Reading Labour Back Shelter’s campaign on rogue lettings agents

Research by housing charity Shelter showed that one in four people across the country had been ripped off by unscrupulous agents charging unfair fees.  I’d recommend to anyone either affected by this or who is interested in fair business dealings (and that includes landlords – I know a number who …

50 days to the Police and Crime Commissioner (#PCC) elections – vote for a candidate who respects the police

With what twitter has dubbed ‘gategate’ or ‘plebgate’* still rumbling on it’s noticeable that the Conservative candidate for the Thames Valley has failed to comment on Andrew Mitchell’s comments to police. Tim Starkey Labour’s candidate here has asked him to distance himself and condemn abusive behaviour towards the police.  Regardless of your political …

Guest blog: Leader of #rdg council on council tax benefit abolition

Letter to local press: Dear Sir, I see  that Tory Councillor David Stevens is indignant about the Council’s consultation on the abolition of Council Tax Benefit, claiming that “To say, as Reading Borough Council are, that the government is  ‘abolishing’ Council Tax Benefit is at best a misrepresentation of what …

Landlords who want to provide decent accommodation are welcome in Reading!

I seem to post relatively often about poor accommodation in the private rented sector and action that Reading council is taking to change this (and I will have yet another update on a prosecution shortly!).  However as I always stress good landlords are welcome in Reading and provide an essential service to …

When should you outsource? Questions that ought to have be asked before G4S got a sniff of the Olympic contract

I was recently asked by a family member ‘what’s your ideological objection to outsourcing?’.  This was before the G4S scandal took off when I had been worrying about police ‘privatisation’. I don’t really like the word ideological, it can sound like you are abandoned rational debate or that you don’t …

Getting the word out about police and crime commissioners is going to be essential

It was great to be back out and about on the doorstep in Whitley with a team of 8, made up of Reading Labour members along with Victoria Groulef and Tim Starkey, the Labour candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner.  I picked up some good local casework and it was …

New NHS structure diagram, what ‘less bureaucracy’ appears to mean

We were promised less bureaucracy in the NHS as part of Lansley’s ‘reforms’.  Well we certainly knew that coordination would be fragmented.  Less bureaucracy?  Think about your own experience of the NHS recently.  I certainly haven’t noticed a reduction in bureaucracy, quite the opposite.  But I can’t really blame the doctors, nurses, midwives …

Free bus travel from 9am to return for #rdg pensioners – @ReadingLabour

This was a local manifesto commitment and a partial restoration of a badly thought through cut from the short-lived Conservative-led administration.  We would like to restore it at all times but we need to make sure this is affordable.  Talking to retired people the loss of the 9-9.30 period was …

Police and Crime commissioners – get informed!

With the candidates for police and crime commissioners starting to come forward it’s becoming really important for everyone to ensure they are well informed about the issues that will matter in this election. Thames Valley Police have helpfully put together a report that gives information about the area they cover, the way they currently …

Whitley councillors’ ‘thank you’ leaflet and views on local elections

We are now putting out our post-election leaflet in Whitley, our top story of course is Mike Orton’s re-election with 65% of the vote.  However we have also gone for a slightly different departure for us by analysing the result and why we think that “coalition” candidates did so badly – …

What would you do to improve housing in Reading or UK generally?

The Labour party is seeking the widest possible input into our policy both at a national level and locally.  The national party is continuing the ‘partnership into power‘ policy discussions.  The general direction of travel is therebut the national policy forum will be discussing more submissions.  Members and non-members, whether …

Tomorrow’s elections

If you are reading my blog you probably are interested in politics, so I doubt you will forget to vote.  But obviously don’t forget! It will be interesting to see what happens locally and nationally in the elections tomorrow.  I won’t make any predictions, as ultimately it’s all down to …

Andrew Lansley cost the Berkshire West PCT, our local NHS, more than £25 million last year!

