Michael Edwards for South Derbyshire

A Lib Dem Councillor I know runs a blog that is feted for being one of the wittiest written by a Lib Dem.  But recent glances suggest very little is being written about politics.  His latest entry is how he enjoys "Come Dine With Me". 

No, this is not going to be the third attack in a week for Lib Dems not having core values, triggered this time perhaps by envy of someone else getting recognition.  (It transpires that my winning Labour party web-site of the week back in 2000 doesn't count cos there was only fifty-two Labour web-sites back then so at some stage you were bound to win.)

No, no, it's just an expression of concern that may be I need to writing more about popular culture. 

So, OK, the celebrity who demonstrated a fear of walnuts in last week's "Come Dine with me" special was funny. 

Like the majority of TV viewers, I settled for BBC1 during the evening (with the obvious exceptions of "Strictly Come Dancing" and "Eastenders").  In truth, it seemed like the other channels weren't really trying that evening. 

Now, as write-ups go, that's got to be one of the most boring TV reviews you've ever seen.  So why even try? 

Well because of a Daily Mail article that bemoaned all the repeats on Christmas Day as viewing figures showed that BBC 1's figures were down on last year, despite dominating the airwaves that evening. 

And the Daily Mail analysis was clear - it was because of all the repeats. 

Except there weren't any. 

And I am again indebted to a web-site that I would nominate for an award - "Tabloid Watch" - which as early as the 10th December - http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2009/12/lack-of-repeats-on-prime-time-bbc1-over.html - exposed the lie and was exposing a campaign by the Express, Telegraph and Mail to characterise the BBC as showing repeats. 

P.S. You can find a similar set of points made in a blog entry I wrote in December 2008. 

P.P.S. I enjoyed last night "Miranda Hart's review of 2009", despite the rather flat attack on all the political parties.  I like the celebrity comments on events, particularly John O'Farrell's attack on Mastermind, which he said had clearly been dumbed down cos 50% of the marks were now given for coursework. 

Nick Clegg complained about politicians talking to people in soundbites yesterday, which the BBC duly reported as a soundbite. 

The reporter then struggled to keep a straight face as he said that Clegg had called for people to talk about what they believed in, which in Clegg's case is apparently fairness, which the reporter suggested was a "motherhood and apple pie" kinda thing to say. 

Well maybe, except we know that an inheritance tax break of a million pounds each for the wealthiest 3,000 estates is not about fairness.  (Inheritance tax is something the Tories were still banging on about on Monday.)

But trying to give Clegg's statement a fairer chance, I looked at his exhortation for politicans to say what they believe, and what came at the end was a series of policy intiatives rather than values. 

Now even Shirley Williams, when promoting her autobiography recently on the radio, managed to say something about the values that defined a Liberal Democrat, (something akin to) being fanatical about civil liberties (amongst other things - I was driving and couldn't write it down).  And this is what I would expect from Liberals whose values tend to argue about celebrating the individual.

Given that all main political parties share beliefs in freedom and politics as the way to direct a country and resolve conflicts between people, it can be a little simplistic to boil down the parties to a few words, but in terms of values, what distinguishes Conservatives is a belief in order and the existing order, what distinguishes Liberals is giving a primacy to individuals and what distinguishes Labour is emphasis on mutual progress and helping the disadvantaged. 

But any statement of beliefs is missing from Clegg's statement for a call to talk about beliefs.   

On Nick Clegg's complaints about Prime Minister's Question Time, there must be a lots of people who wonder why something that should be the showpiece of British politics is something that comes over so badly on television. 

Having witnessed it twice, I know it doesn't seem so bad if you're there, but that's not how most people are experiencing it. 

When TV was first introduced, I seem to remember that the prevailing view in the House of Commons was that cameras shouldn't intrude cos it would damage the debates and MPs' reputations, but I think MPs' reputations would be much improved if cameras were placed so as to show their faces rather than the tops of their heads, and there was a more visible reminder of the debates being engaging to the general public. 

Labour MP David Taylor has died after suffering a heart attack.

The North West Leicestershire MP was walking with his family on Boxing Day when he was taken ill.  A statement on his website said: "David was enjoying a walk with his family at Calke Abbey when he suffered a massive heart attack.  He was rushed to Queens Hospital, Burton on Trent, but they were unable to save him."

In his last Parliamentary report, David wrote –

“It has been an immense privilege to serve you, and I have tried to do so to the utmost of my abilities and energy.  While much more credit lies with others, I hope that I can say that I have contributed to the dramatic improvement in our area over those years – economically, environmentally and socially - with a growing population benefiting from better public services.” 

The Daily Mail reports that -

"As chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, David Taylor played a prominent role in lobbying ministers to introduce the smoking ban."  

"Paying tribute last night, Deborah Arnott, director of the anti-smoking campaign group Ash, said Mr Taylor was 'crucial in getting the smoking ban legislation through parliament'."   

