If music be the food of politics, play on no more

At yesterdays full County Council meeting, 14yr old Simon Williams pleaded with the Council not to carry through their threat to cut £238,000 from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Service in next years proposed budget reductions.

His public address was clear, impassioned, reasoned and delivered on behalf of thousands of people who have signed petitions written letters and emails to councillors. all asking the County Council to think again.

The meeting was at the time discussing a Liberal Democrat Motion which called on the Tory Administration to do just that.

So far so good, but hang on whats that I spy creeping into the Council chamber? hypocrisy? deceit? party politics?

You see the Tory administration responded to the Liberals motion with an almost identical amendment seeking to do the very same thing. In other words to save the music service from themselves! It basicaly said "we the Conservative administration must do all we can to make sure that the cuts proposed by us the Conservative adminstration, are not carried out unless we can find the funding from elsewher! Political schizophrenia at its very very best.

I got my opportunity to address the Council, and Simon who sat in the public gallery, and I congratulated him on his speech, and I also apologised to him on behalf of the whole Council for the fact that he and thousands of others in the County had been taken for Fools by the Politicians.

I explained to this very intelligent 14 year old, that I believed that the Tory administration had no intention in the first place of cutting the funding to the music service, and that history will show that immediately after they had announced their draconian plans, that their own Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton North Michael Ellis had come our fiercly and publicly to announce he would fight the plans to the end, I reminded the Council Chamber that it was indeed one of their administrations own back benchers that had gone on to propose an alternative plan to save the service at a recent Overview and Scrutiny meeting which had met to discuss the proposals.

And here, now, we had in full public view, in the Council Chamber the Tories and the Liberal Democrats trying to out do each other to see whose motion or amendment to save the service would be agreed first.

The Tories were obviously upset, it wasn't meant to happen like this, THEY were the ones who were supposed to come to the rescue of our young musicians at the eleventh hour, and here we were not too long past breakfast, with the Liberals stealing their plans from them without even a hint of irony.

I told the chamber that the Tories reminded me of my favourite Horse trainer Richard Hannon, who often puts three horses in a race, allows one to attract all the press and market speculation before bringing home a different winner at 33/1 under every ones noses. In other words the Tory Plan was a stalking horse, it was a smokescreen to grab the medias attention and to draw it away from the real serious threats to services proposed in the budget including further cuts to care for the elderly and vulnerable in our community.

I told them that their behaviour was unforgivable, and that they were both playing politics with the future education of our children and were fighting simply over who could grab the headlines first and claim in their pre general election leaflets that "WE SAVED THE MUSIC SERVICE"

There were a lot of bowed, lowered heads, a lot of people squirming uncomfortably in their chairs, and not one denial from any quarter of the chamber that my revelations and opinion were wrong.

Today's Chronicle and Echo does however carry half of the story, squeezed for space the Chron's reporter Wayne Bontoft (a very able and considerate scribe) struggled to get in quotes from 14 yr old Simon, the administration, and an opposition member Cllr Sally Beardsworth who ironically agreed with my assertion that it had all been a smokescreen. To their credit the Labour Party (also unreported) told the administration how despicable their deeds were.

So I never got a quote in the press, but hey ho I can live with that, neither did Andrew Simpson (Lib Dem PPC for Northampton North) who spoke as a member of the public after Simon, to crys of "Bring back the young lad he was better and more coherent than you" and Micheal Ellis was also there waiting to get a line in on the story. They were both to be disappointed, but no doubt they will write their own versions of events in the avalanche of election leaflets on their way to us in the coming weeks.

And for my part I get to inform you all, of what really went down on the day in this blog.

What I witnessed was a cynical, despicable manipulation of the publics concern over proposed cuts to services responsible for the education of our children, which were never going to implemented in the first place.

All delivered in the name of political spin, oneupmanship, electioneering and sleight of hand covering up other serious cuts which really will come to fruition and will affect the most vulnerable in our society.

And they ask me why I think our politics are broken, they ask me why I no longer trust any of the parties to serve the public with any dignity, and they ask me why I am now Independent of the whole lot of them.

If music is to be used as the food for political skullduggery, then as I say in the title to this piece, let it play no more.

