On the 6th, I attended MP Tessa Munt's constituency surgery at the Lamb Inn in Axbridge. As did 25 others. Each of us alerted by the 38 Degrees organisation to the Westminster government's 'Gagging Bill'. The official title is the 'Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill'.
The bill is supposedly about lobbying. In reality it is about large mainstream political parties keeping control of politics, and the gagging of charities. Tessa Munt failed to show. Two of her staff did. They said the MP was unwell. She was well enough, hardly more than hours before, to vote for the Gagging Bill in its first parliamentary vote.
Ms Munt is totally loyal to the Government. She has voted 695 times since May 2010.
On only 5 occasions has she voted against her party line.
One of the attendees was local prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate, James Heapey. He only declared his identity near the end of the hour. One person commented that it might have been better if he had done so right at the start. Heappey replied that he didn't want to take over the meeting. Which drew a sharp retort... "No, I don't think you would have done that..".
For all his anodyne 'concerns' expressed.., Heapey, like Tessa Munt, is a complete party person. He makes quite something of his army record in Afghanistan, and his command of soldiers. What he doesn't mention is that as an officer and soldier himself he is accustomed to taking orders.
All that's changed now is that the orders come from Conservative Party HQ, rather than the Army.
Not a trace of independent thinking there.
Update : October 2018.
Prior to the 2017 General Election, there was an electoral hustings held in Axbridge. Most of the parliamentary candidates attended. Afterwards, I approached James Heappey.
"Hi, may I have a word...?"
"Of course...".
"I suggest that you not gate crash a sitting MP's constituency surgery. ?".
"I didn't".
"You lie...".
At which point he made off.
Almost the first thing that James Heappey did when he was elected in 2015 was to ditch the constituency surgeries in Axbridge. And there are still none. So much for his respect for local democracy.
.
Tuesday 10 September 2013
Friday 23 August 2013
Severn Barrage - Tidal Power & The Severn Estuary
Tessa Munt MP seeks comment on Severn Barrage proposals....
Here
My comment......
.......
".....Actually, I thought the Select Committee report was pretty unequivocal ....
(Wiki)
"..... In June 2013 the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee published its findings after an eight month study of the arguments for and against the Barrage. MPs said the case for the barrage was unproven. They were not convinced the economic case was strong enough and said the developer, Hafren Power, had failed to answer serious environmental and economic concerns..."
I understand it has already been said that the project would destroy as many jobs as it would create.
Peter Hain has formed an All Party Parliametary Group (APPG). Promoting the interests of lobbyists, and healthy expenses for those involved. Seems a long way from Hain's younger days, fighting injustice and racism in South Africa.
The identities of those behind the the construction companies (Hafren Power) seem rather murky. My guess is one or more of hedge funds, or Asian and Arabian monies.
Hedge funds seldom really invest. They tend to look for large guaranteed cash flows. Or the opportunity to extract rather hefty dividends for shareholders. Usually fairly immediate ones.
The overwhelming likelihood is that project budget would at least double or treble. The project would only be attractive to the backers, murky or otherwise, if public money guaranteed their profits.
There are better uses for public monies.
Here
My comment......
.......
".....Actually, I thought the Select Committee report was pretty unequivocal ....
(Wiki)
"..... In June 2013 the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee published its findings after an eight month study of the arguments for and against the Barrage. MPs said the case for the barrage was unproven. They were not convinced the economic case was strong enough and said the developer, Hafren Power, had failed to answer serious environmental and economic concerns..."
I understand it has already been said that the project would destroy as many jobs as it would create.
Peter Hain has formed an All Party Parliametary Group (APPG). Promoting the interests of lobbyists, and healthy expenses for those involved. Seems a long way from Hain's younger days, fighting injustice and racism in South Africa.
The identities of those behind the the construction companies (Hafren Power) seem rather murky. My guess is one or more of hedge funds, or Asian and Arabian monies.
Hedge funds seldom really invest. They tend to look for large guaranteed cash flows. Or the opportunity to extract rather hefty dividends for shareholders. Usually fairly immediate ones.
The overwhelming likelihood is that project budget would at least double or treble. The project would only be attractive to the backers, murky or otherwise, if public money guaranteed their profits.
There are better uses for public monies.
Thursday 8 August 2013
It's Still Summer
Well, thank goodness the temperature has dropped.
I've never really cared for the heat. Even when I worked abroad. I could cheerfully do large doses of running through jungle, wading through swamps, leeches fastened to my legs. Sweltering, massive humidity, the knowledge that of 17 native species of snake, only 16 were deadly poisonous.
I could do all of that, just so long as come the end of each day, I could be in a cool room, with the air-con set to Average British Summer. And a can of cold Tiger beer.
No relief here recently. One day, I was so zonked out, I could hardly raise the energy to fetch strawberries and ice cream from the kitchen.
