Tuesday, 29 May, 2007
 | Letter of the Week |
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MY response to your reader Matthew Chorley, whose letter was published in Friday's edition is brief and to the point: "Honi soit qui mal y pense".
Richard Johnson
Leaverholme Close, Cliviger
Editor's note: The phrase translates as "evil to him who evil thinks".
Mr Johnson of Cliviger also penned a letter to the Sunday Telegraph recently. It is good to know that people of sense live in our town.
Thursday, 24 May, 2007
| Wally of the Week: |
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Put monarchy money to better use
...Getting rid of the monarchy would emphasise a recognition that money should be directed at those who truly make a difference in our towns, and in society generally. The situation is currently indefensible.
MR MATTHEW CHORLEY, Helvellyn Drive, Burnley
www.burnleytoday.co.uk
If Mr Chorley had bothered to read this website prior to his attack on the monarchy, he would have realised that the Windsors cost our nation £0.62 per head.
| Wally of the Week (ii) |
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AFTER 20 years of total rejection by the people of Burnley the local Conservatives must be absolutely delighted to find themselves sharing power in the Town Hall.
Despite the fact they have the grand total of six councillors, all elected in the two most affluent areas of the town, the Liberal Democrats have handed them control of the budget and a major say in all the decision making processes of Burnley Council.
The overwhelming message to voters in Burnley after the recent election must be vote Liberal Democrat and get Conservative!
MR BRIAN COOPER Briercliffe www.burnleytoday.co.uk
Mr Cooper has evidently been asleep for the past 12 months, and rather boringly asks why the Lib Dems are working with the Conservatives. One reason is that the Conservative Councillor responsible for spending our council tax has a far smaller appetitive for our money than any of his predecessors. An examination of the number of Lib Dem councillors (and their need for an over all majority), coupled with a basic understanding of mathematics will supply Mr Cooper with the second reason.
| Grammar Schools |
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David Cameron has put his foot in it. No Labour or Lib Dem voters will vote Tory as a result of his not supporting grammar schools. All he has achieved is to upset his own core vote. It is true that in 18 years of government the Tories never introduced a new grammar school when they surely had the opportunity. So why not leave it at that? Why open a can of worms and then proceed to watch them wiggle?
As a teacher who has taught in a comprehensive and a grammar, let me offer a defence of the latter without denigrating the former. Although I never attended a grammar myself, I can vouch that they stretch the very brightest in ways that many comprehensives simply cannot. They also ensure that their weaker pupils are not given the opportunities to drift into bad behaviour or mediocrity.
Keep the Grammar Schools. Then build some more.
 | Remember |
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 Last week, I once again had the opportunity and privilege to accompany some school children to some of the sites of Flanders' bloodiest First World War battles.
During the trip, I was informed by my garage that the cost of rectifying my recent car break-down would be in excess of 1600 pounds.
Standing on the Somme 30 minutes later worked wonders in helping me be thankful I was alive and to forget the immensity of the bill.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul? |
Wednesday, 23 May, 2007
| New Film: |
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Preview:
http://www.myspace.com/takinglibertiesuk
Saturday, 12 May, 2007
| Eurovision |
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If ever I watch the song contest again, please shoot me before I turn the TV on.
| In Response |
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It's hard not to like the man. (ie Blair)
'What are you saying! What one single good thing has he done?'
He killed off socialism for ten years.
Friday, 11 May, 2007
| Website visitors |
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In March this website was visited 7156 times and in April 6647.
| Some Facts about Blair and Brown's Decade |
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· Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister started with great hope but has ended with disappointment. He may have been a successful party leader and he's done some good things - like making the Bank of England independent.
· But despite his good intentions, he has failed to deliver as Prime Minister. After a decade of taxes by stealth, what is the Blair-Brown legacy? We have cuts in the NHS, a pensions system in crisis, violent crime rising and prisons overcrowded.
24 hours to save the NHS?
Blair promise: 'The very simple choice that people have in this next 24 hours is this. It is 24 hours to save our National Health Service' (Tony Blair, Speech to Trimdon Labour Club, 30 April 1997).
Brown promise: 'from today a campaign must begin - not just to renationalise the National Health Service but to save the National Health Service for the people of Britain' (Speech to the Scottish Labour Conference, 12 March 1995).
