Fear for Nottingham

After all the work our team has done to get our Councillors relected in the wards they represent has not worked. I'm sure the national situation had most to do with it but I'll let other people argue about that. I am going to go out on a limb and say that it can't be for a particular like for some of the candidates of Nottingham Labour or the Nottingham party itself.

Not all of them. There is one in particular I talked that, I felt, was a reasonable person who was actually there to look after the people she represents, a community activist instead of a partisan politician.

Having spent time with our Councillors well before election time I've have got to say that they are a bunch of people to be proud of. Always trying to work to better the situation for the residents of their wards the best they can. There never seemed to be a conversation in my presence about their own aggrandisement and their first concern was helping.

I have attended several (resident) meetings they have been to, outside the normal freak show that is Full Council, and found that they never politicised a meeting just to make a personal gain. Sound advice and help is what they offered.

I really hope that given the way I have seen Nottingham Labour behave that Nottingham doesn't implode and all the good work that our team doesn't come undone. The arrogance of the current ruling lot thinking they naturally deserve the votes of the people of Nottingham and not actually doing the detailed basic work for constituents to show that people should vote for them on merit makes me cringe.

We shall see what the next 4 years brings.

Quiet as a Church Mouse - Speaking in Public

Having been to our local Lib Dem AGM mini-conference today I was asked to give a little report about the recent Autumn Conference with a couple other of my fellow Nottingham Lib Demmers.

A few years ago I was at a induction session for Junior Doctors with a few Consultants present. I used to get extremely nervous talking to a group of people until one particular session when someone spoke before me who came across very poorly because of her extreme nervousness. I felt sorry for her as when not in these inductions she didn't come across this way. Having heard this though I was grateful that suddenly after thinking to myself "I'm not like that am I when I talk?" my "bad" nerves about speaking in front of these people disappeared.

I couldn't beleive it and I've not felt that nervous since.

My BIG problem is that I have been told repeatedly that I talk very quietly.

I think this stems from the fact that my eye sight is poor so, as they say, my hearing has compensated and my hearing is very acute. This makes my speech sound very loud to me but to everyone else barely audible.

Fortunately today I think people heard me as they at least laughed in the right places but I do have a tendancy to slip back to my normal volume after trying to talk louder at the beginning.

Is the solution to stick some earplugs? :-)

Do I then come across as loud and obnoxious?

I may try it one time in front of people I know.

Delivering Liberal Democrat Focus Leaflets

I thought today I'd make a start on my batch of Focus leaflets with a spare couple of hours.

Oh my word it was cold. The car temparature monitor said 0 degrees. Mmm chilly.

The batch I did was part of the Sherwood Rise area of Nottingham which I've not really been to in detail before. Having travelled around a few new areas I have noticed how fantastic and interesting some of the old houses in Nottingham are. And how big some of them are when they were probably in there original format of only one house instead of flats.

It would be nice to have seen some of these areas in their original spendour but unfortunately time takes its toll and some of these properties must require significant cash to maintain.


There were even more substantial properties on another cul de sac that don't appear on Google street view which could look wonderful again but needed significant investment to bring them back to their former glory.

Hopefully I'll carry on seeing these marvels around a few of the other areas I'm due to travel.

Lib Dems Public Sector Pay Freeze and £1 million Home Tax

A Personal View

As a Public Sector worker I listened with interest at the suggestion of a pay freeze as part of the whole package to enable to the countries finances to be brought back under control.

I have always worked in the Health Service and have never had a year when I didn't receive a cost of living increase. Given the state of the finances of Britain and what non-public sector workers are having to sacrifice to maintain their jobs and keep their companies going I don't think some sacrifice on the part of the public sector would go a miss.

There are also people losing their employment left, right and centre and during this recession I have never felt at risk, although I know this doesn't apply to all PS workers. Hopefully a freeze would secure the employment of more of these workers without the need for further job cuts.

Having said this, if there could be a re-balance between the tax the rich pay and the poor and the minimum tax threshold could be lifted to £10000 this would benefit all workers and would give a large section of society that needs it a significant boost in income.

I am more for hitting the exclusively rich that put significant effort in to avoiding paying their liabilities by exploiting loopholes in tax law that their highly paid Accountants find for them.

How the £1 million home tax rule would be administered eludes me but given that people living in areas of the south have not put themselves in this situation but have been put here by the ridiculous property market we would have to be careful not to penalise the wrong sections of our community. I'm sure the detailed explanation will clarify this system.

I don't think the Unions really ought to go overboard regarding a freeze if the Liberal Democrats can deliver on the threshold increase the amount of the members that would benefit I'm sure would be substantial.

Liberal Democrats Conference September 2009

Really enjoying the twitter feeds and upto date news stories being sent from the Liberal Democrats conference this year.

Trend on Twitter : #LDConf

Lib Dems Leader : @Nick_Clegg

Nottingham Lib Dem Councillor : @alexfoster

Conference Twitter Feed : @LibDemConf

Lib Dem Voice : @libdemvoice

Conference Facebook Page : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136318551516


The above references are always good for information.

Gurkha Issue

I am so glad that the Lib Dems and Conservatives could come together on this issue and vote this bill down. Hopefully the Government won't have the moral cowardice to ride rough shod over this as they have other things.