Gordon Brown said:  

'David was one of the most hard working MPs locally and nationally - a great representative who felt and spoke up for the needs of his constituents.

"David has been a strong campaigner and representative of his community for decades – serving first as a District Councillor and since 1997 as the Labour and Co-Op MP. When I visited his constituency a few weeks ago I found enormous respect and admiration for what he has achieved as a local member of parliament.

“He was voted backbencher of the year in 2007 for his indefatigable campaigning, constant attendance in the Commons and his independence of mind - no greater tribute can be made to David’s lasting legacy as a local champion for North West Leicestershire.

 “David's contribution will be sorely missed by his friends, colleagues and constituents.

"Sarah and I are thinking today of his wife, Pamela, their four daughters and their wider family."

Phil Hope MP, Regional Minister for the East Midlands, said:

"I am shocked and saddened at this news and my thoughts are with his family at this time.  He was a great campaigner in the East Midlands, a very caring person and a popular local MP who believed deeply in the principles of social justice and co-operation.  He will be much missed."

Labour launched a new video for the “Back the Ban” campaign on Boxing Day.  Surf -

http://www.backtheban.com/ 

Also see statement by Hilary Benn -

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hilary-benn-the-public-supports-the-ban-so-what-are-the-tories-playing-at-1850410.html 

Talking politics on the doorstep in the run-up to the local and European elections was dominated by talk of MPs’ expenses. 

Many people work and are aware of how and for what they can claim expenses, and it doesn’t reflect the allowances system that was created for MPs in the eighties.

The recent round of declarations has prompted much less controversy and many local papers have reacted by saying that solace can be taken from the system to declare expenses now existing. 

So doorstep conversation have more recently been characterised by concerns over crime, ASB and immigrations cases reported in the tabloids. 

One morning in November, 3 households expressed their concern over a Bolivian who had been allowed to stay in the country cos he owned a cat – not true, but reported to me by people highly distressed by a notion that they were prepared to believe, promulgated by 3 opinion formers from 3 different newspapers. 

It says something of the struggle for Labour that where we’ve made progress – better schools and results, longer life and faster operations, more uniformed officers and crime down by a third – is hard to discuss in the noise generated by a media with no sense of ambition for the country. 

On Wednesday, I met a man full of praise for the way the NHS had treated and I think cured his prostate cancer, but alarmed by news on regional TV the night before, of a man having to pay for his own cancer drugs. 

Fear of teenagers is also high.  Same day, I caught Tony Robinson promoting his latest book, “Bad Kids”, when he explained that fear of teenagers goes back to at least the times of ancient Greece, when teenagers would wear hats that made it harder for them to be recognised.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0EyM-nhFmc     

Britain is not broken.  It will take more than tabloid talk to break it.  

TO BE COMPLETED

Barack Obama has acknowledged that the outcome of the Copenhagen summit is disappointing.  "I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen," he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.  "We were able to at least agree on non-legally binding targets for all countries -- not just the United States, not just Europe, but also for China and India, which, projecting forward, are going to be the world's largest emitters," he said.

Now it’s clear, that what was needed beforehand was stronger public support for action from the American public, so that their politicians would support a stronger stance (of more cuts in emissions that 17.5% of their 20 tons per person), and some kind of pressure from within China, that would have allowed agreement to a proper scrutiny of the target (of a 44% cut in emissions of 5 tons per person) they said they were prepared to undertake.  (Note that China had said they did not want a target a year ago.) 

[Note, John Prescott has sought to highlight the USA's shortcomings in the light of criticism of China (28th Dec.); that the US climate change special envoy focussed on projected total emissions and ignored the more transparent measure of pollution per capita; that Obama's offer of a 17% cut is wholly dependent on Congressional approval and will still be less than Kyoto targets; that Obama suggested there had been a period of "two decades of talking and no action" without reecognising that this was not true of countries who signed up to Kyoto.]

John Prescott has been forceful in arguing a legally binding agreement could not have been reached at such an event, the Kyoto agreement set-up by forty-six mainly industrial countries only being agreed legally at subsequent events.  http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/prescott+climate+deal+not+a+disaster/3470837 

One hundred and ninety-two countries have reached agreement to go to the next stage, agreeing a set of principles and taking them forward to conferences in Bonn and Mexico.  Compared to a year ago, we have targets for significant cuts in emissions from developed countries, significant action from developing countries, and finance to help the victims of climate change - the poorest people in the world including in Bangladesh. 

The Accord includes international backing for an overall limit of 2 degrees on global warming; agreement that all countries need to take action on climate change; and the provision of immediate and longer term financial help to those countries most at risk of climate change.

For the first time, the new Copenhagen Accord will also:

• List what each country is doing to tackle climate change – including economy-wide commitments to cut emissions by developed countries and actions by developing countries
• Introduce real scrutiny and transparency to ensure emission targets are put into effect, with mandatory reporting every two years for developing countries
• Provide billion of immediate short term funding from developed countries over the next three years to kick start emission reduction measures and help the poorest countries adapt to the impacts of climate change
• Commit developed countries to work to provide long term financing of 0 billion a year by 2020, a figure first put forward by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June of this year.

