The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

Please visit The Woking Eye to carry on where I left off…

Following the hacking of my blog last weekend, from the beginning of next week this blog will change to a permament home at www.thehorsellsmouth.com. I’m using the WordPress software still, so it will look and feel almost exactly the same but the move has allowed me to introduce some far tougher security.

Sorry about the moving around – I started at Blogspot not really knowing whether blogging was for me and whether I could keep regular updates. Then I realised I could and moved to WordPress because it was a great deal more attractive, easy to edit and because those who wanted to interact with the posts needed to register themselves and their identities. I would never refuse a comment unless it was unlawful or libellous and I don’t have an issue with people insulting me and my views - but I demand that they be open about their identities, as I am. It’s basic fair play.

I’m pleased to say that the majority of comments on my blog are not only polite but make a good (mostly balancing) contribution. Some are frostier than others, but hey – it’s not personal, it’s politics. The new hosted website will I hope allow us to continue the debate.

At the Council Meeting on Thursday (1 October), the Conservative Group voted to confirm the decision already taken by the Conservative Executive to introduce a Key Card membership scheme for users of Community Centre services at a cost of just £8 a year, reduced to £4 for those entitled to concessionary benefits.

The enhanced scheme will give members continued access to services such as lunches, hairdressing, special events and priority bookings for outings, all at subsidised costs. Bathability and Chiropody services will still be open to all. 

Consultation has been carried out between the Council and centre managers, users and ‘friends of groups’ who agree with the principles behind the membership scheme.  Contrary to incorrect information released by the Liberal Democrats, the membership fee will not apply to volunteers or carers who give their time to help at the centres, unless they choose to access the services when they are not in a volunteering or caring role.

Leader of the Executive, Councillor John Kingsbury said: “I believe this Centre Key Card scheme, which will be incorporated immediately into the existing Key Card scheme in support of promoting and developing the Council’s health and well-being agenda, represents excellent value-for-money.

“It will give Day Centre Members the opportunity to enjoy a range of other Council venues and services as well as access to discounts with around 30 retail partners.

“In these challenging economic times, our aim must be to use Council funds to provide sustainable services that we can justify to all council tax taxpayers.  A similar Community Centre membership scheme operates across almost all Surrey Boroughs.”

It is intended to introduce the new Community Centre Key Card on 1 January, 2010.

Flagging appetite for the EU

Following on from my earlier deleted post about the Irish referendum, it now looks very likely that despite Czech efforts the Lisbon Treaty will be ratified before May 2010. I don’t think many Conservatives will be happy about that and I include myself among them - but one of the most important areas of judgement in politics is knowing when a battle is lost.

The public gets very annoyed with politicians who try to prolong battles – look at Gerry Malone in Winchester in 1997 - and knowing when to move on for the sake of the country, rather than continue the fight for their own personal reasons, is something that Conservative activists must understand.

There is a real danger that the Conservative Conference, aided by some elements of the media determined to make it every bit as disastrous as the Lib Dem and Labour conferences, will become dominated by in-fighting over Europe at a time when it ought to be looking outward towards the country. I think the opposition front bench understand this – but people like Boris and Andrew Rossindell need to take time to think about it too.

Europe put the nail in the coffin of the last Conservative government – it mustn’t be allowed to put the nail in the chances of a future one.

The Lisbon Treaty is in all likelihood here to stay. Conservatives should accept a defeat shamefully ceded by Labour and allow DC and William Hague an opportunity to step back and think carefully about how to deal with Europe in the future. Renegotiation may be an option – to take back those powers that we want – but this will not be achieved overnight, nor in opposition.

So let Europe rest for now while our UK problems are addressed first and don’t help the BBC and its friends ruin what needs to be the best conference yet.

Labour might have abandoned socialism around the same time that Conservatives abandoned the poll tax, but it’s still alive and kicking in some parts of the world.

Venezualan president Hugo Chavez, that well-known friend of Ken Livingstone, has had a brilliant idea to boost his country’s flagging economy – not to mention its place at the table of rightful nations. He’s going to shut down golf courses, one by one, because golf isn’t a people’s sport. Marx would be baffled.

Tony Blair might have been the cute and cuddly face of social democracy, if not socialism, but here is a reminder if any were needed of the real agenda behind this pernicious, envy-fuelled and discriminatory political ideology.

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It’s about time someone got hold of these broadband companies and gave their advertising a shake-up. I’m glad it’s made the headlines today because it really is a disgrace to offer a service well below the advertised and paid-for level and I’m particularly glad I found the story on Sky News because in my experience, its parent company is among the worst offenders.

To advertise something as “upto” a certain level is actually worse than the other trick – a favourite of low-cost airlines – of saying “prices from”. At least with the second option, the best-case scenario is clearly outlined and you know that you will be paying at least a certain amount.

The broadband trick is worse because “upto 8MB” could mean 0.1MB, or 2.3MB, or if you are really lucky, 7.2MB. There is no minimum standard – all you know is that you won’t get more than 8MB. In fact, you won’t get that either so it’s doubly dubious.

I’m going to shame Sky here not because there broadband is any better or worse than anyone else – I get 3.8MB of a possible 8MB although I know if I made a fuss I could get 4.5MB. The reason I’m shaming them is because when I rung up to renew my current package, a saleswomen at the end of the phone told me I could get upto 12MB at my address and should upgrade to upto 16MB at greater cost.

Or perhaps upto 32MB, or 64MB or 128MB? My current 3.8MB fits the bill of “upto” all of them. The ASA should:

• push broadband providers to guarantee a minimum standard of 2MB free to everyone (the level to be reviewed every two years), and
• let those who want to try their luck above that level pay on a per-MB basis according to the service they actually receive (it seems to work okay for gas and electricity)

Only that way can we put a stop to the broadband sham.

I had to have a chuckle at John Doran’s new-look Lib Dem website, which has changed his status from “councillor for Horsell” to “campaigner for Horsell” following his thrashing by Ben Carasco in June’s elections.

His lead post at the moment is entitled simply – and seemingly without irony – “I Choose Change“. It seems that the rest of Horsell was thinking the very same thing…