Hello there.

Today saw our political system reach the lowest point I can remember with the charges levelled against 3 MPs and a member of the House of Lords over the expenses scandal. 

I have heard things said by a handful of parliamentarians in the last 24 hours which shows that a few still don’t get it. One MP carefully and deliberately referred to some of his colleagues as having “over-received” their expenses. Not a hint of irony as he used words to suggest that they had money forced upon them, or it fell into their bank accounts by accident.

The one that really made me angry though was the attempt by the three charged MPs to suggest that Parliamentary Privilege protects them from being dealt with by the courts. The Bill of Rights is universally acknowledged and understood to mean that MPs have total freedom of speech in parliament whilst our system expressly does not protect MPs from criminal charges, as politicians in a number of other countries are. The reason for this is obvious; if you get immunity as a politician, crooks can get themselves elected to avoid prosecution.

Clearly I am not suggesting the guilt or innocence of the four involved, that will now be for the courts to decide, but the fact that we got to this shockingly low point today is a real blow to those of us who have held our democracy in such high regard.

We need major change at and after the next election, and MPs who never forget that it isn’t THEIR money, it is OURS.

TTFN.
Gareth.

Hello there!

Labour have never let the truth or long-term belief get in the way of a cheap headline or a dirty attack. We have seen a great example of this about Ellesmere Port’s car parks this week with Labour claiming a 25% drop in car park usage but when the local newspapers asked for confirmation of this from the parking service of the Borough Council it turns out the real figure is a 3.9% INCREASE.

Now, who to believe, a councillor using hearsay, or the officers who have the figures? Yet the newspaper headlines took the hearsay as truth, which is not exactly fair or unbiased journalism.

TTFN
Gareth.

Hello there!

Last night saw yet another Labour MP announce he is to stand down before the next election, that makes it around about one third of all MPs in seats that are most vulnerable to the Conservatives. This one is the Labour MP for Wirral West, Stephen Hesford. Like most of them he is standing down for “family reasons” and not at all because he would rather go out having never lost an election. Honest guv’.

His neighbour in Wirral South has already announced he is going, down the road the Labour MP in Warrington South who looks on dodgy ground is doing the same as is the Labour MP for Clwyd South just across the border.

I am quite glad however that Ellesmere Port & Neston’s Labour MP is (so far) opting to stand his ground and fight as it will be a pleasure on election night to see him and his ever-diminishing band of unpleasant acolytes taste another round of defeat as they did in the last local elections. We deserve better than what we have had since 1992 in this constituency.

TTFN
Gareth.

Hello there!

Out canvassing today, and it is always an interesting experience. We regularly find people who are going to vote Conservative at the next election who either voted Labour/LibDem last time or did not vote at all. Of course we still come across Labour voters and frankly I find that more positive than people who just take the “a plague on all of your houses” attitude and won’t vote.

The one kind I cannot stand though is the ostrich voter. The ostrich has their head in the sand and believes that one side is all bad and the other can do no wrong. The ostrich is infrequent but does exist every few hundred houses. They at first claim impartiality but an accidental admission of head-in-sand appears very quickly. The ostrich voter decries everything you and your lot do but deny that the other side have ever done anything wrong even when overwhelming evidence exists.

Sadly, my own reaction is to try and reason with an ostrich, but I forget that they have so much sand in their ears and reasoning parts of their political antennae that I am wasting my time. Move on Gareth, move on, because next door there is always a new Conservative.

And so it was today! Some good issues brought up, from benefit claims to waste collection, road gritting to the EU. I have passed on national issues to Stuart Penketh our Parliamentary candidate and your councillors will respond on the local issues.

TTFN
Gareth.

Hello there!

I love politics, but this week it actually excited me!

The launch of the Conservative draft manifesto for education revealed a document brimming with great ideas, and it showed that Michael Gove and the shadow education team had actually listened to students, teachers and parents.

