Don’t forget about the free charity music festival that is to be held on Littlehampton seafront on the 23rd August 2008. There will be 18 local bands on two stages. This kind of initiative needs to be supported by the whole community, for free tickets and info, visit www.lapebbles.co.uk

We held our first Littlehampton Branch meeting in twelve years last Wednesday (23rd July), and I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the Liberal Democrat councillors in Littlehampton as well as our activists towards solving local issues. There is a real sense of community action, and if you want to join us…..come aboard!

If any of you are able to attend any of the North Littlehampton Community Planning weekend tomorrow and Saturday, I would recommend it. It will be held at the Wickbourne Centre tomorrow between 2pm and 7pm and Saturday between 11am and 4pm and you can drop-in at your leisure. This really is Littlehampton’s chance to have a say on issues that it is possible to change. This town has had a poor deal for decades now, with poorly planned housing estates with no amenities or jobs for Littlehampton residents and this is our chance to have a good deal for the town. Please come along and have your say.

There have been so many responses to our ‘Littlehampton Residents Survey’ that we are actually overwhelmed with work, so if anyone reading this wants to help us, please GET IN TOUCH! Also, if you returned a survey thank you, but we’ll take a while getting in touch.

Delivering FOCUS in Ham ward today, I’ve noticed how many empty properties there are. It’s quite shocking and reminds me of when I was delivering in the North Beaumont in 1993-5, and every-other house had been repossessed. I think the upcoming recession is going to be deeper than even I imagined it was going to be, which is sad and going to cause a lot of pain.

Gordy didn’t thing that the ‘boom’ was a boom, he thought it was his ‘stability’ and that he’d beaten the natural economic cycle, well we’re all going to pay for Gordy’s ego now.

It’s interesting to see the latest polls http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/ we’re up a bit on when the 10pence tax thing was going on, which is weird!! 

David Davis – I have never had much time for him before and I disagree with most of what he says but I have to admire the bloke for giving-up an almost certain job in the next Conservative government to fight for what he (and many other good people) believe passionately in, good luck to him!  

European Treaty – I am a pro-european but the Irish have rejected it, so in my opinion, the Lisbon treaty should be abandoned and we should struggle on as we have done for the past four years, but further expansion of the EU should be out of the question now.

Things just seem to be getting worse and worse for poor old Gordy, I bet he wished he’d called a general election back in October! I’ve never seen a national leader go so quickly from ‘hero to zero’. Of course, poll ratings are not his only problem, the Labour party is near to insolvency and the senior officers of the party could be personally liable.

I have a solution to their problems make Tony Blair pay off the debt! after all, it seems that he’s the only person in the country to have personally benefited from Newlabour and he’s not short of a bob or two, while the rest of us work 60 hours a week just to pay our electricity bills. I know if I was a member of the Labour party, I would feel quite bitter about Bliar walking-off and leaving it all like that!

Poor old Gordy. He’s waited twenty years to get where he’s at and it’s all gone wrong! Gordy thinks that he can run the country like a 1930’s Tory toff; behind the scenes and out of the glare of the public and cameras. Times have changed Gordy! If you want advice from a southern working-class liberal, STAY IN OFFICE and hopefully you’ll destroy the Labour party before you destroy Britain! 

It looks like Britain is about to go from New Labour to Blue Labour. Cameron has been shaped in the Bliar mould, vacuous with smiles and Britain it seems, laps it up. You reap what you sew like you did with Bliar!

I noticed today that the street sign outside the old Wick T Farm depot spells Arundel Road, ‘Arundle’ I wonder if anyone else has noticed that?

According to the ‘Tribune’ (9^th May 2008), the Labour party is near to bankruptcy. Where are all those champagne socialists now? Those people who gladly and loudly sung “Things can only get better” on that Friday morning in 1997. Newlabour used to stand for complete CONTROL, Bliar tried to create a big-brother database state that invaded every aspect of citizens lives, it’s lucky that it wasn’t a complete success!

It’s the annual Littlehampton town council meeting (Mayor-making) tomorrow, which I will attend as a member of the public (thank the people of Brookfield ward for giving Irene 4 more votes than me!!).

Today is the 11^th Anniversary of  the Newlabour

‘revolution’ It’s now very ironic to read the 1997 manifesto. The annotations are my comments.

 “Our long-term objective is a lower starting rate of income tax of ten pence in the pound. Reducing the high marginal rates at the bottom end of the earning scale - often 70 or 80 per cent - is not only fair but desirable to encourage employment.” And it’s just been abolished!

“We will reject the boom and bust policies which caused the collapse of the housing market.”Well, we’ve had the boom…..now for the bust!

“Public services and transport services in rural areas must not be allowed to deteriorate. The Conservatives have tried to privatise the Post Office. We opposed that, in favour of a public Post Office providing a comprehensive service.”A Post Office providing a comprehensive service….eh?

“Our system of government is centralised, inefficient and bureaucratic.”You said it! “We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons.”Really?

We’ve got no elections on Thursday in Littlehampton but there are in London and some other places and Gordy has helped destroy Labour’s representation even more than Bliar did last year. The 10pence tax thing has given the election away, soon there will be no one left in the Labour party. 

