Fair is Worth Fighting For

Tomorrow voters will go to the polls in River Ward on what will a referendum on the Conservative Council and our current coalition government.

The Tories are the punters favourites to win, though not this bloggers - with a government elected only three months ago and a large and active membership base of Councillors. Anything short of a victory for Tories would be seen as a massive slap in the face, and would be a shot across the bows of the Medway Conservative leadership, and the potential aspiring leader who has been involved in the campaign from its very inception. The antics of Mark Reckless in Parliament will also be on the ballot paper. Could his antics depress turnout? We will find out.

Could we be in for a shock?

Labour are coming from behind in the national polls, in an area which overwhelmingly voted Conservative only three months ago (from box returns in May). Labour have no national leader and a party which is correctly reflecting on what went right and wrong with 13 years in power. Our membership base is growing, but has suffered losses as a result of being in government. True that Labour had an excellent former Councillor Bill Esterson, selected his replacement quickly, and ran an effective ground and media campaign from the outset.

Campaigning hard and a strong candidate will make all the difference, and in that, John Jones and the Labour team deserves to win under the laws of natural justice.

This blogger believes that John has the experience, judgement, character and capability to be the best Councillor of all those on the ballot paper. He however faces a public that only 3 months rejected Labour by a 10% swing. Can he recoup? This blog believes and hopes he can.

The other minority parties have no chance of winning, though they have put in a spirited effort.

From Liberal Democrat Garry Harrison, who has set up a very open and well written website, with plenty of spirited comment. He will suffer with the collapse of the party nationally in the polls and the defection of Cllr Andy Stamp to the Independents. This blog is a big fan of online campaigning and salutes his effort.

The ever affable Green Party campaigner Steven Keevil, who regularly tweets about his antics has certainly worked very hard and deserves to pick up a few votes. One to keep an eye on and potentially a PPC for a Medway seat in the future. At some point, this blogger owes Mr Keevil a pint, to show that depsite the banter, it does hold the Greens and himself in high regard.

The other candidates have stood in countless other by-elections across Medway and are solid campaigners. The English Democrats, the new party, and the distinctly seperate BNP will no doubt be keeping an eye on tomorrow, to see if the working class base sticks with Labour or moves to the right or extreme right.

Dont hold your breath.

History shows that parties of the right tend to do very badly after Labour looses a General Election because the base tends to rally with a Tory government. Of course history does not always repeat itself...

Its going to be close.

Tory CCTV Car Anger Swells

The one-eyed 'white vulture' cars have been causing trouble amongst residents once again. There prowling and illegal antics continue to upset council tax payers across Medway, with many residents standing up against the Conservative CCTV cars which have plagued and harrassed for years.

The news that the cars have been treating residents with contempt are not new. We have had numerous examples of the cars breaking the law, from parking on double yellow lines to prowling around primary schools around the same time that parents come to drop off or pick up their children. Coincidence?

The simple fact is that Tory Councillors have planned massive increases in the amount they expect to make from the vehicles. The Council budget, passed in April, highlights starkly that they do not care at all about the plight of motorists across Medway.

Our Conservative masters in Gun Wharf are only interested in the money they can make out of previously law-abiding citizens. The morality of snooping on the same public, which also pays the Council tax rates for the vehicles are ignored.

With that in mind, the news that the all-seeing CCTV Spy Cars have issued more than 16,000 tickets in the last financial year, raking in just over £455,000 in fines from motorists must now be the final straw for many residents.

This is nothing short of a full scale Tory attack on Medway Motorists.

The stunning statistics were revealed in a report by anti-surveillance pressure group Big Brother Watch and showed that on average the authority's two camera cars penalised a combined total of 300 Medway drivers each week between April 1, 2009, and March 31 this year.

The number of tickets and overall income are both roughly four times higher than those recorded in Manchester, a city with more than 200,000 more residents.

Big Brother Watch's figures show that 54 CCTV Smart Cars, employed by 31 councils across Britain, generated more than £8 million in fines last year and fined more than £187,000 motorists.

