26/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

March West
Following the sad death of Peter Skoulding, the March West District Council Seat will shortly become a political battleground during the necessary by-election that is triggered when a seat becomes vacant.
  
So far we know the Conservative candidate will be Steve Count.  I’ve never met Mr. Count but I do know that he beat off stiff competition to be selected as the Conservative candidate and that he did this despite something of a history of causing the Conservative-run District Council headaches in the past.  The Wisbech Standard columnist Breakespeare had to admit that the fact that our party were so quick to forgive and forget was an interesting and encouraging development.  Of course, those of us who are active Conservatives know that the party doesn’t deserve half the criticism that opponents sometimes throw our way.  The right man for the job (in the view of those selecting) will usually be chosen because that’s the correct thing to do.
  
Meanwhile, local independent Reg Kemp has also thrown his hat into the ring.  I’ve seen his comments plenty of times since he’s not at all shy at making his opinions known (much the same can be said about me - I’m aware!)  He has recently been a member of the political ‘party’ called “Jury Team” (I’m not sure if he still is) - you might remember them, they were beaten by just about everybody except maybe Animals Count, mostly due to the fact that the only thing they seem to stand for is that they don’t want to stand for anything.    He lost the County elections in June, beaten fairly resoundingly by Cllr. John Clark.  He’s also well-known for his disdain for Freemasons and his attempts to have them removed from any office they might hold at the District council.  An interesting character who will be entertaining during the short campaign, I’m sure.
  
Among those who are interested in local politics there is a lot of discussion about who might win this.  Some previous by-elections have been unopposed and so the fact that this might be more of a battle is causing some excitable folk to salivate. 

Some commentators think that Labour have a chance here but I doubt that very much.  Labour, in my opinion, are a dead duck right now.  I don’t see them as a major threat this year in Fenland.  But UKIP are a fly in the ointment.  If they have a candidate in, that makes things more uncertain.  As for the Lib Dems?  Who knows with those guys?  Sometimes they come out all guns blazing and other times they fizzle out like damp sponge (do damp sponges ‘fizzle’?  I suppose not.  Oops.  Bad adjective.  It’s been a long day!) 

Whatever the case it’ll sure be an interesting one and it’s just a terrible shame that it has come about through such tragic circumstances. 

If I were a betting man I’d be betting Conservative.  But, of course, you know that.  

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Posted in March, Liberal Democrats, Labour Party, Fenland District Council, Conservatives | 6 Comments »

10/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Delusion On A Grand Scale
News from America was “good” this week.  Apparently, the increase in their unemployment rate has slowed.  249,000 lost their jobs in the U.S.A. in the last quarter which was much “better” than expected, being a lower amount of new unemployed than recent quarters. 

Pundits and experts <cough> were rolled out to hail that the American economy was “past the worst” and had “turned a corner”.  Well that’s okay then.  Time to go out and get a few more credit cards and a personal loan, I suppose. 
   
You have to wonder if the 249,000 American new unemployed are excited about the recovery they are experiencing? 
   
The idea that a massive fall in the amount of people paying taxes (and an increase in folk on welfare) is somehow good news because its not as massive as last month is whistling in the dark of the worst kind.  By that same logic if you reached zero employed that would be good news, because every month thereafter there could be no “new unemployed” at all and that would surely mean the depression recession was over.

Only in the special moon-pie and fairy-lights land of Quantitive Easing, Trillion Dollar trade imbalances and being in hock for everything you own including the shirt on your back to growing Eastern giants does a quarter of a million new unemployed equal anything other than more absolutely horrible news.
  
Meanwhile, here in the UK, all is apparently well.  The papers continue to find new “green shoots” every week, regaling us with stories of how we’ve “past the worst”, “reached a plateau” and are looking at excellent prospects of returning to “growth” in the last quarter of 2009.
  
The evidence for this bout of good news?  Some banks made some money.  The pound gained a little ground.  Houses prices didn’t fall again.  A couple of sectors showed some slightly higher figures than expected.  The FTSE has risen somewhat.
  