Key passage from the agreement -  http://centralcontent.fco.gov.uk/central-content/campaigns/act-on-copenhagen/resources/en/pdf/copenhagen-accord-auv  - include

“We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity.  We should cooperate in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries and bearing in mind that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries and that a low-emission development strategy is indispensable to sustainable development.” 

“Annex I Parties commit to implement individually or jointly the quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted ... by 31 January 2010”

There were also clauses on  -

• deforestation and forest degradation,
• providing scaled up, new and additional, predictable and adequate funding as well as improved access to developing countries (approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010 - 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation) and
• on development and transfer of technology.   

If we were to have interesting set piece events, we needed better ideas that TV debates moderated by David Dimbleby, Alistair Stewart and even Adam Boulton.  Alistair Stewart is very stuffy, and Dimbleby is arguably past it (he was given coverage of the Obama election and missed the significance of the Pennsylvania declaration). 

All three presenters are schooled in the notion that what’s interesting is catching people out on points of detail rather than developing a notion of ambition for the country, drawn from values. 

The suspicion remains that the campaign for such debates was only ever to make the media seem more important and rather than campaigns about vision and policy being allowed to develop, we now may be consigned to the talk being of election debates that “will be decisive”, and then the discussion in the run-up to the events of tactics, followed by dare I say it, a disappointment that the debates weren’t that interesting really.  (However, the notion that there was a dramatic drop-off in audiences after the first Obama-McCain debate is wrong.) 

Very few of the American debates have been that interesting, so much so that The West Wing turned its mock presidential debates between Santos and Vinick into un-moderated events, where the actors/politicians moderated themselves. 

Now that would have been interesting – Gordon Brown and David Cameron talking things through, together (sorry, I shouldn’t be barbarous, but I’m well past thinking Nick Clegg might have anything interesting to say), with no journalist (with a reputation to defend) seeking to intervene.  

Perhaps the most important event of the year has been the discovery of dark matter.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/17/dark-matter-detected 

Yeah right, I hear you say.  But previous discoveries in physics has led to so much change in the last century (micro-electronics, magnetic-resonance imaging, nuclear power and weapons etc.) and six per cent of the British economy is still said to come from current research in physics. 

The theory that the universe was created by a big bang required the universe to have four times the amount of matter that physicists could find.  So a theory of an almost inert matter, “dark matter”, existed was developed that would explain the missing three-quarters of the universe, proposed as long ago as 1933.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter   

The new evidence consists of two types of particles detected by highly sensitive detectors at the bottom of the Soudan mine in Minnesota and photos of distant galaxies taken by the Hubble telescope. 

Further evidence for the one-quarter – three quarters theory comes from our attempt to get through our 11lb Christmas turkey (“sorry, we can only get you a small one”).  By the evening, we’d managed one leg and 2 wings.   

Transpires that this is not sufficient evidence, and indeed, the announcement of the detection of particles in the mine was qualified by a one-quarter chance that it was an error – which seems high to me.  It's to be hoped that the discovery is not a different kind of turkey. 

Radio show presenter Simon Mayo challenged MPs from the 3 parties to say something nice about their opponents or their policies yesterday.  Labour MP Jon Cruddas quickly said that he supported the Tories' latest proposals to require Members of Commons and the Lords to pay tax in the UK.

Why is saying something nice about the opposition difficult for politicians?  Often, it isn't.  Commons debates are mostly very polite and members often acknowledge others' expertise and efforts. 

But a serious political party will have drawn their policies through their core values and should either be clear that their policies are right or start getting them changed. 

Still, people find bickering between parties a turn-off.  So ...

... how to react to David Cameron's initiative to work with Tescos, Marks & Spencers and local councils to drive on with insulation - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/15/david-cameron-energy-efficiency-copenhagen - announced in the Guardian?  As a spoiler to Gordon Brown's arrival in Copenhagen -  whoa! - I'm not supposed to be saying that kind of thing in this article. 

OK, so if I'm being nice, it would be trite to say £20 billion is not enough - whoa!  The Guardian says the scheme "would tackle more than 30% of UK carbon emissions by offering 6 million households the chance to get £6,500 worth of energy-efficiency measures".  (Has the Guardian got that right? Only 8% of our emissions come from buildings.)

The Guardian's report says "Cameron sees the idea for a "localist green revolution" as an answer to his fear that what he describes as the current top-down climate change agenda is "in danger of starting to lose people"." 

"Speaking as Gordon Brown arrived in Copenhagen for the climate change summit, the Conservative leader said: "If the environmental agenda becomes limited to well-suited politicians stepping out of aeroplanes on to tarmacs, telling people how to live their lives and sounding like everyone else will just have to sit in a darkened room, wearing woollies with the lights turned off and the heating down, we are not going to get anywhere."

