Not all UKIP Policies are Mad - when it comes to Trains and Beer they have played a blinder.

In the interest of Political Balance – I have found a few UKIP policies I actually like. They are mostly related to Trains and Beer – but none the less, Imagine being able to go all the way round the Circle Line to catch a Great Western Pullman Train, sitting in the Buffet Car supping a good old British Pint whilst pulling out of Paddington Station – Glorious.

"Ukip will return London's Circle line to a circle

"Ukip will encourage a return to the glamour, grace and style of the railway companies of the past through its railway policies. Ukip seeks a return to 'Pullman' trains, with appropriate branding such as 'Great Western Railway', one of the most successful British brands ever."

“the government should insist on a modernised form of traditional branding – chocolate and cream for Great Western, scarlet red for Midland, apple green for the east coast. These are icons of Britishness."

"Ukip would restore imperial measures for all weights and measures, restoring the crown symbol on pint glasses 

"Ukip would cut duty and taxes on traditional draught beers such as real ale, ciders and some lagers. Ukip would also allow landlords to write off against tax promotional costs for traditional beers through pub posters, beer mats and giveaways.

Questions we need UKIP to clarify about their policies before the General Election

The General Election is only months away – and with UKIP are claiming to be a contender.  Given some of the statements made by UKIP in recent months I feel the British Public must have the following clarifications on their policies.

If UKIP won the General Election and Nigel Farage became Prime Minister….

1. Would non British people living in the UK, or British People living in Mainland Europe need to be repatriated?
2. If so would this also apply for children born in the UK to non British Parents and how many generations would this go back?
3. How would this affect other people living in this country descended from people from our former colonies, Afro-Caribbean or the Indian Subcontinent for example? Would UKIP allow them to stay, deport them or move towards an apartheid style system once tried in South Africa?
   
4. Will this apply to people from other former colonies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc?
5. Will UKIP tackle the growing threat of flooding in coastal or flood plains by;a.     Increasing Funding to flood defences,b.     Abolishing Gay Marriage, rounding up Homosexuals and sending them to internment Camps?
6. Will our armed forces continue to work in Partnership with our former European neighbours to protect our common interests, or will our forces be used to form a defensive shield around Britain to guard against the French, Spanish or Germans as we used to in the old days.
7. As UKIP believes Climate Change is a myth, will UKIP re-establish the Glory of the British coal mining communities of South Wales and the North of England so we can be self-sufficient in coal powered energy? Will children as young as nine be allowed to go down the pits again?
8. What will be the penalty for Women caught breast feeding in Public?
9. As the unemployed will no longer be able to vote, how long must they be in employment before they can register?
10. Can UKIP be more specific about which disabilities will require compulsory abortions if detected in Foetuses.  

Ukraine another perspective - [Putin might be right]

This may be quite a controversial perspective on the situation in the Ukraine. There is one thing I read the other day that has made me consider a different perspective.

On the 23rd February, only days after the former Ukrainian president Yanukovych fled the capitol the Ukrainian Parliament voted to repeal a law passed in 2012 that allowed the use of "regional languages" – including Russian, Romainian, Hungarian, and Tatar - see  The International Business Times .

Now that seems a bit odd - why would this be the first thing the new government sought to do. Faced with a country that was falling into disunity, why pass such a divisive law guaranteed to alienate the Russian speaking people in the East and in Crimea. We haven't heard a lot about the repeal of this law in the mainstream media, nor have we heard anything from the ordinary Ukrainian people who were protesting only just over a week ago. The news has been dominated by the events in Crimea.

From the Russian perspective, Crimea had been part of Russia since 1783 and had only been granted to Ukraine in 1954 during a reorganisation of Soviet provinces. When the Soviet Union collapsed the former Soviet Black Sea fleet was divided with the Russian portion of the fleet granted a lease to remain in its port in Sevastopol.   

