank Collapse because they are convinced that no authority had acted improperly or recklessly in investing in the Icelandic banks. They said the financial framework for local authorities, under which they have to strike an appropriate balance between the security of investments and the returns on their money, appeared to have been kept to.

No body acted improperly or recklessly in booking their holidays with XL either but the government didn't step in then did it?

It is now emerging that 108 councils, 15 Police Authorities and Transport for London have a total of more than 890 million pounds in Icelandic Banks. Biggest exposure is at Kent County Council which has 50 million pounds at risk followed by Nottingham City Council which has 42 million.

Anyone looking for a silver lining to the crisis could consider that it might be the beginning of the end for the European Union. Last Saturday European leaders talked about solidarity even though President Sarkozy’s US-style bail-out plan had already collapsed into the dust. The German Chancellor then decided for the first time in years that German interests come first and European interests come second. After she acted she received, again for the first time in years, loud applause from her own electorate.

Finally it is being seen that the only way to stop countries acting in their own national interest is to take that power away from them, to form a treasury department, (in Frankfurt!), that has power over tax, and power over government spending. Indeed some of the EU extremists are using this crisis to call for that.

Hopefully it is more likely that what has happened in the last week marks the beginning of the end. The markets are saying it already. Italian government bonds now yield 1% more than German or French-issued government bonds. The markets are saying that economic and monetary union will not last. Nigel Farage, UKIP Leader, summed it up in the EU Parliament this week when he said "The credit crunch is hitting and hurting all of us, but I see a speck of light at the end of the tunnel. I see a dividend: possibly the beginning of the end of this whole mad and unwanted (European Union) project."

Goodwill Payments or Section 106 Agreements

As a member of Hartlepool Council Planning Committee I am quite used to "planning gain" or "community gain" being part of planning applications. If a developer wants to build something contentious then an offer of money towards children's play areas, road improvements, etc is quite often made to sweeten the pill. These "Section 106
agreement" funds can be spent anywhere of course not just restricted the area of development under consideration.

Any development of private housing that comes before the planning committee is now accompanied by a percentage of the properties that will be made available to the rental sector, often being given at reduced or even cost prices to an RSL (Registered Social Landlord, the successor to Council Houses in Blair/Brown's Brave New World). Local Authorities are even being told land that they own must be sold to private developers at a knock down price if the developer is partnered by an RSL to build Social Housing. I've always been a bit uncomfortable that we were in effect selling planning permission and now the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is calling on the Government to specifically stop wind farm developers going even further than Section 106 agreements by offering 'goodwill payments' to local communities when applying for planning permission.

When I read the report, "Goodwill Payments – Do they benefit communities or bring planning into disrepute?" it was interesting that the CPRE found cases in every English region where energy company goodwill payments were used for things that bear no relationship to renewable energy. The examples given, children’s play areas and senior citizens’ lunch clubs, being familiar to anyone who has participated in Section 106 agreements in planning.

Goodwill payments apparently have to be offered outside the planning system because to do otherwise would possibly lead to accusations that planning permission is being bought and sold. Interestingly, Section 106 Agreements can only be offered as part of the planning system because it is thought that to do otherwise could lead to accusations that planning permission is being bought and sold. I'd be extremely grateful if someone could explain, in simple language, without recourse to legal and financial gobbledygook, exactly what the difference is between buying and selling through perfectly legal and acceptable Section 106 agreements and buying and selling through perfectly legal but now considered dubious Goodwill Payments. It's a distinction that I'm not all that clear on to be honest!

Diet Report No:1

After my Friday morning weigh-in I'm now tipping the scales at 17 stone 4lbs (110kg to those on the metric scale). Target weight is 12 stone something (even 12 stone 13lbs would do!) but as that's 83kg I think I'd need major surgery to get down that low.

The diet has been quite easy to manage so far. I go on line and from a big list I pick 7 Breakfast sachets, 7 lunch, 7 tea and 7 snack bars. It then all arrives in a big cardboard box and all I have to do is pick the appropriate sachet, bang it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stir and serve. Now that's food shopping, meal planning and cooking I can deal with. The only extras are 2 pieces of fruit a day and as much water as I can drink.

More Bonuses anyone?

How much of OUR billions of pounds being pumped into the financial sector will be soaked up by Christmas bonuses for the Chief Executives, Finance Directors, Account Executives, etc in the City who caused the crash in the first place? These people were happy to take millions in bonuses when their gambles paid off and now will no doubt be happy to take millions in bonuses now that their gambles have failed and we are bailing them out. Not one single penny should go in bonuses until the entire public debt is paid off, with interest.

Having your cake and eating it !

It seems amazing to me that no-one has made the link between the Icelandic saving bank situation and the amazingly high interest rates that were being offered. Didn’t any of the individual or institutional investors stop to think and then ask why the banks were ready and willing to pay interests rates way above anything else available in the UK? I always thought higher returns meant higher risk? So in effect those people and organisations, including Local Authorities, took a gamble and lost. Would Gordon Brown and his merry men be rushing in to guarantee the stake money on a bet at the races. The 7% interest on offer with Kaupthing simply did not make sense compared with the 5% that was the best available in the UK at the time. Those who took the Icelandic gamble enjoyed the inflated returns until the collapse and and now, thanks to Brown and Darling, could still get most of their money back.

Having your cake and eating it is the phrase that comes to mind!

Euro-Elections Committee Meeeting

Last Saturday found me in England’s second city for a UKIP European Elections Committee Meeting, a committee of which I am Chairman, no doubt paying for my sins in a former life. Usually these meetings are held in London during the week but it is getting increasingly difficult to co-ordinate diary commitments to get everyone together. The meeting before this was 7.30am in a Bournemouth hotel and this one was arranged for 9.00am Sunday in a Birmingham hotel.

I had a ward Surgery on Saturday so I planned to drive down Saturday afternoon, check out the meeting room and have an early night. This plan was feasible because Clive Page the UKIP Press Officer, or “that Clive” as he is known in my house, wasn’t going to the meeting and hence there were limited opportunities to be lead astray. This was good because I have started a new diet (after tipping the scales at 19stone I thought it was a good idea) and so am off alcohol of any kind. However, I reckoned without John Bufton (The Welsh Regional Organiser and Lead MEP Candidate for 2009). John had failed totally to find a drink after 11.00pm in the Crewe by-election but was convinced his old stamping ground of Birmingham Broad Street would redress the balance. So off we went.

First port of call was an Irish bar with a good line in music and steady supply of water (for me) and larger for John. A good time singing along was had by all and even a little bit of jigging on the small dance floor. Was a bit taken aback by the Brummie style of dancing? I’m not used to having a young lady dancing so close to me that her body is rubbing against mine. I moved away of course, as any gentleman would, but she chose exactly the same moment to also move in the same direction so she stayed in contact with me for several seconds. It took some quite nifty footwork on my part to disentangle from her. Luckily she wasn’t offended by our obviously accidental body contact; I wouldn’t have wanted her to get the wrong idea about me. Her mate was also dancing very close to John so it must just be how they do things in Birmingham.

Anyway the Irish Bar was closing at 2.00am so we moved onto the 70’s disc bar that was open till 3.30am. Larger for John and more water for me. More upmarket in the disco of course, it wasn’t tap water, it was designer water. The bottle was plastic and so was John’s larger glass. The last time I had to drink from a plastic glass in a bar it was the Student Union Bar in Loughborough in 1986!

