Ahh, Nostalgia...

Many years ago, I joined a Youth Club, and we would put on shows twice a year: a so-called "Parents' Evening" in May (no prizes for guessing who was in the audience for that event!) and a run of three evening performances of a pantomime in December.

For some unknown reason, I started reminiscing about those times -- almost forty years ago now -- and my main function at these productions as the sound engineer.

Now, this involved not only providing the microphones and amplification from the stage, but also music and sound effects. I was lucky in having the extremely versatile Vortexion CBL as my main tape recorder, and this was absolutely superb for this purpose, as its two (i.e. stereo) channels were completely independent and it was possible to send and mix signals from one side to the other. Indeed, unusually the two channels flanked the mechanical part of the machine, as the photograph shows, and had extensive mixing, amplification and tone controls. I could even listen to and cue-up sound effects on the built-in loudspeaker without affecting what was going on in the auditorium. I had no additional mixing desk or other aids!

This hand-made recorder was considered one of the top of its class at the time, and was manufactured only a couple of miles away from my home (excuse the pre-metric speak: this was well before Britain metricated!) It was big and heavy, and I had to trundle it between home and where the Youth Group met on one of those two-wheel hand-drawn trolley affairs with retaining straps. That was real fun...

Our productions were held in a church hall (which is where the Youth Club met) which had a stage with curtains and a small lighting console mounted on the wall in the wings, stage right. We would hire additional spotlights to augment the above-stage lighting, and a trough of footlights or "floats". I was stationed in the vestibule just in front of stage-right, with swing doors with windows between me and the audience -- so they didn't know I was there.

I could watch the stage through the window, and hear what was going on via the Vortexion's built-in loudspeaker, which could be switched to either left or right channel or off, and had its own volume control. Although the design engineers at Vortexion tried to make their products the most versatile around, they could never have envisaged the use to which I put my CBL, nor the imaginative way I did so. I had started being innovative at the age of eighteen...

I had prepared the tape of music and effects with short lengths of leader tape between the items, along with a numbered contents list of them all, with tape counter locations and references to the script, and had a copy of the script as well, marked-up with the effect/music item number.

It was a wonderful time for me, where I was able to give of myself, my facilities and whatever expertise I could bring to doing this vital job. It was the performers on stage who got the curtain calls and the audience's applause -- and rightly so: our young people were very talented, and deserved all of it. My job was to facilitate, to do the "techie" stuff behind the scenes (okay, to the side in this case!) and thus help make sure the show worked.




Oh, and by 1972 I had been in employment long enough to be able to afford both a superb Teac A-7030 "big machine" ( at left) and a wonderful lightweight portable recorder, a Stellavox SP-7 (pictured at right) which was -- and still is -- one of the best sound recorders in the world, even though it pre-dates the digital recording era. True professionals in the field agree even today that these machines produce a noticeably better result than the very latest (digital) technology.

All of this experience was something I never forgot; which is why when I moved here and became involved first with the Residents Association and then the local Council, I already knew that my talents (such as they are) could once again be applied to making things work better for others, rather than taking centre stage myself.

This is why so much of what I do will never hit the headlines, and will be known in detail to only very few -- in some cases virtually no-one will ever know how I achieved something-or-other. That's fine by me: all I want is to get the result, and at that I am pretty good, even in difficult circumstances (as seems to be more often the case nowadays). Applying one's skills and abilities to real-world problems and issues is what it's about, and I am grateful to have been placed in a position where my meagre talents can and do produce good results.

I still use technology and a sharp and creative mind to achieve perhaps better outcomes than others might. It's just the way I am; but it started all those years ago, when I started to devise unusual ways to tackle particular tasks. I might be no MacGyver, but then I started well before he did!

Concerned? You Should Be!

I have just read THIS in the Times, and urge you to do the same.

We have all heard about the loss of two data discs containing 25 million personal records, and one or two other lesser losses, but how many people realise that during this year there have been no fewer than 2,110 such security breaches within government?

There are plenty more facts and concerns within this article, by none less than David Davis, whom I met and who impressed me immensely at an event a few months ago (see picture). It is an authoritative catalogue of what should be one of the most worrying aspects of British governmental activity today.

I must be far from being alone in finding the media coverage of this whole topic somewhat disappointing, as the news is rapidly dropped or at least very much toned-down after the initial revelation. I have worked in central government (for more than 22 years, before being made redundant in 1996) and my last job there was as the entire IT support "team" for a chunk of the DTI.

I am also a dedicated IT user myself, in my attempt to reduce paper usage as far as possible, and am well aware of both the benefits and the dangers of technology-based operations. As David Davis said in his article (though apparently missed by one of the commenters!) the application of IT and other technologies in the public sector will of course not be ignored. They just need to be applied far more sensibly and with a different attitude and approach.

Instead of being a way to "own" every citizen of this country, the technology should be geared toward better quality governance, and data should be treated as held in trust, not as a right by Ministers and others to do with whatever they like. The present Soviet-style of government in Britain can never get this attitude straightened out, as its own agenda is, and always will be, entirely self-serving.

Thus Occam's razor shows us that the only way our personal information can ever be made even reasonably safe is via a change of government. Lefty governments (and this one still is, despite the thin veneer of respectability carefully devised by Blair and Brown all those years ago) will never, but never, be able to be trusted with this, any more than they ever have been with earlier paper-based personal information. It's just that today it is so easy to peruse, sift (e.e. for political leanings), and pass around to Ministers' buddies far, far more such data in its modern, electronic form.

One thing is certain: the ID Cards national database must never be allowed to come into existence, so must be prevented from doing so between now and the next General Election, after which (on the assumption of a change of government, which seems very likely) the scheme will be scrapped anyway.