In context that is 2% of the entire annual budget set aside for an unpopular and counter productive ‘reorganisation’. .  And apparently it will have to do the same in the coming financial year.  It’s hard to process numbers in the billions – when Andy Burnham was quoting £3 billion plus and the Conservatives …

Reading Labour will work with ‘anyone’ to get the best for our young people

At the moment it feels like the Conservatives in Reading are taking it in turns to say silly things: whether that it’s a myth that doctors are against the NHS bill/act or that the Conservative councillors are ‘a united team’.Now the MP for Reading East has decided it’s high time …

Local solicitors are worried about cuts to legal aid

<!–[if !mso]>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–> Threatened cuts in legal aid will harm the most vulnerable in our society, unless the Government listens to a powerful coalition of charities and accepts House of Lords amendments when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill returns to the House of Commons. …

#rdg Conservatives are desperately smearing Labour to distract from their problems- letter from Labour agent to Conservative agent

On 28th March I wrote of the local Conservatives: “This is a sign of a party that is focused on what happens in the council chamber and not on people’s neighbourhoods  A sign of a party out of fresh ideas.   A sign of a party that is out of …

Nominations for #rdg elections in – don’t forget to register

The nominations for elections in Reading are now all in and they will be published shortly.  Some very interesting candidates for any follower of Reading politics.   I’m proud to be supporting Mike Orton’s bid for re-election in Whitley ward.  A resident and councillor for “longer than I’ve been alive” – as …

Extraordinary performance from #rdg Conservatives at full council meeting last night

I had predicted a council meeting dominated by some key policy debates – the NHS, education and workfare. Instead I suspect this week’s local newspaper headlines will be dominated by the internal workings of the local Conservative party. The controversy about Cllr Chowdary’s deselection has received a lot of coverage …

No to forced acadamisation – and #rdg council meeting preview

Tonight’s council meeting agenda is a mix of the very administrative and the highly charged – the statement on pay policy and ratification of the recommendation of the Independent Re-numeration Panel’s recommendations probably fall into the first and motions on workfare, the NHS and education on the other. The Reading Labour party …

Letter to my MP – he’s Cameron’s man, but worth a try… #SavetheNHS #sinkthebill

Send your own here Dear Mr Sharma, The NHS Bill did not feature in either your own or the Liberal Deomocrat manifesto, or in the Coalition Agreement. In fact, the Prime Minister himself promised the NHS was safe in his hands before the election, saying categorically there would be no …

@ReadingLabour runs joint candidates with @cooperativeparty

As a member of the Cooperative party I’m really pleased that in Reading we are making this link more high profile: Eight prospective Labour councillors in Reading and Wokingham, who are also members of the Co-operative Party are standing on a joint Labour and Co-operative Party ticket this year.The Co-operative Party has …

GUEST POST: appeal to Libdem supporters from #rdg lead on health

The following is a guest post from Bet Tickner, Reading’s lead councillor for health and community engagement: “Only days or weeks remain before the Tories try to force the disastrous and universally unpopular NHS bill into law, in the teeth of opposition from virtually every medical professional body and the public. Now …

Details of proposals to improve Housing in #rdg coming to cabinet tonight

The full reports are available here – item that are labelled agenda item 15.  However a summary is in the press release:Plans to improve Reading’s private housing sector by providing further support for tenants, house owners, landlords and local communities, will be considered by the Council’s Cabinet on 12 March. …

#savethenhs – airbrush edition

Let’s face it it’s pretty depressing what the government is up to on our NHS this week.  The Libdems (with some honourable exceptions) seem to be trying to position themselves so that they don’t look to blame but without actually having the guts to actually do anything.  Meanwhile, the Tories blaming either …

Motion to #rdg council tonight for more support for rape abuse victims @SARCReading

At tonight’s council meeting there will be a lot on the agenda and particularly a lot to say about next year’s budget, which I will blog about tomorrow if I have time.  However I am also proposing a motion to full council supporting a SARC in Reading, a single point …

National policy change as government backs down – due to @ReadingLabour pressure

It’s not often a planning committee changes government policy.  But that’s what has just happened following Reading’s planning committee decision to ensure that all developers, schools, itself, charities, businesses are treated on a level playing field when it comes to planning. Following this decision the Reading Labour run cabinet and …