We are now seeing residents having to take their own action to prove that the vehicle is causing distress.

One stalwart of the communuty, Bill Khan filmed the antics of the Medway Council employee who instead of offering some humility decided to argue with a member of the public for filming him at work.

The 34-year-old stalwart of the community captured the Smart car from the pavement while it was patrolling Batchelor Street, just off Chatham High Street. Mr Khan, who sent his video to the Medway Messenger, said:

"Is this how Medway Council train their employees? Not very good ambassadors for the council, are they?"

Tory controlled Medway Council said Mr Khan could not have been arrested for filming the warden, but declined to comment further.

This blog has previously commented on the CCTV car. It believes the problem stems from the very top. With arrogant and out of touch Tory Councillors in charge why are you not surprised?

Previously, Tory chief Cllr Filmer, who is in charge of the CCTV cars, happily admitted that the CCTV car parked in prohibited places about 70 per cent of the time and was above the law. He also indicated that the car "never causes an obstruction to other vehicles. It is done to ease the congestion of our towns and to provide a safer working environment. It has had a positive impact"

Make no mistake at all, the car has left a terrible legacy. Throughout its tarnished history it has merely served to highlight the total contempt of Tory Councillors towards the general public.

Last year a direct comparison was made between the illegal parking of Conservative Councillors at Gun Wharf in Disabled Parking bays (twice) vis-a-vis the fine the CCTV would have given for parking in the incorrect bays.

The CCTV car has also been spotted parking illegally outside the Conservative Party HQ in Gillingham & Rainham. The Tory group led the purchase of the despised CCTV car and has wholeheartedly supported the punitive taxation of motorists across the town by purchasing further vehicles.

Every month the press is inundated by members of the public who are sick and tired of the CCTV Car. They are tired of the car arrogantly breaking the rules and they are fed up with the insulting manner and its contempt for basic highway rules and the traffic code. There is a general groundswell of support to scrap the vehicle entirely and use the money to fund stand-alone CCTV traffic cameras outside schools, where dangerous driving could harm lives and cameras could actually save lives.

The Tories have a lamentable record on transport in Medway.

The multi-million pound two-way traffic madness in Chatham, the purchase of an unsafe Medway Tunnel which could see a Tory Toll, constant uncoordinated roadworks, disgrace around gritting during the winter months. Pothole madness in Strood and a bus station farce in Chatham which has seen the destruction of town heritage. Meanwhile we have a total lack of oversight around Arriva busses with some areas of Medway left uncovered by a basic service on Sunday's. That is not to comment on the the gerrymandering of funding for the Yellow Bus scheme and the opposition to the Freedom Bus Pass.

Next year you can make a difference and vote to kick this lot from office

Tory Cuts undermining Economic recovery

Ideological and brutal cuts to schools, hospitals and local services. Privatisation of health and school services. Undermining of the police and criminal justice system. A Tory government is now in full swing.

Now we have 'credit' bounty hunters being paid by the government to spy on the citizens of our country targeting the poorest in society.

This Conservative Government has scared consumer confidence and cut too early and too quickly. House prices are wobbling and people are fearful for their jobs.

The Coalition has squandered the economic recovery that they inherited by Labour. A recovery that came after a recession caused not by government, but by the greedy market.

Tory cuts. They must be opposed.

John Jones - Voice for River Ward

John Jones, Cllr Stephen Hubbard and me.

Voters will go to the polls on Thursday to elect a Councillor for River Ward.

Six candidates are campaigning for the seat, with each of the three main parties represented alongside the Greens, BNP and English Democrats.

This blog will be encouraging readers in River Ward to vote for John Jones on Thursday for three major reasons.

1) Character - John has been a champion in the ward for years. As Chair of the Residents Association and involved in the PACT he has already shown years of service in the community. Unlike any other candidate he can claim and has a network of contacts in the community should he win

2) Judgement - the Conservative Council has made some pretty lousy decisions over the last three years. It has not managed or scrutinised road-works. It has purchased the Medway Tunnel with a potential for a toll in the future which would hurt River residents. Tories nationally are undermining the fight against anti-social behaviour by supporting a national government which is cutting police numbers, undermining magistrate services and introducing shorter sentences for career criminals.