Pakistan

The terrible news has now been with us long enough that I feel the time is right to make a few brief comments myself. I did not wish to do so during the initial period after the news broke: it was better for more informed commentators to take the lead. We do not need a too-emotional response in this particular situation, and by and large the national media have been reasonably disciplined so far.

I met Benazir Bhutto a few months ago, at an event arranged by Councillor Rehman Chishti, who had been her adviser for a long time and they knew each other well. Along with the others there, I gained a strong impression of someone whose heart was very much with her country and its people, whatever the truths or otherwise of her own past (apparently the corruption allegations were never proven anyway).

Now the world has lost one of the best -- if not the best -- of all possible chances to restore Pakistan to a state of normalcy over the next few years. That appears to have been scuppered, at least for the time being. Perhaps a new political leaser will emerge who has sufficient of Ms Bhutto's qualities to re-awaken that hope.

The lady appeared to know more than many might have realised about certain matters, though this information was censored from the BBC's reporting of her interview with Sir David Frost. This is the unedited version:



In the meantime, regardless of who really was the murderer or murdering organisation behind Ms Bhutto's death, it is the extremists and militant fanatics who have won -- for now! This battle goes to them, but the ideological and political war is far from being over...

It Was the Best of Years...

...and it was the worst of years!

Just like Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, this year has been a very mixed time, with pluses and minuses.

Here in Medway, the May local elections were a resounding endorsement for the ruling Conservative Group on the Council. Turnout was up significantly, dirty tricks were rife (and I know the details of some of those!), and yet the number of seats we won went up to the highest it has ever been in the Unitary Authority, while the main opposition's seat count dropped to its lowest ever level -- a mere third of how many they had at the start, just ten years ago.

However, at a national level, the Labour Government is now in what might become an irreversible, terminal decline, which isn't exactly healthy. The new Prime Minister really isn't coping at all well -- and it shows rather obviously in his manner, temper, and sheer dishevelment. The word is that he will be kicked out of office as PM if (as seems almost certain) the May 2008 local elections result in further Labour losses.

Meanwhile, the UK's right to govern itself has been severely compromised through the signing of the so-called EU Reform Treaty, with no referendum of the people. That is a much more serious matter than many people in this country yet realise -- but one day they will, and it'll be too late.

Although there were many triumphs here in Medway this year, including the Tour de France (despite the negativity of some) and the moving forward of several important regeneration projects, there has been little cheer at the national level for a long time now.

Even just up the road in London, recent revelations seem to be echoing the suspicions and concerns of Londoners about why they are paying an ever-increasing additional tax to fund the Livingstone regime with less and less to show for it. This year, at last, some of what has been going on appears to be coming into the public arena. With the London Mayoral elections coming up next year, it looks like a real change will occur just a few months from now.

Thus, despite all the difficulties of the past year, there is the prospect of 2008 seeing a change of Prime Minister (though not necessarily a change of Governing Party -- but who knows?) and a change of London Mayor.

Perhaps this forthcoming year will thus turn out to be one of the best of times!

Expression of the Week

Here's an interesting way to describe the print media such as newspapers: "the dead tree press".

I have seen this used in the blogosphere, as the old-style media are increasingly shown to be largely out of touch and lacking in reporting "bite", particularly when it comes to Labour (and similarly leftie) activities. Say what you like, it is certainly descriptive on at least two levels!

It does seem that much (most?) of the print medium, along with much of the broadcast media, has become less valuable and, indeed, less even-handed in recent years, and they will be the only ones to suffer as more and more of the buying public become disillusioned with what they publish, finding it seriously lacking in important respects.

Fortunately -- for their sakes -- there are still a few still-useful newspapers around, such as the London Evening Standard (which has always had a tremendous reputation), although the broadcast media seem to have very little to commend them these days. Hopefully that will change someday soon, as they really are needed. If not, no doubt a suitable term will be coined to describe them as well, for example "the wasted electrons media"...

Meanwhile, the political blogosphere in this country continues to grow apace and attract new regular readers and commenters (and I include myself in this group). It now has a reputation -- despite what some (e.g. David Blunkett MP) might prefer us to believe, as reported HERE -- for broader, generally enlightened and more honest commentary than the traditional media have tended to provide in recent years, on the whole.

I believe this to be a healthy thing, as it will compel any less-than-honest media chief to clean up his/her act or (ultimately) face the prospect of going under. We don't need a Soviet-style Pravda domination of the media in this country, and the modern blog-culture is our best weapon to defeat any such attempt -- just as previous changes in the world have enabled other bad institutions to be taken down.

As with so much of this kind of practice, it takes time to reach the point when decisive action can be taken, or when the natural forces of the market produce the same result. We just need the patience to await that moment, and the perseverance and dedication to show the world at large that there is now a good, honest reporting medium out here, that doesn't hide or play down anything inconvenient to particular factions.

In short, the new medium is far more the people's own medium than the mogul-dominated previous generation media forms. With more informed comment and reporting comes more informed decision-making by the people of our nation -- and that obviously includes election times. Thus we shall be able to take back our nation far more strongly and convincingly when we all really know what is going on, and in full.

That will be a much better time for this country!

Humbug!

Here were links to some "must watch" seasonal videos based on characters we here in Medway all know well. UPDATE: As they have now been taken down, I have removed the links to them.

First up had been Gordo the MacBroon as Scrooge.

Next came Cllr Mrs Teresa Murray, referred to by me just yesterday HERE, as (presumably) Mrs Scrooge.

Finally we had a group of four Conservative Councillors as elves.

I didn't know who created these, as the two Medway-based ones were notified to me only via an anonymous email (which later turned out to be Alan Collins). They certainly worked well, though, apart from Cllr Rodney Chambers's elf, which looked a bit odd...

New Festive Drink!

In the interests of curbing drink-driving incidents during the Festive Season, mice pies -- oops! -- I mean "my spies" have reported the following (Hmm... I must have mince pies on the brain!)

