Date
The views expressed in this Blog are mine and do not necessarily represent County Council policy or Conservative Party policy
Urine testing for all? This, apparently came from an off-shore oil rig worker who asks a pretty simple question!
I work,
What I do have a
problem with is
Could you imagine
how much money
Please pass this
along if you agree or simply delete it if you don't! Hope you will
pass it along though, because something has to change in
Pause, reflect and thank God
Seventy years ago, Winston Churchill said "Never in the field of human
conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few". It is easy to forget this country's
fight, alone at the time, against the tyranny of Adolf Hitler.
I can't begin to imagine what it was like for those young men (and I think they were all men and mainly young) who went up in their Spitfires to defend this country.
Equally, I cannot imagine what it was like to be Winston Churchill, leading his country in a conflict with a larger and better resourced country and against an implacable and evil enemy.
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, FRS is one of my heroes. As a school boy, I stood on Bird Cage Walk to see him go to Buckingham Palace to be knighted. When he died, I walked past his catafalque in Westminster Hall to pay my respects to a great man. He is buried in Bladon Church yard; if you have not been there, why not go and pay tribute to a giant of a man?
"Speed camera data misleading" Not my words but those of the Oxford Mail which has found the Thames Valley Road Safety Partnership was selective in its use of speed statistics to try to claim that the switching off of the Oxfordshire speed cameras had led to massive increases in speeding offences. Read the Oxford Mail by clicking here.
Calling all Armchair Auditors There is considerable excitement among the national and Oxfordshire media tonight after Oxford City Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and South Oxfordshire District Council have started to publish all payments they have made (excluding salary payments) over £500.
Here are their initial listings:
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In addition, here is
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one for Windsor & Maidenhead Unitary Council and for |
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an Independent Armchair Auditor site that has sprung up from the Windsor & Maidenhead official one. |
This is in response to Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities, Local Government & Communities who has instructed all local councils to publish every payment they have make in excess of £500 each (salaries excepted).
The County Council spends close on a billion pounds per annum. Excluding salary payments, we estimate we will be publishing approximately 5,000 items of expenditure each month. Our finance people are working out how to publish the information in as meaningful a manner as possible. The requirement to provide this information is from January next year and we will meet that deadline. I am not pressing for earlier disclosure because our finance team is working hard to identify how we are going to take some £200 million out of our annual budget of a billion pounds and that has to be the highest priority.
While I have no problem in being held accountable for our spending of public money, I do worry how many new members of staff will have to be employed to answer the inevitable string of questions from Oxfordshire’s armchair auditors when we do publish these enormous listings.
Benefit cuts: There is a lot of media-inspired excitement about possible cuts in state benefits. I am very clear about this. Since I was 60 years old, I have been paid a Winter Fuel Allowance. God knows why! It is nice to have £250 bounce into my bank account some time in November each year but I have not the slightest idea why I should receive it. It is the first money I think I have ever received from the state in my life. This year, Lynda joins me in receiving something I suspect.
I am afraid Gordon Brown has created an-ever-growing client state. We desperately need to reduce it. If we don't get used to standing on our own two feet, we will get far too used to someone else funding our chosen life style. I think we should establish our life style according to what we can afford.
The same is true of child benefit. It should be there for those who cannot afford essentials for their children but I simply do not see why parents with comfortable incomes should receive it?
It is a mad, mad world where the middle class pay higher and higher taxes to enable more and more of the middle classes to become rentiers of the state. It is total madness.
New Immigration Laws: My blog of 16 August has elicited this response from an anonymous contributor:
Just thought I'd take up your kind offer of debating some things on your personal blog.
I noticed you had a piece about immigration laws in "some Muslim countries". I thought you would be interested to know that it has nothing to do with any Muslim countries. It is an e-mail produced by anti immigration right wing bloggers in the USA about Mexico's immigration laws. It was in relation to a response by a Mexican official's statement abut Arizona's new immigration laws.
On closer examination it appears that the e-mail, even about Mexico, is not quite as it initially appears. It is a twisted attempt at reproduction ignoring both facts and historical and political context, for example, Mexico has experienced US immigrants infiltrating it's political system before and as a result lost a large chunk of its land namely Texas.
Mexico also restricts immigrants buying up coastal land because they know full well that US citizens would buy up the coastline for their own enterprises.
So, as you can see, there are particular reasons for some of Mexico's immigration laws and they are not accurately reflected by the e-mail you received.
