Merry Xmas!

Merry Xmas to all our friends and supporters.

Legal Aid

For anyone who might have missed it, here is Willy's latest piece on the Coalition's appalling demolition of the Legal Aid framework.  How can LibDems in the Upper House bring themselves to vote for it?  Unlike Clegg and Cable, they've already got their peerages.

Another Tory failure

Another day, another fiasco.  Simple probability means that doing absolutely nothing would get better results.  No wonder the Tories haven't kicked the idea of a coalition with UKIP into the long grass.  They desperately need the intellectual input.

And how dare Dave try and usurp FDR's glory?  The Great Depression was ended by properly-paid state-sponsored jobs in infrastructure, jobs which taught real skills - not stacking shelves in the Pound Shop just to cling on to your benefit!

Creating new jobs

Follow this link to learn what the Labour City Council are doing about the scourge of youth unemployment.

What are Tory Harborough and the Tory County Council doing?  Pretending the problem doesn't exist and cutting services wherever possible.  Scandalous.

Policy making online

The party has today launched a new policy making process with website and Twitter feed.  Some of us complained about the policy forums so we have only ourselves to blame if Ed and the gang don't take notice of our brilliance this time round.  Got to say, though, I'm not keen on the puce and mauve colour scheme.  I'm having horrible visions of the next rosettes.

The results are in

Contrary to what some pundits were predicting, former Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader won the PCC election for the Tories.  The turnout was a pathetic - just 15.98%.

There was no outright winner after the first count.  Sir Clive had 59915 votes, Sarah Russell 42051, and the independent Suleman Nagdi 21744.  After Nagdi's votes were redistributed to the second choice the final outcome was Tories 64661, Lab 51835.  In other words, an archetypical Tory got 25% of the largely Asian, largely city vote, we got 50% give or take, and 25% expressed no second preference.

The results here in Harborough District were a slightly better turnout of 18.7%, Con 8424, Lab 2262 and Ind 1446.

What does this tell us?  Firstly, the public does not like the idea of an elected PCC.  Labour should pledge to abolish the post forthwith.  Secondly, the absence of LibDems does not automatically mean more Labour votes.  Thirdly, the Asian vote, as I have been saying for some time, is not to be taken for granted as Labour.  It is far more subtle than that.  Finally and most importantly it tells us that people recoil from politics as the game has traditionally been conducted.

This was even the case in Corby where Andy Sawford achieved a thumping victory and the LibDems lost their deposit.  Take nothing away from the achievement of Andy and his team but the turnout - in Corby, which has been roundly betrayed by the Tories, in the media spotlight and with all the political heavyweights in town - was only 44.8%.

Britain is becoming anti-political.  It suits the Tories and the right wing press to encourage the antagonism.  We in Labour have to find new, better ways of engaging with and motivating the people who instinctively side with us.

Today's the day!

I've been and voted for Sarah.  Have you?

One day to go...

Writing in The Independent today, John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, has Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland down as a good Labour prospect tomorrow.  Clearly, he bases his prognostication on the whopping Labour vote in the city.  We won't get all that tomorrow; on the other hand, the disaffected Asian vote will largely go to the independent with, in the absence of a LibDem, Labour as second preference.  For once, the Labour vote in the county will be critical.  We should win in the north - Charnwood, Coalville etc - but the east is a write-off, except in Melton, and Hinckley & Bosworth is never easy to call.  So it is clearly important that here in the south we get our Labour votes in early, when nobody's looking, and do nothing to startle the Tories.

VOTE EARLY---VOTE LABOUR---VOTE SARAH.

PCC poster

At last!  Meaningful material from Central Office re the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.  Actually, very good material.  Congrats to whoever designed it.

Tory PCC Blame Game

David Hanson MP, Labour's Shadow Policing Minister, responding to Damian Green's comments that people can't complain about Police and Crime Commissioners if they don't vote, said:

“This Government will blame anyone but themselves for all the problems with these elections, when the truth is that they are all of their own making.

“But because these are important elections for the safety of our communities, Labour is doing our best to make them work. Our candidates are campaigning hard and we want as many people as possible to come out and vote Labour on 15 November so that we can send a message to David Cameron about his cuts to 15,000 police officers.”

