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 »

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 »

29/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Ordinary British Decency
Prime Minister’s Questions today brought up the important issue of the Gurkhas. I was pleased to see David Cameron give Gordon Brown both barrels over this because the current state of affairs is just plain evil. I was also surprised to find that Nick Clegg, somebody for whom I generally have little time for, made the most poignant statement and it was this:
“Simple ordinary British decency means that soldiers who were prepared to die for this country must be allowed to live in this country.”
He is quite right. It’s so obvious that I wonder how anybody can even argue about it? This one doesn’t need debate. It needs action. Right now. If for no other reason than to prove the government still remembers what Simple Ordinary British Decency is.

20 MPH Or Bust
The Local Liberal Democrats are once again on their high horses, this time over the idea to reduce speeds on our roads to 20MPH in towns and villages. Sadly, this is a clear example of what is so wrong with Liberal Democrat thinking. Their first impulse when dealing with any problem is to slap a law, or a rule, or a regulation on it. Aren’t they supposed to be the party of liberalism?  Anybody with any common sense would agree that dangerous driving is a problem that must be dealt with and that slower speeds almost certainly equal less danger. But where do we draw the line? Why not 10 Miles Per Hour? Or Five Miles Per Hour? Or two miles per hour while a man walks in front of the car waving a flag and tooting a horn? In the end, you can reduce speeds as much as you like, but if there’s no enforcement of those speeds it is nothing more than words and hot air.

I put it to you, dear reader, that if people actually kept to the current 30MPH speed limit, drove sensibly with proper care and attention and avoided using mobile phones, sat navs and other distractions while managing their cars that would go a long way to reducing accidents too. The Highways Agency used to tell us in their adverts: “It’s Thirty For A Reason.” According to the Lib Dems they should have reasoned a bit longer. There is a place for a 20MPH speed limit; alongside schools for instance. I worry that if we give the Lib Dems a free run on this they’ll keep slowing and slowing and slowing us down until we’d get there faster on a Tonka toy (and safer too, those Tonkas take some breaking.)  I’m just saying, before we begin knee-jerk legislation and enforcement, couldn’t we think about making the current system work properly?

Dawn Chorus Day
I tend to work pretty late hours quite often and its not unusual for me to be going to bed at about the time dawn breaks.  The happy chirping of the birds can be annoying when all you want is to snatch a few hours sleep.  Of course, that’s a blinkered view of what is actually a rather wonderful phenomenon.  Nature, having laid still during the dead of night, wakes up and bursts into song to mark the start of a new morning.  Which is precisely what Dawn Chorus Day is all about.  The brainchild of town park champion John Smith and in association with the Friends Of Wisbech Park, we are all being invited to come and experience the Dawn Chorus in all its glory, eyes wide with excitement.  On Sunday May 3rd, at 3.45AM (that’s the crack of dawn this Sunday for the chronally-challenged) many local people will be gathering in Wisbech Town Park for a tiny adventure amidst the urban spawl.  I can’t claim to be a bird-watcher or a person who spends much time getting up close and personal with nature, but I’m certainly going to attend.  The world wakes up and sings.  Can you think of a better cure for our current economic malaise than that?  They’re even throwing in a free bacon roll for everybody who attends.  Now that is nourishment for the soul.

Click HERE to see the Dawn Chorus Day poster which has all the details and HERE to book a place!  I’ll see you there!

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 Liberal Democrats, Parliament, Wisbech, Conservatives | No Comments »

04/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

“I’m Just Nipping Down The IMF For Some Milk & Cheese”
In the 1970s, the Labour Party had so thoroughly trashed the economy of Great Britain that we sat on the verge of bankruptcy.  Strikes plagued our nation.  Working hours were curtailed while people struggled to pay their bills in the face of rising unemployment and hardship.  The Labour government, shame-faced and craven, stumbled weakly to the International Monetary Fund with their begging cap in hand and asked for help to bail us out.  It was an embarrassing, desperate fall for a country that had once been the most powerful trading nation in the world.  It spelt the end of Labour’s reign, paving the way for Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives to sweep in and quite literally save the country from destruction.  To this day some sections of society loathe Thatcher and this is because she had to make very painful and radical decisions to ‘fix’ the economy, cleaning up the mess left behind by her predecessors.  But fix it she did and Britain was returned to prosperity.  It wasn’t perfect, of course.  We had problems.  But we could afford to buy our groceries and pay our mortgages again.

