The Cost of EU Membership

Next year our membership of the EU will apparently increase by 60% to £6.4 billion.

Apparently we 'should be sharing the burden of membership' with the new countries from Eastern Europe according to the Government.

Hopefully someone will do a cost benefit analysis of this. I for one increasingly wonder whether the cost is worth it. I'm sure there are many others who will be thinking the same this evening.

Wimborne Post Office Petition - Street Stalls

We were out collecting signatures for the 'We want our Post Office' back petition in Wimborne this morning.

We set up two street stalls, one by Somerfields and the other in the Square. Both were incredibly busy, with people queueing up to sign the petition. We estimate we collected over 500 signatures this morning alone.

Thanks to the team that took part, and in particular thanks to Robin Cook and Anthony Oliver for sorting the positions out and to Anthony for staying all morning to help out.

MPs Expenses - Sorry

I haven't posted anything for almost two months, no excuses really, just very busy running the businesses (the early Summer is often the busiest time of year for us both in relocation and at Rubyz) and also the County Council and European elections have been taking a lot of time too.

An anonymous person made this comment yesterday on the thread following the last post I made, entitled 'Funny and Apt':

Ok now please make a comment about the Tory MPs who have made claims and have been found out.

Whats your views on Sir Peter Viggers and others

I do not think this is a case for political point scoring.Tax payers money was abused by people put in a position of trust and yet they acted like common criminals.

Are you really the right candidate for my area.Have you the maturity,intellect and desire or are you jumping on the gravy train.

You certainly need putting in your place and after this blog it may come back to haunt you as you have lost my vote.

He or she is right. Looking back that post now seems crass and ridiculous.

The post was made on April 1st, an appropriate date for it. Who could have thought that the kind of information we have been seeing over the last few weeks would have come out at that point. I certainly didn't.

The behaviour of MPs from all parties has shamed anyone involved in politics. I'm ashamed now to have made fun of it with that post.

Am I going to remove it? No.

I think it's better to leave it where it is and to make sure those comments remain too to show that there was a point at which the whole thing seemed incredible. And more importantly to show that sometimes you can be wrong and need to say sorry.

In hindsight I shouldn't have published that post. I was wrong and I am sorry.

Funny.... and apt

Headless Chickens

I was speaking to the landlord of a large number of commercial premises today.  He made an interesting comment.  In common with virtually everyone in business I know he was bemoaning the Government and their pathetic attempts to revitalise the economy.

What he added was that he felt the worst aspect of all was that the constant emphasis on being seen to be 'doing something' was actually making matters worse.  The end result is that, in his eyes Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are running around like headless chickens.  

"Employment Summit today, bank loan guarantees tomorrow, re-announcing plans to encourage apprenticeships, the list goes on and on and gives the impression they have no clue as to what they should be doing."

I have the feeling he may be right!

Drugs? All Bad, full stop

The Telegraph has a story saying that Government advisers are recommending that ecstasy should be downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug.

I'm very glad to read that Jacqui Smith is likely to ignore their advice.

I've seen close up the effect that drug use has.  Those effects can be long lasting, slow to show their effect and can manifest themselves in so many ways, always negative.

To my mind there are no drugs that are good, none that are slightly better than others.  The effects of all of them from cannabis to heroin are negative.  Let's stop kidding ourselves by giving them different designations.

Drugs are all bad.  Full stop. 

Weatherspoons Drink Promotions

The BBC are reporting that JD Weatherspoons are offering beer at 99p a pint under a new promotion.  The promotion is apparently 'indefinite'.

On the one hand I should be welcoming the free market offering a less expensive commodity.  On the other hand it sends a very poor message about alcohol use.

We all enjoy alcohol and indeed I make part of my living through my business selling it at Rubyz.  However, one of the problems with alcohol misuse has become the freedom of its availability.  

Supermarkets are already selling it as a loss leader.  Now Weatherspoons are offering it at a price that simply can't make a profit for them, their assumption must be that those accompanying the customers buying the cheap beer will spend on their other products that do make a profit.

Alcohol sales need to be regulated, with a minimum per unit price invoked, for both 'on' sales (in pubs, bars and restaurants) and 'off' sales (in supermarkets and shops).  That's not going to stop the problem of binge drinking, it will however place a break on the ability to buy very large amounts of cheaply produced liquor for very little money. 

Prisoners from Guantanamo Bay

Apparently Gordon Brown has agreed to accept prisoners being released from Guantanamo Bay to help President Elect Obama out of a hole.

