Going green in Freemantle!

Well some good news. The two glass re-cycling bins that I recently allowed the council to put in The Park Hotel car park were emptied for the first time on Friday. I was pleased to see that they were both nearly full and that it has been mostly members of the public that have been using them. My slight concerns about mess or noise have proved to have been unfounded.

The one question I keep getting asked is how much do I get paid for allowing the bins on my land?

The answer (sadly) is nothing!

And its goodbye from him !

I thought the above was a classic!
Beau Bo D'Or is a real talent, now with a shop!
http://www.bbdo.co.uk/blog/

'I am on your side'...but it may not be enough

"I'm on your side. This is a great turn-out. I know how much these allotments mean to you and Eastleigh as a whole. It is an absolute disgrace that the Liberal Democrat council is prepared to ride roughshod over your views. I'm here to help I wanted to show my support for the people who have put so much work, effort and care into these allotments over the years."

So said Michael Howard MP on a visit to Eastleigh in Febuary 2004.

Why is it that government is so remote from the people? A good example, local to me, can be found in the town of Eastleigh in Hampshire. In one of the biggest shows of protest ever seen locally, allotment holders in the town have been conducting a campaign to stop more than 500 homes being planted on their plots. In high-profile demonstrations, over 16,000 objections to development schemes from more than 5,000 people have been lodged against local plan policies affecting the sites yet still the Lib-Dems press on.
The local MP for the area, Chris Huhne, who happens to be Enviroment spokesman for his party does not want to get involved.
Last Thursday, Marian Hatt, 69, who has worked plots at the South Street allotment site in Eastleigh for more than 25 years, announced she is going take the issue to the High Court in a last ditch attempt to stop her plot being concreated over. Although she is being backed by the Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Allotments Association, her chances of success are at best slim. John Prescott had already rubber stamped the scheme.
Did the threat of court action lead to Eastleigh Borough Council reconsidering its decision? Of course not! As usual they responded with the news by issueing a statement that could at best be described as being one-sided. Noting that,"Fewer than 50 people now hold allotment tenancies on the site and many of these are not actively cultivated.” Keith House, the Council leader, did not feel the need to point out that the reason the allotments are in decline is that the council has banned anyone new from having an allotment on the site for the past three and a half years! Further, he doesn’t mention that the current waiting list for people now wanting an allotment now exceeds over 150 people in Eastleigh.
He goes on to say that there has been a long consultation period. There certainly has been with developers, builders and other Lib-Dem stakeholders. In contrast, the allotment holders throughout this sorry saga have been treated appallingly.
With the closure of the Manor Bakery site and Eastleigh Railway works releasing huge tracts of land for possible residential use, wouldn’t this be a good time for the Council to re-consider and save the allotments?

http://www.eastleigh-allotments-association.org.uk

A new chapter opens for Politicos...and Iain Dale.

My pictures above show Iain Dale pictured outside his shop with Jeremy Thorpe, the former leader of the Liberals and inside with some of his stock. Pictures copyright http://www.iaindale.com/

I received an email from Iain Dale last night saying that he had sold politicos website ending his ten year association with the 'Politicos' brand that he created with his business partner John Simmons. Although it is the website that is the last to go, it is probably the bookshop that was Iain's biggest success. To open a highly specialized bookshop in the heart of Westminster with an absolutely first class stock and great retailing standards and to succeed at making money at it without any previous experience of either retailing generally or the book trade was a real achievement. The clientele was pretty amazing too; I saw Diane Abbot, Peter Oborne and (I think) a wind-swept Simon Jenkins doing their shopping at different times on visits to the shop. After hearing Iain on a Radio Four program, I invited him to speak at a Southampton Test Conservative function and like the true gent he is, he came along and spoke brilliantly.

Another huge achievement was the establishing of the Politicos Publishing imprint. While there are a few publishers who had seen a gap in the market for relatively small run political books (I'm thinking of Robson and Continiuum as two fairly good examples), the big boys by virtue of a mixture of inertia and incompetence were missing all sorts of opportunities. Iain went on to re-publish some classics of the genre (Bernard Ingham 'Kill the Messenger...again', Sir Rex Hunt 'My Falkland Days') as well as some excellent new biographies (Sir John Nott 'Here Today Gone Tomorrow - Recollections of an errant politician', Jeremy Thorpe 'In My Own Time') to name but four. Politicos went on to sent up a web-site design business for the political community and an on-line book ordering business that went on to be quite successful. In the last few years the decision was taken to close the shop and concentrate on e-sales and sell the publishing business to Methuen. Eyebrows were raised when Methuen re-opened the premises in Artillery Row but things have never been the same since Iain ended his involvement there. It is a souless place now.

Iain has achieved great success with his blog and is one of the Conservative Party 'A-listers'. He wrote yesterday that he now going to concentrate on writing, broadcasting and an exciting new TV venture. Like everything else Iain does in business, I have no doubt that the TV in particular will be both innovative and fun. Good luck to him.

Alan Whitehead -In office but not in power

My picture shows Mr Whitehead hands raised on election night 2001. The Lib Dem candidate who was heavily defeated is pictured on the left of the photo, John Denham is ironically pictured on the far right! Two Labour stalwarts of the voluntary party are pictured in the back ground.