Airbrushed for change

Sometimes I think the Tory party have taken a conscious decision to simply try to keep their heads down as much as they can until the general election in the hope that just because its "their turn" the electorate will give them the right to govern.

This policy of "don't say anything otherwise we will ruin it" seems to hold water as every policy announcement they do make is followed quickly by a press story telling us all what a gaffe they have just made.

Therefore I was delighted to come across the website www.mydavidcameron.com which has really brightened up the early election exchanges no end.

It all started when the Tory Party released the following supposedly airbrushed image of David Cameron (very waxy indeed) to convince us all to vote for their own special brand of change:




The website www.davidcameron.com then called upon the Great British public to use its on site tool and its sense of political humour to make up their own airbrushed versions of the poster.

The results are hilarious, I urge you all to pay a visit(they are recieving over 100,000 hits a week!) and to be equally creative, but for now by way of example and encouragement I give you my "Airbrushed for Change" top three:


No 3. Proof positive that Labour and the Conservatives have merged into a great oneness:





No 2. Seems a very "Tim nice but dim" take on how to turn things around:





No 1 Thanks Nan, I always said we should listen to our elders (apologies for the swearing she is getting on a bit)




Lets all hope that the rest of the election is so funny.

The minuets were singed by the chair

Back in my Labour Party days I attended far too many boring party meetings for little or no purpose and at times our only release from the tedium was to make fun at a rather hapless secretary of the Northampton District Labour Party whose typed minutes of the meetings always contained priceless errors, changing the whole context of what we had been discussing in the previous month.

For instance I can recall written testament to debates on "The state of the County's toads" (roads) proposals for reductions in "Symmetry charges" (Cemetery) and the "Pole Tax" (Poll) not to mention the number of local and general "erection" (election) campaigns we considered.

But my all time favourite for its completeness as a sentence and for its percieved imagery was when we noted that "The minuets were singed by the chair" We did however leave most of these errors intact, you see we couldn't really challenge them, because to do anything other than bite our hands in concealed merriment would have meant upsetting the secretary and then someone else having to take on the job. But spelling errors aside they were always a true reflection of the events that actually occurred at the meeting. And politicians from all parties and none, sad as we all are, cannot survive without minutes, it somehow gives reason and purpose for the ridiculous amounts of our time that we spend away from our families locked away in dark rooms being nasty to each other.

Therefore imagine my disquiet last night at this months Full Council meeting when amendments to the minutes were proposed to not just alter the words in the minute but to alter the whole course of events! below in my posting "Silence is Liberal Yellow, Not Golden"

http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2010/01/sometimes-just-sometimes-minutes-of.html

I have cut and pasted the recorded minutes from Decembers Council meeting. This is not my version of events but simply those taken down by the minute clerk at the time and recorded in his own handwriting in the minute book as they occurred and then afterwards posted on the Councils website.

But it seems as if one of our fragile Liberal Democrat Portfolio Holders, Cllr Paul Varnsverry was disturbed by these truths and so decided to challenge the minutes with his own version of events. Apparently we now are led to believe that twice during the period in which I questioned him on the Councils support for our Credit Unions and on the cost of the One Stop Shop that he intervened and that the Mayor then ruled that because the title of the portfolio holder was wrong on the written question that the question was out of order and had no need of answer? Now I am not precious about such matters, its hardly a point of major importance, he never answered the questions anyway, but hang on a damn minuet I hear you fry, if a false minute can be recorded on this occasion, then what is stop anyone in the future becoming equally challenged by the truth?

So I intervened, calmly and politely, informing the Mayor that the published and hand written minutes do not support this new version of events, and that it indeed looked bad on the Mayor himself if we were to record events that suggest he made rulings on challenges which simply did not happen. I also asked the Chief Executive for his view of what had occurred, but unfortunately (or fortunately for him) he could not recall what had occurred at last months meeting.

I also helpfully pointed out that the Cllr had indeed challenged me on his correct title later on in the meeting during his Portfolio Holders presentation but that his suggested change was not a correct minute of the nights events. Cllr Varnsverry is the "Portfolio Holder for Communities" which includes a whole host of responsibilities, It is a bit like when I in the early 90's when I used to chair the "Environment Services" Committee but would get letters addressed to me as "The Chair of Leisure" or "The Chair of Parks" Which is why the Committee clerks always use the words "The relevant portfolio holder" I therefore asked in order for their not to be any disagreement on the night that the minutes not be signed as a correct record until such time as we could check the written record and agree between us what had taken place.

