You kip, You pay

October 19, 2009 — admin
Nigel Farage - standing down

Nigel Farage - standing down

I once flirted with UKIP membership - back in around 1999, when things were really bad for the Conservative Party. I looked at their website and it all seemed pretty sound. But then I realised that if I wanted my Eurosceptic view to be represented in the European Parliament, I needed to vote for a party with a realistic chance of influencing a voting block.

I also realised that every vote not cast for a Conservative would be a help to the Liberal Democrats and Labour and that their resultant MEPs would represent exactly the pro-integrationist, pro-federal and pro-power transfer European ideals that I opposed.

Since that time, I’ve never contemplated supporting UKIP and have come to regard it as a complete political menace. Not only does the party harbour some views that are, shall we say, too off-field for even the right of the Conservative Party (and as someone on the left of the Conservative Party that’s a long way past my tolerance level) but they seem completely incapable of understanding what a political contradiction they are.

In council and Parliamentary seats across the country, areas that would otherwise be represented by Conservatives are instead represented by Liberal Democrats and (less so now) Labour because UKIP has taken a greater number of votes from natural Conservative supporters than the winning margin. It’s totally crackers, because the loyal UKIPpers have ended up with a representative opposed to everything they stand for rather than one atune to their views but more moderate.

During the MPs’ expenses nonsense, UKIP has been benefitting from the ill-done deeds of mainstream politicians. Goodness only knows why. Let’s start with Ashley Mote in 2004, move on to the issue about MEP attendance, the arrangement with the BNP and the latest saga about donations from a supporter not on the electoral register.

Over expenses, they have no MPs to be subjected to scrutiny but the indications from Europe are that if the party had MPs, they would be among the most generously expensed. The weasel words from the UKIP website about transparency are not worth anything – if you really want to vote UKIP because you detest the EU that much fine; but please don’t vote for them because they are trustworthy on expenses!

Personally, I believe that the UK should renegotiate our relationship with the EU into the trading and neighbourly co-operation one that was voted for in 1975. But voting UKIP isn’t going to deliver that.

The price of UKIP is pro-European elected representatives - not to mention about £2million each, apparently.

Posted in Europe. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

Scotland gets tough on migrant

September 17, 2009 — simonashall

Baroness ScotlandThe best story of the day has to be the news that Baroness Scotland, who worked on leglisation to crack down on the employment of illegal immigrants, has fallen foul of the very law she helped introduce.

I can’t remember the last time a minister was caught by their own legislation. Her draconian drafting to fine those hoodwinked by illegal immigrants with seemingly all the right paperwork up to £10,000 – apparently discarding the old adage that it’s not a crime to be deceived – has rebounded brilliantly.

So will she be fined? Or is their some unwritten rule that the law shouldn’t apply to ministers? Would a member of the public in the same position escape application of the law in a similar way?

Her spokesman said she had “never knowingly employed an illegal immigrant”. Doesn’t matter. And that “She hired Ms Tapui in good faith and saw documents which led her to believe that Ms Tapui was entitled to work in this country.” Whatever. In addition:

“At no stage prior to the matter being raised did Baroness Scotland believe there was any question over Ms Tapui’s entitlement to work. Ms Tapui has now been dismissed with immediate effect.”

Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that one before. Now, where do we serve the papers? Oh, you’re the minister, are you…?

Posted in Labour, Law, Roll on 2010. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

They don't like it up 'em

September 17, 2009 — simonashall

Up until three months ago, there was no regularly updated blog putting forward the Conservative view in Woking and the Lib Dems quite wisely ran amok, posting stories about Conservative councillors and taking political credit wherever possible.

In the last couple of months, they’ve not had it all there own way, as I’ve been checking their blogs and blogging on them myself where necessary – apparently some Lib Dems are not keen on the line I’ve been taking. It’s fair enough; no-one enjoys being criticised and I’ve been criticised myself in some comments (but then the LDs would know that, as I suspect one of two or three of them to be the author/s).

I only ever respond to LD posts and never initiate anything but it is important that cross-party co-operation be maintained where it can to work for the best interests of Woking. I don’t want to be unhelpful so in future I will only blog on individual LDs when they themselves have blogged about individual Conservatives or executive decisions.

