Just because it is funny

Health and Education

Reading the Times today I have to admit I think the education plans for the diplomas are a pretty good idea. Trying them out and seeing how they work instead of scrapping the current system straight away is a good move. Now that is not easy for someone with the opinion of Ed Balls that I have to admit. If it is proved that the diploma offers a better education than the current system then I am all for it. The problem is getting the universities on board.

Health wise things are not so impressive.

The Health Secretary (a position I usually go easy on) has announced a new 'Super Body' which will have the powers to close down hospitals or wards within 24 hours of a poor inspection. That isn't going to work. When I talk to nurses they tell me that they are constantly being told to do things or not do things to satisfy whichever Body is governing or inspecting that week and that distracts from what the NHS is there for - healing. The Health Secretary has been told what he problem is and has reacted in a typically controlling way. The problem has been over-interference from Government targets and bodies. So he is solving the problem by making a bigger one. Brilliant.

I hope that a Conservative Government won't be able to tell you things are improving. I hope that they won't measure, I hope they won't need to. You won't need to be told things are better, you will be able to feel it.

Recycling the Image?

Last night I was in Town Hall for the Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

We had some good discussion about the new recycling policies. I would like to see more 'Bring Sites' around the town. They have to be places where people are going anyway like the supermarket. Typically my best idea cam five minutes after the meeting; perhaps Park and Ride sites would be good places to have them? I have asked the officers to look into it. The main problem with the recycling strategy as it stands is the finance which as a Council we haven't had sufficient information on. We can expect to see a rise in Council Tax I imagine. The scheme itself appears well thought out and I want to commend the officers Malcolm Wells and David Campbell-Lenaghan for their work.

We had the honour of the Leader of the Council last night who came to be interviewed about her plans for the 'Image of Maidstone'. The County Town has a negative image of itself that does not seem to tie in with that status. I have to be honest I was surprised myself when we all began to think about just what Maidstone has to offer. A world-class museum, theatre, great restaurants, good shops of which 50% are independent retailers and we have some fantastic architecture. Unfortunately I think that the infrastructure and the British drinking culture let us down.

One idea that I had was to pedestrianise Earl Street and turn it into our very own Pier 39. Allow the restaurants to spill out into the street with outside tables, allow the jazz rooms or the theatre to provide outside entertainment. With a more positive attitude we can actually get things like this done and improve Maidstone's image by better showcasing what we already have.

Other than that I was adopted to the 2012 Working Group and I am really looking forward to getting stuck into that and making the most out of the Olympics for Maidstone.

Magistrate job appeal

A magistrate has appealed against his forced resignation due to his decision not to place children with gay couples.

He should not be successful in his appeal.

Any religious views that I may have are deliberately held very close to my chest. Judges, at every level, are charged with determining the law. When personal views are given a higher precedent than the law the Judge is no longer fit for the job.

You just cannot impose religious views in the courts. Thats what Islamic extremists want after all.

Victory for Democracy

A small but important win for democracy tonight on the 21:11 to Ashford from Victoria. Having had dinner in the adjournment with my good friend Ed we got the 21:11 train back to Maidstone. One of the windows in the front carriage as open an made everyone on board very cold.

A particular passenger who was, shall we say, one tube stop short of a circle line wanted it open because she was hot and I guess because the noise of the wind helped her singing. When the ticket inspector was asked to close the window he was met with hostility from this passenger who subsequently threatened to give us all her cold. The inspector put the issue to a popular vote and far more than 40% voted in the referendum. The window was closed.

Unfortunately this only made her singing louder. By the end of it I felt very sorry for the poor girl next to her who I couldn't help but smile at to try and reassure her that everything would be OK.

It was. Democracy not Tyranny!

Hair raising-ly good column

This from the Times today is very very good.

PMQ's

Didn't start well for the Prime Minister when Graham Brady MP asked a question about pensions. Straight away Gordon seemed to get angry again. He did seem to settle down afterwards and there was even a few shots of him smiling.

Questions from David Cameron about C. Diff and Maidstone Hospital seemed quite strong and I liked the lack of personal attacks that last week had. It shows a mature approach and suggests a real focus on policy. Gordon Brown answered the questions on the hospital with the same policies that have already failed and completely refused to admit that the constant focus on targets contributes to the distraction from actually healing people.

Vincent Cable did well as a stand in for Ming and some Labour MP whose name I missed asked a completely pointless question - Does the Prime Minister want to send a message to the England Rugby team ahead of the final on Saturday?' I am sure he does, like the rest of us he wants to say good luck and so he should. But the half hour on Wednesday is to ask important questions about issues facing the country. PMQ's is not the place for these questions and announcements and unfortunately they are more and more regular.

