Support Your Local Sheriff

This video is dedicated to all local government officers trying to satisfy councillors' and residents' demands with inadequate resources!
In this film, James Garner plays a new sheriff who is provided with a brand new jail - the only things is, the bars haven't arrived yet. So he has to manage by using a little bit of red paint and his strong powers of suggestion....

Essex and IBM

I don't normally link to Conservativehome. But there's an important article on there tonight about Lord Hanningfield's plans for Essex County Council. The writer clearly thinks it's a great idea:

IBM have won the huge £5.4 billion, eight year, contract from Essex County Council for a mass privatisation of their services. This follows a report in March that IBM were competing for the contract with TI Systems. It promises to leave Essex residents very well placed to withstand the inevitable coming squeeze on Town Hall budgets.

But the comments from readers on there are generally very 'anti'. It seems that a lot of Conservatives don't think this kind of mass privatisation will work out best. Here's some typical responses:

Is IBM going to be used like a quango, hiding real responsibility away from voter accountability even further? What happens when Essex come to renegotiate and they no longer have the organisation to do anything other than agree to IBM's renewal terms (a problem often encountered by those outsourcing in industry - usually after the manager who negotiated the outsourcing has left)

Another bunch of politicians proving they haven't got the guts or the foresight to make the hard decisions themselves. Instead they hand it over to another fat obese global monster.
The only piece of good news here is that Essex are saving some money short-term. The bad news, and there is plenty of it, is that like most other IT outsourcing ventures, the service quality but not scope will fall significantly, jobs will be lost (with the taxpayer no doubt footing the bill - what are the redundancy and early retirement packages like in Essex?), medium term prices will go up (everything will become an extra cost) so long term it will become even more expensive than keeping it in-house, data security (and it is Essex people's data remember) will go out of the window and IBM no doubt using their usual methods will have got another government body's scrotum firmly in their hands.

This is the text book Thatcher/ Major mistake that opened the door to the extreme waste of resources in Government on IT over the last 20 years.

Short term gain - long term misery. Will they never learn! The thing is once you have outsourced there is virtually no chance of going back in house - the knowledge drain is far too great.

PS And I'm no leftie! Just someone who has worked in the IT game long enough to know a bit about it.
Britain tomorrow? - god help us!

Essex Village Life In the Grim Old Days- Water By The Bucket, Misappropriated Funds, And Poverty.

I'm grateful to Jonathan Calder for pointing us in direction of a website created by an outfit called Millbanksystems. It is basically an online register of what anyone has said in parliament in the last 200 years.

This may seem dull, but if you search for certain words- for example the name of your village or town- you can obtain some pretty illuminating information about what things were like in the good old days bad old days.

For example, I searched and found each of the 21 times the Essex village of "Canewdon" has been mentioned in parliament between 1803 and 2005. Why would an MP want to mention Canewdon? Not for very positive reasons. It's easy to build up a picture of just how grim life used to be. For example from 1924:

20 February 1924 vol 169 c1765W 1765W

§ Mr. HOFFMAN

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware that the villagers of Canewdon, Essex, have to pay per bucket for water; and if he will make representations to the Rochford Rural District Council to secure adequate facilities being provided?

§ Mr. WHEATLEY

My attention has been drawn to this matter, but I will have inquiries made.

there was something irregular going on in 1897:

CANEWDON CHARITIES, ESSEX.
HC Deb 03 August 1897 vol 52 cc239-40 239

MR. J. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)

I beg to ask the hon. Member for Thirsk, as Charity Commissioner, whether it has been reported to the Charity Commissioners that the Trustees of the Canewdon, Essex, Charities, have for many years annually voted out of the charity funds a sum of money to the vicar of the parish for a treat to the children of the day schools, and that only part of that sum has been expended for that purpose, the rest being spent on hymn books and prayer books for the Church Sunday schools; whether such an appropriation of the charity funds is legal; and what action have the Charity Commissioners taken in the matter?

§ MR. HANBURY

My hon. Friend has asked me to say that the Charity Commissioners understand that the Trustees of this charity have intrusted the vicar every year with the expenditure of a sum of £5 part of the funds in their hands applicable for the benefit of the poor of the parish. It is alleged that this sum or part of it has been expended in the manner stated. The action of the Trustees in this respect is irregular. A new scheme for the regulation of this charity is in draft and will shortly be established. That scheme contains a clause expressly prohibiting the practice in question.

and agricultural workers faced poverty:

1889

MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S.E.)

.... the point I desire to raise is of considerable interest to agricultural labourers in my constituency, and it affords a typical instance of the diversion of a fund. towards objects in which this class have no interest. ... the claim is that as there is a certain fund left for the benefit of agricultural labourers, they have a right that a certain portion of the money should be devoted to reducing the expenses connected with allotment, and they applied through me to the Charity Commissioners with that object; but the Commissioners said they could do nothing in the matter, and met me with a non possumus.