Flash forwards to 2009.  After more than a decade at the wheel Labour have presided over yet another financial disaster.  It’s true that some elements of this one are global in origin.  But where is our manufacturing base?  Where are our entrepreneurs?  Where are the wealth-creators that are necessary to ride in on their white horses and save the day?  They’ve been taxed and over-regulated and demonised into oblivion.  It is not good enough that Labour always want to blame somebody else.  They have been in power since the last century! They have had ample opportunity to prove that a progressive left government can work and they have failed.

For the last few months I, and some other sceptical commentators, have been suggesting that Britain’s finances are even more dire than the government would like us to believe.  We’ve said that the country is already slipping into a state of technical bankruptcy, that we have been for some time, and that it is only a monumental credit bubble and some complex spin operations which have covered this up.  Time and again spokesmen and media have assured us: “This is not the case”.  Only a couple of months ago Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown both laughed off the idea that a new visit to the IMF would be necessary for the United Kingdom.

This week the Daily Telegraph has a story with the headline: “Britain should not fear asking for IMF cash.”  Following a briefing from a senior Labour cabinet member it argues: “Britain should not be afraid or ashamed of taking money from the International Monetary Fund.”  Apparently, the IMF is all different now.  There should be no ’stigma’ attached when one of the once-richest countries in the world has to beg for help.  Again.  It’s just a loan after all.  Another loan.  So, there we have it.  Full circle.  The Labour Party have mismanaged their way back to bankruptcy and begging and they are trying to fool the voters into thinking it doesn’t mean anything.  It’s just a little household shopping trip, apparently. 
“Darling!  I’ll be back soon.  I’m just nipping down the IMF for some milk and cheese.  Do we need anything else?”

We do need something else.  A new government.

Posted in Election, Europe, Recession, Parliament, Credit Crunch | No Comments »

12/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Chocolate Prohibition
Apparently, a Scottish doctor is recommending we tax chocolate.  It’s ‘bad for us’ and we need to be ‘protected’ from its evil influences.  Just like alcohol, cigarettes and the like, he feels the government needs to wade bravely in and (for our own good, of course) help us make ‘the right choices’ in all matters dietary.  I can’t believe even the Labour party would be stupid enough to try this.  “How to lose half the vote overnight” a young lady colleague of mine commented today.  She was joking, but it was one of those growled, piercing-gazed jokes that don’t brook argument.  Visions of a chocolate prohibition bring to mind enclosed “sweeteasys” where very angry women gather to sell contraband and plot the overthrow of the establishment.  It would make the credit crunch look like a cakewalk!

The Great June Election Debate
You might think, by following discussions via the media, that it’s now a foregone conclusion that Gordon Brown will call an election sometime in 2010.  Not so!  A great many folk are still of the opinion that the Butcher of Threadneedle Street  and his Cabinet of Sock Puppets are hatching a devious plan.  It goes something like this:-

• Pretend I’ve Made Deal With Obama
  Spin The Obama Thing, Hope For Bounce
  Pretend I’ve Led Massive New Plan At G20
  Spin the G20 Thing, Hope For Bigger Bounce
  Massive Giveaway Budget Using Printed Money
  Spin Giveaway Budget, Hope For Megabounce
  Call Snap Election In June 2009

Gordon is surely being advised that going the “long route” to an election risks utter devastation of the Labour party.  His MPs must be pressuring him to go earlier - to limit the political bloodbath.  He’s had “bounces” before.  If his plan works he might just be able to kid enough people that something is being done that they’ll give him another.  If the G20, plus the new president of America, seem to be following his lead on the much-touted ‘global new deal’ then it’s not out of the realms of possibility that a gullible and frightened public might fall for the line.  Of course, its a house of cards that’s going to come tumbling down in spectacular fashion, but if that can be held off until after an election is won then what does the Prime Minister care?  The ruin of a nation is a small price to pay for another four years in charge of the economic wasteland that will remain.

Of course, what we hope and pray is that the British People know the spin and lies for what they are.  It’s not as if we haven’t seen enough of it to recognise the pattern.  Come June, if a snap election is called, let’s just see them gone for a long, long, long, long time.  Pretty Please, with sugar and chocolate on top.

Posted in Election, Parliament, Credit Crunch | No Comments »

09/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

The ‘REAL’ IRA
This weekend the news broke that Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar were shot dead by dissident republicans in Antrim, Northern Ireland. We had all hoped we had seen the end of these sort of horrific attacks by lunatic Irish extremists. It’s been twelve years since members of our armed forces were last subjected to this kind of assault in Northern Ireland. The question on everyone’s lips, of course, is: “Is this an isolated incident orchestrated by some fringe players, or is this the start of renewed hostility?” (Although I accept the actual words on people’s lips might not be as long-winded as that.)