More very close dancing was going on in the disco bar and I notice the dancing got closer and more frantic the closer the time got to 3.30am. There were a very striking group of Brummie girls all dressed in yellow and black stripes who were remarkably like a swarm of bees. They definitely had the blokes buzzing round them that was for sure. Of course I was old enough to be their father but as I’ve never been to Birmingham before (apart from to change trains) then it was highly unlikely that they were in any way related to me. As possibly the only sober person in the place apart from the security staff it was an interesting experience observing how desperation overtook all other emotions and the need to pull and be pulled became paramount!

“Go Ugly Early” was the strategy recommended by one of the other RO’s. I couldn’t name any names but as a former navy man he has apparently had some success with this approach at various watering holes around the world. Looking at some of the blokes in the disc who were leaving with some very attractive girls it seemed like there was a shortage of ugly girls. Unless of course they had all been snapped up before midnight and were already home and in bed, leaving only the attractive girls behind to wait until sufficient alcohol had been consumed to make them appear ugly enough to approach, or more likely give the blokes enough bottle to make a move, well that’s how it worked 30 years ago in the Gemini!

Toddled off to my hotel bed, all alone and stone cold sober around 3.30am. Four hours sleep, breakfast (something that claimed to be muesli but looked like the scrapings from the bottom of the rabbit hutch) and then straight into the meeting at 9.00am. Ah it’s a wonderful life!

Is nothing safe from the Labour tax grab

The credit crunch and the economic turmoil are leaving Gordon Brown’s Labour Government short of funds. Tax and spend Brown introduced dozens of new taxes while he was Chancellor and his government now reportedly has the RNLI in his sights.

Under plans to make them pay for using life-saving radio airwaves lifeboat supporters may have to raise another £260,000 a year. Ofcom says fees are essential to ensure effective use of the commercially valuable airwaves and pointed out that other users of the airwaves, from television broadcasters to taxis, paid to use parts of the spectrum but the maritime and aeronautical sectors did not, so it was planned to bring
them into line with the rest, under Administered Incentive Pricing (AIP).

In recognition that lifeboats are in a different position to commercial users the government may allow a 50 per cent discount on the fee which would reduce the impact to only an extra £130,000 a year. However, that's still a lot of money when you
think in terms of lifeboat days and collecting tins for pound coins. The RNLI provides a search and rescue service, at no cost to the government, but the government now want to charge the RNLI for the pleasure of doing it. Charities could end up having to raise millions of pounds to hand to the government, and it is obscene that organisations such as the RNLI should have to pay for safety radio channels.

Local Government and Consultants

Actually if it was really local government then it would also include the aim of paying the consultants a huge amount of money to find radical new ways of keeping everything the same!

Legislation

I've just received an unsolicited e-mail from on the subject of "Legislation"

**************************************************************************
Hi

New clauses have been added to the legislation regulating your online activities; some of the operations are now considered illegal. The new law has come into force as of 25.09.2008; the penalties have been toughened.

Please read the new document and be more accurate further on.

Respectfully

*********************************************************************************

The attached zip file scanned as an application file so of course it went straight in the bin.

Don't play with matches

Thanks to Greg Beaman for pointing out this story, which does have a serious side, but mainly for his brilliant response to the claim from University of Gloucestershire student Nick Levy regarding student initiation ceremonies.

"We had to put matches in private inappropriate areas and set them on fire whilst drinking more beer."

As Greg says

"Are there really parts of the body in which it would be 'appropriate' to stick a match?"

Answers on a postcard please!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7647099.stm

PS There are also claims of a student dressed in a Nazi-style uniform encouraging other students to drink excessive amounts. Are Europol aware of this breech of the law? Are European Arrest Warrants pending?

Prince Harry at risk of arrest by Europol?

I have blogged a few times about Europol and the EU Arrest Warrant but these seem to be subjects that no-one is concerned about other than the dwindling band of people in this country who actually care about civil liberties and the supremacy of British Law on the (formerly) sovereign soil of this our green and pleasant land.

Heathrow airport is most certainly not green and pleasant but it is definitely part of Great Britain, unfortunately just how far the supremacy of British law has been eroded was shown this week when a German born man, now with Australian citizenship, was detained by British police the moment he landed in the UK even though he has not committed any crimes in either the UK or Australia.

So how can someone be arrested for a crime that does not exist in either of these countries. Simple, the police extradition unit pounced, using an EU arrest warrant issued by German authorities. The arrested man will now be sent to Germany to face trial. This of coursed is exactly what the European Union claimed would never happen.

Europol however have been very careful in choosing their victim. The man in question is one of a small band who claim that the Nazi Death Camps were just anti German propaganda made up after the end of World War II. As such there is quite rightly very little sympathy for him anywhere outside his own small group. The worst that could happen to anyone who denies the holocaust in this country (or Australia) is they will be called a prat, or much worse, but it is not a crime. If they are quite happy for no one to like them very much, apart from a few other loonies, then there is nothing to stop them from denying the holocaust. However, in Germany it is a crime, punishable with a prison sentence. That is German law and German business. Now, thanks to the European Arrest Warrant it is also an arrestable offence in the UK even though our Parliament has never passed any legislation specifically dealing with this issue.

So, the newspapers and the authorities are mostly silent. Anyone raising it of course can be accused of supporting the twisted views of the man in question so no-one dares speak out.

I for one have no intention of supporting his views in any way but find myself thinking of two famous “quotes” on the subject of free speech,

The phrase ``I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'' (Widely but falsely attributed to Voltaire) is one that too many people appear to have forgotten in the UK and which has been trampled on many times by the current administration’s contempt for liberalism and freedoms. The most notable case being their legislation to surround Westminster in a half-mile no protest zone. This was mainly aimed at removing a long running anti-war protest from Parliament Square but has significantly reduced our freedoms to protest about our ruler’s decisions.

The other touchstone I use is the famous poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller;

When the Nazis came for the communist,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the Trade Unionists
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jew
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

I have this poem printed out by my computer because it is extremely powerful and moving, it also can be updated to almost any circumstance where people remain silent in the face of assaults on dwindling civil liberties. The Europol have now established their rights to come into the UK and arrest a man for something that is not a crime in the UK and no-one spoke out because we accept the holocaust did happen and anyone who denies it is a prat. Who will the Europol come for next? Will anyone speak out then?

PS Wearing Nazi Uniform or displaying Nazi symbols is also a crime in Germany. Just recently there were pictures in National Newspapers of Ed Balls, now a senior government minister, in a Nazi uniform............



and of course Prince Harry has donned such a Uniform for a fancy dress party and pictures have appeared in National Newspapers.



Can we expect Europol to be swooping on the Palace of Westminster and Windsor Castle anytime soon?

No more Council Tax increases and Free Bananas

When he was first elected the Mayor of Hartlepool stood on two pledges. No more Council Tax rises and free bananas for every school child in the town. Of course the Council Tax promise was quickly forgotten and his last column in the Hartlepool (aka Labour Party News) Mail didn’t seem to very impressed with recent Tory pledges on controlling Council Tax. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise since Drummond has admitted he voted Labour and he is proud to “lead” a high spending Council as that proves how much he cares. Tax and spend, great Labour policies that have got this country in the mess they are in today!

However, on the bananas front there might be better news. European Union Agriculture Ministers are supporting a scheme offering free fresh fruit and vegetables to millions of schoolchildren next year as a way to promote healthy eating and tackle child obesity.