A new Government-produced beer, the "Bottler Brown" -- pictured at the right -- has been launched today!

Not only will this bring in much-needed revenue to help plug the ever-increasing Brown Hole (like a Black Hole but it sucks up only money), it is also of "zero strength" (see label) so is perfectly safe for drivers to drink.

Now, how's that for a well-timed announcement?

Between Two Stools

The unsurprising news that Councillor Mrs Teresa Murray has been selected as Labour's candidate to fight to retain the Rochester and Strood parliamentary seat leaves me in two opposing frames of mind.

This seat, by the way, is the new name (and changed shape) for what has been known as Medway, and which the Conservatives came very close to taking from Labour in the 2005 General Election. With the boundary changes, which take a chunk of Labour voters out of the constituency and replace them by a host of Conservative voters in my ward, this seat seems destined to come over to the Conservatives -- and rightly so!

Gillingham and Rainham will in all probability do the same, though Chatham and Aylesford (who have had the exact reverse effect from the boundary changes -- importing Labour voters while losing my ward to Rochester and Strood) will be a much tougher nut to crack. They are lucky in having the excellent Tracey Crouch as their Conservative candidate, so we could yet make it a hat-trick.

Okay, so what's the dilemma over Rochester & Strood?

Well, if -- as expected -- we take this seat, justice will have been served and we should have a really good Member of Parliament. Not that Bob Marshall-Andrews was all that bad, actually, but he was still in the "wrong" party, and is going anyway -- hence Teresa Murray standing there.

The downside is that we shall still have to put up with Cllr Mrs Murray on Medway Council -- one of the nastiest and most malevolent and self-serving people I have ever met in my life -- and that would obviously not be good for Medway. In particular, that has been one of the reasons why Labour are (as I wrote only yesterday) the "incredible shrinking party" on Medway, the only party group to consistently lose share of the seats since Medway Unitary came into being around ten years ago.

Bad councillors turn the voting public away from them (and this is despite superficial signs such as personal election results!) especially when truths come to public notice and can no longer credibly be denied. I've seen this happen a few times, and Labour members have lost their seats as a result.

What Medway Council needs (and I've said this before) is a better quality of opposition, and we'll never really get that while the likes of Mrs Murray are still on the Council. Therefore I'd much rather be rid of her.

The ideal answer would have been for her to have been selected for a different seat -- say, a safe Labour seat elsewhere in the country. My sources tell me this is what Paul Clark (Gillingham) will be doing, rather than suffer the humiliation of a defeat here.

So, you see my problem: in the new scenario, after this announcement of candidature, what will be the better outcome in Rochester and Strood at the next General Election? I have a third possibility in mind, but am keeping that under my hat for now...

Flattery Will Get You...

True to form, it'll get you nowhere with me!

Interestingly, and rather surprisingly, one of our excellent new members (i.e. elected in May 2007) came up to me at a recent meeting of the Conservative Group on Medway Council, and said something to the effect: "I'm surprised you're not married, handsome young fellow like you!"

After I'd put him in touch with a good optician(!) I explained that, owing to a hormone deficiency, I have no interest in any kind of "pairing" and never really have had any such interest. I also fully realised that, especially visually, I have no appeal anyway. Indeed, when I moved into this house, with its fitted mirror-fronted wardrobes, I had learned not to sit up in bed in the mornings in order not to give myself a fright. No, I sit up sideways, thus avoiding this potential shock.

I have also matured sufficiently to accept who I am, including my age. I am well aware that there are those fellows who like to pretend that they are younger and more appealing than they really are, making fools of themselves in the process. Some even stoop so low as to hire the favours of certain young females who are desperate for money (usually drug addicts who patrol particular streets in the evenings) to flatter their egos. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I cannot understand any of this, and take great personal delight in having spent just about my entire life completely outside of this silly game. Once my party colleague gets his new specs, I'm sure he will then agree with me that it is the best way for me to be!

The Incredible Shrinking Party

...is Labour -- at least in Medway. They always lose seats, at every election, and even in between! Even when the number of councillors on Medway Council was reduced from 80 to just 55, they still lost some of their share of the votes, and of the seats.

The graph on the right shows the proportion of seats that each party (or any independents) has/have held after each Local Election since Medway Unitary Authority came into existence about a decade ago. The trends are unmistakable!

Why it this, and why is it so marked and consistent?

The answer is simple. No-one really likes Labour or trusts them, and most of their vote is obtained through scare tactics. Without a number of "dirty tricks" during last May's election campaign, it is likely that there would be only 11 Labour councillors now, at most, and possibly as few as just nine. Incidentally, it was only the ward boundary changes (which were based on Labour proposals, apart from on the peninsula, that they deliberately tweaked to aid their electoral prospects -- hence the somewhat odd boundaries in places!) that saved them from dropping more significantly in 2003, so don't be fooled by the apparent "levelling-off" at that time -- it didn't last anyway!

This is not the time to rehearse the numerous reasons why Labour are so hated here in Medway, although most of it is fairly obvious anyway. Today's lesson is to see just how the various political parties' situations have moved over this past decade. We can leave detailed analysis for another time, once this core message has fully sunk in.

Only Optimists can make a Positive Difference

I was reminded again at the last meeting of the full elected Medway Council, and since then from letters in the local newspapers, just how much negativity there is around this wonderful area of ours.

We have the whingers and the whiners, the mockers and the knockers. In the Council Chamber, earlier this year I likened the three opposition leaders (well, there were two Independents back then, of whom one was nominally their "leader"!) to Victor Meldrew, Albert Steptoe and Marvin the Paranoid Android.

These three rarely had or even now have anything positive or constructive to offer, so I wonder what the point is of having them on the Council? All they seem able to do is run-down anything we (as the Administration) are trying to do. I do of course realise that this is just simple party politics: as the Deputy Labour Leader said, not so long ago: "We are the opposition. Our job is to oppose."