No such luck, instead we proceeded to vote on the erroneous change to the minutes (despite most of the council not having the proposed amendment in front of them).The Conservative and Labour Groups as a show of their true fire and determination as opposition party's decided that the matter was beneath them and thus chose to sit on their hands and abstain leaving the three Independent members and Cllr Colin Lill, a brave and honest local Tory to vote against the amendment made making our 4 votes count against the 19 Liberal Democrat sheep on the opposite side of the chamber who as a result got their way and changed the official version of the Councils minute to suit themselves.

Members of the Public, who had been at last months meeting, looked on in puzzlement, they remember very well what had happened previously, and some of them were very keen after the meeting to tell me so. It was all very very unsettling. In the scale of things though,as I say above it is all very trivial, but on the other hand a Council minute is a Council minute and if it can be changed at will by the ruling administration once, then why not again? And when in a 100 years time people look at the record of our meetings will they then have in front of them a record of what really happened? or simply a changed minute of what some people wanted to have occurred?

It was all a new low for me, Local politics is foremost about serving local people, our debates in the chamber should be focused solely on that outcome, but the manner in which Northampton Borough Council is now running itself makes that impossible, we have pointless debates about very trivial issues whilst the real decisions are made by officers and the administration behind closed doors, and we then wonder why we are held in such low regard by our electorate. Full Council meetings should be about lively and challenging debate on how we are best serving that electorate and whether we win or lose those debates, we should all expect that the minutes of our deliberations are a true record.

Sadly with this Council, they are not.

Look at the Size of my War Chest

An attempt through the "Call in" process by the Independent group on the Borough Council to stop the sale of Archway Cottages. Abington Park unfortunately failed and fell on deaf ears on Wednesday night, but the outcome of the meeting is well worth sharing with the general public of Northampton. These wonderful grade II listed cottages which date back from the 1670's were gifted to the people of Northampton by Lady Wantage in 1892 (as was all of Abington Park) but the current ruling Liberal Democrats on the Council want to sell them on to the highest bidder.

Our challenge led by the Councils Heritage Champion and fellow Independent Cllr Jean Hawkins was based around real and evidential concerns that the Councils cabinet had not looked at all the other options open to it, and that their decision was directed and predetermined by the administrations own priorities. We argued that the cottages could be kept in public use and used for a variety of community purposes, or by the Council itself to house its Heritage team who are to be moved out of Cliftonville House. We also informed the committee that the Council had not followed published guidance from the government or English Heritage over the sale of listed buildings and that grants could be available for either the council or the Friends of Abington Park and or others who wanted to find a future public use for the properties.

As evidence of the above we presented information gleaned from a Freedom of Information request submitted by Jean which threw up some startling revelations. For instance we discovered that in October 2009 Phil Houston, the Youth Development Director for NAYC had made an approach to the Council about using the cottages for a "Youth drop in project" for local 13 - 19 yr olds. This idea was described as "a good potential use" by Cllr Andrew Simpson Lib Dem PPC for Northampton North in an emailed response copied into the portfolio holder Cllr David Perkins, but 'Perky' was having none of it. In a direction to officers dealing with the property he made the administrations position crystal clear when he wrote:

" We will only consider offers which releases capital back to NBC. I am sure that you will be aware that we are trying to establish a war chest of funds from the sale of non priority assets to assist us to manage our organisational change programme"

Despite the above evidence the call in committee decided that the decision to sell should stand and that our claim of a pre determined outcome was irrelevant.

The Borough Solicitor and Cllr Perkins summed up beautifully by telling us that there is nothing wrong at all about the administration on the Council having a set policy to sell assets and only consider options that they wish to consider, equally it was for others to come up with plans and apply for grants if they wanted to maintain the cottages in public hands, but of course following Cllr Perkins email we the public as owners of the cottages would have to buy them back from ourselves (or in this case the Council that is supposed to be looking after them for us) at the going rate in order that a capital receipt went back into the Lib Dem's said war chest.