Looking ahead to 2012

There are already people looking ahead to 2012.  Personally I am not wishing away the last 2 weeks of the year – a time I plan to spend largely with family and friends and doing a bit of council business (no more formal meetings though!).  But we’ll all need that …

New starts of Affordable housing down 99% in the South East

Across the country and in the South Eastwe’ve seen a 99% fall in housing starts (which is the Tory government’s prefered figure for measuring housing activity) for affordable housing being built in the 6 months to September 2011. Jack Dromney has called it a disaster, and I don’t think that’s …

What the feed in tarriff cut means for Reading

A consultation which ends almost 2 weeks after the changes come into effect, creating massive uncertainty for a fledgeling industry and not just moving the goal posts but taking the ball away for community environmental projects for the sake of the profits of the big 6 energy companies. Insert your …

#Tories are creating homelessness so #Labour councils need to act

We know that the Tory led government policies are forecast to increase homelessness substantially, with national forecasts showing scary figures. Here in Reading we are already seeing an increase in homelessness and we are worried about what the new year will bring. As an administration the Labour group is committed …

Extra care council housing close to completion in #rdg – 1st photos

It’s really nice to have tangible evidence of the future of sheltered and extra care housing in Reading (more photos on Whitley news).  Today I ‘topped out’ Cedar Court the first council housing to be build in Reading for over 20 years.  We got funding for this from the then, Labour, …

Democracy in action

A Whitley resident sent me this link.  It’s increadibly depressing that independent experts are predicting 10 million people will ‘fall off’ the electoral register as a result of changes proposed by ministers.  I’m hoping that decent members of parliament from all parties will get this amended.  I know how hard …

Women’s ‘issues’ – lets ask a ‘group of no 10 women’ what they are…

Not being a Guardian reader I didn’t see this leaked report yesterday but honestly, wow! http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2011/sep/13/leaked-memo-women-coalition-government Some of the ideas in there are good, even if they are u-turns (like revisiting failure to criminalise forced marriage) but other bits are frankly ludicrous as serious policy to remove the disproportionate effect …

Disabled residents – bus passes reinstated from 19th September

One of the most thoughtless of the cuts made by last year’s Tory administration was the removal of free bus travel for disabled residents pre-9.30.  In some cases this decision was actually counter productive even from a pure cost perspective.  For example a number of councillors are aware of cases …

Paying to make people homeless – more dangerous Conservative incompetence

In Reading and I imagine in many other councils, especially here in the South East, it is no secret that we, as a council, have been worried by the benefits changes.  We know it will hit not just families and individuals but also to the council’s resources.  In other words …

F1 Bahrain Campaign, an example of how politics is changing

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au4KRNXgOns?fs=1]Sometimes it’s nice just to think ‘hurray’ about something. But the wider implication is that this is just one example of how politics is changing and will continue to change. It won’t always be easy for politicians to deal with, but the trends to me appear to be:1. People …

Fathers’ Day

Because it was Fathers Day yesterday I missed the news about David Cameron’s latest demonstration of just how out of touch this government is. I’m going to stick my neck out and say I agree a dad who “runs out” on his kids and deliberately takes no responsibility or interest …

Politics and religion part 2

My earlier blog post was about the role that faith plays (or doesn’t play) in my own politics.  I didn’t have a full answer on the specifics of Archbishop Rowan Williams comments, apart from tentatively suggesting that it’s OK for bishops to make political points. However this blog post is …

Inflation

We’re all feeling the pinch at the moment, but increasingly I’m hearing from people who can’t make ends meet and I believe other councillors are too.  The high inflation and squeeze on wages is affecting everyone but for some it can mean choosing between food and fuel.  This radio report …

Politics and religion

The ‘unholy row’ between the Archbishop and the Prime Minister had me musing on the role religion has played in my own political views.  I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I have a faith – brought up in a very Church of England family I have more …

Priorities for Housing and Neighbourhoods and tonight’s cabinet

This evening at cabinet we approved our priorities for this year.  You can see the full document here but the priorities from my portfolio are reproduced below. I was shocked by some of the things said by opposition speakers at tonight’s meeting. In particular I found Cllr Ralph’s comments about …

From the campaign trail

Although I’m officially ‘on a break’ from social media until after the elections to focus on campaigning a couple of people have actually asked me could I do a post about how I think the local election campaign is going.  Well go on, since you twisted my arm! So what …

Weather is too nice to blog!

