Carl Minns - Thoughts from Hull

Quote of the day (redux) chocolate and taxes - Dick Puddlecote edition

2012-01-27T18:55:00.001Z

This morning I tempted fate by writing my quote of the day before 8:00 saying......

Very early I know but can't see anything topping this from Stuart Wheatcroft from Liberal Youth that appeared in my Facebook feed just now

"Nick Clegg sets out his determination to push forward with tax cuts for struggling families. Ed Miliband attacks David Cameron for breaking his promise to make chocolate cost more. Says it all really"

Well, not one to resist a challenge ( I know you come here regularly) Mr Puddlecote of Puddlecote towers comes in with a late winner....

Statisticians would punch you in the face if you suggested they waste their time calculating the risk of death from 30p off a fucking Chocolate Orange from WH Smith's,

Quite

Milliband: Tough on chocolate oranges. Tough on the causes of chocolate oranges

2012-01-27T08:41:00.003Z

I don’t do fisking but I really can’t help myself here. From the BBC

Ed Miliband has attacked David Cameron for failing to stop the sale of cut-price Chocolate Oranges - something the PM complained about in opposition.

What? Really? You have an interview and this is what you chose to complain about?

In 2006, Mr Cameron criticised WH Smith for discounting chocolate rather than fruit despite the UK's obesity crisis.But the Labour leader told The House magazine the situation had not changed. "If he can't sort out the chocolate orange, he's not going to sort out the train companies, the energy companies, the banks, is he?" Mr Miliband said.

Please tell me you didn’t say that. The only way to do this is to have a chocolate orange tax. Does Ed really want a chocolate orange tax? Does he really think not having a chocolate orange tax is why the country is in a mess? Maybe he does. Who knows?

Mr Cameron complained in a speech while in opposition about "irresponsible" marketing techniques by shops."Try and buy a newspaper at the train station and, as you queue to pay, you're surrounded, you're inundated by cut-price offers for giant chocolate bars," he said.

And? I travel on trains every week. I see the offers. I ignore them. Its not hard really. I also ignore the Daily Torygrapgh deals too.

"As Britain faces an obesity crisis, why does WH Smith promote half-price chocolate oranges at its checkouts instead of real oranges?"

urrm I don’t know. Maybe because WH Smith do not sell fruit and veg and it’s a newsagents.

Mr Miliband said the fact such items were still on sale - and cheaply - six years on spoke volumes about the prime minister. "And you know, I think it's very interesting that David Cameron's example of responsible capitalism was the chocolate orange. He's failed to sort it out, why? Because of his basic set of beliefs," he said.

"You know he believes in a nudge philosophy which seems to amount to just asking people to do nice things. But that isn't going to sort out the problem. You've got to change the rules."

Ed not only wants a chocolate orange tax. He wants to have tougher rules on chocolate oranges. I can…wait….yes.... there it is….a soundbite.......

Tough on chocolate oranges. Tough on the causes of chocolate oranges

In a wide-ranging interview, the Labour leader was also asked about Tony Blair's decision to axe the royal yacht Britannia - and whether he, like the former PM, now felt that had been the wrong move.

"I don't, no, agree. And I think if you are asking about the now, I don't think it's a priority for public money," he said.

A campaign for a new, privately funded yacht for the Diamond Jubilee is now under way, and Mr Miliband was asked whether he would be prepared to donate money.

He replied: "I'm not sure that... well, I don't know, if people come to me, I'll investigate. I think the main principle for me to apply is public money and how public money should be spent.

"I give money to charity in different ways. There are obviously lots of deserving causes."

If he can’t decide whether to give his own money to a cause he's not going to sort out the train companies, the energy companies, the banks, is he? Blah blah blah. Oh hold on. Ed was energy secretary he didn’t. Scratch that.

This whole article is very depressing. And some wonder why many MPs are now held in open contempt!

Quote of the day - taxes and chocolate edition

2012-01-27T07:37:00.001Z

Very early I know but can't see anything topping this from Stuart Wheatcroft from Liberal Youth that appeared in my Facebook feed just now

"Nick Clegg sets out his determination to push forward with tax cuts for struggling families. Ed Miliband attacks David Cameron for breaking his promise to make chocolate cost more. Says it all really"

I'm sure when the inevitable putsch happens Ed can open a shop with help from the new enterprise allowance scheme and charge what he likes for any product he wishes :)

Oh FFS. I give up

2012-01-26T18:15:00.001Z

No more please. I just can't take it any more

PHOTOGRAPHERS FACE COPYRIGHT THREAT AFTER SHOCK RULING (UPDATE 26 JAN INCLUDES PIC

Health reforms and the East Hull Labour memory hole

2012-01-25T17:34:00.003Z

After a lengthy twitter debate with Hull East MP Karl Turner over government health reforms I feel I have to ask the question.Does East Hull Labour Party have a memory wiping device? I ask, because both this MP, and his predecessor John Prescott seem to have forgotten previous Labour government policy.

For JP it was the reforms to NHS direct that he seemed to forget were A) in the Labour manifesto and b) the cuts he was campaigning against we're in the last Labour budgets.

For Karl, I'll give a bit of leeway as he wasn't a Labour MP at the time but he rather doesn't know or doesn't care that all primary care services in Hull could be outsourced this year thanks to........a decision taken back in 2007 when Hull West MP Alan Johnson was was the health secretary and his then Parliamentary agent was chair of the local PCT.

In short all primary care in Hull was hived off to a social enterprise three years ago. This contract is up this year and if they are not providing value for money full competition kicks in.....I'm sure if this happens Karl will be quick to condemn wicked Labour privatisation

Karl's response when I asked him about this was to keep typing NHS great under Labour, wicked Tories and asking to debate any other topic but this one. It was the Twitter equivalent of putting fingers in your ears and going lalalalalalalalalalal I can't hear you so this doesn't exist. Bless

As for my view on the health reforms they are a curates egg

Just about everyone backs post office changes....except Ed

2012-01-25T08:17:00.004Z

The last Labour government, to put it kindly, did not have the greatest record on post offices with over 7000 of them (38%) closing on their watch. Anyhoo the press association reports.

"The Government has secured the future of the Post Office under a 10-year deal giving certainty to postmasters, ministers have announced."

Announcing the deal. Lib Dem post office Minister said

"Concerns people had about the Post Office becoming independent from Royal Mail were always misplaced as that separation is part of our cure, but the 10-year deal struck between Royal Mail and the Post Office will give sub-postmasters and others greater confidence. Coupled with winning new contracts and the successful pilots of new operating models, the signs are extremely encouraging for the future of the Post Office."

Moya Greene, Royal Mail Group's chief executive is happy.....

"I am delighted with this agreement. It provides a firm foundation for the Post Office's long-term, sustainable future and ensures Royal Mail's customers continue to get access to postal services in Post Office branches nationwide, the UK's biggest retail network."

Paula Vennells, managing director of Post Office Ltd is happy.....

"This is a good agreement for the Post Office, for the millions of customers a day who visit our branches and for our sub-postmasters. We are the number one mails retailer in the UK and postal business accounts for a third of our income. A long-term relationship with Royal Mail ensures we continue to provide the unrivalled access and great customer service in mails and parcels services, which individuals and business customers want from the Post Office."

And the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) general secretary George Thomson is happy....

"Sub-postmasters will welcome the security which this news brings, which will help provide them with the confidence necessary to invest in their businesses for the future.

"The NFSP has been calling for a minimum 10-year inter-business agreement since plans for Royal Mail privatisation and the separation of the two companies were announced, and we have worked tirelessly to achieve it. Without this deal, sub-postmasters would have faced even greater difficulties in running their businesses and continuing to provide vital services to their communities."

Ed Balls will not be happy. He told the Unions last year that he will....

"fight against the Con-Dem plans, which endanger this vital and popular public service."

After being part of a government that closed almost 40% of the network you've got to admit making that statement takes some brass neck.

Prescott for police chief

2012-01-22T17:44:00.002Z

Back in May 2010 I posed the question. With police chiefs on the way is this the future?

With the Guardian now reporting JP may stand for Humbersides police Chief This seems a little less funny

Health n safety n football

2012-01-21T20:30:00.001Z

Anthony Vickers has posted a cracking article on well, just about everything wrong with football. From nannying stewards to overbearing policing via ticketing policy, safe standing and the perils/joy of standing n the wrong end. It's all here in an absolute cracking article. Well worth a read

Here is a little teaser....

For the health and safety overlords anything out of the ordinary that is not predictable and that creates unusual or heightened atmospheres and volatility is bad! Bad! Bad!

The grey men who licence the game - at all clubs, not just Sunderland - believe passion is the problem. They want you to sit down, shut up, clap when prompted by Pavlovian music and be passively fed a soulless "matchday experience" in a stifling emotional void then file out quietly packing the debris of your club crested generic burger, popcorn and cola-style drink with you.

Ed finds out about Tom Harris' downfall ( downfall parody number 1065894)

2012-01-17T07:59:00.002Z

It was inevitable.......

Stop sterilisation of trans people in Sweden

2012-01-16T20:29:00.001Z

This just came into my possession. Apparently Sweden forcibly sterilises transgender people. WTF, Just WTF. I'm not a big one for slacktivism but I think I'll make an exception for this

Critics of Tom Harris need to get a life, a sense of proportion and a sense of humour

2012-01-16T19:29:00.001Z

Granted, this is not one of the best versions of the seemingly ever present (and quite frankly past it's time) meme. It is also not one of the great contributions to political discourse, is quite infantile and,frankly, is beneath the holder of the office of MP to be playing these games.

That said, do we really want to live in a society where MPs lose jobs for using a very popular internet meme to get a message across?

Oh, and while I'm talking about this, if anyone out there seriously thinks that Tom Harris really believes Alex Salmond Is Europe's next , they need to get a life, a sense of proportion and a sense of humour

Don't vote for him.....he speaks French

2012-01-14T12:12:00.003Z

Sometimes I dispair at the quality of political discourse and sometimes I read things like this and come close to wanting to just end it all!!

This reminds me if the time we had a candidate who was a published academic in her early to mid thirties and Labour sent around a letter asking the public if they wanted "another young, educated female councillor." ( as opposed to the tired, old ex trades unionist incumbent) the public said yes please and promptly removed him for the young educated female.

Everyone apologises for everything

2012-01-11T20:41:00.000Z

Out of the mouths of babes ans satirists........

Everyone apologises for everything

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ed Miliband

2012-01-10T12:17:00.003Z

Very light blogging at the moment as i've started some new work so happy new year and enjoy some satire ( I think) at its very best :)

http://saveed.org/Society_for_the_Prevention_of_Cruelty_to_Ed_Miliband/The_tragedy.html

The government makes the case AGAINST minimum alcohol pricing

2011-12-30T10:13:00.002Z

I've just got around to reading the Spectator which contains this gem from Andrew Lansley

'....My problem with a minimum price, well I have two problems. One is it’s regressive, so there are perfectly normal families who just don’t happen to have much money who like to buy cheap beer or cheap wine. Should they be prevented? No, I don't think so and if you put in a minimum price, one of the journalists calculated that if you set it at 50p a unit it would add £600 million to the profits of retailers and drinks manufacturers which doesn’t seem to me to be the right thing to do in these circumstances.'

I couldn't put it better myself

Well I suppose I could add its illegal under EU law, pour money into the hands of criminal gangs through industrial scale smuggling and will do nothing to 'solve' binge drinking while it's described as having three pints in a night

are you prepared?