It seems to me that Putin may have a point. The government in Kiev may have been taken over by people with a right wing tendency. (the Washington Post has an interesting article on the background of some of the groups involved) Indeed the repeal of the Language Law may be considered a nationalist act.

Although undoubtedly a popular move among Russian people at home and in the Ukraine - Putin acting to protect the Black Sea Fleet - Russian assets may be a pragmatic action faced with the risk of the country descending into chaos.

If this had been an issue on the doorstep of the West, we may acted in a similar manner. It is not long ago that the West got involved in the revolution in Libya. What would the US have done if one of their naval bases faced a similar situation? The West has a record of intervening in similar cases and this issue is squarely in the Russian doorstep.

Putin's position globally is fairly secure - he may face rhetoric from the West and some mild sabre rattling. He knows that so far at least he can hang onto Crimea and his fleet and the West is unlikely to do much. The West, Europe especially is also heavily reliant on Russian oil flowing almost entirely through Ukraine.

 I think we should worry less about what the Russians are doing turn our attention to what is actually happening in Kiev. 

So come on Western Media - I would like to understand a little more from the people in the Ukraine and a little more about the new Government and its intentions as it is this that is likely to shape how this will play out and how the Russians may be forced to act in the days to come.

The BBC has an alternative analysis here. 

Conference Security Lockdown

Security at the conference this Autumn has crossed the line from reasonable to plain daft. On the way in this morning I had a small padlock confiscated. I carry it on my laptop bag so I can lock my bag when on the tube. The conference organisers had instructed security not to allow locks (even small ones like mine) in case I chained myself to anything.

I wouldn't mind, but I have already been screened by the Police and sent in a note from my mom, so you would have thought any delegates finally allowed in would be considered safe.

Following the confiscation a few of us were then held in the security tent due to another security lock down. The police won't say what the issue was, but I suspect it was something to do with the gentleman I was earlier with a shoelace undone.

Its always dangerous trying to kettle Liberals and after a few minutes we had formed a Liberation committee and had already got around to agreeing the agenda for the first meeting to decide the wording of a strongly worded letter, when the doors opened and they let us go about our business.

This amused me.

Watch "Hackgate: The Movie" on YouTube

Baked Sweet Potato with spring onion, cabbage and bacon

Just invented this great dish - very quick, delicious and healthy.

One Sweet Potato (or a normal one)
1 glove garlic thinly sliced
2 spring onions sliced
1 rasher of bacon, with the rind removed sliced into small squares - (or you can use Lardons, sliced meats, pancetta, bresola, anything really)
A few cabbage leaves finely shredded (chiffonade) you should end up with a large handful.
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
A spoonful of wholegrain mustard
A dollop of creme fraiche
A little Parmesan
Ground black pepper


Bake the potato - microwave or the traditional way in the oven. If you are using an oven wait till the potato is about 10 minutes to completion. If microwaving start the next bit straight away.

Meanwhile in a frying pan or wok, heat some olive oil and fry up the sliced garlic till just starting to turn golden, then add the spring onions.

Add the chopped bacon (or whatever you are using) and fry till the fat has started to render out

Add the Cumin seeds and fry till they start to pop. Add the cabbage and fry till the colour turns deeper and it starts to soften.

The baked potato should now be ready. Put it on a plate and open it out, mash the inside a little.

Turn off the heat on the pan or wok. Add the mustard and the creme fraiche and give it a good stir - but not too much, you don't want the creme fraiche to melt and go watery.

Pour into the potato, grate on a little parmesan and a black pepper.

‘God Particle’ Supercollider Experiment may open doors to other dimensions

‘God Particle’ Supercollider Experiment may open doors to other dimensions Top CERN Boffin admits.

IT news site - The Register reported this afternoon that Scientists believe there is a serious chance that dimension portal events will soon be generated by the Large Hadron Collider.

CERN’s Dr Bertolucci previously briefed the Register on the Theory of Supersymmetry, which suggests that space-time actually has up to ten dimension. Bertolucci explained that the LHC might cause a "door" to "an extra dimension" to open up admitting "Out of this door might come something, or we might send something through it".

