24/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

What Did I Do?
 
I follow John Elworthy on Twitter as I rather enjoy his occasional quips and anecdotes there.  After returning from my holiday I was catching up on my email, blog-reading and correspondence when I happened across his latest tweet:-

“Thank God, the X Factor is back. Not so happy Steve Tierney is back from holiday though. But Norwich won, so 2 out of 3 !”

I’m not quite sure whether to be offended or honoured to be one of Mr. Elworthy’s three things of note at that point in time (albeit the one that ruins his twitter-mood.) I am a little nonplussed though.  What have I done to merit such extravagant positioning?  I’m aware we’ve had a mild joust over the past couple of months between blog and newspaper, but I had thought it was all rather good-natured. Perhaps John is joking in his tweet?  I’d feel better about it if there were a smiley    or something.  I wouldn’t want to think I had somehow offended anybody.  I think I’d rather miss his comments if he were away.  Ah well.  Sticks & stones and all that.

UPDATE (25th August)

All’s well that ends well.  Apparently John Elworthy wasn’t being mean about me after all. His most recent tweet…

And just in case anyone needs re-assuring, I happen to believe Steve Tierney is the best thing to happen to local politics in years.  I’m not sure the Conservative Party will necessarily end up thinking so, but how refreshing to hear someone who actually believes something.  He’s wrong on the Queens Hotel, Wisbech, though - and common decency says the hostel must go ahead. But there are areas upon which we agree.

Thanks for that Mr. Elworthy.  We may disagree on issues, but I wouldn’t want to have actually upset anybody.   And I very much appreciate your (far too generous) comments.

Statistics
I’m pleased to say that my unique visitors (the number of different people who visit my blog) has stayed fairly steady.  Not bad given that I was away and didn’t get to post last week!  I still sit comfortably somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 monthly visitors based on the combined weekly stats for August so far!  Hopefully, the additional exposure from winning the Total Politics Blog Award will pull in more regular readers!  It’s all very exciting.  Thanks - everyone!

             This Blog

5th In the United Kingdom 

Posted in Blog Awards, Cambs Times | 8 Comments »

04/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

The Midnight Snack From Hell
The Cambridgeshire Police are in the news today after reports that they have mishandled DNA samples and allowed holding cells to fall into disrepair.   News that March police station kept one sample in a fridge alongside some half-eaten take-away has created quite a fuss.

My good buddies at the Cambs Times report:-
“Fridges in most suites were full of forensic samples that had not been dealt with and there was widespread evidence of systematic failings in the handling, storing and destruction of forensic and DNA samples.”
Which probably says a lot about the under-funding of the Police by this negligent Labour government, rather than about the Police themselves. With the best will in the world, how can we expect the Police to do all the tasks we want them to do but with ever fewer officers, ever less money and ever more paperwork and regulation strangling their operations?  Please don’t get me wrong.  I’m not excusing them.  I’d prefer a tight, disciplined Police operation in this respect as much as anyone else.  But we have to at least try and be fair, don’t we?
  
Then the report says:-
Inspectors saw a group of officers laughing while watching a drunken prisoner smash his head on the wall of a cell.
Which is shocking, if it’s a true representation of events.    But can you really imagine a group of police officers behaving like this?  And if you believe there are evil police officers out there - would they behave like this the day the inspector is there?  And if that were the case what was the inspector doing?  Just raising eyebrows and writing in a notepad?  Were I assigned the task of ‘inspector’ and faced with these events I’d be demanding what the hell was going on, that it stop immediately and asking for names and ranks!
    
Another criticism includes:-
According to the report, a swastika carved into the wall of a cell was left for months, and only covered with paint when inspectors complained.
There cannot be a more reprehensible symbol than the swastika.  But I would imagine unpleasant graffiti is a fact of life in cells - given the nature of some of their occupants.   Do we seriously expect the police to send in officers with paint and tools every other day?  I suspect the maintenance that would remove the disgusting symbol would have taken place in due course - the inspector just hurried it along.  Perhaps I’m crazy here, but I think it’s rather good that the inspector made the point and the Police responded to it promptly.  Isn’t that the system working the way it should?
  
