Any Questions from Middle Wallop, Hampshire

I went to Any Questions last night. It was nice to see quite a lot of friends there and I think we were very polite to the panel, one of whom degenerated into accusing another panellist of telling lies.   And to think that politicians get told off for yah-booh antics!

Kate Mosse (author), James Delingpole (columnist), Jonathon Porritt (greenie) and Mark Stephens (lawyer) made up the panel with Jonathan Dimbleby compering and Ruth Watts producing.

 

It was interesting to see how the programme was put together but a shame that we only got through 4 questions. (Malcolm Delingpole did the warm-up question on German politicians' cleavages - very amusing!) I would liked to have got through more serious questions and don't think JD was on good form. We got stuck on the last question about the environment and I also think he went back to people on minor points. Kate Mosse was quite platitudinous and Mark Stephens gave good contributions (even if I didn't agree with them all). James Delingpole was somewhat polarising but quite engaging and I thought Jonathon Porritt was patronising and a bit smug.

 

The next show is in Chipping Norton and the list of future programmes is available on the micro-site http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgvj. Just contact the hosting location for tickets. Anyone who wants to host it, they will pay £100 but it might be good advertising for your venue.

 

Mind the gap!

Crikey O'Reilly! Against Darling's estimate of a shortfall of £500m on tax receipts/expenditure in July, it was a whopping £8bn!  Seriously bad news for our economy and one response from the wise men - pump even more money into the economy. Sooner or later, this will lead to serious inflation, interest rate rises and inevitably tax rises. 

 

We have to rein in now - so rather than platitudes, where do we start?

Departments need to look at every line of their budgets and their policies, make some tough decisions on what really needs to be done now/today - do we need that diversity officer? Do trade unions need £10m of public money? Should NHS staff really be on full pay (including overtime / allowances they have enjoyed in recent months) for the first six months of illness?  ConHome has started a thread on this a few weeks back. I will put in again what I have been saying for a while - crystallise all the liabilities .. PFI.. pensions.. and have a Labour debt tax hypothecated to paying it off that everyone pays. It may be a "nominal" amount but it will lay the blame clearly where it lies - at the heart of this worn-out Labour government past its sell-by date.

 

 

 

Dan - the man with the Plan! (or is it Angels and Demons)

Dan Hannan MEP for the South East has been much in the news this last weekend. This is the second time that Dan has featured heavily on the TV in a few months. Last time, he was Dan Hannan the YouTube sensation with his tremendous speech having a go at Brown in the European Parliament and deemed a saviour. This time, he is portrayed as a demon, having a go at our NHS (NHYes!).
Dan is neither Angel nor Demon - he is a bright, liberal intellectual who has some radical ideas and is a great admirer of the American system. Some of these ideas which he has championed with Douglas Carswell and others are now in the system. Some are not and are unlikely to ever be. (Read more in Direct Democracy and The Plan - the latter is on Amazon or Dan normally has a few copies with him when he does speeches and Tory events.)

Isn't this part of what politics is about? Politicians putting forward ideas on how they think things can work better. Politics is also the art of the possible - will it work, will the electorate agree and so on...

Rightly, David Cameron has taken on the agenda and shown that he is committed to the NHS while saying that it needs to reform. Nothing wrong with that and there is no budget slashing. Gerry Robinson did an interesting programme on "fixing the NHS". It shows that it can happen; we need to let the professionals get on with it and encourage/mentor the leaders of those hospitals (not just the chief exec) to make it happen. That is not unique to the NHS; it needs to happen in almost every walk of life and in particular, our schools. Another post, another time!

Courageous Mrs Carroll

There have been a spate of horrific crimes recently but I wanted to pay tribute to the courageous Mrs Carroll who gave evidence against her son who basically kicked a man to death. She called the police upon suspecting that her son had done wrong and then removed the blood-stained clothes from the washing machine (which her husband had tried to clean up) and gave them to the police.

None of that can have been easy to do - both her son and husband (for perverting the course of justice) are due to be sentenced next month and could both be in jail. Personally, I don't know why friends/relatives try to cover up crimes - it just makes you complicit in the crime. However, I recognise it happens and, yes, it often seems easy to look the other way. However, we can all still make choices in our lives and we have to live with our action or inaction.

Thankfully, Mrs Carroll took the courageous and correct action. I hope others follow in her footsteps.

 

It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me...

I went back to Liverpool on Saturday to see friends, football and then family in Wrexham.  Having Rizzo made life a little trickier but I drove up with my mum and sister and apart from a bit of traffic and certain roads being closed off in the city centre, all went well to get there. I had booked lunch at Bistro Pierre (top place!) for Mum, friend and sis and I made do elsewhere with pooch in tow - just behind the grand but understated Town Hall.

This part of Liverpool is always impressive - walking by the Exchange, down to St Nicholas, glancing across to the Pier Head and of course the Liver building.  A lot of red shirts were on display (like my own) as fans were starting to set off to Anfield - including a stag do group emerging from the Atlantic Tower hotel dressed as Batman characters.

The game went OK even though Liverpool lost 2-1 to Atletico Madrid. I had a great seat in block 202 of the Kop (my first time in the Kop). I know many are looking forward to the new stadium and I hope for the new Kop to be just as good, if not better.

 

Game over - generous applause and fingers crossed that Carra and Torres are OK for next week.

Walking back to the car, that was when I was reminded of why my parents eventually chose to move out of Liverpool - 3 cars/vans had their windows smashed within just a 10 minute walk...walking past messy, undeveloped ground that had been left to rot by, probably, the Council..and I remembered then that for all the great warmth and genuineness that I experienced around me growing up in Liverpool, there was also a significant number of people who basically didn't give a damn - who were happy to steal, to drop litter, and seemingly, those in authority who were happy to let things just drift. A zero tolerance approach was certainly not evident.

This is not unique to Liverpool but as my home city - it just made me a little bit sad.

 

Anyway, I will be back to see Liverpool and next time with camera in hand to snap what I see, I will be chasing the council and local MPs to do something about it. It's no good just complaining - we just have to make things happen and those in authority have to take the lead.