Funny so few choose to mention some other useful facts:-

1. UK Production levels are below the levels of 1998.
2. Unemployment continues to rise - frighteningly fast.
3. Tax receipts have fallen off a cliff - requiring ever greater government borrowing.
4. The highest levels of government debt ever recorded by this country.
5. Trade balance of goods and services remains negative.  We are still consuming more than we produce.
6. GDP remains negative.

Anybody in the manufacturing industry (you know the people who actually make things to generate wealth for the country) will tell you just how “green” the shoots look.  A moldy dark green.  Like you find under an old fridge in a squat.

Any sort of brief ‘upturn’ there might be right now is the result of the government inventing money from thin air and using it to fund its activities.  All those billions had to trickle into the economy eventually.  If this seems like a good idea now, wait until the effect of the initial £125Billion and last week’s new £50Billion fully settle.  This undermining of sterling is a stealth tax of the worst kind and it will be coupled with a need to repay the interest (and capital, we can only hope) of a debt mountain unlike any we have ever experienced before.  And don’t get me started on the coming inflation…

Meanwhile, some estimate the country already owes £1Trillion Pounds.  Add in the personal debt of the citizens and we might have another £1.5Trillion on top of that.  The figures are so large they lose their meaning to many of us.  But their meaning will become all too clear in due course. 

The Labour Party have presided over a SNAFU so large that the seventies look almost tame.  Gordon Brown is always telling us this is a global crisis.  It feels pretty damn local to the people who have lost their jobs, watched their savings crumble or tried to keep their struggling businesses afloat. 

(Hat-tip Cynicus Economicus)

Posted in Labour Party, Recession, Credit Crunch | No 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 »

29/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Hitchhikers Guide To The Public Sector
Genius science-fiction author Douglas Adams, who wrote the classic Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series, managed (through a convoluted and extremely clever storyline) to populate prehistoric earth with refugees who crash-landed there, consisting mainly of service-sector employees - marketing types, management consultants, telephone sanitisers, as Douglas Adams pointed out.  As it turned out in his story these were all “useless” professions who leeched from the productive classes on their original world and that their own planet had gotten rid of by shipping them away under the illusion that the world was ending.

Today we are told a billion pounds is to be spent on creating tens of thousands of “soft” public sector jobs for unemployed people including dance assistants, tourism ambassadors and solar panel engineers. The taxpayer-funded jobs are being created by councils, quangos and charities under a desperate Government scheme to remove people from the unemployment register over the next two years.   Apparently the public sector is not yet big enough or expensive enough so we need to fatten it up a little more.  We can always print the money to pay for them…

But let’s look on the bright side.  When the country is struggling under the burden of ever higher debt and ever lower tax  revenues, when millions more are unemployed, houses are being repossessed and businesses closed - we wil least know that our handful of tourists will have plenty of guides, that our solar panels will be secured with precision and that we’ll all be able to dance like Fred Astair.

Douglas Adams, born in Cambridge, may have written mostly humorous speculative fiction, but it’s surprising just how prophetic he seems to have been.  I can’t help but think we might be needing a starship of our own soon. 
   

Posted in Labour Party, Credit Crunch | No Comments »

24/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

1st: Conservatives — 13,591 votes
2nd: Labour — 6,243 votes
3rd: Lib Dems — 4,809 votes
4th: UKIP — 4,068 votes
5th: Greens — 3,350 votes

Majority: 7,348
Well done all!  Teamwork and hard graft come up trumps again.

Note the strong UKIP showing … almost up with the Lib Dems.  Important, bearing in mind the Ramsey By-Election result yesterday.

Labour vote has collapsed dramatically, but they did still maintain second place (which is more than I’d expected.)  Down to their hard-core voting base, I presume. 

There’s just no way to spin this other than a massive victory for the Conservatives.  This was a Labour seat and it has swung so far over that we have more than double their votes now.  Repeated at a general election this would result in a huge and resounding majority.

The Lib Dems and the Greens (battle bus notwithstanding) must be feeling pretty dejected.  This is Norwich, after all!  If they can’t get a decent showing here, then where?

