Hypocracy on the Buses

Stephen Paine, the Tories other bright young thing in Maidstone, has blogged on the new Freedom Pass for kids in Kent. The pass allows under 16s unlimited travel for £50 per year and he goes on to say that he will be spreading the word about what a good thing the Tories have done...

Sadly, Stephen ignores the damage that bus services have suffered under Tory hands. If the Conservatives hadn't devastated public transport over the years we might still have a few buses running (although I'm sure Labour would have done the same).

Bus passes for kids are a great idea, as is free travel for the over 60's, but we need buses in order to be able to use them.

Stuart

Democracy? No thanks says Brown

Below is a large extra from the 'Make Votes Count campaign on this week's review of voting in the UK. It doesn't look like the government will do anything to address the appalling lack of democracy in this country (see Toynbee's note about the gov't being decided by just 8000 voters - why do the rest of us bother???). The lack of representation is possibly one of the biggest travesties that this country suffers.

Stuart

From MVC:-

The news you have all been waiting for. At last the Government's review of electoral systems has been published. It arrived yesterday without a flourish, a mere written ministerial statement and a few extra quotes from the Justice Minister Michael Wills in a slyly spun press release. The full report is available online (pdf). We have also created a facility for you to read, add your comments and discuss the main parts of the report here. The finishing touches are being made to our campaign website and response and you will get another email from me next week about that. In the meantime ....

The headline response from MVC:

We had not expected the review itself to be much different from what was published on Thursday. What has taken us by surprise, disappointed, even angered, us - and will hopefully galvanise all of us in our campaigning efforts over the coming weeks and months - is the Government's determination to downplay what is actually in the report and close down opportunities for the public to have their say. Voting matters and so do the systems used. Yet the Government no longer seems to care about voters' real world experiences and opinions of elections. That was certainly the impression given by Michael Wills when he claimed (in his Department's press release) that the "current voting system for UK general elections works well". The voting system may be working well for him and other MPs, but not necessarily for voters. He would struggle to substantiate that claim - either from polling data or from the review itself - if he was looking at the issue more objectively from the voters' perspective. The Government is in danger of treating voters with contempt, by not going beyond the academic exercise of the review and now shutting out parlimentary and public debate. For us "democracy isn't deskbound". Together we need to push the Ministry of Justice to take the debate beyond Westminster and the confines of parties and politicians who have a vested interest in the status quo. And we need to encourage Gordon Brown to show the leadership needed to take this issue forward and help realise the new politics that he has said he is keen to usher in.

The good news:

(i) the review itself is generally even-handed and there are plenty of positives about PR systems in the report. Lewis Baston (ERS) has picked out some of these in a 2-page initial assessment of the review, which you can read online.

(ii) officially at any rate, everything still remains on the table - there were no recommendations in the review. So in a hung parliament situation the review can be taken down from the shelf and used as cover for any deals on electoral reform that might be discussed.

(iii) the review is "a contribution to the debate" - so that is licence for us to make a noise and input our views

(iv) Both Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown's official spokesperson reaffirmed the Government's commitment to a referendum before any reform of the Commons is introduced.

The bad news:

(i) No Oral Statement in the Commons to accompany the review's publication.

(ii) Harriet Harman in Business Questions did not commit any Government time for a debate. Instead she went as far as to say any debate should be initiated by the opposition.

(iii) There was no process mentioned or offered by Michael Wills to continue the debate or keep the process open.

(iv) Lords reform is not just the priority for the Government, but also they do not want to discuss reforming the Commons until after the Lords electoral system has been decided and is in place (and one suspects has had several elections to bed in and be reviewed .....)

Media coverage:

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian:

"Alas, in the same week Labour kicked away one great chance to restore some connection between people and politics. Dust was blown off the long-avoided review of electoral systems, which was slid into the House of Commons library on Hain resignation day with no recommendations and only a terse statement: 'The government has no plans to change the voting system for elections to the House of Commons.' So just 8,000 swing voters in key marginals decided this June 2010 election. Too late for Labour to rue the day its miserable tribalism threw away the chance to reshape politics and allow more parties into parliament, wrecking a chance to ally with the Lib Dems. If turnout was dismal in this election, it was hard to detect the difference between parties ya-booing the louder the more they pretended to be the same."