""People do not like being lectured. You have to take people with you, and the way to do that is to connect individual behaviour and rewards, and help people see the advantages of going green. We have to have carrots as well as sticks.""

Whoa - a lot of barbs in there.  Maybe I can be forgiven my two. 

So how do we make change?  I've always been uncomfortable with the notion of carrots and sticks. Why, in any campaign to take people forward, would you equate people with donkeys? 

And the problem for those of us seeking change, is that we as individuals, families or at work in business or public services, rarely have environment our main concern.  It's not that people don't care, we're just mainly focussed on other things. 

And one of the few things that we generally accept as a legitimate control of what we do is money.  And the cost of the greenhouse gases we emit rarely reflects the price we have paid. 

Hence, Gordon Brown has arrived in Copenhagen, landing on a tarmac runway (whoa!), dressed in a suit (whoa!), sounding off (whoa!), to seek a deal on carbon trading.  (See how barbed Cameron can be?)  This top-down initiative, can't be locallist,  (And we can't solve climate change by cycling to work, followed by a car carrying your change of clothes - whoa again!)

Signs from Copenhagen do not appear to be good and it's apparently 18 hours behind schedule.  And the organisers didn't properly plan for tens of thousands of people wanting to directly witness events.  It's going to take some skill and knowledge in the world arena to negotiate the deal. 

As for Cameron's plan on insulation.  Well yes, I have at conferences adapted Tony Blair's catch-phrase and called for "Insulation, Insulation, Insulation."  But there are better examples of partnerships using "warmfront" money for systematic programmes of insulation that we should build on and we need to do more to tackle the insulation of solid-walled houses. 

We need to change our taxation from road vehicle tax and fuel tax to a national road user pricing scheme that funds better public transport, so that we can make commuting greener. 

Lower fuel prices and a public transport are benefits that people could relate to. 

TO BE UPDATED, not least for the spelling.   

Whilst we wait for the Tories to announce their tax and spending plans, a quick summary of the progress made in South Derbyshire shows –

·         around 530 extra NHS staff serving us since 1997;   

·         1,300 waiting 13 weeks or more for treatment in 1997, as opposed to around 35 now;  

·         Notionally 30 more police officers serving us now;  

·         4 Sure Start Children’s Centres;  

·         80 extra primary school teachers in our schools;

·         120 extra secondary school teachers in our schools;

·         260 extra teaching assistants and 130 more support staff;  

·         Business payment support arrangements for 400 businesses, probably worth £7m (in the last year);  

·         6,000 children’s trust vouchers issued;  

·         Over 4,000 households receiving pension credits, helping the elderly most in need;  

·         Nearly 7,000 families receiving the child element of the family tax credit, to help over 13,000 children;  

·         Over 14,000 families receiving child benefit, to help nearly 27,000 children.  

TO BE UPDATED

Was in a debate on the Tobin tax yesterday.  (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax  )

Gist is, tax financial transactions (especially currency transactions) cos it can change the behaviour of speculators and place more emphasis on the importance of value and worth, rather than price.  And meanwhile, the slightest amount of tax on each transaction can yield billions. 

Now we used to have a share transaction tax in Britain, but Thatcher got rid of it.  And no doubt part of the argument was that shares would merely be traded elsewhere in the globalised economy, cos they were taxed here.  (Another example of how Keynesian ideas were undermined by globalisation.) 

But now there’s an opportunity for agreeing such taxes at an international level so that it’s done everywhere, and the money raised could be used for development in poorer countries and to mitigate climate change. 

The head of the Financial Services Authority kicked the idea off again, Gordon Brown has spoken for it, as I believe have the French and the Germans.  Even the speculator who ripped Britain off on Black Wednesday in 1992 supports it. 

The proposal was endorsed at last week’s meeting of European leaders and advocated in an Observer editorial on Sunday (  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/13/editorial-tobin-tax-gordon-brown  ). 

Slightly surprisingly, the Tories in the debate wanted to argue that the idea was a distraction from the current economic and public finances debate.  As if somehow, the pre-Budget report hadn’t been given enough attention.  To which I pointed out, we were still waiting for their proposals for public expenditure. 

TO BE UPDATED

Says something for modern PR that David Cameron is able to get coverage in the media by saying he won't be distracted by talk of an March election.  Hmmmm. 

Same day, he's given coverage for  saying that non doms cannot be in Parliament, when perhaps a simple change to Tory party rules would have solved the problem. 

So another day is allowed to pass without the Tories saying what their tax and spending plans are.

TO BE UPDATED

An interesting meeting hosted by Mark Todd MP, yesterday in Swadlincote, on the challenges posed by climate change. 

Timed halfway through the Copenhagen summit, members of the public met and gave suggestions for persuading people that change is needed, what people and communities can do to support change, and what public agencies (especially local ones) can do to assist. 

