POLITICS CORNER

[Thomo]

At present, as a born and bred Barlicker who lost everything a few years ago thanks to crime and subsequent illness, and a pensioner, I would like to point out that researching the missing names for the War Memorial project and the book about the towns part in conflict , plus refurbishment of an item from the memorial, did not come cheap. I am trying hard to do something for the town I love regardless of the cost, and at present I feel as though the finger is being pointed at me as well as others. I would also point out that any proceeds from this work after costs will be going to two worthwhile charities, probably the Royal British Legion and Help the Heroes. Shortly my Wife will have to give up her job and we may have to hope that the state will be as generous to us as they are to the countless thousands who have never contributed a penny to this country, if you do not want me, I will go!!

[Nolic]

Thomo, its me that's out of step and likely I will be going so you stay put and keep up the good work. Nolic

[Tardis]

18.2% in Manchester by election. Labour running with lowest tory vote ever in the seat

Failing to mention that it is the lowest voter turnout since the war

A curse on all their houses, definitely a new low

[Tardis]

Pendle result. Liberal 3288, Conservative 3252, Labour 2911, UKIP 1386. On to 2nd pref Lancs wide now #PCC
98 purposely spoilt
So @Tim4LancsPCC and Labour go through to the 2nd count. It's down to the UKIP votes now.....they're 3rd county wide

Lifted off twitter

[Tardis]

Pendle result. Liberal 3288, Conservative 3252, Labour 2911, UKIP 1386. On to 2nd pref Lancs wide now #PCC
98 purposely spoilt
So @Tim4LancsPCC and Labour go through to the 2nd count. It's down to the UKIP votes now.....they're 3rd county wide

Lifted off twitter

Clive Grunshaw acceptd Oath of office to become @LancsPCC #PCCs

[PanBiker]

Any figure for the turnout yet? Nice to see that there were another 97 like me. First time I have ever spoilt a ballot, felt quite alien but better than staying at home.

[PanBiker]

15.9% according to the NW News, abysmal.

[Stanley]

What grabbed me was the way the results were posted on the TV, in terms of parties. Exactly what I don't want for police control, political influence.
Thanks for the donation David. As soon as the new year's list opens I'll make my 2013 contribution. I like OG and want to support it.

[Tardis]

What grabbed me was Prezza's face at his defeat, but he must have thought it was going to happen because he was the only Labour Lord who didn't resign from the house to fight in the PCC's

It was worth all the money just for that

Lib Dems lost their deposit in Corby, got none of the PCC's. UKIP came no where too.

[Thomo]

Like a "Smacked Bum" so itwas, brilliant!

[Stanley]

I'm afraid I have no views on who won or lost. As far as I'm concerned it was a flawed concept and a crippled result. I note the procession of the great and the good telling us that it was all to be expected because the electorate is too thick to understand the concept and we would get to like it. Just another example of the breathtaking arrogance of our 'leaders'. Did they really spend £100million on this fiasco?

[Stanley]

Watching the conundrum of how to manage the EU budget negotiations. Latest rumour from Brussels is that they are working on a strategy to exclude UK from the process because we are at odds with the other members. Bit like discussing the budget of an organisation under threat of bankruptcy. EU deadlines clash with common sense and the problem is finding a way round this. Of course we could always leave..... Would the sky fall?

[Stanley]

Nice to see that Cameron recognises that what we are in is an economic war. Pity he can't go the extra mile and form a War Cabinet to agree on policy instead of party in-fighting. If the UK was an efficient business organisation we would be formulating radical economic policies to deal with the situation. The problem is that without cross-party support, his latest 'fag-packet' policy of scrapping obstacles to development will be seen by old cynics like me (and the extreme Right Wing Tories) as another opportunity to roll back social improvements hard fought for over the last century. Relaxation of these policies should all contain a 'Sunset Clause'.

[Whyperion]

Its been indicated that some of the regulations for the fire could include newt/amphibian (and presumably bat) surveys and habitat alternates needed as part of planning in some area ( Olympic Delivery Authority cited as an area where the developer was the planning authority and could short cut some requirements ). Yet I read that Great Britain is currently number 1 in the 'Soft Power' index http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -list.html . No doubt our good care and concern of bats and newts is of great influence in the middle east and similar locations.