Taxi Vouchers vs Bus Passes

Lots in the press this week about the demise of the vouchers that allowed the older people to get a limited amount of free taxi rides each year and the introduction of free bus travel for them instead.

Firstly, it puzzles me why people over 60 are referred to as elderly (see other political blogs in Maidstone). I have been reading about health care in Cuba and they have a 120 club, an outdoor gym for people who are 60 and feel they have reached the mid point in their life. 60 really is not old!

Secondly, we would not be having the discussion about the pros and cons of bus vs taxi vouchers if we had decent, regular, clean, cheap and popular bus services that extended to people in rural areas. Sadly the privatisation of public transport and the lack of investment has left us with an extremely poor service in many parts of the country, and Maidstone is no different.

KIG Row Continues!

I have won my battle to get an acknowledgment from the Tories that the KIG site was the same site that they were proposing to put houses over. They changed their tack last week suggesting that their Core Strategy had not encouraged the KIG application rather than continuing to try to defend their original position. This week sees another letter form Steve Hunter in the KM:

"In recent weeks we have seen letters from both the leader and deputy leader of the Conservatives in Maidstone Borough Council published in this newspaper, apparently trying to change public perception over their party's role in the events that led up to teh KIG planning application being submitted.

"As a Bearsted resident, can I say that this just won't wash.

"WE all know that the proposal for a road/rail interchange has been around for a couple of years under more than one name.

"What dismays me is that the local Conservatives went ahead and indicated in teh Local Development Framework that the land in question would be included in an area of search for future development - and then acted surprised when the development was announced.

"As Cllr Garland correctly states, the map in question has no legal planning basis - but this is entirely due to the Lib Dems who threw out the old Core Strategy and have committed themselves to a new consultation on a new strategy.

"If the Conservatives were still in control of Maidstone Borough Council, it is likely that the Core Strategy would have legal status by now.

"What is clear is that the local residents ( and teh KIG developers) believe the Core Strategy opened the door for KIG by indicating the Council's intent. It would appear that it is only the Conservative councillors who cannot add two and two together and get four."

Steve Hunter, The Landway, Bearsted

Hydropower at Allington

Letter in today's Kent Messenger below. Especially timely given the deluge and flood in Maidstone yesterday... think of all that power generation that is being wasted and how different the weather would be if we didn't rely on fossil fuels.

Dear Editor,

What welcome news the Council's plan for hydro electric power generation at
Allington Lock is. The use of the river Medway to generate carbon-free
renewable energy is to be thoroughly commended.

Maidstone Green Party has been calling for such a plan for the last two years and we are
really pleased to see the concept being taken seriously. There should be
enough power in the river to provide electricity for perhaps two
hundred houses when the river is flowing well.

The fight against climate change requires us to harness renewable energy
wherever possible, but it also needs us to reduce our total energy usage to
make sure that the power that we generate goes much futher. With rapidly
rising fuel bills, using less energy saves us large amounts of cash too.

Ian McDonald
Maidstone Green Party

Cameron the eco - warrior

This is from the Telegraph. No I don't read it but I do keep an eye on what it prints. This article is interesting, suggesting that eco-warriors fly more that others. Of course it uses the phrase 'eco-adapters' suggesting that these people are 'lifestyle' greens. These are not eco-warriors who hold deep ecology in their souls. David Cameron cycling with his Lexus following behind typifies this lifestyle approach.

To be really green: forget flying, consume less, share more, have fun (phrases plagiarised from more notable greens than me...)

From the Torygraf:

Survey shows eco-warriors are worst polluters

A survey of travel habits has revealed that the most environmentally conscious people are also the biggest polluters.

"Green" consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures.

Identified as "eco-adopters", they are most likely to be members of an environmental organisation, buy green products such as detergents, recycle and have a keen interest in green issues.