Is that it? To try to bring everything to a halt, to return to the stagnation of the Labour years on (mainly) the predecessor council? Further stagnation and decay? They've had a go at everything from Dickens World to the Tour de France, from the Innovation Centre (because it doesn't mean the closure of Rochester Airport, which the opposition all wanted to scrap) to attempts to save four of our area's Post Office counters from being closed. There are more, and all of these have occurred during just this year, by the way.

I don't think that's what the people of Medway would want, whether living, working or studying here, or visiting as tourists or simply passing through. If any do, they're in the wrong place, because -- as my last post showed -- Medway is definitely going places right now, and will continue to do so.

Note again the title of this piece, and you can see that the opposition parties and those who think like them can never achieve any genuine benefit to our area as a whole or to our communities, unless they suddenly change their tune drastically. The way most of them have behaved, in the years I have been on the Council, has been to do little more that look for ways to do down anything and everything that we have proposed. In the case of the Labour Group, this has often been the complete opposite of the approach their Ministers in Whitehall have taken. Those Ministers are pleased to work with us, not against us, and have congratulated us many times, on occasion in writing.

They clearly realise, as do we, that only optimists like us can make a positive difference -- and of course, we already are and have been doing so for the last half-dozen years or so. We are the ones with both the vision and the determination to make that vision a reality. No wonder at successive local elections, ever since Medway Council was formed, the opposition groups have been shrinking (Labour now has only a third the number of seats they held back in 1997) and the Conservatives keep growing in number, and with higher turnouts.

Whatever you might read elsewhere, it is clear that the people of Medway like and trust us far more than they do any of the other options, and they know we'll do a good job for them! They don't want to be dragged down to the same level as the opposition naysayers.

Hardly surprising though: after all, who would you rather have on your local Council: Victor Meldrew or, say, someone like Alan Titchmarsh (happy, forward-looking, working and achieving)? Obvious, really; and at least we don't have Mr Bean...

Fasten Your Seat Belts!

"It's going to be a bumpy ride -- to the other side!"

Yes, but well worth the effort; and in years to come, we shall probably all look back at even the Chatham two-way system and the controversy over the flyover and think: "what was all the fuss about?"

I've seen it happen before, in other places...

And when you've seen that video, try this one:



And, just for the sheer joy of its fifty seconds' duration:



As always when dealing with a big issue that had been allowed to drift for years, it will take time to come to full fruition -- but it is coming!

On a separate but equally exciting project, about Medway's plans regarding the 2012 Olympics:



And this is an animation to show how the Black Lion will be transformed stage by stage into Medway Park:



So, after all that lot, let no-one but no-one try to claim that things aren't happening, or that they aren't worthwhile, as I have seen in some places.

Medway is a great place to be!

I'm so Pleased I Moved out of London!

Ever since the Greater London Authority (GLA) was set up, and run by "Red Ken" Livingstone, I have had the greatest concerns about where London -- and all this extra money being levied by the GLA -- would end up really going.

Well, we now have a good idea where some of it has gone -- possibly twice! Follow this link and read the story yourself. It will shock you.

[Latest news HERE]

At least it shows that the mainstream media can still serve a useful purpose, and that they aren't all entirely in NuLabour's back pocket, which is the strong impression they have broadly been giving over the last several years.

From my own point of view, I am so very pleased that I no longer live in a place that has any GLA/LDA influence or involvement, though my father and stepmother are still in London -- but have recently been seriously considering moving well outside the region!

Gateway to the South

No, not Bal-ham, for those readers old enough to remember Peter Sellers' well-known sketch on his 1960s record "The Best of Sellers"!

This gateway is the Thames Gateway, a large chunk of land including Medway. This is where so much of John Prescott's cram-'em-in housing in south-east England was always intended to go, and is the real reason why in recent years there has been no shortage of capital investment into this entire area.

This is not to be confused with revenue funding, which pays for many council services and is still woefully short of what is needed to do a proper job in places such as ours. These capital projects are funded by one-off or phased payments, strictly specified for the stated purpose and thoroughly audited to make sure that is where the money has gone. It will be taken back if not!

Possibly the most interesting facet of the Gateway regeneration funding is, although all Local Authorities and/or their partners have received large amounts of capital funding, only we in Medway were in fact delivering anything. We were -- and still are to a great extent -- way ahead of anyone else in the region.

Okay, we have had for several years a well-established track record for delivering projects on-time and on-budget, ever since the Conservatives took over running Medway Council and got things moving after a period of stagnation. The real secret here, though, is that we are running the show ourselves, whereas some other areas are farming it out to other organisations, in some cases setting up brand new outfits -- which seems to be taking forever in itself, before any actual work begins.

While others debate the whichness of the why, setting up management structures, we are steadily getting on with the job, as can readily be seen at locations such as Chatham Maritime (where the latest addition is the first of Medway's five new hotels, recently opened) and Rochester Riverside, where the land has been prepared and a so-called "preferred developer" identified. The land is now settling before building can commence.

The stagnation and decay I noticed in Chatham Town Centre when I moved here, is now starting to change, with its own regeneration plans on the go at last. These are set to include a wide range of new projects including a large theatre that (unlike the Central Theatre or the Brook) will be capable of putting on the most elaborate productions.

One advantage of our being so far ahead in the game is that we shall establish Medway as the place to be, and that will be well established by the time anyone else has caught up in their area.

I'd say the future's bright: the future is Medway!

Council Funding

It is now well known that the straw (no, not Jack Straw!) has finally broken the Medway camel's back, and we can no longer carry the extra burdens imposed upon us in the wake of years of deliberate underfunding by central Government to the tune of tens of millions of pounds every year. Oh, we'll still bring in a balanced budget -- we always do -- but at what cost to services?

What is less well known is the sheer extent of this underfunding, so we have been conducting research, from official published sources.