I think this demonstrates very clearly that the Lib Dems love to dish out the mischievous, the exaggerated and stir endlessly (I quote from the LD campaign handbook) but they aren’t so keen to be on the receiving end. If they blog the scurrilous and ridiculous, they should understand that this blog will be right up in their faces to rebut and say whatever needs to be said.

That’s a part of the political system.

Posted in Conservatives, Other blogs, lib dems, politics. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »

Press release: Conservatives support shops and shoppers with car parking freeze

September 15, 2009 — simonashall

Woking’s Conservative administration stepped up its support for the Woking Town Centre economy at last week’s meeting of the council’s executive with confirmation that it would not be foisting an increase in car parking charges on shoppers during the run-up to Christmas.

Proposals had been put forward that would have meant the half-hourly increments currently used for charging in the main town centre car parks would have been removed. Currently people shopping for an hour and 20 minutes only pay the hour and 30 minutes increment – removing this would have left them paying for two hours.

In rejecting the idea of increasing car park charges for a second time this year, leader of the executive Cllr John Kingsbury said that he was mindful of the recession and the effect that this was having on people’s pockets. The Conservatives have introduced a discount scheme in the car parks that allows people to park all day for £8 and up to six hours for £5.

“We are not going to make the same mistake that the Liberal Democrats made in 2006/7,” said Cllr Kingsbury. “The Lib Dem executive budgeted for increased charges in April and then again in August, which was totally wrong.

“The Conservative executive has agreed to invest money in the  Peacocks Shopping Centre, to allow Next to move into a much larger site and we will hopefully see further enhancements soon.

“This was not the right time to think about removing the half-hour increment, which would have had the effect of significantly increasing the cost of parking to residents. We want people to be able to support our businesses in Woking during the autumn and in the run-up to Christmas.

“Operating our car parks is not about raising revenue – it is about creating a balance between covering the costs of the service for the taxpayer, supporting businesses and providing an excellent service to visitors to the town in their cars.”

Posted in Conservatives, Press releases, Woking Borough Council. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

The Thoughts of Chairman Wells (part 1)

August 19, 2009 — simonashall

If you are ever unfortunate enough to entertain Lib Dems to tea, make sure you bake two cakes – one for them to have and one to eat. Having moaned for ages that Woking parking charges were too high, they are now moaning that the action the Conservatives have taken to reduce charges at commercially sensitive times are inadequate.

His latest blog, imaginatively entitled Parking Charges seem to go up and up under the Tories, offers nothing new in the way of ideas about how to address this issue. Yes, charges have gone up. Yes, the council needs to increase its revenue to cover increasing costs.

“I wonder if in Woking parking charges should be linked to cost of providing
parking services and public transport and that the money raised should not be
spent on other things. In Woking this would probably mean a threat to
services that are paid for by the profit from parking.”

He muses. Profit from parking? Can Cllr Wells please explain what this profit is – the parking service is not run as an independently operating financial unit but as part of Woking Borough Council, which doesn’t make a “profit”.

“The money raised should not be spent on other things”- yes, he’d like that, wouldn’t he? Then the nasty old Tories would have no money to provide any other services, which he would then be able to crow about when they got cut. The Conservatives will not cut front-line services in Woking.

“What about restricting any additional income from rises in parking charges to be
ring fenced to only be spent on improvements in parking facilities and better
public transport.”

This gets funnier. Is Cllr Wells seriously saying that Woking should hand over part of its income to Surrey County Council for it to make improvements to public transport in other parts of the county? Are the Lib Dems saying that they would do that? And the parking facilities have only just undergone a multi-million pound capital overhaul. Where is he going to spend this ring-fenced revenue to any effect?

Car parking income is dropping because the recession means that fewer people are using their cars and they are not buying so many goods. The increased cost can never be a good thing – but it is not the primary factor for most people staying away. Woking Borough Council’s experience in the past is that dropping the charges has no effect on takeup.

Cllr Wells’s pie-in-the-sky nonsense shows a total lack of understanding about local government finance, the respective responsibilities of tiered authorities, not to mention a great deal of naivety about how to bring about increased revenues, a vibrant town centre and transport improvements.

God help us if this is the level of the Lib Dem thinking we can expect if they take control next year. But mark my words – if they do, car parking charges will increase in the same way that they have this year.

When the Lib Dems were last in charge, parking charges in Woking went up twice in the same year.

Posted in Other blogs, Woking Borough Council, lib dems. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »