Why the Labour Party?

Since I have been able to vote, I have voted Conservative.  This is mainly due to the fact that being involved in the Forces and then the Defence sector, the Torys always backed up and spent money on the Forces.   Also it was always the case that the Tory’s generally had good national policies.

So, why will I now be voting Labour?  I have always been interested in the workings of Government, but have never had time to do anything, or the belief that I could be involved.  But more importantly, I have always voted on national issues and not local (I have never lived in one place long enough).  This election is different, I have Lived in Gloucester for a number of years now and I have really been able to appreciate the local issues as well as the national.

When looking local, we need someone who can and will talk to people and who people can trust and relate to, and more importantly have confidence in.  I have now had the good fortune to have the opportunity to meet both the Labour and Conservative candidates.  I do like to think that I’m a decent judge of character and I found that Parmjit Dhanda was by far the most knowledgeable about local issues and also more honest about involvement.  However, that has to be taken in balance with the fact that I have only met Mr Graham once and I have met Parmjit on a number of occasions.

So, lets look a bit more national.  The country is in a financial mess.  Is that the fault of the Government?  Some would say yes, personally I think its the fault of the Banks due to over lending.  It could be said that the Government let them get away with it, I think that we can not regulate everything, but I also admit that Finance is not my area of expertise.  However, the Government has a plan to get us out of this, and so far, the Conservatives have come up with nothing different, except to hit us harder, sooner, which I fear could cripple the main tax payers in the country.

Going back to my original issue of Defence, again I can not see how we would be better off with the Conservatives in charge, in fact I believe they would end up cutting more in a SDR (Strategic Defence Review) than labour would.  They would need to cut harsh somewhere and Defence is always an easy target in the short term.

I don’t agree with everything they are doing.  Look at my other blog posts on the Home Education policy, I think there are aspects of this that are wrong and will continue to lobby to have the “bad” aspects changed.  But I can not ignore the fact that if it was not for this bill, I would not have researched the placing of my vote so thoroughly.

And this brings me to my main National issue, and its reflected locally.  I find that the Conservatives do not have any originality.  Almost everything they say is reactionary.  There is no spark, no creativity and therefore nothing substantially different to what we have now.  The Conservatives are really just taking the Labour Manifesto and adding some tweaks to it and trying to pass it off as their own.  Therefore electing a Conservative government will do little but throw a spanner in the works of recovery, rather than bring any new “magic bullet” to the table.

Locally, we have a Conservative City and County Council, therefore a Labour MP is a good thing to provide some balance.  And I think actually a few more Labour City Councillors may be a good thing too

Those who know me, know that I try not to do things by halves, which is why I was pleased to get a letter from Gordon Brown this morning, welcoming me as a fully signed up member of the Labour Party.

In many respects I feel that no matter if you agree with me or not, this election it is so important to vote, we do not need a further run of the European Election.  But I would also suggest that you actually look at what you are voting for, not just the colour or the history, but look hard at the here and now.  Things have changed a lot in the past 5 years and we need to keep that in mind.  I would push a bit harder and suggest that actually Labour are in the best place to get us back to prosperity.

Meeting the Conservatives

I had been approached by the Conservatives to have a meeting in order to discuss Kingsway and the issues.  The meeting happened last night  and thus I got to meet Richard Graham (MP candidate for Gloucester) and Fred Wood (Fieldcourt Ward Candidate).  I took my Kingsway “hit list” of issues which largely boiled down to Roads and Infrastructure,  relationships with QUVL and the Builders and I also took the opportunity to ask about Mr Graham’s views on other issues such as Home Education, the incinerator they want to put “next door”  and a couple of other bits and bobs.  For me it was a good meeting to also assess what I thought of the Conservative “offering”.

Its worth remembering here that Mr Graham has little power to do anything right now as he is obviously not an MP, but he was keen that Kingsway keep developing which is a good thing.  Mr Wood, should he be elected, was keen to take an active role in assisting where possible and he did say that he was very pleased with what we had done and he followed it closely.