Some truly brilliant people become teachers and they seem to effortlessly engage a class and really grasp what great teaching and learning are. I am always in awe of my colleagues. But good teaching and exciting learning are often held back by one simple thing that is both a help and a hindrance: the National Curriculum.

The National Curriculum was supposed to be a core framework to ensure that all students received the same basic education and skills to allow them to access all learning opportunities. Instead it developed immediately into a straitjacket of assessment levels and ever-multiplying mandatory subjects each with an expected % of time demanded on the timetable.

These things have meant that senior teachers feel themselves under ever-more pressure to measure and justify every single moment of a student’s time in school, leaving class teachers ever less time and freedom to innovate, try new things out, sometimes get it wrong but often find new and exciting ways to teach and for students to learn. Every time government does something which denies teachers the time to plan and deliver excellent lessons they are doing something wrong.

So here are the three things I would like to see emphasised in our manifesto:

1] If we want excellent, innovative, engaging and effective teaching and learning we need to free schools up to teach what they like and how they like outside of the confines of a truly core National Curriculum. We have a range of specialist schools, let them concentrate on those specialist areas and do less of the others if they choose to and let students go to the schools which reflect their natural ability.

2] Headteachers should be free to lead their schools and give strategic direction. Encourage them to have faith in the professionals they appoint to manage their own classrooms, teaching and students’ learning.

3] Scrap much of what the DCSF does (and its various quangos). It is simply a self-perpetuating machine churning out extra work for schools which would destroy all the good ideas in the draft manifesto. BONUS: it would save a fortune!

A minister wouldn’t interfere in an individual operation by a surgeon, an arrest by a police-officer or a strategy for a soldier in a warzone, so why do it with teachers in the classroom?

TTFN
Gareth.

Hello there!

Tomorrow morning I will debate the future of Ellesmere Port’s Mayoralty with a Labour councillor on BBC Radio Merseyside. This should be at around 8.10am so tune in on your way to work!

As regular visitors may know we are currently holding a consultation on the Mayoralty to see if the residents of Ellesmere Port want to keep it. I blogged about it before Christmas and you can read that here.

In that article I did promise to reveal my own view in January and I have to say, on balance, I think we can live without the Mayoralty. Some of the reasons for this are in the blog I linked to just before and I hope to expand on those reasons in the morning so tune in!

In the meantime you can go to the drop-in session Thursday night at the Civic Hall to find out more and give your views or complete the online form. Again the links are on my previous blog entry here.

Do let me know what you think about this issue, and let’s hope I am awake enough to make sense in the morning!

TTFN
Gareth.

I am chuffed to have had an article published on ConservativeHome, which is THE site for those of us on the centre right of politics. Always an interesting read whatever your views and often news-breaking, I gave my thoughts on getting and keeping younger councillors. You can read my article here.

Hello there!

I just watched a very energetic exchange on Newsnight between Maajid Mawaz of the Quilliam Foundation and the repugnant Anjem Choudary of the soon-to-be-proscribed Islam4UK. Choudary employed his usual childish interview technique of shouting over everyone else within a few seconds and refusing to answer even the simplest direct question. Only a well-aimed insult from Paxman stopped him in his tracks, but even then for only a few moments.

More seriously, I dislike government banning things and especially if that may be freedom of speech. I find Choudary and his lot utterly detestable. What they stand for, believe in and promote is totally incompatible with a free, democratic society like ours. But as with the BNP, we must beat them by argument and not suppression.

What we are dealing with here is an organisation which gets vast media coverage because of its immensely mad beliefs rather than its huge membership. It has, by accounts I have heard, membership in the tens or very low hundreds. We are giving a tiny organisation what Margaret Thatcher described as “the oxygen of publicity” and it is oxygen they don’t deserve. Cut it off and give the rest of us, especially the families of our soldiers in Afghanistan, some unsullied breathing space.

TTFN
Gareth.

Hello there!

Just a few quick reminders about council services during this snowy weather:

SCHOOLS.