There has been such progress in Northern Ireland that it would be absolutely tragic if things were allowed to deteriorate again. Our government and security forces must tread a delicate line; making sure the perpitrators are caught and properly punished, while not tarring those who want peace with the same brush. We must quickly bring these evil terrorists to justice, while taking great care to protect the optimistic peace which has developed in the troubled region. Let’s play hardball with the men who did this by all means, they deserve the heaviest penalties the court’s have available. But let’s try not to let this derail the region. That’s exact what the terrorists want.

Sorry Is The Hardest Word
My young son was a little naughty the other day and I had to put him in his room for a while to calm down and think about what he’d done. After a while I went in and we had a chat. I explained to him why what he’d done was wrong and I told him it was time to come down and apologise. I explained that this is how ‘good guys’ behaved (he’s four, this is language he ‘gets’) He did so in that earnest way that only young children really can and to be honest my heart melted. When somebody says sorry and means it, it takes a hard heart not to forgive them.

Gordon Brown could take a lesson from my Son. He can’t possibly believe he’s perfect, can he? He must accept that he is, in some part, responsible for our current economic woes. After all, he’s been at the helm in one form or another for over a decade. Now we can argue all day about just how much of it is Labour’s fault and how much of it is a ‘global phenomenon’. At this point, I’m not sure it matters. What does matter is that people all over the country are finding things very tough and are becoming very angry about the state of our nation.

I’m not suggesting that if Gordon Brown says sorry it will magically ‘fix’ everything. Of course it wont. In fact, I’m of the opinion that the current administration do not have the skills to begin the job of getting us out of our national hole. But when you apologise you don’t do it because you think it will ‘fix’ what you did wrong. You do it because its the right thing to do. If Gordon Brown expressed his sincere and genuine regret for his part in the crisis he thinks it will be a weapon that can be used against him by the opposition and the press. And he’s right. But he should still do it because that’s the way ‘good guys’ behave. Didn’t his father tell him that?

Jury Team
A new political party (organisation) was formed this weekend that made the news with some fanfare. Called JuryTeam their website says that they are:
a political movement created with the goal of making politics more accessible, politicians more accountable and political institutions more transparent.
Which is all well and good. Their ‘method’ for achieving this is apparently to avoid the need for political ‘parties’ by supporting independents across the U.K. and getting them elected. Independents are important to our political system, it is the ability for ‘anybody to stand’ that makes democracy what it is. But I’m a little sceptical as to how a group of people who may have diametically-opposed political views can possibly stand under the same ‘banner’. I can see that if a lot of JuryTeam MPs were able to get elected it would force the government in power to properly justify their actions and would hold them to account by circumventing the power of the whips. But on the flip side, doesn’t this mean the elected government will find it difficult to achieve the aims for which they were elected due to the impossible task of trying to convince a bunch of independents who all want completely different things for the country?  It seems like a bit of a ragtag idea to me, but I’m keeping an open mind about it.  Fresh ideas can’t hurt, can they?

Leverington Action Group
Road safety in our villages is something which matters greatly to all of us. Despite hard work on the part of the Conservative council there is always more we can do! That’s why it’s so great to see people united in working for safety and security in our area! In Leverington, a group of concerned homeowners are forming an action group to deal with places that are known as local trouble spots; most particularly Leverington Common. The group will act in a concerted way to represent their concerns to the District and County Councils, the police and to other relevant agencies. Led by Caroline Benincasa, assisted by veteran campaigner Tony Kiddle and my humble self, a group of dedicated villagers will make their case over the coming months to ensure something is done to reduce the problems and potential for injury in local black spots! This is the sort of positive, sensible action that gets things done. I met with the organisers of the new group last Saturday and was very impressed by their knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication. Local Activism is vital for the health and success of our society. Government should be there for a few specific national jobs, everything else is best decided at the most local level.