Interestingly, I have just played about with the Telegraph swingometer, and it helps proves how unfair the British electoral system is, I swung it to a LibDem victory and got a hung parliament.   

A LibDem popular vote of 50% gives 286 seats. Conservative pop vote of 32% gives 236 seats.

Labour popular vote of 18% gives 99 seats.

The others with 10% get 29 seats.   The Conservatives won a parliamentary majority with 39% of the pop vote and Labour won with 33% of pop vote.Give it a go http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?menuId=6770&menuItemId=10310&view=DISPLAYCONTENT&grid=A1&targetRule=1

When I heard that the government were thinking about using the minimum wage to deal with the abolition of the 10pence tax rate, I nearly choked on my cheese omelette!  

This government have absolutely no idea of empirical economics and the effect that their policies have on hardworking people. To ensure that all people on the minimum wage would no longer lose out from the 10p rate, the minimum wage would have to be increased for all people to £18,500 per year - or £9.49 per hour! That would leave thousands of people without jobs and hasten the death of British manufacturing.  

I have been involved in politics for fifteen years or so but I have never been so motivated to remove the government from office. The problem is though, that the British people will jump to the other end of the electoral see-saw and vote for the Tories and in fifteen years or so we’ll be back in the same situation again.

Only the good die young they say, John Peel and Robin Cook are testament to that but Gwyneth Dunwoody was what parliament and representatives should be about, holding the establishment to account and not being a part of it.  I am genuinely saddened by her death, I think Britain is the worst for her passing and we need people like her with grit now more than ever in the throwaway and superficial politics of modern Britain. I make one guarantee; that the people of Crewe and Nantwich will never have an MP in the future (whatever their party) who will stand-up as tirelessly as Gwyneth has done over the past 34 years.

The Bank of England made a quarter of a point interest rate cut on Thursday, but I think it’s a bit like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. The economy needs a correction after 13 years of boom. The question is; what has the government done to try and soften the landing for those likely to be worst hit? I remember delivering leaflets in the north beaumont in 1994/5 and seeing so many houses with the repossession notice on the window. I fear this could happen again.

My LibDem colleagues and I went walkabout in Littlehampton town centre on Saturday. People are really, really angry about this government. I have never seen the public this angry before, I mean people were fed-up with the Tories in 1994/5 but this is real fury. I can’t see Gordy coming back from this now, especially with the credit crunch that will turn into a recession. We met a couple of people on Saturday who wanted to join the party, so that’s good!

Well, I’ve seen the new designs for the British coinage and apart from the fact that Wales loses representation on our coins and the value isn’t written in figures for foreigners, I’m quite impressed BUT I thought it was government policy to join the Euro when the economic conditions were right. Well either that policy has been abandoned, we’ve just wasted a fortune on designing coins to be used for just a few years or Gordy doesn’t think we’re going to have the right economic conditions for the foreseeable future. 

I fear for Zimbabwe, I think even if a new president takes office the country is now so poor that the familiar culture of corruption and low-level civil war that we’ve seen all over Africa will befall Zimbabwe.

I was completely amazed to read that Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor (who was adopted) has traced his birth parents, and it turns out that his grandfather was the Liberal MP and chief whip in the 1930’s, Sir Percy Harris (who lost his seat in the 1945 general election). What are the chances of that eh?

Well where do I start? Firstly, the Littlehampton Gazette has three letters from Liberal Democrat councillors in it!

Today we have the first Arun District Council by-election since the local elections last year. The Labour party haven’t even put up a candidate. I think the current “first past the post” electoral system had its day in about 1920. Of course it must be remembered that multi-member wards are nothing new in local government so it’s time for STV to start in local government as it has in Scotland and Northern Ireland. I always remember a Tory politician in the mid-90’s say that asking the public to vote by ranking preferences was “far too confusing and complicated” Well if it’s good enough for the Irish and Scots it’s good enough for us, or are we too thick?  I urge all readers to visit the following sites;-  http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/deskbound/ 

www.mvcwestsussex.org.ukhttp://

www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

People quite often ask me whether I’m left or right wing, as a Liberal I find the question quite perplexing.I don’t think that modern politics is as easy as that! If I lived in the USA I would be regarded as a loony-lefty and if I lived in

 In the future it may be more important who you work for rather than the colour of your passport, however I still believe that local geographical communities will continue to be important especially for those left behind by globalisation.  Of course national politicians in this country from the two main parties don’t seem to be facing the realities of globalisation, or certainly the real effects of it, but I think we need to wake-up from our post-empire slumber and get real!

I have just returned from a night at a friend’s house in Chandlers Ford in Hampshire, it was good to get away for a night! 

I watched the programme on TV about Enoch Powell, it was very interesting. I strongly believe that there is a tiny, tiny minority of people in this country who are really racist, but I do think there is a significant minority who are ‘cultural chauvinist’. The problem with Enoch’s speech is rather than being prophetic, it could have become self-fulfilling.   Darling is preparing for his first budget as chancellor at the moment, as I understand it, the people who will really suffer will be lower-paid workers with no children. 

