Duncan Bruce

50 Years Of James Bond Celebrated By Royal Mail

2012-02-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

I am currently doing a bit of editing around the James Bond films so I thought I would just do a quick blog post about the 10 new James Bond stamps which are being released later this year to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film back in 1962.

Members of the public were asked to vote for the favourite 10 posters out of the 22 films and the results came in as follows:

Casino Royale 7.03%

From Russia With Love 6.12%

Dr. No 5.83%

For Your Eyes Only 5.82%

Goldeneye 5.40%

Goldfinger 5.38%

The Living Daylights 5.37%

Live and Let Die 5.04%

Moonraker 4.53%

On Her Majesty's Secret Service 4.51%

I think its credit to the producers that films representing all 6 bond incarnations (Connery, Lanzenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig) have been selected, clearly all the various portrayals of James Bond have left impressions in the minds of UK residents. I also think its a credit to Royal Mail that they are doing this for the 50th Anniversary, James Bond has produced some amazing talent and its british technicians and crew are second to none in my opinion.

Is The Prime Minister Ill-Informed? Or Is He Misleading The House?

2012-01-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

My colleague Cllr Rachel Eden has already raised this on her own blog, but I wanted to take my own view of it. Recently quite a few commentators including Channel 4's 'FactCheck' Blog have been noticing some inaccuracies in the Prime Minister's responses at PMQ's - They range from general errors to mistakes which could only be made intentionally or through poor briefing. Ed Miliband took the opportunity to write to the Prime Minister and point out some of the mistakes, lets bear in mind the examples being given here are from just one PMQ's (26th January, 2012).

In answer to Ed Miliband, David Cameron said "There are more people in work today than there were at the time of the last election." In fact, the most recent employment figures from the Office for National Statistics show the total employment between May-July 2010 and September-November 2011 fell by 26,000.

In answer to Lindsay Roy MP, David Cameron said that the Merlin agreement "actually led to an increase in bank lending last year". In fact, the latest Trends in Lending report from the Bank of England, published last Friday, said that 'the stock of lending to SMEs contracted between end-April and end-November 2011'.

In answer to Anne McGuire MP's comments that the current Conservative/LibDem coalition government was planning on cutting benefits to disabled children, David Cameron replied "The Honourable Lady is wrong". In fact, according to page 28 of the Department of Work and Pensions' own impact assessment on the introduction of universal credit, the coalition policy of mirroring for disabled children the current adult eligibility for Disability Living Allowance means that the rate paid to those disabled children who do not qualify for the highest rate of the DLA care component 'would be less than now (£26.75 instead of £53.84)'.

In answer to Paul Maynard MP, David Cameron said "The real shame... that there are so many millions of children who live in households where nobody works and indeed that number doubled under the previous government". In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics, the number of children living in workless households fell by 372,000 between April-June 1997 and April-June 2010.

In answer to Ed Miliband, David Cameron quoted Dr Greg Connor saying "Becoming one of the first national pathfinding areas is a real boost for Doncaster" the Prime Minister than added "I think what is good for Doncaster [Ed Miliband's constituency] is good enough for the rest of the NHS too". In fact GP Magazine revealed that Dr Connor was no longer chairman of the commissioning group David Cameron referred to and furthermore no longer lived in Doncaster.

I can understand David Cameron making the odd mistake, he is after all the Prime Minister and in a very difficult job, but MPs need to have the confidence that when they come to PMQs to ask questions that the answer the Prime Minister is going to give is accurate and informed. I think its a unique part of our democracy that once a week the Prime Minister can be called in front of his fellow MPs and be held to account, this should be a forum for debate not for the Prime Minister to arrive ill-informed and then fumble his way through questions including those from his own benches.

84th Annual Academy Award Nominations

2012-01-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

The 84th Annual Academy Award nominations were announced today with Hugo leading the pack with 11 nominations, but hotly favoured The Artist only one nomination behind on 10. For Oscar geeks like myself there was some interesting upsets, such as the failure of Scottish actress Tilda Swinton to be nominated for Best Actress for We Need To Talk About Kevin or Irish actor Michael Fassbender for Best Actor in Shame. The Academy made a big deal this year by changing the voting system for Best Picture again, this time changing it a minimum of 5 nominations and a maximum of 10, the result was almost the same with 9 films nominated for Best Picture. I have listed the nominations below, if they are in bold it means I predicted them in this earlier post.

PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

DIRECTOR
The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
The Tree Of Life

ACTOR
Damian Bichir in 'A Better Life'
George Clooney in 'The Descendants'
Jean Dujardin in 'The Artist'
Gary Oldman in 'Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy'
Brad Pitt in 'Moneyball'

ACTRESS
Glenn Close in 'Albert Nobbs'
Viola Davis in 'The Help'
Rooney Mara in 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'
Meryl Streep in 'The Iron Lady'
Michelle Williams in 'My Week With Marilyn'

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh in 'My Week With Marilyn'
Jonah Hill in 'Moneyball'
Nick Nolte in 'Warrior'
Christopher Plummer in 'Beginners'
Max von Sydow in 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo in 'The Artist'
Jessica Chastain in 'The Help'
Melissa McCarthy in 'Bridesmaids'
Janet McTeer in 'Albert Nobbs'
Octavia Spender in 'The Help'

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight In Paris
A Seperation

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Descendants
Hugo
The Ides Of March
Moneyball
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

FILM EDITING
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball

ART DIRECTION
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
War Horse

SOUND MIXING
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

SOUND EDITING
Drive
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

COSTUME DESIGN
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Adventures Of Tintin
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
War Horse

VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

MAKE-UP
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The Iron Lady

Centre For Cities Projects Good Outlook For Reading

2012-01-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

The group Centre for Cities released their outlook for 2012 today, as in previous years Reading features strongly.

Some cities have sadly got worse however as the government's austerity package hits different communities with varying degrees of severity. Here in Reading we have largely weathered the storm so far, the cuts to Reading are extreme in nature and deeply unfair - for example Reading has lost on average £72 per resident where as Wokingham (one of the richest borough's in the country) has lost only £16 on average per resident.

The main points in the Cities Outlook 2012

There has been an increase of 1.3% in Job Seekers Allowance claimants (which is below national average).
Youth claimant rate has increased by 2.9% (not to be surprised with over a million young people out of work at the moment).
Only 0.3% of claimants in Reading have been 'long-term' claimants.
We have one of the highest business start-up rates (47.5%) in the country, however around 49.4 of businesses are closing. (This is something Richard Davies, our Caversham candidate has raised and he is hoping to be able to work to make Reading more business friendly).
Reading has one of the highest skilled workforces in terms of qualifications with 39.6% of people having an NVQ4+ - only 6.5% of Reading residents have no qualifications.
We have one of the highest employment rates 76.3%, 6 points above the national average.
We have to work more on CO2 emissions, we were not one of the lowest emitters, however not one of the worst but still clearly room for improvement.

This is all good news in my opinion apart from the CO2 emissions which we have to work on, I also think its a compliment to the Labour council who guided Reading through the 90's and 2000's overseeing a great deal of growth and increased job opportunities. We will continue to work hard to protect Reading for its residents and make it a great place to live whatever age you are.

Should Obama Be Worried?

2012-01-11T02:58:00.000-08:00

So Mitt Romney was the big winner in New Hampshire with almost 40% of the vote, not really a shock and most commentators are now saying that the nomination looks to be his.

But for me what is most interesting about the two primaries is the surprise answer that has appeared on exit polls, when asked 'Why did you vote for [Insert Candidate]' the answer is that is coming back strongly is 'electability'. Republicans and Democrats tend not to vote based on that, they prefer to vote for who best shares their values, however this year its becoming clear that people are saying that Mitt Romney does not necessarily share their values but is the most electable and therefore has the best chance of taking out Obama.

This is something quite rare in American politics, lets remember that if we were to look at the electability stakes, Hillary Clinton would have swept the Democratic primaries in '08, instead the Democrats voted for a left leaning liberal, with little senate experience and with the knowledge that to get him elected they'd need to break the glass ceiling which was becoming the first black President of the United States. This year the Republicans almost seemed to be galvanised behind the idea that any Republican would be better than Obama, so they are flocking to the one which best represents the chance of defeating him and because of that almost sense of tactical planning, Obama should not be complacent.

Iowa.. The Results

2012-01-04T02:03:00.000-08:00

Well it turns out the Republican's magic 8-ball produced, well an 8...

In what is one of the closest races in presidential primary history, Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucus by 8 votes. Voters overwhelmingly named 'electability' as the key factor in deciding who to vote for, seeking a candidate who may not be completely on their wave length but one that stands the best chance of beating Barack Obama in November.

Romney - 30, 015
Santorum - 30,007
Paul - 26,219
Gingrich - 16, 251
Perry - 12,604
Bachmann - 6,073
Huntsman - 745

The race did expose problems for the GOP however. Although the result was a mash-up thats not actually a problem, the problem for the GOP is how personal its getting among some of the candidates. There is no love loss between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich and its become clear that should Romney become the candidate, Gingrich would not endorse him.

The next Primary is in New Hampshire where Mitt Romney has built up a massive 25 point lead, that will get reduced by Santorum/Paul/Gingrich but even so Romney is almost assured of victory, then the southern states come into play and its here Romney may find he has problems.

Predictions

I predicted Romney would win with 24%, Ron Paul on 23% and Rick Santorum on 20% - the results were Romney 25%, Santorum 25% and Paul 21% - Not bad, I also said if there was going to be a surge it would be Santorum so I am happy with my guesses.

And So It Begins... Iowa

2012-01-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

As some in the political sphere may know, tomorrow (January 3rd), is the Iowa Caucus, something which traditionally marks the beginning of the race for the US presidency. For the Republican (GOP) candidates this is a key moment, as Iowa, although not necessarily predicting the winner often does builds momentum behind its top candidates.

The Republicans and Democrats each conduct the caucus differently. For Republican voters you are simply offered a blank piece of paper and after a short speech from representatives of each candidate you cast your ballot and those ballots are counted by GOP staffers. The Democrats however use an entirely different process which tends to take around 2 hours to complete meaning you basically have to take a day off work in order to take part! Voters go into groups or sit at tables assigned to each candidate, then for around 30 minutes you try to persuade people to enter your group or sit at your table, after the 30 minutes is up officials count up how many people are in each group and providing your candidates group has at least 15% of the attendees you are allowed to proceed to the next round. Then you have another 30 minutes to persuade the voters of the rejected candidates to join your group or table. This kind of caucus puts more attention on organisation that actual voting, Obama won the Iowa caucus in 2008 because his team was highly organised, Hilary Clinton who had been leading in the polls crashed to a 3rd place finish because of poor organisation.

Tomorrow both Democrats and Republicans will caucus, although the Democratic caucus is unopposed and so President Obama will be unanimously endorsed.

There are nine Republican candidates:

Michelle Bachmann
Herman Cain (technically withdrawn)
Newt Gingrich
Jon Huntsman
Ron Paul
Rick Perry
Buddy Roemer
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum

So I'm going to be bold and try and predict the results, we'll see tomorrow if I am correct:

Mitt Romney 24%
Ron Paul 23%
Rick Santorum 20%
Newt Gingrich 15%
The other 18% will be divided between the other candidates.

Keep your eye on Santorum if their is going to be upset it'll be him!

By-Elections: The Greens Are Shaken In Brighton, The LibDems Fail In Brent

2011-12-23T03:19:00.000-08:00

Two interesting by-elections occurred last night, one in Brighton where the Tories were defending a seat and as you can see from the right won it and one in Brent (City of London) where Labour were defending and again won it - sounds like there is not much story? Well actually the real story is the competition.

Westbourne Ward
Brighton and Hove City Council

A by-election was called in the Wesbourne Ward of the Brighton and Hove Council after the incumbent Tory councillor chose to stand down after 16 years of service. The Greens have been running effective campaigns across Brighton and Hove and it was well known that Westbourne was one of their targets and as a result would put all their resources into this single by-election.

However there was a problem; since May 2011 the Greens have been in control on Brighton and Hove council after running on a campaign of 'Cuts aren't needed', Voters however discovered that cuts aren't needed because the Greens are going to raise council tax to pay for everything. The Tories and Labour disagreed with passing the burden of the cuts onto taxpayers and wanted council tax frozen (as we have done here in Reading) and so the stage was set, Westbourne ward would be a verdict on whether the Greens had made the right decision. The Greens put everything into the ward including Leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas who had this to say on Twitter yesterday.