What's happened:
· In 2005-06, the NHS was over £1.3 billion in the red;
· Over 20,000 job losses have been announced by NHS hospitals in England in the last year;
· 17 Accident and Emergency Departments, 105 community hospitals and 43 maternity units are under threat of cutbacks and closure;
· And almost one million people in the UK are still waiting for treatment on the NHS.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime?
Blair promise: 'There must be a comprehensive attack on crime and its causes instead of a search for easy headlines' (Tony Blair, The Times, 4 November 1996).
Brown promise: 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' (The Guardian, 27 May 1995).
What's happened: Since 1997:
· Violent crime has more than doubled;
· Gun crime has doubled;
· Almost 450,000 more crimes were committed in 2005-06 than in 1998-9;
· But just one in four crimes is now cleared up by the police.
Fairness for pensioners?
Blair promise: 'Will Labour tax pension funds? Our public expenditure plans require no extra taxation. Labour has made clear our central tax announcements' (Evening Standard, 14 April 1997).
Brown promise: 'I can give this pledge - fairness to the pensioners under Labour' (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 2 October 1996).
What's happened:
· The abolition of tax credits on pension dividends has cost pension funds £5 billion a year and £100 billion over the long term;
· Since 1997, around 125,000 people have lost part of their pension;
· Tony Blair's first Welfare Reform Minister, Frank Field, has said that as a result, 'we have some of the weakest pensions provisions in Europe.
No plans to increase tax?
Blair promise: 'We have no plans to increase tax at all' (Tony Blair, Financial Times, 21 September 1995).
Brown promise: 'there are no public expenditure commitments that require us to raise taxes' (Gordon Brown, BBC Newsnight, 20 January 1997).
What's happened:
According to independent experts, taxes have risen by £1,300 for every family in the UK as a direct result of Gordon Brown's decisions at Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports since 1997.
Since 1997, Gordon Brown has introduced 111 stealth tax rises (HM Treasury, Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports), including:
· Pensions Tax - Gordon Brown's first and worst stealth tax has taken £5bn a year from pension funds. Treasury documents released recently show that Gordon Brown was warned of the damage this would do to pensions but went ahead anyway.
· Stamp Duty - Gordon Brown now gets £10 billion a year in stamp duty - four times the level when he became Chancellor. The average home-buyer is paying almost £1,000 more in stamp duty under Labour.
· Inheritance Tax - The number of households paying inheritance tax has doubled under Gordon Brown. The average price of a semi-detached property in London is now above the inheritance tax threshold of £300,000.
· Council Tax - The average Band D bill in England has risen from £688 in 1997-8 to £1,321 in 2007-8 under Gordon Brown - over 90 per cent.
· Business Tax - The CBI estimates that British businesses have been hit by a massive £50 billion increase in tax under Labour. Under Gordon Brown, Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league.
Education, Education, Education?
Blair promise: 'Ask me my three main priorities for Government and I tell you: education, education, education…There should be zero tolerance of failure in Britain's schools' (Tony Blair, Speech to the Labour Party Conference speech, 1 October 1996).
Brown promise: 'Britain to be a world skills superpower by raising standards in our schools, colleges and universities' (Daily Record, 10 October 1996).
What's happened:
· Almost half of all 11 year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly when they leave primary school;
· Fewer than half of school leavers obtain five or more good GCSEs (grades A*-C) including English and Maths;
· Over one in eight secondary schools has been judged 'inadequate';
· And over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification.
Welfare Reform?
Blair promise: 'By the end of a 5 year term of a Labour Government: I vow that we will have reduced the proportion [of national income] we spend on the welfare bills of social failure… This is my covenant with the British people. Judge me upon it. The buck stops with me' (Tony Blair, Speech to Labour Party Conference, 1 October 1996).
Blair promise: 'the reform of welfare to make it, as it should be, a platform of opportunity, not a recipe for dependency' (Tony Blair, Renewal, Vol.3, No.4, 4 October 1995).
Brown promise: 'The New Deal is the most ambitious programme of employment opportunities our country has seen' (Hansard, 17 March 1998, Col. 1102).