I went to a belated mothers-day meal with my family today, it was in Lancing and it only took about 25 minutes to drive there. The main course was good!!

Gordy has called on Labour to build a “Britain of or dreams” – well after nearly eleven years in power, New Labour have created the stuff of Orwellian nightmares, a surveillance society where the government wants to control everything that individuals, communities and companies do where the government seems to want to know everything about everyone but at the same time keep it’s own incompetence and mismanagement as secret as possible.  

Gordy is really clutching at straws now, like John Major in 1993/4. Of course I hope I’m wrong, that the government can create a land of dreams, but to many people in this country, their dreams lie elsewhere in the world.

The House of Commons Speaker today refused to allow a vote on a Liberal Democrat amendment calling for an in-or-out referendum on the EU. The Liberal Democrat MP’s walked out of Parliament in protest. I can’t help thinking this is a cosy establishment conspiracy. Both Labour and the Conservatives have got too much to lose by giving Britons a say on this issue. I strongly believe that we’re better off in the European Union but I want to argue the case with my fellow citizens, and hopefully succeed!

Despite a £3 million enquiry lasting four years the Government has quietly dropped plans to replace council tax with a fairer local tax system. The report concluded that council tax was not fit for purpose and had some fairly modest proposals to tackle some of the unfairness. But it now seems even this was too much for ministers.  

I remember the poll tax fury, the Labour party at that time were proposing ‘fair rates’ to replace the poll tax, well there’s nothing fair about the way that council tax has increased since 1997!!! 

People are angry, they are angry at being conned by New Labour and they are angry at paying ever-increasing sums into government black-holes. The public in this country have paid £3M to find a better way of paying for local services and the government have ignored the findings.This is a government that has complete contempt for the ordinary hard-working souls of this country, I’ve lost count of how many people I meet who want leave for Cyprus, Australia, Canada, Malta or Spain!!  

Even my mum (who’s fairly non-political) has said “Labour have wrecked this country haven’t they?”

It looks like the Arun Community Hospital may be built in 2009. This time last year it looked like a distant, distant possibility and at last years local elections many residents, and even some of our own activists didn’t believe that it could happen. 

I believe it happened because all three major parties in Littlehampton stuck together on this issue. We organised the march, the Tories joined us and the Labour party organised the petition, it was the town against the bureaucrats and the town has won.

I think the Archbishop of Canterbury has completely lost his marbles! He’s suggesting that Sharia law is unavoidable in the future because some citizens don’t relate to the British legal system.  Dr. Williams has always come across as quite a sensible bloke, but I think he’s spent too much time near burning candles or something!! Everyone knows that the only people exempt from the law in this country are foreign diplomats, the Government and Mrs. Elizabeth Windsor. 

Jeremy Vine spoke about Bliar being the first President of Europe on Radio 2 today.  I have said it once but I’ll say it again, what a start for the post -  having a failed and hated ex-prime minister of the UK at it’s head! Bliar should just go and live on an island somewhere, (or maybe colonise Mars?) and never return to Europe or our TV screens, he was a disgrace to Britain and I’m fed-up with him haunting us like a bad smell. GO AWAY BLIAR!!  

Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 did a piece about Britannia being removed from 50 pence coins today. What is wrong with Britannia? 

Why oh why does this government insist on removing British national symbols from everything? Why are the new passports so bland? Why have the pound coins got bridges on them instead of leeks for Wales for example?  

I am definitely no raving nationalist! But we shouldn’t be ashamed of our heritage, Britain has a proud history of tolerance and freedom.  In these days of globalism we need strong symbols of British-ness. The Euro coins across Europe from Finland to Portugal, Malta to Luxembourg have proud symbols of their national heritage on the ‘head’ side.  

I say we keep Britannia, like France has Marian, Germany has the eagle and Ireland has the harp.   The problem is Mr. Brown the there will be a backlash to all this political correctness rubbish and it won’t be moderate liberal internationalists like me who will do it but ignorant right-wing nasty white supremacists

The Government has today published its much delayed review of voting systems which examines the experiences of the different forms of elections introduced over the last ten years in the UK.  The 1997 Labour Party manifesto committed the party to holding a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. They have broken this promise. 

 The Government have come up with excuse after excuse for their delays. The latest one, set out in a written ministerial statement by Justice Minister Michael Wills today, is: “At this point, it would be premature to seek to reform the electoral system for the Commons while the voting system for a reformed and substantially or fully elected House of Lords is still to be determined.”   So the Government’s excuse for delaying action on electoral reform is their continuing delay of Lords reform. As Nick Clegg says, “It takes a peculiar kind of genius for ministers to spend a decade deciding what to do with our voting system before reaching the conclusion that we should wait a bit longer.” 

The only ‘proportional representation’ used for any election in Littlehampton is the ‘D’Hondt’ system used for elections to the European Parliament. The D’Hondt system gives an incredible amount of power to political parties, and because the EP elections are held on a regional scale, gives an immense power to ‘central office’ within those parties. I have no doubt that the D’Hondt system undermines the PR argument, I even would question whether it’s better than ‘first past the post’. 