Well the results came in last night, Conservative 1,027 Labour 826, Greens 645. The Greens came in a very soft third, unable even to beat to Labour to second place. The verdict of the voters of Brighton was clear. This morning the Greens have hurriedly attempted to change the story by claiming that Westbourne was not a target, but they cannot deny that they put every activist and even their leader firmly in the ward in an attempt to win and the result was a bad knock for them.

Wembley Central Ward

Brent Council

The election in Brent should have been simple, in 2010 it was a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal (The Liberal Democrats were within a percentage point of winning), in 2011 given the collapse of the Liberal Democrats it should have been an easy hold for Labour.

However in the time Labour has been in control on Brent council they've had to make some tough decisions - their government grant was cut massively by the Tory/LibDems, the result was that Brent had to close some of its Libraries. The local Liberal Democrats decided to go for hypocrisy and campaigned against this and attacked Labour, refusing to even acknowledge it was their national government that had cut funding. The by-election was to put bluntly an incredibly negative affair, the Liberal Democrats attacked the Labour candidate and the council, putting out leaflets saying things like 'Krupa Sheth (The Labour Candidate) is the Brent Labour Council Bosses candidate'. Well I am pleased to say that the people of Wembley Central saw through the negative campaign and instead voted for the positive Labour campaign. The election results were Labour 1402, Liberal Democrat 1022, Conservative 349.

What for me becomes clear is in some ways the Liberal Democrats don't know how to campaign anymore, they had two methods previously A) Attacking the other candidate B) Attacking the national government, now they cannot use option B as they are the government and voters have firmly rejected option A.

2011 Oscar Predictions!

2011-12-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Every year I am asked to make Oscar predictions, for me predicting who will win is the easy part, predicting who will be nominated is less easy.

But anyway here are my guesses for 2011

Motion Picture of the Year (10 Nominees)
The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
Moneyball
War Horse
Midnight In Paris
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Drive
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
The Help

Best Director
The Artist Michel Hanazavicius
The Descendants Alexander Payne
Hugo Martin Scorsese
Tree of Life Terrence Malick
Midnight In Paris Woody Allen

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Moneyball Brad Pitt
The Descendants George Clooney
Shame Michael Fassbender
The Artist Jean Dujardin
J Edgar Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Actress in a Leading Role
The Iron Lady Meryl Streep
My Week With Marilyn Michelle Williams
We Need To Talk About Kevin Tilda Swinton
The Help Viola Davis
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Rooney Mara

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Beginners Christopher Plummer
Drive Albert Brooks
My Week With Marilyn Kenneth Branagh
Moneyball Jonah Hill
Warrior Nick Nolte

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
The Help Jessica Chastain
The Descendants Shaileen Woodley
Bridesmaids Melissa McCarthy
The Help Octavia Spencer
The Artist Berenice Bejo

Best Original Screenplay

The Artist Michel Hazanavicius

Midnight In Paris Woody Allen

50/50 Will Reiser

Bridesmaids Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo

Shame Abi Morgan, Steve McQueen

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants Alexander Payne, Nat Faxton, Jim Rash

Moneyball Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillion, Stan Chervin

Hugo John Logan

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughn

The Help Tate Taylor

Best Cinematography

Tree of Life Emmanuel Lubezki

Hugo Robert Richardson

War Horse Janusz Kaminski

The Artist Guillaume Schiffman

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Jeff Croneweth

Best Film Editing

The Artist Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius

Hugo Thelma Schoonmaker

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

Drive Matthew Newman

War Horse Michael Kahn

Best Art Direction

Hugo Dante Ferretti

The Artist Laurence Bennett

War Horse Rick Carter

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II Stuart Craig

J Edgar James J. Murakami

Best Sound Mixing

War Horse

Hugo

Captain America: The First Avenger

Super 8

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Best Sound Editing

Super 8

The Adventures of Tintin

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Best Costume Design

The Artist Mark Bridges

Hugo Sandy Powell

Jane Eyre Michael O'Connor

The Iron Lady Consolata Boyle

My Week With Marilyn Jill Taylor

Best Original Score

The Artist Ludovic Bource

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

War Horse John Williams

Hugo Howard Shore

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Alexandre Desplat

Best Visual Effects

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Super 8

Best Make-Up

J. Edgar

Albert Nobbs

The Iron Lady

Nazi Dressed Tory MP - Does Cameron Have The Courage To Act?

2011-12-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

A leading Tory MP has been sacked from his ministerial position as PPS to Justine Greening (Secretary of State for Transport) for hiring a Nazi SS uniform and attending a Nazi-themed party.

Aidan Burley MP (32) was elected in 2010 when he won the marginal seat of Cannock Chase from Labour, since then he has been generally seen as fast riser within the Conservative Party, However this all came to an end when the Mail on Sunday revealed that he had attend a French ski resort dressed as a Nazi SS Officer. Since then both David Cameron and the Conservatives have been seen as slow to respond to this disgraceful conduct and it wasn't until a week later that action was finally taken and Burley was sacked as a PPS.

David Cameron pictured with Aidan Burley.

Perhaps what is most interesting about this saga is A) How the new intake of Tory MPs are just like the old ones B) Why anyone in 2011 in public position when find it in anyway acceptable to dress as a Nazi SS Officer and C) The rather telling slow way the Tories addressed this crisis.

Privately some in the Conservative party have suggested that Cameron should set a zero tolerance approach and ask Burley to resign as an MP, however the apparent marginality of Cannock Chase (Burley has a majority of 3000) has made the Conservatives swerve away from this possibility and instead try to contain the issue through damage control, apparently to the upset of some MPs and the Jewish Chronicle.

The question is whether the Conservatives have the backbone to act? Do they think it is acceptable for a person elected to represent the people of this country and serve in Her Majesty's government to dress as a Nazi SS officer responsible for the death of 7 million Jews for the novelty factor?

The Films and Performances Of 2011

2011-12-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

A few people have been asking me what I thought were the 'best' films of 2011 and I decided since I had a blog I may as well do as all critics and publish my films of 2011. Enjoy!

Best Film

The Artist
The Weinstein Company - Michel Hazanavicus, director
I have to admit when I first heard of this film the word my mind almost immediately generated was 'boring'; many directors have attempted to resurrect older-styles of filmmaking such as the silent movies of the 20's or 50's melodrama - most fail and simply come across as being a novelty or a gimmick. The Artist is different because although it does aspire to recreate the look and feel of a 20s film it choses not forget that it is 2011 and keeps the story witty and current.

Runner-Up: Senna

Best Director

Michel Hazanavicus
The Artist
The award for Best Director tends to go with Best Picture although I think in many cases it shouldn't, however this year for me their really was a match. It is Hazanavicus's vision we are seeing on screen, his visual knowledge both of the cinema of the past and in what he can push the audience to follow is what makes The Artist work and in my opinion the best film of 2011.

Runner-Up: Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender
Shame
Shame is to be blunt a rather unrelenting film, and Fassbender's character of Brandon is at times someone that is both unlikeable and hard to stomach, the only problem is like all good characters he is simultaneously fascinating. Fassbender elegantly crafts his role in this film, forming both a bond and a balance with the character. I suspect this role would not have been something some actors would have jumped at, simply put the character doesn't seem to have redemption and nor does he find it in the film.

Runner-Up: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best Actress

Meryl Streep
The Iron Lady
I wanted to see this film from the moment I heard of it, initially to see the portrayal of Margaret Thatcher (a Labour members natural curiosity), and although some scenes seem a bit 'Wasn't she a amazing' I do have to give credit to Meryl Streep for her performance. When your playing a real person who is still alive there's a danger of becoming almost a caricature that in almost all cases fails. Streep manages to copy the mannerisms, look and attitude of Thatcher but then makes the character her own, allowing her to explore rather than feel chained to real person.

Runner-Up: Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor

Albert Brooks
Drive
Its been an interesting year for supporting performances and I was stuck between a few but I decided to go with Albert Brooks largely because its not just a career returning performance but also because its a performance which may be easy on the page (charming mobster boss with a sinister background) but its actually one thats incredibly hard to get right, too far either way and you end up with a comedic character. Brooks balances it perfectly and leaves the film with an fantastically memorable performance.

Runner-Up: Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn

Best Supporting Actress

Melissa McCarthy
Bridesmaids
To often we overlook comedy - the ability to make someone laugh is just as hard as the ability to make them cry and McCarthy's performance is incredibly funny. As Megan she almost completely steals every scene, perfectly balancing her performance to be as funny as possible while not becoming too outrageous that it no longer suits the film. In my opinion this woman should be a leading contender for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Runner-Up: Jessica Chastain, The Help

Additional Categories

Best Foreign Film
Oslo, August 31st

Best Documentary Film
Senna

Best Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin

Best Original Screenplay
Midnight In Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay
Moneyball

Best Cinematography
Tree of Life

Best Film Editing
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Art Direction
Hugo

Best Sound Mixing
Super 8

Best Sound Effects Editing
Super 8

Costume Design
The Artist

Original Score
Senna

Best Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Best Make-up
The Iron Lady

Special Award
Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning for their performances in Super 8

Feltham and Heston - The Results and Analysis

2011-12-16T02:43:00.000-08:00

Well the results for Feltham and Heston are in and honestly I'm delighted at how good they are!

Labour - 12,639
Conservative- 6,436
Liberal Democrat - 1,364
UKIP - 1,276

Labour managed to achieve a 9% swing not only holding the seat after the death of Alan Keen but also creating a huge majority for newly elected MP Seema Malhotra (had the turnout been similar to the General Election the Labour majority would have been around 12,500).

By-elections always have to be taken with a pinch of salt, they are unique for the simple fact that major parties load all the resources they can into the one seat and by-elections are generally seen as opportunity to send a message to the government of the time.

Having said that what did surprise me (and I worked on the campaign for a few days) is how badly the Conservative campaign was run. They seemed disjointed and unsure of any message to provide on the door other than their canonical 'Labour bankrupted the country' as a result many voters pointed out to me "Its just the same messages as 2010". The Conservatives also seemed to reach a fantastical new level of hypocrisy when they chose to attack the Labour candidate for having a £3 million pound home (it is in fact her in-law's house) - Given the Tory cabinet currently has 23 millionaires in it I would strongly advise them from attempting to play this card, they come across looking very very out of touch.

Twitter

Conservative Future - Don't taunt the Labour candidate on Twitter, as you found out you look like idiots.
MPs (Steve Baker MP) - If Conservative MPs are going to tweet, advise them not to go to by-election and comment and how shabby some of the houses look.

My last thought goes to the real shock of the by-election - the Liberal Democrats managed to hold 3rd place! UKIP had been soaring, leading with a populist campaign on pensions and prise rises but Cameron's supposed 'veto' seems to have taken some of their votes and as a result they came behind the Liberal Democrats (if only by less than 100).

Labour should be happy with this result but we shouldn't take it for granted, The Tories undoubtedly know they ran a terrible campaign and they will (if they have any sense) attempt to correct that mistake. We need to provide the electorate with a balance, criticism of the government and its failures while also pointing out new ideas which can inspire and show we are ready for governance. However in the meantime I offer my congratulations to our new MP Seema Malhotra and the Hounslow councillors many of whom I know very well.

Labour Announces Its Team For 2012 In Reading!

2011-12-13T02:26:00.001-08:00

Labour have today announced their candidates for the 2012 Local Elections in Reading. I think its a great mix of people and more importantly they all come from different backgrounds allowing the Labour group to be mix of different experiences and ideas. My only regret is we didn't get more young people on the list but thats something I will keep working on in my role as Secretary of Reading Young Labour.

Two Councillors have announced their intentions to stand down, Debbie Watson (Minster) is standing down due to her increased job responsibilities and Jon Hartley (Park) who is moving to London due to work. Both I have enjoyed working with immensely and I think have contributed greatly to both Labour and Reading.

Candidates:

Abbey ward - Cllr Tony Page

Battle ward - Cllr Gul Khan

Caversham ward - Richard Davies

Church ward - Eileen McElligott

Katesgrove ward - Rose Williams

Kentwood ward - Daya Pal Singh

Minster ward - Liz Terry

Norcot ward - Cllr Jo Lovelock

Park ward - Rachael Chrisp

Peppard ward - David Absolom

Redlands ward - Tony Jones

Southcote ward - Cllr Deborah Edwards

Thames ward - Duncan Bruce

Tilehurst ward - Haji Banares

Whitley ward - Cllr Mike Orton

Mapledurham ward - Are selecting their candidate later this week.