Most will be open across the Borough tomorrow but check the council website here to see if yours is listed as closed. If weather conditions substantially deteriorate overnight then the decision may be taken to close more. Check before travelling if this is the case.

ROADS.

Cheshire West & Chester has enough salt supplies to grit the major routes for some time yet to come but most local roads are not in the usual gritting run and so will be particularly bad at this time. For driving advice go to the RAC website here.

BIN COLLECTION.

Because it has been far too dangerous for the waste and recycling lorries to get to some residential areas there has been only a limited service. If your bin or recycling has not been collected (as mine ahs not) it will now be collected on the next usual day assuming the weather is good. It does mean one missed collection for some of us though.

VULNERABLE RESIDENTS.

If you, a family member, friend or neighbour may find these weather conditions too difficult to get out and about, say to get shopping, get to medical appointments etc, or someone may just need some extra help, please do not hesitate to contact the council’s social care team on 0300 123 8 123 and they will do what they can to help.

BORED?

Why not take part in some of the very important consultations that are taking place?

Have your say on the council’s budget for next year by going here.

Have your say on whether or not Ellesmere Port should continue to have its own Mayor, start by reading my blog on it here.

Want to help shape how our Borough looks and works? Take part in the consultation on the Local Development Framework here.

In the meantime, may I wish you all a safe journey tomorrow if you are out travelling to work, and I hope the snow makes you smile as much as it does me.

TTFN!
Gareth.

Hello there!

May I start by wishing you a happy new year and a happy 2010! I know that the prospect of financial happiness is something many people will not be able to experience next year, and I am pretty sure that things are going to be tighter for everyone for a while thanks to the actions of this government. However, I am inherently an optimistic person though, I find that even at the darkest moments a smile and a selfless gesture can help make anyone feel better.

At this time of year predictions are rife so I have decided to make a handful of my own. And predictions are far preferable to the resolutions I always fail to keep anyway, so here goes:

2010: what I think we will see more or less of in the coming year, and what won’t change much.

Subject	MORE	LESS	THE SAME
Politics	Conservative MPs. Enough to give Prime Minister David Cameron a workable majority following a general election in May.	Gordon Brown and his “Reverse-Midas Touch”. He will deserve his retirement after 12 hard years of mucking up the economy.	Pious nonsense from the LibDems who have no idea what they are, what they believe or what they are actually for.
The Economy	Unemployment. Sadly it will continue to rise for months yet. More taxes too, though not targeted at those on lower incomes.	Public spending. We are in a much bigger hole than any of us can really imagine, we need a bigger private sector to recover our economy and a smaller state sector (preferably one that works more efficiently than now)	Mistrust of bankers and politicians. We need them both though to have a strong economy and democracy. Let’s hope the first lot take responsibility and the second lot are substantially different after the election.
The World	Belligerance from Iran, but a better global response as more countries realise just what a danger this group of fanatics could be if armed with nuclear weapons.	I know it’s hard to believe but an even less effective European Union will emerge this year. With the support of Labour MEPs it is grabbing lots more of our money to waste this year.	Trouble in Afghanistan, but the same steady progress that is being made and the same excellence from UK troops out there.
Me	Exercise and reading of books rather than just council reports and political stuff. I will do more than last year to help my residents and improve the way the council works.	Chocolate and cake. It will be difficult but I can do it! I will also use the microwave less and replace it with proper food.	Verbosity in my blogs. Sorry…..

Cheshire West & Chester

Improvements and innovation from our new council. It hasn’t been going a year yet but things are looking good, but no, not perfect.

Negativity from the press about Ellesmere Port and what is happening and less waste of your council taxes. I also think it likely that we have our last Mayor of EP.

Whining and childish behaviour from the Labour party. They STILL feel they were born to rule this area, no matter what your votes say.

Doubtless I will have most of these things wrong and that is my final prediction! Have a wonderful night, a great weekend and I hope that 2010 is better for you than was 2009, however that year turned out for you.

TTFN
Gareth.