The Register did admit in a footnote that until the planned upgrade of the CERN LHC planned after its regular shutdown at Christmas 2012 such inter-dimensional doors were unlikely to be large enough to allow through any ‘Dark Deities’.

Warwick does not want Fraud Lord

You would have thought that Lord Taylor of Warwick, as a barrister could have come up with a better defence than, "it had been a common practice among peers to claim for fake journeys and enter expenses claims with a false address as a main residence."

Lord Taylor in spite of facing a possible prison sentence will get to keep his title. Perhaps to protect the good name of our town we should petition the Lords to change his title to something more appropriate, Lord Taylor of Pentonville perhaps.

This all goes to show how much the system desperately needs an overhaul. We can now sack our MPs which is a huge leap forwards. We are going to have a referendum on our electoral system this year, so lets finish the job and create a properly accountable elected second chamber.

Guest Post from my student son, Luke Beddow on Tuition Fees

I’d like to announce a change in your regularly scheduled programming. I am not Alan Beddow. My name is Luke, and today I’m going to be your guest columnist. I am twenty-one years old. I am a student. I am also Alan’s son, and should point out that the views I express here do not necessarily reflect those of my father.

Earlier this year I voted, for the first time, in a general election. I was riding on an orange-coloured wave of enthusiasm. I hoped, without daring to believe, that this time things might be different. Political hope was a new feeling for me, and I liked it.

Last night, sitting in a Whetherspoon’s pub reading the subtitles on Sky News, I felt its opposite. For the first time in my life I felt a sense of deep, helpless political anger. The news ticker said that all Lib Dem MPs had agreed to vote in favour of higher tuition fees. How could they do this to us? Hadn’t they signed a pledge to oppose a rise in tuition fees?

I study at Birmingham City University. The English department there is a small but thriving community. Everybody there knows all of the staff and most of the students in their year group by name. In the past few months though, the tension in the department had been hanging in the air like a Dickensian pea-souper. One senior member of staff reportedly offered to take a ten per cent pay cut, if others did the same, in order to help combat the problems caused by proposed budget points; another has expressed hope that the government would u-turn over the proposals. As I watched the yellow news ticker run along the bottom of the screen, I knew there was almost no hope of that happening now. And I felt there was nothing I could do.

So I sent my dad a text message. When he replied he pointed out that while ‘ideally all uni fees should be paid by the state’ the country simply can’t afford to do that at the moment, and that the increase in tuition fees will come with ‘an increase in support for those from lower incomes and an increase in threshold where you have to pay it back’. This helped to dull my worries, as always, there is more to the story than the media like to admit, but I still feel deeply uneasy.

Interestingly, the view that all tuition fees should be paid by the state is one that my dad shares with David, a mature student on my course, who has generally voted Conservative. When I asked David how he felt about the tuition fees he explained that his reasoning is that if graduates are beneficial to the state, it follows that the state should pay for them. He also believes that the money students get should be means-blind. An opinion I understand. I have a housemate who only qualifies for the lowest level of financial support, but her parents have their own debts to pay, and so she has to survive on what little she can earn.

So, the rise in tuition fees is a situation which nobody wants, at this stage though, it seems unavoidable. While there are things being proposed which might improve the current system I’m still a little angry at the government for not suggesting a better solution, and I’m still worried about what it will mean for higher education as a whole. Tomorrow the liberal democrats face a decision which goes against one of their key principles. I understand that there may not be much they can do about it, but if they vote in favour of the tuition fees, they run the risk of seeming, to a large section of their supporters, to be breaking a promise. To a party who put so much importance on breaking form the political status quo, this could be devastating.

Housing Benefit - Labour Hypocracy and Distorted Market

"Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who try to cheat the benefit system."

(Labour Manifesto 2010 General Election, page 20.)

A colleague explained to me the other day that in many areas of the country the cost of rented accommodation matches the amount the government will pay in housing benefit..