No doubt, Mark will be publishing the outcome of the event soon. 

-

Nationally, and internationally, we will need to find a way of pricing greenhouse gas emissions, since in making choices, price is what we’re all used to when making choices.  This may more naturally drive the development and deployment of new technologies to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  And push on better energy efficiency. 

Since businesses and public agencies generally have well-defined priorities, it’s hard to require that they make the environment their top priority, so care and concern for the environment needs to be woven in to their service and project plans.  For instance, the latest new schools and refurbished schools are being commissioned for excellence in supporting the education of our children, but are being constructed to higher environmental standards (called BREAM).  Including the environment in the audits of public agencies will also introduce more accountability. 

Given South Derbyshire rates poorly in the East Midlands in terms of the energy-efficiency of our homes, better insulation (and lower fuel bills) should offer opportunity to make an easy impact, and the Government are helping by proposing a “scrap a boiler” scheme in this week’s pre-Budget report. 

Other challenges include –

·         a better network of bus services, with perhaps a greater role for community transport if operators like Arriva can’t do it; 

·         better re-use and recycling of waste, including more anaerobic digestion, now that the technology exists to pump the methane produced into the existing mains network; 

·         catching up with northern Europe on some of their basic practices of ground-source heat pumping, taking advantage of the temperature 20 feet underground always being 12 degrees centigrade.

Helping the third world develop in a green way, to make up for our centuries of burning fossil fuels, was announced on Friday in conjunction with our partners in the European Union. 

TO BE UPDATED. 

Liam Byrne has just appeared on Newsnight and explains that 60% of the new taxes being raised will be paid by the highest earners - 5% of the people. 

And if the Tories are to cut the debt faster, for instance halving the deficit in 3 years instead of 4 years, they'd need to cut spending by a further £26 billion next year. 

This was confornted by Kirsty Wark waving a Sun front page claiming Labour was screwing more people than Tiger Woods.  I have no idea how many people that is.  One web-site talks about 13 mistresses, but I'm not sure who can know.  But have the Sun thought it through?  Has Kirsty Wark? 

We need better journalism, of course.  Michael Crick has just said voters will be confused about the difference between the parties - no wonder if they watch Newsnight.   Hey ho.   

To find out more about the statement, surf  - 

   http://www.labour.org.uk/pbr-2009 

   http://www.labour.org.uk/pre-budget-report-2009 

   http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/prebud_pbr09_repindex.htm 

      including - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pbr09_completereport.pdf 

TO BE UPDATED  

Gordon Brown is striking today in stating that he regards tackling climate change as a challenge on a level with tackling -

• slavery,
• women's oppression,
• mass unemployment or
• nuclear war

and thus something we should determine to crack. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/06/gordon-brown-climate-change-copenhagen

Gordon re-iterates the point about the science demonstrating the problems we face are man-made. 

"so I will take on with evidence, argument and moral passion all the anti-science and anti-change environmental Luddites who seek to stand in the way of progress" 

I have elsewehere written to explain my take on the science - http://www.labourblogs.com/public-blog/michaeledwards/19945/ 

I would add, even if the climate was changing becuase of natural chnage sin the sun's and earth's behaviour, I'd still sya we should be reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, cos we need to cool the planet down, espcially cos this is the first age when the human investment in cities, town and villages that is at risk from rising seas and extreme weather is so immense. 

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT FINISHED

--  For a write-up on my climate change opinions and previous speeches, visit - http://www.labourblogs.com/public-blog/michaeledwards/19945/  --

Bigger than planned for, the Wave demonstration has been a success, if slightly surreal with us all dressed in blue. 

For those of us at the tail, we've missed the drama of the wave around the Houses of Parliament - we were still 45 minutes away. 

Demo organisers said 50,000 had attended.

I happened to meet up with the Derby Campaign against Climate Change (who had organised 3 buses instead of the usual 1) and they feature in the photos below. 

Amazing how people still feel the need to get in on others' photos.  But it was a happy rally. 

With the 4 members of the Derby campaign who had to carry their banner - over 100 others were off having fun elsewhere.  (  http://derbyclimatechangecampaign.ning.com/  )

Strangely, the camera chose to adopt a very blue hue (as we arrived at the Commons, just after the sun had set). Some of the art was amazing. 

Further reading. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/03/the-wave-march-live-blog 

http://www.labourblogs.com/public-blog/michaeledwards/19945/

http://www.me4sd.com/act-on-co2 

Mark Todd MP is holding a round table discussion on ‘Changing our Lifestyle’ on Saturday. 

The  Climate Change Act is in place with its challenging targets for reducing carbon emissions.  To coincide with COP15 the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Mark thought it would be interesting to get some thoughts from South Derbyshire on the practical action which needs to take place to support government implementation of climate change legislation.

If you are interested in taking part, please write to Mark's office using the Freepost address: Mark Todd MP, FREEPOST, MID23132, Swadlincote, Derbyshire.  DE11 9BR, supplying name, address and telephone number.

