Guest post on Lib Dem Voice

I was thrilled to be invited recently to write my first ever guest post for Lib Dem Voice. You can read it here.

Cambridgeshire guided busway

A Cambridgeshire County Councillor has just sent me a superb comment from the Cambridge News web site, by a reader (CleverRichard) summing up the latest twist in the infamous Cambridgeshire guided busway saga. It's so brilliant it just has to be preserved for posterity - perhaps on the plaque to be unveiled if and when the accursed thing ever opens.

"The cost of the guided busway (£180 million) now exceeds the amount of money spent making the film Inception ($160 million). However let's look on the bright side, years from now – long after the film is forgotten – Cambridge’s guided busway will be providing us with endless entertainment. It is a safe bet no week will pass without a CEN story about the trolley-folly to brighten our lives during an otherwise dull week. If the clay beneath the busway starts to shift we might even see Cambridgeshire's own version of a Parisian street folding over on itself. Even so it is worth pointing out that there is an important difference between Christopher Nolan's Inception and the Cambridgeshire County Council/BAM Nuttall project. One is a bizarre story about a group of people desperately trying to escape from a dream world of their own making and the other is a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio."

The latest story and assorted reader comments, including the above, are here.

Yes2AV Referendum Broadcast

About that referendum

The About My Vote web site has published a useful video guide to the forthcoming referendum on moving to a fairer voting system. Enjoy.

April Fool

I think April Fool began three days early for me this year. At least, I believe that's what one of the world's most famous courier companies has been doing to me all this week.

I'm expecting a time-critical package from overseas that should have been with me by Tuesday at the latest. On Monday, I'm out walking the dogs and, as luck would have it, when I get back I find a card on the mat to say that said courier company has tried to deliver but I was out.

On Tuesday morning, I email them, using the address provided on their 'sorry you were out' card, and ask them to implement one of the options they offer on their card - to redirect the package to a different address. In my naivety, I think that if I ask for the package to be sent to my husband's place of work instead, with a reception desk and all, it will be certain to be delivered in time. More April fool me.

Still no news by Thursday morning, so I ring my husband at work. No package. Oh no, wait a minute - yes there is, he says. But it doesn't look like what you were expecting. Should I open it to be certain? Yes, I say. So he does. It's not my package, it's some computer peripherals for someone I don't know in Norfolk. Well done!

So, after scrabbling around on their website for ten minutes to try to find a telephone number that isn't an automated system, I ring the courier company. An 0844 number - kerching! What's happened to my package? Oh, they said, it's sitting here on hold in our depot; maybe we didn't receive your email about the redirection. May I beg to differ on that, I ask, bearing in mind that your computers generated an automatic 'read receipt' message when they opened my email, and I have that message here in front of me? Having settled that between ourselves, we agree that the package will be sent to the redirect address (my husband's place of work) to arrive on Friday (today). It's not exactly Tuesday, but by this point that's becoming a little bit academic.

Being of a suspicious nature, this morning I sign on to the courier company's website to track progress. My package is being delivered as arranged, it tells me. Super! But just to be sure, I ring the courier company to confirm where it's going. It's that 0844 number again - kerching kerching! So my package is going to my husband's place of work as discussed yesterday, is it? Oh, no, I'm told; if it were going there today it wouldn't be starting from here. So they tell me they'll deliver it to my home address as originally planned, and I junk all my arrangements for the morning to stay at home to receive it. Wonderful!

Having, I hope, sorted out that part of the problem, it's time to ring the poor gentleman in Norfolk and tell him that his package is safe with me. He's very grateful, though rather puzzled to hear from a complete stranger.

Whoopee! The bell rings mid-morning and it's the package I've been waiting for. I'm not allowed to open it to check it's the correct consignment until I've signed for it - there are rules about that sort of thing, you know - but once I've autographed the deliverer's little docket book, I open the package to check, and sure enough it's fine.