3) Scrutiny - John has been involved in local politics and understands how to fight for resource. He has first hand expertise on matters of regeneration, which will impact the ward in future years.

The Conservative candidate is very credible but taking experience, judgement, involvement and ability together; John Jones has shown he has all four in equal measure.

The other candidates in the ward will not come close. This a two-horse race between John Jones and David Craggs. A vote for any other party will let the Conservatives through the back door.

This blogger knows John well and believes he will be a fantastic and tireless representative for residents.

If you want someone who will stand and fight for River ward, who will be out every weekend speaking to residents (in eight languages), improving his community and who can challenge and scrutinise our Council then vote John Jones on Thursday.

Tory Academy cuts Averted

It is only a tad two-faced for senior Conservative MPs to be taking credit, in full public, about the fact that our Medway Academies have finally been granted the funding to build new buildings.

It was a Conservative Government which threatened the funding in the first place and which has caused head teachers, parents and pupils untold stress and heart ache for months.

The credit, if any, should go to the tireless head teachers, school staff and Academy Sponsors who have had to wait, on every baited breath, from that call from the Department for Education indicating that Michael Gove had saved them from the Tory axe. The credit should also go to all those cross-party campaigners who worked hard to represent the Academies.

As we can now see, the funding for the Medway Academies was never a slight of hand by the previous Labour Government.

It was always costed and totally fundable.

The threat to these Academies had always and only come from a Conservative Government which had quite clearly rushed through, on what now can be seen by the public, to be a monumental mistake of judgement. The fact that Michael Gove himself has had to apologise for a litany of errors and the Department for Education has had to publish half a dozen (at least) corrected versions of the BSF cuts list highlights the total ineptitude of this current administration.

The next step is to identify what went wrong in government.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, it has seen internal memo's showing that Mr Gove was repeatedly warned by top officials that the £55 billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was a minefield which could not simply be abandoned at a stroke. He ignored the advice.

The general public can spot a mistake of this kind and identify its cause.

Everyone knows that Gove has managed this process so appallingly that a school-child with half his supposed IQ could have stepped in and got it right, after the first list of BSF cuts. Gove simply and carelessly rushed out lists of cuts to prove a political point, that Labour had made-up the funding for the Academies. The fibs that Labour had pledged money before the election that the government did not have, now stand totally hollow.

The announcement this week that our Medway Academies have secured funding is a welcome u-turn for sure, but this whole process highlights why Michael Gove, a former journalist, simply is not qualified to manage a major department of state.

The numerous errors point to one judgement. Michael Gove is simply not up to the job.

Local Tory MPs should be careful to take the credit for this process too quickly. The public, Academies and sponsors are under no illusion that the threat came from a Tory Government. The Academies and head teachers will remember the stress and hurt caused by the process. They will remember who gloated to celebrate and who apologised for the pain caused.

Lastly, they will remember the man who managed this process so poorly; one named Michael Gove.

Acadamies Success

Welcome news today that the Strood, Brompton and Bishop of Rochester Academies have been given the green light. The exact timetable for building programmes is due to be confirmed but many parents, pupils and staff can now plan ahead.

Along with this blog, Labour Councillor Vince Maple and the opposition Party on the Council have been putting significant pressure on the Conservative Government to move ahead with the Academies.

The Conservative Government should never have threatened the BSF budgets and the local u-turn must reflect the fact that Michael Gove rushed through on the cuts to the BSF Budget in June.

Despite this welcome change of heart, his capability in office is now in question.

Mark Reckless MP also campaigned to safeguard the fuinding and his contribution was very much welcome. His government however threatened the Academies in the first place.

A full list of Academies saved can be accessed here.

Total Liability

Another foreign policy gaffe.

Once can be forgiven, twice accepted, third is a trend.

Cameron needs to get a grip and fast because he is making the office of Prime Minister a laughing stock across the world and is being seen as a liability by key allies.