What's happened:
· There are two million economically inactive people who want to work;
· Nearly half of young job- seekers who leave the New Deal for Young People end up back on benefits within a year;
· And almost 2.7 million people of working age are claiming incapacity benefits - nearly three times more than the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
Social Justice?
Blair promise: '[We are] the Party of compassion; of social justice; of the struggle against poverty and inequality (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 30 September 1997).
Brown promise: 'We will reverse the gap between rich and poor that has affected our society' (BBC Radio 4, Today, 26 September 1993).
What's happened:
· According to a recent report by UNICEF, the UK is rated the lowest out of 21 OECD countries for child well-being;
· The UK has a higher proportion of children living in workless households than any other EU country;
· Child poverty rose last year by 100,000 before housing costs ( the Government's preferred measure) and 200,000 after housing costs;
· The incomes of the poorest 20 per cent of households fell in real terms last year, from £182 a week (before housing costs) to £181, while the real incomes of the top 20 per cent went up from £722 a week to £733.
Thursday, 10 May, 2007
| Bye Bye Blair |
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Today is a historic day, for Tony Blair has set a date for his departure.
I was in year 10 at school when he became Labour leader, and in my sixth form when he won the '97 election. Ten years later, and I'm a teacher myself.
It's hard not to like the man. He made mistakes, and we'll be living with the consequences- both good and bad- of his premiership for years to come. But he's finally gone, and I imagine that a great many will begin to miss him.
Lucrative lecture circuits of America await him, and perhaps personal presidency of the EU?
Well goodbye Mr Blair, and hello Mr Brown.
...And goodbye Mr Brown, and hello Mr Cameron.
| Careless talk costs livelihoods |
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From the Burnley Express' School News 4/5/07:
'Hameldon Community College:
Students should have brought home a letter from the College Liaison office regarding attendance and Punctuation'.
It's jolly decent of the school secretaries to offer the English department a hand by sending home letters regarding pupils' punctuation.
| Election Analysis |
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We won over 800 council seats in England and we now have our highest number of councillors since 1978.
· We have made an incredible breakthrough in the North. We now control 20 councils in the North, and more councils in the North than Labour. Councils we've gained:
o East Riding of Yorkshire for the first time ever, making 18 gains and taking the Lib Dem and Labour leaders' seats.
o South Ribble for the first time since 1995, gaining 24 seats.
o Chester for the first time since 1986, gaining 7 seats.
o Blackpool, gaining 13 seats - 12 from Labour, 1 from the Lib Dems. We last controlled Blackpool in 1987.
· We have now made net gains of over 130 seats in the North. If people were to have voted in Bury and Bolton in a General Election as they did yesterday, we would have won the three Parliamentary seats needed to win a General Election (Bolton NE, Bury N and Bolton W - Ruth Kelly's seat). We'd also have won Barrow, - John Hutton, the Pension Secretary's seat. Not only this, but we would have taken seats way beyond our expectations, such as Sunderland Central and Wallasey, as well as Birmingham Selly Oak, Blackpool South and Birmingham Northfield.
· Nationally, we are predicted to gain over 40 per cent of the vote. We have now gained over 800 seats and now control 23 more councils. We control 205 councils - more than three times Labour (46) and the Libs Dems (27) combined. Labour have been wiped off the map - in 80 councils (and rising) they have no councillors at all. And the Lib Dems are heading for their worst loss of councillors for a decade.
· Across the North, we have also made gains in 33 other councils: Allerdale (+1), Alnwick (+7), Barrow-in-Furness (+2), Blackburn with Darwen (+2), Bolton (+1), Burnley (+1), Bury (+1), Castle Morpeth (+2), Chester-le-Street (+1), Chorley (+1), Copeland (+3), Crewe and Nantwich (+3), Darlington (+5), Eden (+4), Ellesmere Port and Neston (+3), Fylde (+1), Hambleton (+2), Lancaster (+1), Macclesfield (+2), Oldham (+2), Pendle (+1), Preston (+2), Rotherham (+1), Richmondshire (+6) Salford (+2), Stockton on Tees (+1), Sunderland (+3), Teesdale (+1), Vale Royal (+3), West Lancashire (+1) Wigan (+1), Wyre (+11) and York (+8).