Now, I tell the driver, I have this little matter of this package here for the gentleman in Norfolk - if I give it to you, you can take it back to your depot and send it on from there, can't you? It would appear that the answer to that is no; life isn't that simple. We're not allowed to collect items without a booking, you see, and you haven't made a booking with our office. Look, here's the number, ring them. Oh look, it's another 0844 number - kerching kerching kerching!

A quarter of an hour on the phone to the new 0844 number. The worn and illegible reference number on the package doesn't correspond to any reference number on their system. Whole logistics system thrown into chaos. We'll have to ring you back.

So here am I, sitting waiting for a phone call from a courier company to confirm that they are prepared to collect a package that doesn't belong to me, which through no fault of my own (and every fault of theirs) has ended up here, and which I've had to virtually beg them to come and take away. Splendid!

Any minute now, I'm expecting a hidden camera to swing into view, and the late Jeremy Beadle to pop out from behind it and tell me I've been framed. Well done, *** courier company, you're ace at what you do. And happy April Fool's day, everyone.

Postscript: I almost forgot to say. About half an hour after I'd logged on to the courier company's website on Thursday, I received an email purporting to be from the said company, telling me that my item would be sent to my home address and would be with me in three business days: please see the attached file for details of the order and tracking number. The 'attached file', when I investigated, was a .exe - an executable file no doubt containing some virus, trojan or other nasty. So not only are they incapable of following basic instructions or delivering the right goods to the right customers, but their website's been hacked as well. Marvellous!

1.1 million low-paid out of tax

As The Sun Politics on Twitter said today:

"No wonder Nick Clegg's smiling. Lifting 1.1 million low-paid out of tax in a massive Lib Dem win."

Yes to AV

The secret prisoners

In a post that should chill the marrow of every reader, political blogger Anna Raccoon has reported on Thursday's parliamentary debate in Westminster Hall.

The debate, secured by Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, was on Articles 9 and 13 of the Bill of Rights; you can read a full transcript here.

To spend time discussing two clauses of a Bill passed in 1689 under William and Mary may seem an abstruse use of a Thursday afternoon. But Thursday's debate was a step on a lonely but important path that John has, to his credit, been beating for a long time: the dreadful stories of people who have lost their rights, property or even their liberty in secret courts, in some cases prevented by court order from even speaking to their Member of Parliament lest their children be taken away from them - not in Libya or some other far-flung foreign dictatorship, but today, here and now in the United Kingdom.

John Hemming has used parliamentary privilege to tell some of these stories which can now be publicly reported. The full transcript is a long read, but the real life misery described in the cases John describes should give everyone pause for thought, and John should be congratulated for the sterling work he is doing as an MP in shining light into some of the darkest corners of our judicial system.

News of an old adversary

Word reaches me from the Twitterverse that an erstwhile adversary from my Harlow days, Robert Halfon MP, is under threat of legal action for defamation from Liverpool John Moores University over views he has expressed about links between Libya and British universities - information here and here.

Clearly, having stood against him in two General Elections (2001 and 2005) I'm not a particular supporter of Robert's. But Liverpool John Moores' actions in this case seem to me quite illiberal, and I'm therefore pleased that Robert is being represented in this case by the estimable David Allen Green, prominent legal blogger, Twitterer and campaigner for libel law reform.

I'm looking forward to the Government's forthcoming review of the libel laws, and hope that the draft Bill will be further improved as it passes through Parliament to address the concerns that remain.

And in the meantime, Robert, I wish you well on this one.

Another day, another Gove initiative

Heaven help us, it's another education initiative from Michael Gove. This time he wants schools to open ten hours a day and on Saturday mornings. I can't see how that's going to produce anything other than exhausted pupils, exhausted teachers, an end to after-school activities, and a further erosion of family life.

Why is it that politicians think that if something fails, we have to keep doing the same thing only harder?

A lot of children, particularly from poorer backgrounds, are ill served by the present education system. But it seems to me that the most significant changes that would improve the educational chances of our children are smaller class sizes and really inspirational teachers.