And what is the "organisational change programme" which will be funded by this windfall? Well to you and me this means that the Council is building up a pot of money to fund the redundancy costs of staff put out of work as even more services are cut in future months.

So their we have it, all out in the open, Northampton Liberal Democrats champions of private market solutions and offloading valuable public assets in order to fund cuts in staff numbers, and all in their own words not ours.

The cottages will now be advertised and probably sold on at a knock down price because of the full cost of repairing years of neglect by the Council who where supposed to be custodians of Lady Wantage's gifted estate.

Doesn't it make you proud of our council? Lady Wantage will of course certainly be turning in her resting place, even the Tory grandees in charge of the Council when she made her gift were far more Liberal than this lot.

Questions Update

With the Lib Dems on the Borough Council having "declined to answer" the 18 questions listed in my post below, the Independent group decided to resubmit them along with another 77 questions that the iliberal undemocrats have also decided to ignore, to next Mondays Full Council meeting . We changed each and every question slightly, as the exact same question under the council constitution cannot be asked twice in a six month period. The Borough solicitor however is now considering disallowing all 95 questions on the grounds that they are not different enough from the first lot of questions, even though the first lost of questions were never answered ! We won't know the outcome of his deliberations until Monday but it seems as if his mind is already made up. This means then that we will not be able to resubmit these questions now until the Council meeting in June, where of course the same apologists for local politicians that call themselves "Liberal" and "Democrats" can simply "decline to answer" them all over again. So much for open democracy and local accountability.

Silence is Liberal Yellow, not Golden!

Sometimes, just sometimes, the minutes of the Council say enough in themselves about the record of our Liberal Democrat administration on Northampton Borough Council and the sorry state we are now in !!

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING OF NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH COUNCIL HELD AT THE GUILDHALL, NORTHAMPTON, ON MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2009 AT SIX THIRTY O’CLOCK IN THE EVENING:

"Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “would the Leader agree to the contract between Legal and General and this Council being submitted for scrutiny (as private business if necessary) to ensure the Council’s decision is robust? If not why not?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “If agreement is given to close Bridge Street on a temporary basis on Friday and Saturday nights will a similar order be raised to open up the top end of the Drapery to traffic be sought for the same time? If not how will vehicles entering the Drapery from Gold Street leave the Town Centre.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor P D Varnsverry as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Can the Portfolio Holder explain what assistance this Council has given to groups wishing to set up credit unions in the last year?”

Councillor P D Varnsverry declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “How many members of the Council’s staff have been affected by verbal or physical
violence in the last 5 years? In what locations did these events occur and what level of support has been given to those employees?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What professional fees, eg SOLACE etc, does NBC pay on behalf of its staff and what has been the annual cost of such over the last three years?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What is the total cost of maintaining the Council’s web site?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Why does the Council not have joint member/trade union liaison committee?”

Councillor B Markham declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Markham as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Re overview and scrutiny work of the Council: Is the leader satisfied that officers are acting on Member requests, so that reports intended for Cabinet should appear at meeting of Scrutiny committees for pre scrutiny before the items are dealt with by the Cabinet?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Would the Portfolio Holder list in table format the following information of each of the past four financial years for each Council directorate:
i. the estimated pension costs of staff employed;
ii. the percentage this represents of the directorate’s running costs?
Would the Portfolio Holder list in table format the following information of each of the past four financial years;
i. the number of employees for whom the Council has to make pension provision;
ii. the number of pensioners;
iii. the estimated pension liability of those currently employed;
iv. the annual cost of pension provision to those retired;
v. the percentage of total council expenditure spent on pension provision;
vi. the average annual pension for an employee who retired during the last financial year?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Given the naming in 2008 of at least a hundred companies in the Office of Fair Trading’s “bid-rigging” inquiry, does the Portfolio Holder know of any company who the Council has a link with that was named – firstly those in the group of companies who have admitted breaking the rules and secondly of the others named but have so far not admitted any responsibility? Given this, will the Portfolio Holder quickly investigate and then look to take legal action against such companies that have
caused Northampton Borough Council to pay more than was fair or expected for contacts? Will the Portfolio Holder act to change the rules on how the Council procures contracts given the recent findings, perhaps including clauses to cover exposure of this type of wrong-doing and suitable compensation payments to Northampton Borough Council from such colluding contractors?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Perkins as the relevant Portfolio Holder “How many public clocks are there in the Borough, how many are working and not working? and what is the total cost to the Council?”