As Brian Turner writes in Finance Markets,

"The truth is that landlords have been shafting councils for Housing Benefit for decades. And because the public sector has been forced to put so much taxpayer money into the market, it has artificially inflated rents for everyone. Let’s be clear – there is going to be no mass exodus of “the poor” from cities across Britain.The most likely reality is that landlords who leech the housing benefit system will be forced to cut rents."

I have suspected for some time that housing benefit was distorting the market, so perhaps we will not have ethnic cleansing of our inner cities after all, all that may happen is landlords will have to start charging rates that the market will stand as opposed to the rates the government will pay and working people without the luxury of housing benefit may be able to afford to live close to where they work once more.

Labour were right to put this in their manifesto, its a shame they are so caught up in coalition bashing to recognise the government implementing one of their own policies

Trail by Television

A German TV show, Tatort Internet modelled on a Texan show, To Catch a Predator plumbs new depths in reality TV. Actors posing as underage children attempt to entrap Peadophiles in internet chat rooms and are then filmed confronted with the TV presenter posing as an angry mother.

This Jeremy Beadle style trial by television witch hunt is wrong on so many levels not least because reducing child abuse to subject of reality TV entertainment denegrates the seriousness of the issue; and not to mention that trial by media follows no due process short circuiting the legal process to protect the innocent.

The Gen Xer's Guide to Mainframes

For my new project I am having to learn all about Mainframe Computers, the level of knowledge that has seen me through a lifetimes career in IT; "they are big blue things" is now way out of date, not least because as I found out the other day they are now painted black.

So I found these interesting articles on Mainframe Computers 'The Gen Xer's Guide to Mainframes.

Part 1 - http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/enewsletterexclusive/20410p1.aspx
Part 2 - http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/enewsletterexclusive/20679p1.aspx
Part 3 - http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/enewsletterexclusive/20924p1.aspx

Hitting Tax Avoidance and Cutting Red Tape part of deficit reduction - Alexander.

Danny Alexander's speech this morning in Liverpool was well attended as he outlined that although going into coalition was not the easy thing to do, it was the right thing to do.

Reading some of the revelations from recent political memoirs, Danny explained that we have replaced One party at war with itself - with Two parties working together for the good of the country.

Danny also outlined a few things the Government is going to do to balance the budget. Necessary as the previous Government borrowed one pound in four that it spent, doubling the national debt and left us with the biggest deficit in the G20. We have to clean up Labour’s mess to get the economy moving.

A key announcement is the plan to crackdown on Tax Avoidance, bringing in £7Bn over the term of Parliament; this will include higher earners using tax avoidance schemes which may prove popular with the rest of us who want to know we are not the only ones sharing the burden.

Many targets and red tape in the public sector will be scrapped, empowering public servants, saving money and improving services. The vast amount of waste and shear frustration from the police, teachers and the medical profession was a theme I came across time and again during the general election.

These announcements won’t take away all the pain of the cuts to come, but at least a couple of areas I wanted to see addressed, tax avoidance and wasteful beaurocracy will be included in the plan.

Coalition Government appoints former CIO to help cut costs.

Even as a critical friend of the new coalition government my approval of initiatives has so far been restrained to nodding acceptance. After 7 weeks in the new government has come up with something I find very encouraging, and is a step in the direction of something I passionately believe in, and have campaigned for.

"I have long believed that IT can deliver better public services at a lower cost".

Now this may not be the perception from the public who has been given the impression that IT is a colossal waste of money and invariably fails. Of course there have been high profile government IT failures and having worked in both Public and Private sector IT I have a pretty shrewd idea where some of the issues lie.

After-all if IT had failed to deliver any benefits to the commercial sector the industry would have died out sometime in the mid 1950's and would have been seen as a passing fad.*

Today The Register reported that the new government has appointed Ian Watmore the former givernment CIO to become the head of the new Efficiency and Reform Group - I see this as a massive step in the right direction.