As many of you may note I have chosen to stand again in Thames ward. I really enjoyed standing in Thames ward last year and meeting the residents - unlike the Tories I do actually think the residents of Thames ward have issues that need sorted, most recently I have been advising on the decision to move a bus route down Kidmore Rd without talking to any Kidmore Rd residents!

Polls, Polls, Polls...

2011-11-22T03:18:00.000-08:00

We seem to be bombarded with polls every day anticipating what may happen in the 2015 general election, in fact Conservative Cllr Richard Willis seems to fill up his blog with poll after poll (of course he prefers to pick selectively).

Here is a reason why polls should always be taken with a pinch of salt! yesterday saw three polls released, the first came yesterday morning:

Conservative 33%
Labour 41%
LibDem 13%

One of the ways people decide whether a poll is accurate is by looking at how they predicted the 2010 General Election, their guess was Con 37% Lab 28% LD 27% - They were within a percentage point on the Con/Lab figures but 5% out on the LD figure (the Libs actually only managed 23%).

Conservative 36%
Labour 38%
LibDem 14%

This poll arrived in the afternoon and naturally dampened some of the excitement of the earlier Populus poll. ICM predicted the General Election at 36% Conservative, 28% Labour and 26% Liberal Democrat, slightly closer than Populus to the real results.

Conservative 36%
Labour 40%
LibDem 9%

This poll ended the night suggesting a slightly larger gap between Labour and the Tories but with the Liberal Democrats far lower. Again during the General their figures were very similar to the other two pollsters, YouGov felt the Conservatives would end up on 35% with Labour on 28% and the Libs on 27%.

Polls are good 'signposts' but should never be treated as the actual voting intention of the population, all three of these polls are nationwide but if we polled Reading specifically we would get a very different result, local issues such as Labour winning the council, the Liberal Democrats losing all their seats and the Conservative party collapsing locally would become factors.

If anything should be taken out of these polls it should be the one fact they all agree on - Labour are leading in the polls.

Reading's 'Green' Party

2011-11-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've watched the rise of the Green Party across the UK with some interest, naturally as someone who considers himself to be left leaning any additional party to this spectrum is welcome and I'm interested to hear their ideas.

The Green Party in Reading is somewhat different though. I don't think anyone would question that Rob White has helped Park ward, however his gloss is starting to fade, and the reason I say this is because for a lot of Park voters he presented himself not as a politician but as a local person who wanted to clean up the area and help his community, however as several voters have begun to tell us, he has changed, now more driven about promoting the Green Party than being the 'local champion'.

Here is some things they've done recently which raised voters eyebrows (to the extent that those voters have contacted Labour). The Greens launched a campaign in Abbey ward this month beginning with a leafletting campaign which seems to have angered some voters given the responses we've heard. In the leaflet they claim to have:

- They have fought parking changes
- Reversed cuts to bus fare concessions
- Stopped council plans for a charge on green waste
- progressed a £5m scheme to fund solar panels on Council buildings
- Lobbied police to remain visible in the Orts Rd area

and so on...

The only problem with this is that actually did none of it, Labour did. Labour are in minority control of the council, It was a Labour cabinet that made these changes, and in fact Rob (the leader of the Green Party) has yet to attend a cabinet meeting. To start your campaign in a new ward by claiming credit for almost the entire council agenda since May is a dangerous thing, as voters have told us on the door, they have two councillors and are not in control of the council so who are they kidding.

The other thing we've become aware of specifically from Park voters is Rob's lack of knowledge on how to stimulate a local economy, the Greens are rightly in my view shouting about the Tobin Tax and I support that, but a Tobin Tax is not going to save Reading. At the council AGM, Rob and Melanie surprised a lot of people by objecting to the City status bid, a bid which costs no money and is designed (if we win) to attract attention, investment, infrastructure and jobs to Reading something that all three of Reading's other political parties support. In the end this is not so much of a surprise, in Brighton this year for example the Greens claimed if voters voted for them there would be no cuts, well they won and now they are having to make cuts, much to the anger of voters in Brighton.

Rob has also attacked Labour in Park ward for not doing much, quoting front office figures to prove he is doing more. One problem, not every councillor uses front office and the Green's new councillor, Melanie Eastwood has far lower figures the Rob. When Rob was questioned about this on Gareth Epps blog he said 'That the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt', well hang on a minute Rob, that was not what you were saying in your literature during the election? Two-faced?

Rob's promises have also come back to haunt him. During the local election this year Richard McKenzie (the Labour candidate) was asked if he were to be elected would be provide an independent Butcher and Baker for Park ward? Richard replied that he would absolutely encourage such a thing and work with independent shop owners, but he couldn't guarantee it, to Richard's shock the voter turned round and said 'Well Rob has promised it so I am going to vote for him'; 6 months on their is no sign of an independent Butcher and Baker and that voter has now confirmed that she will be voting Labour next year.

Three Important By-Election Victories For Labour

2011-11-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

Last night saw three important by-election wins for Labour across the country.

The first was a seat in St. Mary's ward Islington were Labour were defending. Islington has always been somewhat of a Labour/Liberal Democrat battleground, however with two by-elections (see my post of St. Peter's ward) since the 2010 local elections the Liberal Democrat vote appears to be collapsing significantly. The by-election was made somewhat interesting by the decision of the BNP to field a candidate, given their results I expect that will not be repeated.

Labour - 1128
Liberal Democrat - 641
Green - 317
Conservative - 282
British National Party - 22

The second by-election win was in another London Borough, Redbridge. In 2010 the ward of Aldborough split with 2 Conservative councillors being elected and 1 Labour councillor. The Labour councillor, Mike Figg stood down (due to having to move out of the area) triggering the by-election. On the face of it this should have been an easy win for the Conservatives, with them being able to put all their resources into gaining the the third seat, however the results were not good for them with Labour winning with a margin of almost 400 votes.

Labour - 1436

Conservative - 1071

Liberal Democrat - 87

UK Independence Party - 83

Green - 64

British National Party - 34

The third by-election was probably one of the most important wins we've had. In 2010 the seat in Sparkbrook was won by the Respect party with a whopping 5,119 votes, and the council itself was taken over by a Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition. The Respect councillor announced that she was standing down due to ill health and thus triggered the by-election. A great campaign run by the local Labour party and Labour's approval nationally in the polls resulted in a great victory, with Labour winning by 1400 votes. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat vote showed a marked decline and in addition to this Labour moved to 57 councillors, 4 short of the magic 61 and overall control of the council.

Labour - 3,932

Respect - 2,301

Liberal Democrats - 395

Conservative - 133

Green - 179

Note: Graphics courtesy of the BBC election graphic generator.

The Politics Of Oscar

2011-11-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

As a film nerd the Oscars occupy a strange place in my heart, in fact they occupy quite a big place in my heart, in fact so much so that I provide analysis for US based media outlets (yes I know, I'm a loser).

Well this week has seen politics smash headlong into the Oscars with the resignations of Brett Ratner (Producer of the next Oscars) and Eddie Murphy (Host of the next Oscars) - but first the back story...

For a long time the Academy has had problems with the dropping viewing figures for the Oscar telecast, this is not really because of the show itself but more the fact that viewers have changed and people have a lot more choice about what to watch, lets face it if you have a new episode of your favourite television show to watch or a 4 hour long marathon glorifying people you've never heard of your undoubtedly going to pick the TV show. To combat this The Academy have been trying to mix up the show in an attempt to attract younger audiences, for example in 2005 they chose Chris Rock to host the Oscars (Viewing figures were flat), in 2007 they tried Hugh Jackman (Viewing figures were flat) and in 2010 they tried Anne Hathaway and James Franco (Viewing figures died). This year they chose Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour franchise and the man who killed the X-Men and Hannibal Lector trilogies to produce the show and he in turn selected Eddie Murphy to host the show (a man not know for his recent box office successes). Not surprisingly the reaction from Oscar 'fans' was dismay with many viewing the choice as gimmicky and showing a lack of understanding about what young people actually want.

Well that all came to an end this week at a press junket for Brett Ratner's new film 'Tower Heist'. Ratner was asked whether he believed in rehearsals before shooting, his response?

'rehearsing is for fags'.

- Brett (I'm an idiot) Ratner

Needless to say the reaction from fans, the LGBT community and his colleagues was shock and dismay and instantly people began to comment that this was not the man who should be producing the Oscars, a man who will have to give thousands of interviews to the world's press and about what is the most prestigious night in Hollywood's year.

Yesterday a joint statement was released by the Ratner and The Academy announcing his departure as producer of the Oscar telecast, the press release indicated that the decision was his and he realised that his position was untenable. Today a release from The Academy reveals that Eddie Murphy is also to depart the Oscar telecast, this press release indicates that the decision for Ratner to go was a joint one between The Academy and Ratner perhaps revealing The Academy took a more 'pro-active' role in his departure.

In my opinion Ratner was right to go, his position was untenable and his comment was offensive, the Oscars, no matter what people say are political, they represent the US film industry and the people working in the film industry and unfortunately that means people associated with them have to have common sense.

Film Review - Senna

2011-11-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Senna follows the career of Ayrton Senna from 1984 as he begins his career in Formula One to his death a decade later in Italy. The film explores Senna's relationship with his fellow drivers such as Alain Prost and his quest for perfection which has taken on an almost mythical status.

On the face of it you'd expect Senna to be a fairly ordinary documentary charting the life of a Formula One drivers career (even if it did end in tragedy), but what the filmmakers have made is a film that goes far beyond that.

I think one of the things Asif Kapadia (director) does brilliantly is to treat the film like a piece of fiction; he knows he has a central character in Senna and he needs to connect the audience to that character so that they go on the journey with him. With the film grounded in Senna himself and not in his racing, we form a personal connection with him and as our knowledge of him is expanded, such as looking at his relationship with his faith, we as the audience become more engrossed and connected with the character. The linear nature of the film (the fact that it is following a set timeline) allows Kapadia to build sections of the documentary around pre-determined set pieces, this also helps create the feeling that at times you're watching a fiction film in terms of narrative rather than a documentary.

From a narrative point of view it would be hard to fault the film, however I would caution the viewer from allowing himself/herself to descend to much into the hagiography. One of the things that I spotted around half-way through is there is no interviews with his fellow drivers such as Prost, Hill or Mansell, why this is I am not sure, but one suspects that they perhaps don't share quite the 'saintly' vision of Senna that the filmmakers try to present in the film.

From a pure audience point of view the film is an incredible achievement, I don't particularly find F1 racing that interesting but I was engrossed from start to finish, helped by the razor sharp editing, fantastic and beautiful score by Antonio Pinto and the films expansion into what the impact of 'Senna' was for Brazil and their eventual outcry of mourning when he is killed in the accident at San Marino. Senna will leave you with a feeling of loss and maybe that is its greatest achievement; in 90 minutes it forms a bond between Ayrton Senna and the audience - you journey with the good-looking, impish, playful driver through his career and when it so brutally comes to an end you cannot help but feel the tragedy.

LibDems Go Back To Scare Tactics In #rdg

2011-10-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

I only write about local political parties and criticise them when I feel their actions have stepped over a line.

For me I know first hand some of the tactics the Liberal Democrats have employed in order to get elected, I remember for example in their Katesgrove focus they commented that as soon as Labour took control of the council they would close Libraries - well after 5 months no Libraries have been closed and none are planned to be, it was a simple electoral scare tactic.

And that really brings me onto the Liberal Democrats latest petition 'Stop cuts to Reading's Sheltered Housing'. Lets get some facts straight:

1) The Council have launched a consultation into the Future of Sheltered Housing not announced a series of cuts.
2) The consultation was originally set up by Liberal Democrat Councillor Daisy Benson when she was Lead Councillor for Housing.
3) Rachel Eden, the current Lead Councillor for Housing makes clear in the council press release 'Any proposed change to such an important service can cause understandable concern. It is important people realise that no decision had yet been made about the proposals'.

So I can't really understand why the Liberal Democrats are going round scaring people, vulnerable people by saying that Labour are going to cut this, that and the other. What we need and I commend the Liberal Democrats for at least doing this, is bring attention to the consultation, but not ever by scaring people and starting petitions before anything has been decided - thats not civic responsibility its pure political engineering.