Furthermore your friend should be made aware that these types of internet e-mails float around about all sorts of right wing issues usually made up or, as in this case, totally inaccurate. They are posted and sent in an attempt to provide justification for right wing ideas where no logical or factual justification exists. It is for this reason that they spread like wildfire on the internet and are often reproduced as evidence of the world gone crazy. This sort of stuff also invariably pops up on all the extreme right wing websites like the neo-Nazi Stormfront one. Just Google New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the message...
I hope you don't mind me pointing this stuff out but I was particularly worried that a friend of the Leader of the County Council was laying himself open to ridicule especially considering he wished the government to know about it.
The first 100 days - inside Whitehall For political nerds, there is a fascinating insight into the inner working of Whitehall. Here is the link to The Guardian article.
Cleggy is in charge .....I can't resist reproducing this from today's Independent
New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the message...
A friend whose judgment I value sent this to me earlier today. It is a sad reflection that I sat and wondered for some time whether I dared to reproduce it, knowing it would cause some offence in certain quarters. My judgment is that I should and here is what he sent me:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1 There will be no special bilingual
programs in the schools.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
2. All ballots will be in this nation's
language.
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* *
3. All government business will be
conducted in our language.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to
vote, no matter how long they are here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold
political office
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
6 Foreigners will not be a burden to the
taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care or other government
assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
7. Foreigners can invest in this country
but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum
wage.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
8. If foreigners come here and buy land...
Options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property
are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
9.. Foreigners may have no protests; no
demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organising, no
bad-mouthing our prime minister or his policies. These will lead to
deportation.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
10. If you do come to this country
illegally, you will be actively hunted and, when caught, sent to jail
until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken
from you.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
Too strict?......
The
above laws are the current immigration laws of some Muslim countries!
These
sound fine to me, NOW, how can we get these laws to be British immigration
laws?
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This was sent to me by a cultured man with a lifetime in public service who asked me to bring it to the attention of those in government. I though this was the best I could do. Let the debate commence .....
A colleague sent this to me earlier today.
It is not factually correct but it makes a point about our demography worth considering..........
The population of this country is approximately 60 million. 32 million are retired. That leaves 28 million to do the work. There are 17 million in school or at Universities. Which leaves 11 million to do the work.
Of this there are 8 million employed by the UK government. Leaving 3 million to do the work.
1.2 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden and fighting in Afghanistan.
Which leaves 1.8 million to do
the work.
Take from that total the 0.8 million people who work for Local County
Councils and that leaves 1 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 488,000 people in hospitals or claiming Invalidity Benefit. Leaving 512,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 511,998 people in
prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me...... and there
you are, sitting on your arse, you lazy sod, at your computer, reading
jokes.
Is it any wonder that we are in such a mess and that I am stressed out
through trying to cope on my own?
Evolving policy for local
government I said on 8 Aug 2010 (below) that I had put together an
Evolving Policy Page
showing current consultations by Whitehall Departments and Inquiries by
Select Committees which impact on local government. I have now
responded to the first one on behalf of the County Council, the BIS
Select Committee: Inquiry into Local Enterprise Partnerships.
You can read our response to the consultation
here or by clicking on the link to the
Evolving Policy Page.
"Living in Hell with devils" No - this is not a new Dan Brown thriller. It is a headline from the front page of the Banbury Guardian. The text goes on as follows: "We are slowly but surely being taken over, flat by flat, by druggies. The tension here is high and people are nervous. One can only abuse, humiliate, intimidate and threaten people for so long. I believe the bomb is set, the clock is ticking. We are just waiting for it to blow up." This is a quote from a resident of Samuelson Court, a block of modern flats close to the canal in the heart of Banbury. I walk past here quite often. It is a delightful location and the flats look quite attractive. If this is happening, it is awful and I do not understand why anyone making illegal use of drugs cannot be hoofed out of their tenancy in double quick time? It seems residents are reluctant to speak publicly for fear of reprisals; the landlord is unwilling to move without evidence and the police have tried drugs busts that have failed. When a flat becomes vacant, I suggest someone finds a policeman willing to take the tenancy. In the meantime, residents need to screw their courage to the sticking place and help to get this menace cleaned up. For goodness sake, there must be a solution in a modern democracy? "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". [Edmund Burke].
Mothballed play and school
schemes There has been a lot of media coverage of mothballed
play and school schemes, including a very vocal
campaign
from a lady in Hook Norton
and an equally strident
newspaper campaign in Henley.
The lady in Hook Norton is Mrs Emma Kane (pictured left). She is an Internet and E-commerce Consultant so her ability to burst into the media circus is not entirely surprising. She is also a mother of children in Hook Norton and I know she has worked hard to secure engagement from the local community and to raise funds for this scheme.
The campaign in Henley is about Sonning Common Pre-School where they were expecting substantial investment from the government.