Anything that gets us some of our own money back from the European Union would normally be welcome. However, the 90 million euros a year in funding comes with the usual strings attached that each European Union country match the amount of cash that it receives from Brussels and must post notices all over the place acknowledging the involvement of the European Union. In this way the European Union gets the UK to pay for good publicity for the EU without having to explain that the money being spent comes from the British Taxpayer in the first place.

There also may be a problem with bananas. Most ministers said they preferred to use locally grown or EU produce so I’m not sure how many European Union countries grow their own bananas?

I'm a Liberal Democrat

During my recent holiday I watched a bit more TV than I usually do, including a few episodes of "The Weakest Link" For those who don't watch it the program is a quiz hosted by Anne Robinson.

The start has the contestants introducing themselves, typically "Hello, my name is Stephen, I'm 48 years old, a Management Consultant from Hartlepool"

I was half watching the TV when i heard something along the lines of "Hello, my name is Tarquin, I'm 35 years old and a Liberal Democrat" Anne Robinson is usually fairly acid tongued but even she was a bit taken aback by this. "Why are you a Liberal Democrat" was the obvious question and Anne duly asked it. The answer "because I support their policies" seemed like a reasonable response until Anne probed a bit further by asking a trick question and asking Tarquin to say which Liberal Democrat Policies he liked. "All of them?" was his rather weak response and Anne sensed blood in the water and wen for the kill by demanding he actually named one specific Liberal Democrat Policy he actually supported. Que was for some waffle about the environment and fair society. Basically he didn't have a clue!

Typical Liberal Democrat, don't actually admit to belief in anything, never actually announce a policy or you might have to defend your position. I know Liberal Democrats who are Euro-sceptic! When you explain that the Lib-Dims are the most pro-EU of all our political parties it comes as a huge surprise to them. Lets face it, most lib-dims are members of the party because they are not Labour or Tory supporters. Lib-dem policy is whatever they think the person they are talking to wants to hear! If you don't like what they are saying then let them know and they'll change their position.

Heart Attack Grill

Back from holiday and several hundred e-mails awaited my attention. The majority of them total rubbish that had evaded my spam filter to arrive in my in box. However some were worth looking at. To see the full menu of the Heart Attack Grill please paste the link below into your browser.

http://www.heartattackgrill.com/index.html

Make sure your speakers are turned on and enjoy!

Thanks to Councillor G Lilley for these menu suggestions. Up the Workers!

If you despair of UK Political correctness then to get some good old USA PC just click on the note at the bottom of the site pointing out that the "nurses" referred to do in fact have no medical training. You eventually end up with an official warning letter from the Arizona Nursing Board which is well worth a read! Have these people no sense of humour?

sad, sad, sad

Well I couldn´t resist it any longer and I had to find an internet cafe to get a fix of surfing. While I´ve been away it appears the western world´s economy has collapsed, I´ll bet Al Quieda are pìssed off, all that time and effort spent on bombs and all they had to do was buy a few dodgy mortgages instead. I did see the boss of the Bradford and Bingley who took over in Mid August will walk away with almost two million pounds for 30 days at the helm. Can´t the politicians see that its the fat cats milking the system that need to be controlled not pandered to? but then of course the lib/lab/con all sold out to big business years ago. The Tories are the party of old money and Nu Labour the party of New Money, but in both cases its definitely money that talks.

Well better go since I´m paying for this by the minute and am being told to stop ranting. Home again tonight unfortunately, every time I pass through the stupid revolving door at arrivals at Newecastle airport it makes my spirits fall and then getting a parking charge because we actually stopped in the drop off bay long enough to open the boot, put in the cases and leave. I hate Newcastle (rip off) airport.

PS I also hate the new politically correct Sainsbury´s adverts. Have you noticed that there is no Dad sitting round the kitchen table for family meals?

Energy!

UK energy self sufficiency is coming to an end and we are all facing a future where the health and security of the British economy is dependent on factors which Britain cannot control. For thirty years the North Sea kept this country going but successive governments have failed to prepare for the future. In 1990 just half of one percent of Britain’s electricity came from gas fuelled power stations, now it is 40% and Britain is facing a severe energy shortfall. By 2020 it has been estimated 80% of our gas will be coming from countries like Russia.

Nuclear power stations cannot be built in time to make up the energy gap and in fact the crumbling state of existing nuclear plants means even maintaining current nuclear energy levels is going to be a major challenge. Coal-fired power stations would be a logical step, after all we have 100’s of years of coal still in the ground under the UK, but under EU obligations Britain has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. Coal therefore is not a politically acceptable option and despite the hype, wind, tidal and solar power are never going to be an adequate substitute.

Britain therefore will be heavily dependent on gas imports for the bulk of our power generation over the next couple of decades. Unfortunately the UK didn’t follow the example of many European countries and negotiate a long-term, fixed price supply of gas when prices were low. This leaves the UK relying on increasingly expensive open market sources. Sources, namely Russia, that are increasingly feeling their economic muscle!

It was reliance on Russia for 40 per cent of their gas that prevented European countries from making more than token protests over Russia’s invasion of Georgia last month. The Russian Prime Minister has made clear the Kremlin regards gas as a foreign policy tool. The Czech Republic, Ukraine and Estonia have all had their supplies choked during diplomatic spats with Moscow in the past three years.

So maybe we had better start voting for Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest. If we don’t we might end up sat in the cold and dark very soon!

Hey I'm going to Barbados

Hey. I'm going to Barbados, flying high with Coconut Airways! Does anyone remember that song? Totally Tropical sang it back in 1975. Unfortunately I'm not really going to see the palm trees, nor am I going to see my girlfriend in the sunny Caribbean sea!

However, I'm off to Majorca for a few days! Easyjet from Newcastle. Getting the 8.00am departure on a Sunday gets you to Majorca in plenty of time to be sat on the balcony sipping a cool drink with your lunch. I know its not supposed to be environmentally friendly and my carbon footprint is fairly big this year already but
take heart from the fact that a Virgin Atlantic 747 flew from London to Amsterdam in February this year using fuel made with a coconut and babassu oils mixed with conventional jet fuel. Of course according to the Aviation Environment Federation only 2.3 per cent of global carbon emissions come from air travel so maybe I shouldn't feel too guilty anyway? Unfortunately not according to Greenpeace who condemned the Virgin flight as a publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet, high altitude greenwash! Friends of the Earth even dismissed biofuels as a major distraction in the fight against climate change with mounting evidence that the carbon savings from biofuels are negligible.

Well regardless of the carbon footprint I'm off to the sun for a few days! Don't know if blogging will continue while I'm away, depends on whether I can find an Internet connection!

Conservation area?

One of the on-going sagas at Hartlepool Council is the status of Conservation Areas around the town and in particular the plastic windows" debate on the Headland. Another hot potato is pot holes in road! So here is a unique opportunity for both these issues to be combined.

Hartlepool Council kindly filled in some pot holes on the Headland recently. Unfortunately they used tarmac in a cobbled area, totally destroying the ambiance of the original Victorian road scene. Hartlepool Council's Policy is that any work done to property in a Conservation area must enhance the area and where possible return it back to its original appearance. So if Hartlepool Council can insist on traditionally constructed, timber, sliding sash windows why can Hartlepool Council also put down tarmac in one of the few remaining cobbled areas on the Headland?

I blame the local Councillor whose house is only a few feet away from the site of this vandalism! Oops, that's me!