HERE IN LEICESTERSHIRE IT IS CRUCIAL THAT WE VOTE SARAH RUSSELL FOR PCC AND SHOW OUR OPPOSITION TO MORE POLICE CUTS!

Don't forget the PCC election!

Just over a week before the scandal of the £75 million police commissioner elections in which a tiny turnout of between 10 and 20% will see unheard-of Tories returned, claiming a mandate to cut and cut everything except their own wages, it is worth considering what the Tories really think about the police.

A week or so ago David sent me an article from the Birmingham Post.  You can read the article in full by clicking this hyperlink, and I recommend you do.  However, the crux of the matter is, the Tories are making West Midlands Police chip in £0.5m towards the cost of policing this year's Tory conference in the city.  To add insult to injury the same funding change means the force owe themselves £249,942 for the pleasure of protecting last year's LibDem conference from cheated voters.  All this of course, at a time when hundreds of  officers in the second city are facing the chop.

The government's ploy of downplaying the PCC elections is a disgrace - and we should be ashamed of ourselves for letting them get away with it.

So buck the trend on Thursday November 15.  Defy the pundits and vote in the PCC election.  Vote Labour.  Vote for Sarah Russell!

"That" joke...

"In my new role as Shadow Culture Secretary, I'm always asked what I'm reading.  And just the other week, I had an awkward moment when a journalist asked me if I'd read "that" book.  Women here will know the one...  The one about a sado-masochistic relationship - you know... with a dominant superior controlling a naive submissive...

"And I said: "don't be silly - of course I've read the coalition agreement.""

--- Harriet Harman, addressing Conference last week.

Thanks to David for drawing this to my attention.

BLP Human Fruit machine, Lutterworth Feast day

From the archives: Lutterworth BLP raising funds for the Lord Mayors Appeal

Farewell to dear friends Anne and Martin!!

At our October Branch meeting we said farewell to 2 of our most dedicated members as they head for pastures new in Buxton. After several years of tireless service to Lutterworth BLP, knocking on doors, arranging meetings, dragging our election records onto a computer and into the twenty first century, rousing the troops, and generally being huge enthusiasts, Martin and Anne Willey are leaving Lutterworth for the hills of the Peak District. They will be sorely missed, by their many friends and comrades in Lutterworth. We had a lovely party at the Branch, and made a presentation in thanks for all their hard work and friendship over the years. We also heard from Willy Bach his thoughts on our Leaders speech at Conference, which all agreed was impressive. Council candidates were short listed for the May elections. The Annual CLP dinner was advertised: Thursday, 29th November, at Lutterworth Cricket Club, with speaker Andy Burnham, Shadow Health Secretary, and Anne and Martin will be coming back to join us!!
NB Tickets £22.50 per head, available from Lutterworth Secretary, David Fish.  

Mitchell Incident

For members who might have missed it, David has sent me the transcipt of the police log published in yesterday's Telegraph.  I have posted it as a page - see panel to the right.

Personally, I'm intrigued that the media consider 'pleb' more reprehensible than ***** or @@@@!!  Pompous arrogance, sadly, isn't a crime whereas effin and blindin at anyone in the street, especially someone like a police officer doing his or her duty, is a Section 5 Public Order offence.  And as everyone now knows, a conviction or even a warning for Section 5 is enough to disqualify the recipient from standing as Police and Crime Commissioner.

I also like the way the Tories try to spin the complaints of the Police Federation as 'political'.  As Mr Mitchell rightly points out, he's the @****@ Chief Whip.  Politics is what he ***@@*** does!

Those were the days...

I was sorting through the old rubbish and chucking out---

Sorry.  Start again.  I was cataloguing the archive and came across this priceless relic.  Yes, it's the Branch's first-ever newsletter dating from 1984BB (Before Bach). 

Graphics have come on somewhat since those days but our guest speakers certainly haven't.  What's that middle box on the right of the front page say?  And the central box on the back?  I'm going to make you read the transcript I have provided on a separate page [use the navigation on the top right of the blog].  And whatever you do, don't tell anyone!