2011-12-24T16:32:00.002Z

Some last minute advice from me, via the brilliant Garfunkel and Oates, to you. Enjoy, and, happy Christmas y'all.

Doctors orders....go tell your wife/girlfriend she's fat

2011-12-21T13:27:00.003Z

Quote of the year from my good friend James Baker.

Doctor on the radio today giving his expert opinion to blokes to tell their partner if she's fat and needs to exercise more and eat less. Here's my hard won expert opinion: DON'T.

This is why I bang on about drinking, smoking and eating

2011-12-17T08:14:00.002Z

Meanwhile, in the land of the free......Nanny bans cakes and pop at school Christmas parties. From CBS Boston

Students are being told to leave the Christmas cookies, cakes, candy bars, and soda at home and to bring fruits, unsweetened juices, popcorn and raisins instead.

But it's ok because the Superintendent in charge of the school district is there to reassure us

“We aren’t trying to take the Christmas out of Christmas. We’re not trying to take the enjoyment out of children’s lives

Yes you are. And the scary thing is you don't even realise your doing it!

I like old pearls of wisdom. Those little phrases and the like contain more truths than we sometimes give them credit for. Take the old adage give them an inch and they'll take a mile and you see the relevance of this wisdom in this area. It could almost have been written for the militant healthist lobby.

This is why I spend a lot of time on this blog going on about smoking bans, drinking and eating. It's because it is becoming increasingly obvious that these militant healthists can't help themselves and just can't stop. And they won't stop because in their minds they are doing it for the greater good. They are doing it because if you like a smoke, want to drink more than a couple of glasses of wine in a night or like nothing more than the smell of bacon in the morning they think you cant be trusted to make decisions for yourself. They think your weak willed and have no mind of your own. And, in short they always think the answer is to control you, bully you are restrict access to these goods for your own good.

And so, this is where (either passively or proactively) encouraging and supporting these people leads. It starts out with ever tightening rules and regulations on smoking, drinking and eating but ends with some po faced, power crazed, jumped up petty bureaucrat banning cakes and sweets at a kids christmas party.

Is this the sort of society we really want?

H/t dick puddlecote

£2m cannabis factory found in council unit

2011-12-16T08:56:00.002Z

Well, I suppose that's one way to deal with a financial shortfall :-) story here

Met police inspector harasses a 15 your old photographer telling him photography is silly, gay, stupid and anti social behaviour

2011-12-13T09:05:00.002Z

Then, as is often the case the police inspector bandies around 'anti terror' legislation because he's "had enough." I've come to the conclusion that until officers start losing their jobs over this sort of harassment nothing will change. The story really speaks for itself. Read on here

Is Cameron just a patsy?

2011-12-11T07:01:00.002Z

The fallout from the European summit has really fascinated me. On one hand everyone is playing their parts in the same old way. Many Tories, many right of centre bloggers and papers are jubilant. Many Lib Dems and left of centre papers are angry and as for Labour, i'm not sure. They seem to be attacking Cameron for the outcome whilst not committing themselves to saying what they would do in this situation.

I want to ask a simple question that goes to the heart of all this kerfuffle. What exactly has Cameron vetoed? When you cut through all of the noise (and my, is there a lot) you find there is no treaty to veto, nothing has been tabled and nothing of substance has been agreed. There has been an agreement to negotiate a treaty by March. So again, and cutting through all the noise, the choice made by Cameron was not to veto anything but to decide not to play a part in these discussions.

In one respect Cameron may be right (sorry my Lib Dem friends) to say now that Britain is not prepared to spend the next four months negotiating on a treaty. In this scenario if the starting point for the talks was so far away from British interests (or he just couldn't sell it to Parliament without breaking his party) that a veto of the treaty March would be inevitable then it would be far better to say so now. To wield the veto at the end of the process would cause utter chaos in the Euro zone and the financial markets.

On the other hand, however, should we not have stayed in there and negotiated to protect the UK's national interest? This seems to be the Nick Clegg line this morning that Cameron should have played for more time so we could carry on talking. Clearly the worry is what the other nations will agree between themselves whilst we are not in the room and how this will effect the UK and its economy

The problem to a non ideologue like me is that I don't know if Cameron has made the right call or not. We have had wall to wall coverage on TV, radio, internet and papers but I can't find any concrete evidence of what exactly was on the table on Thursday night / Friday morning. You would have thought it would be fairly easy to access but its not out there ( links in the comments would be most appreciated) and until we see this how can we say whether Cameron is right or not.

My instinct is that Merkozy is setting Cameron up to be a patsy here. My hunch is that the starting point for the negotiations would have been so incendiary that if Cameron to start talking from this position he would have been lynched when he got back on these shores. He probably tried to negotiate more acceptable terms for starting the treaty talks but to no avail and Merkozy didn't want to help him. My hunch is that Merkozy have gotten what exactly what they wanted - A process story to divert attention from the lack of immediate action to shore up the Euro

From Friday onwards all across Europe people are talking about Cameron, vetos, perfidious Albion, the UK leaving Europe, isolation etc etc and whilst they are doing this no one seems to be asking the key question. Take away the process story and what, if anything, has been agreed to shore up the Euro?

The broad brush agreement amongst the Euro zone countries seems to revolve around a new treaty at a European level which incorporates changes to member states constitutions around financial management and balanced budgets. Given some countries will have to hold referenda this will not be a quick and easy process and the outcome will be full of uncertainty. And as this uncertainty reigns €1 trillion worth of debt comes up for renewal in the next six months. Once the financial markets realise that nothing of substance has changed in the Euro zone this renewal will happen whilst interest rates are too high.

If it plays out like this we could be looking at potential insolvency of countries and more stress for the Euro. They will also have a ready made patsy in Cameron to blame for the failure to rescue the Euro

The final word should go to that font of all political wisdom - Yes Minister. If Sir Humphrey was around today he would class the result of Thursday as a complete failure of our foreign policy

Minister, Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last 500 years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Germans and Italians. Divide and rule, you see. Why should we change now, when it's worked so well? - Yes minister, the writing on the wall

Whatever your views, thoughts and feelings regarding this issue one thing is certain. This is just the latest act in a drama that will rumble on into next year but with that €1 trillion of debt maturing we will know the real outcome of this summit all too soon!

********update**********

Just Seen Douglas Alexander talking about this on Marr and i'm still not clear on what Labour would have done

********further update********

And then Nick Clegg pops up on Marr and suggests the row over the UK could be a sideshow from the real issue of the Euro....thanks for the endorsement of my conclusions Nick :-)

Our data is not the governments to give away

2011-12-05T16:26:00.002Z

The database state is back in the news today with Cameron's announcement of closer collaboration between the NHS and medical research companies. First off I am not a Luddite, and there are a lot of good ideas in the proposals but I am not happy with my NHS records being given to third parties without my consent. This is our personal data and as such not the governments to give away or sell.

We are also being told not to worry because the data will be anonymised. This is, of course, nonsense, what can be encrypted can be decrypted. There are plenty of studies out there as to how anonymised data can be cracked. Here is an up to date one from wired

There is also a larger issue here which goes to the heart of the relationship between citizen and state. With presumed consent the government is essentially saying that our bodies, our medical history and our data is theirs to do with as they please unless we send them a letter. This is just wrong. It is ours! The state should always be compelled to seek our permission before sharing or selling our data, doubly so when we are talking about our medical records.

Socrates: Doctor, philosopher, rebel, drinker, smoker, footballer.....

2011-12-04T13:40:00.002Z

LEGEND!

H/T @untypicalboro

The world turned upside down: Now the Adam Smith Institute calls for the ECB to print money

2011-12-04T07:34:00.002Z

Yesterday I jokingly tweeted

I'm confused.Middlesbrough are meant to concede goals in the final minutes not score them.The cosmos is now out if alignment & dark days loom

(football reference!)

To further prove the end of days is upon us. The Adam Smith Institute is calling for the ECB to print money. When even the Adam Smith Institute is calling for the printing presses to start roling it's time to sit up and take notice!

Labour Deputy Lord Mayor to sue community group

2011-11-30T16:07:00.002Z

So, this has just popped up on my Twitter feed

RT @CalendarNews: The Deputy Lord Mayor of Sheffield is suing a local tenants association after a chair he was sitting on collapsed at a community festival.

This is exactly the sort of behaviour that is making Councils and community groups risk averse and why they put seemingly random rules in he way. Its also why insurance costs for many events are becoming ridiculous. I would have thought someone in a high civic position would show a bit of leadership, eschew the ambulance chasers and do what most of us do in these circumstances - laugh it off!

*According to Sheffield Councils website the Deputy Lord Mayor is John Campbell, councillor for Richmond ward. I hope he's suitably ashamed of his actions.

The good, the bad & the ugly

2011-11-30T07:56:00.002Z

All immediate reactions to the autumn statement were as I predicted yesterday and, as I also predicted, the statement was a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly

The good

The highest cash increase in pensions ever. This is a direct result of the pensions lock that will see pensions rise by 2.5%, earnings or inflation - whichever is higher

The bankers levy will be increased in January.

Forecasts that inflation will start to fall next year. This will not only mean pensioners will get a real terms increase it will also help hard pressed families

Massive infrastructure investment - I'm particularly happy about the Humber bridge tolls

Business rate holiday relief for small firms extended to April 2013

Januaries 3p rise in dual duty cancelled

Confirmation the government will continue to take more low paid out workers out of income tax altogether.

The bad

Although I welcome the extra infrastructure investment I am still unsure about the funding of it. In short Osbourne has persuaded pension funds to invest in the schemes. I still can't find any detail of rates of return the funds will be getting and how this is different to at other mechanism for off balance sheet borrowing - PFI

Although forecast to fall, inflation is way too high

Total public sector job losses to be 700,000

Although the economy is forecast to grow, growth forecasts are revised down

The ugly

£111bn of extra borrowing over five years. Public debt still forecast to rise to £1.3 trillion by 2015

And the seemingly bizarre

I'm sure there is a reason behind this but why is the South West getting a £50 cut to their water bills?

Anyhoo. Lots more good bad and ugly out there and how you classify some of it will depend on your politics and your particular views on economics. The BBC has a handy bullet point guide here

Quote of the day

2011-11-29T18:01:00.002Z

So, this wasn't exactly said today but in recognition of the anniversary of CS Lewis' birthday enjoy

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals- CS Lewis

Now, if only some politicians would read and absorb this

A quick prediction for reaction to the Autumn statement

2011-11-29T09:53:00.002Z

Within an hour of George Osbourne sitting down government loyalists, soft right / Liberal think tanks and some business organisations will praise / cautiously welcome the statement today. The unions, Eds Balls & Milliband, left leaning think tanks and some right wing and libertarian types will denounce the statement.

Like all statements the smart move would be to wait and see the small print before pronouncing its success or failure as a statement and package of measures. But, alas, with 24 hour rolling news and blogs looking for instant comment a more thoughtful approach to looking at these statements will never happen.

If you want my two penny's worth my thinking is that like many complex statements ( and there is nothing more complex at the moment than what boy George has to do today) it will contain some of the good, the bad and the ugly and as such the statement and immediate reactions should be taken with a pinch of salt until people see the small print. Only then will we know how good / bad it really is

Tax cuts would be a better, and quicker, way to stimulate the economy

2011-11-28T20:57:00.001Z

As I type I am moving into my 45th minute on my journey from Bradford to Leeds do I know more investment is needed in the UK's infrastructure. If the government can persuade pension funds to invest in this way for a return then all well and good. Pensioners get a return and I get a better train service. Win - win. My one concern is that this seems like tens of billions of off balance sheet borrowing that may come back to haunt the country and although I hate to agree with anything Ed Balls says I too will await the detail ( especially the rate the government will be paying these funds) before jumping for joy.