UPDATE : UPDATE : It maybe that the tarmac is a temp arrangement as in a 'make safe' until a return visit can be made to rectify to the appropriate specification. This sometimes happens if the team have a bit of tarmac left in the hotbox rather than dumping it.

Career defining decision

I found myself in a strange position this morning, feeling sympathy for Ian Wright MP for Hartlepool. I have felt sorry for him once before when he was apparently caught out in a bare faced lie in a debate at the Corporation Club during the 2004 by-election. That time didn't actually matter as it turned out since the Hartlepool Mail reporter present somehow missed it completely! However, Ian must right now be agonising over what to do. Will he join the still small handful of Labour MPs who have taken massive risks with their careers to become part of the initial batch to publicly call for Brown to go or does he wait and see?

I've looked at his website and his two most recent press releases are August 22nd and September 11th so neither are up to date enough to give any clue as to his thinking. Of course in all rebellions there comes the point when the outcome is clear. Brown will go, have to face up to a party election or it will all fizzle out.

One thing however is certain, the actions of every single member of the parliamentary party will be noted and remembered and the critical element if Brown is forced out will be the point at which they decided to join or not.

So Iain faces a possible career defining decision. Stay loyal and if Brown survives then his career is safe, at least until next time. Wait until Brown goes and then join the rebellion could be too little, too late. My personal prediction, based on Ian's voting record, is that he will take the safe option and be 100% loyal to Brown right up to the point he is forced out as Prime Minister. Iain will then be 100% loyal to Brown's replacement and claim he had always wanted Brown to go but placed party loyalty above his personal wishes!

Of course its all fairly academic since Labour face an extended period in opposition after the next election, simply because that's how British Politics and the two party system work. The Tories will win because its their turn. Labour will get it back in 2018 or 2022 by which time Iain will be in his 40's and either a senior shadow cabinet member ready for a push for the top or a life long back bencher hanging on for his gold plated parliamentary pension.

Buzz Word Bingo

I've selected a few "buzz words" from the last post so anyone who wants to play a game of buzzword bingo can have a go. Print out the list and put each word on a slip of paper. The competitors take it in turns to draw out 5 buzz words. Read through the last post and the person who sees their 5 buzz words used first is the winner. Build up your stock of buzz words for use in your own games in meetings at work!

integrated, governance, issues, challenging , good management practice, seamless delivery, partnership working, mentors, reform, building capacity, common platform, (10-year) strategy, improve outcomes, key strengths, start of the journey, step change and world-class workforce.

No doubt everyone has their own favourites (Low Hanging Fruit, Stretch the envelope, push at the boundaries, etc) My own is "Let's scuba that round the think tank and see if any bubbles come up"

TENDERS INVITED FOR REFORMS IN YOUTH WORKFORCE

One of the numerous e-mails that pour into my inbox is a daily briefing from "PublicNet" an organisation which claims to provide an integrated e-mail and web site service for everyone concerned with the governance and management of public services. (Their words, not mine!).

According to their website (http://www.publicnet.co.uk/about) PublicNet "focuses on the issues challenging all parts of the public sector and encourages the sharing of good management practice. It monitors progress towards a seamless delivery of services and brings news and views about partnership working across central and local government, the health service, non departmental bodies, and the voluntary and private sectors."

Anyway, today's offering included "TENDERS INVITED FOR REFORMS IN YOUTH WORKFORCE" and its reproduced below. If you actually bother to read it then you might wonder who exactly makes up the "Children's Workforce Development Council" This appears to be another of those Quangos that are springing up like mushrooms. This one was set up in 2005 and is supposed to support over half a million people in the children's workforce across England, including those in childcare provision, learning mentors, education welfare, foster care and social care.

Their website (http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/why-were-here) does acknowledge there are other people who work with children who are not covered by the Children's Workforce Development Council, these are people like teachers, police and health service professionals. However, don't worry the Children's Workforce Development Council works closely with colleagues in the Children's Workforce Network, a completely separate quango (http://www.childrensworkforce.org.uk/) to address common issues across the whole of the children's workforce and to find answers to common challenges.

"TENDERS INVITED FOR REFORMS IN YOUTH WORKFORCE"

Bids are being invited from organisations that want to deliver a major programme of reform for professionals working with young people. The Children's Workforce Development Council is seeking tenders for five projects which, it says, will contribute to improving the lives of young people and their families.

The projects include proposals for leadership and management, building the capacity of the Third Sector and developing a common platform of skills and competences across the youth workforce. Bids are being invited from contractors who will deliver each of the elements in line with the Department of Children, Schools and Families' 10-year strategy for the youth workforce.

Keith Brumfitt, Director of Strategy at the Children's Workforce Development Council said ‘Aiming High for Young People' had set the target of developing a skilled and confident workforce in order to improve outcomes for young people. "Our youth workforce has shown considerable commitment and versatility over the years, providing much needed services to young people and their families across England," he said and added, "They have a number of key strengths which need to be built on. These five tenders are the start of the journey to achieving the step change towards a world-class workforce which meets the complex demands of young people today and in the future."

Tenders are being invited for youth workforce leadership and management development programmes to ensure that by the end of March 2011 those leading and managing youth services will have the skills to deliver integrated services for young people and common apprenticeships and a common foundation degree will be in place.

Choice at the Polls (so long as its Lib-Dem, Labour or Tory)!

You would have though the Tories would be delighted by a cock up by the Liberal Democrats which resulted in their candidate missing the nomination deadline for a Council by-election, especially when the seat in question is in a fairly safe Lib-Dem ward.

However, after it became clear that there were only two candidates, Tories and UKIP contesting the Middle Rasen Ward (West Rasen, Osgodby and Usselby), on Thursday October 9, the Deputy Conservative Leader issued a statement attacking the Liberal Democrats (and Labour) for “ignoring residents” and denying them a choice at the polls.

You would assume from that that the Tories are supporters of choice and the democratic process. However, the Tories then attacked UKIP for putting up a Candidate and there by ensuring there would need to be an election. UKIP are wasting Council Taxpayer's money by forcing an election complained the Tory spokesman. So Lib-Dems and Labour are wrong for not standing a candidate and hence denying choice at the polls but UKIP are wrong for having a candidate and hence providing choice at the polls?

Of course the real reason the Tories are so upset is that when they talk of choice at the polls and the democratic process what they mean is choice between one of the Lib/Lab/Con Club. Any party not in that cosy little arrangement is definitely not welcome. It doesn’t really matter which of the Lib/Lab/Con you vote for they are all more or less the same party with almost identical policies so if the Tories don’t win they would much rather see Lib-Dems or Labour winning instead of an outsider like UKIP. The Market Rasen Lib/Lab/Con are showing the same contempt for the electorate that the Hartlepool Lib/Lab/Con did when the three parties co-operated with each other to keep out UKIP in the last local elections. The Lib/Lab/Con would always rather see one of their own gang win than someone not in their club. After all the Lib/Lab/Con all take 80% of their policy instructions from Brussels and so it’s only their names and a few minor policy details that differentiate between these three parties these days.

Contract Scrutiny Panel

Well my name has once again come up on the rota to sit on the Hartlepool Council Contract Scrutiny Panel. A committee so useless and pointless that it can't even get permanent members to sit on it, apart for the Chairman of course who receives an "additional responsibility allowance" for this vital post, amazing what people will do for an extra few quid a week.