The actual Kingsway Issues I will write up on the Kingsway Blog, rather than replicating it all, but what did I actually think of both candidates?  Through the meeting I was very careful to remain Politically neutral, I would not want to jeopardise any Kingsway opportunities for the sake of my own thoughts, but I can’t say I was overly impressed.  Mr Graham is a well polished and confident speaker, and he did listen very well but I still feel that he is very focused ont he national stage rather than the local.  I also found him quite reactionary, IE I couldn’t see what he thought and what he would drive forward but he was good at pointing out the failures of what others had done.  However this was only 1 meeting, probably not enough to make a fully balanced decision, but it is more than what the majority of constituents will get.

The other thing that amused me was Mr Graham’s criticism of Mr Dhandas use of the press.  Mr Graham was at pains to point out that he just likes to get on with things and get results rather than getting the press involved.  To my mind this is a major failing for Gloucester.  The reputation of Gloucester is not the best and it needs good publicity and if an MP is going to shy away from it at a stage when Gloucester is regenerating, then its not going to do us any good.  Also, not many people follow politics really, so if you don’t shout about what you do, then no one will ever know.

So having met both candidates,  I do now know where I am leaning.  Given that I have already said that I believe we should vote on local issues then I think Labour is the best party for Gloucester and Mr Dhanda is the right man to represent us, regardless of the national outcome.

The “Poverty” Gap solution – Aspiration over Envy?

In the news today, the poverty gap is wider now in the UK and obviously the Government is being blamed for it.  I think there is a more deep seated reasons, but lets explore

Now, I’m having some trouble with this, first, what I define as poverty and what is being regarded as poverty here are two different things.  And secondly we are not talking absolute poverty, but relative poverty.  I.E., “they are richer than me”.  It is claimed that everyone has the right to be successful, but because of how some people are born, they are disadvantaged.  And therefore, what is required is wealth redistribution.  Personally I don’t think so.  But back to that later.

What is poverty?  In the UK, the widely accepted definition is having an income which is less than 60% of the national average.  So, what’s the problem with this?  Yes – its an unachievable aim, I.E. there is always going to be a distribution of income, and therefore someone is always going to be below the poverty line.

Lets look at those in poverty.  If you don’t have a job, you get benefits, if you need a house, it can be provided, the children are funded for, healthcare, food, etc., so to call these folks in Poverty is a tough one when you look at those people in Africa or Brazil.  But don’t get me wrong, we need to have the benefit system for those who need it.  We live in a capitalist, economic based country, and charity only goes so far, and I would hope, god forbid, that if I needed it, it would be there for me.  But to say that they are in Poverty, when there are people sleeping properly homeless in our streets and can’t claim benefits because they don’t have an address, is ridiculous.

The main problem here is a fundamental belief in rights.  I do really believe that everybody has the right to the same opportunities as everyone else, however I think that this gets mistaken for people believing that they have a Right to the money that other people have earned.  I, personally, would not have done what I have without the opportunities that were made available to me.  The big thing, in my experience, is that I made the most of the opportunities that presented, and even when they did not, I worked hard to make opportunities.  The difference now is that a lot of people believe it is their right that everything be given to them.  It is expected that kids now should have access to university, where as in my mind, it should be that everyone has the opportunity to apply.  With clear standards, you know what to aim for and can make a judgement about how much effort needs to put it, however we do nothing for the quality of the workforce in UK PLC by making it a right to attend as we just lower standards.

Fundamentally, I think we need to aspire and not envy.  I believe in a right to opportunity and therefore everyone being able to make the most of what they do within their ability, but not “robbing the rich to give to the poor”.  The description “Poverty Gap” I think is misleading, as it hides the problem of those in our country who are in real absolute poverty.  I have sympathy for those who have tried hard and are trying hard, hence my belief that the benefits system is good, but it is massively open to abuse.

People should strive to achieve their aspirations and be happy, and not expect to be given and always live in envy.

Onto the Lords

Soon the CSF bill will be moving onto the Lords and therefore that is the next place to lobby for some attention.

We do have a “friend” there in Lord Lucas, he has been quite vocal so far on his thoughts on (and against) this bill.

However, lobbying a Lord is a bit harder than your local MP.  You effectively have your MP assigned to you, whereas Lords live anywhere.  Also getting information on them is much harder.

Lord Lucas has explained how things work here

Carlotta on Dare to Know has also been delving in with advice and this post goes into a lot of detail about finding Lords to Lobby.  I won’t reprint it here as she has done a great job on her pages, she also has so much other good info, its worth popping over for a browse

In summary, while we can hope this times out (Election looking like May 6th if Bob Ainsworth is right), we can’t let up the pressure and need to explore all avenues.