The Cabinet Office said Watmore will work with the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, at tackling waste looking for efficiencies in ICT, procurement, project management, property and HR.

* Note - My careers advisor when I was taking my A Levels who doubled up as a French teacher told me not to go into IT as it was only a passing phase and soon the bubble would burst. Advice I remember to this day.

Alan's pre-budget statement.

Every minute that goes by the government spends a staggering £80,000 on interest - that's about the same as my mortgage which will take me a lifetime to pay back.

Should I buy and I-Pad and what would I use it for?

I visited an Apple store during my lunch hour to take a look at the new I-Pad. I have to admit I am tempted. As the store only had the most expensive models in stock checked my impulse buy and a period of reflection.

I like the way that Apple stores are set out to actively encourage you to play with the products. From the age of 14 when I started to take an unhealthy interest in technology Dixons shop assistants we constantly discouraging me from teaching myself programming on Saturday mornings in the very early ‘80s and so I find this approach refreshing. (Note to self:- I should have asked out the girl that asked me to dance at Anthony’s party, while I was trying to be hard with my mates and our halves of lager.)

I do like the I-Pad, the look and feel of it and the way in which I can interact with the content in ways that I cannot on my laptop or PC. There are a few niggling issues that helped stave off that impulse to buy the top end model solely on the basis that I could have one now.

As Andrew Clarke pointed out to me via Facebook on the day of its launch, the I-Pad does not play media clips from the BBC website. Given that I most want an I-Pad to be able to interact with some of my favourite websites from the comfort of my sofa this is a drawback. I understand there is some industry politics going on which I won’t go into here.

It would be useful if I could get the I-Pad to synch with my Address Book, Contacts List, To Do and Notepad. This is a set of personal data that I have maintained for well over a decade now and has lived and migrated across a range of devices, currently sitting on Lotus Notes on my Laptop which I use for work, my Blackberry and my Palm Pilot. As there is only one of me, I took the decision years ago to maintain one diary and this has stood me in good stead.

The bright young sales assistant helped me come to the conclusion that there was no way of achieving this easily.

The Mobile-Me service at around £60 per year is not a satisfactory solution to this dilemma, it does not easily synch with Lotus Notes and is a cloud based solution ideal if all you own are Apple devices and are prepared to pay for the privilege. There are Apps that may do this from the server, however I doubt I could or indeed should attempt to connect an I-pad to my company’s intranet, what I wish to do is synch directly from my .nsf file on my laptop. There may be a way of synching with Outlook or through my personal Yahoo Mail yet that may extend my synching chain from Palm - Lotus Notes – Blackberry – Outlook – Yahoo Mail – I-Pad, which is far too many links in the chain and do I really want to be bothered.

So I have to accept that the I-Pad will not do all of the things my PC will do and perhaps that does not matter, its about understanding what an I-Pad is and what its for. If I want to make a phone call I use my phone. If I want to write a document, create a spreadsheet or a project plan, that is work and I will do that at my desk on my PC or Laptop.

I really want an I-pad to belong in the living room, next to my sofa. I want to browse the net, listen to music, watch on line content (BBC clips excluded), check my social networking, read online newspapers. Currently to do that I either have to sit in my office, which is too much like working and I do enough of that. Or I undock my laptop and bring it downstairs, which annoys the cat and still does not give me the tactile interaction with content where the I-Pad really scores.

The I-pad is a great product, its not a PC, perhaps I don’t need it to be, it would have a use in my living room, I just need to work out what it is, what’s its for and can I justify the price. Or do I wait until something else comes on the market, a tablet PC perhaps?

David Laws.

I feel very sad for David Laws who resigned this afternoon. As Julian Glover puts it in the Guardian, "This is a scandal – if it is a scandal – caused by one man's inability to face up to his sexuality, not a desire to fiddle expenses."

David Laws was respected as an honorable man and was proving to be a great asset to this country through his work at the Treasury. I hope the media respect his wishes and give him and his family the space they need at the moment.