A typical meeting starts with apologies for absence, mine usually! This week for example I has a full load of ready mixed concrete to lay on Monday morning and it arrives when the ready mix people decide it will. Order it for "first thing" and that can be any time between 8.00am and lunchtime. As anyone who has ever laid concrete will tell you it isn't really practical to take a break while tamping and leveling it and come back to it in a couple of hours, the dratted stuff will go off if you leave it and its very difficult to get a good finish after it has cured!). Anyway, after apologies we then open tenders for something or other, often vital things like the supply of fresh flowers for the Chief Executive's Office or the milk for the Mayor's Horlicks, all high level stuff. Of course the Councilors don't actually open anything, we just watch a number of Officers open envelopes and then sign a book to say they have seen them opened. The Officers then take the tenders away and "evaluate" them. The tenders opened at the previous meeting are then brought back to the Scrutiny panel and as a result of the evaluation a recommendation is made. To ensure no favouritism the tendering organisations are now referred to to as A, B, C, etc, no names are used, must be fair of course. The Councillors agree the Officer's recommendation, after all how can you challenge an "evaluation" and the contract is awarded.

The value added by having half a dozen councilors observe this process is precisely zero. The best thing that could be said for the Committee is that it usually doesn't take very long. Unfortunately to attend a half hour meeting can still take up a whole morning as the committee doesn't meet until 10.00am so there isn't time to do anything useful before hand, you just get started and then you have to leave to go to the meeting. Also by the time the meeting is over and you get back to work it's lunchtime and so the entire morning has been wasted.

If I was ever Chairman of this Committee (very, very unlikely that will ever happen, Chairman's positions are jealously guarded by the Labour Group and doled out as rewards for good boys and girls), but if I ever was Chairman, I'd hold the meeting at 8.00am so that it was over by 8.30am and I'd at least have the chance to do something useful with the rest of the morning, like earn a living! Still I suppose as the average Councilor is retired, unemployed, unemployable or in a nice public sector post with unlimited paid time off the the need to earn a living doesn't figure very high on their priority list. Of course this is one reason why so few people who live in the real world of mortgages, children, WORK, etc become Councilors, unless you have a very very understanding employer (or are retired, unemployed or unemployable or even better if you no longer need to work as you are getting a nice salary from the Boards, Trusts, etc that your mates have arranged for you) then getting time off work to attend pointless meetings isn't easy!

Choose the laws you obey and forget the rest?

I keep having to check its not 1st April when i listen to the news these days. Stories that would be brilliant April Fools are now quite often true. We now have the courts telling us that criminal damage is OK if it is in the cause of fighting global warming! According to many scientists two of the biggest contributors to global warming are motor cars and airplanes. Should we therefore all start overturning cars on the street and setting them on fire? Should we storm the airports and slash the tires of every jumbo jet we can find? When the police arrive we just tell them we are protesting about global warming and then it will be OK to continue?

If criminal damage to power stations is OK now then what about the workers and bosses of such power stations? Are they to soon be legitimate targets? The shadowy figures in balaclavas from the animal rights groups seemed to have a fair level of success (from their point of view anyway) when they adopted the tactic of targeting the employees (and shareholders) of companies involved in animal testing. So maybe the next step is for eco-warriors to pull on their masks and start terrorising the people who operate and run these power stations. Make them too scared to turn up for work and the power stations will have to shut down! Will that be deemed acceptable in the fight against global warming?

In my opinion the argument that the ends justify the means is a difficult one to justify in most cases!

Put your head between your legs and kiss your **** goodbye

The anniversary of 11th September made me think about how to cope if terrorists do manage to get hold of a nuclear weapon? Looking on the internet I found advice from the government issued during the Cuban Missile crisis. This wrote off people living in the immediate vicinity of an attack and focused on improving the chances of those who lived through the initial blast. Anyone leaving the house after an "H-bomb" was advised to take a "travelling rug" with them and drivers are asked to offer a lift to their neighbours. Gumboots or stout shoes, a hat or headscarf, coat done up to the neck, and gloves were also recommended.

Householders were told to use the cupboard under the stairs as a "core shelter" and that whitewashing the windows would "greatly reduce the fire risk by reflecting away much of the heat" Although if you only had a four minute warning would you waste your last moments looking for a paintbrush? Government advice was designed not to panic the public and gave the impression that nuclear weapons would not disrupt everyday life for long. Hardly the message Tony Blair gave out in his now infamous speech claiming Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in only 45 minutes.
Of course official preparations were under way out of the public gaze with confidential forecasts that 12 million would die in the initial attacks, with many more to follow The public were told to stock up on sensible clothing and food for two weeks but local government was making preparations for "disposal of the dead", mass homelessness, house demolition and maintaining the water supply.

Preparations for government to continue were also underway with around 6,000 civil servants identified ready to take shelter when a nuclear attack was imminent. They received instructions for travelling to an undisclosed "headquarters” which would probably be one of the twelve seats of regional government (yes they had them in the 60’s, even then Regionalisation was underway!) from which the country would be run. Those selected to survive were told to go straight home, collect a few personal belongings and to say goodbye. How many of the staff selected for working in the bunkers would really have left their families and gone underground is not known.

The location and purpose of their work was to be kept secret, with communication with their families to be only by post. That assumes of course the postman could deliver such letters, or even collect them from the “secret” location. Just in case anyone thought they were in for a jolly holiday they were also advised that "facilities for entertainment or recreation at the headquarters will be limited" and that people travelling to the secret "headquarters" should bring a packed lunch.

The Treasury argued that civil defence was a waste of money on what could only be a "cosmetic" exercise. Anyone looking for parallels with today’s terror fears shows the on-going dilemma for governments to find ways to advise the public about threats, without panicking them by showing how vulnerable they really are to disaster. Of course today’s governments have a couple of huge advantages over their 1960’s counterparts. Surveillance equipment and computers mean we are all being watched much more closely than we were 40 years ago and the average Britain today accepts erosions of their civil liberties and privacy that would have been unthinkable then. The numbers of official organisations that can enter your home, read your mail, listen to your telephone conversations, and of course now intercept your e-mail are many, many times more numerous than 40 years ago. Can you imagine your average local council in the 1960’s using private investigators to snoop on potential dog foulers? Well Hartlepool Council has admitted that they have done it!

9/11 Seven years On

I recently spent some time in North America and visited both the Kennedy Grave Sites in Washington and Ground Zero of the World Trade Centre in New York.

The Kennedy Graves was obviously a highly emotional experience for many people who were exchanging "Where were you when Kennedy was shot" stories. However as I was only 3 years old on 22nd November 1963, I am not old enough to remember where I was when Kennedy was shot and visiting the graves was interesting in a detached or academic kind of a way.

The visit to Ground Zero was also a bit flat. When you have seen one building site located in a hole in the ground then you've seen them all. My main question was how come it's still a building site 7 years on? Rosie was more interested in a designer outlet Mall she had been told was on the block next to ground zero and Edward's main concern was that he was hungry! I suppose Ground Zero for my children was rather like Kennedy for me. The kids were only 9 and 10 when the twin Towers came down so world events were not really high on their agenda.

I however do remember where I was on 11 September 2001. I was working in Hartlepool that day and came home for some lunch. My wife was watching TV and I came in just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. I assumed it was a film or a drama documentary that she was watching but she told me it was a live feed and explained about the first plane. I didn't get back to work that afternoon but watched the unfolding horror of the people waving and then jumping from the windows as the towers came down.

It is fair to say the world changed that day.