The Value of Community Service as a punishment

Punishment in our justice system comes in 4 main forms, from Conditional Discharge, to a fine, Community Service and then Prison.

Contrary to the opinion of the press and (some) Parliamentarians, sending people to prison is not the easiest and simplest decision for us Magistrates to make.  Sending someone to jail can be for one of 2 main reasons (in my mind), that is because they need to be in there to keep them of the streets, or what they have done is a significant repetition of the past.  It is comparatively rare to send someone to jail in the Magistrates court for a single offence without any history.   In my experience, I have never sent anyone down without a very good discussion of the alternatives.  It has been commented that DJ’s are much more efficient at jailing people, but i fear that is just down to time, however, an issue for another post I think.

We have been encouraged to make more use of community sentences.   And ont he face of it, they are a good idea.  They can be “put together” of a number of elements to rehabilitate the individual (anger management, drug programmes, etc) as well as provide some restorative justice (unpaid work) .  And when you look at the figures, a community service sentence has more chance of being completed in its entirety, where as a prison sentence will look nothing like what was sanctioned in court.  If someone is ordered to 200 hours unpaid work, then thats what they do.  A person in prison can have early parole, the Governor can knock days off under the early release scheme and other stuff.

But, this blog, written by a chap who seems relatively sensible (I say relative, as if he was really sensible, he wouldn’t be there in the first place) and it does a good job in highlighting just how bad the work elements really are.  Not enough supervision, not enough projects and really bad admin (not enough minibuses etc).  I like the idea of unpaid work as a punishment, especially for low order crime, but this does not seem to do the job.  It seems the Probation service need better projects, more robust H&S rules and more manpower.

I would like to see more open projects being used, in particular, things that would benefit the community move visibly as we as giving new skills that motivate the individuals.  However this all needs money and resources being put into this, and better publicity, so the general public understand.  Though, I’m not advocating a light touch, afterall is the second most serious sentence type we can pass, but I just want it treated with the same amount of seriousness elsewhere.

But Dad – I want to play

While in Cumbria, Visiting my Parents, I took the opportunity to go up Caldbeck hill to try out the white stuff.

While Amanda and the Kids stayed in the car, Ellie came to watch, so I took the time to tell her just how great I really was at snowboarding…

“Yes Eloise, Daddy is just about to apply for the winter games,

Im sure a late application won’t be a problem…”

Going down the hill was fine, though a bit slow, but the snow was quite deep, it was when I came to trudge back upt he hill that I realised the value in a Ski Lift…  I so want to go on a proper snowboarding Holiday..

The Education Bill may time out – hurray

This is taken from a post by Pam Perryman and is her calculations on the current calendar timeline:

These are my estimated dates for the reading of ‘our’ Bill and these are very ‘conservative’ estimates in that I have left no time lapse other than the obligatory one between each phase, but in reality there is likely to be more time between the different stage.

19^th, 21^st, 26^th and 28^th Jan public bill committee

• 1st Feb – report stage – can be anytime after committee stage – can go over several days.
• 1st Feb – third reading immediately after report stage on same day. Very short debate – no amendments allowed.
• 2nd Feb  – goes to House of Lords for first reading. No debate.

Parliamentary Recess between 10^th and 22^nd Feb!

• 22^nd Feb – second reading in Lords (it must take place ‘no less than 2 weekends’ after first reading)
• 8th March  – committee stage – lasts for 1 to 8 days and starts ‘no fewer than 2 weeks after second reading’.
• 22^nd March – Report stage (usually 14 days after committee stage). Can be spread over several days.
• 25^th March – third reading (3 days after report stage). Unlike commons the Lords can table amendments and debate them at this point.

3 days for Lords to debate Bill and play ‘ping pong’. (The 2 houses pass the bill back and forwards until they all agree.)

2^nd April – parliament goes into recess for Easter – will not return as election will be called – all parliamentary business ceases! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Ping pong’ can go on for a long time, but they only have 3 days!

Having looked at the dates, it all seems about right and as Pam says, thats assuming no slip up or delay at all, it just needs held up in the process for 4 days as that is the time avaliable for it to get royal assent.  Even better, if the election is called earlier……. Go on Gordon, you know you want to…

However, part of me would be quite disappointed if, after all the work we have done lobbying etc, the only reason this bill fails is due to technical timeout and not MPs listening to us.