The consultation itself does not close until the 16th December and any member of the public can fill it out so please do! - http://www.reading.gov.uk/shelteredhousingconsultation

And for those interested the Liberal Democrat petition currently has 11 online signatures.

Film Review - Jurassic Park

2011-09-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

Jurassic Park returned to the big screen last week to celebrate its forthcoming Blu-Ray release and I have to say that going to see it at the cinema again (I saw it originally in 1993 when I was 11) was magical and the film has lost none of its appeal both in terms of fantasy and excitement.

The story of the making of Jurassic Park is a bit of an odd one, it wasn't originally a film Steven Spielberg wanted to make but it was in the end Universal's combined it with their funding of Schindler's List which Spielberg made in the same year.

Spielberg sets the tone of his film early on with a pre-credit sequence in which a dinosaur escapes from a crate while being transferred into a security compound, here we are introduced to the mood of the rest of the film through both the lighting (blue tones) and the atmosphere and music.

John Williams out does himself with the score, capturing through drums and wind instruments a feeling of insecurity designed to keep the audience on edge (Opening Credits) and at the same time a very tender, emotional theme for the wonder which the audience is about to see (Theme From Jurassic Park).

The film progresses with John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) having to get experts to check the safety of the Island (Sam Neill and Laura Dern) and the rest I would say is cinematic history.

The film itself was wracked with problems, a hurricane hit the Hawaiian Islands where they were filming destroying some of the set and the knowledge that once completed Spielberg would have to fly to Poland to begin filming Schindler's List created stress on set. Spielberg also decided to take a risk, conventional wisdom at the time suggested that the best way to re-create the dinosaurs was through stop motion animation and so Hollywood legend Phil Tippet was brought in to begin work, however it soon became clear the scale of the task and the length of time that would be needed and so Industrial Light and Magic offered to do the dinosaurs using CGI - something which had never been done on this scale before.

Jurassic Park embodies everything a child wants in a film, excitement, adventure, action and the ability to let their imaginations run wild. For me as a kid watching the film I was filled with terror and excitement and knew that one day I wanted to be one of those people that could create that kind of adventure on the big screen.

Jurassic Park went on to win 3 Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Effects Editing. Spielberg went on to win the Oscar for Best Director the same year for Schindler's List.

Ed Miliband's Speech To Conference - A Leader's Speech

2011-09-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

So as you can probably tell from the Blog title I was rather happy with Ed's speech; for me it was a speech designed to talk to people, talk to them about their worries and their concerns and to talk to them about their aspirations and beliefs.

It was interesting to see how negative the Liberal Democrats reacted to the speech, in the past they would have shared many of the ideals, some of our local Liberal Democrats even took to twitter to attack and denounce the speech, perhaps this is more to do with a last gasp as they struggle to understand what they actually stand for.

Some have tried to say that this is a Left Wing speech and delivers us back to the days of Michael Foot, others have said this speech is actually very bold and risky for a Labour leader and firmly centres the party. What ever your view take a read of the key points, and if you'd like to see a transcript you can here.

Economy: Ed humbly acknowledges that we have lost trust in the Economy, and that mistakes were made under the previous Labour government. Ed comments that under his leadership he is determined that any future Labour government both lives within its means and manages your money properly.

Cuts: Its all too easy for a political party to go around promising to reverse cuts in order to get elected and thats something we will not do. Ed acknowledged that we face difficult times and cuts are inevitable, however the difference between us and the current Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition is that we will prioritise growth, because in the end growth is what will help us pay of the deficit not debilitating cuts. Ed also went on to promise that under Labour 'Every penny of the sale of bank shares would be used to pay down the debt'.

Values: Unlike the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, Labour took an aggressive approach to the news of the wide spread phone hacking by the News of the World. Ed pointed out that some would say that taking on Rupert Murdoch is political suicide, but in the end Ed believed that our values (that it cannot be right to hack the phone of someone like Milly Dowler) are worth defending, not matter what the cost. Ed also spoke about how after the banking crisis, MP's expenses and Journalists hacking phones there has been a change to a 'take what you can' culture; Labour like the other parties has to take some responsibility for this and Ed made clear that he would end the 'something for nothing' culture which has begun to flourish again under the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Pro-Business: We need to prioritise British companies and Jobs. Companies like Sheffield Forgemasters, Bombardier and BAe systems are losing out under the current coalition government, who are giving contracts abroad and costing our Economy much need growth and the public much need jobs. Ed promised that under Labour 'All major government contracts will go to firms who commit to training the next generation with decent apprenticeships'

Tuition Fees: Ed pointed out that he had listened to delegate after delegate call for Tuition Fees to be scrapped completely, however he made clear he would not fall in to the trap of the Liberal Democrats and make promises that he could not keep. If Labour were in government tomorrow we would cut the £9k tuition fees introduced by the coalition to £6k, and if the coalition holds till 2015 and we win the next general election we will try to do even more.

Welfare State: We need to protect the welfare state because for a great many it is a last resort, however we do need to tackle the culture of 'do something for nothing' and take what you can. The welfare state cannot be a hand out to those that don't even try and Labour will prioritise the 'Grafters', the workers who keep this country moving and who struggle in silence.

Putting A Personal Face On The Welfare State

2011-09-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

It was really great to hear Rory Weal, Chair of Kent Young Labour speak at conference today.

Rory spoke passionately about how the cuts to EMA and the rises in the Tuition Fees have effected him but perhaps most touching was hearing how his family home was repossessed two years ago and how the welfare state was actually the force that helped his family get back on its feet and stay together.

I always find it difficult writing objectively about the Tories and about there ideals, I'll be honest its foreign to me and although I like some of them personally I just cannot connect with what they are saying.

I feel the Conservatives and to a lesser extent the Liberal Democrats feel that the welfare state is some kind of bad thing, I always think we should remember while there are some that do misuse the system the vast majority only turn to it in times of great need.

My father worked in the family fish and chip shop in Northumberland but when my grandparents retired the shop was sold and my dad found himself unemployed, I can remember my dad sending out CV after CV and me helping him put them in envelopes, he tried incredibly hard and it placed a lot of pressure on our family. Eventually my mum signed me up to receive free school dinners and I remember how hard it was for my dad to accept that, he didn't like hand outs, especially when he saw others around him that were in greater need. Today myself, and my Mum and Dad finder ourselves in better positions largely thanks to the help of others.

I know this is probably not the most clear or objective blog post but when its personal to someone it rarely is.

When I hear stories like Rory's I remember my own, and I am reminded how glad I am that I'm a member of the Labour Party.

Devastating New Poll For The Conservatives As 42% Of Voters Say They Would Never Vote Conservative

2011-09-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

A new poll by YouGov for the centre-left think tank IPPR has reportedly left some at Conservative Party HQ reeling in shock.

The poll of 2,472 adults indicates that 70% of them would be prepared to vote Labour in 2015 compared to only 58% prepared to vote for the Conservatives. The poll also revealed that only 30% of the voters surveyed indicated they would "Never" vote Labour compared to 42% who indicated they would "Never" vote Conservative.

Conservative Party officials are said to be shocked as they anticipated the Labour Party to have suffered more 'brand' damage. The poll itself has come as a boost for Ed Miliband who will be launching the 2011 Labour Conference tomorrow and who has tonight indicated a key policy - that if Labour were in control now they would reduce the Conservative/Liberal Democrat £9,000 tuition fee to £6,000 and that by the time of the election in 2015 it's hoped that can be reduced even further.

The policy, which is fully costed, would be paid for by reversing a corporation tax cut for banks announced by George Osborne and by asking individual graduates who earn over £65,000 a year to pay a higher interest rate. Ed Miliband commented that we need to "Invest in our young people by using the talents of everyone, not engaging in tax cuts for financial services."

100 Letters, 100 Leaders, 100 Days

2011-09-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not blogging recently I've been busy on a project I'm really excited to talk about - a fundraising scheme for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Jason Ellar (Labour Councillor in Hounslow) and myself are writing to 100 world leaders and asking them to reply, and for every reply we get we collect sponsorship money.

The idea came about after talking to friends; both Jason and I wanted to do something to raise money for MSF and we were advised to do something that would be personal to us - as we both enjoy politics the idea of trying to write to world leaders and collect letters seemed perfect.

For those that don't know about Medecins Sans Frontieres they are an organisation that helps get medical help and medicine to places in the world in urgent need. There projects vary from long term support in countries suffering from diseases such as AIDS to short term projects like providing medical support to war zones or disaster hit countries.

As of this week the 100 letters have gone out, the list (which can be viewed here) is varied and you'll spot familiar names like David Cameron (UK Prime minister) and not so familiar Manny Mori (President of the Federated States of Micronesia).

Today we even received our first response! and it gave me great pleasure to see it was none other than Ed Miliband (Leader of the Labour Party). Both Jason and myself are incredibly passionate about this project and of course Medecins Sans Frontieres so I have to give a shout out to my friends who have really supported us and offered to sponsor us!

If you'd like more information please feel free to visit the special site we have created for the fundraise http://www.100letters100leaders.com - there you can find a complete list of the countries we have written to, the replies we have received and of course details of how to sponsor us and what the charity does.

Personal Thoughts On 9/11

2011-09-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Like many today I will be thinking of the people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11th. People often say that you can remember where you were when you first heard of the attacks and for me that is certainly true. I had chosen to go and watch a film with my gran that morning and when I came back I can remember my Dad and Granddad telling me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York; we sat down and watched as another plane struck the other tower and the ensuing tragedy unfolded. There was an odd atmosphere in the room that day, how my Dad and Grandparents were feeling I still don't really know to this day, but certainly for me as an 18 year old the overwhelming emotion was confusion. I didn't really know anything about Al Qaeda or the situation in the Middle East and I remember laying awake most of the night trying to understand what could have gone wrong and really whether we maybe heading towards a full scale war.

10 years on I suppose in many ways I still do find the attacks confusing; the idea of killing thousands of innocent people for a political belief just seems totally foreign to me. What is clear is we need to learn the lessons of 9/11 and I know a great many people feel differently about what those lessons should be; for me its a humbling lesson and today as I write this all I can think about is a quote said by John F. Kennedy at a time when the world also seemed out of balance, so I'm going to leave this post with that quote and let people reflect on its meaning.

Film Review - Murder On The Orient Express

2011-09-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

One of the first things that hits you when you watch Murder on the Orient Express is Richard Rodney Bennetts' beautiful Oscar nominated score. The score has an incredible ability to transport the audience to a time and place, in this case the 1930's and the films Art Deco titles also add to the feeling and mood allowing the audience to relax and set themselves up for the next two hours of storytelling.

Murder on the Orient Express boasts an incredible cast of actors, Albert Finney (Oscar Nominee), Martin Balsam (Oscar Winner), Ingrid Bergman (Oscar Winner - For Murder on the Orient Express!), Sean Connery (Oscar Winner), John Gielgud (Oscar Winner), Wendy Hiller (Oscar Winner), Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar Winner) and so on. It's fitting that Agatha Christie who was famed for her clever writing and ability to interweave multiple storylines and characters together is the reason for this great ensemble of actors to get together but credit also needs to be given to Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Network) who also had the daunting task of directing them all (I can only imagine some of the ego's on that set!).

Lumet sets the scene early on; we as the audience are shown a series of flashbacks, where we witness the kidnapping of a small girl (Daisy) from the New England home of her famed aviator father (Agatha Christie openly admits that the basis of this story was Charles Lindbergh and the Lindbergh kidnapping), Daisy is soon found dead, something which destroys the family and results in the death of the mother during a premature delivery. The crime remains unsolved.

Move forward to the present day - It's 10 years later and Hercule Poirot is travelling back to England from Istanbul on the Orient Express, to his surprise but naturally not the surprise of the audience a murder occurs on the train and before long Poirot realises that all the guests of the train seem to have a mysterious connection to the kidnapping of Daisy ten years earlier.

Having seen the David Suchet version of the Murder on the Orient Express and having read the book I think this version gets the closest to what Agatha Christie actually intended. Finney portrays Poirot as less uptight and more curious and even at times slightly amusing, at first this seemed odd to me as like many others David Suchet is my version of Poirot but I have to say that Finney's portrayal grew on me throughout the film even if at times his accent slipped. From a technical point of view both Sidney Lumet and Geoffrey Unsworth (Cinematographer) show great skill in designing the shots to show the maximum information and making use of what would have been a cramped space to film in. Editor Anne Coates elegantly intercuts the story giving the audience the required information at the required moment to maintain that drip feed which is so important to a mystery film. The use of flashbacks I found interesting, I liked the use of flashing back to the characters as they remember what they said to Poirot, I felt the flashbacks to tell the background story of the kidnapping were a little too snappy and sometimes I wasn't completely sure what was going on.