In general terms, it's remarkable how little has changed politically.  I could Tweet the quote on taxes today and nobody would ever dream it's 28 years old.

Whatever happened to the Stan Brown Memorial Evening?

David transcribed this from The Now Show (BBC Radio 4) podcast, June 29 2012.

 

Comedian Marcus Brigstocke on the rich threatening to move themselves and their money abroad.

 

"Everyone has to live with their money is.  But David Cam-Moron has reminded us who is really to blame for all our ills.  Yes, it's all the fault of working class scummy scrounging little piggies, the lot of them.  I, Marcus, am not so stupid as to say that all welfare is sacred and mustn't but touched and cut, but - David Cam-Moron, inherited multimillionaire, talking about a culture of entitlement - my irony meter broke in a wail of bitter laughter.

 

"David Cam-Moron takes those who work hard and do the right thing - good people -

the heart and soul of Great Britian - and pits them against those claiming benefit.  Reasonable, perhaps?  BUT David Cam-Moron knows that they are the same people.  Seven in eight people claiming benifits are working low earners.  They are working but not earning enough and not living near enough to the hospitals shops and factories and schools and hospitals that they work in to keep the country going!

 

"The Conservatives use the word tradition to justify the ideology the rest of the world grew out of decades ago.  They have no idea how the rest of the world lives.  They might say, 'Well, you know, cuts to benifits will mean that working families will have to use their second cars to go to work or take their children forty miles to school unless of course they are at boarding school...

"I, Marcus, wish low earning workers could have the choice to leave the country.  How would the paper pushers cope then?????"

Fit to Work?

David Fish passed me this item, from the Birmingham Post, August 2, page 8.

Government ‘fit to work’ advisor overseeing ‘fit for work’tests to step down after calling on Conservative government to make tests ‘fair and humane’.

 

Professor Malcolm Harrington has resigned after 60% of disability benefit claimants were found to be fit to work in the West Midlands.

 

Disabled people applying for Employment and Support Allowance have been rejected and they should look for a job instead.

In the West Midlands, Department for Work and Pensions figures show that decisions were made on 8,200 applications for Employment and Support Allowance, the benefit which has replaced incapacity benefit, over a three month period in the West Midlands.

4,900 were rejected so that 59% of cases where a decision was made resulted in the claimant being told they were fit for work. Another 1,500 people, 18 per cent, were placed in a “‘work related’ activity group” where they receive training and support, such as help with interviewing techniques, designed to help them join the workforce eventually.

Just 1,800 claimants, 22 percent of those claiming Employment and Support Allowance, were placed permanently on the benefit over a three-month period in the West Midlands.

And in the same period, another 7,100 claims were simply withdrawn before a decision was taken.

The figures refer to new claims. People who cliam old benefits which are being phased out, such as incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or income support paid on the grounds of illness or disability, are also undergoing assessments.

In April, the Government revealed that around a third of these claimants were also being categorised as fit to work following fresh tests.

The 13 week assessment, which tests physical fitness as well as mental skills, was first introduced by Labour.

Professor Harrington was called in to review the tests after thousands of disabled were successfully challenged their test results. He has admitted that some claimants who are genuinely unable to work had been through a “traumatic” experience because of the tests.

He told the programme: “I think people are being treated more like human beings now, but it is still difficult to go through it”.

The Government has not published regional figures for the number of initial decisions overturned on appeal, but nationally around 15 percent of initial decisions result in appeals and just under a third of these result in a decision being overturned.

(These so-called capability assessments are carried out by the notorious ATOS Healthcare, despised sponsors of the Paralympics. Employment and Support Allowance is, I am sad to say, a late-blooming fungus on the Labour Government tree. The test is exactly the same as the old Incapacity Benefit test, with all its ridiculous anomalies and inherent unfairness to those suffering mental health probolems, just rebranded and outsourced to a French IT company with targets to meet. The truth is, it's a test of your perceived ability to win the appeal.

I did hundreds of Incapacity Benefit appeals over my twenty years with the CAB. Never lost one.  RW)

Economic Madhouse

Several weeks ago David Fish sent me a pdf about the closure of Advantage West Midlands which, as David rightly says, will have an impact here given we are all less than ten miles from the West Mids.