One last snippet I’d like to consider:-
POLICE kept DNA samples in a fridge alongside a half-eaten take-away meal.
Pity the poor police officer, half-awake after a gruelling shift, stumbling to the fridge to grab the leftovers of Kentucky Fried Chicken she didn’t manage to finish earlier due to her heavy workload.  Bleary-eyed she grabs at the first receptacle and pours its contents into her mouth.  Only to find it was the wrong container she had grabbed.  Deoxyribonucleic Acid and fries.  For an extra 50p she could have gone large on that meal.  But probably would not have wanted to.
  
Frivolity aside, I don’t think I’m quite ready to join the chorus of the disgust over this. First of all, the report is apparently nine months old - and since receiving this somewhat-damning critique the police say they have worked hard to resolve the issues.  Which is what you’d want, right? 
   
Apparently the Police say:-
“Cambridgeshire Constabulary is confident that any alleged behaviour is unrepresentative and untypical of its 1,400 police officers.”
From my own experience of our local police this sounds right to me.

Hat Tip: Cambs Times for this story.

Posted in March, Police, Cambs Times, Labour Party | 1 Comment »

03/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Credit Where Credit Is Due
I was surprised that an earlier entry here turned into a Cambs Times / Wisbech Standard news item on their website tonight.  I had begun to think that the paper had forgotten about me.   Not to worry though, it appears they still read my blog.  (And very welcome they are too!)
  
I have to be fair - I’ve had a little fun with this branch of the press recently (in response to their fun at my expense in recent weeks) and I suppose they could have dragged me over the coals on this one.  A little judicious editing here and out-of-context quoting there could have made my comments look rather different than their original content. 
 
No sign of anything like that though, the newspapers article was a fair summation of my position.  Which, I suppose, means I may have been unfair in my quickie poll recently.  Never mind, I’ll make it up to them.  I’ll buy them some chocolates at Christmas or something.
  
In the meantime, I have no idea if I am about to come under fire from the public, my colleagues, or indeed the letter-writing power of the opposition (those guys can fill a letter page faster than you can shout: “but I didn’t…” if they want to.  I’ve seen it.  They are like Tasmanian Devils out there.) 

I suppose it’s lucky I have thick skin.

Ps. (Thanks to a commentor, A.Melon, for the heads up on this.) 

A Tasmanian Devil

Posted in Cambs Times, Wisbech | 2 Comments »

31/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Things You Don’t Say
The Cambs Times this week carries an article about the old Queens Hotel, in Wisbech, that was all set to become a shelter for homeless people.  The plan has been scuppered (Cambs Times words, not mine) by Cllr. Phil Webb.  The paper makes a big deal about Cllr. Webb’s use of the word “undesirables” in his statement.
  
John Elworthy, the editor and journalist on the piece says: “HOMELESS people were last night branded “undesirables” by a Fenland councillor who successfully fought off a £700,000 refurbishment of the former Queens Hotel, Wisbech, to accommodate them. “ 
      
Later, Cllr. Webb is quoted as saying:
“My motion said simply that it was in the wrong place- Wisbech is not very attractive and this could make it less attractive,” said Cllr Webb. “The people who would use the centre are a difficult thing to describe but, without being nasty, they are undesirables.”
  
Of course, this makes great “news”.  The Cambs Times grabs a hold of the word which Cllr. Webb was clearly silly to use and shakes it like a dog with a bone, while (deliberately?) ignoring the actual pertinent issue.
  