SPOILER

The film ends with Poirot solving the case except this time it turns out to have been a plot by all twelve of the characters on the train to kill the man who is ultimately responsible for the death and kidnapping of Daisy, and it's here time begins to show; Poirot decides to let them off - to not report them because they were killing someone who had killed a child. It's interesting because it shows how in some ways sensibilities have changed since the 30s when the book was written, I am not sure how I feel about them being let off and maybe that's one reason why this is a great film - because it evokes that kind of moral dilemma and thought. The last scene is particularly in your face as its the twelve murders drinking champagne celebrating the fact that the child killer is dead and that they have got off with crime.

All in all I can really recommend this film its excellent and worth a watch, it might also be interesting to watch it together with Lumet's earlier 12 Angry Men, a film where one man works to find the truth and as a result a innocent man is set free, whereas Murder on the Orient Express is about one man working to find the truth only to let the twelve guilty men and women free.

The Liberal Democrats Have To Be Held To Account If Lansleys NHS Bill Passes

2011-09-05T01:46:00.000-07:00

On the 7th September Andrew Langsley's NHS Bill will receive its third reading and be voted upon in the House of Commons.

Its a horrible thing to say but our only hope of stopping this bill (which would be profoundly destructive to the NHS) is the Liberal Democrats.

For 16 months the Liberal Democrats have been propping up this Conservative government, abandoning their principles (20% VAT, Tuition Fees, EMA) one after another. This is our last chance. On Saturday we held a 'Save Our NHS' stall in Broad Street in Reading with Shadow Health Secretary, John Healey, the result was astonishing, we had people queuing up to sign the petition telling us that they were Conservative or Liberal Democrat voters by nature but hated this bill. Online the petition has gathered almost 450,000 signatures via 38 Degrees alone and you can find countless blogs and articles from Doctors, Nurses, Physiologists, Paediatricians and Admin Workers all denouncing this bill.

I realise this blog is not very objective, but how can it be? its a really emotional issue and one I feel passionately about - like many I have family members who work in the NHS and I am beginning to hear the stories of the what the future may hold under this Conservative/Liberal Democrat NHS shake-up.

If you have a Liberal Democrat MP I urge you to please contact them and to ask them to join Labour and the other opposition parties in voting 'No'.

...and if the Liberal Democrats vote to support this bill I ask you, please don't vote for them again, they have abandoned everything they believe in for some ministerial limos.

Film Review: The Small Black Room

2011-08-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm heading off on a much needed holiday tomorrow so I thought I would leave on a film note by writing this short review of Powell and Pressburger's 'The Small Black Room' (1949).

The history behind this film is quite interesting; The Small Black Room or Hour of Glory as it was released in the United States was made at the height of Powell and Pressburger's popularity and at the height of their power over script, actors and the final cut. The duo had recently made the three most successful films of their careers, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, the later being nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, however during The Red Shoes problems began to emerge between them and Rank Films.

Powell and Pressburger decided it was time to part ways with Rank, giving up money and celebrity and returning to work for Sir Alexander Korda and London Film, here they could have independence (if not the same sized budgets) and it was here they developed their first project with London Films - The Small Black Room.

The Small Black Room is adapted from the novel by Nigel Balchin and tells the story of Sammy Rice (David Farrar), a scientist working for the MOD during World War 2. Sammy is a specialist in bombs but as the result of an explosion is left with a tin leg, this in tern has led to him having a drinking problem.

This film both for personal reasons and financial reasons marks a return for Powell and Pressburger to their Black and White films of the early forties, and if your a Powell and Pressburger fan like myself you won't be disappointed as it contains the same clever observations that we have come to expect. One scene that stood out for me is a scene where the characters are having a discussion in a meeting room. What was interesting was that for a large part of the scene you can't really hear what the characters are saying due to drilling noise coming from outside the window. The effect is odd as the scene was obviously shot on a stage and the sound would have been clear, however during post-production they've added the noise deliberately, it doesn't really seem to serve a filmic function like trying to create an emotion for example, its simply there because Powell and Pressburger wanted to experiment with it, whether for realism reasons or general curiosity.

The film also has a dali-esque sequence in which the character of Sammy feels the pressure of wanting a drink, its fascinating for its visual style and for the intelligence in which Powell (who normally directed) has with regards cutting a scene together.

The film climax's on a scene shot on Chisel Beach. Sammy has to defuse a new German bomb, a bomb which has in the scene prior killed his friend Dick Stuart (Michael Gough). Here Powell and Pressburger make great use of composition and frame the Sammy tight keeping the audience in the tense situation with him.

All in all The Small Black Room is a great film, it doesn't have the grandness of The Red Shoes with its sparkling technicolor but The Small Black Room is a tense, fascinating drama focusing on a man and his difficulties accepting both his drink problem and the lose of a leg.

Labour Defeats the SNP in North Ayrshire and Wins in Bolsover

2011-08-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Labour did incredibly well last night holding our seat in the Saltcoats and Stevenston by-election in North Ayrshire. The SNP were expected to take the seat given there recent performances in Scotland however due to a great campaign run by the local Labour Party, the Labour candidate Jim Mongomerie was elected gaining over 45% of the 1st preference votes. (Just for readers to know I only chose to show the 1st Round and 5th Round graphics for this election to stop it getting too complicated.)

For those of you who don't know much about Scottish elections they are run on an electoral system called STV (Single Transferable Vote), you can find out more about this in my previous blog post on the Edinburgh City By-Election.

The Liberal Democrats will be disappointed with there performance last night although it is becoming more of the norm in Scotland - of the almost 4000 votes cast they managed to get 56 votes. Its not surprising then that a local Liberal Democrat member chose to throw blue paint on Nick Clegg yesterday.

Next year all council seats in Scotland will be up for election and Labour will have to fight to hold onto the ones it has, but we can expect some very strange results as the Conservative vote falters and the Liberal Democrat vote collapses; the SNP will undoubtedly gain some of our seats but I think its likely we will make our numbers back in other seats.

Saltcoats and Stevenston was not the only by-election last night, a seat in Bolsover District Council was up for grabs after the sad death of a local Independent. In that by-election despite a low turnout Labour managed to gain the seat taking almost 50% of the vote. This result was more to be expected as Labour had previously always polled 2nd behind the Independent candidate. The Greens did make some progress but where along way short despite them saying that they thought they could take the seat.

The Bolsover election result graphic is courtesy of the BBC.

Response To Our Blog Post 'The Problems With Young Labour' By Callum Munro and Susan Nash

2011-08-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Text as follows:

'Since our election we have both travelled thousands of miles around the UK (and Europe!) listening to members of Young Labour and pushing to rebuild our movement. We and the rest of the Young Labour national committee are volunteers, like many of you we dedicate our time do this because we believe that Young Labour has the potential to be an active, vibrant campaigning organisation that both wins for Labour on the doorstep and is an exciting home of debate and discussion for all young members.

We know progress can seem painstakingly slow, we do share members frustrations and passion to see Young Labour active and effective, but as we will all be familiar there are many demands on the resources and capacities within the party, and so sometimes change can take longer than hoped.

However the Refounding Labour process has offered us a great opportunity to put into place reforms to make Young Labour the movement young members want it to be. The consultation process organised and led by committee reps for young members, helped shape the Young Labour national committee submission to Refounding Labour. It was a bold document which sought not only structural but also cultural changes. Calling for affiliate rights to allow Young Labour the powers to organise more effectively, an annual conference with policy making powers, online communication tools to give members the ability to take to one another more effectively. Yes, the issue of how we elect our national chair and NEC rep did come up during the process, but it was far from the most pressing issue that members on the ground wanted to talk about. Members at the events we and the party hosted, and the emails we received talked more about the introduction young members get into the party, the lack of support for youth officers, and need for more help and assistance setting up new Young Labour groups.

It is important to state here that, contrary to the blog, neither of us stated during our elections that we were going to change our electoral structures. Young Labour underwent a considerable reform not too long ago and we believe that many of the reforms which were introduced under our predecessors were the right ones. We have always listened to the differing views amongst members and considered what is both necessary and possible at this stage of Young Labour’s development. Throughout our time leading Young Labour we have sought to prioritise what we believe will make the biggest difference to members’ experience. The comment that“the YL leadership team keep breaking promises and ordinary young members are being ignored” is of concern to us and we are sorry that people feel this way. We personally do not think this is at all the case. There are a number of reasons for why we believe the arrangements for electing the Young Labour national chair and NEC rep are the best option for the moment. We do believe it is important that Young Labour regional reps are elected using OMOV. Regional rep candidates are more likely to be known in their region than candidates for national chair or NEC rep and allowing all members of that region to elect their rep on the Young Labour national committee is the right thing to do.

Young Labour conference will from now on be an annual event which will have policy making powers, something both of us did promise in our elections. Conference should be a time when regional reps are held to account and a space where young members from all around the country can meet, socialise and debate the issues that matter to them. One of the reasons we are happy for the chair and NEC rep to be elected at conference is because of the way we are changing the delegate system and the size of conference. Rather than the complicated system of delegate entitlement we have at the moment, in the future, any young member will be eligible to attend regardless of where they live or if they are involved in their regional or local party structures. Young Labour conferences are great at driving activity and boosting participation. By having these elections at conferences we can ensure they are well attended and that people have the opportunity to engage in the elections and question the candidates face to face. There are added complexities, given that the electoral college system used to elect the NEC rep mean is would not simply be a case of adding a box on the ballot paper that already goes out for the regional rep elections.

Embarrassingly low turnout in the last set of regional rep and the fact that in Reading's own region, only one candidate bothered to stand is proof that we still have a lot of work to do around boosting levels of engagement and confidence in OMOV postal ballots. It was sad to see the comment that “the leadership of Young Labour is completely isolated from the average young member.” Despite the fact we both passionately disagree with this statement, low turnout in elections does decrease legitimacy and can widen any perceived gap between the leadership and the members of Young Labour.

The question of age is an interesting issue which does indeed divide members. During the consultation process on reform, we both met members who wanted the age limit reduced, some who wanted it kept at 26 and some who wanted it increased. A common response from many younger members was that they felt Young Labour was dominated by graduates and older members. It was an issue debated and voted on at a meeting of the Young Labour national committee and in the end it was agreed to keep the age limit at 26 while reducing the lower limit from 15 to 14.

We are saddened that Reading Young Labour has chosen not to raise these issues with us privately before now, and chosen not to register itself with the party. It is not a case of 'not affiliating' but rather one of acting as an unofficial, external group of party members. We can have differing views on some of these matters, but remain outside of Young Labour for these reasons alone seems unconstructive. If a CLP were to 'disaffiliate' from the party it would be wrong, divisive and a bit strange. If Reading Young Labour honestly feels that the voting arrangements for chair and NEC rep and the Young Labour age brackets are the most important issues facing young members then it would be far better to get involved and try to change things, rather than remaining an unofficial group. We do however think there is far more we probably agree on rather than disagree, I think both Reading and other groups would want us to be spending as much time as we have on Refounding Labour now actively fighting for the interests and support of young voters who increasingly feel abandoned and isolated by the actions of this Tory led coalition.

Young Labour at the moment relies on volunteer contributions and the hard work of our fantastic National Committee, supported by our National Youth Officer. We hope it is clear that we are trying desperately hard to increase activity. We know that there is still a lot of work to be done but hope that Young Labour's presence at the upcoming Labour Party conference will be another step in the right direction. Here we have lobbied hard to reduce the conference rate to boost young members presence and participation. There is still time to sign up for the special youth rate of just £5 for the youth days, more details of which can be found at our recently relaunched website.

We like you are desperate to see Young Labour thrive, but alone we cannot achieve this transformation. We ask for your support, your patience and your assistance. Both of us are more than happy to speak to any Young Labour group in the country to talk about the work of Young Labour and how best to get involved. This is an exciting time for our party. The coalition government seems bent on making the lives of young people event harder than they already are. Young Labour has such an opportunity to the thousands of young people who are starting to realise that politics has a very real and direct impact on their lives. We must use this opportunity to further grow our movement and make it fit to, as the blog says, make Ed Miliband Prime Minister in 2015.'