The thing is, these people will have no link what so ever with the UK.

Presumably they have been held on Cuba becuase they were considered a threat of some kind. They deserve a proper, just, trial and if found not-guilty should be released to where they came from or to make appropriate applications to countries considereing to take them.

So why are we agreeing to take them, apparently without precondition?

Empty Shops and Empty Pockets?

Now, some people might think that I'm a bit tight. (I prefer to think of myself as appropriately frugal). Anyway, I went shopping for a Christmas present today for one of my God Sons. We'd agreed not to see them until the New Year and I had, genuinely, not had time to find the present prior to Christmas.

I therefore spent a couple of hours at Castlepoint and the shopping centre on the old bus depot site opposite.

What was astounding was firstly how few people there were about, the car parks were busy but by no means full and the shops were equally busy but there were virtually no queues at the tills.

More surprising for me was the lack of stock on the shelves. Admittedly, we are at the end of a week in which there is little stock coming in to the stores, but even so there was a very limited choice of goods. This wasn't just the case in the electrical stores, but also in the food shops as well.

It's a poor augry for the coming year. Little money to spend, both by consumers and by retailers stocking their shelves will surely have a circular and knock on effect, one thing leading on to the other. It doesn't bode well and it proves how wrong the Government's policy of borrowing wildly to pay for tax cuts that have had little effect and to bail out the banks who continue to refuse to lend is.

Christmas Day

James had to go to work this morning, just for a couple of hours to do a ward round.  He was met with his first patient, a frail elderly lady, having arrested.  

Despite his efforts and those of the team of nurses and doctors present I'm afraid she died.  

The staff, particularly the nurses, were very upset.  They had called her family, who arrived too late to see her.  James had to speak to her daughter to explain what had happened.  Her elderly husband was at home.

Christmas is a happy time for so many of us.  We spent Christmas with our families, who spent the day with us at our home.  

James' experience this morning though provided a timely reminder that Christmas can be a very sad time for some of us.   My thoughts and prayers are with you if the festivities provide you with a reminder of sad times.  

Labour choose their candidate

The Labour party have chosen their candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Chris Thompson.

Chris is also a blogger, his blog can be found here.  His first post is a response to the comments I've made about proposals for the BBC to start local internet news services and the threat they pose to local newspapers.

Welcome to the fray Chris!  

Cannon Hill quarry proposals

Cannon Hill is an area of woodland which runs in to the centre of Colehill.

Dorset County Council have just published their proposals for sites suitable for quarrying over the next 25 years. Cannon Hill is included, proposed as a site for gravel extraction for a period of 15 to 25 years.

The idea is totally bonkers!

The site is completely unsuitable. It's in the middle of the village, access for at least some of the traffic would need to be through Cannon Hill Road, which is adjacent to Colehill First School. There are also significant numbers of properties backing on to the plantation. Not only in Pilford Heath Road and Cannon Hill Gardens, but also in Quarry Road and the roads around Bridle Way.

Complete madness. We'll be circulating letters to help people object in the next few days.

RIP Harry

My dog Harry died this morning. He was nearly 17 and if he had lived until the end of the week then we would have been together for 16 years.

I couldn't have had a more faithful and loving friend during that time. I don't mind admitting that I'm heartbroken.

Harry came from Battersea Dog's Home, where he had been re-homed three times before we rescued him on a sunny Friday afternoon in 1992. He was full of character and life; mischievous, obedient and stubborn in equal parts.

He became known throughout Littledown and Iford as he was the mascot in 2005 of the campaign to oppose the green belt development proposed there, appearing on posters in people's windows across the ward.

I loved him very much, and I'll miss him terribly.

When is a tax cut not a tax cut....?

You know when you hear something on the radio news and you don't quite believe you heard it so have to make sure you listen to the next bulletin in case you misheard it.

I had one of those moments today listening to the radio 4 news this afternoon.

Yvette Cooper MP, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury was talking about what the Government was doing to help people hit by rising prices.

She told us that they were 'cutting taxes' like 'removing the additional 2p rise in fuel duty on a litre of petrol'.

So that would the Government cutting a tax they haven't imposed yet.  You can't cut taxes you haven't imposed, and in this case you shouldn't be imposing a tax in the first place.  

The preposterousness (is that a word?) of the Government's justification of the mess they have us in just get worse.

Castleford, empty houses and the RSS

What do these three things have in common?