It seems the more you give to this country the less you are though of. I am not particularly military specialist or fan but these people have committed themselves to this country we need to commit ourselves to them. We seem to let any other random in to this country to leach off it but the Government are not willing to pay for patriots.

I've found the money needed for these people to stay in our country. (like alot of other people)

Number 1 - Scrap the Nuclear Arms Replacement program. (Loads of money)

Number 2 - Scrap the ID card system (Loads of Money)

Number 3 - Get Jackie Smith's husband to claim the money on her expenses as Porn. She doesn't check them receipts.

None of the bravery medal nonsense. They are all brave if they commit themselves to armed combat.

Nottingham Industrial Museum

Being a reasonably damp day we decided to take a little walk to Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum and the attached Nottingham Industrial Museum. Both of these excellent facilities are thankfully inside are free to everyone as the Nottingham Industrial Museum always has been. It has been compiled, repaired and maintained by volunteers all these years.

Nottingham City Council has given these people money to maintain this facility to his point. Now because of a shortfall in the council budget of £20 million pounds they plan on removing this funding. A paltry £44,000 in the grand scheme of things.

Isn't it strange that they can find the unreal amount of money for the Nottingham Contempary Art Gallery from a VAT refund, what a lucky refund that was to get them out of a pickle.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Petition-save-Nottingham-s-heritage/article-756538-detail/article.html

As someone in a letter of response to the article about says, there are plenty of art gallerys in available in Nottingham already but there is only one Industrial Museum and these machines are not something you can switch off and then in 2 years time just switch back off again.

The article from this Evening Post above also quotes Councillor David Trimble regarding the gallery, "It is this sort of thing that put Newcastle/Gateshead on the map". Do we have a case of City envy Mr Trimble. There is also the fact the just a gallery doesn't make a city Mr Trimble.

OH by the way, Newcastle Council is a Liberal Democrat run council, take some tips Mr Trimble and your LABOUR colleagues. I know one thing, I'm envious of the Newcastle citizenry for this fact.

Thanks for choosing an easy, non-fashionable target Labour Councillors.

About time for a change.

Recently, although I am quite comfortable in my life and have actually quite prospered even in this downturn, I have become despondent with the inadequate way we are being governed and the complete disregard for the common person with which this government acts.

From the actions that took us in to the Iraq war after such a significant protest against this course to the complete mismanagement of our economy based on the premise we have got some money lets spend it (during the boom times) instead of what was being preached to us about saving and our own financial responsibility. Normally I wouldn't be against an ID card scheme, one did exist just after World War II for several years, but it is the insidious amount of data they wish to hold about you that fills me with fear and sickness. If this government were to have their way my and my children's DNA profiles as well as all manner of biometric data would be collected with as little thought as someone collect coupons from a supermarket. They can not be trusted to hold this data secure. This is my mind just classifies everyone from BIRTH as a future criminal to be monitored, catalogued, suppressed and feared. How long before we cross further over the line and criminalise more aspects of our lives. It all seems to be creeping in the back door through these times with civil liberties being eroded in the times of so called emergencies but these liberties never being returned once the emergency is over.

We are constantly informed of the threat of terrorism which I am sure our secret services are doing a enormous job to keep us safe. I remember the IRA attacks on the British mainland happening on a regular basis but no DNA database, biometric ID card or such like that would have been available at the time being proposed. A database of every law-abiding individual is not needed. Use the money being wasted on other resources for the correct people to be investigated, infiltrated and imprisoned when they wish us serious harm.

It brings me to the point of this rant, thoughts or feelings whatever it is to say that we need a change in our lives and my conversion half way through my life (hopefully less) to take a deeper interest in the main parties in our politic system and my position of blissful and comfortableness in my old position of doing the same old thing.

I now believe that our 2 parties that are at the head of the game just take it in turns making an absolute mess of country after a certain period in office without the will to change anything that might overly offend their paymasters for fear of reducing their own personal income. They are bought parties doing what they think is best and listening to no one else because we do not matter.

I took an online test recently that asked a series of questions and was surprised to find that i was definitely holding out the wrong political position. This took me to look more in-depth at the Liberal Democrat party, what the stand for and what changes the could make.

We have had Liberal Democrat councillors in my ward for a number of years and have always been impressed by their attentiveness to local issues that actually matter to people but when it came to a General Election I am guilty, like maybe a lot of people, of being steered to vote for the usual gruesome twosome.

We have the vote to change that, use it and DON'T listen to the nay-sayers that "oh, the Liberal Democrats will never get enough votes."

We need to vote for a party that is instilled with the values of Freedom, Fairness and Trust to change our lives for the better.

http://www.libdems.org.uk/policies

Ainsley Area Resident Association Meeting

First Meeting of the newly formed association met on Monday 21st April 2008. Some people seemed quite nervous of each other as some had only really just met. It was nice to really meet some new people from our estate that I would probably not have met before or probably ever. Hopefully more residents will attend future meetings but the turnout wasn't too bad at all. A variety of ages of people which is always important. The local Lib Dem Councillors attended together. I only really met Alex Foster last week. He seemed a really personable man and a pleasure to meet. Gary Long has been our councillor for some time and is a very knowledge person and always has time for local people.

We are mainly trying to get an open space owned by the school opened for public use as it has fell in to disrepair but because of legislation, inter-department funding and liability seem to be rather big mountains to climb. We will have to wait and see.