Councillor Perkins declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor P D Varnsverry as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Will the Portfolio Holder set out in table format the running costs of the “one stop shop” in each year since 2007?”

Councillor P D Varnsverry declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Will the Leader of the Council comment on how the Guildhall may be made more welcoming to visitors who use the main staircase entrance into the building? In view of the total dearth of signage and welcoming reception desk, what could be provided at minimal cost to indicate that this is an open and democratic Council?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What steps will be taken to ensure that all voters are made aware of the recommendations being made by the Council working party to the Electoral Boundary Commissioners?”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Would the Leader agree that the proposed reduction of Overview ans Scrutiny committees will lead to a weakening of the Authority’s ability to fulfil its statutory duty in view of the amount of Council business required to promote this Council in its journey towards 4* status.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor B Hoare as the relevant Portfolio Holder “What tangible benefits accrue to NBC for their membership of the LGA and can the Leader give examples of where VFM and best practice has been achieved as a direct result of such membership taking into account the opportunity cost of attendance at conferences.”

Councillor B Hoare declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Crake as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Can the Portfolio Holder confirm the number and location of all the public waste bins in Northampton, the collection rotas for each, and the plans for the future of such waste bins?”

Councillor Crake declined to answer.

Councillor Clarke asked Councillor Crake as the relevant Portfolio Holder “Are flood mitigation plans adequate to protect the Borough’s IT services in the event of this service being moved to Westbridge?”

Councillor Crake declined to answer.

end

So much for Liberal democracy I hear you cry!

A New Years Message from Terry Waite

As we enter another General Election Year I thought I would share with you a letter I received last week from Terry Waite written to all prospective parliamentary candidates who have sought endorsment through the Independent Network

http://www.independentnetwork.org.uk/

Terry, as he often does, seems very much to have hit the proverbial nail right on the head:

"I hope you will not think it presumptuous of me to write a New Year message to you. I do so not because I am an individual of any great standing or influence. I am an ordinary voting member of the public and as such am gravely concerned about the political health of our country. It is in this capacity and with these thoughts in mind that I write.

First, you will undoubtedly remember the elation expressed by so many when Labour came to power and Tony Blair assumed office. It seemed as though a breath of fresh air was about to blow through Westminster. The Labour Party seemed to have been given a unique chance by the country to institute sensible reforms and work towards an equitable and fair society for all.

Alas, hopes were dashed. An unprecedented number of people from all walks of life took to the streets in protest against the Iraq war. Intuitively they suspected the motives of those who were leading the country in that direction. Subsequent events have proved them right. What was sad about this unhappy time was that those in leadership positions in our country appeared not to listen to the thousands who were protesting. They were not even prepared to let Hans Blix complete his work. Although a number of MPs expressed their disquiet, when it came to the crunch they had to vote as their parties dictated. Only the minor parties stood against the war.

The decision to go to war shook the confidence of the population in our political system and convinced many that individual MPs were little more than lobby fodder. There was also growing alarm that increasingly the Civil Service was being undermined and that “advisers” were being appointed mainly (or so it seemed) because of their ability to massage the media.
Parliamentary government – of the people by the people – was increasingly a fond illusion. Again, it seemed to many that we were being governed by an elite with a facility for smooth talking and clever manipulation.

To be fair, the Labour Party did institute many constructive changes but many were lost to public view because of the way in which Parliament was conducting its affairs.

The bombshell came when the Daily Telegraph exposed the expenses issue. In speaking about this I want to bend over backwards to be fair and I shall not point my finger at any one individual MP, even though some have crossed all acceptable boundaries. The fault in my opinion lies in the system. Members of Parliament ought to have recognised this years ago and put in place something more transparent.

Working as I do with some of the very poorest in our society, I do not believe that our elected representatives are underpaid. When, as some do, they compare themselves with other so-called “public servants”, their pay may seem to be inadequate. I take the position that thousands of our “servants” are overpaid. MPs receive very adequate allowances and I hold the very old-fashioned position that if one enters public service one does not do so to grow rich.