We now have a table (from no less an outfit than CIPFA) showing facts and figures on funding, population, and Council Tax for English councils this year. These make for very interesting reading!

For example, Leicester City received funding of £546.12 per head of population, whereas Medway received just £283.88 -- we get barely half as much per capita. If we were to be funded on the same basis as Leicester, we'd have an additional £65,849,000 Formula Grant per year!

Not that we need that much: a third of that amount would suffice as we are a very lean and efficient council, thus saving taxpayer's money -- as we in Medway tend to do very strongly, and our independent External Auditors consistently agree (and I have their reports on file to prove it!)


Indeed, it is in subsidising inefficient Labour-run councils to a degree that means they receive a far higher share (in those regions) of GDP than any other EU or OECD country, as follows (published in "The Times" a couple of months ago):

• 70.5% (Northern Ireland)
• 64.3% (Wales)
• 63.0% (North East)
• 55.6% (Scotland)
• 54.0% (North West)

By contrast we in the South East get just 32% of GDP -- well below even the national average of 44.1%, let alone the north and Scotland etc. Even the East Region gets more than 38%, and the South West over 42%.

Thus, not only the Medway-specific extreme case, but the regional disparities, become clear. We can with absolute certainty lay the blame for Medway's situation at the Government's door -- there is no other cause behind the budget problems we are experiencing and will continue to experience all the while this corrupt funding system remains in place. Using Britain's people as mere pawns in a self-serving party political game is surely unacceptable to any decent person; but that is exactly what is being done by the Labour Government.

Local Labour councillors claim that this difference is because of "need" and "deprivation" elsewhere in the country. The sheer size of the disparity makes this a nonsense: there might be a tweak here and there, but not a two-to-one ratio. Indeed, within the detail of the settlement (within which much is camouflaged!) there is a five-to-one ratio between the lowest and highest-funded ends of the spectrum. Guess who is at the low end? Yup, it's us!

It's all a nonsense anyway, as Medway has no fewer than 29 neighbourhoods falling within the worst-off 25% (bottom quartile, to use the jargon) in the country; and this is from the Government's own data in their Multiple Index of Deprivation.

This leads us to the reason for the sheer scale of difficulties, which stems almost entirely from the ever-increasing costs of what are termed demand-led services, such as many of the the services we provide for children (especially those in our care) and for adult social care. These can never be fully anticipated, but have rocketed in the last handful of years in particular. People are living longer, but need more care and over a longer period. Thus there are more adults in this category every year as more enter the field than leave.

New legislation (pouring out of Whitehall, thanks to the army of Brown's Bureaucrats) places additional burdens on Local Authorities, as a stream of headline-grabbing wheezes-of-the-month add to costs, but are generally either unfunded or only partially-funded and for a short time (say, a year or two if we're lucky).

Unhelpfully, once something is no longer generating headlines for the Labour Government's benefit, either the scheme is dropped or re-invented and launched anew (with consequent costs to councils) or simply no longer funded, and thus the burden is transferred to Council Tax, which is the main reason why that tax has doubled nationally over the past decade. Any reasonably competent researcher should be able to uncover a whole string of these during the last ten years, independently, which would be far more telling than my publishing a long list of them here.

Even core funding such as for adult social care is actually being reduced, while (as indicated above) the demand is rising at a rate of knots. Who said Labour were supposedly the party of the needy? Only in their voting heartlands, it would appear! They clearly care nothing for our needy folk, here in Medway.

Curious...

...that there is absolutely nothing about Donor-gate or any other aspect of Downing-gate on the BBC news broadcasts or ticker today. While it is quite possible that there has been no news at all since any of this was last mentioned, it does seem odd, especially as it had been soft-pedalled throughout by the Beeb. It doesn't quite smell right, somehow.

With the BBC's new slant on the Nativity story now in the public arena, it is unfortunately looking as though dear old Auntie has fallen into very much unsafe hands...

The Judgment of the People

One of the never-ending tasks of local councils these days is to write documents (plans, frameworks, strategies, even sub-strategies) and then to tick boxes and provides statistics on just about everything you could think up that the council does. I am ploughing through a couple of these strategy documents today as it happens, in readiness for an upcoming Scrutiny Committee meeting...

On top of all that, there are perpetual inspections and audits, ratings, judgments and all the rest of it, all stemming from Whitehall in what is almost a frenzy of nose-poking-in activity by all and sundry.

Actually, some of this is useful up to a point, in particular the financial audits that, every year, show that my council manages its finances very well indeed, and provides value-for-money. Bearing in mind the entire set-up is slanted towards achieving good-looking results for Labour-run councils (and, because it didn't, by and large, has been tweaked every couple of years to try to "fix" this!), our results are perhaps surprisingly good.

Or perhaps not so surprising: after all, there is a limit to what one can wangle when dealing with hard facts whose validity has to be able to be sold to the public at large. Therefore the truth will out anyway.

We are stuck with this imposed system, so are able to do little more than waste large amounts of taxpayers' money on doing all the non-productive work that these tasks entail. We also have to pay the auditors and inspectors from Council Tax money for their end of the work -- the audits and inspections themselves.

Interestingly, some ten years ago this amounted to just £30,837 for that entire year, which isn't a great deal. Nowadays, though, the annual cost is over £340,000 (I have on file a table of our audit fees, and our inspection costs, for each of the past ten years, so can quote chapter and verse on this). That's half a percent of all Council Tax raised, and doesn't include all the staff time, nor materials and other overheads, which are probably at least as much again. We have far better uses for that money!

Far more importantly to some of us, though, is what our residents think. Although Residents Opinion Polls can never be a hundred percent conclusive, and will certainly never produce a completely favourable result, it is gratifying that satisfaction ratings have been on an upward trend for years. They have also allowed us to see where particular attention needs to be paid.