A walk in the Park

Many people feel the world is going mad but I thought I’d heard it all until I logged onto the “Political Correctness Watch” website (See links) and discovered a story from Telford in Shropshire.

Park staff have been ordered to stop and quiz people using the town's park who are NOT accompanied by a child. Childless people in a public park will have to explain what they are doing in the park and could be thrown out by Park Wardens, or even reported to police, if the Wardens are not convinced of the reason given. It is to be hoped that enjoying a walk in a green and pleasant public space is acceptable?

The local council says the policy is a 'common sense approach' aimed at safeguarding children using the park. Telford & Wrekin Council may even use the Child Protection Act to require adults using the Park to undergo a Criminal Records Bureau checks or risk assessments before entering the park.

You couldn’t make it up could you!

When NO dosen't mean NO

The trouble with allowing people to vote is they are sometimes prone to vote the wrong way. Usually people fail to see past tribal loyalty and vote unthinkingly for whatever their Party tells them to. Of course on the EU this means that being Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat is irrelevant, all three parties vote the same way, 100% pro-EU. However, sometimes even party loyalty can't make people vote for something they know is wrong! The Labour Party famously lost the argument on elected regional Assemblies when 80% of one of their few remaining blindly loyal areas, the North East, voted NO. This was despite a last minute campaign that abandoned the previous None-Party approach and claimed a NO Vote was a Tory Vote.

The obvious feelings of a majority of the British people, decidedly Euro Sceptic, is the main reason why successive UK Governments have refused point blank to allow the British people a referendum on EU Membership. This Labour Government even weaseling out on is promise of a vote on the EU Constitution, now repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty. Of course Ireland, the only country where a vote has been allowed, voted NO, which was obviously the wrong answer as far as the EU Project was concerned.

Have the Brussels Bureaucrats accepted this vote? Of Course they haven't! When the Dutch and French voted NO to the Constitution the Brussels Commissioners made some superficial wording changes, mainly crossing out Constitution and inserting "Lisbon Treaty" and re-submitted the document. It's no longer a Constitution was the claim and so allowed Britain to weasel out of their promise on a referendum and allowed the French and Dutch government to ratify it through parliament without all that bother of asking the people what they thought.

The Irish problem however is a little more complex so officials in Brussels have decided the Irish Republic will be told to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon/EU constitutional Treaty. An internal EU briefing paper entitled “The Solution to the Irish Problem” says the Dublin government will give in to demands for a second vote to overturn the previous rejection of the treaty before an EU summit in October.

The briefing suggests that the second referendum would be held in the autumn of next year, leading to the final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in 2010. An influential group of French officials has written the document inserting guarantees on abortion, taxes, the country’s neutrality and the maintenance of the Irish Commissioner in Brussels. However, the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, wants the Irish to vote again, and give the "right" answer, before next year’s European elections. He fears the poll will become a referendum on a treaty many people in Europe do not like.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP has said that is precisely how our party sees the 2009 Euro-vote, it will be the referendum that the British people were promised but were never given.

Three ways to leave the EU

History is a great teacher if you bother to learn the lessons it teaches. The Southern States of America only wanted to be left alone to run their own internal affairs without interference from outsiders. Their attempt to "Leave the Union" resulted in a vicious and nasty civil war where brothers literally fought on opposite sides. The South was crushed and generations latter "Dam Yankee" is still an insult and "The South will Rise Again" is still a sentiment expressed by many. So armed secession is unlikely to work for the UK. Even if we could mobilise enough people to make the effort to switch off their reality TV and leave their sofas then they would be facing an armed and organised force in the new Europol already being mobilised ready to smash public disorder (basically anyone disagreeing with the EU Project). More recent attempts to leave the Union can be seen in the satellite states the now defunct Soviet Union. Attempts by their vassals to leave were dealt with very firmly and although the EU may not yet be ready to roll tanks down Whitehall I doubt it would need to since the political establishment in the UK are all under the control of Brussels.

Talking of the UK political establishment brings up the second option to leave the Union, through the democratic process via the ballot box. This would be my favoured route. Unfortunately the main three parties already 100% behind the EU Project and any party daring to oppose the march of the Union is marginalised in the press and branded little Englander or racist. Peter Mandelson has already said that Europe is entering a Post Democratic Era and so the growth of appointed commissioners and puppet parliaments will continue unchecked unless a political will is discovered to resist their progress. Sadly there appears to be little or no evidence that such political will exists. People don't appreciate things they are given for nothing and several generations now believe they live in a democracy but don't need to do anything to defend that democracy. Once it has gone then getting it back will be a hard, bitter struggle. As and business man will tell you getting a new customer is very hard, a fraction of the effort put into existing customers will keep them loyal for years. Ask the people of Zimbabwe how much effort they need to put in to reclaim democracy in their country! If a robust opposition had not allowed a dictatorship to emerge then maybe Zimbabwe wouldn't have gone down the totalitarian road. Ask yourself how much real opposition does the EU Project face in its march to total control?

So that leaves the final option. The route that actually worked for Hungary, Poland and the other eastern European States that were swallowed up by the Soviet Union in the 1940's. These countries only escaped when the Soviet Union became so bureaucratic, so hidebound, so lacking in vitality and spark that its centrally controlled and regulated economy collapsed. Ultimately it all comes down to money. The EU is like a huge pyramid selling scam that needs to be pushing new members in at the bottom to provide cheap labour and new markets. That however cannot go on forever and the countries the top cannot keep paying out for ever. The EU will eventually collapse under its own weight and the UK will have to start fending for itself again in the wider world.

Yugoslavia didn't last long after Tito went, Spain is starting to show cracks between its various regions, Scotland wants out of the United Kingdom (another example of a "Union" that is failing), Belgium is already practically two separate countries. What do these countries have in common? A protracted period living in an artificial and enforced false Union. Unless the EU economic collapse come soon then the UK cannot begin to regain its freedom until all is lost. Then it will need a generation or two living in the darkness before freedom can be regained.

So of the three options which one would I prefer. Armed insurrection is not a road I'd like to go down. Democratic withdrawal via the ballot box would be my preference but until people re-discover political will then that too is a not the road I think we will follow. Which leaves economic collapse and then pick up the pieces afterwards. Maybe the silver lining to the current credit crunch will be the disintegration of the European Union? Unfortunately I think its just too soon and we are facing a lost generation or two before Great Britain can start to reclaim its lost sovereignty, its lost pride and its lost self confidence and belief that we can stand on the world stage without needing the EU to hold our hand.

Euro Pol

The armed European Gendarmerie force is now a fact, but a news blackout in Britain means the UK population remain mostly in ignorance, exactly where the Red, Blue and Yellow political classes want them to be. At the moment the Euro gendarmerie may be restricted to training barracks in Italy but the Treaty of Velsen gives them a legal basis to operate anywhere in the EU so they are most unlikely to remain forever in North-East Italy.

Continental Europe has a tradition of criminal justice that it is completely different to ours (no habeas corpus, no trial by independent jury, etc) and a totally different tradition of policing. European Police are definitely a police force along military lines. Europol officers look like soldiers with steel helmets and automatic rifles. The police in continental Europe are militarised and carry lethal weapons at all times. Our police are a civilian force and regularly unarmed.

Europol ranks reflect their basic philosophy; officers called "colonel" and "general" are commanded centrally by the government. Individual officers are shifted around the country, so each city will be patrolled by strangers. Our police in contrast are by tradition locally recruited, and locally accountable.