TO BE UPDATED.

TO BE WRITTEN

So it seems, England have been drawn into the "Group of Life" for next year’s World Cup.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/dec/04/england-world-cup-2010  The life and death analogies have stemmed from Bill Shankley's famous remarks. 

Groups have got much easier since the number of competing countries doubled, so whatever the hype, we should remember that the group stages are invariably dull and that it’s always the quarter-finals or semi-finals that are England’s problem in the World Cup (taking Bobby Charlton off too early, Keegan missing an open goal from 6 yards after 6 weeks injury, Maradona’s handball, losing to Germany on penalties, losing to Argentina on penalties after Beckham was sent off, losing to Brazil cos Beckham jumped out of a tackle, and losing to Portugal on penalties after Rooney was sent off).  “Thirty years of hurt” was not written cos it rhymed with “3 lions on the shirt”. 

After each of these defeats comes a realisation that the high wages paid to Premiership footballers for their skills has not stopped the ball bouncing off English players every time it’s passed to them.  And the suspicion remains that we still won’t be able to get Gerrard and Lampard to play together, that Lampard may again combine most shots attempted with lowest rate of success and that we’re still short of left-footed players.  

So I look forward to less hype this time around – as if. 

It is a shame that the life and death analogies are still drawn to football, not least cos of the effigies of Beckham hung from street lamps in 1990 and the murder of a Latin American footballer after he scored an own goal that led to the elimination of his team from the 1994 competition (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar  ). 

Algeria are in England’s group, and were one of the last nations to qualify, having needed a reply of the play-offs against Egypt.  I was in Egypt at the time and the Egyptians I spoke to were very hopeful of qualification, having forced a play-off with a last minute equaliser.  I ventured that should they lose, Egyptians would want to support England – defying the history of Empire and the Suez Crisis (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis  ).  Politely, Egyptians explained that African and Arabic unity would mean they’d be backing Algeria.  However, mistreatment of Egyptians fans after they lost the play-off was pumped up and led to disturbances in the country (  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/24/egypt-cairo-football-riots  ) and it’s quite possible they will be backing England on Friday 18^th June. 

TO BE UPDATED

Congratulations to South Derbyshire's Jonathan England, who won young activist of the year at the East Midlands Labour Party Regional Awards night (on Friday).

And he came second in the sit-down bingo too. 

The event was hosted by John Heppell MP, who made people sit down in the Heads and Tails if they predicted the toss of the coin correctly.  That can't be right. 

Harriet Harman attended for the awards ceremony.

TO BE UPDATED

I'm going to "The Wave" demonstration in London.  See http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-wave 

Many thousands of people will circle the Houses of Parliament. We're to wear blue gloves or paint our hands blue.  Then wave our hands, perhaps in conjunction with a Mexican wave? 

This will constitute a blue wave - I suspect the effect will look better from a distance - just like the Millennium "river of fire" firework display, or the human Stars and Stripes described once by Garrison Keillor.  

Cos I don't happen to have a pair of blue gloves, I'm hoping a couple of corner-shop blue shopping bags, secured at the wrist with elastic bands will suffice.

The Copenhagen conference is a change for the world to take another step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Ed Miliband is leading a campaign as the British Cabinet Minister responsible and information on why the Copenhagen conference matters is available here - http://www.edspledge.com/why-we-need-a-deal  as well as information on what you can do to help - http://www.edspledge.com/ 

Please see also -  http://www.me4sd.com/act-on-co2

TO BE UPDATED    

It seems the endorsement of David Cameron's Tories by the Sun is already starting to wear thin.

Kelvin MacKenzie said yesterday -

Zac Goldsmith "represents the rich boys club which so dominates the leadership of the Tory Party ...

I worry that they don't really understand the ordinary working man and woman in this country ...

The trouble is, I'm not sure that the Tories haven't simply become a Jobcentre Plus for Old Etonians

I'm grateful to Luke Akehurst for bringing this story to my attention -

http://lukeakehurst.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-sun-already-turning-against-cameron.html 

TO BE UPDATED

Good to see Gordon Brown well on form today at Prime Minister's Questions. 

Brown on Cameron – "The voice may be that of a modern public relations man. The mindset is that of the 1930s."

Gordon Brown is confident again, knowing the economic recovery is coming, and that the bold trans-national agreements he led the negotiations on are having an impact.  Our priority remains – secure the economic recovery. 

Brown on Cameron – “The more he talks, the less he actually says.”

The Tories meanwhile are saddled with commitments for tax breaks for the rich which mainly help a few thousand people in the constituency of Kensington & Chelsea, which includes Notting Hill where Cameron lives.  A Tory front bench of millionaires who were privately educated are blind to the real needs and priorities of the British people and it shows. 

Monday's trip finished with meeting Labour MPs in Stranger's Bar.

Labour MPs are in a good mood.  