Money which used to be spent upon doles, coals, bread, &c., for the poor is now spent in payment of salaries, the purchase of books, and for other purposes in which the labourers have not the faintest interest. Under a scheme sanctioned by the Court of Chancery, the residue of the fund is to be spent upon the agricultural labourers; but I suppose I shall be reminded that, owing to the decline in the value of land in Essex, there is no residue, and also that the money is spent under an Act sanctioned by Parliament in 1852, and with which the Commissioners have nothing to do. But I venture to think we sit here to rescind and abrogate such obsolete schemes as have been passed almost entirely in the interests of the rich, and certainly to the prejudice of my poorer constituents.

Here's the same MP for SE Essex, Major Rasch again in 1893:

MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S.E.)

I beg to ask the Charity Commissioner whether he is aware that J. Whitwell, labourer, 75 years old, had notice to quit a cottage the property of the Canewdon Charities, and was subsequently fined for refusing to give up possession; and if the property of those Charities could be dispensed, as intended by the donors, for the relief of the deserving poor, and not devoted to other and totally different purposes?

Incidentally Major Rasch was certainly no left-winger - in fact Major Sir Frederick Carne Rasch was Tory. I hope to write about him again closer to Christmas.

Quote Of the Day

Catherine Bennett in the Guardian:

For much of its history the length of the average union, before it was ended by the death of a partner, was the same as it is now, before being terminated by divorce: 11 years.

Oh, No.

I was shocked to see in the Guardian that Robert Holdstock, the author of Mythago Wood and quite a few other fantasy novels, has died at the age of 61, from an E Coli infection.....



This blogger puts Mythago Wood in his top ten list of fantasy books

....

.....A marvellously atmospheric work, it captures somehow the feel of the English countryside and its woodlands and fields, which can be ordinary and familiar, damp and muddy, yet at the same time feel ancient, mysterious and secretive. .

For me, it's a book I read maybe 20 years ago, but the images still linger in the mind. I hope his work is remembered 200 years from now....

Quote Of the Day

On homeopathy:

9.38am: Robert Wilson says it's an old business and popular in France.

Phil Willis: "So is prostitution."

Thanks, Everyone

Down in Rochford District we form the opposition but there's only five of us, sometimes it can be a little lonely, particularly when you're the only Lib Dem on a committee!

However one of the advantages of being in the Lib Dems, as opposed to being,say, independents , is that we can get advice and help from other experienced Liberal Democrats elsewhere (and although we are in a party we don’t have anyone whipping us into line either, unlike the ‘other lot’).

As an example, our group wanted some advice on what policies work best on certain parking issues. So we sent out an email today to other Lib Dems in Essex. We got our first (really useful) reply from Colchester after just 9 minutes, another, detailed , response from Chelmsford after 24 minutes, one from Basildon after 38 minutes and then one from Colchester Lib Dem MP Bob Russell after 54 minutes …. and the replies are still coming in.

We’re really glad for all this support ( and particularly impressed by Bob Russell)

Thanks, everyone…

"If A Man Were Walking Down Broadway Wearing This Product, Would People Notice?"

My favourite You-Tube treasure-trove at the moment is a collection of recordings of the American TV programme "What's My Line " from the 1950s. Some feature people who are simply celebrities, others feature 'ordinary' people in unusual occupations.

This edition of "What;s My Line" was made 50 years ago last week and is reviewed here. (yes, nowadays 50-year-old TV gets in-depth reviews on the net!)

The guest here is a conventional looking chap who makes apparel for some very special people....

After watching this what I wanted to know was how he started off doing this in 1934?

So I found him in Wikipedia
Russell Colley began in 1934 making a pressurused suit for a pilot on his wife's sewing machine. He got due recognition for his work when the Mercury astronauts flew in his suits.

In the programme someone calls Colley 'a manly man' - however he had an artistic streak; according to Wikipedia he originally wanted to design women's clothing and also painted water colours and made jewellery....

Colley had a 'good innings', dying in 1996, aged about 96.

Save Planning Alerts!

Planning Alerts has been a really useful website, I'm really disappointed to have received the following email tonight:

As some of you may already have spotted in the news, Planning Alerts has
been effected by legal action by the Royal Mail:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7700621.stm

We are left with the choice of paying the Royal Mail up to £4,000 a
year for access to the postcode database and eitjavascript:void(0)her running a much less
accurate and useful service or shutting PlanningAlerts down altogether.
If are concerned about this, please consider doing the following:

-- Write to your MP --

Tom Watson MP has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling on
the Royal Mail to allow non-profit organisations to use the postcode
database for free. Please write to your MP asking them to sign this
Early Day Motion (number EDM 2000) and protest at the actions of The
Royal Mail.

