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I live in a Rotten Borough
When I was writing about the South Shields by-election the other day, talking about how safe seats marginalise those who live in them, I pointed out the dominance that the Labour Party have on the local council there. In fact Labour on South Tyneside council have 88.89% of the seats. Which according to the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) makes South Tyneside a ‘One Party State’. The ERS have launched a ‘Rotten Boroughs’ campaign to highlight…
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Random Thoughts for 3rd November 2012: Clegg speaks Dutch, Food Labelling, Deacon Blue and some baby animals
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 27th October 2012 and 3rd November 2012: Nick Clegg insists on speaking Dutch at Cabinet Office meeting Those on the political right can inhabit a deeply weird paranoid world. Witness this story in The Telegraph — Nick Clegg can speak 5 languages – so this is obviously suspicious.…
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Random Thoughts for 22nd October 2012: Anglo-Saxons, Kiron Reid, Croydon North & the new theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 15th October 2012 and 22nd October 2012: BBC Radio 3 – The Essay: Anglo-Saxon Portraits This week I’ve been getting into Radio 3’s series of essays looking at the Anglo-Saxon’s. This is one of my favourite periods of English history, but one that I know less about. So I’ve been…
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Bedford sees the other cabinet reshuffle this week
It seems that cabinet reshuffles are the flavour of the week. Bedford’s Liberal Democrat elected Mayor Dave Hodgson has had to sack the Conservative member of his cabinet and reshuffle portfolios. This follows an extraordinary act of cowardice by the Conservative group in Bedford. They chose to withdraw their support from this year’s budget that had been negotiated with all political groups by the Mayor. Despite being members of Dave’s all-party cabinet and being fully…
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Six achievements as a Councillor
A few weeks ago I was trying to put together a review of all that I’d written on this blog over the past year. I didn’t get that far with it, and now it is February the moment for it seems to have passed. However, in doing it I was reminded of the posts that I’d written over the summer where I talked about what I saw as my achievements over the eight years that…
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My response to the Local Government Finance Policy consultation
I’ve written most of this post on the train down to Birmingham for the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference. The timing of my travel meant that I missed this morning’s consultative sessions, in particular the one on the local government finance. So this is my written response to the local government finance consultation paper instead. Posted online via the free wi-fi in the ICC. You can read the full consultation paper here Over all this is…
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Luton Labour’s appointments to the Bedfordshire Police Authority descends into farce
Over the last few weeks I have been blogging about the ridiculous mess the Luton Labour party have got themselves in over the nominations from Luton Borough Council to fill Luton’s places on Bedfordshire Police Authority. You can read my previous posts on this here: Labour cock up leaves Luton without representation on Bedfordshire Police Authority “Labour Party spokesman” wrong on Police Authority formula Meet the Bedford Labour Councillor the Luton Labour Party want to…
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Why climate change matters to local government
In writing about climate change I am aware that I am opening myself up to those who want to debate the science of it all and deny that it is happening. I will be honest in saying that I desperately want to avoid getting into that kind of conversation. There is a global scientific consensus that says that climate change is real. As a liberal I am bound to say that people are free to…
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Luton Council’s budget for 2011
The annual meeting to agree Luton Borough Council’s budget was held this month on Wednesday 16th February. I was there sitting on the Liberal Democrat benches in my role as a local councillor. As usual the meeting generated a lot of heat and only some occasional flashes of light, and as seems to be becoming a habit I probably ended up speaking too much. Local government and the services that it provides face some significant…
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Be a Councillor East
I began the week with a post about how rewarding being a trustee of a charity can be. Equally, or even more, rewarding can be standing and being elected as a local councillor. So I thought I would highlight the current “Be a Councillor” campaign for the East of England. You can find the campaign’s website at: beacouncillor.org.uk/east I noticed that they are holding a meeting for those interested in being a councillor in Bedfordshire…