There were also further flat out denials over the need for an EU Referendum despite good arguments put forward by David Cameron.

Who should be the next Lib Dem Leader?

If I am honest I don't think it matters at all. The Lib Dems blaming their current polling nightmares solely on their ex-leader is very short sighted and signifies an unwillingness to look deep down inside and work out what everyone else already knows. The Party just is not seen as a legitimate political force. They are seen (even if it is not completely true) to jump on bandwagons and pretend to be leading 'popular movements'. They are becoming more and more like a left-wing pressure group much like the far right wing BNP or UKIP.

If I were a Lib Dem I would want Nick Clegg to take over. I am absolutely not a Lib Dem and I still like him and I appreciate the fact that he is very talented. His main problem is that he would be taking on David Cameron at a game which David Cameron reigns supreme. However he is talented, energetic and articulate. Daniel Hannan MEP served with him in the European Parliament and talks highly of him on his blog.

As a Conservative I want Chris Huhne to get it because it would be great for us. Actually having said that I think I am going to start a Lembit for Leader campaign because frankly the comic opportunities are endless.

You couldn't make it up

Today brings a revelation that will no doubt give US satarists a lot of room to play with it turns out that Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and US Vice-President Dick Cheney (the one that mistook his friend for a duck and shot him) are related.

Awesome.

NHS TRUST

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has been all over the news today for the outbreak of c. diff. uncovered in the Health Commission Report. This is a tragic state of affairs and a real body blow to the staff of the Trust who are already obviously under a lot of pressure.

The report is a damning indictment on the state of the Trust itself but the real disgrace uncovered is the reasons behind the unnecessary deaths. The report sheds light on similarities between this case at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust and the previous outbreak of c. diff. (I forget the name of the Trust involved that time around). In both cases the Board of the Trust was judged to be too distracted with meeting budgets, finances and meeting targets.

I have commented on the New Labour ‘target culture’ before. It is the sign of a Party too long the underdog, hungry to show clearly how much better they are even if it means negating actually doing better. Surely the target culture has been taken too far when it is the reason behind preventable deaths.

End of the Liberals?

Latest polling shows bad news for the Liberal Democrats at http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/. If there were an election today the Lib Dems would win NO SEATS in Parliament.

Shame.

What is the point?

What’s the point? What is the point? Could someone please point out the point? Why do we bother with elections (fake and real) when the Labour Government don’t have anything to say other than what the Conservatives have just said?

Yesterday Chancellor Alistair Darling told us everything we already knew because the Conservatives had already told us. There should have been a sign above the Palace doors yesterday saying ‘The Conservative Party presents the Labour Government’s Pre Budget Report’.

Gordon Brown called off the election because he wants to give us his ‘vision’. He had an opportunity yesterday to show us some of it, so why didn’t he? Possibly because he is waiting to see what the Conservative Party say next I think. It is a clever election tactic by Mr Brown. Steal all the Tory policies so that we never need to hold an election, they are running things anyway.

The Government are running the economy on Tory ideas. All there other ideas are failing. The Conservative Party are the only ones now with new ideas but whenever anything is announced it is going to get stolen. Gordon Brown is waiting for our next move. Maybe we should call an election? We are basically running things anyway.

Gordon's vision?

In the PM's press conference someone asked him whether Gordon Brown endorsed the 2005 manifesto and if so why did he need to outline his vision to the nation. Gordon answered that his vision was set out in the manifesto.

So why was the election called off again?

Ann Widdecombe announces retirement

This press release was issued from the office of the Rt. Hon. Ann Widdecombe yesterday:

The Rt. Hon. Ann Widdecombe MP, who has been a Member of Parliament for 20 years, first for Maidstone and latterly for Maidstone and the Weald has confirmed that she will not be seeking re-election.

Ann has made it clear for some time that if this Parliament were to run a normal length she would not wish to seek re-election. She said ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have made the last 20 years so rewarding and especially the people I have served and the Officers and Members of Maidstone & The Weald Conservative Association’.

Ann has served Maidstone impeccably for 20 years and receives wide ranging support across the constitueny. It is a loss for Maidtsone and the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

No election, rugby and door knocking

So there you have it, Gordon bottled it. Excellent.

And England won the rugby. Awesome.

I missed both events because I had my surgery yesterday and then I went door knocking around the village to talk to people about the Westmount planning application.

I have a few concerns about the application.