I hope the Liberal Democrats' insistence on the pupil premium, paid to schools with children from lower income families, will start to help with the first, though more resources would clearly be needed to bring class sizes down to the levels of our private fee-paying schools. But I can't imagine many teachers being inspirational at five o'clock in the afternoon after having been chained to their desks since half past seven in the morning by Mr Gove.

March North

The result in the Cambridgeshire County Council by-election in March North yesterday was:

• Con 616


• Lab 282


• Lib Dem 277

The Lib Dem share of the vote was well above the national average, the Conservative vote share was down, and the increase in the Labour vote was very much smaller than elsewhere recently.

Clearly it's not an easy time to be contesting local by-elections. The last Labour government made a mess of the economy, and whoever helps clear it up is going to be unpopular for a little while.

But it was a real pleasure to work with Will McAdam - an excellent local candidate, and one to watch for the future.

The law is an ass

Today's ruling by the European Court of Justice that insurance companies must not differentiate between men and women when setting prices for car insurance and other financial products is stupid and perverse.

Responsible young female drivers will have to pay more to cover irresponsible young male drivers, who are statistically twice as likely to have an accident. How is that fair? My student daughter, a careful driver already feeling the financial pinch of rising fuel prices, will see the cost of her car insurance soar by 20-25 per cent, a blow she can ill afford and one she does not deserve. And there'll be hundreds of thousands of young women like her.

I'm not an anti-European. And I believe that as a general principle we cannot expect to pick and choose which laws to obey and which not. But something is seriously wrong with the basis on which the European courts are making asinine judgements like this, and it needs taking in hand fast.

AV (again)

Do you think this is what he meant to say?

Fairer votes: the dishonesty of the No campaign

The Independent today reveals the depths to which the 'No' campaign is prepared to sink in trying to prevent a fairer voting system for Britain.

A series of advertisements has been launched by the 'No' campaign, suggesting that if the move to fairer votes is defeated, there will be more kit for soldiers serving overseas, more equipment for babies in hospital, and all sorts of other extra public spending.

The trouble is, it's completely untrue.

The 'No' campaign claims that moving to a fairer voting system will cost£250 million. But of that £250 million, £82 million is the cost of the referendum itself. If that's the cost of the referendum, it will have been spent whether people vote Yes or No.

And £150 million is apparently for 'electronic counting machines'. Yet nobody has said these would be needed. According to the Financial Times, the independent Electoral Commission hasn't even considered them. And they're not required in Australia, which has used AV for a very long time.

The tactic of the 'No to AV' campaign seems to be to invent some silly and untrue figures and hope the voters will believe them. Voting 'Yes' to fairer votes on 5 May, then, would appear to be an excellent way of demonstrating that we're not as gullible as the 'No' campaign believes we are.

Oh, and just a final thought. If David Cameron doesn't believe in the AV system, shouldn't he step down as Conservative Party leader in favour of David Davis, who would have been Tory leader if the Conservatives used First Past The Post for their own elections?

Stagecoach starts packing up its things

So Stagecoach has taken its cue from Cambridgeshire County Council's Great Bus Cull and started to pack up its bags already. A mere week after the Cambridgeshire Conservatives took an axe to bus travel in the county, Stagecoach is de-registering a range of bus routes across Cambridgeshire.

The Stagecoach no 9 service between Ely and Cambridge will stop earlier in the evenings.

There will be reduced services to Milton (Citi 2 and Citi 4); Duxford and Whittlesford will no longer be served by the Citi 7; Cambridge will lose the City Circle; there will be reduced services on the 12a to Newmarket, the 15 to Swavesey, and into Cambridge from Longstowe and Comberton in the evenings.

The 31a school journeys from Trumpington and Netherhall School will cease to be operated by Stagecoach. The 30 from Ramsay to Huntingdon will cease to operate in the evenings and on Sundays, and the 45 from St Ives to Huntingdon in the evenings.

And that's just for starters. Woe betide you if you live in Cambridgeshire and don't drive.