Without a doubt the expenses issue caused a major slump in public confidence in Parliament and in the party system of government.

Let me now come to the main point of this letter. I firmly believe that reform of Parliament is urgently required. It is not good for the nation to suffer an ailing political system. The country needs a strong and healthy Parliament composed of Members who can and will truly represent their constituents and at the same time have the vision and foresight to lead in constructive ways. At this juncture I have little confidence in the domination of the various parties over Parliament, which leads me to believe that reform is urgently required.

If there can be a new group of candidates who have had experience of the world and have had to make their way in the rough and tumble of everyday life, if such a group of candidates could come together around key issues of parliamentary reform and remain free to vote according to their consciences, then it may be that such a group would be able to speed the reform process so urgently needed. I am not advocating total abolition of the party system. I am urging reform and to this end I would hope that if you are considering standing as an Independent candidate you would take the opportunity to meet with others and hammer out the necessary reforms for which you would be willing to work.

In recent years I have been urged to offer myself as a candidate for Parliament. Each time I have given the suggestion serious consideration and have declined on the grounds that a parliamentary career would mean that I have to cease the work that I already do. However, I will do my best to support you in your candidature. This is a unique point in the history of our country. We face complex and demanding issues which require wise and mature leadership – leadership that is not subservient to party dogma, media approval or desire for status and position.

The call goes out to the country to find such people who are willing to serve for no other reason than that they desire to see the United Kingdom develop a just and fair society where tradition is respected and Parliament is truly a Parliament of the people.

Let us hope that such individuals will come forward in the coming months – and, if you are such, more power to your elbow!
Wishing you a very happy New Year,

Terry Waite, CBE"

It's snow go as Britain lays low

For those of you out there truly snowed in and housebound this week I send to you my deepest and most sincere condolences and best wishes, but for the majority of you workshy and apologist shirkers and weather wimps I say shame on you, get a grip of yourselves and show some mettle.

After just 2 days of scattered snow showers the whole country it seems, has ground to a complete standstill and "snow days" are added to "duvet days" as reasons not to be industrious or even mildly or gently active.

Having rescued my car this morning from County Hall Car Park (they locked me in last night whilst I was at a Borough Council meeting across the road) I got to work to find that most people hadn't.

Likewise those teaching staff who managed to get into their respective schools had to turn around and go home due to the fact that the absent staff outnumbered those who were present, meaning that schools still closed because they were unable to provide for their charges and as a result another extra day was added to the Christmas holiday.

Now don't get my wrong, I am not suggesting that similar things haven't happened in the past or that their are never any legitimate occasions when bad weather really should stop play, but I simply feel that this week we have stretched the envelope far to far, and need to take a long and hard look at ourselves as individuals and as a nation and admit that our own non attendance for work has more to do with our own psychological and escapist desire to find some respite from the rat race, than it ever has to do with any physical ability to face the elements. If we want to remind ourselves of a real severe winter then think back to 1963 (see picture) when we really did have something to moan about

And the winter madness doesn't stop simply at our attitude to attending the workplace either, we manage to stretch it far far further than that. You see the very same people who couldn't dig their car out of the snow this morning or get it safely down the local hill, were still able to miraculously do exactly that in order to get to the local supermarket to panic buy and stock up the cupboards for the impending frozen Armageddon we all face.

My local newspaper The Northampton Chronicle and Echo (delivered to our workplace by a man in a van with no real hardship) runs a story today headlined "PANIC BUYING IN BIG FREEZE" wherein local supermarkets are falling over themselves to tell the media that their stores are packed out with people stocking up on hitherto unneeded provisions.

One of the comments came from a "David Bailey, weather analyst for Sainsbury's" WEATHER ANALYST !! for f*cks sake, Since when did supermarkets employ weather analyists? Mr Bailey tells us that "shoppers were stocking up on tinned foods and winter essentials. He said: "We know shoppers' buying habits change according to the weather. A temperature change of three degrees from the seasonal average can result in sales of some products going up by as much as 50 per cent."