What does concern me is that reports say the government will also redirect £5bn of expenditure to fund some infrastructure projects as well. Its not that I mind this expenditure - taken together this will be a massive investment in the countries infrastructure. The problem is none of this will help the country out of an economic slowdown. Why? Well, for the simple reason that it takes years for major infrastructure projects to get up and running in this country so by the time we see the employment benefits of these projects the economy should be experiencing an upturn in its fortunes. We certainly won't see much work on the ground in the next 12-18 months.

The problem is the here and now and we need to get money circulating around the economy. This means using the £5bn George is going to earmark and put it into the pockets of low paid workers through tax cuts. Why low paid? Simple really. Middle and upper earners will probably save any extra cash or pay down debt. Low paid workers, by contrast, are more likely to spend any extra windfall on essentials down the high street. We also need to make it easier to take on employees - especially, given the massive meets figures, the young.

In a nutshell I would advance the plans to raise the income tax threshold by another 1k to December 1st and in addition ramp it up to as close as 10k as possible. This will not only help the low paid it will also help local retailers and the retail sector in general. In addition, George should go further than the announcement made by Nick Clegg last week on youth unemployment and give employers a National Insurance holiday for employers who take on apprentices or long term trainees that will lead to a recognised national qualification

Anyhoo, for those who care I am finishing this post in Leeds station 1 hour 5 minutes after I left Bradford.

BMA retracts smoking in cars "evidence"

2011-11-17T18:32:00.005Z

Now that the smoking in cars media circus is moving on the BMA has quietly withdrawn their "evidence" to ban smoking in cars. Thanks to a lack of any credible journalism around this yesterday it's now job done as the statistic will be well and truly in the public consciousness. Chris Snowdon has the full story

Smoking in cars. Is the BMA misleading you or just lying?

2011-11-16T06:39:00.002Z

So, I turn on my radio ( today programme) this morning to hear the BMA calling for a ban on smoking in cars (whether there is someone else present or not) citing research showing that the level of toxins present are 23 times higher than a smokey bar.

I then turn on my PC and within minutes I find an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal from April last year entitled second hand smoke in cars how did the "23 times more toxic" myth become fact. It's only a three page article and well worth a read but if you can't this sums up the article

In a subsequent exhaustive search of the relevant literature, we failed to locate any scientific source for this comparison. Given that the issue of banning smoking in cars is gaining traction internationally, use of this media-friendly tobacco control “fact” presents potential problems of credibility. In this paper, we describe how a local media report of an unsourced statistic led to the same statistic being widely reported in the international media and peer review literature

I have given up on journalists doing any research on press releases of this sort but if I can stumble across this paper in a matter of minutes you would think the well resourced BBC could find it. But what about the BMA? At best they are guilty of misleading you by pushing myths as fact. At worst they are out and out lying to the public. Either way it is not acceptable.

H/T Dick Puddlecote

Baroness gives a two fingered salute in the Lords

2011-11-15T10:56:00.004Z

Proof, if further proof was needed to you don't refer to a Lady as 'looking old'

Given she worked in Naval intelligence her response was probably a little restrained :-)

H/T Demitri Seirlis

A sad day for democratic principles

2011-11-14T07:23:00.006Z

I want to ask you how you would feel in the following scenario.

This week David Cameron announces he and his government has lost the confidence of the markets and he has tendered his resignation to the Queen. I know many left leaning readers of this blog would probably replicate the scenes we have just seen in Italy, but lets carry on the story.

At the same time David Cameron announces his resignation the Queen puts a senior figure from the London School of Economics (LSE) into the house of Lords so he can head a 'technical' government with elections likely in February. Once in place our newly ennobled Prime Minister announces he will fill his Cabinet with his mates from the university.

Still happy? Worried? Its ok its only a story, it could never happen in 21st century Europe.....could it?.......

Confirmation of the unelected Mr Monti's appointment came hours before financial markets opened this morning. Today's Independent

His government is expected to consist of experts from Milan’s Bocconi University, where he is president, but may also include politicians. Today's Daily Express

An elected Prime Minister goes and is replaced by a person who wasn't elected by the people (and wasn't even a member of either chamber of Italy's Parliament this time last week) to head a government that is likely to be stuffed full of unelected technocrats. Whatever you think of Berlusconi as a man and a politician he was elected and heads the largest party in the Italian Parliament. For his government to be replaced by a cabal of unelected bureaucrats should fill Liberals and Democrats of all colours with a deep sense of foreboding and outrage.

I have no brief for Berlusconi but over the last few days I have been gobsmacked by the collective shrug of the shoulders followed by a sense of smug satisfaction at what can only amount to a suspension of Parliamentary Democracy in the fourth largest economy in Europe. This is a sad day for democracy, the principle of a government that is elected by popular mandate should be inviolate - in fact you have to have one to be a member of the EU.

The fact that an unelected cabal is now running Italy should see people all across this continent feeling a cold chill running down their spines.

Police use Chief Wiggum tactics to catch suspects

2011-11-12T12:02:00.003Z

Remember the Simpsons episode where Chief Wiggum dupes Homer to the police station by saying he won raffle for a speedboat? If your not as geeky as me then probably not. Its in the episode Lisa the skeptic

Anyhoo, it looks like Derbyshire police have been inspired by our favourite yellow family and pulled off the same sting but using the lure of free beer. You couldn't make it up, you really couldn't. If you fancy a laugh read on...

H/T the angry exile

Look who's back

2011-11-12T09:08:00.002Z

With the announcement that Black Sabbath are going to reform and tour here is something to wake you up this Saturday morning - I wonder if you can use a free bus pass on tour buses?

Finally something to make us smile

2011-11-10T18:02:00.004Z

With so much doom and gloom in the news its nice of the Australians to work so hard to cheer us up :-)

Australia crash to their lowest Test total in 109 years as wickets tumble on day two of first Test in South Africa

*snigger*

Councillor censured for not censoring comments

2011-11-10T13:24:00.003Z

East Riding Tory Councillor Paul Robinson has found himself in hot water with his standards committee for comments made on his blog....and by comments I don't mean his posts but comments left on his blog by third parties in the comments section. The complaint was made by his Labour opponent in the last elections

According to the Hull Daily Mail the following comments were left on his blog

One described Mike Whitley – a political rival of the Howdenshire councillor – as an “absolute idiot”.
The other referred to American writer Mark Twain’s descriptions of troublemakers being stripped, tarred and feathered before being ridden out of town.

Now these are not the most intellectual contributions to political debate in our area but for the East Riding standards committee to reprimand Cllr Robinson for failing to treat others with respect and bringing the East Riding Council into disrepute beggars belief. The standards committee regime has regularly been used to stifle debate and to shut councillors up but now it seems it is not good enough to self censor you have to censor the comments of the public too.

This is also a truly dangerous precedent. If councillors are going to be censured for comments made by others on their blog then will the same apply in public meetings and in other public and semi public forums?

I have no doubt that there will be some in Paul's own party and beyond it who will be displaying some schadenfreude over this incident but surely the correct response would be to rally around and try to protect free speech. If your in public office then next time it could be you. If your not in public office then the door has just been opened for spineless ( or censorious) councillors to shut you up because they (the councillor) may get into trouble. This is not a situation that should be allowed to stand

This reminds me of the time I was investigated by the Standards board for England for deliberately orchestrating a campaign regarding a planning application but at least the complaint against me was aimed at my actions ( My defence, its my job!)

Paul has written a full response in his blog and it is well worth a read but his headline sums up this whole sorry situation

A sad day for bloggers, a sad day for freedom of speech, and a sad day for democracy

The moral of the story: Greece

2011-11-04T07:30:00.002Z

When you have high debt, historical deficits and no solid plans to reduce both don't be surprised if your creditors demand a say in how you put your house in order

Or in the words of the good book

those who borrow are slaves of moneylenders.

top six political punch ups

2011-11-01T18:22:00.002Z

After last weeks little punch up in the Italian Parliament The New Statesman is carrying a list of top parliamentary punch ups. Sort of puts PMQs into perspective!

You can see them here

A question and oh. Penny for the guy

2011-10-30T18:16:00.001Z

If you are under a certain age (25? 30?) you probably won't have a clue what I'm writing about here but in the dim and distant past there was quite a large custom of guying. Basically a group of kids would make a guy and then, not to put too finer point on it, beg for money outside of shops calling out "penny for the guy." it was a nice little earner for the kids who did it. The guy was then ritually burned around a bonfire (can't remember the last time I saw this too)

This is not a standard rant about the decline of good old traditional English customs and the steady Americanisation of our culture. I'll leave that to others. I want to pose a question about the warnings/rumours I heard growing up. They basically warned us not to dress the smallest kid up as a guy instead of making our own because last year someone did this and a gang of older boys kicked/stabbed/burned the little kid to death.

So. I pose the question. Does anyone actually know of this actually happening? Anyone have any similar warnings from their childhood? I'm just curious

Now that's what I call a come back!

2011-10-28T13:41:00.002+01:00

US Senators to Baseball - Ban players using tobacco

Baseball to US Senators - When you ban legislators having extra marital affairs.

You can read the story from the American Spectator here

H/T freedom to choose

The wonder of breasts

2011-10-27T20:32:00.001+01:00

Proof positive that you don't have to be serious to promote serious subjects. Sometimes humour is the best way to promote a cause!

Welcome to the pub a van

2011-10-27T09:24:00.002+01:00

What do you mean it's a spoof. Cracking idea!

When fiction becomes fact

2011-10-26T18:35:00.001+01:00

So, today Angela Merkel has warned peace could be at risk as a result of the economic crisis spreading through the Euro zone. Has anyone over the last few weeks noticed an erie parallel with the opening chapters of Cauldron, a Larry Bond book from the early 90s

I'm not seriously suggesting war in Europe could happen, I'll leave that to Angela, but I wonder if Mr Bond is planning to update his book by replacing Eastern Europe with the South.

Shameless plug

2011-10-25T18:16:00.001+01:00

As regular readers will know one of my pastimes/ sidelines / obsessions is photography. Yesterday I started a daily photoblog over at carlminns.tumblr.com feel free to visit, comment and, of course, promote :-)

Ed is wrong about export led growth

2011-10-23T12:33:00.001+01:00

MilliEd just poured scorn on the hopes of an export led recovery just now on the politics show. His line of argument was you need growth for that to happen. It would be interesting to see his views on last weeks BBC report that said

The UK's trade deficit narrowed in August as the export of goods hit a record high.

Over to you Ed.......

I give up ( Also entitled shoot chain pub managers)

2011-10-21T20:51:00.003+01:00

Doing a job in London today which always means a few crafty beers around Kings Cross before jumping on the train to civilisation (AKA the North) anyhoo, I overheard the following in t'pub.

Customer (suited professional) :4 snakebites and black please mate
Barman: sorry mate we can't do that.
Customer: Why?
Barman: it's company policy
Customer: what? That's crazy, can I speak to your manager?
Manager: Can I help
Customer: I would like 4 snakebites and black please
Manager: sorry we don't serve that, company policy.
Customer (grinning) can I have 4 half's of larger and black 4 half's of cider and 4 empty pint glasses please.
Manager: ok.