Posted in Parliament, Recession, Family, Leverington, Credit Crunch, Conservatives | No Comments »

26/02/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Leverington Common
At the Leverington Parish Council meeting this week I witnessed the power of local politics in action!  A group of concerned villagers brought their case to the parish detailing a local traffic danger spot - Leverington Common.  Passionate, eloquent and impressive, they spoke with a united voice and made a clear and powerful case.  The Parish Council, to their credit, took the worries on board and vowed to work with them to convince the District and County councils of the need for investment in improvements that would help reduce the potential for a serious accident in the area.  I met the group after the meeting and listened to their very valid comments.  There was no doubt in my mind that this was a cause I needed to throw myself into.  As a prospective candidate for the County Council seat I really have no influence right now (you have to win an election first - roll on June 4th and a chance to make a difference!) but I promised them that I would stand right with them in getting something done.  This is another of those situations where the traffic authority wont do the work because there are other locations which need the resources and have a “higher record of accidents”.  While that sounds reasonable from a purely logical point of view, it does seem to suggest that blood must be spilt before work will be done.  Surely, with local folk showing such solidarity of purpose, we should be able to push for preventative safety measures too?  I think so, anyway, and that’s what I’ll be working towards.

National Service
This week, I have been asked to sit on one side of a structured debate panel at the Fens Conservative Future Pizza & Politics evening.  The motion being considered is : “This house would see a return of National Service.”  For anybody who has never been involved in a structured debate before, the point is to give both sides a good airing.  You can be tasked with arguing for a case which doesn’t necessarily reflect your own views (as I have… I’m arguing against, when I can see the value of National Service all too well.)  It’s an interesting chance to bring ideas into the public forum and get all sorts of takes on the argument.  While preparing my three-minute presentation, which is the opposite of my actual view, I found that I was not as open-minded as I had surmised.  All sorts of challenging arguments against are fairly difficult to equate with my own current opinion.  As such, I’ve had to revise my real-life stance from ‘in favour’ to ’sceptical’.  Here, then, is the absolute value of debate for debate’s sake.  Forced to think something through from the other side, and argue against your own personal position, is a genuine learning experience. If you have some time free on Friday night and are in the area, come along to Pizza & Politics.  It’ll be a very interesting evening.

Parliament At It’s Finest
The death of David Cameron’s son this week was a terrible tragedy.  I cannot express the sympathy I feel in words.  Parliament’s response, from all sides, was a fine example of decency and honour.  Even Gordon Brown, for whom I generally have nothing but disdain, sounded earnest and sincere.  In a moment of deep sadness parliament did us proud with their compassion.

Posted in Parliament, Conservative Future, Leverington | No Comments »

19/02/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Harriet Harman
There is some talk in the media right now about Harriet Harman being a ‘leader in waiting’ for the Labour Party. I hope so. I really do. Back when Tony Blair was Mister Big and Gordon was trying to oust him I remembering telling everybody it would be the best thing that ever happened to the Conservatives if he managed. (It’s obviously not good news for anybody that he’s destroyed the country, but most of that job was already complete back then, all he did as Prime Minister was put black icing on his rotten cake.) The thing is, whatever you thought about Tony Blair or his politics, there was something like-able about him. He was a good statesman and a good front-man. There is patently very little to ‘like’ about Gordon Brown. While he sat brooding in the background he was fine, but bringing him to the forefront of politics was always going to be a disaster. Well, Harriet Harman is just as bad, if not worse! Substituting her for Brown is a wonderful idea… for the opposition. In fact the only more detrimental figure I can think of as Labour Leader is Hazel Blears. Now if they chose Mandelson… that might be dangerous. People may not like him, but many do respect him. And these days he has more political weight than most of his team put together.Of course, they made him a Lord, so maybe they realised they needed to keep his ambition for the top position untenable…

Good Manners
David Cameron was interviewed by Iain Dale in Total Politics this week. The interview is very well done and extremely interesting. (You can read it here.) For the most part I enjoyed Mr. Cameron’s answers and thought he sounded confident and level-headed. There was, however, one exception, which worried me. This is the extract in question:-

Q: How will you defend the right to offend?
A: This goes back to the ‘do you listen’ question because on the one hand you don’t want someone inciting hatred of gays but on the other hand you want to live in a society where people don’t feel their free speech is restricted if it is about humour. So there is a balance. We all rage against political correctness and there’s lots of political correctness which is ridiculous- silly health and safety worries that stop children grazing a knee on an outward bounds adventure. We have got to get rid of that. But there’s one bit of political correctness which is terribly important and that’s about politeness. I have a disabled son and I don’t want people to call him a spastic. You are a gay man, you don’t want someone to call you a poof. If you have a black friend, you don’t want someone to call them something offensive. It’s about manners and I think what we’ve got to do is frame this debate in a sense of what is good manners and politeness and what is common sense.