Well, we've just been watching a programme on Channel 4 about the regeneration of Castleford, where there are apparently streets of houses sitting empty amongst other symptoms of urban decay.  This appears to have been largely brought about by the demise of the mining and other industries in the area.

It was a good example of why this kind of area deserves more than its fair share of Government funding.

However, it made me ask the question why the Government is forcing us to concrete over huge areas of the Green Belt around Bournemouth and Poole while there are clearly areas of housing standing empty in the north.

This Government's prioritisation of funding for the north has resulted in superior infrastructure for those areas receiving it.  Greater funding for local authorities has also resulted in much lower rates of council tax for residents.  This has, it would appear, lead to complacency over issues such as recylcing (see here).

Proper regeneration of deprived areas of the country should be lead by private investment.  In the 1980's the government encouraged new businesses by offering tax breaks, incentives, pump prime funding and practical assistance to start up businesses prepared to relocate to those areas.

They also prioritized those areas requiring regeneration when they decided where to relocate those government departments and agencies being moved from Central London.  

That kind of practical intervention and assistance would begin to bring true regeneration through opportunity to deprived areas, partculalry those in the North.  Maybe then there wouldn't be the need for the Government to propose such enormous housing growth here in South East Dorset.

AFC Bournemouth - A question of fairness?

Rotherham football club will start the new season with a 17 point deficit as a consequence of their not coming out of administration in a proper manner.

Apparently the same threat hangs over AFC Bournemouth and the fate of the club will be decided by the Football League today.

Deducting points from the club would seem to me to be completely retrograde. They were already relegated last season and if the club is to have any chance of survival, let alone thriving, then success on the pitch is an, if not the, essential component.

Making the team start with a points deficit from which they will find it difficult if not impossible to recover doesn't seem fair to me. More importantly it seems terribly unfair for the players and the fans. They shouldn't be penalised for problems in the boardroom.

Labour's Bin Tax Scheme

ConservativeHome.com are reporting that no councils have signed up to Labour's proposed trials of the 'bin tax'.

This would be exactly the kind of scheme that the 'chips in bins' were designed for.  I've been opposing the use of this technology and the proposals for this kind of taxation since I was first elected to Bournemouth Council back in 2005.  

The removal of refuse from the home is one of the fundamental services provided by local councils.  It's one of the services that's been consistently provided by local authorities and it is exactly for this kind of service that local taxation (be it rates, community charge or council tax) has been paid by residents.

If your council doesn't take away your rubbish as part of your local tax, then why have a local tax in the first place?

Good on those councils who have refused to join in the scheme.  Let's hope the refusal of local authorities to cooperate with the Government over this will kill the idea for good.

Lib Dem councillor defects to Conservatives

Lib Dem Councillor Ian James has defected to the Conservatives on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

This is the third defection from the Lib Dems to the Conservatives in Dorset in recent times.  

Welcome to the party Ian, and well done to South Dorset Conservatives for showing the leadership in Weymouth that has inspired Ian to cross the floor.

The full story is here.

Future 3000 in trouble

Apparently the Wednesday edition of the Daily Echo sold out.  This is largely due to the fact that Richard Carr was on the front page of the paper here.  

There appears to be a good deal of schadenfreude around Bournemouth and Poole at this news.

I don't share in it.  I know from bitter experience how hard anyone in business for themselves has to work in economic times like these.  I also know how difficult the decision to take the company in to administration must have been for its directors.  

I disagree with Richard Carr about very many things.  That's no reason to revel in his troubles, as some are doing.  He faces a difficult enough few months ahead attempting to keep his businesses afloat in such uncertain times.  As do we all.  He deserves our respect for creating a profitable business and our sympathy now that it has run in to problems.

I wish him and all his staff all the best.  Let's hope there is a way out of this situation for them.

Regional Spatial Strategy

The Regional Spatial Strategy announcment we were expeciting has been published this morning.

I always thought the Government would be cynical in their timing.  There's an article on ConservativeHome.com about Ministers 'clearing out the trash', in other words how the Government is getting rid of a number of relatively contentious issues today, the day before the Parliamentary recess.  

The consultation period that now begins will last for 12 weeks.  The Parliamentary Recess lasts for 11 weeks.  That's a coincidence isn't it!

As I've said in my previous posts, these proposals will be disastrous for the whole of South East Dorset.  We'll do all we can to make sure everyone is aware of them and that everyone has a chance to make their point of view heard.