I give up, I really do

Update. On reflection, the headline is probably a tad harsh!

Further update. In other words please don't shoot pubco managers but if you can find a decent landlord/lady to replace them then feel free :-)

Remember to vote yes Ed

2011-10-17T08:03:00.005+01:00

In the wake of all the kerfuffle around Liam Fox, Ed & his mates are demanding a register of lobbyists. Is this the same Ed Milliband who voted against a Lobbying register or the same party as 'Cab for hire' Byers?

Thanks to the Lib Dems a lobbying register is planned to be implemented. Maybe this time Ed will remember to vote yes!

The artwork is not mine but Lib Dem member Paul Wild's

Not often I promote a Tory but.....

2011-10-14T08:56:00.003+01:00

Paul Robinson is a Tory Councillor on the East Riding Council who, in a former life, was a development worker in West Africa. Using this knowledge, and the fact he represents a rural seat, he has written an interesting post on his own blog regarding fair trade, freed trade and local sourcing. Well worth taking a couple of minutes out of your life to read

Oh well, that is that deed done and a few more lefty friends drift away from me :-)

The right place at the right time

2011-10-12T08:10:00.002+01:00

There is a fascinating story on the BBC website Regarding Clare Hollingworth turning 100. She is the British journalist who reported the beginning of World War II amost by accent as she just happened to be making a trip across the border from Poland to Germany in August 1939.

It goes to show that a lot of success in life can depend on having the knack of being in the right place at the right time. You could almost say it is a prerequisite for success!

Smoking makes films less profitable

2011-10-11T07:58:00.002+01:00

The latest in my series of posts that I should tag as correlation does not mean causation comes from across the pond. Hard line anti smoking activist Stanton Glantz has done some 'research' that shows films that include scenes of smoking are less popular and make less money than non smoking films. Or as he puts it.....

"Putting smoking in the film isn't leading to more popular films that make more money," Glantz says. It's leading to less popular films that make less money." As to why films with smoking make fewer dollars, Glantz says he is uncertain, but he adds it might be part of a collection of edgy behaviors in a film that don’t appeal to audiences as much as movie studios expect.

OMG! This is just ludicrous, and if I hadn't read some if his stuff before I would think this is satire. Does he really think that people go looking for reviews that tell them if smoking is in a film before they choose to go to the pictures? Actually, does he really think real people give a damn whether there is smoking in a film or not?

You have got to hand it to him though. He is good for a laugh.

You can read the article in scientific American here

Dads picture of daughter sparks terror dispute

2011-10-10T18:04:00.005+01:00

You all know the story by now. Someone pulls out a camera and photographs their daughter. Security come over tell him to delete photos. Farther gets annoyed, daughter starts crying and plod turn up. Plod start throwing around terror laws and try to (unlawfully) bully him into deleting photos by threatening to confiscate his camera.

I can't even get angry any more. This whole situation is just bloody depressing!

If you want to read the full story here it is

H/T @

update. You can read an hilarious take on this from news thump

Want to party around a war memorial?

2011-10-09T18:32:00.001+01:00

Want to party around a war memorial that is lined with the names of dead merchant seamen. Well now you can, thanks to Tower Hamlets Council and specialist events organisers Moving Venue.

Tower Hamlets Council claim they can't stop this happening because objecting to a party around a war memorial on the grounds that it is a desecration of their memory and only scum would party in such a place are not valid objections under the Licensing act. Whilst this may be true ( I never did licensing so I don't know) the Council is the landowner and they can not allow it on those grounds.

There is a piece on the RFA association website asking people to write to the Council. As a former (if short lived) resident of those parts I ask readers to lend a hand.

I just can't believe anyone would actually think this is a good idea. Scum, pure scum!

Gay marriage, the state and sex with ducks

2011-10-08T19:24:00.001+01:00

In today's Telegraph Charles Moore poses the following question to supporters of equal rights to marriage

So if you say that marriage should, in fact, be differently defined, you are saying something very big and bold. The onus of proof should surely not be on those who justify the status quo, but on you. You must show that you are right and that everyone else, for thousands of years, has been wrong.

How about this Mr Moore. If two consenting adults wish to publically declare their love for each other and make lifelong commitment to each other then good luck to them. Its none of my business or yours and there is no good reason for the state to interfere in their decision. Not one. Full stop!

Still, at least he doesn't use the argument that this approach would lead to people marrying animals - which gives me an excuse to show this. Enjoy

And I'm going to sign for Man Utd.....

2011-10-07T09:15:00.002+01:00

CARLOS Tevez could finally be on his way out of Manchester City — in a shock loan move to lowly Doncaster Rovers.

It's in The Sun so it must be true!

After the stunt Tevez pulled Doncaster is too good for him. If I was Mancini I'd let him rot in the reserves or send him to play for an obscure club in the moon of Endor league.

Fat taxes are regressive, illiberal and don't work

2011-10-05T20:30:00.002+01:00

According to reports that are all over today's media Cameron will not rule out a 'fat tax' for this country. I must admit this is a truly inspired idea. Millions of people are out of work and millions more are struggling as household bills rise so Cameron contemplates raising taxes on staples such as meat, cheese, milk and butter. If he goes ahead with this he will no doubt be cheered on by the usual suspects from left and right before being told he must tax more products that people disapprove of and raise the 'fat tax' further.

Fat taxes are regressive as well as a further illiberal intrusion by the state into lifestyle choices. On top of this they do not work. A study published in the forum for health economics and policy said

In an attempt to improve the nation's health, many U.S. policy makers have or are considering imposing taxes on the fat in food. Dairy products constitute a large portion of at home fat consumption of particularly harmful types of fat, and nearly all U.S. households consume these products. We estimate a demand system for dairy products, which we use to simulate substitution effects among dairy products and the welfare impacts of fat taxes on various consumer groups. We find that even a 10 percent ad valorem tax on the percentage of fat would reduce fat consumption by less than a percentage point. Given that the demand for most dairy products is inelastic, a fat tax is an effective means to raise revenue. However, these fat taxes are unattractive because they are extremely regressive, and the elderly and poor suffer much greater welfare losses from the taxes than do younger and richer consumers.

Food types do not make people fat by themselves. Eating too much does. I'm a bit of a porker at the moment and I know the way to stop being a fat lad is to eat less and/or exercise more. ( If you've seen me huffing and puffing around Hull now you know why.) What I don't need, and what struggling families certainly don't need, is more taxes that will directly raise the cost of living.

Anyhoo, I have one advantage a lot of you don't have. Forget booze (or tab) cruises. I'll be organising cheese cruises to the continent if this comes to pass!

Update. A good piece on the tactics that will be used is up over at Liberal Vision

Is your employer spying on your personal life?

2011-10-03T21:02:00.001+01:00

A quite remarkable e mail has just popped into my linkedin account headlined...

Employee Issues? Suspected Employee Disloyalty.

It was from a firm of private investigators offering their services to spy on employees who are suspected of breach of contract or who are taking a firm to tribunal. And they finish with a flourish......

In addition to the above, we can undertake pre-employment screening or report on the “lifestyle” of an employee you may have concerns about. We have a team of surveillance specialists who can report the movements of individuals and undertake the relevant undercover work or surveillance needed to provide you with the evidence of any wrongdoing. We use state of the art cameras which include night vision facilities, covert vehicle tracking, body worn cameras and audio/visual bugs. In summary, we have the ability to capture and prove a person’s behaviour.

The survailence state gone mad. Horrifying. Truly horrifying!

Dr Who season 6 finale

2011-10-02T11:41:00.002+01:00

Since it's come back in 2005 I have really enjoyed Dr Who. Although it's different from old who in as much as I don't see the show as science fiction but much more fantasy based fiction. ( although there are clear science fiction motifs) it is, in my humble opinion, excellent. Dr Who has been responsible for some of the best TV in the last 6 years and some of the writing is first rate

The one thing that has consistently frustrated me has been the quality of the series endings. RTD was brilliant at the set up but, for me, couldn't seem to get the ball in the back if the net. The sound of the drums and Stolen Earth were excellent set ups but the way the finale wrapped up loose ends reality disappointed ( the TARDIS towing the Earth FFS)

Which brings me to last night. I Love Moffat's writing. My favourite episodes in new who cannon are probably blink and the girl in the fireplace. Last night he showed why he has been consistently the best writer in the new series. Although the season(s) arc was in danger of getting too complex most of the plot lines were wrapped up in a way that didn't rely upon some miraculous, unbelievable, intervention but good, simple, solid story telling -with a twist.

It was a visually stunning episode with some fantastic, lovely touches. Steam trains coming out of the Gherkin, the pyramids, cars on balloons, and the office in a train wow! Winston as a Roman emperor, scary looking aliens in suits ( a nod to men in black mythology?) and Pond as Bond, wowza! I also defy anyone who grew up with old who to say they didn't have a lump in their throat watching the lovely, touching, tribute to the Brigadier (Nicolas Courtney)

What I really liked about last night, and much of the last two series', is that watching the show (even the weaker episodes) is fun again because it does not take itself too seriously. You can see the crew really want to enjoy themselves and this comes across on the screen. I feel this has made much more of a link to my childhood days of watching Tom Baker, Pertwee and McCoy than RTD did. As a result I finished last nights episode with a big grin on my face.

I like the hints at the direction the show could now go in. A quieter, calmer doctor, who has to keep his head down because he his 'dead' opens up new possibilities and will probably take the show away from the excess of the last 6 years into more thoughtful territory. This, coupled with episodes such as rebel flesh, night terrors, the god complex and last nights skulls give me some hope that the show will move in the direction of the gothic / horror of the Baker years.

This season has renewed my childlike wonder in watching the doctor and just like the childhood me from days of yore I find myself wanting the next series to start NOW!

Floppy disks turn to the dark side

2011-09-30T08:08:00.001+01:00

I found this on Death Star PR this morning . Yes, there is such a website! Depending upon your point of view this will rather be impressive geekery or a pointless waste of time. To this who love a little bit of geekery enjoy

My two point plan to save the pub

2011-09-29T08:04:00.003+01:00

I'm spending a few days at my mothers which (amongst other things) enabled me to catch up with my oldest mate last night so we took advantage of the great weather to pop into a pub beer garden to have a pint or four. Now I know that makes us a wicked binge drinkers so I hope society will forgive us for our ways. Anyhoo, we started putting the world to rights and got onto pub closures. Westminster does seem to have woken up that this is a problem but they seem to be (mainly) ignoring the two big issues.

1. Cost. The price of a pint is just too bloody expensive and raising the price of off licence bought alcohol ( minimum pricing) is not the answer. If the price of a pint is expensive raising costs elsewhere will not change that. What it will encourage is more home brewing and booze cruises.

2. The smoking ban. Before I descend into anecdote there is clear correlation between the smoking ban and an increase in pub closures. My mate (who smokes) made the comment that. "It's alright when the weather is like this but when its the middle of winter I just cant be bothered" we also talked about the fact that before the ban in many social groups ( where tolerance exists) people would sit in smoking areas (where there existed) so their mates could have a fag with their pint. Also, my mother told me the smoking ban has helped close some pubs around here so it must be true.

There are people out there who are indifferent (or even welcome) to the plight of pubs so this post won't make a blind difference to them. But for those do want to help save the pub. Two steps that would make a huge difference would be to:

1. Lower the taxes on the price of a pint and
2. Amend the smoking ban so you can have well ventilated smoking rooms in pubs.