Tomorrow I will try to post my March report and then I am going to take a break from blogging until after the local elections (unless something REALLY exciting comes up)  Here are some interesting posts from elsewhere: A widely cited and well researched article by Duncan Weldon (ex Bank …

Powerful image

You know I said there’s probably going to be a campaign about the government taking disabled people’s wheelchairs at this rate?  Well there is: Here’s the press release:““We don’t want to be ‘Left Out In The Cold’ ”, say Britain’s disabled people. On the eve of the second reading of …

‘We got this one wrong’

Does our MP agree? <!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–> When MPs voted Alok Sharma, whose constituency includes Sulham Woods, voted for the sell-off, and in letters to concerned constituents including me argued it was part of the ‘Big Society’. Has he changed his mind? On another note I went to …

Lots of bad news

I don’t have anything nice to say about the top local story.  So I’m not going to say it.  John things well. In the meantime the Government’s plans for our forests are in disarray, it turns out that the Conservatives have doubled the proportion of their money coming from the …

Jim Hanley

Whitley councillor Jim Hanley died suddenly on Friday morning. Anyone who reads my blog is probably aware of this as it’s been all over the local blogs and getReading. It’s also why I haven’t posted anything since Thursday.  What do you say when something like this happens? Jim was a …

Interesting reading

It’s been hard to keep up with what is happening in Egypt this post offers one useful insight (although the comments are not really worth reading). My last trip abroad in 2007 was to Egypt  that the only real knowledge about it that I have.  My very uninformed impression was …

Full council – a serious business – everything but the grass cut

This is my personal recollection. Last night was full council and it was a meeting which included some cross party work and sensible discussion.  But it also included the first round of the budget cuts being brought for debate.  The Conservative, Cllr Stevens (he never seems to enjoy\ political disagreement, …

Busy couple of days

Petition now over 350, attended dinner with Ed Milliband at the Penta Hotel (great speech!) and protest march today against the NHS reorganisation, tax dodging gazillionaires and the cuts to the council’s income. It was good to march with other trade unionists (there were far more from Unison there than …

The EMA

Is the EMA a good thing?  I have plenty of anecdotal evidence but as a friend recently accused the government of ‘hating statistics’ and I laughed along with him I guess that would be unfair.  So lucky for me the IFS has just published an analysis . So  yes, it …

Education cuts

I paid tuition fees at University,although it was under the short lived system that was means tested so I paid less. I can see the reasoning for graduates paying part of the cost of their education and I am not a denier of the private benefit that is received by …

Kelly Edwards

My colleague and comrade Jim Hanley has decided to retire from the council in May following his qualification as a social worker.  I’ll be sorry to see him step back from front line politics and I know that many people in Whitley, and indeed across Reading, have reason to thank …

Stockholm Syndrome?

Rumours and more than rumours have been going around Reading over the last week about which wards the Lib dems are planning to stand aside in either totally or by not actively campaigning.  Tony Jones has now broken the story on his blog.  If this is seriously going to happen …

October report –

Summary:  A busy month. some local positives overshadowed by the national news.  Council work:   Full council this month was I have to say a largely disappointing affair with a lot of bad temper and unnecessary amendments of motions for political point scoring.  I kept out of the debates that caused …

The Story of England

I’ve been really enjoying “The story of England” with Michael Wood the last few weeks – if you’ve missed it I would definitely look out for repeats or go on iplayer.  It is great to see a history program that gives you a real idea of how your own life …

The morning after…

If Labour was running the council this post would sum up how I was feeling.  CllrTim in Bansley is agonising over horrendous decisions being foisted on him by central government cuts.  Local government is probably the hardest hit of all departments, and this is after already spending years on efficiency …

#CSR = some links

On the spending review I am still in shock about some of the details and will have more to say, particularly about housing.  Nick Robinson did a blow by blow account A good economic analysis is here.  A pro-Cuts response is here and an anti-cuts response is here.  A distributional …

Grown up politics?