The government press release and ministerial statement (and, consequently, most media coverage) on the review give a misleading picture of the actual contents of the 197 page review. Despite being a government report, prepared by civil servants and issued by ministers, the truth is that the review is reasonably balanced. Its conclusions back up many of the arguments used by pro-fair votes campaigners and undermine much of the case made by those who are against reform. 

The Conservatives have formed a co-operative movement. The rival Co-operative party chief has said “It’s a backhanded compliment that the work that we have been doing is sufficiently interesting for them to want to nick it” 

I don’t think co-operative ideas are either left or right wing, they are deeply rooted in the working-class struggle for survival and a solution (I believe the best) to poverty and exploitation in a capitalist system, I have never understood how the co-operative party could have remained allied to Labour, with their strict control and state socialism of 1945-79 or even more breathtaking………New Labour!! 

The Conservatives are on a mission to win the next election, and like Bliar 1994-7 will do and say anything to get there.  

I heard on EuroNews that Bliar wants to be the first president of Europe. The last thing that the European Union needs is a liar with the blood of thousands of people on his hands at it’s head, a failed leader who’s only ‘success’ was to steal the traditional freedoms of the good British people. Bliar wants to turn the rest of this continent into a big brother open prison so I think that someone else should be the president of Europe and Bliar should remain working with those bankers at JP Morgan.

Gordy’s lot are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the British public about the ID database. Even members of the naïve “if you’ve got nothing to hide” brigade are starting to realise exactly how far-reaching this legislation is. Gordy and his cronies have to realise that they work for us - we are not owned by him! 

ID cards WILL BE COMPULSORY.
The Identity Cards Act 2006 lets the Home Office “designate” any official document. Individuals applying for a “designated document” MUST ALSO apply to be entered onto the National Identity Register, or provide evidence that they are already on it [4]. The plan is you will be forced to “volunteer”. Unless Home Office plans have secretly changed, this will (from a date not yet fixed) include everyone applying for a passport, followed (according to ministerial statements) by everyone subject to CRB check, including teachers, medical staff, security guards and carers. Once on the Register, you cannot leave, and must *compulsorily* notify officials of all changes in ‘registrable facts’ about you in those 50 categories.

37 million items of personal data went missing last year. 

Most of the data was lost by government officials but councils, NHS trusts, banks, insurance companies and chain stores also mislaid or published personal information about staff or members of the public. The details lost included those of names, addresses, passports, bank and mortgage accounts, credit cards, hospital records, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, driving licences and telephone numbers.  

2007 was the worst ever year for personal privacy. This record of data loss means we need a total rethink on data protection enforcement and an immediate end to the Identity database plan. The ID database project is now in serious question, because faith in the Government’s ability to handle personal data has hit crisis point. There is simply no way that any “democratic” government can expect the public to accept having their precious personal data stored in the world’s largest database when they are not confident that database will be safe.

Labour’s pathetic popular vote in the 2005 general election does not give them a moral mandate to introduce this creepy big brother scheme.

People are beginning to realise that the only way to stop abuse of confidential information is not to have to give it to the authorities in the first place. If enough people say “No, I will not cooperate”, then the ID database system simply cannot be implemented.

I saw Gordy on Andrew Marr this morning. I wasn’t very impressed with him. I liken Gordy to the little boy who waits years and years to inherit his big brothers bike and when he finally gets it, it’s broken, rusty and out-of-fashon!

 Bliar waited until he was absolutely hated before handing over the poison challace of the New Labour leadership, so unwanted that no-one challenged Gordy for it!Gordy’s premiership follows a long line of second-rate national leaders including Neville Chamberlain, Alec Dougals-Home and Jim Callaghan. 

Gordy sidestepped the question about local hospitals, talking about people preferring to go to a specialist unit, even if it’s further away. Well thats fine if you live in London, but we could be dead by the time we get to Southampton or wherever! The fact is, Gordy thinks HE knows whats best for us, good old top-down government!

I have made it on to the front of the Littlehampton Gazette this week! (Un)fortunately  I’m almost a blur in the corner of the picture covering the hospitals debate. My freinds Dave Leggatt and David Jones also made it into the Gazette. 

I have to speak-up about the trouble in Kenya, which had been a beacon of democracy on a continent of dictatorships. Kenyans are known throughout Africa for being peace-loving and I hope that the troubles don’t escalate.

I haven’t posted for a week, I have been very busy over Christmas.  

2007 has been a good year for me personally, I am now back in a job I quite like, my bank balance has gone from being very red to being in the black for a few days of the month! On the political side of things, Bliar has gone, Littlehampton now sends four LibDems to Arun Council and the LibDems now have a fresh dynamic leader. 

Although I want 2008 to be the year that Gordy goes to the polls and the Liberal Democrats win a landslide victory, I don’t think that’s going to happen! So I just hope that the predicted recession doesn’t bite too hard for the long-suffering citizens of these islands and that the government finally kills off the ID database.

I went out for a Christmas drink (or three!) down the pub with the local LibDem team last night. It was great to have a social drink without any fundraising or agenda. The town was almost empty, I guess people were at home or something!?!? 