Kingsway Surgery, another step closer

An article in the Citizen today is about the fact that the provision of Healthcare within Kingsway is one step closer.  I was asked to comment on the news and they have printed a good chunk of what I said. 

What is frustrating is that this issue was highlighted years ago, before the first brick was laid in Kingsway.  And while it is good that we are now close to getting a tender decision, it is still at least 5 years late, and we will still have to wait for the surgery to be built and commissioned.   While it is good that MP Parmjit Dhanda was willing to step in and get a Health Minister down here to meet with the PCT etc, it should have not required that.  It should be simple maths, IE another 4000 people in a new Village, to be serviced by a number of surgeries which are already full.  Its not rocket science is it!

Still, at least it is progress, which is more than can be said for other parts of the Village.

Canvassing – A new experience

I spent today Canvassing for the Gloucester Labour Party.

If you had asked me 6 months ago, Out of all the things I would have expected to have been doing, this would have not been low on the list, but more like not on it at all.

I think its useful to be a bit more specific, Parmjit asked me if I would be interested in helping and I thought about it.  I realised that while we will sit and chat in the pub about politics and how we vote, I did not have any idea about what the difference is between me and those who are fully signed up members to a party.  And then, how it all works, after all there is an awful lot of housing and only one MP.  So I offered my services on two counts, firstly to experience it first hand, and secondly because I do think that Parmjit is the best candidate for Gloucester.

So Amanda dropped me off at the Labour party HQ and I met the team.  Or rather i said Hi briefly before joining in a team photo and seeing a load of students and young Labour folks hit the streets.  Parmjit invited me in, and introduced me to the organiser, Sarah, and other folks and got me a coffee. Sarah then gave me a brief on how it works.   Basically in a group, you have a number of runners (my term) and a coordinator.  The coordinator gives you the address and you knock on the door and ask the questions.

So, as a fully trained canvasser (including the badge, but no certificate, lol) I join the group to hit the streets.  My group had Parmjit as our coordinator, and a few others, including councillors and other volunteers, go to a part of town that I had never been before and then I get my first address.  I knock on the door, my introduction racing through my mind, and……no answer.  Oh well, get the next address, go and knock…..no answer.  However the Third door opens and I launch into my spiel, get the answers and report them back.  A few more of these and I get into the swing of being a bit more conversational about it and I begin to feel a lot more comfortable.

So, observations.  I had a few interesting answers, from those who did not trust any politician due to the expenses scandal and those who just had no interest, to those who just said “don’t waste time on me, I’ll be voting Labour!”.  What came across to me (in life as well as today) was that a lot of people just don’t vote.  To my mind, thats not great, this country does not need much to keep it running, however voting once every 4 or so years isn’t a big ask.

Also, this type of event is reliant on volunteers.  Parmjit only has a few retained staff, everyone else were volunteers.  One one hand, this is a good thing, that taxpayers money is not being spent on election candidates, but on the other hand, how nuts to have to rely on a bunch of people to turn up rather than more staff.  Overall though, all people there were very keen indeed and were more than happy to be there.  Though you have to remember that some of these are also counsellors one way or another and therefore does them no harm to be seen in the streets with the MP.

In summary, a very interesting experience, a good opportunity to meet a lot of new people who I would not have otherwise met and also I did feel like I was having some real input into what may happen in Gloucester.  Will I do it again, yes I probably will.

Another Conservative Vs Labour, Local Vs national

Today there was a bit of a clash in the House of Commons, the Gloucester MP, Parmjit Dhanda took issue with how the Conservatives will deal with the NHS provision within Gloucestershire.  It turns out that while the Conservatives wish to increase provision for those in deprived areas, residents of Gloucestershire will be worse off to the tune of £109 per person (man woman and child).

Now, I don’t know what that means in real terms.  Its not often I go to the Doctors and every time I have been, I have received a good service.  Would £109 affect that?   What I do know is that there is work afoot to extend our local GP services into Kingsway, and in this current climate, this is proving difficult enough already, but when you take £109 per person on Kingsway (700 houses, minimum 2 people per house) that is approx £152k.   That sort of provision would create the sort of facilities we need.

It is items like this that make the decision about how to vote come the general election much more locally based.