Taken together, these measures would be simple to implement, have an immediate effect and most importantly would work.

Its official: Labour stands for the producer interest

2011-09-27T18:24:00.001+01:00

Yes, I know. Nothing new in the headline it is such common knowledge that Labour stands for the producer interest that in a way this isn't news. What is interesting, however, is that Ed Milliband has now admitted as such in today's Leaders speech. According to total politics one of Eds 'well crafted lines' was the one that proclaimed Labour would stand up for producers not predators.

Like his favour the rich policy on tuition fees and authoritarian journalist register this will make good headlines and bad policy. I am a Liberal because I don't support the producer interest. If the state backs the producer interest it will create more predators not less. Its outcome would also lead to more monopoly power or monopoly like conditions. The people who suffer under this system are ordinary decent people. If Ed was serious about standing up for real people he should not be standing up for producer or predator he would stand up for customers, clients and the users of services.

Given Labour are now 85% bankrolled by the trades unions they really don't have much choice but to stand up for the producer interest and it is a nifty move to try and make a soundbite virtue of it. As for me I will stick to standing against the producer interest and for customers, clients and individuals.

Labour go back into their authoritarian comfort zone

2011-09-27T14:23:00.001+01:00

Today, Labour have announced a policy (yes another one they're on a roll) of licensing journalists so they can be 'struck off' for breaking the law. in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandals they clearly think this would be a populist move but I hope the cheerleaders for this policy stop and think for a moment.

Do we really, as a country, want to have a compulsory list of journalists with a state funded quango deciding whether they work or not? This may seem like a good idea in the aftermath of phone hacking but is downright dangerous and the powerful vested interests in our society must be rubbing their hands with glee. A lot of people may be annoyed at the antics of certain journalists at the moment but we forget at our peril that a free and open press (along with an independent Parliament) is the best guarantor of our freedoms

Also, on a practical level, the net would have to be cast very wide if Labour would want this to work. Obviously all print and broadcast journalists would be on the register but you will then have regulated news and unregulated news from bloggers, tweeters, community news letters etc. Before we know it 'to be fair' something would have to be done about news and comment from non professional sources of news such as bloggers. You then, in effect have a massive state bureaucracy registering and monitoring comment. I know this may seem a little bizarre but councillors have seen how this sort of system works with the standards board who also had the job of 'striking off' councillors.

This is more policy on the hoof and is classic new Labour. More laws and regulation would not have changed what happened in the phone hacking scandal and instead of ensuring existing laws are enforced properly Labour revert to type and propose creating more laws - and the more sinister and authoritarian the better! This policy would not look out of place in authoritarian states and shows that on fundamental freedoms and liberties Labour have just not learned.

Eds tuition fees policy redux ( or the dangers of policy by soundbite)

2011-09-26T17:37:00.002+01:00

It seems that I was a little hasty in commenting on Eds new tuition fees policy on Saturday evening as it has been unravelling faster than a cheap jumper

First out of the starting blocks was the NUS President Liam Burns, who said "If they think this is going to be a manifesto policy, then I'm sorry - this isn't going to win support of students,"

Then shadow business secretary John Denham announced this policy probably wouldn't be in the Labour manifesto anyway.

Finally, people start crunching the numbers and work out that this policy will only benefit people who earn over £35,000 per year.

What we have seen is a classic example of the dangers of policy by soundbite. In this instance it imploded within 24 hours. For a mornings worth of headlines Ed lost the high ground on this debate and even managed to wind up the NUS in the process. All for a policy that won't be in their manifesto and even if it was would only benefit the rich.

Not really the best of starts to a party conference!

Eds fiscal policy in full

2011-09-26T08:00:00.002+01:00

If you listen to Labour every cut the government makes should be opposed, stopped or amended. You would be forgiven for thinking that this is Labour policy but if you read today's Independent you will see

We won't reverse Coalition cuts, says Balls

So now we know. Labour's Fiscal policy is oppose everything but change nothing

Eds tuition fees rationale in full

2011-09-24T20:41:00.005+01:00

Talking to the Guardian Ed Milliband said

"We can't build a successful economy if our young people come out of university burdened down by £50,000 of debt," he said. "We can't build a successful economy if the kids from all backgrounds are put off going to university."

So instead Ed will saddle them with around £40Ks worth of financial commitments. That's ok then!

worst football miss ever

2011-09-24T14:52:00.001+01:00

No words......

More nonsense stats - more people die from obesity than malnutrition

2011-09-23T11:37:00.003+01:00

This post has been prompted by a friends comment on Facebook that more people die worldwide from Obesity than from malnutrition. Given he works in London I'm assuming he got it from metro This factoid passed my "that sounds like nonsense" test and the lack of statistics regarding global mortality from these conditions in this article further reinforced this. A quick scan of available data highlighted the following

>In 1970 37% of people in the developing world suffered from malnutrition.
>In 2009 that figure was 16% (and projected to fall further)
>Despite this, malnutrition is present in half of all child deaths - 5 million. (source. Hunger notes)
> According to the WHO around 2.8 million people a year die as a result of being overweight or obese.

What has also got the little grey matter turning is this. If you accept the premise that number of people suffering from malnutrition is falling, then logically it follows that the number of people dying from starvation will also fall. Although the figures do not show it yet, if current trends continue then problems with obesity will outstrip problems from starvation. Whist I personally find it wrong that people are still going hungry whilst there is a worldwide surplus of food, at some stage it will become inevitable that more people will die of complications from being overweight (a problem of affluence) than complications from malnutrition (a problem of poverty)

We are, however nowhere near the point where the problems of affluence are outstripping the problems of poverty. There is still a long way to go to tackle malnutrition and its principle cause - poverty. Efforts to tackle it still need to be advanced if we want to carry on reducing the number of people who suffer from malnutrition. Using dodgy statistics and trying to create moral panics on the back of them do nothing to help starving people and will do damage to the reputations to the organisations that peddle them.

Forget scrapping Humber bridge tolls. Build a second bridge

2011-09-22T22:49:00.002+01:00

I am just getting back into Hull train station after an afternoon / early evening trip to Grimsby. Now given that Grimsby is across the water my 5 hours of travelling (2 1/2 each way) is quite frustrating, tiring and bloody demoralising. 5 hours, 5 bloody hours I can go to Manchester and back in the same time. So, at this point in time a nice shiny new bridge for trains to the South bank seems like a glorious idea. Anyone want to get behind this radical, innovative and trailblazing idea? No, thought not :-)

*Note to journalists and malicious politicians. This post is clearly designed to pass time and get some frustrations off my chest. Any resemblance to an actual policy idea is purely coincidental!

My top 10 REM songs

2011-09-21T20:29:00.002+01:00

REM seem have been a constant backdrop to my life. They have been with me through school, college, university, elections, partying and even the odd funeral. So to commemorate their break up, here are my top 10 songs. I find it interesting that all of them are pretty old!!

10. Everybody hurts

9. (Don't go back to) Rockville

8. The sidewinder sleeps tonight

7. Talk about the passion

6. Radio free Europe

5. Imitation of life.

4. It's the end of the world as we know it.

3. Losing my religion

2. Nightswimming

1. The one I love

And I think my favourite video is this (which probably means this is a top 11)

****************Update. As pointed out in the comments I like the Sidewinder sleeps tonight so much I included it twice. Everybody hurts has been slipped in at number 10!)'***********

Time to scrap GCSE targets.

2011-09-01T11:34:00.001+01:00

Its time to scrap GCSE targets because, lets face it, what is so special about five A*-Cs? Why is the target five and not six or four? Once you step back, look at it all logically and stop spending a large proportion of your life ensuring you hit the target you realise it makes absolutely no sense and is an arbitrary measure for measuring success. For this reason it's time to change the measurement to something more meaningful to parents and communities.

Instead of just jumping onto new targets the first question should ask is what exactly do we want our schools to achieve? I feel we currently ask our schools to achieve three objectives.

1. To teach the pupil the basic skills they will need to function in life. The most important of these are are the ability to read, write and do basic arithmetic.

2. To prepare the pupil for further study or the world of work

3. To teach a certain amount of knowledge because education is a good in itself ( Unfortunately I feel this has fallen out of fashion in our drive for a utilitarian type of education based on targets, exam factories and a focus on preparing for work)

If you accept these three objectives as read then how we measure how successful a school is almost writes itself ( with a little tinkering of the curriculum) You can attach a measurement to each of the objectives above.

1. Has the pupil left school with the ability of read, write and add up? A simple set of numeracy literacy and IT tests would suffice for this.

2. Has the pupil gained the qualifications they need to move onto further study or into work based training (or become an apprentice)

3 Whilst accepting a pupil will take specific academic and vocational qualifications at point 2 ( ie maths, science, history, NVQs etc) you could have a secondary school leaving diploma which would ensure a basic standard has been met in core subjects such as history, maths, science, English literature etc

Whilst point three would be a long term reform. The government could make a start on the first two points instantly as the infrastructure is already in place to implement and measure these reforms.

If we moved to this sort of system we would make how we measure success more meaningful. It would certainly stop the labelling of pupils who get 4 A* -Cs and go into an engineering firm as failures and it would free up teachers to realise the potential of their pupils instead of dragooning them into a one size fits all methodology but above all else we would have a set of measurements that reflect the objectives we set for schools instead of an arbitrary target.

Other thoughts

2011-08-22T21:15:00.005+01:00

A selection of other peoples thoughts that have stimulated the grey matter today

Mark Thompson on tuition fees

Boris Johnson on the cricket

And my five star read of the day

The trots tell us about Gadaffi's victory

Other thoughts

2011-08-21T19:27:00.002+01:00

A selection of other peoples thoughts that have stimulated the grey matter today

Scientific American on why some people may just be born with a mathematical gift

Chris Rennard on elections (what else!) and why it's too early to predict the next election

Frances Coppola on managing financial collapse

The Telegraph tell us of Hundreds of police officers caught illegally accessing the criminal records computer.

And my 5* pick if the day

Anna Raccoon's blog with a long overdue tribute to goalkeepers

Cherie Blair on the nuclear bunker

2011-08-21T13:46:00.002+01:00

Jerry Hayes over at the Coffee House has some nice quotes from Chris Mullin's new diaries. Insights into all your favourite new Labour figures are there including this snippet from a discussion Mullin had with an MOD official regarding the nuclear bunker.

‘Have the Blairs been round?’

‘Yes, they took a look at the Prime Minister’s quarters.’

‘And they were satisfied?’

‘No, as it happens. Mrs Blair didn’t like the décor. We had to redo it’.

You couldnt make it up :-)

Ron Paul's 'banned video' on Iraq

2011-08-21T08:36:00.006+01:00

Ron Paul has been a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment over Iraq for many a long year now. With this in mind I wasn't surprised when a new video popped up in a Facebook friends news feed. It is a very well produced video highlighting his views on the Iraqi war coupled with clips of historic speeches and quotes.

What is interesting is that he (his campaign) is claiming the video has been banned and his account has been deleted from you tube. Whether this is true or not I have no doubt that this has helped this video go viral.

It also contains this rather chilling phrase from the recent Republican straw poll.

"And now, tonight, we hear that we're not even willing to remove from the table a pre emptive nuclear strike"

Scary!

Well worth a watch my friends

Other thoughts.......

2011-08-20T18:27:00.003+01:00

A selection of other peoples thoughts that have stimulated the grey matter today

singularity hub on the technology of facial recognition and the riots.

