Full council last night, where the feature event was a debate on the ‘£10 to enter Greater London’ policy advocated by the Lib Dem Mayoral candidate (see ‘Weak thinking, Brian’ below).
Needless to say the Lib Dems ‘amended’ the Conservative motion, which was critical of the policy, by changing one thing - ALL the words. The only debating chamber in which I have ever been where the substitution of an entirely different motion from one which has been proposed and seconded is called an ‘amendment’ is the Council Chamber of this Royal Borough. However, the Mayor seemed to think it was alright, so who am I to criticise?
It appears that the Lib Dem policy has undergone two clarifications and evolutions since the Conservative motion was submitted (about 2 weeks ago so the agenda could be published!). The latest version, pulled off the website yesterday, gives two possible options for dealing with the nonsense I pointed out some days ago. These are:-
Option 1: create an exempt zone outside Greater London, the residents of which would be inside the Congestion Charge zone and thus exempt from paying the charge on entry into Greater London. Precisely what would be included in this zone is nowhere indicated - as yet. Would Esher be in or out? or Leatherhead, which lies outwith the M25 circle. We don’t know. But our Lib Dems seem on the face of it, not to believe this would be adopted. I say this because their ‘amendment’ seemed geared to
Option 2: exclude some of the Outer London Boroughs from the Congestion Zone. Our Lib Dems took it for granted in their ‘amendment’ that this would mean that Kingston would not be affected. Presumably the charging zone would start at Ham Parade if this were the case and Richmond were not so privileged. Would this mean I would have to stump up £10 a time to go to 6 p.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas on Sundays - as the proposal is for the charge to apply 24/7? But the point is that this is only listed in the manifesto as an option which might be applied, and there is no guarantee that it would be or that Kingston would be protected as one of the selected Boroughs.
So the evolved policy is a better presented dogs dinner than it originally was - but it’s still a dog’s dinner nevertheless.
Boris Johnson’s manifesto for Housing can be read using the link on the ‘Back Boris’ page.
I have no sympathy at all for the Conservative Councillor in Slough who has been found guilty of electoral malpractice. I have none either for his agent. Regardless of party affiliation, anyone who does this kind of thing deserves all the opprobrium and penalties that are coming to them.
But, and at the risk of being boringly repetitive, the encouragement of unfettered postal voting, coupled with the monthly (rather than annual) updating of the electoral register, is making electoral fraud easier than at any time since the introduction of the Ballot Act in 1872.
In Kingston we have a very professional team in charge of electoral registration. I am sure the same is true of most local authorities. But there are far too few people to be able to check meaningfully the vastly increased claims for postal votes that now flood in (over 15000 in this Borough in 2006) - or even to check that the persons named on the applications actually exist. The Government must either tackle this meaningfully as a matter of urgency or be regarded as too complacent about the situation to be bothered.
Posted by pauljohnston under
Conservatives,
London No Comments
For the latest info. from the Boris Johnson Mayoral campaign, click on ‘Back Boris’ above and follow the links on the page.
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Personal [2] Comments
Have just had a few days in Florida. This was the view from the restaurant window in our resort hotel in St. Pete Beach where we had our breakfast watching the pelicans having theirs.
The place had its own private beach just to the right of the picture - ideal for whiling away a sunny afternoon and taking the odd dip in the Gulf of Mexico. Delightful - and what a shock when getting back to Brown’s Britain this morning to read about the ‘Budget’ - and the fact that England had contrived to lose to the weakest Scottish side in years after beating the French at home!
Posted by pauljohnston under
Europe,
Labour No Comments
This link takes you to a leaflet put out in the East Renfrewshire constituency of Europe Minister Jim Murphy. It bears the imprint of the Constituency Labour Party. East Renfrewshire was one of the ten UK constituencies where a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was organised by iwantareferendum.com - NOT, I might add, by the Conservative or any other party.
http://www.iwantareferendum.com/east_ren_letter.pdf
When Mr. Murphy was asked about the gross misrepresentations in this leaflet he said that it was nothing to do with him, ‘you’ll have to ask the Labour Party!’
To visit the website and sign the on line petition for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty follow this link
http://www.iwantareferendum.com
Posted by pauljohnston under
Conservatives,
London No Comments
Conservative Mayoral Candidate Boris Johnson has launched his Transport manifesto today.
This link takes you direct to the Adobe .pdf version of it; http://www.backboris.com/assets/completed_transport_manifesto.pdf
Prominent features include scrapping Livingstone’s plan to charge a £25 congestion charge on people carriers and reconsulting on the western extension of the Congestion Charge zone.
Posted by pauljohnston under
Europe No Comments
I borrowed the picture from the Daily Telegraph website. To read the full story follow this link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/neu203.xml
As about 90% of a fairly respectable turn out in ten locally organised referendums have voted ‘No’ to the Lisbon Treaty isn’t it time our MPs allowed us all to have the say they promised us in 2005, when they were elected?
This section from the Lib Dem Mayoral candidate’s transport manifesto should sink his chances with most Kingstonians without trace. The first idea isn’t a bad one but the consequential second policy is just plain barmy:-
- Scrap the Western Extension Zone
- Introduce in its place a 24/7 £10 greater London congestion zone for non-Londoners. Commercial vehicles and London registered vehicles will be exempt. Aimed at encouraging visitors and commuters to use public transport.
It was noticeable that, when Howard Jones drew attention to this proposal in the Budget debate last Wednesday there was embarrassed silence from the Lib Dem members. And no wonder! People coming in to Kingston to shop from Esher, Claygate, Long Ditton or the far end of Lovelace Road or Ditton Road in my ward or Balaclava Road or Portsmouth Road in St. Marks ward would be faced with a £10 charge every time they come to shop in Surbiton or Kingston - the biggest retail centre in London outside the West End - and they’d have to pay an extra tenner on top of the seat price and the parking charge to visit the beloved Rose theatre. That should strangle Kingston’s economy sure enough.
Only someone profoundly ignorant of the nature of the boundary areas of Greater London (where one building in Greater London is often next door - literally - to one in Surrey) could possibly have come up with such a harebrained scheme - and he wants to be Mayor!
