Ruth Kelly was asked a question in Parliament earlier this week by Brentwood MP Eric Pickles, in which she was asked about the implementations of the Lyons recommendations.
Her response was a classic piece of New Labour denial, in which she claimed that Labour "increased our majority" in Bolton, and took seats from the Conservatives, and this was a sign that the Conservatives were failing to make progress.
Funny, that's not what the BBC report. I'm not familiar with the individual ward results in the Bolton area, but according to the BBC, the Conservatives made a net gain in Bolton (albeit one seat, but its important to allow for the fact that only one third of the seats were up for grabs to start with). Labour also gained two seats, but both parties gained at the expense of the LibDems.
But it does rather beg the question of what she means by a majority when her local Council is a No Overall Control council.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Interest rate increases.
It is hard not to feel a slight amount of smugness at our decision two years ago to get a fixed rate mortgage - as of today, we're now at a rate lower than the Bank of England's base rate.
Watching the 10 o'clock news, which has been mostly focussed on the (long overdue) departure of Tony Blair, they did only a short piece on the rate increases. But couldn't the BBC have found a slightly more sympathetic person amongst the millions of home owners for whom the increase is not good news. They interviewed a young woman, who owned what looked like a very nice house in Hertfordshire. She had borrowed five times her salary and the report said that she had an increase of 150 pounds per month over this time last year (there's been a full percentage increase since last August). A quick calculation based on this article indicates that her mortgage must be about 230,000 - or her annual salary is about 46,000. She's worried because shock horror, she might have to take in lodgers.
Funnily enough, I'm not really that sympathetic that she might have to take lodgers - I did it myself in my single days as a deliberate strategy to get a slightly bigger property. And frankly, as a single woman earning that sort of money she's hardly the typical first time buyer. Surely the BBC weren't so distracted by the non news story of Blair's resignation* to not be able to find a better human interest/sob story about the rate rises.
Having said all that, it's faintly ironic the Gazette was carrying a front page article this week about how Brentwood was the most expensive borough in Essex, and expressing concern about the ability of first time buyers to get onto the ladder in the area - and the fact that the lack of first time buyers could be bad news for those of us who already own houses in the area.
* It's not "news" when the papers have been saying all week he's going to resign today.
Watching the 10 o'clock news, which has been mostly focussed on the (long overdue) departure of Tony Blair, they did only a short piece on the rate increases. But couldn't the BBC have found a slightly more sympathetic person amongst the millions of home owners for whom the increase is not good news. They interviewed a young woman, who owned what looked like a very nice house in Hertfordshire. She had borrowed five times her salary and the report said that she had an increase of 150 pounds per month over this time last year (there's been a full percentage increase since last August). A quick calculation based on this article indicates that her mortgage must be about 230,000 - or her annual salary is about 46,000. She's worried because shock horror, she might have to take in lodgers.
Funnily enough, I'm not really that sympathetic that she might have to take lodgers - I did it myself in my single days as a deliberate strategy to get a slightly bigger property. And frankly, as a single woman earning that sort of money she's hardly the typical first time buyer. Surely the BBC weren't so distracted by the non news story of Blair's resignation* to not be able to find a better human interest/sob story about the rate rises.
Having said all that, it's faintly ironic the Gazette was carrying a front page article this week about how Brentwood was the most expensive borough in Essex, and expressing concern about the ability of first time buyers to get onto the ladder in the area - and the fact that the lack of first time buyers could be bad news for those of us who already own houses in the area.
* It's not "news" when the papers have been saying all week he's going to resign today.
Young councillors....
Haven't had a chance to blog for a few days, but I should say congratulations to William Lloyd, who has become one of the country's youngest councillors. And extra brownie points for taking his seat off the LibDems.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Priorities
The BBC is reporting that the Attorney General has ordered a review of the sentences handed out to the mother, aunts and grandmother who encouraged a two year old and a three year old to hit and punch each other, while filming it and clearly enjoying it. They were each given suspended sentences of up to twelve months.
My darling wife bought a copy of the Sun last weekend to read in the car as we drove up to Manchester (honest, I much prefer the Telegraph) during which she started to read parts of the newspaper's report on the case. In the end, I had to ask her to stop as I was getting very irate at what was being reported - a mood not enhanced by my own little bundle of joy happily burbling away in the back seat at the time.
What really bothered me though was a few pages on there was a report on a guy who had been convicted of cruelty - he was also filming fights in his living room, and was sent to prison for four months. The difference - he was filming dog fights, not toddler fights.
Exactly what sort of a country is it where we send people to prison for cruelty and abuse of animals, but only give suspended sentences where children are involved?