Now that relatively inexpensive annual exercise is, I believe, of far greater value than all this Soviet-style inspection and figure-collecting that is so reminiscent of how the former USSR operated. Remember that? Well, it's been creeping in here in Britain for the last decade.

Now perhaps any previously puzzled readers of what I have written elsewhere in the past -- and shall continue to write here -- will realise at least part of the reason why I am so keen to get rid of this evil Government. It is obvious where we are headed -- and it ain't good news for any of us. The matters I have raised here are just symptoms of a far greater malaise, but they do give us some vital clues as to attitude and to who is really being served.

As Britain continues to slide ever downward, it's clear that it certainly isn't the wider public interest that's being served by any of this!

Oh, and for the ultimate judgment by the people who are directly affected by what the council does -- the people of Medway -- we have an election here every four years. It is worth noting that at every election after Medway Unitary Authority came into being, the proportion of Conservative Councillors has increased, while Labour's numbers fall every time. The LibDems remain in third place. Turnout increased considerably at the last of these elections, earlier this year, and Conservatives now hold fully 60% of the seats on the Council (33 of the 55 total) -- the highest proportion ever, and more than two-and-a-half times as many as the second party (Labour).

Now that's what I call the people's judgment!

Campaigning on the ground -- and in the air!

The original reason that I stood for election to the local Council was because I effectively ran the campaign to save Rochester Airport from closure and concreting-over.

At that time (August 1999 onward) Medway Council was run by a minority Labour administration in collaboration with the LibDem Group on the Council.

They had between them wangled a last-minute addition to the Medway Local Plan (an official document designating various sites for specific purposes) that would mean the closure of this famous small airport, and its (largely grassed/planted) land to be turned into what would most likely have been a "crinkly shed" distribution complex. No end of HGVs would have been bunging-up nearby roads, if that had gone ahead, and the oxygen-producing plant life would have gone.

This airport also has significant historical and strategic importance, so it was never a very sensible idea to close it, especially bearing in mind the "holes" in navigation cover within the region since several other small airfields had already been closed.

This site is close to a motorway (the M2), and pollution from the M2 has made nearby areas the official most polluted parts of the south east of England. We need the oxygen, and we therefore need the "green lung" -- all of it, including the airport!

It will come as no surprise that this idea of closure did not go down well with local residents -- by the thousands(!) -- and I, as the then secretary of an adjacent estate's Residents Association, ended up co-ordinating the campaign to save Rochester Airport. I gave up my weekday employment so that I could be available to residents, organisations, the media, local councillors and officers, which paid off.

This issue became really big; and we did indeed manage to save the airport from closure, and it is still operating today!

What made the difference was the information and assistance I and the other campaign leaders received from local Conservative Councillors. After it was all over, I was somewhat astonished when one of them suggested that I stand for election in the forthcoming polls in May 2000.

Well, I'd never been a member of the Conservative Party; and the LibDems had held our ward (then called Horsted) fairly solidly for nine years. It would take a huge swing to dislodge even one of them.

Eventually I was persuaded (much to my own surprise!) so stood with another "new recruit", and we took the two seats via -- yes -- a huge swing! And that, folks, is how I ended up here.

Medway Has No Deprivation

It's official -- from Medway's Labour Group. There is no deprivation in Medway. Well, that's news to me!

It was at the last meeting of the full Medway Council that this year's budget situation was raised, and official figures quoted showing how Medway received so much less per head of population than other areas of the country (which is how Government funding of Local Authorities is decided -- the infamous "Barnett Formula") that we are tens of millions of pounds short every year.

Figures quoted at the meeting from official Government sources showed that, if Medway were dealt with on the same basis as these other (generally northern Labour) councils, it would make a difference of up to £60 million per annum. In fact, information now in from CIPFA shows this as just over £65 million. It gets worse by the month!

As I said at the Council meeting: I hadn't realised just how vast the gap was, and it was no wonder that we were now struggling so hard against more-or-less impossible odds.

However, the Labour finance spokesman claimed that the difference was down to Medway not having any deprived areas: there is a part of this funding formula that gives extra funding to such areas.

Really? Tell that to residents in, say, Strood, and even those in your own ward (Twydall), Councillor Griffiths! They aren't in need of any extra support, then? Not according to you!

It is little wonder that, with attitudes like this, most Medway residents no longer really want any Labour representation on the Council. They know the truth, and it isn't what Labour are trying to persuade the electorate. If the Labour Group continue to so misrepresent and sell short the people in their own and other wards, this "Incredible Shrinking Party" (to borrow a movie title) will simply wipe itself out.

The Labour presence on Medway Council has gone down at every election since the Unitary's creation (and even between elections) from 39 members in 1997 to 25 in 2000, 17 in 2003, 16 when Cllr Chishti crossed the floor to our side, and earlier this year reduced still further to just 13 members.

Unless local Labour members buck up their ideas in short order, and start fighting the dishonest funding regime that deprives Medway of huge amounts of funding, they will be perceived even more than they already are as out of touch and merely tame "pawns" of their national Party -- no use whatsoever to the communities of Medway, and they will be thrown out of office in three years or so from now.

The ball is now in their court: will they have what it takes to face up to reality, and -- just for once -- fight for Medway, its residents and communities, rather than merely their own personal and party ends? I doubt it, but perhaps I shall be proved wrong...

Once Upon A Time...

...In a Local Authority area, far, far away...

...There was a Trade Union that dominated that Authority's Staff Side.

That Union not only dominated the Staff Side of all negotiations with the Authority's management (including elected Members of the Council, by the way) so the other Unions were effectively silenced (and thus failed to represent their memberships) but was able to get away with self-serving practices that worked against the interests of the staff but for the personal and political interests of that Union representative.

In the case in question, that representative was not only able to be paid a full-time salary for a job that individual did not do at all (not even one day a year!) but was also able to gain personal "perks" at public expense (including a car) that went with the job that person did not do at all.