Tesco's tell us there is a run on soup and Asda are shifting large quantities of wellington boots, puddings and take away food. All being purchased by the very same people whose cars are still stuck in the snow back home! .

Now call me a cynical old sod if you wish but I can't help but think that the supermarket chains might just have a vested interest in telling us that people are crowding into their stores to panic buy in order to encourage us all to er... go out and panic buy.

Meanwhile back at the football club we are trying to decide whether or not Saturdays home game will beat the weather? My view? Well we can clear the snow off the pitch as long as it doesn't get too deep (or clear the lines and play on the snow with an orange ball as we used to) and with a massive effort we could also clear the surrounding steps ramps and roads, but the real question is if we do, will anyone then have the courage to venture out to see the game? You can't panic buy League Two football (although panic has been a feature of our defensive play this season up until our recent welcome return to some form) So we are left with the dilemma of either spending a lot of money to get a game on which a lot of people won't bother coming to or giving in to the general mood?

You see as a nation we can't judge anything for ourselves anymore, we need others (especially the radio TV and printed media) to set the mood and set the trend for us, if by Friday the media are still telling us all "Don't travel unless you really have to" and that "This current cold spell will probably go on until March" and that it is the "Coldest month on record since our records began" (probably last year) then the football clubs staff are probably better off staying at home on Saturday as well and have a "public couldn't be ars*d to turn up day"

So get a grip Britain, after all, in just six months time it will a question of "Phew what a Scorcher, Millions head to the coast as nation sizzles and main roads melt"

And heres a toast to all dedicated public servants (especially the gritting lorry crews who always manage to get to work!) who laugh warmly in the face of Sidney snow and wear their true Brit grit hearts proudly on their sleeves.

(This blog posting was brought to you via a cancelled meeting in the dairy due to inclement weather)

Choosing who should run our schools

It seems that my Christmas wish for Weston Favell School to be left alone and remain outside of the clutches of a Tory County Council and a Labour Governments wish to turn them into an Academy against their will has come partly true!

Certainly the news out today that Weston Favells academy sponsor ULT had withdrawn from their intended take over of the school is good news, and it is the second academy sponsor to withdraw in two years of failed Council consultations on plans that the general public simply just don't want. The latest announcement came after the minister expressed "serious concerns" about the lack of progress at the ULT-run Sheffield Park Academy which is currently in special measures.


But be warned, in the new year no doubt the Council will only redouble their efforts to find someone else to sponsor their unpopular plans and they can then try again to convince us they only have the best interest of our children at heart, rather than simply washing their hands of what they decree failing schools. But with 1 in 3 academies now failing you would think the Council would be more cautious as to its choice of partner, and less keen to tell us that State run schools are always bad and Independent run schools always good

But just how much embarrassment are the Cabinet willing to take on this issue, whilst their sponsors fall like wobbly skittles in a bowling alley?

ULT's latest announcement coming on the back of damning reports of their failure elsewhere to turn the fortunes of schools around were not surprising, anyone with a modicum of common sense (So that obviously excludes the Councils Cabinet) could see their failures and poor record staring them straight in the face. 30 speakers who turned up and spoke to the infamous "were not listening" cabinet meeting and scores of others who wrote letter and emails could have told the Council that ULT were not fit for purpose, even the minister hinted at it but they just didn't want to listen.

(see http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2009/12/brave-stupid-or-simply-arrogant.html below )

So will they be more discearning in their choice in the future? I doubt it, just look at what they are up to just a couple of miles away at Unity College with the help of the Church of England where the school is being offloaded to another academy sponsor, The David Ross Foundation

(see http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2009/07/role-model-but-to-whom.html from July )

David Ross you may be aware is very friendly with one David Cameron, and is a major donor to the Tory Party (So far so good for the blue rinses at Strawberry Hall I hear you say) but he also courts rather a lot of controversy and this weeks press makes the County Councils choice for Unity's future even more interesting. About a year ago Mr Ross stood down from the Board of Carphone Warehouse after failing to declare that a loan was secured on his company shares, soon after this he was further asked to resign as an adviser to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.

Bad press for someone tipped to be a future member of David Cameron's cabinet following a possible elevation to the House of Lords, and time for a period of reflection and for laying low I hear you thinking.