Posted in Victory, Green Party, Liberal Democrats, Labour Party, Parliament, Conservatives | No Comments »

19/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Please excuse the lack of a decent blog entry over the last few days. I’ve been in Norwich assisting in the Conservative By-Election campaign there along with an absolutely huge number of other political activists. I would imagine, by the time all this is over, the poor folk of Norwich will be heartily sick of politics of every persuasion. Blue, Green, Yellow, Red-White-And-Blue and even a little Red (believe it or not) has descended on Norfolk in a flurry of frantic activity.  The maelstrom will resolve itself, one way or the other, by the end of the week.  I suspect we’ll know a lot more about the direction of UK politics thereafter.  But for now I’m going to bed.  My feet hurt.

Me, Chloe Smith PPC, Stevo Brunton, Theresa May MP.

And there we are again…

Posted in Liberal Democrats, Labour Party, Election, Conservatives | No Comments »

02/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

The Little Wooden Boy
Just imagine for a moment that Pinocchio were a Labour Parliamentary spokesman for North East Cambridgeshire.  (A stretch, I know, but stay with me.) 

The little wooden fellow would want to demonstrate that his party would be a force for good in the area, right?  That they were most certainly not naughty boys and that his mentor and creator Geppetto Brown had everything in hand. 

But what a terrible day it would be if the local college had suddenly and “inexplicably” lost its funding.  He would know that the reason the money had run out was because Geppetto had no idea how to manage his finances.  He would also know that what money there was had (also “inexplicably”) all been given to places which didn’t vote for Geppetto’s main rivals. 

“I promise you,” The Little Wooden Boy might cry in his best falsetto voice: ”It is not politically motivated.  Really, truly with sprinkles on top!”  He might ignore the fact that all those other funded colleges are in Labour areas.  Or he might try and suggest that poverty in those other areas was to blame, while utterly dismissing the large pockets of deprivation in the place he is supposed to be a spokesman for.  (With friends like this…)

Whatever he chose to say The Little Wooden Boy would be unable to hide the truth because the whole time his nose would grow and grow and grow.  Sooner or later, a rhinoplasty would be necessary.  I believe Bupa offer the service, Mr Roberts.

Posted in Labour Party, Wisbech | 3 Comments »

27/06/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Is There A Time Lord In Town?
I was walking my dogs through St. Peter’s Church gardens tonight and was absolutely stunned to see a life-size Tardis sitting amid the beautiful flower displays.  A tardis!  I kid you not.  I presume this is something to do with the Rose Fair coming to Wisbech next week, but even if it is I really hope they leave it there afterwards.  It looks fantastic!  I was chuckling to myself and grinning like a loon all the way home.  The gardeners have set it up so that flowers and vines trail over it, blending it into the display quite effortlessly.  I probably did a double-take when it first caught my attention.  I’m glad nobody was around to see me gaping gormlessly.  And i’m not particularly a Doctor Who fan.  Imagine how excited people who are will feel…

High Maintenance
I happened to catch the Cambs Times this week and lo and behold if it doesn’t have the full list of expenses paid to Fenland District Councillors inside.  As regular readers will know I’ve taken issue with the style of an independent councillor in the past and I admit that a wicked grin crossed my face as my eyes scanned the names and fell upon my old pal Mark Archer.  I’m pretty tired of the national expenses witch-hunt now but Mark has previously criticised pay and expense levels of other council employees and I feel this makes his own fair game.  Now according to Mark’s FDC webpage he lives in Manea.  Hardly the other side of the world from the council offices.  Travel and Subsistence expenses of £1533.00 put Mark at fourth highest claimer in the council.  Considerably more claimed than the leader of the council, in fact.  This should not be taken as a criticism though.  I’m sure Mark beavers away very hard indeed and is worth every penny.

I should probably stress that I know just how much work District Councillors do and in my humble opinion they aren’t given enough credit for their work or enough respect for their contributions.  Even Mark Archer.  I actually think the small remuneration they receive reflects incredible value for money since many of these guys will put incredible time and effort into their jobs way beyond the call of duty. 

Scorched Earth Video

Posted in Scorched Earth, Labour Party, Fenland District Council, Wisbech | No Comments »

08/05/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Click on the cartoon to see it full size!

