Paul Johnston

 Apologies for the conceit, but, reading this morning’s newspaper article about the Deputy Speaker’s disciplining of our dear MP for his disrespect for the Chair, I was reminded of Erasmus’s satire on Pope Julius II (under the title ‘Julius Exclusus’) in which he envisaged the indignant Pope being shut out of Heaven by St. Peter and ‘cast into outer darkness’.

Ed was red carded for his petulant criticism of the Speaker for failing to call the Lib Dem motion for a referendum on EU membership in place of the referendum most people in the UK want, on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which, as Ed knows fine well, is a very different issue.

This is a Lib Dem fudge and nothing more. They pledged support for a referendum on the Constitution at the General Election of 2005. So did Labour and the Conservatives. Just about every MP was elected on that understanding. That includes Lib Dems, some of whom in the West Country profess themselves to be Eurosceptics!

Given that the whole world knows (even if some in the Government and the Lib Dems won’t admit it) that the Lisbon Treaty is the Constitution in all but name (’That which we call a rose, by any other name……’) those MPs should be insisting that the pledge they were elected upon should be honoured. Of course they’re scared of a NO vote, none more so than the Eurofanatic Lib Dems. Hence the not so subtle attempt to try to change the question. Even the present Speaker could see through that one and he was right to do so. Having been seen through, our Ed thhrew a tantrum and has been sent to stand in the corner - and quite right too!

  It is worth remembering that, thanks to the constitutional mess made by Tony Blair of London’s local government, a large chunk of what we pay in Tax to our Boroughs is ‘precepted’ (i.e.syphoned off) to pay for the antics of Ken and his cohort in City Hall. A Kingston band D taxpayer will contribute £309.82 to Ken’s coffers next year. As a band F payer I shall be stumping up £447.52 and quite few of my constituents in Surbiton Hill will pay an eyewatering £619.64!

What’s he doing with it? Ken has turned what was supposed by Blair to be a modest co-ordinating outfit into a mighty empire. City Hall, built to house the whole thing, quickly became overcrowded as Ken hired more and more staff to push his power grabbing agenda. Part of this is the creation of his own foreign policy, typified by the above picture of Ken with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and backed up by the creation of what amounts to embassies abroad, all at our expense. This was something Blair and Co. never envisaged and which the craven media have kept rather quiet about, with the honourable exception of Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ a few weeks ago.

Another feature of Ken’s management of OUR money has been his distribution, through persons like Lee Jasper, of largesse to organisations which then disappear or at the very least leave no proper audit trail on how the money has been spent to achieve the socially laudable aims for which it was supposedly granted. It’s all documented in the ‘Dispatches’ programme and elsewhere.

For pity’s sake, London, WAKE UP!

One of the few National Trust places open in Surrey at this time of year. Daphne and I went there on Sunday afternoon for a light lunch followed by a short walk. I need to use a stick because of knee problems, but I’m told that, even if you walk very slowly for a time, it’s good for arthritis.

The recent sunshine has brought on the daffodils, which abound in the woodland and on the slopes down to the ornamental lake, and the pink camellias are in full bloom and looking stunning. If one doesn’t feel like being too active, there’s a lot to be said for just sitting on a bench admiring the view and thinking great thoughts. That’s my excuse anyway.

                                                                                                                                                           It looks as though the future of waste collection in Kingston will be that the current system of weekly residual collections and fortnightly recyclables collection will be reversed for houseowners from September 1st. The weekly collection will include food waste which will be kept in a separate container from general waste. The Conservative group policy has always been to have both collected weekly but the Lib Dems are not of the same opinion.

Flat dwellers will have a different scheme, details of which will need to worked out but I believe the essential objective is to have all waste collected weekly.

 I have moved from my old site at www.pauljohnston.info, though the site is still up and running and archive material dating back to early 2006 can be viewed there. Today is the start of a new year of my life - my 63rd birthday - so it seems a good time to start a new blog.