It’s great to see the Schengen zone enlarging in Europe and it being a complete success. I think it shows just how out of step Britain is with the rest of Europe. It always infuriates me when I have been from Bitburg in Germany to Calais in France and not even stopped for the borders or shown my passport then you get to Dover and get treated like a criminal by the UK authorities.

I have my work hat on now. I have only just heard of the death of Donald Frampton on 1st December. I had never met or seen Mr. Frampton but only heard of his legendary contribution to British Horticulture. Donald Frampton was a local entreprenerial pioneer who will be much missed in the Horticultural community.

It was great driving round Littlehampton today seeing houses covered in lights and decorations, even though I’m not a Christian or even have any decorations in my house, winter in Littlehampton is fairly miserable, the lights brighten it up. 

Congratulations Cleggy! I hope now we can move into a long period of stability with a real promotion of liberalism as a philosophy and not just a cynical PR campaign for personalities or individual LibDem policies. The true shocker for the poll was the turnout, just over half of eligible voters. It is absolute disgrace that a party which sincerely believes in political participation can’t even convince 90% of it’s own members to put a ‘1’ on a ballot paper in an envelope and post it. The only conclusion I have come to is that the membership really couldn’t see a difference between Cleggy and Huhne and didn’t mind who won, either that or there are 30,000 members who wanted someone else as leader?

I saw Sir. John Major on Andrew Marr this morning and agreed with about 90% of what he said. Something I’ve been saying for the past nine years or so, that he said this morning is that the Conservative sleeze scandals were always about induvidual MP’s lining their own pockets wheras Labour scandals are more institutional, about political party advantage which of course is worse and endangers democracy itself. Not that I have much time for the Tories. But I do for John! 

Gordy is really getting a reputation now for being a bottler. He bottled the Autumn election and now he’s bottled the controversial treaty signing ceremony.  We really need a referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the EU now. The Anti-Europeans want it and the Pro-Europeans want it.  

The only people who don’t want a Euro-referendum are the Conservative leadership and the Labour party, because it will smash the biggest two parties to shreds and split Britains cosy political consensus apart. 

There have been editorials in newspapers saying there might be a Labour leadership coup in the spring. BRING IT ON! 

Here we go again, another government initiative!  

This time it’s the ‘childrens plan’. It will be surrounded by fanfares and pumped with money for a year, maybe two (it will help take the heat off this rubbish government) Then as it fails, it will leave a trail of red tape in its wake. The associated targets and ministry memos will encourage more and more overruled professionals to seek other careers, maybe as tax collectors or national ID database staff, because these will be the only people with jobs when the recession starts to bite.  

This initiative has the smell of “back to basics” about it, a desparate attempt by a rotten government at the beginning of the end of the New Labour era. 

Vince Cable really is a great interim leader for us. I have never been a massive fan of Vince, but he has really proved himself by boycotting the Saudi leadership and his amusing questions at PMQ’s. He will surely be written into the Liberal history books as the man who humiliated Gordy. Well done Vince!

A bid to increase the turnout at elections is the stated aim of the recommendations in the government-sponsored Councillors Commission report. The report has also suggested ideas to encourage more diversity among local council candidates. These include lowering the voting age to 16, setting a three-term limit on council leaders and elected mayors, ‘all-out elections’ for all councils every four years instead of the mixed system of staggered elections in many areas, and placing mock polling booths at citizenship ceremonies. The commission also proposes that councils should be given the option of introducing proportional representation.  

 We need to revitalise local and democracy and strengthen its legitimacy and powers. The commission is absolutely right to recommend fair and proportional voting. However I am concerned about proposals to introduce term limits for councillors, it is fundamentally undemocratic to tell voters that popular councillors cannot be re-elected. 

 Local councillors need to be leading local campaigners and representatives NOT the states local managers kowtowing to every edict from Whitehall.  

 Some of the proposals will encourage some people to become councillors who will simply see being a councillor as a ‘good career move’ on their way to other jobs. I want to see passionate local campaigners, fighting for local residents being elected and proudly keeping their ‘day jobs’.  

Councillors should belong to their electors, NOT to the council or this rotten government.

I went to Worthing yesterday to do some Christmas shopping – WHAT A DISASTER!!! Crowded, Raining, Windy and Traffic jams.

There is a piece in the Gazette this week about a potential electricity generation barrage across the river Arun. The barrage would provide a flood defence, generate power and could provide a welcome added pedestrian link to the west bank.

Although it would cost millions, the Arun is one of the country’s fastest flowing rivers and if harnessed could help the environment. I’m sure it would also be a minor tourist attraction.

I certainly think that it’s worth looking into and would be a better use of money than all the creepy databases that the government seems to be obsessed with.

I, like most of the country I suspect am completely fed-up with the whole Labour donations row. Why is it that if the Labour party are involved in a row about themselves, they want to change the law?

There are more important things to squabble about. I just hope people realise that these are the people we are being asked to trust with the ID database.

I went to the local party AGM today, and I was elected Membership Secretary. I’m sure I can fit it around my other Littlehampton duties.  

The woman who asked about joining the party at the Christmas fair was signed-up by my good self on Thursday.