Today of all days residents in Reading will be hoping that their local representatives will be thinking and acting responsibly.   We will need to make some very hard decisions as the central Conservative and Lib-dem government have chosen to impose savage cuts on our budget – and to do it …

Food for thought

Andy Flannegan on money and God.  A 2 minute short from Channel 4.  How much is enough and what is the right response to inequality?  Big questions to which I don’t have the answers but the thoughtrs I do have are some of the reasons I got involved in politics.

Optimism

On a gloomy day like today it’s not obviously a day to post about optimism.  But I was thinking about it after thinking over Ed’s speech.  He said ‘we are the optimists’ and it chimed with me, as it’s one of the key reasons I joined the Labour party.  I …

NHS direct

Imagine a service that saves the government money, is valued by patients and reaches people who otherwise might not get treatment.  This sounds like exactly what the current government is looking for.  I would expand it as it’s a great example of ‘more for less’. NHS Direct is that service: …

Wishful thinking at best

I am sure the libdems don’t want anyone, especially low and middle incomes to be worse off as a result of their actions and certainly not disproportionately hit.  I imagine the Conservatives feel the same, although with some of them I wonder. But the facts speak for themselves and to …

Results time

I’ve been elected as Whitley ward councillor.  Some very varied results across the country. Locally of course I’m really disappointed by the General election result but surprised and pleased by the Reading borough council elections.  Net impact is Labour are still on 19, Conservatives have lost a seat while the …

Michael Foot

Of course a sad day for Labour and progressive politics in general with the death of Michael Foot. what a life he had, from the childhood in a family of Llyod George-style Liberals to Oxford to his journalism, political careers and long marriage he was a man who seems to …

Community spirit

Gordon Brown has backed Reading’s bid for city status and in his comments specifically mentions the area’s community spirit. I second that. Over the last few days I’ve been fortunate enough to attend 4 different meetings that show the community spirit. Firstly there was ‘governor’s day’ at my local primary …

What’s in a graph?

Quite a lot if you are one of the people who needed an operation last year rather than in, say 1996. Interestingly number of people waiting has increased in the last year, which people who know about about medicine than I do say is a result of the recession (less …

Boiler scrappage scheme

Just watched the news and saw the boiler scrappage scheme is starting today.  Looking out of the window as the snow falls and £400 subsidy from the government to replace inefficient boilers looks attractive (we saved up for a new boiler last year already) This has got to be a …

Martin Salter on the snow

I’m on a Christmas break now but Martin Salter MP has asked me if I’d like to post up his comments on the recent snow…  I pretty much agree with him:  – it’s nice and simplistic to blame one group or organisation for everything that isn’t totally smooth in life …

Losing the vote

I spotted this and thought what a shame.  I obviously want people to vote for me when I stand for the council but even more important is that people can vote at all! I am a sad individual and really like being able to vote, it reminds me of the …

What’s Labour?

Last week on Helston Gardens I was asked by 3 young girls “What’s the Labour party? Does it mean when women have babies”. The conversation continued: “Labour means work”.  “My Dad works”, “My mum AND my dad work”.  “Well the Labour party was set up so that people who do …

Hope not hatred

I’ve just got home from a parent’s evening at the primary school that I am a governor for.  I was giving out teas and coffees to parents and chatted with them, the children and the teachers.  I came home to the news being dominated by the appearance of Nick Griffin …

Flooding bill planned!

I’m at the Labour party conference this week having taken some holiday from work.Lots of ideas and a real buzz!One thing that I particularly was pleased to hear at a fringe meeting on flooding is that there are firm plans for a new bill in the next few months to address …

Makes you sick…

… I’m off work with what is apparently swine flu (TBC by a swab sent off to a mysterious organisation called the ‘respiratory virus unit’) . But sitting in my dressing gown after having checked my work emails I saw this story and it made me feel a lot worse. …