Posted in Scorched Earth, Cartoon, Labour Party, Election | No Comments »

05/05/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Too Many Cooks
The Prime Minister has had one of those weekends. You know the ones; everything goes about as wrong as it can go and all your friends try to stick daggers in you every time you turn your back on them. Or maybe you don’t ‘know the ones’. It’s actually quite difficult to become so universally disliked that everything you do turns to dust. Let’s face it, Gordon Brown is stewing in his own cooking pot. He lit the gas, chose the pan, selected the spices and vaulted into the bubbling mixture. The fact that he is now simmering close to boil is a problem entirely of his own making. He has surrounded himself by weak and ineffectual ministers who, faced with such a terrible mess and with the imminent demise of many of their careers, do what weak ineffectual people always do. Blame somebody else. It doesn’t matter that he’s the man who chose them for their positions or that he’s the one they are always saying is: “the right man for the job.” All that seems to be on their minds is how to keep their personal gravy trains rolling into the station a little longer. One minister (or ex-minister) after another has been lining up to smirkingly suggest they would be ‘happy’ to save the day. As if. They can no more ride to the rescue than a drowning man can prevent an air crash. There are too many (bad) cooks in Gordon Brown’s kitchen. The food is poisonous and the whole place reeks of rot. It’s time to look at a new establishment entirely… and a brand new Conservative menu.

Bowthorpe Reunion Party
The Bowthorpe Association is a charity which helps and supports people who suffer from mental illness in and around Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. The trustees (of which I am one) are putting on a Reunion Party for old and new service-users tomorrow (Wednesday) night. The purpose of the party is threefold; to give service-users a chance to meet and chat with old friends and new, to ask everybody what sort of services they would like Bowthorpe to try and provide in future and to build a strong bond of trust and friendship between the Association, Service Users and other interested parties. We’re laying on refreshments including snacks, hot drinks and soft drinks and the Association very much hopes people come along and take part.
Bowthorpe ReUnion Party
Wednesday 6th May 2009
7PM - 9PM
The Elgood Hall, William Road, Wisbech.

Morning Has Broken
Very early Sunday morning the Friends Of The Park’s ‘Dawn Chorus’ took place.  The plan was to bring together people from all walks of life, of mixed ages, in mutual appreciation of the wonder and power of nature in Wisbech Town Park.  “Don’t be silly,” some people probably told John Smith, whose brainchild this event was.  “Nobody will get up at that time to stand quietly in the middle of the park.” 
“Who is going to want to listen to bird’s singing?  They’ll all still be in bed after their Saturday evening festivities.”

Wrong!

Something in the region of one hundred and fifty people turned out to listen and to watch and to marvel, slack-jawed in wonder, at the beauty of the dawn as it unfolded over the discrete but magnificent gardens of our wonderful Town Park.  The birds, perhaps enthused by their new audience, sang their hearts out as a fresh new morning broke over the assembled crowd.

I was proud to be part of John’s team, offering what little I could in support.  I made the webpages and handled the online bookings.  Upon arrival I was on the registation desk checking people in.  Later, I was dressed as a parrot for quite some time to amuse the children and make a spectacle of myself for newspaper photographers (Why a parrot?  No idea.  I just did as I was asked.)  Then I was drafted into the kitchen and given to cooking bacon for the free breakfast rolls.  I cooked a lot of bacon.  Maybe it sounds like I did a lot.  Not a bit of it.  I did the same as everybody else, because the whole team (no more so than John Smith himself) threw themselves enthusiastically into the event. 

The Dawn Chorus was an absolute triumph.  Cynics were converted to enthusiasts.  The community in all its diverse shapes and sizes came together.  Wisbech Town Park provided the incredible backdrop for a memorable morning.  I was, quite simply, blown away by it.  On behalf of myself and everybody who enjoyed the Dawn Chorus so much:
Thank you John Smith and the Friends Of The Park.

Posted in Wisbech Town Park, Bowthorpe Association, Labour Party, My Campaign, Parliament, Wisbech | No Comments »