There is a piece on the BBC website comparing Flash’s problems with John Majors troubles as Prime Minister. The parallels are stark.

Gordy is actually quite a decent bloke in contrast to his predecessor but the media have turned against his government and everyone who is involved in campaigning knows that the media really control what the public think.

The economy is on the turn, which in itself is not the governments fault, but some of their policies are tuned to the amazing economic boom we have been lucky to enjoy over the past 9 years or so. When the economy starts to collapse the poorest and most vulnerable in society will be the hardest hit by the cuts which will follow. This will lead to a collapse in the support of the red management team.

 This government is now in terminal decline like John Major’s was in 1990. It may go on to win an election but it will probably be followed five years later by a landslide defeat where Labour may be wiped off the political map.

The furore over the British schoolteacher in Sudan; Ms. Gibbons who allowed her class to name a teddy bear after a boy in her class who just happened to have the same name as the Islamic prophet is really toe-curling.  

The people I feel most sorry for now are the decent British muslims who are now certain to suffer a backlash from the ignoranti.

The Christmas Fair at Wick Hall on Saturday raised £126.56 for the constituency Liberal Democrats. There is something incredibly democratic about fundraising honestly in the community, in contrast to the big business donations to the red and blue management teams.I delivered the raffle prizes of those who were not there for the draw on Saturday, they were all extremely grateful, one woman even offered to donate some unwanted stuff for the next fair!  

Bliar is talking about his religious convictions. I have always admired people who have a belief in something and use it to guide their way through their life and work.

Gordy may have signed the cheques but Bliar has the blood of thousands of innocent people permanently stained on his hands, no amount of praying to any God will ever remove that. Also I seem to remember something in the bible about a camel and an eye of a needle? Bliar spent ten years accumulating his own wealth and power at the expense of our individual liberty and freedom. I am not religious so I’ll see you in hell Bliar!

Today’s Christmas Fair at Wick Hall went well, the weather held off for long enough and quite a few people turned up, one of whom wanted to join the party so it’s all looking up for us!

 I posted my ballot paper yesterday with a clear ‘1’ in the Nick Clegg box. I’d hope to say that Cleggy has it in the bag but I don’t want to tempt fate!

I went along to the hustings in
Worthing on Monday. Monday was probably one of the worst-weather days this year and on the way back the Rustington by-pass was like a river! Work is very hard at the moment but I do enjoy it, but with all the Lib –Dem work I’m doing at the moment it has left me feeling absolutely creamed at the end of the day.I am enjoying all the media attention that the child benefit data-loss at the HMRC has got. A lot of ordinary people are coming to realise that the Government cannot be trusted with personal information.  

Revenue and Customs has lost the details of 25 million Child Benefit recipients. I hope that this may start to change peoples minds about the ID database, now is the time to fight this scheme before it’s too late.

 It all comes down to the Government doing too much and not doing anything well. I honestly believe that this Government is not fit for purpose and needs to be replaced by a slimmed down organisation (sic)

I went to Worthing to the leadership hustings. Cleggy was brilliant, really made an impression. I can’t wait until he’s elected now, I think British Liberalism will change for the better, for good. It was good to see quite a big delegation from Arun, sadly though, I was the only person from Littlehampton.

Driving home, the rain was atrocious and was very dark but people were still driving like it was a dry, bright July morning.

I’m very busy at the moment trying to get everything done for Christmas. The Christmas fair is next Saturday, which should be interesting! A new Focus newsletter has just arrived for delivery.

 The leadership hustings is being held in Worthing on Monday which I shall be attending, even though I’ve already made up my mind for Cleggy.

Something the Government has mooted which I am very interested in is the American style school bus. I believe these would be good for three reasons;-

1)Environmental - cut car journeys and congestion.

2)Independence - encourage kids to be free of their parents for once. 

3)Choice - parents could choose the best school for their kids, poorer parents without cars need’nt worry about getting their kids to school.

I went to the war memorial in Littlehampton today to pay my respects. I’m glad to say that most of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors were also there.

 It is great to see all the generations uniting in memory of those who died so that we may enjoy freedom.

I got my copy of the ‘Progress’ newsletter from Littlehampton Town Council today and was reasonably impressed. When the town was run by Labour, Progress was just packed full of photos of Labour councillors. Now the council is ‘hung’, Progress is now actually what it’s supposed to be – about the town and it’s citizens.

 I ran at work today and felt a ripple of fat on my back, I seriously need to do some leaflet delivery!

I got my emails from both the leadership candidates today and they both fell into the ‘antispam folder’! I don’t know what that means. Cleggy said in his email that he would not register for the ID database. Good man.

 The British government has called for fair elections in Pakistan, ooh.. can we have fair elections too?

I viewed the Labour website the other day and read this;- “The Labour Government’s commitment to liberty – to the restriction of arbitrary power and the empowerment of the individual – is the foundation of recent proposals on constitutional reform.” My first reaction to this was “Great! that must mean that they’re abolishing the ID card scheme!!” But alas, no they’re not. All the Government’s talk about liberty is just that…..talk.