Key Facts
· Vote Share and Net Gains. The BBC are predicting that we will get a national vote share of over 40 per cent compared to Labour's 27 per cent and the Lib Dems' 26 per cent. If Labour don't think 27 per cent is a bad result for them, that suits us just fine.
· Enough to Win General Election. The experts agree that this is the kind of result we need to win a general election: 'The Conservatives usually fall short of the critical 40 per cent mark (the minimum vote share likely to be needed to win an overall majority in the House of Commons)' (Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, Local Government Chronicle, 19 April 2007). Tonight we have exceeded that figure.
· Labour Wipeout. There are now over 80 councils where Labour have no councillors at all. Labour have been wiped out in Castle Point, East Northants, Maldon, Mid-Suffolk, Mid-Bedfordshire, Oswestry, Rother, Ribble Valley, Tunbridge Wells, Fenlands and Wychavon.
· Essex Man deserts Labour. In 1996, Tony Blair declared 'Essex Man and Essex woman are coming over to today's Labour Party... Labour is representing middle England' (Tony Blair, The Independent, 1 May 1996). But Essex Man is deserting Labour just days before Tony Blair resigns:
o Labour now have no councillors at all on the following councils in Essex: Castle Point, Chelmsford, Rochford, Maldon, Uttlesford;
o They have lost half (10) of their councillors in Braintree;
o They have lost five councillors - almost half their councillors - on Tendring;
o There is only one Labour councillor left in Epping and just three in Brentwood;
o They lost a councillor in Basildon - which is Conservative controlled and one in Colchester.
· Progress Against the Lib Dems. We've had some fantastic results again the Lib Dems:
o We took 23 seats from the Lib Dems to gain control of Bournemouth.
o We took 13 seats from the Lib Dems to gain control of Malvern Hills.
o We took 20 seats from the Lib Dems to gain South Norfolk.
o We took 14 seats from the Lib Dems to gain control of Torbay.
o We took 12 seats from the Lib Dems to gain Uttlesford.
o We took 24 seats from the Lib Dems to gain control of Waverley.
o We took 18 seats from the Lib Dems to gain control of Windsor and Maidenhead, including the council leader's seat.
Wales
Conservative Gains. In the last Welsh Assembly election, we won one first past the post seat. In the last General Election we won 3 first past the post seats. Tonight we have gained 4 first past the post seats, two of which we did not hold at the last General Election.
· We have gained:
o Preseli Pembrokeshire from Labour with a 9.3 per cent swing to us from Labour with and a 3,205 majority.
o Cardiff North from Labour with an 8.5 per cent swing from the General Election.
o Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South from Labour on a 7.5 per cent swing to us - jumping from third place in 2003.
o Clwyd West from Labour with a 4.1 per cent swing.
· In each of the following cases we narrowly missed winning the seats:
o Gower - 9.8 per cent swing to us
o Vale of Clwyd - 7.4 per cent swing to us
o Newport West - 5.8 per cent swing to us
o Delyn - 3.7 per cent swing to us
Scotland
· Conservative Gains. We have gained Roxburgh & Berwickshire from the Lib Dems with a 9.4 per cent swing to us (The Parliamentary seat of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk - much of which is covered by this Scottish Parliamentary seat - requires a 6.5 per cent swing).
We have also held our seats in <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/scottish_parliment/html/490.stm> Ayr, Edinburgh Pentlands and Galloway & Upper Nithsdale.
· Increase in Spoilt Ballot Papers. Commenting on the massive increase in spoilt ballot papers in the Scottish Parliament elections, Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said:
'When taken in conjunction with the level of turnout this brings into question the whole democracy of the Scottish Parliament. It is quite simply unacceptable that tens of thousands of voters have effectively been disenfranchised. We are committed to de-coupling the local elections from those for the Scottish Parliament'.
· Conservatives Beat LibDems. We have beaten them on share of vote; in terms of votes received in both constituency and regional vote; and in terms of the number of seats in the Parliament.
Wednesday, 09 May, 2007
| All done for another year |
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The elections have been and gone. Say goodbye to excitement and fun, and hello to the mundane boorishness of local government.
Monday, 07 May, 2007
| C'est Francais |
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Sarko has been elected in France. C'est Magnifique. The last thing we need is an old-Labour-style socialist eyeing us from across the channel.
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