You can write to your MP here: http://marples.writetothem.com/

-- Sign the petition --

Nearly 1,200 people have so far signed a petition on the Prime
Minister's website, please add your name:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/nfppostcodes/

-- Blog / write to your local paper--

Please consider writing a blog post in support of PlanningAlerts or
writing to your local paper.

Yours,

The PlanningAlerts.com team

Town Council By-Election Result

I've just come back from the count for the Whitehouse Ward Town Council by-election in Rayleigh. The result was:

Conservatives : 488 - 69 percent
Lib Dems (Corey Vost) 166 - 23 percent
BNP 57 - 8 percent

There was a 22 percent turnout.

So, a clear win for the Conservatives - and we offered our congratulations to Mr Ward (now Councillor Ward!).

Not a good result for the BNP.

But rather encouragingly, a better result for us than in the last District Council election here last year, which was:

Conservatives 641 - 56 percent
English Democrats 312 - 27 percent
Lib Dems 184 - 16 percent

(the last Town Council election was contested on the same day as the District election by 3 Conservatives and 1 Labour, the Tories winning with 809, 770, 744 and Labour getting 264)

I'm Glad We Don't Need This In Essex

I see the Weather Channel gives mosquito forecasts in the US....

Airstrip One And The 1966 World Cup

Another thread at alternatehistory.com explores a timeline in which George Orwell's 1984 actually happens - or at least , Big Brother and Ingsoc rule England , but as a North Korean type hermit state. Everyone is brainwashed into believing that the rest of the world comprises Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia.

The creator of this thread suggests that the point of departure for this timeline would be Mosley sticking with the Labour Party in the 1930s; the allies still win WW2, but things go downhill from there onwards :

30th July 1966 - "And here comes Hurst. Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over!"

England clinched the FIFA World Cup after a valiant 2-1 victory over Uruguay at Parc des Princes in Paris. Duncan Edwards made the pass to Hurst that sealed the game for the English.

As the last minute goal went into the back of the net, sealing an unexpected victory for England, thousands of French supporters charged the stewards and ran on to the pitch, swamping the England team.

Later that evening the England players and staff, sought political asylum at the American embassy in Paris, while in London the BBC broadcast news reports of a Uruguay victory, and presented "evidence" of collusion with terrorist groups within the England team.

Freddie Mercury As Lib Dem Prime Minister ?

It's here at www.alternatehistory.com

In response to the overbearing social conservatism of Thatcher, Queen becomes far more political. Freddie never enters the underground scene (bathhouses, frequent unprotected sex, etc.), so he never gets HIV. In 1982, the album "Hot Space" is shelved in place of a very political album about the Falklands War.

Freddie Mercury is seen as a "spokesman of a generation". He publicly endorses the Liberals in the '83 election, leading to a resurgence in Lib popularity, despite an overwhelming Conservative victory. In 1984, the song "I Want to Break Free" is released, but rather than being a love/breakup song as in OTL, it is a left-wing anthem about oppressive conservatism controlling people's lives. At Live Aid, widely considered Queen's best performance, Mercury announces that Queen will be taking a hiatus after the band's next album is released so that he can run for parliament from the Hammersmith constituency (he resided in West Kensington at the time, within the Hammersmith constituency). In the 1987 election, Mercury wins. He is seated and quickly rises in the (admittedly small) ranks of the Liberal party. He helps to negotiate the merger with the SDP, with the rallying cry "A United Left for a United Britain". Mercury becomes vital for the Lib Dems, reaching out to young people (under 40) to run and vote in the next elections.

In 1992, a seemingly Labour lead was trounced by late-deciding young voters, who responded to criticism of Labour in The Sun and to left-wing attacks on Major's economy, especially the recession. The election resulted in a Hung Parliament ...

Just how well did we really do in Hammersmith in 1987?

What I Did On My Vacation From Blogging

In case anyone has been wondering, I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth, I merely stopped blogging because I was immersed in the County Council Elections in Rayleigh North.

To cut a long story short, I finished a cheerful second out of six candidates, closing the gap on the Conservative incumbent to about 6 percent:

Stephen Charles Castle The Conservative Party Candidate 2095
Chris Black Liberal Democrats 1739
John Hayter English Democrats 718
Tony Smith Say No To European Union 416
Lisa Byrne British National Party 278
David Dennis Bodimeade The Labour Party Candidate 226

I represent one-quarter of Rayleigh North on the District Council, and was ahead by a landslide there. So if I want to win in four year time, I know what I need to do.

The Conservatives didn't have any fun in the campaign, and were too frit to even put their candidate's home address on any of his campaign material (he lives more than 20 minutes away, on Canvey Island. And they had to, ahem, twist the truth quite a bit in their last leaflet.

Meanwhile the Lib Dems advance across Essex, making 4 gains and becoming the second party in the County with 12 seats.

Iran

It's not the voting that creates a democracy, it's the counting....

Reshuffle Rumours

Some things don't change.....

Daffodils and Strings