Anyway, cooler now, and my mind turned to ......
GLIDING
Open day at Mendip Gliding Club. I drove up through Cheddar Gorge, and then circled round to their airfield above Draycott.
I'm an almost Gold Standard qualified glider pilot, though somewhat lapsed. As I watched the activity, I recalled what sparked my interest.
18 years old, on a working vacation with relatives in Wetherby, Yorkshire. One Sunday, we went to a nearby gliding club, at Rufforth. £2.50 each for a day's membership. That entitled us to push, and grunt, and pull gliders around the airfield for the day. And to have 2 flights.
Mine were in an open cockpit glider, side by side with an instructor. The full Biggles..., flying jacket, goggles. Whoosh of air, otherwise silence. Multi-hued patchwork of fields and their crops 1,500 feet below. Exhilaration and wonder.
The following day, I returned to my student work. Mixing concrete to resurface a rugby club cess pit. My sister wouldn't let me back in the house at the end of each day. I had to strip off in the back garden. Her English Setter, though, was absolutely ecstatic at the arrival of all these wonderful new smells right on his doorstep.
Fast forward 17 years. I worked as a freelance computer programmer. I'd just finished a 1 year contract in SW London, and worked the Saturday to tidy up odds and ends. Come lunchtime, as I ate my sandwich, feet up on the desk.., I thought... "What now..?". Suddenly that day from long ago appeared .
There is summer left. Still time to have a go.
Mendip Gliding
Clip filmed at Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons.
In Britain, most gliding is done by seeking out thermals, warm rising air. There is though, another kind.
When strong winds hit mountains, in addition to flowing over the mountain, they sometimes create shock waves of rising air which can reach heights of many thousands of feet.. These winds, typically North Westerly, start to arrive in Autumn.
This clip was filmed at Aboyne, on Deeside, Scotland. A course for pilots new to wave. They are at an altitude of about 7,000 ft ; see altimeter on the right of the instrument panel. The instructor helps them to position themselves in the wave. The rising beep notes indicate rising air, and that you're going up. The low drone means you are going down.
A Gliding Club Near You
Just to add...
One of my flying instructors was a man named Derek Piggott. He also worked as a stunt pilot in films. 'Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines'., 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'The Red Baron'. He flew the parts of both German pilots in the bridge scene of 'The Blue Max'.
He was also a former aerobatics champion. I was never too keen on taking up aerobatics. I had this strange desire to be alive after a day's flying.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wi-Fi Comes To North Somerset Libraries
Meanwhile, over the border in Somerset, where libraries are among the most miserably funded in the country ( see post 'Truth, Smoke and Mirrors...) .
Councillors concentrate on getting re-elected.
The same County Councillors who voted, as a pack, to try to close down the libraries in our towns and villages, continue with their project of do-it-yourself public services. Except by another route. By cash bribes, through their local friends.
Do you ever feel that you are being treated like a child ?
I've never really cared for the heat. Even when I worked abroad. I could cheerfully do large doses of running through jungle, wading through swamps, leeches fastened to my legs. Sweltering, massive humidity, the knowledge that of 17 native species of snake, only 16 were deadly poisonous.
I could do all of that, just so long as come the end of each day, I could be in a cool room, with the air-con set to Average British Summer. And a can of cold Tiger beer.
No relief here recently. One day, I was so zonked out, I could hardly raise the energy to fetch strawberries and ice cream from the kitchen.
Anyway, cooler now, and my mind turned to ......
GLIDING
Open day at Mendip Gliding Club. I drove up through Cheddar Gorge, and then circled round to their airfield above Draycott.
I'm an almost Gold Standard qualified glider pilot, though somewhat lapsed. As I watched the activity, I recalled what sparked my interest.
18 years old, on a working vacation with relatives in Wetherby, Yorkshire. One Sunday, we went to a nearby gliding club, at Rufforth. £2.50 each for a day's membership. That entitled us to push, and grunt, and pull gliders around the airfield for the day. And to have 2 flights.
Mine were in an open cockpit glider, side by side with an instructor. The full Biggles..., flying jacket, goggles. Whoosh of air, otherwise silence. Multi-hued patchwork of fields and their crops 1,500 feet below. Exhilaration and wonder.
The following day, I returned to my student work. Mixing concrete to resurface a rugby club cess pit. My sister wouldn't let me back in the house at the end of each day. I had to strip off in the back garden. Her English Setter, though, was absolutely ecstatic at the arrival of all these wonderful new smells right on his doorstep.
Fast forward 17 years. I worked as a freelance computer programmer. I'd just finished a 1 year contract in SW London, and worked the Saturday to tidy up odds and ends. Come lunchtime, as I ate my sandwich, feet up on the desk.., I thought... "What now..?". Suddenly that day from long ago appeared .