The same person, it was discovered, had advised ethnic minority staff members whose conduct was being reviewed to stay away from the consequent hearings.

At the time, the reason for this was unknown (and the advice was clearly disadvantageous to the staff members concerned, as they could not defend themselves at the hearings) but it later became clear: the union rep' had been planning to make a claim that the Local Authority had a "racist" policy, and by advising those staff members to stay away from the hearings, it was known that the Local Authority would have no option but to sack them.

Even if the union rep' had been ignorant the first time, and had made a genuine mistake, this would not have happened a second time. Now that a third case has gone the same way, there is no other possible explanation: the staff members were being deliberately sacrificed in order to pursue this individual's personal agenda. Thus three of the council's staff have now lost their jobs entirely and exclusively because of this!

Similarly, the same person had blocked out-of-hours payments to certain categories of staff which were part of a batch of such payment arrangements, but then tried to claim it was the Local Authority who had withheld those payments (for two years, no less!)

Again, this was then the subject of an attack upon that Authority by the same Union rep' -- but, unfortunately for him, the records all show exactly what had really happened in both this case and the others mentioned above.

The Union rep's only protection was that such staff-related matters could not be put into the public domain: thus that person was able to hide behind that ostensibly very sensible provision, but thus abusing that privileged position in dealing with such matters.

There is plenty more, including that this individual's behaviour has been so bad as to result in being banned from attending the Union's own Conferences (so it isn't the Union itself that is at fault) and a senior member of that Union now accompanies the rep' to the negotiating meetings mentioned at the beginning of this article, to try to keep that person in line (which has been only partially successful).

Thus we see how such positions can be abused. I am lucky in that I still have a number of very good sources around, able to quote (and back up) chapter-and-verse -- though in order to protect them I obviously cannot disclose which Local Authority it is upon which I am reporting here.

I just hope that people here will learn from what is being reliably reported, and will not fall into the trap of trusting what (in the above cases in particular) are fairly obviously excessive claims by Trade Unions in the public sector in particular, when a little sensible thought should ring alarm bells in the mind of anyone with even just a little sense.

Hopefully nothing anywhere near as downright sinister as what has been reported in this article could ever happen here in Medway...

Donor-gate

This is the name now given to the ongoing stream of donation irregularities coming to public attention in respect of monies given to the Labour Party. Oh, the journos have got their investigative teeth into this one now! Despite the best efforts of Labour MPs and Ministers, and their "good buddies" in much of the mainstream media to keep this down (including various diversionary tactics), there is no way this is going to be left alone now!

To some extent, this saga is being driven by the "blogosphere" -- the on-line weblog ('blog) sites that nowadays form such an important alternative source of information, news and informed (and sometimes not so informed!) opinion, especially political news and opinions. Often one or more of these sites will turn up something either missed or deliberately ignored by the traditional media, and they can certainly beat those media, being more-or-less immediate.

For example, the Wendy Alexander letter to a Jersey-based donor first appeared in public on Guido Fawkes' weblog. It is also known that there have been knuckle-raps for news teams who have failed to get particular stories that first broke in the blogosphere. They really will need to sharpen-up their acts -- and drop their biases -- if they are going to survive in the new world that is being increasingly dominated by on-line news sources.

Already a survey last month has indicated that a quarter of the population now read 'blog sites, though my feeling is that this figure is on the high side. Even so, it shows that the tide is turning that way, and this trend will inevitably continue, increasingly marginalising the old-fashioned media year on year.

As far as the revelations themselves are concerned, well, all parties can (and probably do) have dark secrets regarding money in particular. Even so, "cash for questions" -- ruthlessly pursued at the time by a largely left-wing press -- which was just a couple of individual members misbehaving, seems far less serious that what appears to have been an institutionalised "cash for honours" set-up. The present disclosures are if anything more serious still.

I strongly suspect that, in practice, we shall never be able to clean up politics completely -- just as almost any other field of human activity you could mention probably isn't and never has been perfect in this respect.

What is needed is not only the appropriate response from the authorities (including the police where necessary) and for the same level of punishment to be meted out to transgressors as would be the case with anyone else committing similar acts. Possibly the strongest line of comment on the current succession of stories in that the "perps" come away apparently scot-free -- and I have read a lot of such messages over the last few days, on various 'blogs!

Yes, there is usually a scapegoat who will be sacrificed in order to protect those in real power. The public are not fooled by any of this, though, and are becoming increasingly vocal (if that's the right word for what is mostly written!) now that such public platforms are so easily accessible. Even the radio and TV companies -- and even some newspapers -- now have their own 'blog-style on-line comment areas, including the recently-started Telegraph "ThreeLineWhip". If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, eh?

This will help those media survive a while longer, and -- who knows? -- perhaps some of them will adapt fully, and we can then enjoy a higher standard of reporting with less bias and certainly less in the way of cover-up and diversion.

Whichever way it all goes, I believe it will, of necessity, result in improvements. Like the collapse of the Soviet Union, the changes we are seeing today are a one-way street -- there can be no way back now.

Standards of Behaviour

Another item first posted on Strood Conservatives...


We are all aware of the decline in behavioural standards in society in general, ever since the reduction in disincentives to crime and other behaviour issues during (mostly) the past ten years. Society was not perfect before then, and some aspects have improved since, albeit only slightly. As usual, it is not a black-and-white story.

However, what I wish to address today is the standard of conduct of elected representatives -- councillors like me -- who should be setting examples for others in society to feel they can follow themselves. Although (being completely open about this!) I doubt whether many if any of us are what could be considered perfect, hand on heart, a lot of us really do try hard to behave well even under trying conditions. Being human, we can occasionally slip up, but I think that anyone with a reasonable outlook would understand when that happens, knowing the circumstances.