Susan Nash (Chair of Young Labour) and Callum Munro (NEC Youth Rep)

The Problems With Young Labour

2011-08-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

If I said to you that the NEC representatives and Leader of the Party will no longer be decided by a members ballot but at a vote of delegates at party conference, how would you react?

Undoubtedly some of you would not have a problem, but for me and I think the vast majority of Labour members it would represent a disenfranchising of our right as party members to have our individual voice heard; so why then is the Chair of Young Labour and the Young Labour NEC representative not elected by a Young Labour members ballot but at a (pending Refounding Labour*) biennial conference by delegates representing the various CLP's?

At last years conference in Glasgow, Susan Nash was elected Chair of Young Labour and Callum Munro was elected to be the Young Labour representative on the NEC, at the time both promised that they would fight to allow the positions of Chair and NEC rep to be democratically elected by all Young Labour members through a ballot. Since then we have heard nothing. Now I am not attacking Susan or Callum here because I know that both undoubtedly have been fighting to have the positions elected but for some reason it has not come about, and perhaps more disappointingly it was not contained within the Young Labour submission to Refounding Labour. So here's my question, why when every two years we as a party vote for who will be our NEC representatives and National Policy Forum representatives we cannot add at the same time to the under 27 members the option of Chair and NEC representative for Young Labour?

But in the end this is just one problem with Young Labour and we need to start addressing these problems in order to activate what could be an incredibly powerful tool for Labour to use. The first is the age limitation on membership; that has to be changed to be in line with other groups such as the Fabians (under 31), The Co-Operative Party (Under 31) or even other parties e.g. The Conservatives (under 30). In Reading Young Labour that age limitation on Young Labour membership forced us to not affiliate with the party nationally, instead we decided to remain an independent organisation so that we could chose our own membership age (under 31); in doing this we increased our membership from 50 to 135 which has allowed us to become a real force within the Reading and District Labour Party. Some have told me that changing the age of membership to under 31 would allow barely young people (i.e. 29-30 year olds) into positions of power and subdue younger members, well that just hasn't proven to be the case, the Chair of Reading Young Labour is 19 years old, the Chair of the Reading University Labour Society is 19 years old.

Another interesting fact about Young Labour members and I say this carefully is that in general they are more interested in campaigning and getting Labour elected than sitting having a chat about policy. If Labour were to get these young people organised, similar to the way the Ed Miliband team managed to get his 4000 young volunteers organised we'd be able to head into those marginal seats and achieve some incredible results. Susan Nash has already begun to do this through the launch of the Young Labour website; but that should only be the start. Labour need to open up and give resources and money to Young Labour and to people like Susan Nash, we have the power to be a really strong campaigning tool but at the moment we cannot even have access to membership data thus we are forced to run independent campaigns with no party support.

We have to change, as one young member said to me she feels she only gets a call when the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS) or Young Labour have been asked to get members into a room where Ed Miliband may be speaking to fill a demographic. Young members have an incredible passion and a real desire to get out there and campaign for Labour; we need to organise and support this incredible resource if we want to stand any chance of gaining a majority come 2015.

*Now proposed to become yearly (thank god).

AV Is More Democratic But Sometimes It Can Be Incredibly Unfair

2011-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a by-election was held for the City Centre ward of Edinburgh Council. At the previous all out election (2007) three councillors were elected, one Scottish Liberal Democrat, one member of the Scottish National Party and one Scottish Conservative and Unionist.

Now you may think that sounds like a strange result but the main reason a result like that happened is because Scottish Councils run elections using STV (Single Transferable Vote). Single Transferable Vote is primarily designed for use in all out elections where there is more than one seat to fill. Under STV a person is elected once he or she meets a quota, the formula for which is normally: Number of Votes cast divided by number of seats to fill + 1 Vote (e.g.: 3600 votes cast divided by 3 seats + 1 vote makes the winning quote 1201 votes).

However Edinburgh's City Centre election was caused by the resignation of the SNP councillor which meant due to there only being one seat available the STV vote basically became a AV vote (stay with me readers!). In a one seat election the quota is set at half the votes cast + 1 vote. AV votes are conducted in rounds until we reach 50% or the final two candidates.

As you can see from the graphic on the right the transferring extended as far as the 5th round. The first round was pretty devastating for the Scottish Liberal Democrats who'd won one of the seats in the 2007, their continued unpopularity in Scotland resulted in them coming 6th here. In stage two the local Independent was eliminated, he'd been running on a no-trams campaign and his vote was generally considered to be more in line with Conservative values as a result his vote transferred more to the Conservative candidate allowing him to open up a 100 vote gap between him and the SNP candidate. In Stage 3 the Green candidate was eliminated, her vote split between the Labour candidate and the SNP candidate. The 4th Stage was the most devastating; the Labour vote was re-distributed and the majority of it despite SNP unpopularity with Labour voters transferred to the SNP and as a result the Tory candidate who had been leading throughout the first 4 Stages was eliminated.

Even though I was strongly pro-AV at the referendum this May I can see how many people would see the result that unfolded at the Edinburgh count today as very unfair. AV does have a tendency to lead to odd tactical voting, for example a Tory friend of mine ended up voting Green to try and stop Labour. I still feel AV is more democratic and gives voters a wider choice and although I have chosen to show this example of AV it is certainly not the norm, Edinburgh City Centre is a rather unique ward where we basically have a 5 way race.

Update:

- Edinburgh City Centre was one of the few wards to vote 'Yes 2 AV' in May so in many ways the voters got the candidate they wanted. (Many thanks to Sean McLeod for this Info).

- Its been pointed out I have used the wrong Green Party logo! Deepest apologies if it upset any Green members/supporters. (Many thanks to Ian Baxter for pointing that out).

Jamie Wake Needs To Leave Party Politics At The Gate

2011-08-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

This week my friend Richard Wood started a blog www.woodsviews.blogspot.com and as the newly elected LGBT officer for the Reading Labour Party he chose to blog on the subject of Reading Pride.

Richard rightly uses this blog to point out that Pride, although fun and entertaining is designed to raise awareness of LGBT issues and campaigns. I am a huge advocate of gay rights and I am delighted Richard is pointing out we must use Pride to place political pressure on all parties so that the gay community can achieve full equality.

Unfortunately Jamie Wake chose to use Richard's blog as a political platform to attack labour. You'll note when reading Richard's blog that he praises Labour (as a passionate party member would) but never attacks the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives.

Jamie Wake really needs to grow up and stop acting like he is 'the only gay in the village'. Labour in Reading has over 75 LGBT members; all of whom have been out and open about their sexuality and would find Jamie's comments offensive.

I commend www.ok2bgay.com; it's a great initiative but Labour will still work with Gay charities, Youth Services and Youth club workers to assure young people that it is ok to be gay and nothing to be ashamed of.

My advise to Jamie would be to tone down the political rhetoric especially considering that it was Richard's first blog and I hope Richard is not put off and continues to focus on gay equality.

A-Level Results In Reading Higher Than National Average

2011-08-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

The A-Level results announced today reveal that Reading has achieved a higher pass rate that the national average. In fact some of the schools (Reading Girls, Highdown, Kendrick and Blessed Hugh Faringdon) achieved a 100% pass rate (A* to E).

Here are the results (via Get Reading) for the Secondary Schools in the borough:

Blessed Hugh Faringdon School - A* to B - 24% - A* to E - 100%
Highdown School - A* to B - 36.9% - A* to E - 100%
Kendrick School - A* to B - 88.4% - A* to E - 100%
Prospect School - A* to B - 80% - A* to E - 99%
Reading Girls School - A* to B - 33% - A* to E - 100%
Reading School - A* to B - 89.93% - A* to E - 99.57%

Congratulations to all the students and of course the teachers and parents who have supported them.

Why Do People Join Labour When They Do?

2011-08-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Checking online today I notice that we had gained four new young members (under 27), all of whom had joined during the week we saw terrible rioting on our streets, and that got me thinking, why do people join Labour when they do?

My story is similar to some of the many new members who have joined the party - I'd supported Labour for a while prior to joining and was fairly happy doing my bit in the community and the odd delivery round when the councillors asked me to. The idea of becoming a 'card carrying' member of a political party seemed a bit of a serious step, however when Labour lost the 2010 general election I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth is and join the party.

I was one of over 50,000 members that joined the Labour Party during that period and I decided to become vastly more active locally (In fact now, a year and half later, I find myself the Secretary of the Reading and District Labour Party!). Locally Reading's membership almost doubled - we gained Teachers, Doctors, Businessmen, the Unemployed, Old Age Pensioners and even a Priest or two; it was clear to me when I first attending a Labour meeting that Labour was very much a diverse flock.

Many of these newly joined members were people that supported Labour and like me felt it was time to get active and join the party, since then we've had a steady stream of new members joining our party and one of the great things about being Secretary is you get to meet so many of them; some have joined because they want specific issues resolved, some have joined because they just can't get there household budgets to add up at the end of the month because of the coalitions 20% VAT hike and the high petrol prices, and some have joined simply because Labour embodies their values. Young people in Reading however seem to join primarily on issues. For example our young membership saw huge leaps during the coalitions announcement of the cancellation of EMA and the rise of tuition fees to £9k.

I wonder if other CLP's elsewhere in the country and finding as we do that regular members numbers have been increasing steadily and that young members numbers only increase (although dramatically) when there is a specific political issue that connects directly to young people.

I can't really end this blog without putting the link to join Labour. I know its kinda corny but whatever your reason (and there are a lot!) why not consider joining Labour.

https://secure2.labour.org.uk/join/

Should The Coalition Abandon Their Plans For Directly Elected Police Commissioners?

2011-08-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

The promise to give the public the ability to directly elect police commissioners was one of the flagship policies of the Conservative Party in their 2010 Manifesto.

As we know the Conservatives did not win a majority and formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats as a result the LibDems have been weakly supporting the Tories in their attempts to introduce the Elected Police Commissioners Bill.

With the recent riots and the tensions between the police and the Government in terms of independence I thought it might be interesting to look at the Pros and Cons.

What does the Bill do?

The Bill creates 41 elected Police Commissioners.
Each Police Commissioner will be elected for a 4 year term.
The Police Commissioners will replace the local police authorities.

The Pros and Cons

The Pros or Pro is fairly obvious; it allows someone who is directly elected by voters to be in overall control of a regional police force if not in operation control (this will still be the responsibility of the area's Chief Constable). The Conservatives argue that this kind of direct link to the voters will make the police more accountable. The Cons are more substantial; Labour argues that directly elected Police Commissioners introduces politics into the police force which will compromise there independence. Labour are also concerned that the overall cost of implementation - £130m in the first year alone (£50m to run 41 elections and £78m for overall cost, creation and salary), is not good value for the taxpayer.

My View

I am not against the idea of directly elected police commissioners per say, but I am concerned about the possible impact of allowing politics into the police force. When a new government takes over regardless of party they can depend on the police to support them, however if most of the police commissioners who are elected turn out to be Conservative for example and Labour wins the next general election, how will the relationship work? Also given the predicted cost is this really the best value for money at the moment? Should we not delay the bill until we are more fiscally stable as a country rather than spend £130m on what is basically an experiment? The recent riots in London revealed a problem, for the first 3 days the police both in tactics and manpower were overwhelmed, it wasn't till the fourth day and 16,000 police were on the streets that calm was restored. Clearly the police are stretched, why don't we in the short term reduce the cuts being made to the police with the money we are planning on spending on directly elected police commissioners.

I know a lot of colleagues in all parties are also concerned about the scrapping of local police authorities. For those that don't know police authorities are made up of 9 politicians nominated by the political groupings on local councils and 8 independent members appointed by the Home Office. In this regard it could be made that some accountability is in place to the voters as it is the voters who directly elected the politicians on the council.

Anyway enough of my views, I'd be interested in knowing the views of my readers so please feel free to leave a comment.

Film Review: Super 8

2011-08-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Super 8 revolves around a young 14 year old boy called Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney). Joe has recently lost his mother in an accident at the local chemical plant and he as well as his father (Kyle Chandler) are attempting to work out how to move on from that kind of loss. Joe decides to throw himself into filming a short horror film with his friends but during a fateful night Joe and his friends catch a train crash on film, the aftermath of which results in strange disappearances around the town. Could there have been something on the train?