I’m glad this isn’t my division because this is a thorny subject and sometimes it’s nice to not be the councillor who has to field these sort of problems.  The fact is, pretty much nobody I’ve spoken to who lives anywhere near this proposed shelter was ever in favour of it.  They have  a variety of reasons, some more politically-correct than others.  But the will of the area residents is not in much doubt.  The will of the area businesses is not in much doubt.  Apparently the will of the Town Council is pretty obvious too.
    
So what Cllr. Webb has done is speak on behalf of those people and try and stop a project that many desperately did not want to go ahead.  We can pillory him for using inappropriate language.  It certainly wasn’t sensible, or particularly fair, to call people who are troubled and down-on-their-luck “undesirables”.  But what Cllr. Webb has done on this issue is speak the majority view.  Isn’t that part of a councillors job? 
   
I don’t agree with him that Wisbech is not attractive.  Just lately it’s been an extremely pretty little market town.  I would never condone the language he used about the homeless, but I suspect he really did have no intention to cause insult and has just committed the cardinal offense of forgetting to consider the gravity of his adjectives.  But let’s not let that colour our consideration of what has actually gone on here.  His choice of language in this instance may have been ill-considered.  But the end result, many will think, was not such a bad thing for Wisbech.  
   
People who are homeless, have drug and alcohol problems, or other difficulties obviously have to be helped.  They obviously have to go somewhere to get that help.  No decent person would deny this.  But there are right places and wrong places.  And there is such a thing as balance.  Wisbech already has a number of such places including the Ferry Project (an excellent service) and the new AddAction that resides in the building that used to be the Registry Office in Wisbech’s main car park. 
  
The Cambs Times points out that the Town Council also oppose the Queens Hotel being used in this way.  Again, these are local councillors speaking for the people in their areas.  The Town Council are only saying what many of the residents of Wisbech are telling them.  Again - isn’t that their job?

Cambs Times response?  Another of their ”quicky” online polls.  You might remember they ran one of these during the County elections whose result assured us that Labour were neck-and-neck with the Conservatives - shortly before they met electoral oblivion across the county.  Look, I have no problem with bias in the press really.  A journalist or an editor obviously has to have a position and that is likely to colour their approach to the job.  But would it kill our local paper to at least try and look at a story from both sides once in a while?
   
It’s easy to paint Cllr. Webb as the bad guy.  He set himself against a shelter for the homeless.  He called them something he should not have.  Then he single-handedly managed to stop a development that was going to help them.  Like some sort of Bond Villain he manipulated a meeting in a dastardly fashion.  Or so the press would have us believe.  But I wonder if the businesses and residents of the surrounding roads will perceive it in quite the same way?  Or will some of them be quietly thanking his intervention?  I know several who will be doing just that. 
    
Right or wrong?  You decide.

Posted in Cambs Times, Wisbech | 4 Comments »

12/06/2009 by Steve Tierney.

The Ultimate Spellchecker
My English is not too bad, I hope.  I’ve done a fair bit of writing (some of it professional) in my life and I like to think that I can string a sentence together without being too terrified of the consequences.  That all changed this week when my friend “Samuel Brakespeare” in the Cambs Times column of the same name pointed out that I had spelt fete incorrectly as “fate”.  A blog reader had emailed this to me already so, as of publication, I had already amended the entry (and thought it had escaped other notice).  Just goes to show, the web is a devious mistress. 

I ask you, dear reader, if there is a more powerful spellchecker than the fear that the all-seeing eye of the press is watching your words as they appear with one eyebrow cocked and the glint of a schoolmaster eager for any slip of the keypad.  Now, as I look at the “publish” button on my blog software I can feel the dread creeping in.  Has a word escaped my notice?  Perhaps I have used a semi-colon where a period would be better?  Has an apostrophe been used to indicate a plural?  Have I misunderstood the difference between grammar and spelling? 

Of course, despite my wry excuses, Sam was right.  I did spell fate (sic) wrong.  The Cambs Times helped me get it right in the end.  I hope this is the start of a long and successful period of cooperation between that august publication and I.   All constructive criticism is actually very welcome.  I’ve got a lot to learn as a new county councillor.  Jokes aside, I appreciate the input very much. 