The Euro gendarmerie practise street-fighting tactics in battle formation. Random deaths from police gunfire have occurred over recent years in Italy and even in Sweden during G8 and other protests. Continental police forces are not familiar with our concept of "policing by consent". How many times have we seen news reports where Continental Police seem to love going into crowds with heavy handed tactics? Continental police have their primary task to uphold the authority of the state, putting down manifestations of civil unrest, dealing with protesters. When they are used to investigate crimes they are often under the direct command of a member of the career judiciary, who has the responsibility but no training in detective work. The Portuguese police in the McCann case being an obvious example.

At present the EU could not deploy their Europol in the UK, Justice and Home Affairs is still an individual member state's prerogative, but this will change with the Lisbon Treaty, justice and home affairs will become an EU competence, like practically everything else.

Undeniably justice and home affairs are the heart of state power, for it includes the power to use physical force on the citizens, to put people in prison. When the EU takes this power it becomes at last a state in its own right, with powers to repress directly behaviours it deems undesirable by citizens of any member state.

The "red lines" the government has drawn have already been dismissed by several of our EU partners, and our own parliamentary committees, as not worth very much and anyway they will be subject to the interpretation of the European Court of Justice and
Article 6.3 of the Treaty of Velsen, which allows the EU gendarmerie to be deployed in another State with the simple "consent" of that state. Once here they will not be subject to our Parliament. They will be subject only to Brussels, and will obey only decisions taken there, decisions taken by majority voting, where we will have only 8% of the vote.

We appear to be heading for a situation familiar to the satellite countries of the former Soviet Union. A domestic police service that can be over ruled and made irrelevant by an external, quasi military, police force, deployed and controlled from outside of our country and completely unaccountable to us for its actions once it is here. An army of occupation by any other name?

UKIP National Conference

My brief blogging frenzy (caused mainly by loads of free time waiting for ready mixed concrete to be delivered, but that’s another story!) will take a hiatus for the next few days as I’m off to the UKIP National Conference in the sunny seaside town of Bournemouth.

The Bournemouth International Centre [BIC] is a purpose built entertainment and conference venue and will be hosting the UK Independence Party Conference over Thursday 4th, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th of September 2008.

The full program gets underway on the Thursday evening with a Chairman’s Reception at 6.30pm. On Friday the Conference officially opens with a Mayoral Welcome and a full list of interesting speakers fill the day until a break at 5pm giving a chance to freshen up before attending the Conference Dinner at 7pm.

Saturday morning will be starting early for me with a working breakfast meeting of the UKIP Elections Committee, of which I am Chairman. The highlight of the Conference will then be yours truly taking the platform to round off the Saturday morning session by addressing the Conference on the subject of “Election Campaigning” The afternoon will include more motions and speakers with a chance for a members to put their points of view to the Party Leadership in a Question time session. Conference will no doubt will close with a typically rousing speech from our leader Nigel Farage.

Getting home from Bournemouth on a Saturday evening is a complete nightmare and National Rail Enquiries produced a 14 hour journey plan that gets me home mid morning Sunday! So the decision has been taken to go back to Dartford, where the UKIP Press Officer rests his weary head, get drunk, sorry I mean continue policy discussions, and then catch the 9.30 from Kings Cross on the Sunday Morning. This plan gets me home only a couple of hours later than travelling straight through on the Saturday. Of coursed it also gets me home with a hang over after all that policy work in Dartford. It’s a tough life in politics.

Councils to borrow to lend?

After the rejection, thankfully, of the proposal that Hartlepool Council offer cheap mortgages the Local Government Association is now calling for local councils to be allowed to borrow money against their assets so they can offer competitive mortgages.

If Northern Rock can end up effectively bankrupt then the thought of Hartlepool Council, or any other local authority, BORROWING money to lend out to people makes me shudder. No doubt loading more costs onto Council Taxpayers to ease the Housing Crisis seems like a good idea to someone. Interesting that the proposal allows Councils to borrow against their assets, unfortunately the Government is now insisting that land owned by the Council (a considerable asset in its own right) be sold at below market rate to social house builders” and of course Hartlepool Council divested itself of billions of pounds worth of assets under yet another government scheme when it gave away all its Council Housing a few years ago.

Quick decisions!

Good to see he Mayor is back from paternity leave and getting stuck into his portfolio responsibilities. I've just received, via e-mail, the "Decision Record" of the Mayor's Regeneration and Livability Portfolio meeting for 29th August.

The Meeting commenced at 10.00am and the Mayor received a report informing him that the Head of Emergency Planning had been invited to attend the 4th European Congress on Disaster Management in Bonn, Germany as a speaker. Invitation was accepted. The Mayor then considered a report extending the boundary of the Headland Conservation Area to include the Heugh Breakwater. Extension approved. Next up was a report on the progress made against the Regeneration and Planning Services Departmental Plan 2008/2009 in the first quarter of the year. The Mayor noted the progress against key actions in the first quarter of the year.

The meeting finished at 10.10am. Just over 3 minutes per decision. That's three quick decisions! Maybe he should give some lessons to Pamela Hargreaves, the Performance Portfolio Holder.

Ms Hargreaves meeting on the 29th August started at 3.00pm and she kicked off a review of the proposed Hartlepool Connect Annual Report that details actions taken over the last 12 months. The report was noted and some proposed amendments were agreed for action. Then straight into a request that the Portfolio Holder support an action plan for undertaking a stress risk assessment and for the Council to become a ‘Mindful Employer’. The report was noted, the stress management action plan agreed and the proposal that the Council becomes a ‘Mindful Employer’ was also agreed. Following this the Portfolio Holder was informed of the results of the 24th phase of Viewpoint, Hartlepool Borough Council’s Citizen’s Panel, which was distributed in February 2008. Decided that the results of the survey be noted. The second last agenda item covered details of employee absence for the first quarter of 2008/9 and actions taken. Finally the Portfolio Holder agreed to the appointment of a provider of Occupational Health Services to commence on 1st September 2008 for three years with the provision for a two-year extension.

The meeting finished at 3.35pm. So Ms Hargreaves made 5 decisions in 35 minutes, 7 minutes each. The Mayor could have disposed of that Meeting in just 15 minutes!

Airport Security

A quick nod to Greg Beaman for this story. A Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a jar of mushroom soup in an overhead locker started to leak and dripped onto a passenger with a severe allergy to......mushrooms.

The story reports how the plane was forced to divert and make an emergency landing so the passenger could receive medical attention. Of more interest to me was how the jar of mushroom soup had made it through security checks and onto the plane? As a fairly frequent flyer I actually think the security checks are more of a psychological ploy to reassure passengers and conversely to keep them frightened than a serous attempt to stop terrorists. I have been through Newcastle airport many times carrying liquids in excess of the "100ml" limit and never been stopped once. My daughter on the other hand had a small spray confiscated at the x-ray machine despite it being quite clearly (to anyone with a sense of smell) a well known perfume. At the same check point I was passed through carrying 500ml of water and a screwdriver. Why a screwdriver you might ask? It was in an outside pocket of the bag and I'd forgotten It was there, until I arrived in Majorca and was unpacking.