Now this seems to suggest that the Conservative Leader (leader of the party I’m a member of and support) thinks that we should ‘legislate’ good manners.  Perhaps I’ve misunderstood his comment.  I certainly hope so.  Good manners are important.  Vital even.  But it’s the place of friends, family and parents to teach and enforce it, not government.  The state should have no say whatsoever in what people are allowed to say, think or feel.  Each one of us has a right to be a jackass if we wish.  Free Speech is not free if you only get to say what people want to hear…

The Spring Forum
The Conservative Spring forum is just around the corner.  I haven’t been before but this year I’ll be attending, along with a considerable contingent of the Fens Conservative Future group.  You’ll know them.  They’re the guys and girls who will be wearing the T-Shirts that say “Putting the Party In Politics”.  I expect a couple of days of political discourse and a couple of evenings of mayhem.  We won’t be painting the town red though.  We’ll be painting it blue.

Posted in Parliament, Conservative Future, Conservatives | No Comments »

08/02/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Skiing In Euroland
I’ve just come back from a week’s skiing in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Before anybody accuses me of being a ‘fat cat’ can I just say that I generally don’t take any other holidays all year, that I work extremely long and demanding hours, and that I save up in order to do this with a large group of old friends each winter. Even so, with our current economic climate, like everybody else I’m going to need to reassess if I can afford to do the same things next year. One thing I noticed while being forced to trade in the Euro is just how very expensive everything was. Not just because of our poor exchange rate, nor just because ski resorts tend to be expensive everywhere. The basic cost of everything for those in the Eurozone is just much higher than the amounts we pay for the same items. The friends who I travel with are, in general, quite a successful bunch, yet they were all talking about how the recession…
(or is it depression Gordon?)… is affecting them. Another thing I couldn’t help but notice is that everybody had an opinion on the current government and, with one single dedicated left-wing exception, those opinions were not pretty. These are not political people, not the sort of folk who are given to care about the government beyond their yearly tax bill. But the venom that was apparent when the Prime Minister’s name was mentioned was all too clear. That, even if there were no other evidence at all, would be enough to convince me that Labour are doomed. Hat tip to Dain Jensen, who organised this year’s trip and was responsible for it being such a success.

Free Speech
We’ve got Princes using racist language, Carol Thatcher called people ‘Golliwog’ and the press enjoying the whole furore with their usual gusto. I’ve been reading it all with increasing surprise that nobody ever seems to say anything that gets to the heart of the matter. The whole argument seems to be whether or not these public figures “should be allowed to” say things which may be deemed, by some, to be racially, religiously or ethnically-offensive. Frankly, I think this debate is missing the point. I don’t think that the government (or anybody else) has any right to tell people how they should speak, what they are ‘allowed’ to say, or what opinion they should have about others. We used to have a thing called Free Speech and it meant that, as long as you were not committing perjury, or inciting to violence or crime, your right to say what you felt (however unpleasant or unappealing to others) was protected by law. I believe in free speech passionately. Even when people are saying things I don’t accept, don’t want to hear, or find offensive. When the Powers That Be try to smother free speech they don’t change anyone’s mind, or win any sort of debate, they only shove the whole thing underground, while increasing their mindless ability to meddle with our lives. This assault on free speech, aka political-correctness, is an insidious and dangerous attack on our liberty. Having said that, Carol Thatcher is clearly an unpleasant, mindless idiot. Anybody who thinks that using the term ‘Golliwog’ to refer to somebody who is black, or partially-black, is the right thing to do is worthy only of contempt. And that’s the right way to deal with people who talk like this. Not by trying to enforce some kind of ‘right way to speak’ or by resorting to top-down control. But by trusting decent folk to take a look at the individual in question and realise just what sort of nasty piece of work they clearly are.

The House Of Lords
There are some dodgy folk in every arena in the world. It doesn’t matter where you go. There are always people involved for the wrong reasons, or in it for themselves, or who are seduced away from an honest path. The wrong thing to do is to presume that because there are one or two bad eggs, the whole carton is bad. The press love to tell you the dirty stories because that is what sells papers. But The House Of Lords does its job extremely well, despite ill-advised tampering by the most recent government, and is full of honest, decent people. This is true in every arena in the world. Let’s get rid of the bad eggs as and when we find them, without letting it colour our opinions in general. That’s a healthy way to deal with sleaze, isn’t it? I’m tired of letting opportunistic journalists force one knee-jerk concession after another. It doesn’t lead to improvement. It leads to chaos.

