Damian Green MP Cleared

The arrest of Conservative Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green on allegations of breaking the Offiicial Secrets Act was an arrest too far in the opinion of many people not only in the political sphere, but in the country as a whole.  Mr. Green was arrested for merely telling the truth and blowing the whistle on the hideous incompetence being practised within the Home Office.

Thankfully, the the Crown Prosecution Service took the decision that Mr. Green had no case to answer, and that he had not broken the law by seeking to publicise the woefully inadequate standards being applied within the Home Office with relation to both immigration policy in general and the employment of staff within the department itself.  What has become increasingly apparent is that the government had Mr. Green arrested to cover for their own administrative shortcomings.  Indeed, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who is no stranger to criticism on these pages sought to justify Damian Green’s arrest after the CPS had cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Jacqui Smith’s response came as no surprise to me, as I had expected her to continue to try and justify the state’s big brother behaviour toward those who dare to expose the inadequacies and incompetence of the current regime.  The astonishing revelations in yesterday’s Times was that the police who had searched Damian Green’s office and home proceeded to go through his personal emails to find correspondence he’d had with the director of civil rights group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti.  I can only think that the authorities would be interested in such correspondence because both Mr. Green and Ms. Chakrabarti have been consistently critical of the government’s approach to personal freedom and the right to freedom of speech.

My considered view is that Jacqui Smith is the worst Home Secretary I have seen in my lifetime, and that she should  resign from office or that the Prime Minister should fire her.  Former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis hit the nail on the head when he said of Ms. Smith “It’s not as though she’s particularly good at her job.”  What all of this shameful business of arresting an opposition spokesman tells me is that it’s time for regime change in this country.

Litter Problems Persist In Southfield

The dropping of litter continues to be a scourge affecting Southfield, I don’t make a habit of preaching to people, and I know the majority of local residents don’t go around dropping litter all over the place, however, a small minority of people continue to defile the local environment by leaving their litter around to cause problems.

It was recently brought to may attention that the land alongside Marsden Hall Road South was had become a dumping ground for all manner of rubbish, from drinks cans and takeaway cartons to half of the bumper from a car.  From my perspective littering is antisocial behaviour, it rests in the same category of misdemeanour as annoying your neighbours with noise and unruly behaviour.

A major problem with littering is the dropping of takeaway cartons with food still inside them, this merely serves to attract rats and other vermin to the area.  Rats are a major public health hazard, as they spread all manner of unpleasant diseases which can cause serious problems to human health.  These animals have caused problems in Southfield before, and until the dropping of half-eaten takeaways stops, then we will never overcome this serious risk to public health.

Only so much can be done by the local authority with regard to keeping the streets and public spaces clean and tidy, the rest needs the minority who carry on dropping litter to take responsibility for their actions and think before they carry on polluting the local environment and encouraging the vermin population to become more established.  I appeal to those who drop litter in the streets and in public spaces not to, please put your waste in a bin, or take it home with you and put it in the bin there.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Gordon Brown has thankfully finally taken it upon himself to apologise to the Conservative MPs who were the subject of a vicious smear campaign planned by his former adviser Damian McBride.

The nasty and completely uneccessary tactic of using malicious gossip and innuendo against political opponents belongs in the past, and to be completely unequivocal, it belongs in the gutter.  We have seen this method used time and time again to gain perceived political advantage in Britain, and it is rather tiring to watch grown men and women resorting to this sort of unpleasant carry on merely to cling to public offices they are quite obviously not fit to hold.

Given that the Prime Minister’s in the mood for apologies, how about him apologising to the millions of private pension investors he screwed over when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer?  This monumental error of judgment was Brown’s cynical and calculated move to end the tax exemption on share dividends for personal pension funds.  This single catastrophic mistake has systematically devalued the pension investments of  everyone who has invested in a personal pension scheme, resulting in people’s retirement savings being taken from them at a stroke and without their consent.

Another act of daylight robbery which Brown has yet to properly apologise for is the abolition of the 10p starting rate of income tax he authorised in his final budget as chancellor.  This smash and grab raid on the incomes of the vast majority of ordinary working people in Britain was equally as cold, heartless and calculated as the raid he carried out on personal pension funds.  Quite frankly, after the raids on ordinary peoples’ incomes and personal pensions, I have been left thinking Brown simply doesn’t care about ordinary folk at all.

With regard to the McBride affair, I agree with former Home Secretary Charles Clarke (and well known enemy of Brown) when he says that the “dark arts” should be banished from political and public life once and for all.  Perhaps, more obviously, I agree with David Cameron on the point that the only way forward for our nation and our people is a change of leadership and a change of government.

Have They Not Learned Their Lesson?

Who’d have thought it – City Bankers getting big fat bonuses when the country’s economy’s in recession?  That’s exactly what is STILL going on, over the last couple of days, it has been reported that staff at Goldman Sachs are going to receive up to a 33% pay boost and that the bank is now back in profit.

The big fear to ordinary, hard working decent people in Pendle must surely be that those guilty of the poor decision making which brought the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS to their knees may also be in line for bonus payments.  From my point of view those who made the reckless decisions to gamble trillions of pounds of other people’s money in uncalculated risk taking exercises should be punished for their misdemeanours, not rewarded.

I cannot believe what I feel to be the sheer bare-faced cheek of those in the city of London and beyond who seem to consider that society owes them their fat bonuses after they created the situation in which millions of ordinary people in this country have lost their jobs.  The thought of a select few being awarded as much as a 33% pay rise when  many working people are having their wages frozen or cut simply beggars belief. 

It is to be hoped that this culture will not be allowed to go on unchecked in those banks which are now largely owned by the state.  The principals of those institutions must surely realise that once their company returns to profit, their obligation should be to pay back the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money pumped in to simply keep them in business.

Town Council AGM – 8th April

Nelson Town Council held its second annual general meeting, or “Town Meeting” on April 6th.  The progress of the council up to date was reviewed, and we are looking forward to announcing a number of projects to enhance the town shortly.

At the meeting, councillors had to vote on who would be the chairman and vice chairman of the town council for the next municipal year.  A majority decision of 15 votes to 8 sees Cllr. George Adam continuing as chairman, and Cllr. Shahida Ahmed continues as vice-chairman by a similar margin.  The continued support Cllr. Adam and Cllr. Ahmed received allows the Town Council to move forward with the guarantee of both stability and continuity.

The three committees, Community Services, Finance & General Purposes and Planning will also have to take votes in order to appoint chairmen for the next year when they meet on Wednesday, 22nd April.