Traveling back through Terminal 5 recently I had the joy of being photographed and apparently only the mess made by the baggage fiasco stopped iris scanning or fingerprinting being introduced from day 1 at terminal 5. No doubt the day will come and fairly soon, when DNA Tests are required to get on a bus! Airport style security at railway stations is already being mooted, so arriving at Darlington 10 minutes before the train is due too depart might soon be a thing of the past. If I'm going to a meeting in the west country its as cheap to fly down as to get the train and takes about the same time, even allowing for 2 hour check in at the airport. Make it as hard to get on a train as get on a plane and the time advantage for the train will disappear completely.

But, the question still remain. How did a jar of mushroom soup evade security? Just shows how the scanners, body searches and metal detectors are powerless in the face of a simple fungus!


http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2985819.html?menu=

UKIP Hartlepool AGM

The A.G.M. of the Hartlepool Branch of U.K.I.P. will take place on Tuesday, 16th September, in the Woodcutter Hotel, Kingsley Avenue, starting at 7.30 pm.

The agenda is as follows

1. Chairman’s Report.
2. Treasurer’s Report.
3. Election of Officers.
4. A.O.B.


U.K.I.P.’s North East candidates in the 2009 European elections will be in attendance and they will outline their plans for fighting this very important campaign.

Eric Wilson
Branch Chairman.

Have you spotted the new logo yet

According to the August Issue of Newsline (Hartlepool Council and Schools Employee Newsletter), Hartlepool Council have made some subtle changes to its logo, following a review involving representatives from all departments. Has anyone out there spotted the new logo in use yet? I down loaded the one above from the Hartlepool Council Website and I think it's still the old design? The thumbnail shown in Newsline has Hartlepool written in Green not Blue and there are four waves under the stag, not three as in the logo above. Well the changes are described as "subtle"

Nice to hear that there is time in the busy working day of Hartlepool Council to "refresh" the Hartlepool "brand". Of course it hasn't been "refreshed" since 1996 so maybe it was overdue for a change! After all it's almost impossible to maintain morale with an outdated and tired logo!

Refreshing the logo might be the sort of job that requires an enthusiastic, talented and forward-thinking individual who can help continue Hartlepool Council's drive to deliver excellent internal communications to their employees. No doubt the new logo is indicative of Hartlepool Council's passion for internal communications and ability to embrace change. I'm certain the representatives from every department displayed formidable abilities to multitask, prioritise their workload and work on their own initiative. Possible Essex County Council may even now be head hunting their New "Internal Communications Officer" from amongst the ranks of Hartlepool Council's "Team HBC"

Any Council Taxpayer worrying that the change will result in loads of material with the "old" logo being dumped need not be concerned. You can be reassured that the new brand guidelines will be phased in as and when items need replacing. In fact a guidance manual on how the brand should be applied is currently being produced and should be available on the Hartlepool Council Intranet soon. Look out for "Team HBC" logo and "brand" on a council letterhead, flag, vehicle, polo shirt, etc in your town. Obviously the Council Website doesn't need replacing yet or the new logo could be seen on line?

If you want to know more e-mail alastair.rae@hartlepool.gov.uk

Electoral Reform Part 2

My post a few days ago regarding electoral reform received a couple of comments and even produced an e-mail from Ashley Dé, the "Head of Comms and Media" at the Electoral Reform Society.

Apparently my blog came up in their media monitoring and he passed on my comments about other anomalies to their Head of Research, who has "read them with interest". Ashley even apologised that the piece was not as exhaustive as it could have been but given the problems with local elections they could have filled up the whole magazine.

I definitely think the time is well overdue for some serious electoral reform in this country and if anyone wants some further information about electoral reform then I definitely recommend a visit to the Electoral reform Socity website

www.electoral-reform.org.uk

Of particular interest was

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/downloads/PRMyths.pdf

This is a short pamphlet on Proportional Representation Myths, which answers some of the more lazy and commonplace arguments of the First Past The Post lobby. In its preface it explains that "no political issue attracts more fallacious arguments than proportional representation (PR). Perhaps the most foolish one is that a proportional system would be too difficult for the voters to understand. The implication must be that English voters are the most stupid in Europe. For every other European country except France uses a proportional system, and proportional representation is now used for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved bodies and for local government in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Only Westminster and local authorities in England and Wales remain as a last redoubt of First-Past-the-Post."

Well worth a read!

Hit and Run!

My daughter learned another hard lesson in life today about how there are some nasty people about. Some scumbag drove into her car, made a huge dent in the front panel but didn't stop. My daughter has had the car for less than a week and it is her pride and joy. Judging by the damage the bastard who ran into it can't have failed to notice they had hit it, we are not talking a small scuff here, this is a major dent!

As a new driver there is no way my daughter can afford to get it fixed, her insurance excess is £650 and as the other driver didn't stop she can't claim off his (or her) insurance, assuming of course they actually have insurance.

So if you were in Hartlepool near the pink sandwich shop in York Road around lunch time today and saw someone hit and run into a silver Nisan Micra then my daughter (and then the Police!) would like to hear from you!

Buzword Bingo!

The Job advert in the previous post made me think of Buzzword Bingo. The rules are very simple, you select a number of "management speak words and phrases and then read through an advert or listen to a council speech and cross off the word or phrases as they are used. The person to get all of their words or phrases is the winner.

Acceptable "buzzwords" are highlighted below

We (Essex County Council) are looking for an enthusiastic and talented individual to join the Council's dynamic and forward-thinking internal communications team, as an Internal Communications Officer. Your energy will help us continue our drive to deliver excellent internal communications to the employees of Essex County Council.

Involved in all aspects of this busy internal communications team, you will help edit and write for the employee magazine; research and write news stories for the intranet; act as an internal communications business partner, advising directorates on all aspects of internal communications; and provide internal communications support for a variety of business campaigns and change programmes.

Your passion for internal communications and ability to embrace change will be combined with strong news writing skills - good grammar and spelling are essential. You will need an ability to prioritise your workload, work on your own initiative as well as with the team, and to multi-task.

A sound working knowledge and experience ideally in an internal communications environment, this is an opportunity for you to grow and develop your internal communications skills within a professional and energetic team.

Internal Communications Officer

Thank goodness the advert below is from Essex County Council and not Hartlepool Council. From the title it might be mistaken for a useful job but strip away the management speak and it is actually mainly concerned with supplementing Council propaganda and publicity by producing intranet article and costly glossy magazines nobody reads. If that sounds familiar then maybe you do look at Hartbeat as it goes from your mat to the recycle bag?

You may be one of those poor deluded fools who think you pay your council tax to get the bins cleaned, streets sweeped and public land taken care of? The advert below might disabuse you of this notion (re-produced with thanks to the Tax Payers Alliance (www.taxpayersalliance.com)

Internal Communications Officer (£21,414 - £27,597)

We (Essex County Council) are looking for an enthusiastic and talented individual to join the Council's dynamic and forward-thinking internal communications team, as an Internal Communications Officer. Your energy will help us continue our drive to deliver excellent internal communications to the employees of Essex County Council.

Involved in all aspects of this busy internal communications team, you will help edit and write for the employee magazine; research and write news stories for the intranet; act as an internal communications business partner, advising directorates on all aspects of internal communications; and provide internal communications support for a variety of business campaigns and change programmes.

Your passion for internal communications and ability to embrace change will be combined with strong news writing skills - good grammar and spelling are essential. You will need an ability to prioritise your workload, work on your own initiative as well as with the team, and to multi-task.

A sound working knowledge and experience ideally in an internal communications environment, this is an opportunity for you to grow and develop your internal communications skills within a professional and energetic team.

Closing date: 12 September 2008.