It has taken me all this time to figure out how to make the pdf available on the blog.  Hopefully I have figured this out.  Click here to check.

In case it doesn't work, I also found this article in the Birmingham Post by Ian Austin, MP for Dudley North and Minister for the West Mids in the last Labour government.  He claims considerable success and I'm sure he is right.  Can we say the same for the East Mids equivalent?  Why not?

Fun and fundraising in the garden

The Lutterworth annual "Tea in the garden" took place on Saturday afternoon, 28th July, in Willy and Caroline`s garden, in Walcote. We had good weather, and over 70 people attended, and enjoyed the friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Excellent cakes were made and consumed by members; there were cake and book stalls, and a raffle. Jazz and light classical music was provided by Peter and elaine.

Tribute was paid to our dear friend and comrade Phil Fox, who passed away earlier this year.

 Liz Kendall, MP for Leicester West, attended and gave a rousing speech, as did Willy Bach.  Over £400 were raised for Branch funds.

Apprenticeships and the Minimum Wage

This is the first of two articles our branch secretary David Fish has contributed to the blog.

"A friend of mind through church is surviving on benefits and casual work.  He is receiving travel costs and free teaching in English and it’s amazing how he has improved.  He has done some ‘voluntary’ work in industry. Could it be making balloons? I will find out.

"After two months the factory are pleased and so offer him an apprenticeship for the job he can already do. He will receive £2.50 an hour, £100 a week and lose benefits.  In addition he will have to pay £25 a week travel.

"The company will receive £1500 for having an apprentice.

"I think that the apprentice system is a way of undermining the minimum wage."

Thanks, David. 

What do we think about the latest wheeze for massaging youth unemployment figures, the ominously-named National Citizen Service? 

County Council Cuts

Great news for Labour in next year's election, bad news for anyone in need.  Our slash-and-burn Tory County Council (motto, Cutting because we can) is underspent by £13 million.  Underspent - in a county which has always been underfunded!  Other than staff and members' expenses, what do they spend anything on?  Still another thousand or so jobs to go but fortunately members' expenses are keeping pace with inflation.  Absolute scandal.  If we can't kick a few of the cutters into touch next May we're not doing it right.

I found the full story here.

Stan and Enid

As Elaine said in her last post, members last week remembered Enid Hardy, who passed away recently.  This is how we will always think of Stan and Enid ---

--- side by side and sporting Vote Labour badges!

Our thoughts are with Stan.

July meeting and forthcoming events

 At the monthly Branch meeting in July, we heard about the excellent talk on Housing at the GC last month, and about new David Wilson homes to be built in Lutterworth.

We held a minutes silence for our comrade Enid Hardy, who died recently, and who was a great member of our Branch for many years. We also heard news form our previous Branch member, Sheila, who now lives in Wales, but has visited China recently, and sent us news of her visit.

Count Council elections
We discussed the forthcoming May 2013 County elections. Anyone wishing to stand, please contact David Fish, secretary, by 25th July, and selection will take place as part of Branch meeting, Tuesday, 4th September.

SUMMER EVENT:
"Tea in the garden" at Willy and Carolines, Yew Tree house, Walcote, Satruday, 28th July, 3-5pm. There will be tea and cakes; music; cake, book and plant stalls. Please come and support our fundraising and social Summer event.

From the achives

As politics grinds towards its summer hiatus, you have to think laterally to find items of local demographic interest.  That led me to Britain From Above, a new site from English Heritage and the National Lottery.

This is how Lutterworth looked in October 1927.  There are five other aerial photos of Lutterworth.  You can access them here.  I don't think it would have been much of a happy hunting ground for us back then.  Most of the places our supporters live aren't there!  On the other hand, it would have been much quicker to leaflet.

For those whose canvassing practice extends further afield, Leicester in 1927 is here.  Some city landmarks have not changed much but the East Gates one has me flummoxed.

Inexplicably, there are no photos of Broughton Astley.

Lord Hunt's NHS wake-up call

There's a new post by Lord Philip Hunt on the Labour Lords site.  A timely reminder that, with the Tories sinking ever lower in the polls, this is a battle we can yet win.

Local council re-takes control of its housing

Congratulations to Charnwood Borough Council, who are about to re-take control of their own housing services.

Charnwood felt obliged to set up one of the ubiquitous "arm's-length" housing bodies after auditors (whose primary purpose was to encourage these spurious hybrids) scored the in-house service a big fat zero, which was always nonsense.  Now, apparently, 75% of tenants want their council back in charge - and elected members plan to invest no less than £60 million in their housing stock over the next five years.  You can read the full story here.

Harborough, we can safely assume, plans to invest something closer to the aforementioned big fat zero.

Charnwood have also refused planning consent for the former hospital site in Baxter Gate which doesn't conform with their Town Centre Master Plan.  Again, not something I can see happening in Harborough.  Oh for a Lutterworth Town Centre Master Plan!

Commissioner questions

I found an interesting post on the Labour Uncut site: "Question time for commissioner candidates."

Of course in Leicestershire we are not being balloted about our candidate - Sarah was the only person shortlisted.  However we now know that former air chief marshal Sir Clive Loader has been chosen as the Tory candidate.  I wonder what his view would be on the deployment of tasers and water cannons?

NB: Sir Clive already has his campaign website up and running.  Click here to view it.

NHS Risk Register

The government notoriously refused to release the risk assessment into the so-called reform of the NHS despite the findings of the Information Commissioner.  As usual, someone has leaked part of it and colleagues from the Socialist Health Association have helpfully posted it on their site.  It only covers the West Midlands, but I can't see the risks will be any different here in the East.

I am adding the SHA to the links on the righthand side of this blog.

Branch comments on current affairs

At the May Branch meeting we discussed how the Government is struggling just now. Camerons and Osbornes weaknesses are really showing through, and they respond badly under pressure, as shown at PMQ, where Ed Milliband is certainly raising his game in attacking the Tories.

The Governments seems to ge going from one catastrophe to another: Our economy has shrunk again, with the dreaded double dip recession; huge numbers of young people are out of work; the Jeremy Hunt affair is dragging on; the outrageous suggestion of moving poor London people out of the capital en masse is shocking the voters; and while there are deep cuts to legal aid, there is a planned, unwanted, hugely costly re-organisation of the NHS. What next from this coalition?

The time is right for Labour to take the stage with new policies for a win at the next General Election.

What will happen to Victim Support?

Here's one issue that should arise when the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners finally get under way.  Funding for Victim Support will be decided locally by the Commissioners and Victim Support the charity are already campaigning to change this.

Personally I am ambivalent about the need for a chari-business with a CEO and professional fundraisers and lobbyists - but I do value the work done by the thousands of unpaid volunteers and am concerned that one person, with little or no experience of the court process, should decide the level of service available.

The money involved is not trivial.  Every court fine is automatically accompanied by a £15 surcharge "for the victims of crime."  No one is convinced that every penny of this goes to the Victim Support service, but nevertheless...

I would love to know what Sarah Russell thinking is on the subject, and in due course I will surely ask.  In the meantime, you can read Victim Support's official position here.

Young campaigner of the year

Congratulations to South Leicestershire CLP's own Matt Jones, who was named the East Midlands Young Campaigner of the Year in the Membership Awards 2012.

Matt received his certificate - signed by Ed - from Lord Hunt at the GC meeting on April 17.

Electing our first police and crime commissioner

Sarah Russell, Labour's candidate for elected Police Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, spoke at the all-member GC meeting last night.

Whilst this was Sarah's debut as commissioner candidate, she is very experienced in the higher levels of local government.  A long-serving councillor for the Westcotes Ward, she is currently assistant mayor in Sir Peter Soulsby's cabinet with responsibility for Neighbourhood Services - exactly the background needed to protect neighbourhood policing both within the city and out here in easily-neglected rural areas.  In reply to some challenging questions from the floor, Sarah explained how she has set up inter-agency groups to deal with local problems.   Police officers are members of those groups, working to cure the problem, not just contain it.  Most importantly, Sarah is clear - the commissioner's job is to develop the strategic framework; implementing that strategy and deploying police resources remains a professional judgement for the chief constable.