My darling wife bought a copy of the Sun last weekend to read in the car as we drove up to Manchester (honest, I much prefer the Telegraph) during which she started to read parts of the newspaper's report on the case. In the end, I had to ask her to stop as I was getting very irate at what was being reported - a mood not enhanced by my own little bundle of joy happily burbling away in the back seat at the time.
What really bothered me though was a few pages on there was a report on a guy who had been convicted of cruelty - he was also filming fights in his living room, and was sent to prison for four months. The difference - he was filming dog fights, not toddler fights.
Exactly what sort of a country is it where we send people to prison for cruelty and abuse of animals, but only give suspended sentences where children are involved?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Iain Dale's Diary: The Irish Should Not Be Able to Vote in UK General Elections
Iain Dale's made a bit of a booboo with his The Irish Should Not Be Able to Vote in UK General Elections - as he acknowledges, UK Nationals do have the right to vote in the Dail elections, though not in referenda or Presidential elections. My father, a UK National, tells the story that the day the referendum was held coincided with a European election, and he turned up to vote in that election. He was given a ballot paper for the referendum, and when he pointed out he was British, the teller said "ah sure, then you'll definitely want to vote". I also remember one local politican calling to the house during the 1982 elections and saying "ah, they've never actually fined the Brits for voting" (for some reason my parents were still getting polling cards for the Dail elections).
There is another point that needs to made that may be relevant to Iain's posting. Before 1984, the anamoly was that UK nationals couldn't vote in Ireland, but Irish nationals could vote in Britain. At that point, many Irish citizens were probably able to claim UK nationality anyway, but Mrs Thatcher felt it was unfair. It is suggested that she told the Taoiseach (presumably Garret Fitzgerald) that she felt the anamoly should be corrected, and it was up to Garret which way it went (ie, the Irish could either give the UK nationals vote, or she'd revoke their rights).
Recognising a courageous decision when he saw one, Garret took the safe option.
There is another point that needs to made that may be relevant to Iain's posting. Before 1984, the anamoly was that UK nationals couldn't vote in Ireland, but Irish nationals could vote in Britain. At that point, many Irish citizens were probably able to claim UK nationality anyway, but Mrs Thatcher felt it was unfair. It is suggested that she told the Taoiseach (presumably Garret Fitzgerald) that she felt the anamoly should be corrected, and it was up to Garret which way it went (ie, the Irish could either give the UK nationals vote, or she'd revoke their rights).
Recognising a courageous decision when he saw one, Garret took the safe option.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Some interesting history
I've not been posting much recently - a combination of sport, work and the boy serving to distract me from politics and having time to post. I'm rather looking forward to the long Easter weekend, when I can relax a little.
The Daily Telegraph has recently been carrying letters on the theme of the clergy and railways. Typically, most of the letters have been about Anglican clerics (the Anglican clergyman most famous for his love of trains is of course the Rev W Awdry). However, a few days ago they carried a letter from the archivist of the Diocese of Brentwood, in which he suggests that part of the reason for the siting of the Diocesan head quarters in Brentwood was it's proximity to Shenfield junction.
The Daily Telegraph has recently been carrying letters on the theme of the clergy and railways. Typically, most of the letters have been about Anglican clerics (the Anglican clergyman most famous for his love of trains is of course the Rev W Awdry). However, a few days ago they carried a letter from the archivist of the Diocese of Brentwood, in which he suggests that part of the reason for the siting of the Diocesan head quarters in Brentwood was it's proximity to Shenfield junction.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Air taxes
I was in Ireland for the weekend, and was rather stunned to read on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph a report suggesting the Tories were going to propose rather punitive taxes on "excessive" air travel. The suggestion is that we'd each be "allowed" one short haul flight a year.
There are a couple of issues with this proposal. My family are in Ireland, so I suppose I could take the boat over instead - of course, I'll spend the day driving to Holyhead to meet the ferry. But if I look around at the group of people I work with - in my own team alone - we have people with family in India, Ghana, Nigeria, Barbados, Australia and Germany. Four of us are predominately UK/Ireland based, but as I've noted before, my wife is from Singapore.
So what exactly are we supposed to do when we want to visit our families? And no, the standard "now you've an excuse not to visit the mother-in-law" joke doesn't work when I actually enjoy going!
There are a couple of issues with this proposal. My family are in Ireland, so I suppose I could take the boat over instead - of course, I'll spend the day driving to Holyhead to meet the ferry. But if I look around at the group of people I work with - in my own team alone - we have people with family in India, Ghana, Nigeria, Barbados, Australia and Germany. Four of us are predominately UK/Ireland based, but as I've noted before, my wife is from Singapore.
So what exactly are we supposed to do when we want to visit our families? And no, the standard "now you've an excuse not to visit the mother-in-law" joke doesn't work when I actually enjoy going!
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