On the Monday morning, I started my first gliding course.
Every person I've met who's done a trial flight in a glider has loved it.
Every person I've met who's done a trial flight in a glider has loved it.
There is summer left. Still time to have a go.
Mendip Gliding
Clip filmed at Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons.
In Britain, most gliding is done by seeking out thermals, warm rising air. There is though, another kind.
When strong winds hit mountains, in addition to flowing over the mountain, they sometimes create shock waves of rising air which can reach heights of many thousands of feet.. These winds, typically North Westerly, start to arrive in Autumn.
This clip was filmed at Aboyne, on Deeside, Scotland. A course for pilots new to wave. They are at an altitude of about 7,000 ft ; see altimeter on the right of the instrument panel. The instructor helps them to position themselves in the wave. The rising beep notes indicate rising air, and that you're going up. The low drone means you are going down.
A Gliding Club Near You
Just to add...
One of my flying instructors was a man named Derek Piggott. He also worked as a stunt pilot in films. 'Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines'., 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'The Red Baron'. He flew the parts of both German pilots in the bridge scene of 'The Blue Max'.
He was also a former aerobatics champion. I was never too keen on taking up aerobatics. I had this strange desire to be alive after a day's flying.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wi-Fi Comes To North Somerset Libraries
Meanwhile, over the border in Somerset, where libraries are among the most miserably funded in the country ( see post 'Truth, Smoke and Mirrors...) .
Councillors concentrate on getting re-elected.
The same County Councillors who voted, as a pack, to try to close down the libraries in our towns and villages, continue with their project of do-it-yourself public services. Except by another route. By cash bribes, through their local friends.
Do you ever feel that you are being treated like a child ?
Sunday 4 August 2013
The Alternative Richmal Crompton....
"Hold this..", said William, gruffly.
"Yeth pleathe..", breathed Violet Elizabeth.
"Yeth pleathe..", breathed Violet Elizabeth.
Tuesday 30 July 2013
It Could Happen Here....
Or Perhaps Not.
Dear Axbridge Town Clerk
Photo extract from the latest "Oyez" Axbridge Council Newletter.....
I just wondered what is this fascination with dog turds?
I've lived in Axbridge for about 10 years, so I'm very much an incomer to this area.
However, in my experience it's quite rare to spot a dog in Axbridge, let alone
any evidence of a marauding pack of diarrheic Alsations.
Yet, month after month, the Oyez newsletter goes on about turds.
And a few months ago, the Mayor Albone was in charge of a stand in the
town square, filled with children's paintings ramming home a message...
Pick them up.... Or Else...
If you look around Winscombe right now, the whole village is filled with
these childrens' paintings, threats and all. Up by the former station, on just
about every lamp-post, in most shop windows, on walls. Everywhere.
In fact, in my opinion, the biggest source of mess in the village.. is the notices
themselves.
I just wondered who exactly has an agenda here, and who is pushing it ?
In my opinion, it's one thing to try to raise kids to have an awareness of right and
wrong, and to be responsible. It's another thing completely when children are
used to promote agendas, and substitute as some kind of local police.
Or is it all a diversion from other things...?
Dear Axbridge Town Clerk
Photo extract from the latest "Oyez" Axbridge Council Newletter.....
I just wondered what is this fascination with dog turds?
I've lived in Axbridge for about 10 years, so I'm very much an incomer to this area.
However, in my experience it's quite rare to spot a dog in Axbridge, let alone
any evidence of a marauding pack of diarrheic Alsations.
Yet, month after month, the Oyez newsletter goes on about turds.
And a few months ago, the Mayor Albone was in charge of a stand in the
town square, filled with children's paintings ramming home a message...
Pick them up.... Or Else...
If you look around Winscombe right now, the whole village is filled with
these childrens' paintings, threats and all. Up by the former station, on just
about every lamp-post, in most shop windows, on walls. Everywhere.
In fact, in my opinion, the biggest source of mess in the village.. is the notices
themselves.
I just wondered who exactly has an agenda here, and who is pushing it ?
In my opinion, it's one thing to try to raise kids to have an awareness of right and
wrong, and to be responsible. It's another thing completely when children are
used to promote agendas, and substitute as some kind of local police.
Or is it all a diversion from other things...?
Wednesday 17 July 2013
Herbal Medicine, Libraries, and Other Important Stuff
Herbal Medicine
I recently did a morning course to make a herbal remedy.
Run by a local herbalist, Bett Partridge, at Wookey Hole.
She comes from a long line of herbalists; her grandfather would regularly
make medicines for Lloyds the Chemists.
http://www.herbalpartridge.co.
Recent and past experiences sparked my interest.
In the 1960's, as a schoolkid I would get hayfever. A drug named Piriton came onto
the market, prescription only. I took some. Awful. I walked around in a kind of haze.