A flavour of the farago going on with other parties can be had here.  The Lib Dems claim they are not standing anywhere because they are opposed to elected police commissioners.  This may seem odd, given that Nick and Vince and the other one didn't exactly kick up a fuss in Cabinet.  The more cynical among us might assume the real reason is that they can't find enough dupes willing to endure that degree of a kicking.

The independent, Rick Moore, is a far more serious proposition.  He has been out and about on the pre-election trail for some months now - I first read about his candidacy in an alumni magazine issued the first week in January.  I have known Rick for eighteen years and he means business come November.  Activists in the City probably haven't known him quite so long but they found out he was a player when he came second to Peter Soulsby in the mayoral election last year.  And let us not forget that the same supplementary vote system is to be used for the commissioner election. 

Also speaking at the meeting was Philip Hunt, Labour lead on Home Affairs in the House of Lords.

Labour was against elected commissioners but we are a serious political party and when there is an election we stand candidates.  Just because we didn't support the principal doesn't mean we cannot commit wholeheartedly to the process.  And this, as Philip pointed out, is important - there will be people standing in these elections who want to instruct the chief constable in his duty.  There will be some who imagine the job will be like the American system we see in TV cop shows, where the commissioner spends his or her time building a political powerbase and sacks the police chief as a matter of course every election year.  That is how you politicize police officers.  And if anyone needs reminding how Britain feels about the police getting embroiled with politics they should keep an eye on the Leveson Inquiry.

Whoever wins these posts will have tremendous personal power (check out the information here), far more than elected mayors and even Boris.  They will personally set the police precept.  The scrutiny they are technically subject to is frankly pathetic.  It is therefore vital that the best people win, people with experience of public service, who put public needs before personal ambition.

The challenge is going to be turnout.  A November election, after the European Cup, Olympics and Jubilee?  I can't come up with an accurate figure for the electorate but the population here is somewhere around 940,000.  How can anyone hope to contact that many people in a meaningful way?  Especially when it hasn't yet been decided who is going to pay for the 'free' leaflet delivery.

I know I'm biased but this seems to me to be an election that simply has to be conducted largely online.  Thank goodness the GC arranged this early wake-up call!

The Bradford West result

There is expert analysis of this against-expectations result on the LSE British Politics and Policy blog.  Interestingly, last year's by-election in Leicester South is one of the examples used.

Welcome to Daventry colleagues!

In preparation for the probable joining of Lutterworth with Daventry in the future Boundary changes, Lutterworth Branch invited members of Daventry to attend our February Branch meeting. Six Daventry members attended, and we were pleased to meet each other. Keeping business to a minimum, we had a brilliant talk on EMA by Professor Sue Maguire, and the evening was most successful. We look forward to meeting at political and social events in the future.

Prof Sue Maguire on EMA

Sue gave a lucid and detailed account of the Labour governments introduction of Education Maintenance Allowance, to help 16 to 18 year olds remain in full time education. For £30 per week, young people from poorer families were encouraged to stay in education. Sue evaluated the pilot in 1999, and EMA began throughout the country in 2004. It was subject to huge evaluation, which showed that it increased uptake of further education among poorer youngsters. Despite it`s clear success, it was withdrawn by our current government in 2010.
EMA was a small price to pay to our youth, who often seem to have a poor deal compared to others in our society. No wonder increasing numbers of our youth feel neglected and alienated from society, when the younger age band has record high unemployment rates, and even this small contribution of help is removed.

New Planning regime

Members will have heard on the news that the Coalition's new planning regime launched today.  They say it will be simpler, opponents say it will mean concreting over the countryside.  Members can judge for themselves.  The document itself is downloadable here.

Battle to save Legal Aid hots up

For anyone who missed it clicking here should take you to Willy's article in today's Independent.  Click here and you can watch him say much the same thing on today's Daily Politics.  He will apparently also be on steam radio later - PM on Radio Four.

This is the decisive week.  Spread the word and pledge your support via whatever social media you use.

Make no mistake, this is all about silencing the poor.