But the survey of 25,000 people, by the market research company Target Group Index, found that eco-adopters are seven per cent more likely than the general population to take flights, and four per cent more likely to own a car. The survey found similar trends in France and the United States.

Geoff Wicken, the author of the report, pointed to David Cameron, the Conservative leader, as a classic eco-adopter because despite styling himself as a green warrior he also takes flights in private helicopters and planes.

Tories back down over KIG row

It looks like the Tories have conceded over the KIG row. Their attack in this week's Kent Messenger is on a different front and they now suggest that my theory that the Core Strategy paved they way for the KIG plan is disingenuous. The thing is, no one will ever really know the extent to which the Core Strategy was responsible and we can only make educated guesses - which is what I did.

The thrust of my initial argument was the hypocritical nature of the Tory comment that they would never allow building on the site seems to have been won. The Tories were prepared to cover the area with houses when they were in power and yet were not prepared to stand by their decisions when it suited them and they were no longer in charge. I wonder what their stance would be if they were in charge now?

Boiling climate frogs

Recent letter to YourMaidstone:

Dear Editor,

Bob Ellis' letter describing why he doesn't believe climate change is happening (Your Maidstone, 3rd Jan), demonstrates the difficulties in tackling the problem, i.e. people cannot see or feel it impacting on their lives.

The analogy used by Al Gore is of a frog in cold water that is gradually heated up - the frog does not notice that it is getting warmer until it is too late. Fortunately we have better ways of predicting future trends than frogs.

2007 was the second warmest year on record after 2006. The northern polar ice cap has halved in size over the last ten years, there are exponential rises in damage caused by weather across the America, and so on across the world, however in the short term the climate in England will get a little more varied but it is unlikely we will experience anything major here for some time.

The key question people should ask themselves is not whether climate change is real and man made or not, but is the risk of not acting on the overwhelming scientific evidence worth taking?

Our responsibility is to future generations to ensure that we leave the planet in at least as good a state as we inherited it. We must act collectively, decisively and quickly, both locally and globally, to address the number one challenge facing human kind.

Stuart Jeffery
Maidstone Green Party

Turn the lights OFF!

Maidstone already has shipments of nuclear waste crossing the borough from Dungeoness, and more nuclear power will see this increase further. Given the dangerous and expensive nature of nuclear power, I think that Gordon Brown is mad to give it his backing.

There are no proven methods of long term storage for nuclear waste and yet we learn that taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for storage. Also, the high cost of decommissioning of the nuclear power stations which is to be passed to consumers amounts to a regressive tax that will hit the poor the hardest, people who are already going to suffer with the fuel cost rises announce last week. On top of this is the ridiculously long life of nuclear waste would need to be stored safely for over 200,000 years - how realistic is this?

The government seems to be doing nothing to reduce energy consumption and to protect the vulnerable. They are backing coal power over renewables and Labour talk about 'keeping the lights on' at a time when we should be learning how to turn some of them off. Reducing our energy use in a fair and equitable way is the key to tackling the rising cost of energy and to reducing our impact on the environment, not building more dirty dangerous and expensive nuclear power stations.

Jail for Maidstone's Shoppers?

Conservative councillor, Bruce Pollington has sparked a row between the Tories and LibDems over the future of Maidstone Prison in this week's Kent Messenger. Pollington's blog talks about using the prison site for other uses as it is prime town centre land. In the KM ke goes onto suggest a shopping mall...

Firstly, the prison is a prime town centre site with reasonably good public transport links, it is next door to Maidstone East Station and the 101 bus route to Medway. This means that visitors can visit more easily, Pollington's ideas would disadvantage these people severely.

Secondly, what Maidstone does not need is more retail malls. The seat of the Peasant's Revolt (Havock Lane) was demolished to build Fremlin Walk. Fremlin Walk is the most faceless and boring shopping mall possible. It is filled with 50 chainstores that do not contribute to the town's character or economy in any meaningful way.

Finally, Maidstone's architectural heritage has taken repeated bashings from developers. There is little left now and what is left should be preserved is possible.

Stuart