It doesn't take a film critic to work out this film is definitely a labour of love for director J.J. Abrams. The film in style, look and feel harks back to films from the 1980's such as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies; for Abrams those kind of films don't exist anymore and this film is more a gift not to the kids of today but to us, the generation of 25-35 year olds who grew up during the 80's and enjoyed those films. Super 8 on paper is a simple film and something that most studios would undoubtedly see as a box office winner, but in many ways we cannot underestimate the risk Abrams took with this film; attempting to find young actors who can hold an audiences attention for over 2 hours is not easy and a less experienced director may have ended up casting actors such as Daniel Radcliffe or Zac Efron who are tried and tested. However Abrams held his nerve and more the better for it as we are introduced to an incredible young actor in Joel Courtney. Joel really is the life and soul of this film, he represents us as the audience within the film and provides us with all the emotional 'keys' throughout the film, much of the film's success is down to his performance and I would expect him to be a sure thing for the Young Actor of the Year Award at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards.

The tension throughout the film is delivered through the use of Hitchcockian style editing and fantastic sound design. Abrams has a clear understanding of how to create the perfect thriller, playing on our psychologies by denying us the ability to see the alien for the first two thirds of the film and therefore creating tension in our minds; as Hitchcock knew, the human mind can imagine far worse than what you as a filmmaker can show, always leave the audience guessing.

All in all I have to say I loved this film; It was bittersweet, exciting and elegantly crafted. There is not much I would criticise about the film to be honest; at times I became irritated with the lens flare but that has become something of a trademark of Abrams' films so not really worth complaining about. I would note that some parents may be uncomfortable taking their children to see this film, its 12a certificate is quite low and at times I could imagine young children getting scared.

Is 6 Months In Jail The Correct Punishment For Stealing Bottles Of Water?

2011-08-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

Like many young people interested in politics I watched the special edition of Young Voters Question Time on the BBC tonight. At one point Richard Bacon pointed out that an MP convicted of false expense accounting of over £8,000 received a 4 month prison sentence, whereas a 23 year old student who stole £3.50 worth of water from Lidl during the riots was given a six month jail sentence. Does this represent Justice and is the sentence correct?

During the program I tweeted about it and received quite a few replies, the most interesting I have quoted here 'Why are we spending £20k to jail someone for stealing bottled water instead of giving them community sentences and making them repair what they destroyed' I have to say I completely agree with these sentiments. If someone at the riots attacks a police officer, sets fire to property, deliberately causes vandalism then they go to prison, no question of that in my mind; but in the case of a student that stole water I don't believe a prison sentence is needed and in many ways a 6-12 month community sentence could and would be far more effective. In prison the student will sit and (hopefully) regret what he or she has done, but in a community sentence they see first hand the pain and suffering they have caused, the damage they have caused and how important it is to keep communities together rather than let these kind of riots fracture them apart.

No doubt our judges will have a difficult job balancing each case but I hope that we don't lean towards prison as a first move when putting some of these convicted rioters into the community and forcing them to repair the damage they caused could be equally as effective, as well as this it shows the people and businesses hurt by these riots that justice is being done.

Tory Vote Collapses, Labour Holds Strong In Islingston: A Look At The Swings

2011-08-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

Two really interesting by-election results were announced tonight and I thought it might be interesting to use the BBC's Electoral Calculator and just look at the swings.

Windsor & Maidenhead -
Eton & Castle ward.
This wasn't expected to be a ward in play tonight, the Conservatives were defending a 65% majority from May this year, but in what can only be described as a massive shock, the Liberal Democrats have managed to take the ward back achieving a huge 20% swing with the Tory vote collapsing almost 24%.

Swings like these rarely happen unless there is some kind of additional factor e.g: a scandal; but in this case the sitting Tory Councillor was simply standing down due to being appointed a government advisor, nothing scandalous there so the real reason for the huge swing remains a mystery. I can only guess the Conservatives had become complacent and the Liberal Democrats seized on this running a strong and effective campaign.

Islington -
St. Peters's ward.
Elsewhere the Liberal Democrats didn't favour as well. Islington is a Labour council but the various wards have always been two horse races between Labour and the Liberal Democrats as you can see from the May 2010 result. Labour went into the by-election tonight expecting to hold the ward, however they achieved a far bigger victory than expected with the Tory vote collapsing. This will undoubtedly come as an irritation to Mayor of London, Boris Johnson who in fact lives within the ward. The collapse of the Conservative vote here is not a problem for the local party in terms of council seats but it may well become an issue next year with the London Assembly elections.

Looking at the results what appears to be happening is when Conservative voters feel abandoned or neglected and there is no strong Labour vote they swap to Liberal Democrats on mass, however when there is a strong Labour vote, Labour campaign heavily and normally manage to convert some of the Tory and Liberal Democrat vote securing a comfortable Labour victory.

To try and use these results and hypothesise what could happen in Reading next year would be silly, by-elections always produce different results, however warning bells should be sounding for the Conservatives if in a seat with a 65% majority the Liberal Democrats can seemingly swoop in and steal it with ease.

Graphics courtesy of the BBC Election Calculator.

50p Car Park charge in Tilehurst

2011-08-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

I read Cllr Ricky Duveen's (LibDem - Tilehurst) open letter to Cllr Tony Page in the Reading Post yesterday and I wanted to make some personal observations.

The main crux of the letter is the fact that a car park close to local traders in Tilehurst has had it's charges changed and as a result the first hours parking has gone from being free to 50p. Ricky points out many things that I agree with, namely the fact that it is really important to protect local businesses in this time of recession.

Firstly I want to say that from a personal standpoint I sympathise with the local traders and the customers, in fact Labour have recently launched the Save our High Streets campaign which aims to raise awareness of this issue and protect local businesses. However with the situation in Tilehurst I wanted to make some observations, the first being that we need to accept the fact that we are facing immense cuts to local budgets and in that regard no matter how much we would like things to stay the same it's not always going to be possible. Labour in Reading have always prioritised front line services as well as Community Centres, Surgeries, Youth Centres, Leisure Centres and of course the vulnerable and needy. I feel passionately that these should remain our priorities and so what I guess I am asking is in the grand scheme of things is asking drivers to pay 50p to park that outrageous? I understand the point that 50p's soon build up and to a family on a low income every penny counts but we just don't have the money to save everything. The second more politically in tone is that Cllr Duveen is being a good local councillor by raising this issue but I would point out that to suddenly be concerned about parking charges and the impact on local businesses seems rather strange from the party that together with the local Conservatives introduced parking meters all round the town centre. Surely this had an impact on local businesses?

As I said at the beginning of this post I agree with the importance of protecting local businesses and so I hope Cllr Page will look on the letter in a favourable light and speak to officers to see if anything can be done, but as we move on through these difficult times we are going to have to look for innovative money saving ideas and become more fiscally responsible, I want us as a Council to save and protect as much as possible but unfortunately we have to make cuts.

Thoughts on the rioting in London and Birmingham

2011-08-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

What can you say to an image like this? People seem divided on the motives behind the rioting; Its been suggested that the rioting is because of cuts and lack of jobs, but I can tell you I know a lot of people especially here in Reading who are desperate to get a job and are really feeling the pinch of the government cuts and they don't head down Broad Street and set fire to the local Tesco.

I personally condemn this kind of vandalism, theft and destruction completely. The damage caused is not going to create jobs nor is it going to stop the cuts, instead it damages communities and if there is one thing we really have to try and protect during these aggressive times of austerity it's communities. Up and down the country councils are fighting to protect Community Centres, Libraries and Leisure Centres because they often form the heart of communities. The people of north London are clearly angry, this originally started out as a protest against the shooting of someone by the Police, but criminal elements have maliciously directed what was legitimate anger and turned It into what can only be described as mayhem. They'll undoubtedly be many repercussions and accusations at the end of this, and young people will take a great deal of the blame, a lot of it justified, however we need to keep our focus clearly on the small element of criminality that originated this disgrace and make sure they are brought to justice.

Catch 22 for Reading's Liberal Democrats?

2011-07-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I took the opportunity to catch up with friends tonight at a pub (which turned out to be in Peppard ward) and the topic very much on their lips was the deselection of Conservative Councillor, Jamie Chowdhary. This was an odd topic for me as my friends aren't political, they know I support the Labour party and that I've stood for council but we've never actually sat down and had a discussion about politics.

Needless to say they were interested to hear what 'gossip' I'd heard and I pointed out that actually I didn't really know anything other than what was in papers and that I'd never met Cllr Chowdhary. The topic then drifted onto Peppard ward which in itself was more interesting. Although their not particularly interested in politics they could remember when Peppard had three Liberal Democrat councillors (In fact the Tories only gained the ward in 2006), I was also surprised to hear that in terms of literature and presence the Liberal Democrats have all but evaporated from view in the ward leaving what was a Tory/Liberal Democrat seat to become a safe Tory seat.

So the question that naturally followed was will the Liberal Democrats campaign in Peppard now that there is a vacancy?

Its not actually clear what the electoral relationship was with the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in Reading in 2011. The Conservatives appeared not to campaign in Redlands and Katesgrove but then why would they? It also 'appeared' that they weren't really campaigning in Tilehurst which they won off the LibDems. As for the LibDems they did put out literature in other wards but I am not sure if they actually campaigned in any wards other than Redlands, Katesgrove and Tilehurst.

With 2012's election approaching I wonder if the Liberal Democrats will have a punt at trying to regain there former ward of Peppard? Recent by-election results show that the LibDems have an easier time gaining seats off Tories than they do off Labour but here in Reading there is the presence of what was a local coalition and that complicates matters.

I am not sure what I would do if I was in there shoes. Part of me would be telling me to play safe and put all resources into Katesgrove, Redlands and Tilehurst in the hope of holding them and the other part of me would be telling me to take a gamble and try and steal a ward back from the Tories...

Tragedy In Norway

2011-07-24T03:49:00.000-07:00

The tragedy of the Utoeya massacre has shaken me badly, these were in many cases children coming together to talk, debate, swim, play football and enjoy each others company and it's been brutally destroyed by the act of one man. When I became more active in Labour here in Reading one of the goals I set myself was to really encourage more young people to get involved and to make their voices heard, this is something thats never easy, young people can be disinterested in politics and feel jaded by the various parties, but to see 95 young people who believed in something murdered in such a way is just heartbreaking.

The Norwegian Primeminster showed great courage when he said that the way we fight such attacks is by more democracy.

Will Cross (President, Reading University Labour Society) and Rachael Chrisp (Women's Officer) asked for a minute silence to be observed yesterday at our meeting of Labour Councillors and I as Secretary of the Reading and District Labour Party will be writing to our comrades at Norwegian Labour to express our shock and to tell them that all our thoughts are with them at this terrible time.

Reforming the Media? A Chance for Labour and the LibDems to work together?

2011-07-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

The News International hacking scandal continues to dominate the news with more resignations and revelations emerging daily, but as well as that more and more blogs/articles and reports celebrating Ed Miliband's leadership in this crisis are emerging by the day, something which could become unhelpful.

Although I would agree that Ed Miliband has led well on the phone hacking scandal and has acted as the voice of a concerned nation, the idea that we should celebrate or in someways claim a victory is out of place. I worked on the Ed Miliband campaign so I always knew that Ed had the ability to lead and to be the parliamentarian he has been on this crisis, however I don't think it benefits Miliband or Labour to have commentators refer to him as some kind of 'hero'. Labour needs to focus on changing and the stance we've taken as a Party against Murdoch and the News of the World is an important step in that process, some of Murdoch's press will undoubtedly seek to take revenge by running silly personal stories and critical editorials but we should stand firm.

Dan Hodges, writes an hypothetical scenario on LabourList today which jokes that some people seem to think Cameron, Osborne and Gove will resign over the next few days as it emerges the Tories were aware of Andy Coulson's role in the phone hacking scandal, The Liberal Democrats will leave the government causing it to collapse (forcing a General Election) and that Ed Miliband will be elected in a wave of support. As Hodges points out, we are not living in an episode of The West Wing and this will never happen. What has happened though is that Ed Miliband has found his voice and in that regard people are starting to listen to what he has to say.

