Archives for November 2009

Thank you all for watching in large numbers on a rainy Sunday yesterday. Judging by the bump in the viewing figures, people do seem to be tuning in especially for the regional part of the Politics Show in the South of England.

Some of my colleagues thought there would only be a limited interest in a 20 minute discussion about rail travel. But there are more and more of us using the trains.

Amongst the statistics we collected - punctuality in the South of England is improving, and the number of people travelling has nearly doubled in 10 years.

The £70m work on the Southampton tunnel will be frustrating for commuters to London (including me!) but will provide much better facilities for freight from the docks - taking thousands of lorries off the road.

Who says we don't report good news stories?

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

So is that it? David Cameron's blast at Prime Minister's Questions was so riddled with inaccuracy it flew straight past the intended target. Gordon probably came off best.

Cameron's allegations of government money feeding extremist influence were simply wrong. But from the word go the attack felt less than a killer blow, more the opening salvo in a long campaign.

Ed Balls realised that when he referred to the BNP. Any ban on extremist influence in schools would have to cut all ways.

There's no question the issue cuts deep. David Cameron used in in his first ever Prime Minister's Questions with Gordon Brown. You can read it again here.

And if I've whetted your appetite for more discussion of the subject then take a look through this collection of background footage.

This link is to David Cameron visiting a Moslem School two years ago. He asks some interesting questions of the students, and spot the camera zooming in on the code of conduct on the wall.

This link is the press conference held by Hizb ut-Tahrir, The Liberation Party, after Cameron's comments.

And with the allegations barely minutes old it's worth listening to the unvarnished justification from the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith:

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

So President Obama is going to Copenhagen, And whilst it's not quite "Yes we can" the "pathway" is towards much tougher targets than the US has ever considered.

Whenever we're talking about promises on the enviroment I think of another American catchphrase "Where's the beef?" It's from an old hamburger advert, another way of asking, a little sarcastically, what will this really do for us.

British MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has another snappy catchphrase he thinks could save the world: "Less meat = Less heat"

OK, OK it might take a while to catch on, but hear him out. Sir Paul McCartney will be in Brussels next week to help launch the plan which aims to cut the number of farm animals by 30 percent.

The report Health and Climate Change was published in the Lancet and states that livestock production causes more greenhouse gases - 18 percent - than all transport - 13 percent.

It's not been welcomed with open arms by the farming community, of course. Sussex MP and Conservative Environment Secretary Nick Herbert said

"Careless demands like this don't just undermine farming, they erode public support for action on climate change".

The days before Thanksgiving are the busiest of the year on American roads. Since that nation causes more pollution per head than any other that makes them some of the worst for the planet.

But if you follow the animal alternative to climate change perhaps we should be giving the car drivers a break, and cracking down on the consumption of turkeys.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

We still don't have the full account of why David Bull decided not to continue as Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion, but with the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas throwing a huge amount of effort into winnning the seat at the next election it could be an acrimonious contest.

The rather snappy colour combination in my headline was suggested on Conservative.home who have now published the list of six contenders for the selection.

Douglas Chirnside Scott Digby Anna Firth Charlotte Vere Mary Weale Andrew Wealls

It will take place at an open selection meeting at the Grand Hotel on the 18th - Wednesday this week. But you have to apply to the constituency office for tickets - by midday today!

It's crunch time for the Tory grassroots.

The Norfolk "Turnip Taliban" meeting tonight. Brighton's open selection two days later, and then Gosport's public meeting on Friday.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

A little background knowledge is always helpful.

There are few people better qualified to talk about the workings of the European Union than South-West MEP Graham Watson. When he spotted that the EU had approved a Spanish application for waters off Gibraltar he knew there would be trouble.

The Madrid government had managed to register a site of Special Community Interest under EU environmental legislation - the UK had lost control of territorial waters.

How could this have happened? Did we not get there first? What happened to the centuries-old British defence of the rock?

Parliamentary questions revealed little. It appeared that the EU Habitats directive ignored an earlier British claim.

Now Graham's expert knowledge came into play. Not just his understanding of Brussels, but his knowledge of the high seas.

Because Mr Watson's father served with the Royal Navy, and he is a qualified marine navigator himself, he spotted what all the Foreign Office experts had missed.

We did get there first, but on the original British application, Graham discovered, we misplaced The Rock!

"In the UK's application for an SCI, Gibraltar was positioned at longitude 5 degrees 22 minutes East of Greenwich. Yet Gibraltar is situated at 5 degrees 22 minutes West of the prime meridian. In other words the UK's submission placed it in waters north of Algiers, which means that the Spanish application did not overlap with our SCI."

The Foreign Office admit that "an administrative error" was made. Although they say maps submitted with their application clearly show the bit of water they meant to designate, the decision has gone against Britain.

They are now fighting a rear-guard action to get it back, saying:

The UK therefore does not recognise the validity of the Estrecho Oriental designation as submitted by Spain. No Member State has the authority to act under the authority Habitats Directive in any territory outside its control.

All very patriotic.. However.. If one of Nelson's officers had made such a mistake he would have been keel-hauled at the very least!

If Sir Francis Drake's navigators had taken the same bungling approach, the Spanish Armada could have sailed up and down the channel at will..

Graham Watson says that if he had had his way Spain would not have even been admitted to the EU until they'd renounced their claim on Gibraltar.

He is now calling on David Miliband to re-state the British ownership of Gibraltar's territorial waters... assuming he can work out where they are.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Willie Goldfinch started this tribute a month ago with a few stones on the beach at Langstone Harbour near Portsmouth. Families of those killed and injured in war have since travelled from all over Britain to add to the memorial. There have been fears that the monument, that doesn't have planning permission, could be pulled down.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

After the fuss over Liz Truss in South West Norfolk, where angry locals were told that if they'd googled their candidates name they'd have known about her affair, I thought I'd save the Gosport Conservatives some work.

But it really isn't quite as straightforward as the Conservative HQ hotshots suggest.

Of the six names released today only one seems to have her own website, two get decent biogs in other places, two more are misleading, and one is invisible.

It doesn't help that the Conservative press release on their candidates manages to mis-spell two of the names!

First up Sam Gyimah - an entrepreneur in his 30s who's been up for Conservative selection before and really ought to know better than leaving up his rather forlorn attempt at a Twitter account. I suppose it may be someone else poaching his name - but it does seem to ring true.

There's plenty of information available by googling elsewhere - this is my pick of his on-line biogs.

Social Housing entrepreneur John Moss has the unfortunate problem of a Canadian author with the same name. Some may be fooled by this Google summary:

John Moss is a mystery writer with a background in the academic world, a zeal for endurance sports, and an abiding interest in rebuilding old things....

Could come in handy in Gosport..

The real site is much more informative - Mr Moss is a regular blogger, lots of policy ideas to help make up your mind, and a snappy line to please the locals:

If I am lucky enough to be selected, I will base myself in the constituency from now until the General Election and treat my candidacy as a full-time job.

The new website has evidently been done in a bit of a hurry. If you click "about me" you get the business blurb you're supposed to replace:

But at least there's something there, Here's the Guardian's reference to Caroline Dinenage - but links are now broken to the Conservative party micro-site left over from her last attempt in Portsmouth South.

The best write up of Julia Manning I've found is on Bracknellblog - from the Open Primary last month, perhaps not something she wants to talk about now, though.

Which just leaves us with James Bethel. Try as I might I still haven't found out any more. Perhaps it's another duff spelling from Conservative HQ? Anyone who knows anything about him - comments below would be much appreciated!

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?