And news had just broken about a high profile and very wealthy Tory - Zac Goldsmith - is standing as a Tory candidate for Parliament even though he is a "non dom" - British but not domesticated so as to avoid paying British tax.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/01/cameron-goldsmith-non-dom-status 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/01/cameron-gifts-nondoms-toxic-tories 

TO BE UPDATED

Had just finished meeting Richard Rosser, a previous General Secretary of the TSSA and now member of the House of Lords, and arrived in Stranger's Bar, to find Mark Todd was advertised as speaking on the annunciator, so dashed up to the public gallery to watch him speak on the Financial Services Bill. 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm091130/debtext/91130-0017.htm 

TO BE UPDATED

The main reason for visiting Westminster was to hear Andrew Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, speaking to the London Political Committee of my trade union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA). 

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association has members in a range of businesses and services, but in particular in the railways.  It is now the 8th largest trade union affiliated to the Labour Party.  50 TSSA members attended.

Andrew stressed 3 main themes concerning the future of the railways, a green and efficient transport system particularly well-suited to getting people to and from main centres.

First main aim is add capacity and accessibility to the existing system.  Longer trains, longer platforms and higher capacity trains.  An increase in investment for railway stations had just been announced, and as a cyclist, Andrew is keen to see better cycling facilities at railway stations.  

Second main aim is further electrification.  At only one-third of the British network, electrification is one of the lowest in all of Europe's networks, and as a nation Wales joins only Albania as a European nation with no electrification at all.  A £1,200 million programme of electrification for the next nine years has been announced and more needs to be done for the major routes, which would include the Midland Main Line, serving Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. 

Third main aim is the introduction of a High Speed Rail network to Britain, building on the single line serving London from the Channel tunnel (known as HS1).  The growing demand for transport can be met by High Speed Rail, often able to halve journey times.  The Japanese started 45 years ago and France & Italy started 30 years ago.  Most European countries have high speed rail, although China are planning to have more than the rest of the world combined.  In Britain, plans are being drawn up for a High Speed 2 line, serving Birmingham and Manchester and Scotland, but also exploring Heathrow, Liverpool, and Nottingham, Sheffield & Leeds.  The development of HS2 line will be phased and more detailed plans are due in December for the first part of the line to serve Birmingham, to start running services in 15 years time. 

Andrew's final message was that these main aims can only be sustained if we in the railways demonstrate that the railways can deliver, but if we can, then we can show that this is not so much the age of the train, as it could be the century of the train.   

His vision for the railways pleased the meeting ("Thanks for being a Transport Minister who knows what he's talking about").

Meanwhile, had a quick chance to talk to Andrew afterwards and hope to meet with him again to discuss more fully the bus and rail issues in South Derbyshire. 

TO BE UPDATED

The notes above are the base of an article for the trade union's journal. 

During flood meeting, Gordon Brown was making a statement on Afghanistan. 

The announcements on Afghanistan by Brown and Obama this week show both a determination to deal with the fundamentalists who threaten our security and who threaten the role of women in Afghan society. 

And the plans recognise what we have all always known – you don’t conquer Afghanistan, you work to enable Afghanistan to run itself, strong enough to stand up to the fundamentalists.

TO BE UPDATED

Met Huw Irranca-Davies to talk about the Flood and Water Management Bill. 

South Derbyshire was not significantly affected by the recent wet weather, but there are flood threats associated with all the rivers running through the constituency. 

I raised points on civil defence, processes for seeking increased drainage capacity in a street, overview of flood tanks, and the role of third parties in keeping their drainage facilities such as culverts clear.

• With Huw Irranca-Davies, Minister for the Natural Environment.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/about/who/ministers/irranca-davies.htm 

The Bill addresses the recommendations from Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the summer 2007 floods that required legislative change.  (Surf - http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/pittreview/thepittreview/final_report.html)  It will give the authorities that manage flood risk better powers to do so, putting principal local authorities in charge of dealing with local flood risk and the Environment Agency in charge of overseeing flooding and coastal erosion nationally. 

Surf - http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/documents/policy/fwmb/factsheet-individual.pdf 

TO BE UPDATED

In addition to the provisions in the Bill, the Government is providing more funding than ever before for maintenance of traditional flood defences to protect communities around the country.

In announcing the Bill, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:

“We must do everything we can to try to reduce the chances of something like the 2007 floods happening again, although we know that in future climate change will bring more extreme weather including heavier rain, and we’ve seen from the weather in the last couple of weeks that the risk of flooding is very real.

“Sir Michael Pitt’s report recommended important changes – the Flood and Water Management Bill will implement the most important of these to provide better management of flood risk, clarify responsibilities, protect water supplies, and safeguard community groups from unaffordable rises in water bills.”

The measures in the Bill will build on the action the Government has taken since the devastating floods of summer 2007 to ensure that the five million people living in flood risk areas around the country are better protected.

Arriving at Westminster I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard which featured a Lib Dem change to their mansion tax plan.