[Tardis]

Nice to see that Cameron recognises that what we are in is an economic war. Pity he can't go the extra mile and form a War Cabinet to agree on policy instead of party in-fighting. If the UK was an efficient business organisation we would be formulating radical economic policies to deal with the situation. The problem is that without cross-party support, his latest 'fag-packet' policy of scrapping obstacles to development will be seen by old cynics like me (and the extreme Right Wing Tories) as another opportunity to roll back social improvements hard fought for over the last century. Relaxation of these policies should all contain a 'Sunset Clause'.

Its not party infighting. Its a coalition...

[Tardis]

The new Lancs PCC will retain his position at Borough & County level until at least next election as he doesn't want to cause a byelection so close to Christmas, according to the Lancashire Telegraph

Presumably, he'll be still taking that money as well as the £90k for the job

He did resign as leader of the Labour group, which is rather big of him

[Stanley]

"Its not party infighting. Its a coalition..."
Sorry if my post was unclear. I assumed that readers would realise I meant all the parties.

[Stanley]

As I was walking round the town this morning I was thinking about the horrendous muddle of the European budget. I love the tool of reductio ad absurdem. Simplify the problem by cutting away the deadwood till you can see the trees. I imagined a group of 27 families living on on e street and some authority taking charge of their budgets and reallocating parts of it to poorer/less developed families. I can't imagine that ever working but in essence this is what the EU tries to do. As I've said before, I have always been in favour of cooperation in Europe, I can remember the wars and I've read the history. Problem is that the way the EU has developed, badly managed and unable to even get its accounts passed by the auditors for the last 17 years, gives me no confidence and if I was forced to decision by a yes/no referendum I would vote no. One reason for this is that I don't believe the sky would fall in terms of trade with Europe. I have a funny feeling the advocates of staying in want to frighten us.

[Bruff]

Just to note that the overriding reason why no accounts have got through the auditors is due to Member States (and that includes us) being unable to satisfactorily account for spending EU funds. It''s really nothing much at all to do with the European Commission being lax, rather National Administrations. Course, you'd never know this from the media which just shows how much education needs doing here if we are ever to have a referendum where people can make an informed choice. So to this prisoners vote thing.

This is very simple. The ECHR are not insisting (and nor are the Commission, who are separate from the ECHR) that all prisoners are given the vote. They have made this clear. They object to our blanket ban. So if for example, we decided to remove the blanket ban and give the vote to prisoners on remand - who bear in mind have been found guily of nothing - or give the vote to little old ladies who don't pay their council tax - because as you know it's a tabloid outrage that little old ladies go to prison for not paying coucil tax - then the ECHR would be satisfied (no matter that the thought of these little old ladies getting the vote makes the PM feel physically sick). But when you have the opportunity to imply that damned Europe insists that all prisoners should get the vote, it's too good an opportunity for the mischievous to miss. And there are too many mischievous people about.

Apparently, at the emergency debate this morning on the CoE's decision regarding female bishops the Minister responding was wearing a Garrick Club tie. The Garrick Club does not allow women members. He also managed to blame Gordon Brown for something thus meeting The First Ministerial Law of the Current Parliament. Mr Brown removed the role of Parliament in appointing bishops.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Richard, I didn't know that was the case with the accounts. Like the Garrick Club story.... Nice one. There was a good report on votes for prisoners on R4 yesterday and they made it clear that votes for all prisoners was not the demand and laid out the options. In this at least, the media served us well and stated the case correctly.

[Tardis]

The Tata story appears to be a bit of a mixed bag

Blaming energy prices, but re-opening a blast furnace

Blaming over supply, but not actually knocking out much production capacity

[Tizer]

A very useful explanation Richard, and your `little old ladies' comments cheered me up no end as I sit on my soggy island in the floods! Stanley, I feel exactly as you do about the EU - I was a strong supporter of the European Economic Community as it began and with the prospect of preventing wars in Europe, bringing together different nations to live harmoniously, and facilitating trade. But now I want the UK to start reversing out of the EU controls over us and if the other countries don't like it then we should get out altogether. It went bad some time ago and now we're throwing money into a black hole and letting the EU run the UK.