The British Journal of photography highlights the NUJ's objections to the BBC using unauthorised photos posted on Twitter.

The Daily Mail brings us news of tikka masala flavoured cheese.

Scientific American tell us the shocking news that a Republican Presidential candidate admits to believing in evolution.

and my five* story of the day...

NASA give us a potted history and the future mission of Voyager 2 (a must for space geeks everywhere)

Whatever happened to Council tax reform?

2011-08-20T10:22:00.003+01:00

Over the past few weeks there has been discussion and debate regarding reforming every tax in England with the exception of Council tax ~ I feel it's time for the Lib Dems to correct that imbalance.

At the moment I feel we have some of the most radical tax plans we have had in a long while. The raising of the income tax threshold, although not a headline grabber like lowering the basic rate, is a fantastic policy for helping out the low paid, making work pay and, for some, removing them from the benefit trap. For these reasons raising the threshold to £10,000 should remain the number one tax cutting priority for the coalition.

As a party we seem to have gone quiet on our other radical tax reforming measure - the abolition of Council tax. The Council tax is an unfair tax. It's method of taxing someone on the basis of where they live and not on their ability to pay is simply wrong. If there is going to be a scrap with the Tories regarding property taxes let's drop the skirmishing around the mansion tax* and go for the whole reform package. From a logical point of view we can't say Council tax is unfair then find ways of raising these types of taxes.

A reformed local tax system that promotes local devolution and accountability, increases fairness by raising taxes on those who have the ability to pay and ensuring that those on low incomes are protected should be our next tax reform priority. This would be a battle worth fighting.

*If people wish to tax high property values changing CGT or stamp duty for homes over £2 million ( the threshold of the proposed mansion tax) whilst simultaneously closing any tax loopholes would be fairer and probably easier to enact and collect

Other thoughts.....

2011-08-19T19:05:00.003+01:00

A selection of other peoples thoughts that have stimulated the grey matter today

Andrew Thomas on philosophy, football and racism.

Brendan O'Neill blames the existence of EMA for the riots.

Geeks are sexy tell us 15 things we didn't know about space.

Physorg.com tell us how to generate electricity from your toilet water.

Islands on the sea pt1. Silver circle underground tell us about a Libertarian utopia on the seas.

And my five* story of the day....

Islands on the sea pt2. complex.com bring us the inspirational story of the football team who had no land so built their pitch on stilts over the sea

Climate change to cause Alien invasion.

2011-08-19T07:13:00.003+01:00

Via an article over at smart planet.com comes the news that NASA scientists propose cutting greenhouse gasses to prevent aliens wiping out humanity. It is one of three contact scenarios being looked at by scientists from NASA’s Planetary Science Division and Pennsylvania State University. They argue that if aliens detect climate change they may decide to eliminate us in order to prevent the damage to Earth from worsening

To take this seriously for a moment how would they know the atmosphere they find is not our normal condition? I also cant help but recall the words of Will Smith's character in Independence day. " Look, I really don't think they flew 90 billion light years to come down here and start a fight. Get all rowdy"

Its an interesting article, worth a read and whatever your views on global warming, climate change and aliens this certainly gives a whole new meaning to little green men (geddit)

With great leadership schools can achieve anything

2011-08-18T19:57:00.008+01:00

Around 40% of Mossbourne's pupils are on free school meals, 30% are on the special needs register, 80% are from ethnic minorities, and 40% are from homes where English is not the first language. - the Guardian

Today, every one of the pupils at the school was offered a place at university ~ One pupil even turned down a place at Cambridge!

These results from Mossbourne academy are truly inspirational and one look at the article, plus some of the history around the school, quickly gives you an insight ( and a template?) for it's success. I don't believe the fact that the school is an academy that has lead to this achievement. An inspirational head, the right ethos and a focus on discipline have clearly enabled great teaching and learning to flourish. This sort of leadership is possible whatever the governance model.

In September / October 2002 I witnessed a governor of a secondary school tell a council committee " what do you expect the school to do with dregs!" ( she was talking about the kids.) it was a very defensive comment in response to questions as to why the school was underachieving. Many in the room were outraged, but that attitude reflects a strand of thinking that schools in deprived areas can't be expected to compete with schools from more leafy areas. Not surprisingly I have never subscribed to this point of view and I'm happy to say that this sort of attitude from head teachers and governors died out in Hull a few years back.

It's achievements like the one at this academy that show with the right leadership in place from the head teacher anything is possible.

The incredible shade illusion

2011-08-17T14:01:00.005+01:00

The one thing I enjoyed about my short time doing A level psychology (I dropped the subject)was looking at optical illusions. The fact the we see the world not as it is but how our brain interprets it amazes me. Or, to put it another way, in the words of that old sage Ben Kenobi. " Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them."

So, for your entertainment and amusement, I bring you one of the best optical illusions I've seen in quite a while.

H/T and a little explanation courtesy of bad astronomy blog

Past form suggests the state can't be trusted over Twitter switch off

2011-08-16T17:47:00.008+01:00

Nadine Dorries has written an article on Conservative Home defending the idea of switching off social media during disturbances. There is plenty of comment out there in blog land regarding the rights and wrongs of this so I won't repeat what's already been said but this comment did catch my eye.

Social media is used for good and evil. To compare the intention of a democratically elected, heavily scrutinised Government, to restrict social media use during a public disorder in this country, with the autocratic, secretive regimes of others such as Iran and China, is simply not a sustainable argument.

On one level she is absolutely right. We are not the same as Iran and China, but this misses the point. A glance at recent history shows that many of the powers that the Labour government brought in to " combat terrorism" or "serious crime" were used by the government, local authorities and the police for anything but. Many of these laws were used to stifle legitimate protest or to target petty, non criminal 'offences.' Abuses of existing laws include spying on parents over catchment areas, using stalking laws to prevent anti war activists protesting outside of a defence company and who can forget anti terrorism laws being used to bundle and keep out Walter Wolfgang from the Labour party conference for the crime of heckling Jack Straw?

Given it's past form can government be trusted with more power to stifle dissent?

What's the problem with appointing Bill Bratton?

2011-08-14T11:12:00.001+01:00

I wake up this morning to find the President of that unaccountable private company ACPO, Sir Hugh Orde, and the police federation shouting Hell and damnation from every media outlet whilst slamming the government. You would have thought by their strident tones that Cameron had ordered the police to stop tracking down the perpetrators of the disorder or had sacked the entire senior management of the Met. Instead, he's asked A career law enforcement professional to advise the government on gang crime. The problem ( from their point if view) seems to be that he's American.

In a stunningly frank interview in the independent Sir Hugh says: "If you look at the style of policing in the States, and their levels of violence, they are so fundamentally different from here." These fundamental differences did not stop him from attending and graduating from the FBI's national executive institute and no doubt applying what he learned in his senior policing career.

I can't say I've ever heard of Bill Bratton but a quick look at around the interweb shows that he has prior UK experience. He has already advised a number of forces in the UK and in 2009 he was awarded an (Honorary) CBE for his "exceptional contribution in promoting and enhancing operational co-operation between the united states and UK police."

So, Cameron has asked a man with a history of advising UK forces with a clear experience of big city policing and of tackling gang culture to come to this country and give us the benefit of his experience. He wants to listen to ideas and solutions from other sources. This will, of course, be in addition to the advice he will receive from the Home Office, MoJ the police, local authorities and others. Those of us who believe we should be focussing on what works should be applauding this move. We should not be so arrogant to believe we have all the answers and looking outside is a good move on an intellectual level. At the very least outsiders have a habit of challenging entrenched practices by just asking "why?" I really don't see a problem with this appointment although I hope the government follows with this up with international best practice in tackling the social causes if gang culture.

Hugh Orde's alternative seems to be a look at European policing and then he says that after we've done that "we'll probably find the British approach is top" Are our senior police officers so arrogant and self assured that they feel there are no lessons to learn from outside their force structure or from overseas? If so, this type of institutional arrogance is quite worrying and shows that Sir Hugh is not fit for the job of Britain's top cop.

An apology to the Labour party

2011-08-12T09:06:00.006+01:00

In the past I may have given the impression that when Labour left government they left the country with record youth unemployment, a broken economy, financial meltdown, social divisions widening with stalled social mobility, a regulatory regime that allowed the bankers to bring the country to it's knees, a tax system where a bankers cleaner paid more taxes as a proportion of their income than the banker they worked for, a culture of cosying up to the Murdoch press & the Daily Mail and draconian attacks on civil liberties with more planned.

After listening to various Labour politicians and left wing commentators over the last two or three months I now realise that we were actually living in an unprecedented golden age right up to May 2010. We were in fact living in a utopia of low unemployment, a strong economy, a society at ease with itself, a fair tax system, a strong moral culture in our centres of power and we had a government that protected our freedoms.

I now realise that all of our problems as a country started from the middle of May 2010 and I apologise to the Labour Party for any hurt and confusion I may have caused.

On reflection the years 1997 -2010 may have actually been a bad dream just like what happened here

Will people now stop reaching for easy stereotypes?

2011-08-11T19:18:00.002+01:00

It has been quite depressing watching many of our MPs and media types reach for the easy stereotypes when discussing this weeks disturbances. The news is full of how to tackle youths and... well... that's about it, so it continues to perpetuate the stereotype as the young person as a problem and a thug.

I am bored of the easy youth / young people stereotype pushed by people with varying agendas. One quick look at today's court reports clearly show the the ages of the perpetrators range from young people through to people well into their 40s but we don't have any moral panic about people who are my age.

A sub type of this is that the people have no voice and no future but people up at court included:

A 19 year old grammar school educated university student who lives in a mansion in Kent & who's father is a company director.
A law student
An accountancy student
A trainee dental nurse
An Olympics ambassador

I'm tired of people saying it's all about poverty and unemployment. Looking again at today's court reports show that many with jobs got involved in the lawlessness. The jobs I've seen include.

A teaching assistant
An estate agent
An architect
An opera house steward
A graphic designer

Oh and whilst I'm on the subject of stereotyping, I am sick of seeing references to 'black gangs.' One quick look at the telebox over the past four days will show that to be palpable nonsense as there were many white faces involved in this lawlessness up and down the country.

But it's not just about being nasty to various social groups. The easy stereotypes morph into easy policy solutions such as the usual - let's ban hoodies (this one from John Prescott.) The new - let's find a way to turn off Twitter and Blackberry messenger and the bizarre - let's turn Wembley stadium into a giant prison camp ( or something like that, I missed the end I was too busy laughing!) all three 'solutions' have been advanced with the first two unbelievably being taken seriously.

Ever the optimist I was hopeful that the diversity of the people up at court today would stop the easy stereotyping. If anything it's gotten worse so more fool me! So, a plea to all. Stop reaching for easy stereotypes, stop demonising all of our young and stop going for simplistic solutions you just look rather silly. In the meantime I'm dusting off my hoodies, I can see me wearing them more often in the coming weeks.

Are civil libertarians overstating the moral case against CCTV?

2011-08-11T13:43:00.001+01:00

This post has been brewing for a while but an entertaining twitter debate regarding the merits of CCTV between Tory MP Phillip Davies and the TPA grass routes co-ordinator Andrew Allison has spurred me on to put my thoughts to paper.

As an instinctive Liberal I was uncomfortable regarding the huge pieces of legislation regarding state intrusion that Labour passed over their 13 years in office and although there were more intrusive aspects than CCTV this was probably the most visible to the general public. The debate regarding the merits of CCTV has always revolved around the practical and the moral benefits of it as a system.