Others I've spoken to describe the effects as trance-like.
Last year, as the pollen season arrived, I noticed one of my neighbours picking nettles.
Turned out he made nettle tea from them, to treat his hay fever. I made some, and
found that the eye-watering pretty much disappeared. The sniffles, and runny nose
were much reduced. And in general I felt better in myself. The distressed feeling that
goes with hay fever, almost completely gone.
Piriton is still here. These days it's called Piriteze, and is available over the counter.
I know which I prefer.
Libraries.
The Winscombe Library refit is now complete.
I wandered over to Winscombe on opening day. Staff were very bubbly. Not
surprised. Aside from a can of Dulux about 2 years ago, this looked like the first
time any money had been spent on Winscombe Library in about 40 years.
For a Tory refurb, they've done quite a nice job really. Front of library extended to
create more space. Wall knocked through to create a bigger children's area. More
book space and 1 more computer for interneters. Generally a rather good refurb.
In the way of Conservative attitudes towards public services, the cheapness will
show through after a while.
One of the various people there was a senior library manager. I spoke
briefly with him . He was keen to emphasise that many 'new' items had been
recycled from elsewhere.When I remarked.... " It's alright.., I like to see money
spent on libraries..". his face cleared. A look of relief flickered momentarily,
before neutrality resumed.
I accepted a slice of cake from a very cheerful woman in a summer dress. She
introduced herself as North Somerset County Councillor Felicity Baker. The
North Somerset Libraries Councillor. I decided to have another slice of cake
before I said anything. Shortly after, I offered my succinct opinions of her behaviour
over the closures of Weston super Mare, and Banwell libraries. To the discomfort
of her associates, and some smirks from others.
Other Important Stuff
I sometimes imply that in Scotland, life is milk, honey, and the sun always shines.
It wasn't very sunny at the last football match I attended, 40 years ago, just before I left to work in England.
Stirling Albion v Stranraer. A winter Saturday afternoon. Players hacking lumps out of each other on a rock hard pitch. Half way through the second half, score 0 - 0.
I'd just shivered... "Gggod, I'm ffff... ing freezing, there's got to be something better than this.."..., when the effects of the greasy half-time pie made themselves known. I briefly considered my options.... Toilets with no roof, a wall to pee against, perhaps a cubicle, but no doors.
I made a run for Stirling Station. It was like.....
Happy summertime
Saturday 26 January 2013
Somerset County Council - Libraries : Truth, Smoke and Mirrors, Lies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
http://www.thisissomerset.co.
Odd Thing Though.... The official stats/figures for public libraries in 2011/12......
http://www.cipfastats.net/
Of 144 library services throughout the country, only 19 spend less on their libraries than Somerset. (Total Net Spend/Per Head of Population).
For comparative purposes, the stats people group library services into what they call 'near neighbours'. Statistical near neighbours, that is.., not geograpical. Somerset is grouped with 15 other library services, most of which have an amount of scattered rural population.....
North Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Cumbria, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk.
Stock Turnround
(The average number of times each book was issued during the year)
On average, Somerset books were loaned 20% more often than the other 15 authorities.
Total Books Loaned
On average, Somerset Libraries loaned 5.5% more books than the other 15 authorities.
Total Net Expenditure for the Somerset Library Service
£6,464,237
Per 1,000 population. Average of the other 15.
£12,160
That is, Total Net Expenditure for Somerset Libraries is much less than the average of the other 15 comparable library services.
All Acquisitions ( the 'Book Budget' )
Replenishment of the Lending Stock (Books, DVD, Audio Visual, the lot).
Year Total Number Per 1,000 population Average across the other
2007-08 111,904 214
2008-09 77,792 148
2009-10 38,920 74
2010-11 41,414 79
2011-12 38,394 72 165
As you can see there have been significant cuts at the other 15 library authorities. They pale in comparison with the behaviour of Somerset County Councillors. The publically quoted current book budget of £200,000 equates to the 72 in the 2011/12 figure above. An additional £125,000 in one year raises the the 72 to 117. Which is still miles below the average of 165 across the comparable library authorities.
The £125,000 in the second year merely maintains that situation.
1. The local County Councillor for Cheddar, Dawn Hill, is on record as saying of Somerset Libraries.. "They cost a lot."..
2.The now departed Council Leader Ken Maddocks described the library service in terms that implied that he was disappointed it didn't make a profit.
3.The current 'libraries councillor' David Hall has described the libraries as 'underperforming'. ( This is a rather favourite word of his to describe just about any public service .).....
From the official figures, Somerset Libraries are performing well, especially considering what has been meted out to them over the last several years.., by people who have an inbuilt antipathy towards public services.
In terms of the public utterances of County Councillors..., individually, their statements are pretty much par for their local political course.
Collectively, in my opinion, the words of the County Councillors are lies.
-----------------------
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