Now I've never really understood why the Lib Dems got into this, cos they hate the existing property tax - the Council tax and keep saying income taxes are fairer (but a local income tax would hit young workers and families hard). 

So how did they end up with a new type of property tax as a flagship policy? 

And then it turned out that the threshold they'd set of taxing properties worth over one million pounds would fall disproportionately in the constituencies they're seeking to hold. 

Hence the change to a threshold of £2 million. 

This still wouldn't tackle how they'd determine which houses / mansions are worth more than £2,000,000.  House prices do vary so and have gone down as well as up.  Would-be payers would have every incentive to appeal since the tax is not a generalised band tariff, but to be 1% of the estimated value per year.  Households very close to the threshold would be very determined to appeal, so all-in-all, this seems like a tricky tax to implement.  (OK - for houses recently sold, their value is much clearer - but there were just 86 properties in the whole of England and Wales that were bought for £2m or more (July 2009) according to the Land Registry.) 

- 

A number of Lib Dems tax proposals show the same kind of muddle.  ----> 

·       Raising Personal Allowances to £10k: The Lib Dems have underestimated the cost of their headline tax policy by over £5bn. They have claimed this costs only £16.5 billion. But figures already available on the Treasury website show that increasing the personal allowance from around £6500 to £10,000 next year would cost over £22bn (i.e. each £100 rise costs £650m for tax year 2010/11)

·       The Lib Dems claim they could save £5bn from closing loopholes, but these figures are just plucked from the air. Even Vince Cable admitted at the press conference today, they were just hunches.

·       The Lib Dems say they would raise £2.2bn from replacing Air Passenger Duty with a per plane tax. But Budget 2009 (p154) shows that switching back to this proposal would raise only another £190m next year. The Government announced it would switch from the ‘Aviation Duty' single plane tax that it consulted on to the Four-Band Air Passenger Duty that came into effect on 1 November 2009. The Lib Dems seem to have missed this.  

TO BE UPDATED  

Travelling down to London - Dara O'Briain cites reasons why the English should be proud of England in Metro newspaper; "This country is massively successful - you're hosting the Olympics, you host the world's most illustrious golf tournament, tennis tournament and football league.  You're one of the world's largest economies and a major player on the political stage.  But you'd think from some people constantly saying how s***e the place has become that England has gone to the dogs.  That's kind of frightening." 

OK, it falls short of citing a list of the Labour government's greatest achievements - although Tony Blair did spend 3 days with delegates to persuade the Olympics organisers to choose London - but it's another counter to the mood of fear and pessimism driven by the media. 

 TO BE UPDATED 

When Claudius tells Pollio that he is one of Rome's two greatest historians and names Livy as the other, Pollio presses Claudius to choose one as "two greatest is just shilly shally apart from being an abuse of the Roman tongue."

Ever the diplomat, Claudius responds by saying that it depends on what he is reading for.  

He would read Livy for beauty of language. 

He would read Pollio for interpretation of fact.  

And he would read John O’Farrell’s “An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain: or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always” if he just wanted to laugh out loud.  

It’s nice to be reminded of events and stories from our recent past, knowing that the stories may not be comprehensive collection, and are generally followed up with an anecdote and a punch-line.  Good holiday reading. 

So might be Ben Elton’s “Meltdown”.  However, this satire on the credit crisis and politics seems more convincing when talking about the nature of wealthy people’s parties and their problems with child minders.  And  - WARNING if you don't want to know how the story turns out, look away now - it turns out the main characters are saved when they start to write successful books.  Hmmm.

TO BE UPDATED.

Back from holiday and straightaway off to Westminster to meet Ministers on Monday morning. But already, I'd noticed a change in the political mood. 

People are beginning to wonder why the rich need extra help at this difficult time.  The Tories are saddled with commitments for tax breaks for the rich which mainly help a few thousand people in the constituency of Kensington & Chelsea, which includes Notting Hill where Cameron lives.   

Cameron was also kind of "apologising" for claims concerning a Muslim group made in last week's Prime Minister's Questions which weren't true.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8387063.stm 

Alarmist claims are common in the right-wing tabloids.  I often have to deal with stories on the doorstep that prove to be a nonsense.  A typical example was the Bolivian who'd been granted permission to stay in the country cos he owned a cat.  People were angry about that.  But the story wasn't true. 

You have to search the internet to find the real story - http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2009/10/eamonn-holmes-cant-think-for-himself.html - but by then I guess it's too late.  The Bolivian had been in a steady relationship with an English woman for 4 years and if the Home Office had only followed its own guidelines, the case would not have even got to appeal. 

But these stories do upset people.  I'd bought the latest Private Eye on my return and on page 4, a cartoon shows a patient seeking help from his G.P.  The G.P.'s verdict - "Blood pressure a bit high.  Cut down on the Daily Mail and increase your broadsheet intake."

TO BE UPDATED