In the spirit of cooperation; in the Cambs Times Diary this week under the heading “Son thing of a problem” our erstwhile columnist might like to check paragraph 2.  “A thoroughly decent chap whom I met him last year” seems wrong to me.  I’m surprised the editor didn’t catch that. 

Councillese
I speak a little Spanish and a little French.  Enough to get by on vacations: “Hola, me llamo es Steve.  Dos cerveza por favour” and the like.  But I’m not one of these people that pick up new languages with great ease and so I was a little taken aback by my first training course at Cambs County Council this morning.  The (very nice, very helpful, I must stress) senior staff put on a seminar which included the obligatory powerpoint slide presentation and a “carousel” system (a bunch of important staff sitting at different tables that you meet and ask questions of as you mingle around the room.)  It was all very enlightening and a great deal of extremely useful information was fed to us newcomers.  But I was struck by the bizarre new language that all these council staff speak.  Let’s call it Councillese for sake of a more imaginative name.  Anybody who has sat on a committee, or been involved in the corporate scene will have heard this sort of thing before, but the strange world of County Council has its whole own diallect.  Everybody is interfacing with one another, attempting to engage and cooperate with partners, while streamlining their engagement with external bodies to maximise choice and facilitate improved outcomes.  Que?  After a while the words begin to wash into your brain and the sentences start to snap together and take recognisable shape.  It’s surprising how quickly you catch the bug.  When we took a break I even considered using a recepticle to incorporate a caffeinated beverage into my nutritional schedule.  But instead, I had a cup of tea.  Which was very welcome.
  
  

Posted in Cambs Times, Cambs. County Council | No Comments »

15/05/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Workload Break
I try to blog regularly but this month I have simply reached a workload level that means I am going to have to take a break until after June 4th.  As regular readers will know, I’m a candidate for the County Council and I am now well into campaign time.  Quite honestly, given the sheer size of my prospective division and the number of people I need to try and get to see I am being forced to ‘tune out’ some of my usual pastimes until it is all over.  So, I guess what I’m saying here is please excuse me for a couple of weeks or so.  I’ll be right back after June 4th (win or lose) to blog again for anybody who is vaguely interested in reading my rambling prose (and indeed, even if nobody is.)  Until then, if you would like to speak to me for any reason please do contact me and I will get back to you promptly.
Tel. 01945 583811
Mob. 08731 616127
Email: me@stevetierney.org

But before I go…

Oh How We Laughed
The Breakspeare column from the Cambs Times has put my name up in lights again this week.  That’s three weeks on the trot.  Given that Mr Elworthy has previously pointed out that he wasn’t particularly interested in me : “Ask me again in a year or so,” he chuckled wryly in his column - he seems to enjoy a regular visit to my blog.  I must admit to being sorely tempted to analyse his articles in fine detail, pick small pieces of the prose and then have a bit of fun ridiculing them for the ‘hilarity’ of my (admittedly small) audience.  But he’s much better at it than me and I’d surely come out the worst.  I do feel a little mortally hurt by his comment: “Oh How We Laughed..” referring to my blog and my attempts at mild humour.  I know that my comic timing and creative flair will never equal the Breakespeare column but I do my best with the limited talent I possess.  On the other hand he did call me ‘young’ and ‘earnest’which was refreshing.  I’m Forty, Mr Elworthy.  I’m no spring chicken, but I appreciate the compliments.  Don’t forget to vote on June 4th!  I trust the Conservatives can count on your support.

Talk to you all soon!

- Steve Tierney

The Small Print (legally required during election campaigns.)
Published by Mrs D N Clark on behalf of Steve Tierney both of 111 High Street, March, Cambs PE15 9LH.

Posted in Cambs Times, My Campaign, Cambs. County Council | No Comments »