I don't particularly wish to get bogged down on the practical arguments but I feel a quick overview looks something like this is

It is clear that CCTV does have it's uses. Very serious crimes have been prevented and solved through it's usage and I can personally attest to it's usefulness during the Hull floods of 2007. CCTV also reassures communities and contributes to lowering perceptions of crime

On the other side of the coin CCTV is no panecea. The fact that the devastation that occurred in some shopping areas was captured on CCTV but was not stopped will be little consolation to those whose lives have been wrecked. Also, sometimes cameras are either not operational or broken and in many systems the quality of images are just simply not good enough for court.

The question on the practical front is whether or not cost of installing and running CCTV is cost effective in terms of crime fighting or could the resources be better directed? According to Big Brother Watch, for example, of the 342 local councils who responded to their information request, a total of £321,331,453.18 was spent on installing and operating CCTV cameras during the 2007 to 2010 period. Many feel more bodies on the streets will be more effective than cameras.

It's the moral and philosophical arguments around this technology that interest me in this post. Enthusiastic supporters of CCTV don't see any moral objections to the use of this technology, or if they do I have not spotted it. When any moral arguments are raised against CCTV they normally don't go much further than saying "nothing to hide, nothing to fear."

The moral and philosophical objections against CCTV normally revolve around state intrusion and the fact that people have the right to anonymity and privacy even in public areas. Many people are also concerned that CCTV, along with the whole plethora of laws concerning state intrusion, is putting the apparatus of a police / totalitarian state.

In a moment of clarity during Andrew and Phillip's twitter debate I made the link between this issue and many civil libertarians actions around photographers rights. As a rule of thumb people against CCTV are normally the same people who have (rightly) opposed police harassment of street photographers and photo journalists. We oppose these police actions because:

A) There is no right to privacy in public spaces.
B) There are no laws against photography in public places.

Points a & b count for moving as well as still photography as long as you are not causing an obstruction.

Do we, as civil libertarians, not find it a little odd that on one day we campaign for the right to privacy whilst maybe on the next we uphold photographers rights in public spaces? Do we not need a little consistency? I've had my minor run ins with the police regarding my photography and they quickly heard what I thought, but if I campaign for the right to take photos in public then logically I have to accept the state has the same rights.

Unless we are willing to remove photographers rights, pass fairly draconian privacy laws and in a way curtail an open society then maybe CCTV is one of the prices we pay to protect our own rights as photographers. That is not to say that the state should be given free reign. If local authorities / the police wish to run CCTV systems then there should be tightly regulated, Council leaders (elected Mayors) and Chief Executives held responsible for publishing and implementing strict guildlines for the use of CCTV and misuse of the technology stamped on and seen as both gross misconduct and, depending on the circumstances, a criminal offence. Just implementing decent regulation would be a huge step forward because in what is more or less a free for all at the moment many of these powers are controlled at a local level according to how obsessive senior councillors are.

Whilst not discounting the concerns of people who are concerned about putting in place the mechanisms of a police state I think that maybe many people have overstated the philosophical case against CCTV. Whilst recognising that there are uses for CCTV there is a case to be made against CCTV, and it can be a strong one, but it is one of effectiveness and value for money and less one of morals, philosophy and privacy.

Stop the stigmatisation of working class communities and their youth

2011-08-10T17:52:00.001+01:00

As I watch the thuggery going on around our country I feel like crying. I could cry for the friends and families of the people who have died as a result of this outbreak of lawless thuggery. I'm upset for the decent hardworking people who's lives and property that have been wrecked. And yet again I find myself upset at the easy stigmatisation of working class communities and young people from many people who's only knowledge of these communities is from what they read in the Guardian or the Telegraph whilst drinking their skinny lattes.

I grew up on two different council estates with high unemployment and deprivation in the 1980s & 90s, many of my family and friends still live there. Many people I grew up with had very little. I had two holidays through the whole of the 80s, one of them was to Redcar which is around half an hour away. There were plenty of things I wanted that I just couldn't have ~ I just did without. I felt no sense of envy, anger etc towards those kids who had more than me,nI just got on with my life. I was, however, taught by my mother to know right from wrong, to respect my community, to fear getting caught by the police and to better myself and give myself a fighting chance by working hard at school.

I went to our local comprehensive school. It was tough and there were many kids from backgrounds that were more deprived than mine and some who were clearly more affluant. There was bullying, fights and a fair amount of what I would call low levels casual violence. But we had teachers who didn't give up on us and I am where I am thanks to their tactics of inspiring, cajoling, disciplining and bullying us to learn. I'm proud of the education I gained at my school even though I occasionally make grammar faux pas.

There were not a lot of youth facilities as such - the school opened it's sports hall on a Friday night and there were scout and boys brigade troops but that was about it. We made our own entertainment. The vast majority of us drank alcohol when we were young, sometimes to excess. Many smoked cigarettes, some cannabis (I didn't / don't like smoking) and I have people who are close me who's lives were badly affected and wrecked by heroin and other class A drugs.

There was crime. A lot of it was petty and occasionally there would be what would now be classed as anti social behaviour but it was really no more than making a bit of noise whist hanging around and some knock off ginger. There was some serious stuff like when I was 17 my farther was stabbed within an inch of his life and someone who was in my year in school did time for it (18 months off memory) But we didn't kick off and terrorise our own or other people's communities and no matter what our individual or collective situtions no one I grew up with would have dreamed of kicking off the sort of scenes we've witnessed around the country.

As my twitter list of the 'causes' of the disorder passed 100 I was struck by how many people are quite prepared to advance quite ridiculous and simplistic theories for the violence. (My favourite being the cut to EMA.) These are clearly not political protests. I am not seeing any political demands from those involved, (I'm seeing plenty from armchair revolutionaries) there are no banners calling for change and the looting and violence is not being directed towards an agenda. The one thing that links them is thuggery, petty crime, looting, arson and disorder and this seems to be a motivation in of itself.

And that is the crux of the matter. It's disorganised thuggery and not political protest. To use the social conditions in these communities to justify this thuggery is insulting to the vast majority of people who are decent, honest and hardworking who live in these areas. The people affected by the actions of these thugs are decent working people and communities that many of these self appointed defenders of the working class claim to represent and there is simply no justification for it. Those who attempt to dignify these actions with the cloak of political respectability need to take a long hard look at themselves.

As an aside, I don't write this as a pop at the Labour party, many of their politicians who live and have been brought up in deprived areas have no truck with these excuses...it just seems to be champaign socialist types who are doing the opposite.

Throughout the day I have heard of people in the professions such as teachers, architects and (trainee) dental nurses up at court for looting and burglary. The ages range from teenagers through to the 40s. I have no doubt, however, that people will persist with their simplistic theories of the causes mainly focussing on working class communities and young people and simply ignoring the background of many rioters so they can score their cheap points. All they are doing is just stigmatising all the decent people in these communities and as someone from this background I just find it deeply patronising and insulting.

It's an insult to all the families who live in these areas and are not looting but who are bring up their kids to know the difference between right and wrong whilst supporting their kids to get a better standard of living than they have.

It's an insult to single parents who work hard whilst juggling the responsibilities of being a parent and being a working parent and do a damn good job.

It's an insult to communities who pull together and work hard to make their areas a better place

And blaming this on 'the youth' is an insult to all the kids who get involved in their communities and work hard to improve their situation.

So please, if you must condemn the thugs and thuggery do so but at the same time please don't try to legitimise their actions with the cloak of political respectability, don't stigmatise every young person with these actions and do not hold these people up as anyway representative of the communities they live in because are not.

I'm glad I got that off my chest, sorry if it's a little disjointed. And for this who followed my last two blog posts here are another 19 reasons for the disorder

They sacked my dad
They told me I'll never own a car
Left wing loonies
Civil liberties
50 cent
Rap music
Liberal dogma
Police not able to give kids a clip around the ear
Single parents
The police wanted it
It's social permissiveness that started in the 1960s
Cuts to benefits
Children's rights agenda
Cuts to estates maintenance
Hoodies
They need more fresh air
Everything is expensive now
Tony Blair
Parents not allowed to smack their kids

50 more causes for the disorder in London according to Twitter

2011-08-09T17:52:00.004+01:00

This morning I blogged regarding every man and his dog using the disorder to push their own agendas with some scoring political points. I had by then collated 50 'causes' for the disorder. Well throughout today another 50 odd 'causes' have emerged. I now make this 101 reasons for all of the disorder. Anyone got any more?

Wishy washy politicians
Narcissistic selfishness on an epic scale
The civil device
The media
Lack of corporal punishment in schools
A sub culture that's been covered up
The taxes
Foreign wars
Foreign aid
Policing by consent
Revolution against the state
Weak economy
The state has made our children have no community spirit
Unhinged capitalism
Austerity measures
Social engineering
Unfocussed materialism
Stop and search
Some believe this is normal behaviour (apparently!)
The Internet
Violent video games
Sure start cuts
Cuts to the social exclusion unit
Rioting youths have no fear of getting caught
Property speculators
[Marketing professionals] who push the message that shopping = joy
MPs expenses
Press abuse
The BBC
Grand theft auto
The kids are bored
Parents who work
Parents who don't work
Parents letting their kids out
Social inequality
Truancy
Police harassment
Racism
Encouraged by previous police leniency in previous riots
Caused by broken section of society detached from values and responsibility
Lack if working class solidarity
Hopelessness
Some of the rioters just like violence and chaos
It's something to do with the lumproletariat (can a Marxist help me in the comments please)
Greed
no one listened to 'the kids'
Welfare state
Welfare dependency
Cuts to charities
Cuts to summer free education courses
Because they are doing nothing else ( this one from the university of Leeds)

Causes of the London disorder according to Twitter

2011-08-09T07:22:00.001+01:00

I'm finally breaking my self imposed blogging silence ( I needed a break) because I can't get this list down on twitter.

So far the following have been blamed on either twitter or the telebox

Cuts to EMA
Rising tuition fees
Cuts to Youth services
Cuts to probation
Labour's legacy
The government not caring
Youth unemployment that Labour caused
Youth unemployment that the government does not care about
The Tories
'Thatcher'
'The parents'
Politics
'the cuts'
Twitter
Blackberry instant messenger
Public sector pensions reform
David Cameron's holiday arrangements
Our culture denying the kids the chance of living a good life
Policing culture being too harsh
Policing culture being too soft
No fear of police
Not arming the police
Overcrowded prisons
'outsiders'
Family breakdown
No discipline in schools
Lack of aspiration for the young people from their community /teachers /parents/themselves
Social exclusion
Cult of violence
Social issues
Poverty
The bankers
Bankers bonuses
Lack of respect
Not enough police
Immigration
Political correctness
Multiculturalism
Not enough tough sentences
Left wing agitation
Organised criminality
Criminal opportunism
Do gooders
Police corruption
" the kids" are doing it " for kicks"
Breakdown of organised religion
Materialistic culture
People with a sense of entitlement coupled with an absence of responsibility
Local residents not standing up to the thugs themselves

And in Birmingham......The Bull ring was closed a few minutes early!

Leaving aside all the issues flying around the disorder what has fascinated / angered me is how many people are jumping up and highjacking these dreadful scenes to push their own agenda whilst some political types try to score some pretty low political points. The people trying to push their own political hobbyhorses should take their lead from London MPs like Sadiq Khan, Simon Hughes and David Lammy who from my perspective, have tried to respond to this in a measured way, trying to bring people and communities together and not trying to make political hay whilst London burns.