What is far more important, though, is when certain members on our local Council (always from one political group, I have noticed!) deliberately behave badly -- sometimes extremely badly, in fact -- just to get their own way and pursue their own personal agendas. There are a few who flagrantly disregard not only decent standards of self-conduct, but go against the Code of Conduct up to which they have signed.

Recently this had become so bad that the council's Standards Committee called in the leaders of all political groups on Medway Council to hammer the point home, citing specific examples of inadequate standards by all the opposition groups at various times during the past season or two. The ruling group seems to come out of that meeting unscathed, by the way...

This has been a worthwhile exercise, affording my group the opportunity to remind continuing offenders that they are effectively on probation, and can be dealt with if they fail to shape up to the standards that the public have a right to expect from their elected representatives.

Away from the obvious public glare of meetings of the full Council, certain opposition members continue to act in at least as bad a way as before, disrespecting the meeting's chairman, behaving exactly as they choose and brazenly stating that they "will do as they please" (more than once, I have personally witnessed from one such member on separate dates!), playing on the generous nature of the meeting's chairman and hugely abusing the privilege.

They stand only for themselves and all they can get for themselves out of twisting any situation to their own advantage. They are so low that they could easily pass under a snake's belly -- and they are often more slimy than any snake is generally perceived to be (though snakes are not slimy, by the way!) Perhaps the contemporary term "slimeball" is appropriate in their case.

Such "slimeball" individuals are not fit to be on the Council!

It is my intention to have the council's Constitution amended to ensure that any member behaving thus is given one (and one only!) severe personal warning. On repetition of the offence, that member would then be permanently banned from all committees for life, including substituting for absent members (which could otherwise easily be "engineered" to give that person a back door way onto the committee). It would be even better if the ban could be extended to ever being allowed to stand for any public office -- but I suspect that might be beyond immediate reach.

Personally, I will not tolerate having our office brought into disrepute. Many of strive so very hard to ensure that we at least maintain the highest possible standards in an arena that is popularly mistrusted because of the bad actions of a few, and the mischievous representations of a lot of good stuff negatively by those with their own agendas. Plausible the latter might well be at times (though usually obvious to the thinking types!) but honest? No!

I've seen far too much from the "inside track" to be fooled very easily, and I have made a practice of bringing inconvertible rock-solid facts (that anyone can easily check independently) to debates -- which usually takes the wind out of those slimeballs' sails. I did this only last evening, on three separate counts (including the matter of respect for other members of the committee), and it did contain them to a fair extent.

It shouldn't have been necessary for me to do so, of course; but when one is dealing with slimeballs, needs must. Fortunately, the council's Head of Democratic Services witnessed all that happened, and I have a strong feeling that we are far from hearing the last of this...

The Old Guard

I shall start by re-posting my 'blog posts from the Strood Conservatives site. Here's one of them...


Many of the problems we have with opposition groups on Medway Council (and I'm sure it must be much the same elsewhere in the country) is that they are stuck in the past. This is especially true of long-standing (or should that be "long-sitting"?) Labour members of the Council.

They tend to be the most reactionary, opposed to just about everything -- including, funnily enough, much of what their own Government is proposing, for which we get compliments from Ministers for implementing well!

I could quote numerous instances of this attitude (I occasionally mention one or more on my own website) which has over the years been largely responsible for delays to projects that would have benefitted Medway residents -- but that would be an exercise in itself, there have been so many!

More significantly, however, I see signs of a different, better outlook from the occasional younger new member coming in. We saw this freshness in Councillor Chishti four years ago (I remember this very well!) though he has come over to the Conservative benches since that time, and I see the same -- though in a slightly different way -- with Councillor Vince Maple, who has impressed me greatly.

Now, I don't want him to join our side: it would be much healthier for local democracy in Medway if he can start to bring the Labour Group into the twenty-first century, and also show by example how a better attitude can be more effective than the miserable and negative demeanour of his party colleagues.

The voting public don't like what they find in many of Medway's Labour candidates at election times, which is why even long-established councillors keep getting voted out of office, and the size of the Labour Group on the council shrinks at every election. From 39 members when Medway Unitary Authority was coming into being ten years ago, down to 25, then 17, then 16 (when Reh Chishti came over to our side) and now just 13. They are wiping themselves out, and it will take new members with a healthier manner to lift them out of the doldrums.

While Labour must never again come anywhere near a position in which they might run the council, even in coalition with another party group, they certainly shouldn't vanish completely. That would be the wrong outcome.

I just hope that Cllr Maple will be able to turn his group around, so that they at least become a more credible opposition. If anyone is going to do it, I believe he is the only one capable of such a feat. Some of the old guard will never change, of course, and they need to be supplanted at the next local elections here in Medway, due to be held in May 2011. The council would be more productive with a better class of main opposition, and if that means sorting the wheat from the chaff at Labour's candidate selection then so be it!

Incidentally, in my group we do tend to keep up to date, and those who are unable to do so (or for some other reason aren't really up to the task) tend to stand down at election time, so we at least are self-regulating, which is a bonus. Since this past May's elections we have had the strongest team I have ever encountered here. Perhaps a knock-on effect of this, and of that election's results that reduced the Labour presence still further, will wake up that group sufficiently that they will buck up their ideas, and soon. They now have someone on the inside who could make it happen...

Go to it, Vince, my boy!

Well, here it is!

Yup, here at last: my first own 'blogsite post.

I have been contributing to several excellent 'blogs in recent months, including Alan Collins, Strood Conservatives, Iain Dale, and Guido Fawkes. I have also been writing a monthly column I call John's Jottings on my own Councillor website, which is just my own political comment based on experiences in and out of the Council Chamber here in Medway.

Anyone reading this before I really get going with blogging here might like to check out some of these links in the meantime. There is a lot of good material on every one of them (well, I can't really say that about my own site, of course, though it is quite popular locally).