Let me just remind them what the ID database system is all about.You will attend an appointment to be photographed, have your fingerprints taken and iris scanned, or be fined up to £2,500. Additional fines of up to £2,500 may be levied each time you fail to comply until you submit to these procedures.

Promptly inform the Police if you lose your card or it becomes defective, or you will have committed a criminal offence and face a fine and/or 51 weeks imprisonment.

Promptly inform the National Identity Register of significant changes to you personal life or face a fine of up to £1,000 (you will supply evidence of your previous address, not just your current address)

Promptly inform the National Identity Register of significant changes to you personal life or face a fine of up to £1,000. You may also be obliged to submit to being re-interviewed, re-photographed, re-fingerprinted and re-scanned or face a fine.Pay between £30 and £93 to be registered, with further charges possible to change your details.  I don’t call that a Government even considering personal liberty!

I see Nick Clegg is calling for Blair to resign, why? Because he was in charge of a force that went-in ‘all-guns-blazing’ to take out a dangerous man with a weapon of mass destruction, which turned out not to be the case.

 See, I have a sense of humour! 

The Liberal Democrat leadership “race” is now on. I am really upset that there’s only two runners, I really, really think we’re making a mistake again!   I am glad to see that Cleggy and Mr. Huhne are both going to take a stand against ID cards. I find it sad that most people are against ID cards because of the cost – when all our freedoms have been stolen by the state there will be no one left to reverse it! 
Britain now needs passionate, principled campaigners now after the Bliar legacy of sterile, robotic, career politicians. Principled politics will help restore trust in the system, encourage local campaigning and will highlight the real issues instead of the media’s obsession with superficial personality contests.

Foreign minister Kim Howells told a conference ahead of a state visit by the Saudi King that the two states could unite around our “shared values”. I have never heard such complete rubbish! What shared values?If you’re going to browntongue an autocrat. At least complement them on something like their low tax rate or their low crime rate rather than pretending we have anything in common with them…….yet!

The Littlehampton Bonfire procession managed to keep the rain away for once last night. It didn’t start raining until we walked home. I remember going to one in 1979 when I was four! I have never seen so many Police in the town, I mean real Police not PCSO’s. 

The party has organised a leadership hustings in
Worthing on the 19^th November. I think I’ll try and go, although I have pretty much made up my mind for Cleggy. 

So Flash is talking about civil liberties. What a joke! Its like King Henry VIII talking about family values! It is becoming increasingly more difficult to take this government seriously. They said they’d save the NHS, it seems to be in more trouble now than it was ten years ago. 

One of the main threats to civil liberties over the last decade has been the behaviour of an increasingly overbearing Labour Government that has transformed Britain into a surveillance state. If Flash Gordon is genuinely signalling a change of heart then that is brilliant, but authoritarianism seems to run deep in the lifeblood of this Government.

I fear that Labour polling has revealed that the British public find the Government’s intrusions into their private lives revolting and Flash is just paying lip service.

Well, my mobile was in my pocket today. Somehow the keylock came off and I sent more than 60 blank texts to a LibDem colleague and about 20 to another. It only stopped because I ran out of credit!

The government has been critisised for spending £50,000 on red briefcases for ministers. This government cares only about it’s own continuation.

I actually read the European Reform Treaty yesterday. All I can say after two-and-a-half hours is “If you want Britain in the EU you will agree with it. If you want Britain out - you won’t.”

So the leadership contenders are lining themselves up  - yes all two of them. Which I think it’s really bad! We have some really talented women MP’s on our front bench and they are completely ignored by the media. I think we need a woman leader, which we have never had in Liberal/Liberal Democrat history. So unless Julia Goldsworthy, Lorely Burt or Lynne Featherstone put themselves forward in the next week or so, I’ll be backing Clegg.

The house of commons is to close for 18 weeks in 2008. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer MP’s to be active in their constituencies working hard and campaigning hard on real issues and a good MP will spend most of the eighteen weeks doing that but this is just stupid . Most people have four weeks off per year, and most people have to almost make-up the work when they return.

I can’t get over the cheek of the Conservatives. They seem to be calling for referenda on almost everything, but between 1979 and 1997 the Tories signed eurotreaty after eurotreaty without ANY referenda. I believe there should be ONE referenda on europe;- IN or OUT and get it sorted!

Its looking like a two-horse race for the party leadership, which is a shame and something we may live to regret! Maybe all the LibDem MP’s should be on the ballot by default and the ones that want to win could make an effort!! Westminster politicians are always talking about “choice”, can we have some for our leadership please?

There was a piece in the Gazette about the lack of UFO sightings in West Sussex, I wonder why! Well I’ve never seen one, but maybe thats because I’m too busy at work and then delivering leaflets to be staring-up at the sky.

The weather is brilliant here in sunny Littlehampton, better than it was in August!

I’m still in a bit of shock over Ming’s departure. I knew it was a matter of WHEN not IF, but I expected a bit more of a media flurry, I had just written a leaflet featuring Ming, luckily we had problems with the printer so we could call it off!!! 

I just want us to get a leader in place now and get on with the job. I just hope there are more candidates than we had last time and more choice! Leadership contests can get quite nasty as the media stir it up. The media don’t understand the LibDem electoral system which makes it worse.