The problem I have with both of them is that they are behaving like Saint Augustine who prayed to the Almighty, saying "Lord, give me chastity ..... but not yet". People around the country are saying "I understand we are going to see public sector spending cuts but ...... not yet, please OR ..... not here, please"
I listened to Mrs Kane on the wireless, talking about all the initiatives for young people and how important the playground is and how critical it is to invest in our young people. She would have convinced me if I had not seen Gordon Brown borrow money to pay for such schemes for the last nine years, thus ratcheting up almost a trillion pounds (a thousand billion pounds OR try writing £1 plus fifteen zeros!) of debt that the country now has to repay. This country has lived beyond its means for the last decade and we now face the day of reckoning.
I can understand Mrs Kane's frustration after throwing so much energy into her local play scheme but I am afraid the country is paying the price of Gordon Brown's profligacy. If we don't set about paying off our national debt by reducing current spending drastically, I am afraid Mrs Kane's children, their children and their grandchildren will find themselves paying off Gordon Brown's debt for many years to come. Does she want to saddle her children and grandchildren with such a financial albatross?
School milk Anne
Milton MP (to the right), Health Minister, has been slapped down by Prime
Minister David Cameron for her
suggestion
that the Nursery Milk scheme, which allows children in approved day care
to receive a third of a pint of milk free each day up until their fifth
birthday and which dates back to the wartime years of 1940, should be
scrapped.
In 1940, the idea was to give children an extra nutritional boost at a time when food was in short supply and rationed. Today, food is in plentiful supply and childhood obesity is on the rise. I rather suspect Anne Milton has got it right and I suspect the Prime Minister was fearful of being branded as a "second Thatcher - milk snatcher". I think he may have got this one wrong.
No doubt the healthy eating brigade will be regaling us with facts about nutrition and deprivation but I think this is now a minority group that should be targeted separately and not by providing free milk to all.
However, I have no doubt I am off message here and should shut up!
Council houses - a hand up in
time of need or a privilege for life and longer? Prime Minister
Dav
id Cameron has
stirred the pot with his suggestion that council house tenants should not
have a right to lifetime occupation of their home. Conservative MP, Nadine
Dorries (pictured right), has challenged this view by suggesting we should
consider giving a right to buy in such cases.
I had to reflect on this because I live in a house that is much larger than my partner and I need. If I can; why can't a council house tenant?
The answer is that I paid the full market value of my home when I bought it; I have paid for the repair and maintenance ever since and I pay a council tax that reflects its market value (at least in relative terms).
A council house tenant, by comparison, receives a significant subsidy from the public purse. I therefore think there should be a mechanism by which someone in council housing (and I think this has to include all social rented housing) should be reviewed every few years. If their financial circumstances have changed, they ought to be offered a series of alternatives which could include:
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moving to a smaller social rented home at the same or a lower rental; |
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paying higher rent for their existing home; |
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having the option to purchase their existing home under a right to buy. |
What do you think? Tell me on leader@oxfordshire.gov.uk.
08/08/10
Speed cameras
Here is an interesting article from today's Daily Telegraph. It is early days for all of us but we face reduced public spending and councillors are going to be taking more and more difficult decisions as we work with the government to reduce Labour's legacy of debt.
Evolving policy for local
government The coalition government has certainly hit the ground
running and seems determined both to tackle Labour's legacy of debt and to
set about reforming public services where Labour so clearly failed to
deliver. Parliamentary Select Committees are showing signs of trying to
keep pace.
Given that 25% of public services are delivered by local government and, in two tier areas, 80% of that 25% is delivered by county councils, it is hardly surprising that many policy changes will impinge on local government.
I have put together an Evolving Policy Page showing current consultations by Whitehall Departments and Inquiries by Select Committees which impact on local government. I will update the page from time to time with my own commentary and, where the County Council makes a response, I will provide a link to it. Each addition to the page will be flagged on the current Political Blog with the same heading: Evolving policy for local government I will be interested to hear from local residents and from colleague councillors across the country on any of the issues that interest them. Mail to leader@oxfordshire.gov.uk
The Camera song
The County Council now has an anthem! It was penned by Mitch Benn for the BBC Home Service (Radio 4 to youngsters!) Now Show. Here is a link (Warning: this is a huge download file).
Council housing PM David Cameron has stirred the pot with his comments on council housing entitlement and has clearly unsettled some of his Liberal colleagues. This is not a county council function but I hope I am, nevertheless, entitled to make a comment.
Margaret Thatcher's policy on council housing was one of the most liberating experiences of her regime. Any local politician who canvassed during those years cannot help but have noticed the impact of home ownership on people who had previously been tenants.