But this week in what is impeccable timing for Strawberry Hall, Mr Ross hit the national press again. The Daily Mail informs us that "within the next few days he can expect to be questioned by police about a fracas involving a young, blonde, Lithuanian woman. The lady made an allegation of assault after she called the police in the early hours of Friday morning to the Belgravia home of Mr Ross"

The Mail then followed up the story by revealing that "the woman at the centre of 'assault' at the home of David Cameron's millionaire friend David Ross is an escort girl"

"The Lithuanian blonde claims she was cheated out of money 'for services rendered' by a man at the house. She alleges that a scuffle broke out in the early hours of Friday, during which she was assaulted"

In a response Mr Ross, who has been helping formulate Tory schools policy, has told friends that the woman was not invited at all, and he threw her out when she confronted him.

It was suggested that the woman might have turned up at the house with several guests from a party hosted by pr guru Matthew Freud which was attended by Ross, David Cameron and his wife as well as other celebrities and political guests. Sometime later after arriving at Mr Ross's house she was told to leave by Mr Ross after she had alledgedly threatened him.

Now I have no doubt that the Metropolitan Police will get to the bottom of what occurred and Mr Ross may well be innocent of any wrong doing and be nothing more than the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but whilst the national press concentrate mainly on what they say "risks embarrassment for Mr Cameron" the possibility of any embarrassment for the Tory Party in Strawberry Hall is less clear.

Now call me old fashioned, but for me, when picking out future partners to take over responsibility for the education of our children, I want to know and to be assured by our councillors that they are a) up to the job (ULT failed on that score it seems) and b) that the head of any foundation applying to take on such a responsibility isn't going to continue to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

No doubt the Tory Cabinet on the County Council have asked themselves these very same questions? But up until now they have been very shy in revealing to us any of the answers.

My solution? Scrap these crazy plans to offload our state schools to the independent sector via the "academy" programme and start doing the job you were elected to do in giving proper support to our schools rather than treating them like commodities to be shipped off to anyone who will take them.

And listen more to the pupils, parents, teachers and governors who have a big stake in our schools, rather than government ministers and local bean counters.

HO HO HO MERRY XMAS

For your seasonal delight, and to prove to Carole (my wife) that I am more than prepared to take the p*ss out of myself as well as others, I offer you a yuletide offering all of my own. With special thanks to all those on both councils who who made it all possible.

And just for fun I have added the words underneath so that you can all have a singalong:

STRAWBERRY HALL ARE YOU LISTENING?
WESTON FAVELL'S NOT FOR SHIFTING
DON'T TAKE US FOR FOOLS
BY OFFLOADING OUR SCHOOLS
WALKING IN A COUNCIL BLUNDERLAND

A BRAND NEW LEADER ON THE BOROUGH
WOODSIE'S ASTRA'S NOW A GONER
BRIAN HOARE'S THE NEW BROOM
ANDREW SIMPSON'S NOW DOOMED
WALKING IN A COUNCIL BLUNDERLAND

ON THE MARKET WE CAN BUILD A FOUNTAIN
AND PRETEND THAT WE'RE A GROWING TOWN
WE'LL SAY ARE YOU CRAZY?
THEY'LL SAY NO MAN
CUZ L&G'S THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

IN THE SHIRE OF SQUIRES AND SPIRES
HARKER'S DEALS ARE ULTRA VIRES
WITH CARRILLION GONE
THEY TELL US NOTHING WENT WRONG
WALKING IN A COUNCIL BLUNDERLAND

ALL OUR COUNCILLORS VOTE THEMSELVES A PAY RISE
AND TELL US, THEIR NOT FAILING ANY MORE
MEANWHILE HOMES AND TOILETS ARE STILL CLOSING
OUR GOVERNANCE IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE

GONE AWAY ARE THE SHOPPERS
STILL NO DECISION FOR THE COBBLERS
BRIAN HOARE IS A STOOGE
AND JIM HARKER IS SCROOGE
WALKING IN A COUNCIL BLUNDERLAND

OUR LEADERS HEADS ARE BURIED IN THE SAND

WALKING IN A COUNCIL BLUNDERLAND............................

Merry Christmas

Tony