Tory defection and why we should care

Roger Helmer's defection to UKIP over the weekend really got under my skin to a surprising degree.  It's not that a disaffected Tory has defected to the disaffected Tory party - for those who can stomach it, Mr Helmer's somewhat garbled explanation can be found here, on the Conservative Home blog - it's the democracy issue.

When a local councillor or a Westminster MP crosses the floor, he or she can claim to have been given a personal mandate by the electorate, who were told what s/he stood for in election material.  But Jack Straw's hideous List System for the Euros means we can only vote for the party.  Nobody voted for Roger Helmer personally in 2009, just as nobody voted for our own Glenis Wilmott.  The electorate voted Labour, Tory or Nutter.  The total L, T and N votes were then ascribed proportionally to the parties, tweaked up and down according to rules that were both unfathomable and inevitably unfair, and the highest names on the respective lists were handed their tickets to Brussels.  Ranking on the list was done not by activists in the East Mids but by apparatchiks in London.

As a result of this defection UKIP who came third in 2009 despite losing 10% of their vote, have 2 MEPs until 2014 (hands up who knew there was another one), Labour who came second have only one and the Tories who obviously won with a significant increase in their vote also only have one.  Even if you have the slightest hankering for proportional representation (which I notoriously don't) how is this fair, proportional or democratic?

My view has always been that the List System was another manifestation of the progressive erosion of democratic accountability by careerist politicians.  If the voting public aren't enthused by Euro elections, taking away direct representation was never going to increase the turnout.  The truth is, Roger Helmer's defection doesn't matter two hoots - but it ought to.  And Labour, as the only party of opposition, ought to be developing policies to fix the problem.

In the meantime, I can't help empathising with our soon-to-be MP Chris Heaton-Harris who Tweeted (@chhcalling): "I honestly thought he [Helmer] was an honourable man; alas I was mistaken."

Labour in rural areas

I found this blogpost from Alexandra Kemp, Vice Chair of North West Norfolk Labour Party, about activism in rural areas.  Many similarities with our situation and something to be learnt, I think.  The full post can be found here, but the concluding paragraph deserves quoting in full here:

"The countryside is the natural home for Labour.  With low pay and low expectations in ex-farming areas, concentrations of older people increasingly reliant on social services, the NHS and public transport, children in poverty, young people looking for work, there is everything to gain."

Electoral Boundaries - Secondary Consultation

For those who don't agree with me about the desirability of leaving South Leicestershire consituency for the delights of Daventry (and I admit that is currently pretty much everybody) the Boundary Commission has announced the dates for its secondary consultation.  That means the chance to comment on all the consultations submitted in the first phase.

This may sound like unnecessary duplication but my experience with the Local Government Boundary Commission suggests that the comments-on-comments tend to be the ones that carry most weight.

The consultation runs from noon on March 6 2012 to noon on April 3 2012.  Both Branch nights, I note.  Beyond coincidence, surely?

The Battle for Legal Aid

As the battle to secure access to justice for all continues in the Lords, Willy has written an online article which you can access here.

January Branch meeting

At our January meeting, we again discussed the Boundary Commision decision. It looks like we will be joining with Daventry, so we will need to get to know our prospective new comrades.

Other news - the GC held an excellent meeting on education last month with a well-informed speaker from London; the meeting in February will be on funding of voluntary legal advice, which is facing cuts, just when people most need it.

We discussed the 2 new housing developments proposed for Lutterworth.

At our fund-raising Gala dinner, over 50 people attended, and over £500 was raised.

HDC Core Strategy



Last November Harborough District Council adopted its Core Strategy for planning.  This supercedes some, but not all, of the hard-fought-for policies in the Local Plan.  Essentially, it accords with the Coalition's 'light-touch' for development control which in turn basically means no meaningful control whatsoever. 

The all-embracing get-out clause in terms of planning gain (the only way communities have achieved anything out of the tsunami of development since the 1980s) is, to my mind, policy CS12(d) of the core strategy - planning gain will not be allowed to affect the financial viability of the scheme.  How incompetent would an accountant need to be to fail to get under that hurdle?

Most of the key documents are easily accessed via the link in the blog post above, but I also recommend to members' attention the Strategic Land Availability Assessment documents which are available here, and which are still open to representations until January 20 2012.