Iain Roberts has a good analysis of the situation in his Blog.

Compensation for Equitable Life victims is long overdue

Local victims of the Equitable Life collapse can finally expect compensation as Liberal Democrat MPs push forward new legislation.

Some of our local firms had pension schemes with Equitable Life. Many of my colleagues were affected and I had many letters and emails from people during the general election who were worried that years of saving would amount to nothing.

The previous Government continually ignored the millions of people who lost their savings. The Equitable Life Bill, which was outlined to the House of Commons on Wednesday, will give the Treasury the authority to make payments to policyholders or dependents who have been fighting the Labour Government for compensation since 2000.

I am delighted that we are using our position in Government to give policyholders the money they deserve.

Thanks for all your support.

I just want to say thank you for all your support during the general election. Your support, hard work and encouragement really made a difference to me personally and locally leaving our party here in Warwick & Leamington stronger than ever. This afternoon during a quick trip to Leamington many people stopped me in the street with words of encouragement, which I really appreciate.

Nationally It is clear that no party has been granted an overall majority. It has been a mixed set of results for all of the major parties. We had some disappointing losses and at the same some stunning results such as Redcar where we won on a massive 25% swing.

There is a lot of media speculation over what may happen next and it is clear that Nick Clegg and his team are holding their nerve, after all we have been preparing for the eventuality of a balanced parliament for a long time. I am sure we are not going to give that away lightly.

As the Conservatives gained the most seats and highest share of the vote it is only right, as Nick has stated right from the start that they be given the opportunity to form a government. Whether this is possible; with or without our support will be subject to discussions over the coming days.

This morning Nick spoke on his way into meetings with key advisers and our new Parliamentary team. He was clear that he would press our case for our four priorities - tax reform to make the system fairer, a "new approach" to education to give a "fair start" to all children, the economy and "fundamental political reform to our political system".

It is clear from the Unlock Democracy demonstration supporting electoral reform this afternoon that there is a lot of support for electoral reform as key to these discussions, something I find encouraging.

Back here in Warwick & Leamington we continue to hold our District and County councils to account as the effective opposition. Our leadership of Leamington Town Council is recognised across the country as outstanding.

Lib-Dem Pub Policy

I think I've missed a trick in this campaign. The other week a landlord in Warwick told me how much he liked our policies on pubs. This evening a landlord in Leamington asked me about them. Not that I have spent the entire campaign in the pub you understand, yet it seems having a quick read to refresh my memory I could have done a lot worse.

I especially like the part about relaxing the rules on Live Music and I think overall our policy to support this great British institution is spot on.

Liberal Democrats have a proud history of championing British heritage and tradition. We will address the issues facing pubs to enable them to compete with the offlicence alcohol trade to preserve these valuable social and community assets.

We will create a more equal playing field for pubs by preventing supermarkets from selling below-cost alcohol. Supermarkets and off-licences selling alcohol at pocket-money-prices have undercut the pub trade and contributed to the binge drinking culture. We will set up an independent panel to consider the evidence for a fuller scheme of minimum pricing for alcohol.

We will also reduce the burden of bureaucratic licensing requirements which prevents pubs from putting on live music events. We will re-introduce the “two in a bar’’ rule allowing two performers of unamplified music in any licensed premises without the need for an entertainment licence. We will also exempt small venues from the requirement to apply for a new licence if they want to host live music performances. However we will provide for a review if local residents object.

Local pubs often form the social hub of a community, strengthening local social networks as well as facilitating many local services, events and activities which contribute to local life. These can include: hosting a range of important public services such as running post offices, and general stores; and providing a place for local charities, sports clubs and civic groups to host meetings and activities. We believe that every effort should be made to keep local pubs open and that where pub companies are seeking to sell community pubs, the community and current lessee should have the opportunity to buy the business at a fair market price.

In addition we will address issues in planning legislation that make it difficult for communities to protect and preserve their pubs.