This crisis of confidence in the media triggered by the actions of News International has shaken people but there could be a positive to come from it and that is that it has given Labour and the Liberal Democrats a platform they can work together on to actually effect change. Clearer more transparent legislation is needed, the Press Complaints Commission should be disbanded a replaced with something that can actually hold the media to account and political parties should be able to openly discuss new ideas even if they are controversial without the fear of what will be on the Sun's front page tomorrow.

Labour is doing well in the polls, YouGov continually shows Labour at around 43% of the vote and the latest leadership numbers show that the public clearly think Miliband and Clegg have led on the phone hacking scandal. Cameron and the Conservatives have been shown to behind the times and not credible when it comes to holding corporations like News International to account. Labour has in the past relied on News International and has courted there support, we need to admit that and move on; The Liberal Democrats have been slow to respond on the hacking scandal and failed to stand up to Cameron on issues like hiring Coulson, they need to admit that and move on; only then can we work together and make sure something like this never happens again.

Sign Language - Virgin Media Shorts Winner 2010

2011-07-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

Every year Virgin holds a contest designed to allowing emerging British talent to show off there skills. The winner of the contest receives £30,000 towards their next film and the chance to get mentoring from film industry professionals.

Last night I had the opportunity to watch the shortlisted films from 2010 and the final winner Sign Language. I have to say I was really impressed with the strength of work and of the final winner Sign Language by Oscar Sharp.

Crafting a short film is a very hard task (I know from experience), you have a limited time to establish a story, conflict and resolution and what I've seen so many times is film-makers try and put too much in, too many characters, too much dialogue and too many story lines. The reason a film like Sign Language (which I have posted below) won was because it had a single central character and a single storyline, the film-makers focused all there time (3 minutes) to establishing this character for the audience and resolving his storyline.

I had the opportunity earlier in the year to visit three schools in Reading to talk about film-making with my friends Tanel Toom (Oscar Nominee) and Poss Kondeatis (BAFTA Winner). This film has really inspired me to do it again and to try and encourage more Reading kids to try there hand at film-making, I'm hoping one day that we could have a Virgin Media Shorts winner here in Reading, because one thing I think we can all agree on is there is lots of stories to be told in Reading!

2011 Emmy Nominations Celebrate the Old and the New

2011-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Emmy Nominations were announced today and they rewarded some of the best British television of the previous year. Among the nominations was the ITV's flagship drama 'Downton Abbey' which received 11 nominations including Best Miniseries, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Direction and Best Writing. To all my colleagues who worked on the show I offer my sincere congratulations. Other big British victories were 'Sherlock' which received 4 Emmy nominations and 'Upstairs Downstairs' which earned 6 nominations.

No doubt the show that will get the biggest headlines will be 'Broadwalk Empire' which earned over 20 nominations, but really it should be the surprise success of 'Game of Thrones' which should attract attention, Thrones was a surprise hit and many had questioned whether Emmy voters would take to its mix of political intrigue and fantasy.

The Emmy’s will be awarded in September, with 3 time winner Mad Men defending its unbeaten streak.

http://www.emmys.com/

The Sun and Murdoch Completely Miss The Point

2011-07-13T01:47:00.000-07:00

The front page of todays Sun newspaper reveals how truly out of touch News International have become.

They seem oblivious to the fact that they are embroiled in a scandal which has unified people both political and non-political against them.

Regardless of whether Gordon Brown's accusations were wrong, to lead with a headline saying 'Brown Wrong' and treat it like some Sun exclusive story is a PR disaster waiting to happen.

The Sun is just as bad as the News of the World and we can only break Murdoch's monopoly by simply refusing to buy his papers. Some saw his shutting down of the News of the World as a conciliatory gesture, but yesterday it emerged that www.thesunonsunday.co.uk has been purchased by News International (They are just going to rebrand and carry on).

Today Labour have tabled a motion and is seeking all party support to force Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid for the remaining 60% of BSkyB. Lets hope David Cameron is clever enough to appear humble and not proceed down the same avenue as the Sun and try and defend the indefensible.

Another Broken Promise. 38% of Universities will charge £9000.

2011-07-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

As many of us will no doubt recall Nick Clegg signed a pledge promising to vote against any increase in tuition fees, and unfortunately as many of us will recall Nick Clegg broke that pledge as did the majority of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party by voting to increase fees to a possible maximum level of £9000.

At the time the Liberal Democrats argued that £9000 would not be the norm, and in fact many universities would charge the lower fee of £6000. Vince Cable then clarified by pointing out that Universities would only be allowed to charge over £6000 in exceptional circumstances.

However as time moved on University after University began to declare that they would charge the maximum £9000. Challenged on this by Labour the Liberal Democrats defended the act of raising the tuition fees by pointing out that although some Universities were declaring that they wished to charge £9000, all would have to be approved by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).

Today the Office of Fair Access has confirmed that 47 out of the 123 Universities have submitted plans to charge the maximum fee of £9000 and that ALL 47 have been approved. This has resulted in 38% of the Universities in this country charging the maximum fee (Including Reading) of £9000.

Liam Burns, President of the NUS (National Union of Students) commented: "Vince Cable had stated that fees over £6000 would only be levied in exceptional circumstances but his solemn promise has quiet clearly now been left in tatters."

So what are the views of the Liberal Democrats here in Reading? Gareth Epps who was the LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Reading East and who signed the petition has been outspoken and stood by his pledge, he went on the NUS march and joined other LibDem PPC's in writing a letter calling on the Liberal Democrats to keep there promise. Daisy Benson who was the LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West did not signed the pledge, and has defended the actions of Nick Clegg and her government.

Timeline of Events

March, 2010 - LibDem MP's and PPC's signed the NUS Pledge promising to vote against raising tuition fees
May, 2010 : The Liberal Democrats and The Conservative Party form a coalition government.
November, 2010: The LibDems break there promise and vote in favour of raising tuition fees.
November, 2010: It emerges that the LibDems had decided before the Election not to honour there pledge.
November, 2010: The LibDems claim that only in exceptional circumstances will fees be charged above £6000.
July, 2011: It emerges that 38% of Universities will be allowed to charge the full £9000, and that the average fee will be £8161.

Send the BSkyB Bid to the Competition Commission - E-Mail Your MP

2011-07-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Barry Batchelor/PA

Labour have tabled a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday forcing Jeremy Hunt (Minster for Culture, Media and Sport) to send the BSkyB bid (which he has previously approved) to the Competitions Commission.

I've written to my MP (Rob Wilson) today asking him to vote in favour of this. I urge everyone to do the same. Over the last few weeks a systematic disregard for the law and for ethics has begun to emerge, and MPs should wait for the results of an enquiry before giving Mr. Murdoch's, News Corporation the remaining 60% share of BSkyB.

The website 38 Degrees has set up and easy template which you can use to send an e-mail to your MP. In regards my e-mail to Rob Wilson, I shall look forward to a reply and seeing how he votes on Wednesday.

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stand-up-to-murdoch

Inverclyde: Lessons For Labour and warning signs for the Liberal Democrats

2011-07-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

For many Labour members the by-election in Inverclyde (triggered by the sad death of long standing MP David Cairns) was worrying coming so close to what can only be viewed as an utter defeat for Labour at the Scottish Parliamentary Elections. The SNP (Scottish National Party) have been successful before at taking seats which were generally considered 'safe' from Labour in by-elections (see Glasgow East by-election) so nothing could be taken for granted.

Well last night our hard work, and the hard work of our activists paid off as the voters of Inverclyde delivered a clear verdict and Labour retained its comfortable vote share of over 50%. However important notes should be made for Labour's campaigns in the future. The SNP vote did massively increase, largely as can be seen from the graphs due to the complete collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote, such a significant collapse that they in fact lost their deposit.

The Scottish National Party have successfully established themselves as an independent voice for Scotland and Labour needs to make sure the people of Scotland believe that Labour can be their voice in Westminster.

So what does this mean for the Liberal Democrats?

Thats not completely clear to say, by-elections often provide skewed results, but the Liberal Democrats have collapsed in almost every parliamentary by-election they have fought so far. Currently the Liberal Democrats have 11 seats in Scotland:

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
Gordon
North East Fife
Orkney and Shetland
Edinburgh West
Ross, Skye and Lochaber
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Argyll and Bute
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
East Dunbartonshire
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

If the polling holds up (and that is a big if) then these would be the results in a 2015 General Election (Seats the Liberal Democrats would hold are shown in bold):

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey

Gordon

North East Fife

Orkney and Shetland

Edinburgh West

Ross, Skye and Lochaber

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk

Argyll and Bute

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

East Dunbartonshire

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Note: Images courtesy of the BBC Election Calculator

Strike

2011-06-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

As someone who grew up in Northumberland during the Thatcher years the term strike has a pretty resonating sound for me. But this strike is different to what the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats want you to believe.

1. Cameron and Clegg are desperate to stick the strike on Labour and specifically Ed Miliband, the only problem is none of the Unions striking (NUT, UCU, PCS and ATL) are actually affiliated to Labour, having said that, that does not mean that I personally am not 100% behind them.

2. Cameron and Clegg want you to think the strike is just by a small group of unions, and in that regards he is right, only 4 unions are officially striking but what he doesn't tell you is those 4 unions represent 800,000 people (not so small).

3. Cameron and Clegg want you to think that the strike is bringing the country to a halt, its not. These unions balloted their members and agreed that it should only be a short strike (hence why it is 1 day), the aim is not to cripple the country but to make their voices heard.

4. Cameron and Clegg want you to think parents are up in arms but in reality many parents are standing on the picket lines with the teachers. Lets remember the majority of parents appreciate the hard work teachers do and know that while they are at work the teachers are caring and educating their children.

So why it maybe frustrating that things have stopped today and schools have closed, lets remember these people are just standing up for their rights. They did not cause the economic downturn, and as much as Cameron and Clegg would like to they can't pin the strike solely on pensions.

Unpaid Internships

2011-06-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Unpaid Internships. Not a very interesting first blog post I hear you say, and you'd be right, however for political parties it's becoming more and more an issue.

The BBC reported the story that Labour MP Lyn Brown was seeking to recruit a volunteer for her House of Commons office. The grassroots website LabourList further clarified the story adding that Ms. Brown was apparently seeking to replace a paid position. Within hours this had blown into a huge controversy and names such as the Chair of Young Labour Susan Nash, Youth NEC Representative Callum Munro and NUS President Liam Burns were adding their names to an open letter to Ed Miliband calling on him to end the use of unpaid interns.

Here in Reading after a flurry of phone calls, Ian Stevens, Chair of Reading Young Labour and Will Cross, President of the Reading University Labour Society added their names to the letter. By the afternoon LabourList had accumulated an impressive 125+ names ranging from Youth Officers and ordinary members to Councillors and PPC's. It was clear something was going to happen and it did, Lyn Brown MP issued a statement:

The allegation that I am replacing paid employees with volunteers is simply not true. Volunteers supplement the work of the paid staff in my office.
I have a number of volunteers who work with me, some retired and some straight from University. I really would like to pay everyone who is seeking a wage but I do not have the money for it. People who come to my office to volunteer and get work experience, invariably either get work with me or find paid work elsewhere, within a 6 month period. Expenses are given for travel and subsistence.

I feel I should point out at this juncture where I stand on the matter, its simple, I completely disagree with the use of unpaid interns and I would like Labour to take a stand on it and actually lead the way on this issue.

Now in some ways I feel sorry for Lyn Brown its unfortunate she is having to deal with this when in fact it could have been any MP but the fact is she is missing the point. If a retired pensioner wishes to help in her office then by all means, if a University student or GCSE/A-Level student wishes to do work experience (2 weeks) then by all means but lets not pretend thats what is actually happening. In reality the situation is more like this: graduates fresh out of university desperately looking for a way to work in the HoC apply for an unpaid internship in the hope of being noticed often staying for up to six months before moving onto another internship. These graduates work incredibly hard and throw all they can into their jobs and put simply they deserve to get paid.

Ms. Brown makes the point that she cannot afford to pay her interns, well then thats something that needs to be raised in the House as its something that effects all MP's from all parties. I realise that we are in a very difficult financial situation but if our MPs are unable to do the work requested of them because we are unwilling as taxpayers to give them extra money to pay for interns we cannot expect the same level of quality some of our MPs give us.

Ed Miliband took a clear stance on this in his Labour leadership race and he needs to act on this matter and lead. Recently Ed mentioned that Labour was the party of the grafter, well these graduates are grafters, they work hard and they deserve to be paid a fair wage, after all isn't that why Labour exists today?