(On a personal note regarding the EU, I once stood in for someone who represented Britain in the EU on a technical committee and made trips to Brussels for meetings. I know it must only be a coincidence but these representatives were often people who loved fine food and wine and loved going to very expensive restaurants and hotels in Brussels. The man I stood in for had also built his own wine cellar in the institution wherein he worked in Britain and filled it with fine wines from his journeys. As you might guess this experience has influenced my feelings about the EU!)

[Stanley]

It's a mess isn't it Peter. I can remember what a mess Europe was in after the war, Germany climbing out of the hole fuelled by US aid under the Marshall Plan, desperately trying to rdeem itself. De Gaulle dreaming of being Charlemagne and seeing his chance to make France the leading nation in Europe, he hated us of course after his war experiences. The winners looking for a different way to run things, looking back at the disaster of the Versailles Treaty which could almost be said to have been the cause of WW2. The original Iron and Steel community was sensible and worked, it got rid of the pre-war cartels and rationalised the two basic industries. This developed into the Common Market to ease and encourage trade in Europe and on the whole that worked as well. Trouble was that over time Germany and France emerged as the strongest powers and they saw the Common Market as a vehicle that could eventually lead to a federal United States of Europe. This was where they got it wrong, they should have perfected the federal structure before installing the economic one but it was easier to go for the common currency than federation. This was recognised as a mistake at the time but they thought it could be managed. Unfortunately the disparity between the effective Northern states and the Southern lame ducks meant that this was fatally flawed and that's the problem we face now. An economically crippled organisation trying to reverse engineer the federal structure while acting as law-maker and banker as if that structure was already in place. They are increasingly using economic sanctions to hold the mess together but this can only work with the worst case states. I could go on, but that's where we are now and I don't think the problem is soluble until they split into a two stage organisation. Problem is that this could easily trigger total dissolution and this is what is holding them back at the moment. Fear that the whole structure could collapse. The further we keep away from it the better until there is a clear resolution and that won't be in my life time.....
Good profile of Linton Crosby on R4 this morning. The 'Wizard of Oz' whom the Tories have engaged to run their next general election campaign. He lost the last one he did for Michael Howard.....

[Stanley]

I quite like the idea of bringing in Mark Carney to take over from Mervyn King. I don't know anything about him but the fact that for the first time they have gone outside the domestic economy could be a good thing if he modernises practices in the BofE. Mind you, I think the reports about the appointment are a bit over-hyped. His first job is to point out that he isn't the Second Coming.
I see we have another conflicting set of financial figures. Problem is that everyone is looking for 'good news' and the danger is that a minuscule alteration in approximate statistics will be taken as a sign that we are coming out of the crisis. I'd put more weight on yesterday's report from the IFS (LINK) forecasting a long hard slog and more cuts in the next Parliament. This is the grim reality and the pressure on the poorest in society will continue to increase. This is going to be the big problem during the next ten years at least, we have not yet seen the full effect of the current cuts and on this government's track record there is an in-built tendency to cut where there is the least resistance. The real heroes of this story are not the well-fed politicians in Westminster or the bankers in the BofE but the single mothers struggling to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads and young couples raising families on restricted incomes. There is a reservoir of misery and deprivation building up out there and it will damage society in ways we haven't even started to recognise. There are unintended consequences, we saw them after the Thatcher era and the mine closures. This is on a far larger scale and I fear the price will be very high.

[Tripps]

Not checked in detail yet, but didn't this guy work for Goldman Sachs? Anyway he says he will apply for British citizenship in the usual way, and will not seek any advantage in the process. In that case he will have to pass the test, which I put up on the old site. From memory no one at all was able to get a pass score, and most said the test was ridiculous.
I've just had another try, and failed again - I got 16 right out of 24.
If you fancy your luck it's here. http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/