A fairer, more democratic, greener, liberal country

Climate change: A Summary of the Science

Someone's just pointed me to this summary from the Royal Society. It's worth reading in full, as it's a useful outline of where there is broad agreement on the state of scientific knowledge about climate change, but also where there are uncertainties. But if you don't have that luxury here's the summary at the end:

"There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the dominant cause of the global warming that has taken place over the last half century. This warming trend is expected to continue as are changes in precipitation over the long term in many regions. Further and more rapid increases in sea level are likely which will have profound implications for coastal communities and ecosystems.

It is not possible to determine exactly how much the Earth will warm or exactly how the climate will change in the future, but careful estimates of potential changes and associated uncertainties have been made. Scientists continue to work to narrow these areas of uncertainty. Uncertainty can work both ways, since the changes and their impacts may be either smaller or larger than those projected.

Like many important decisions, policy choices about climate change have to be made in the absence of perfect knowledge. Even if the remaining uncertainties were substantially resolved, the wide variety of interests, cultures and beliefs in society would make consensus about such choices difficult to achieve. However, the potential impacts of climate change are sufficiently serious that important decisions will need to be made. Climate science – including the substantial body of knowledge that is already well established, and the results of future research – is the essential basis for future climate projections and planning, and must be a vital component of public reasoning in this complex and challenging area."

The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

In case we forget

It's worth just reminding ourselves occasionally of the complete and utter mess in which Labour left the public finances when they were kicked out of office last year.

This year we'll be spending over £43bn just on the interest on our debts. That’s £830m per week. Just under £119m a day. For that money, we could
- build a new primary school every hour
- buy a new Chinook helicopter every day
- take 11 million people out of paying income tax
- triple the number of doctors in our hospitals.

Ah, luxury ...

As a non-driver, I know how valuable a service our local buses provide, especially out here in the Fens. Like many other residents, I rely on them to go shopping, to the hospital, to leisure events (even though they stop too early in the evenings and I have to get a cab back - not cheap!) and for all the other aspects of life that we take for granted.

I was on a bus yesterday to get to March and back for a meeting. I'll need a bus to get to my Body Balance class in Ely later this week, a meeting on Thursday evening, and next week for my dental check-up and physiotherapy appointment. Without the buses, I'd be marooned here in our village; and I'm reasonably young (well, 50+ if the truth be told, but not yet drawing my pension) and healthy, and have my family here at home. I dread to imagine what life would be like if I were 70+ or 80+ with no car and no family, and no bus service either.

I'd always assumed that being able to get from place to place was a fairly fundamental part of life, and that as not everyone was able to drive a car - whether, like me, because they've never passed their test, or through ill health, lack of financial resources, or whatever other reason - ensuring provision of public transport was a basic duty of the powers that be.

Apparently I'm wrong. Fenland's lovable blogger Cllr Steve Tierney has gone on the record at the Cambs Times saying that buses are 'a luxury we can no longer afford'. I somehow doubt that Cambridgeshire's residents see them in the same light.

As part of drawing up its budget for the forthcoming year, Cambridgeshire County Council consulted a number of residents about their priorities. Not surprisingly, bus services came out in the top three. And yet, despite the obvious public support for ensuring people can get out and about, the Conservative-controlled county council is about to axe all support for all bus services across the county over the course of the next four years. Any route that can't turn a profit - and that's most of them out here in the countryside - will go to the wall.

Do you agree with Mr Tierney that it's a 'luxury' for people to be able to get out and about if they haven't got a car? Or, as I suspect, do you think public transport is a little more important than that?

Another Lib Dem policy in action

Excellent news from the Liberal Democrats:

"The abolition of identity cards was confirmed yesterday, when the Identity Documents Bill was granted Royal Assent.

Liberal Democrats have consistently campaigned against ID cards, a scheme introduced by the previous Labour Government.

All existing ID cards will be cancelled within one month, and the National Identity Register, the database which contains the biographic and biometric fingerprint data of card holders, will be destroyed within two months.

The Identity Card Scheme and other biometrics work has already cost the taxpayer £292 million. The Act has saved £835 million in planned future investment."