I don't know who Labour MP Alan Whitehead thinks put in the Lib-Dem administration that runs Southampton City Council in but in case he is not aware, I will tell him.
It was his Labour councillors on the Council; The Lib-Dems govern with Labour's support. Despite that, he has urged the city's Lib-Dem run council to do more to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

He is my reply to the local press;

Dear Letters Editor,

Labour MP Alan Whitehead latest attempt to win a headline by asking the Council to do more to tackle anti-social behaviour would be laughable if the issue he addresses was not so serious. Does he not realise that it is his Labour government who let out hundreds of thousands of offenders early, his government that lost control of illegal immigration and his government who has starved the police of resources in Hampshire? It is his government who has a Home Secretary who describes his department as ‘inadequate in terms of its scope, it's inadequate in terms of its information technology, leadership, management systems and processes’.
In a recent Home Affairs Select Committee meeting fellow Labour Southampton MP John Denham put it rather well when he said "Our report highlights many ways in which the administration and decision-making in the system could be improved, but the biggest single change must be a far more focused effort on enforcement.”
Mr Whitehead seems very out of touch so my advice would be to suggest his government recruites more police- lots of them.

Yours truly,

Matthew Dean

Southampton Test Conservatives.

Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw

Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw

Charles Kennedy achieved incredible things for the Lib-Dems. Despite being cast as the lightweight 'Chatshow Charlie' of programmes like 'Have I got News for You', he often seemed far more in touch with the public mood than either of the leader of the governing party or for that matter the official opposition. The Lib-Dems with their 'We Oppose..., We Propose...' poster campaign at the last general election featured Mr Kennedy prominently and in no small measure the public seemed to like what they saw. Against all the odds, the Lib-Dems held Romsey, Winchester, Eastleigh and Portsmouth and significantly increased their vote in Southampton Test just to look at the seats in the vicinity of where I live.
Now former Southampton Daily Echo reporter Greg Hurst has written a book about Charles Kennedy sub-titled A Tragic Flaw revealing not just the desperate state Mr Kennedy's alcoholism left him in but also revealing how senior Lib-Dems suppressed the illness from the electorate.

(Buy the book at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=5708 )
Funnily enough I had heard of Kennedy's problems back in 2003 from a Tory Councillor who had a relative who worked in Westminster. This was about the same time Hurst says that Kennedy planned a press conference where he planned to go public with his alcoholism before abandoning the plan at the last moment. I remember thinking at the time that based on his TV performances, it was very unlikely Kennedy was an alcoholic and I dismissed it as just another piece of untrue Westminster gossip- how wrong I was!
Unlike the public at large, I confess that I never much liked Kennedy, I found his manner irritating and some of his policies objectionable but I do feel sorry for him now. With the full glare of the media spotlight upon him, raking over every aspect of his personal life, he is in for a tough few weeks. The pressure on what seems to be a decent enough man fighting the illness of alcoholism and his family will be immense.
The book will also inevitably call into question the judgment of Sir Menzies Campbell and other senior Lib-Dems who not only suppressed the illness from the electorate but also lied directly when asked about Kennedy's ability to be leader. In Hampshire locally, Sandra Gidley and Chris Huhne were only too keen to be seen with Kennedy during the election before dumping him unceremoniously after. A number of my friends have drawn parallels between Kennedy's behaviour and the problems of Mark Oaten but I can't see the connection. I would arge that alcoholism is a disease while the use of prostitutes, albeit male ones to commit acts that are frankly revolting is surely both a lifestyle and a moral choice.
Politics itself is a rough game but on the evidence provided by Greg Hurst, it is a sadness that Mr Kennedy has been failed by both some of his friends and his party. They failed the country and the electorate too.

Update;

24 hours on, the press seem to have reached a similar conclusion. Today's Sun was particularly scathing;

Charles Kennedy was offering himself up to the country as a potential Prime Minister.
He was also a secret alcoholic.
While Kennedy drank like a fish, senior Lib Dem figures conspired to hide their leader’s crippling hangovers from the public. Among those who helped con voters at the last General Election was current party leader Sir Menzies “Ming” Campbell. His decision was a terrible error of judgment. Ming and his stooges dreamed up excuses for Kennedy’s absences after nights on the sauce. Now they claim they were protecting his right to privacy. But what about the rights of voters to know a candidate for PM was an alcoholic? Leadership often means making difficult decisions about people close to you. Campbell’s failure to disclose Kennedy’s problem in 2003 raises serious questions about his ability to lead. And confirms what we’ve known for years . . .
The Lib Dems couldn’t organise a drink-up in a brewery.
Or words to that effect.

Enoch Powell

One of the great things about owning a fairly busy pub is meeting such a wide array of different people as customers – from all different walks of life. However if you are not in the mood it can occasionally be a bit wearing- especially if the local bore is repeating one of his well worn anecdotes for the umpteenth time…
I am reminded of the story about the controversial former Conservative MP Enoch Powell who one day went to the House of Commons Barber for a short back and sides.
“How would you like your hair cut today ?”, said the Hairdresser cheerily.
“In silence”, replied Mr Powell...

By the way I got the photo from a vaguely amusing website which may make readers smile
http://213.230.203.210/~states/index.html