Taking Out The Trash

Life's a riot with spy vs spy

Great post over on Wired's Danger Room and a cautionary tale for any hack who thinks that playing around with spooks can ever be a beneficial experience.

How local democracy works

Truely I have achieved a certain something when one of my postings can be included in an Iain Dale Daily Dozen.

It was on the Total Politics blog so the enormous volume of traffic suddenly heading towards it failed to upset this host.

But below is the post (you'll have to go to the original to find a couple of helpful comments left by readers). I can offer this extra tidbit though. The Lady in question is Lady King, wife of former Tory MP Tom King.

So you’re on the parish council and you are bombarded by complaints from residents because a combination of crap SatNav, poor signage and a company which doesn’t care means HGVs are churning up your village.

You complain to the company (they refuse to take your calls).
You complain to your district councillor (he doesn’t respond and hasn’t been seen in months)
You complain to the district council planners (they take months to respond and then decide there is nothing they can do)
You complain to the highways authority (they can help but it’s going to take time and it’s a bit complicated)
You complain to your county councillor (she’s sympathetic, nothing is done)
You complain to the police (oh, sorry are you still on hold?)

Alternative scenario.

You are a Lady and your husband is a Lord and you live on a route which these HGVs use and you are not at all happy about these dirty great vehicles crashing round the roads at all hours.
You complain directly to the leader of the county council who you know and a meeting involving the police, highways officials and the company responsible for these HGVs is arranged at a week’s notice.

From this evidence do I understand that the feudal system in rural areas is still with us or merely that all the people who should take responsibility only jump when the biggest foot connects with their 'no though route'?

Perhaps recruiting some landed gentry on to the parish council is the answer; but it seems a touch regressive.

 

Tribune future secure?

It seems reports of the death of Tribune magazine have been exaggerated.

I understand that on Tuesday night a sale was agreed between the unions and as yet un-named Labour activist. Nothing's been signed but it sounds like all parties want the deal to go through.

There's a comment on the situation from Tribune here.

The Needle and the Damage Done

Got 5 minutes of fame on Radio 5Live this morning talking to Victoria Derbyshire about the songs you sing to lull your babies to sleep.
Apparently there is some new study showing parents are more likely to play Guns n Roses than Baa Baa Black Sheep.
As I explained to Victoria, my favourite is singing Neil Young's The Needle and the Damage Done. Yes the lyrics aren't too appropriate but frankly I don't think 12-month-olds read too much into them anyhow - it's just a beautiful song.
As you can see below.

Paper candidates

Infrequent blogging due to sudden fury of work (and consequently lots of me putting things off which I should really be getting on with).

Even missed a deadline for Total Politics (hangs head in shame) but did file this:

At a recent Green Party election training event members were exhorted to find people who could stand as paper candidates in the forthcoming local authority elections.

The rationale behind paper candidates is clear: better exposure, promotes your agenda, has knock on effect in other areas etc etc.

For small parties such tactics are a necessary part of the game in a first past the post system.

It was clear, though, that some Green Party members didn't feel happy with the idea. In some way they felt it was defrauding the electorate. If you're not making any effort to win votes then you're being hypocrical - and their party should be above that.

Funnily enough I shared a long journey to work with the local Lib Dem agent the other week and we were discussing who their candidate might be in the new unitary elections. Their present district member has been invisible for two years and only turns up for meetings to avoid being struck off for six months of no shows. It's likely the Lib Dems will need a paper candidate simply because if no-one is on the ballot their vote might collapse and take a long time to recover.

Are paper candidates hoodwinking the electorate if you don't make it clear what you are doing? Or does that assume people are naive about how parties operate to get elected?

PS: When asking people to be paper candidates a common concern is that people don't want to 'accidentally' get elected and they cite some Conservative councillor this happened to. Is this an urban myth or has a paper candidate ever been forced to make good on his or her commitment?