Sad and pathetic

2011-04-14T06:55:00.001+01:00

I had an interesting evening on the campaign trail last night. First stop was with Rick Welton taking party deputy leader, Simon Hughes, to the Hawthorn Avenue area to talk over the regeneration with residents. From the time we were in opposition we have always attempted to fit in a visit to one of the regeneration areas of Hull. It is important that these MPs see what these issues are like on the ground to gain a greater understanding of why continued investment is so important.

When we got there as well as a number of residents there were about 20 Labour councillors, activists and councillors from around the city. What followed was a great insight into their mentality. As local residents tried to tell their story the Labour types just screamed and ranted and raved in the background. I was embarrassed not for me but for them. Here we had decent Hull folk wanting to talk and know about the future of their community and all around them Labour activists acting like overgrown children. The attitude of one of the residents was very instructive she just turned around and said "we've never seen the Labour Party around here."

What was more instructive to me was the effort Labour put into this. If there was any further evidence needed that Hull Labour have no ideas around how to build a better Hull here it is. There we were at half six in the evening 3 weeks out from polling day and what were their councillors, candidates and activists doing? They were not out talking to residents making their case, gathering views, listening and yes sometimes having a good debate on the door step they used their campaigning time to try and disrupt other parties doing just that. Its just quite sad and pathetic really.

Anyhoo, whilst they were wasting their time trying to stop us talking to residents we had a team if 10 activists out on the doorstep elsewhere which Simon, Rick and I joined later in the evening. It's was a good session which we comfortably won with some great feedback on the residents.

The power of the quiet word

2011-04-12T19:36:00.001+01:00

Sometimes in politics you have to know when to make your views about an issue known and fight your battles in public and when its best to take your fight behind the scenes to push your case and lobby. I took this attitude with the Labour government and I take the same attitude with this one. My views on the VAT rise, tuition fees and not to mention ‘that letter’ are well known but the effects of the quiet word can be seen in the announcements over the last two days regarding the £90+ million for extra-care housing and regeneration.

Losing the regeneration money for pathfinder was a blow to the city and I had a choice to make last November. It would have been simpler to listen the call of the siren voices and rant and rave at the government. It would have been (in the short term) popular as I ‘stood up’ to the government but it would not have done a thing to change the situation for the residents of East & West Hull.

Clearly if I had to pick a full on public fight with the government over this issue I would have but I spoke with contacts in government and it was clear that with the new homes bonus coming on line ( Hull got £500K of this last week) and the regional growth fund it was worth trying to play the system. I asked my Deputy, Abi Bell, to co-ordinate lobbying efforts with ward councillor and the executive member for regeneration Rick Welton and then we went to work wasting no efforts in selling Hulls case to ministers in DCLG, BIS and talking with the Deputy PMs office. We hit all of our contacts in the party and beyond and kept the message simple – you cant leave a half finished regeneration project, the government needs to help! The work carried on through to last week and it is hard to say whether it had a effect or not but having those quiet words wont have done any harm and the results are there for all to see. My public thanks go to Rick and Abi.

I have not forgotten about the stalled schemes in East & North Hull so the work will continue to get them back on track like West Hull now is

Regeneration double whammy as hull secures £91 million of government investment

2011-04-12T07:26:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we read about the massive £83 million investment into social care in Hull today the Government will announce that the bid by Keepmoat to the Regional Growth Fund for £8m to keep the regeneration of St Andrews and Newington wards has been accepted. Hull City Council which worked closely with Keepmoat on the bid is expecting to see a further £118m worth of investment from private industry into the scheme. It is hoped that over the course of the next decade thousands of new homes will be built and refurbished, creating hundreds of jobs in the construction industry.

The Regional Growth Fund bid was made by Keepmoat after Gateway funding was withdrawn late last year. Today’s announcement means that regeneration of large areas of the city is back on track and local people living in the area can begin to plan for the future.

This is fantastic news for Newington St Andrews. It is vital that the work started under Gateway is completed. This announcement means thousands of new homes for local people and jobs for people in the construction industry. We achieved this not by ranting and raving like some were calling on us to do but by steady and persistent lobbying by a small team of Lib Dems lead by my deputy Abi Bell and ward councillor (and cabinet member Rick Welton) I will blog about these efforts later.

You can read more on both of these stories Here

Hull secures £83 million government funding for dementia and elderly care

2011-04-11T16:42:00.005+01:00

Hull City Council has secured £83 million of government funding for three Extra Care sites, providing a mixture of general, respite and dementia care, combined with a primarily residential development of seven centres for elderly people (including dementia care), and people with learning or other mental disability, totalling about 200 beds. The apartments will be built on Hawthorn Avenue, Homethorpe on Orchard Park and Leads Road.

It will include communal health facilities including treatment rooms that can be used by visiting healthcare professionals to support the care of those with long-term conditions; for District Nurses to use as a base, as well as a GP satellite surgery. It will also include facilities to support telehealth/telecare.

The Lib Dem team on the Council have worked with the government for some months on this proposal and I am pleased that they have backed our bid to build modern 21st century health and social care facilities in our city

Strange but true

2011-04-09T07:17:00.001+01:00

An interesting article in the Economist has just came to me via twitter. It looks at attitudes to capitalism around the world and says that acceding to polling data communist China is one of the strongest supporters of capitalism in the world -even beating the USA in it's support! What did Deng say all those years ago?

It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.

Mao must be spinning in his grave. You can read it here

correlation does not mean causation

2011-04-08T10:42:00.009+01:00

Regurgitation of alarmist medical press releases without a single question by journalists appear to be a stock in trade for many papers. Indeed the Daily Mail seems to have an ongoing mission to classify everything into things that give you cancer and things that cure cancer. There is a useful Facebook page that helps direct you to them if you so wish. Today it’s back to alcohol which is all over the print press and airwaves. Take this sober reaction from the Yorkshire post whose headline screams:

One in 10 male cancers ‘caused by drinking’

Before going on to say that

1 in 10 cancers in men and one in 33 in women across Western Europe are caused by drinking, according to new research.

If the Yorkshire post, or most journalists, had taken the time to read the abstract on the BMJ website they would have found the results section prefaced with four very important words….. If we assume causality…. Now I am no medical scientist and please if they are any out there reading this correct me but that seems to be quite a large assumption to make. What this like many studies seem to be these days is less about causes and more about relative risk i.e if you do x you are more likely to get y compared to similar people who don’t do x. But there is a huge difference between this and causation.

I remember my A level economics tutor lecturing us frequently about this subject if people made the same mistake when analysing data. His lesson has now stuck with me for near on twenty years.

Remember, he would say, I can correlate the number of storks flying over Sweden to the number of births. That does not mean they caused the births.

So yes acknowledge the risk but remember there is also a risk of cancer from

Prince Charles’crisps

Flip flops

And being left handed

Alternatively you could just remember an old Latin phrase: post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Yes to AV need to do more to shoot the 'helping BNP' propaganda

2011-04-08T07:01:00.001+01:00

Last night I was on a question time panel at an ACCA/IoD event. Most of the topics were what I expected LEPs, regulation, infrastructure spending etc but then out of the blue came a question about the AV referendum. I put the case forcefully but I then a very intelligent businessman whom I have a lot of respect for asked "won't AV help the BNP" After a 90 second explanation ( BNP campaigning for a no vote,they will never get enough transfers to win & they have a better chance under FPTP) the whole room seemed to get how ludicrous this no to AV line is but if intelligent business people are worried enough to raise this as an issue the the yes campaign clearly have to do more to shoot this fox.

Interestingly the two businessmen on the panel and many who spoke seemed to indicate they would vote yes

Met police train their officers to baton people who pose no threat

2011-04-06T18:49:00.001+01:00

Yesterday the policeman who pushed Ian Tomlinson was cross examined at the inquest into his death. The-Guardian is carrying the story but an interesting quote jumps out that highlights wider attitudes and practices in the met.

When asked by the family's lawyer "Does your training tell you if someone is not a threat to you or any other person it is acceptable to baton them? Is that your training?

"Yes," replied [PC] Harwood.

Let's just review that. A police officer has just publically said that he is trained to baton people who are not posing any threat to themselves or members of the public. Is this really acceptable in a democratic society where we are supposed to have policing by consent? Is this met training or are all forces' officers trained with the same principles? Questions need to be asked.

Welcome to lower tax day

2011-04-06T07:46:00.001+01:00

5620 low paid workers in Hull will stop paying income tax from today thanks to the government raising the starting rate of paying income tax by £1000. It is also estimated that in Hull 110,000 workers will be £200 better off thanks to these changes. This is the first step in delivering the Lib Dem manifesto pledge that no one will pay income tax on the first £10,000 of their earnings.

This is a good start. Not only does raising the starting threshold mean that the lowest paid workers in society keep more of their hard earned money it also helps make work pay. Next year the threshold will rise by another £1000 taking another chunk of low paid workers out of income tax.

During Labours years there were tax breaks a plenty for the rich while at the same time they abolished the 10p tax rate putting 1000s of low paid Hull workers into a higher tax bracket.

Who really helps those on low pay? Actions always speak louder than words!

What is meaningful consultation?

2011-04-05T09:24:00.001+01:00

I have always felt that the short hand answer to this question is that when you get what you want it is meaningful when you don't it's a sham. But some interesting interpretations of this question raised it's head this morning on radio Humberside. They had a senior union activist on complaining about the consultation that has been conducted regarding new Council structures in the aftermath of the budget. The complaints can be boiled down to three points.

1. The Council started to consult them before the budget. Apparently this is a bad thing although I would have thought they would have welcomed the ability to shape the decisions that affect their members.

2. During the course of the consultation the proposals changed. Again, apparently this is a bad thing because it's confusing. As someone who has represented people on and off for 17years (9 as a councillor) I would have thought they would have welcomed the fact that proposals were changing as a result of the discussions - I can only imagine what the same activist would have been saying today if the proposals were exactly the same.

3. Final proposals only appeared at the end of the consultation process and they were different from the ones they saw in February. Again, apparently this movement is a bad thing so is the fact that final proposals only appear at the end of consultation.

Apparently the points above show the consultation was not meaningful

As Council leader I am proud of the fact that through the course of the budget consultation with the public, staff and trades unions the budget and how it's delivered changed. I don't see that as a bad thing, I see that as demonstrable proof that the consultation was genuine and proposals changed as a result of it. For those who engaged with me through what was a difficult few months I thank you, the final proposals were better for the city thanks to your input. I acknowledge that everything people would have liked was not done, sometimes this was down to economic circumstances and sometimes it was down to two different groups of people asking for mutually exclusive things

At the last full council meeting the Labour leadership called this confusion and weakness whilst now the unions complain it's not meaningful. Sort of makes you wonder what their preferred method of consultation is and how they would amend any proposals they make if that's their view

Radical new energy generation scheme announced in Hull

2011-04-01T07:42:00.005+01:00

The Hull Daily Mail is carrying an exclusive story regarding plans put forward by the University of Hull, East Riding Council and Hull City Council to harness the power of CO2 generated at county hall and the Guildhall to generate electricity. Read all here

Goldie the goldfish is hoping to make a splash in elections

2011-04-01T07:31:00.004+01:00

According to the Hull Daily Mail a goldfish is to stand against me. You can read the story here