So Ming’s gone and done it then? Well it comes to something when the only thing people can critisise your leader is for looking too old, I mean what a sad indictment of the media-led British polictical system! Ming was the best out of the three main party leaders, better than Blairclone and Flash Gordon.

Remember Ming is only four years older than Debbie Harry, the most attractive and talented singer in Blondie!

Ming sorted the Liberal Democrats out, got us on a winning track, now it’s time to get ourselves a new dynamic leader (like Paddy or Jo Grimond) One that gets the public enthused, maybe Charlie-boy could make a comeback after his excellent speech at conference?? 

I got my Lib Dem ballot paper today to select the candidates for the european parliament elections in 2009. It’s by STV so you have to put down preferences i.e 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,etc…. After my first preference, I havn’t got a clue who these people are, still I’ll read the booklet about the candidates and decide!

STV is a fantastic system, They have it in Ireland, which also has a higher turnout and higher political party membership. There are no “safe seats” under STV, a bad MP would be replaced by a better candidate from his/her own party. It has one main drawback in my opinion, and thats the time it takes to count. Sometimes days.

One interesing thing. It says on the ballot paper that you have to be 10 years old to vote!!!

The ballot paper has to be back by 7th November.

So the information commissioner is looking into alleged “robocalling” by the Labour party. This is where a computer telephones people and a recorded message asks them their voting intention. I don’t think the information commissioner needs to get involved, this is one guaranteed way of switching the electorate off Labour!!!  People who get these cheeky alleged calls won’t vote Labour anyway. They are shooting themselves in the feet.

 There is only one way to keep in touch with the electorate and that’s REGULAR newsletters and knocking on doors IN PERSON.

Long live the face-to-face contact.

So, some sickko has been cutting the heads off the swans in the river, it really is depressing because this is a great town, with some really nice people, great climate and good location.

Littlehampton made it into the “crap towns” book the other year and these idiots have made sure that the town keeps up the bad reputation, which I don’t believe it deserves!

I printed and distributed the local party supporters newsletter tonight. The media is full of the pre-budget thingy, I can’t help admiring Gordon for his master-stroke;-

1)Let the Tories think there’s going to be a general election over their conference so they announce all their policies. 

2) Call off the election and nick all the Tories most popular new policies.

Anyway, no general election gives me the chance to organise the christmas fair on the 24th November. It should raise enough to pay for a Focus leaflet. 

I think, going by the media that there’s going to be a recession. It will be interesting to see how Labour deals with it because they’ve been very lucky so far. The Tories in the last one went WHAT RECESSION? then THE GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY, poor old John Major, he was a decent man surrounded by fools and took over on the eve of a massive economic downturn.

I think Labour might use a recession as an excuse to rein-in more of our traditional freedoms. I don’t know how because they own most of what we do now, so watch this space!

So Gordon’s got a vision for change has he?

Well, I hope he’s going to change the Illiberal, nosey, controlling, database state that has been built up over the last ten years. The government is going to spend billions on a computer system to watch us with, but going by previous computer systems that the government has commissoned, (CSA, Tax credits, single farm payments) this one is either going to be a complete flop, like the Millenium dome or it’s going to be successful and change the relationship between the British state and the British resident forever, the good old British bobby (if the government can still afford any!) would have to carry out the Orwellian duty of asking people if they are carrying their ID cards.

We are a hardworking, highly taxed, under appreciated nation, please Gordon, just let us live our lives with good schools / decent coppers / clean LOCAL hospitals.

Stop controlling us, it’s our life and OUR GOVERNMENT.

www.no2id.net

Mark Foster.

Great news! Gordon Brown has decided no general election this year “to prove he can do the job etc……” It’s all utter rubbish of course, he was worried that the Blair clone/aristocrat might win.

It means of course that I and my friends in Littlehampton can get on with real campaigning for the residents of Littlehampton and there are real issue that would have been lost in a national election campaign. Littlehampton hospital is a pile of rubble, Queen Street has vandals rampaging through it every night, Dorset Close has a horrible fence separating it from Rosemead park,  Littlehampton’s roads are terrible and unsafe and we in Arun are charged extra for collection of garden waste.

So the man who signed the cheques for the Iraq invasion (instead of hospitals) and the ID database (instead of Police) gets to remain Prime Minister, still, i don’t think the other guy would be any better!

 Mark Foster.

I wish the Prime Minister would just hurry up and rule out a general election this year. If it was held, it would be in November the evenings would be dark, postal votes would be held-up by the Royal Mail strike, it’s a really bad idea!

On a personal note, I’ve only got five days leave at work left this year. I don’t want to spend them delivering leaflets in the cold rain.

Some national politicians are stuck in the Westminster bubble and are completely insulated from the reality of street campaigning.

Mark Foster.

The suggestion to name the rebult Littlehampton Community School “The Roddick Academy” after Dame Anita Roddick is a fantastic idea. Dame Anita was one of Littlehampton’s most famous daughters and someone that Littlehampton could be truly proud, she showed that you could make money, (and lots of it!!) by treating your employees well and undertaking ethical trading.

Mark Foster