This is one of the most idyllic views of Loose. Standing in the conservation area in the valley looking towards the village you can see the church spire and the roof of West Lawns in the centre. Imagine instead of seeing both of those there was actually a big 5 bedroom house that looks like it should be in Copper Tree Court. The houses there look great but would be wildly out of place in the 'Ragstone Village'. Like a polar bear walking around Brookfields.

The impact on the conservation area and the design of the houses are two of the issues. The other one I have is access and safety on Busbridge Road which is dangerous enough as it is.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time talking to people in Loose about the development and I will help take this application to committee and try to defeat it.

Will there be a snap election?

No.

If you had asked me yesterday (and some did) I would have said definitely yes. If you had ask me now (which no one has) I will say definitely no. Partly because I am fickle, but partly because of the following.

It is just too much of a risk. A week ago the Tories were calling for an election but didn't really mean it. Now we mean it. The Guardian poll has us neck and neck, in the Times we are 3 points back and Channel 4 has us 4 points back. Individual polls cannot be trusted to be accurate (and I have never met anyone that has met anyone who has been called in a poll) but when all three of these polls show gains of between 7 and 10 points you know something has gone well. At the beginning of the Blackpool conference the Conservative Party were very uneasy and were after something big from Cameron. He gave us precisely what we wanted and more.

Couple these polls with the first headlines yesterday about house prices falling and the possible economic downturn that signals and the fact that the news outlets seem to be picking up the Tory line more than ever over the past 10 years. Gordon Brown will not call the early election this year in my view. It is too close in the marginal seats now.

There is that great phenomenon in US elections called 'the Big Mo'. The Conservatives have the momentum and Gordon Brown would be crazy to call the election when we are running at him full steam. Of course if he waits things could get worse for him.

Still I think we have heard the last of an election this year. I do however have a fantastic record of being completely and utterly wrong.

Cameron's speech

I am not going to give a comprehensive run down of David Cameron's speech. Many other places give you that.

All I will say is that I joined the party when David Cameron became Leader and his speech yesterday made me very proud that I did.

The best speeches of the week for me (in no particular order other than Cameron's at the top) were David Cameron, IDS, Liam Fox, William Hague, Ken Clarke and Eric Pickles.

Respect

I went to a fringe event today hosted by Kids Count called 'Gangsta's Paradise; Solutions to Gangs and Weapons'. One issue that has been spoken about across the political spectrum in relation to gang culture ad the crime that comes with it is 'Respect'.

The respect agenda suggests that the people involved in Gangs do not have respect or earn it. The problem here is that they shoot and stab people to get respect from their peers. Many crimes are committed due to incidences of 'lack of respect'. Steve Tyler from Operation Trident told us that one young man lost his life after he was shot for an insult he made.

Respect is at the heart of the problem but the respect agenda does not acknowledge it.

Defence and Security at Party Conference

This morning I was back in the Winter Gardens main Ballroom to listen to Dame Pauline Neville-Jones the Shadow Security Minister, Sayeeda Warsi the Shadow Community Cohesion Minister and Liam Fox the Shadow Defence Secretary talk about defence and security.

Liam Fox’s speech for me is the best of the conference so far. There is a bit in the West Wing where Sam talks about the energy with which the audience get to their feet to applaud and for the first time I really felt that as I literally jumped up as he left the stage. Her spoke of Labour failing our troops before, during and after their service. He spoke of Des Browne as the ‘part-time Defence Minister’ who is fighting the SNP and the Taliban. The best bit however was when 20 minutes after Gordon Brown’s announcements from Iraq Liam Fox told him to remember that in his grand opus last week he had 126 words for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the soldiers there. That was one word for every two British soldiers killed so far. Frankly the stunt by the Prime Minister makes me very ashamed. He is literally playing politics with the lives of soldiers and I don’t think that the timing of his announcement was an accident.

During Sayeeda Warsi’s speech on community cohesion and security I realised to myself that to help increase security on our streets it is young people we need to engage.

How many times have you heard that there is nothing to do? Young people are bored and you all remember what your mother told you about idle thumbs and the Devil’s work. A great example is the Olympics which was New Labours triumph for the country. However up and down the country sports programmes are being stopped and leisure facilities are closing. New Labour are leaving young people bored and disengaged. That provides a breeding ground for the destruction of their lives and ultimately other people’s lives as well. Bored young people are prime targets for extremist groups and gang culture that lead to threats to our security internally and externally.

Labour has let these young people down and it is putting all of us at risk.

David Cameron at the CCA Reception

Here is a short clip of David Cameron talking at the Conservative Councillors Association Reception last night.

Party Conference Video 1

Bruce in Blackpool...

Fellow Maidstone Borough Councillor Bruce Pollington speaking at the Party Conference today. I am sorry it cuts out my memory ran short.