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The views expressed in this Blog are mine and do not necessarily represent County Council policy or Conservative Party policy |
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28/06/10
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A ray of sunshine! With so much financial and economic gloom around, it is good to be able to report on a ray of sunshine in my usually gloomy County Council day! On Monday, I was invited to attend an awards ceremony for our teachers who act as Primary Language Teachers. Although not yet a statutory requirement, 97% of our primary schools are teaching one or more foreign languages. The process is supported by a small team of Primary Language Coaches who work with primary schools in this area. This was an awards ceremony at 333 Banbury road, Oxford to reward those who have made real progress in this area. Here is a picture of the coaches after they received their awards. I am standing with Mrs Jo Peach who works for The Language Company and for the Department for Education.
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| 28/06/10 |
Why we are in the mess we are in The Treasury has published its Spending Review Framework. If you had been wondering how we have created a national mountain of debt as large as we have, you could do worse than study this publication, ,particularly page 4 which shows the structural imbalance between government receipts and government expenditure during the Labour government. This imbalance has existed since 2001 and has grown massively in recent years. Here is a link to the graph and here is a link to the whole document. Basically, Gordon Brown, first as Chancellor then as Prime Minister, spent and spent and spent ....... Liam Byrne was right when he wrote a note to his successor saying "there's no money left ......" |
| 23/06/10 |
Building Better Neighbourhoods There is a conference for faith groups today at the Kassam Stadium, Grenoble Road. The Bishop of Dorchester has asked me to say a few words from the perspective of the County Council. I only have five minutes so it will be a short contribution. I have some speaking notes that would take a lot longer than five minutes so I will be selective in making a few comments only. Here is a link to the speaking notes. |
| 22/06/10 |
George Osborne's Emergency Budget I watched George Osborne's speech on TV today with the two Liberals (Clegg and Alexander) perched like bookends. Most of the time, you could not see David Cameron who was seated immediately behind where George was standing at the despatch box but he was visible when the camera took a wide shot of the front bench. This is a tough budget for the whole country and it is certainly going to be tough for us in local government. Apart from health and international development, departmental budgets are going to be slashed by an average of 25% over four years. Given that they will probably try to protect education and defence, local government spending - apart from schools - will probably see cuts of 30% over four years. In the County Council, we have planned for a lot of cuts but not quite that much so we have more work to do and quickly. Watch this space ...... |
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21/06/10
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Tony Baldry – Second Church Estates Commissioner This appointment was announced from Downing Street today. It is an interesting post in that while, by convention, being a senior back bencher from the Government party, the Second Church Commissioner is included in the published list of Government members and is thus a member of the Government. Tony has to answer questions on Church matters in the Commons and his first slot will be immediately before the Chancellor announces his budget on Tuesday 22 June. He should be guaranteed a large audience although it is uncertain how attentive they will be! My congratulations to Tony on this appointment |
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21/06/10 |
John Howell MP - Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir George Young I am delighted to announce that John Howell MP, Member of Parliament for Henley and previously a County Councillor serving in my Cabinet, has been appointed PPS to Sir George Young who is Leader of the House of Commons. This should be a very interesting job for John and I am sure it signals higher office for him in due time. |
| 09/06/10 |
Garden Grabbing Goes! Greg Clark MP is to announce today that gardens will no longer be classified as "brown land" (previously developed). This will prevent developers from buying large detached houses, demolishing them and building small estates of little boxes in their place. This has been deeply resented, particularly in Oxford City but there have been instances nearer to home and the vast majority of residents will welcome this change in planning policy. |
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09/06/10
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Immigrants to demonstrate ability to speak English I have been struck over recent years when canvassing in the urban areas of our county how often the door opens and the occupant clearly has no command of the English language. How anyone can safely perform any job if their English is non-existent baffles me. Equally important, I worry deeply about communities within our towns where English is a second or third language. People are welcome to our country but it should be on the understanding that they adopt our language and accept our traditions of openness and tolerance. Requiring a command of the English language for would-be immigrants has to be a sensible and welcome step. |
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07/06/10
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Review of County Council Capital Programme I am about to give an interview to camera for BBC Oxford, announcing a wholesale review of our Capital Programme. We are currently spending a bit more than £100 million per annum on capital schemes. The bulk of this is on schools and road schemes but there is also some spending on day centres, libraries and a multiplicity of other services. This programme has been funded by a mixture of borrowing, capital receipts and developer funding. All of these are under pressure and it is particularly clear that public sector capital spending as a whole is going to be cut severely and we will not be exempt. Our intention in announcing this early review is to stay ahead of the process and to have time to consult widely and to consider priorities carefully. Have no doubt this is going to be very difficult for quite some time. |
| 05/06/10 |
Downing Street incident On 8 May 2010 an old man approached Downing Street. He spoke to the policeman standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with Mr Brown." The policeman looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Brown is no longer prime minister and no longer resides here." The old man said, "Okay", and walked away. The following week , the same man approached Downing Street and said to the same policeman, "I would like to go in and meet with Mr Brown." The policeman again told the man, "Sir, as I said last week , Mr. Brown is no longer prime minister and no longer resides here." The man thanked him and, again, just walked away. The third week , the same man approached Downing Street and spoke to the very same policeman, saying "I would like to go in and meet with Mr Brown." The policeman, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third week in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Brown. I've told you already that Mr. Brown is no longer prime minister and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?" The old man looked at the policeman and said, "Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it." The policeman snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you next week , Sir." |
| 02/06/10 |
Whitehaven, Cumbria I am sitting in my study, working on county council issues but with the TV running. The news from Cumbria is clearly very disturbing. I hope we can wait to take an objective view on what has happened and what has caused it. I will be asking my management team whether our Emergency Plan includes response to an incident such as this. While it is clearly impossible to anticipate something like this, it is vital that we have protocols in place to ensure the various components of our emergency services are in a position to respond promptly if we should be faced with such an eventuality. |