Posted in Libertarianism, Europe, Parliament, Conservatives | No Comments »

16/01/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Another Runway
“We have to have another runway at Heathrow,” We are told, over and over again, by those who support the expansion (including the Government and a whole lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum). They then go on to forebode in doom-filled phrases the ’serious economic consequences’ of ‘not providing a hub that meets business demand’. I’ve got a couple of things to say about that. First, we do not have to have another runway. We have to have air to breathe. We have to have food to survive. But outside of the bare essentials of life required by biological organisms like us, we do not have to do anything else. So let’s give the ‘have’ a rest for a while. We may want to. We do not have to.

Now I’ve got that out of the way let’s look at this a bit more clearly. This is a divisive issue. People on both sides of the argument have got fair points and the consequences of doing the wrong thing at this point could be very serious. Some people want a new or expanded airport in the North to encourage prosperity somewhere other than London. Others swear that Heathrow is a ‘preferred’ option for international business, citing concerns that we’ll lose trade to other countries with better airports, and worry about our future prosperity. Boris Johnson wants a new airport in the Thames Estuary. The people who live around Heathrow don’t want their homes and communities crushed by the wheels of industry and commerce. These are all perfectly valid arguments. On a serious matter like this we have to listen to one another, debate and discuss all the options and come up with the best one.

What we need is a place where all parties involved, indeed all areas of the country, send a preferred representative to speak on their behalf. Then, all those representatives could discuss the matter, representing all the views involved clearly and honestly. At the end of the debate they could then have a free vote and make a decision which would at least have the authority and weight of democracy behind it. What could we call such a place and such a group of people? Parliament has a nice ring to it. Isn’t it time the government stopped crushing our historic democracy and let our MPs do their jobs in the traditional way? If we wanted dictatorship there are a whole bunch of wars we needn’t have fought and a whole lot of brave young men who didn’t need to sacrifice themselves in the prime of their lives.

The Parliamentary Mace
Yesterday a Labour MP, John McDonnell, picked up the Parliamentary Mace and placed it in front of the Labour Front bench. The mace is a silver gilt ornamental club of about five feet in length, dating from the reign of Charles II. It symbolises the royal authority by which Parliament meets and also the authority of the Speaker. On each day that the House is sitting the mace is carried to the chamber at the head of the Speaker’s procession by the Serjeant at Arms. It is placed on the table of the House, except when the House is in committee, when it rests on two brackets underneath the table. Interfering with the mace constitutes gross disorderly conduct and is a contempt of the House.

It was a courageous thing to do. One which will probably blight his political career with his party. Whether or not you agree with him over the Heathrow debate, everybody surely has to admire his integrity. He is in parliament to represent his constituents. He could have blithely accepted the ‘party line’ and sat on his hands, but he did not. He did the job he was elected to do, despite the potential personal consequences. I have a lot of admiration for that.

School Footpath - Tydd St. Giles.
I attended the Tydd St. Giles Parish Council meeting this week. As usual it was a well-conducted and interesting meeting. In particular I was struck by one item on the agenda, the fact that a request for funds for important maintenance work on the footpath outside Kinderley Primary School was rejected by Joint Highways. This sort of thing winds me up and I’ll tell you why. I acknowledge that money isn’t available for everything that might need doing everywhere. Times are hard, the council has a budget which has to be carefully managed. People put in their proposals and only some can be chosen each year. But what worries me is that one of the things used to choose which work can be done is the record of reported accidents and fatalities. It may seem logical that an area of Highway that has had three accidents probably needs work more urgently than one which has none. But this is a school! The consequences of waiting to do work on the dilapidated footpath outside the school until it has a record of accidents or fatalities is that when the work is finally done it may be because a small child has been a victim of some potentially-serious mishap. That is not an acceptable way to make a decision. We should be doing work to protect people from injury as necessary, not as a knee-jerk response to blood already spilt! I am taking this one up on behalf of the people of Tydd St. I’ll ask some questions and let you know how I get along. Wish me luck!

Newton Parish Council
A Parish Council meeeting in the village of Newton this week was a hotbed of debate about the possiblity of funding from Fenland District Council to assist in the building of new housing. In general, the councillors were in favour of the plans and agreed to move forwards with it for further consultation. Some concerns were voiced about how the new housing might be used. The preference was for it to be offered first to existing residents. The Councillors wanted to avoid the new houses being used as a convenient deposit for people who had been moved on from other areas due to problems. The two District Council Housing Officers who had come along to discuss the plans confirmed that this was indeed the route they wished to take too and that residents would be given first refusal on the properties. So it all sounds good for Newton! Great news.

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