Home Office Watch - or why it may be illegal to wear a Red Nose in Parliament Square on Red Nose Day.

There has been a lot of news over recent months about the failures of the 'Home Office'. Now this is the office that looks after things like our Police, Passports and Immigration and our Courts and Prison Service.

It is so easy to let endless headlines wash over us, as just another set of failed institutions such as the Rural Payments Agency and the Child Support Agency. Yet the Home Office is too critical to the safety and security of this country to be ignored.

Nick Clegg the Lib-Dem Shadow Home Secretary has set up a website to track the failures of the Home Office. It is important that people are kept informed on these serious issues, such as;

• The fingerprinting of our children


• How the new passports can be cloned and our information read without even opening the envelope


• And how it could be illegal to wear a Red Nose in Parliament square under the 'Serious and Organised Crime Act'. You really could not make it up!

While at the same time, Prisons are overflowing, Sex Offenders committing crimes in Europe are going free and Serious mistakes are being made with Home Office accounting.

This insanity can not be allowed to continue, I urge everyone to check out the website and write to your MP, the Papers, Me, your local councillor, anyone... Lets not let this be ignored. Britain deserves a Home Office fit for purpose.

Harrogate Spring Conference

I have returned home from this years spring conference in Harrogate. It has been a chance to catch up on some training and some informative fringe events, this year I attended a couple of excellent sessions run by the Youth & Students, one on speaking in schools and colleges, very useful as I am attending a debate run by the North Leamington 6th Form next week and an interesting event yesterday on affordable housing, a particular challenge for young people in Warwick & Leamington. The guest speaker Theresa McDermot from Shelter told us, “The most progress over the past few years on housing has been made by the Liberal Democrats.”

I attended a few debates, the Trident debate I have already commented on and of course the Leaders Speech this afternoon. I felt this was the best speech I have heard Ming give as leader, he seemed a lot more relaxed than he appeared in Brighton in September and I felt the message was tighter and more reflective of the way in which our policies hang together. As I was sitting in a prime location I can be spotted along with Pat Wreford-Bush and Cllr Alan Boad from Leamington in the audience on the BBC coverage.

Of course it wouldn’t be a conference without a chance to meet colleagues from around the country in the bar and after spending some of the evening with Mike Dixon and his family, who are from the area I grew up in, I woke with a slight fuzzy head. Some would say I got off lightly.

So its now full steam ahead for the District Council elections in May.

The Trident Debate

Saturday Morning of the Spring Conference brought the much discussed debate on Trident.

The current Trident System has 20 years life left in it and the decision as to whether we replace Trident is not needed until 2014. In 2010 there is the next round of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Talks. Tony Blair’s New Labour party want to take the decision to replace Trident now.

This has been an emotive issue within the party and the debate was well argued from all sides. Now I am no great fan of Nuclear Weapons and though I was willing to be persuaded to vote against the motion by the debate, in the end I voted along with the majority of delegates in favour of the motion as I felt it was the best policy for the situation we are in now!

My three core reasons for supporting this motion are;

1/ We would cut our weapons by 50% now, demonstrating our commitment to the non-proliferation treaty.

2/ It keeps us at the negotiation table in the 2010 talks, which presents our best chance to be able to influence the outcome.

3/ Allows us to make the decision when it needs to be made in 2014.


It is important to note that Liberal Democrat MP's will vote against Labours position of replacing Trident Now! Doing so just so it can be part of Blair’s Legacy is a poor excuse in my book.

The fact that we can debate these issues openly in conference is one of the things that marks us out as being different than the other parties, where in recent years open debate has been discouraged.

We can cut Crime.

I had time to settle in before attending a briefing from Chris Rennard and the Parliamentary Candidates Association and then onto the ‘We can cut Crime’ rally in the evening.

The Rally was hosted by Nick Clegg our shadow Home Affairs Spokesperson.

It is shocking that 98% of young men coming out of prison go on to offend again. Clearly our current policy of simply locking up offenders is not working and it is the poorest communities suffer most from crime.

Yet in Liberal Democrat run cities and districts across the country we are cutting crime through a series of community initiatives that tackle specific issues at a local level. Baroness Scott presented a film she had made featuring some of these initiatives. In Watford, Vale of White Horse, Newcastle and in Liverpool for example where alley gating has cut crime by placing gates to back alleys across the city, incidentally the gates are manufactured by an organisation as part of a drug rehab project.

Nick outlined the long catalogue of Home Office failures and launched a new web site www.homeofficewatch.com I believe it is vital that we understand what is happening to our Home Office, as this is the department that is supposed to take care of many services that affect us, such as the Police and law & order.

Crime is one of the themes of this conference so I am sure there will be more on this in the next couple of days.

To get really lost you need SatNav!

I got badly lost on my way to the Lib-Dem conference in Harrogate this morning. My SatNav crashed. It did not crash straight away of course, no it was fine all the way to the York turning and having worked on a project in the town for 6 weeks last year I was familiar with most of the journey.

It was not even phased by the new bit of the A1(M), happily showing me skimming over ploughed fields at 70MPH. As soon as I really needed it, it crashed. By the time I pulled over to reboot it (technical term which means switching it off and then back on again, sometimes involving removal of batteries) I was way off my route. The SatNav then took me down obscure country roads to turn round, before taking me to the safety of the conference centre.

Still it was a nice early spring day and the scenery in this part of the world is stunning so I did not mind too much.

Question Time

Last night I took part in a Question Time style debate with special guest Ed Davey MP for members and friends across the region. Questions ranged from the threat to the greenbelt by new homes, climate change and the future of Trident.

This proved to be a very successful event and many of our members and friends commented to me afterwards how much they enjoyed the lively and interesting range of questions from the audience and the tone in which our local party chair, David Manuel involved the panel and the audience.

Panelists, (Left to Right) Nigel Rock, Councillor for Stockton and Napton; Alan Beddow, PPC Warwick & Leamington; David Manuel, Chairman; Edward Davey MP Kingston & Surbiton; Colin Ross, Regional Vice Chair; Phil Bennion, Regional Policy Chair.


My friends in the local party have been winding me up about this event for weeks, telling me that had some really tough questions for me and would not even hint at what they were. I researched the likely contenders and only one was asked, the Trident question, more on that in a moment. Question Time is a tough political test yet excellent practice as I have a similar debate booked for next month at a local school.

The first question was whether our stand on climate change could harm our electoral prospects. I pointed out that on climate change our poll rating is 10% above the other major parties in the polls and therefore boosts our prospects rather than harms them. Climate Chage this is the most serious threat to the future of our planet since the cold war. Our response is more than cycling to work in front of TV cameras and slapping a windmill on our roof. By making the public aware of the issues and encouraging a shift in behaviour we have the technology to make a real impact. I firmly believe that local councils can take a real lead on this issue.

Another question was about the threat to our greenbelt following a recent report that suggests we may need 1/2 Million new homes across the region. Warwick & Leamington have seen a significant amount of building in recent years and this is already putting pressure on our roads and infrastructure. I agree there is a serious shortage of homes in the region, especially affordable housing that helps keep a balanced economy. Any new homes should be build as part of an effective transport policy and include a range of housing and nearby employment opportunities so people can live close to where they work.

I welcome your thoughts on this issue so that I can feed your comments into our regional response to the proposals. Please see my earlier post for details. http://alan-beddow.blogspot.com/2007/02/is-our-geenbelt-at-risk.html

The question on the future of Trident will be debated at our spring conference in a few weeks time. Colin Ross presented a clear argument on denouncing nuclear weapons. You can read Colin's thoughts on his website. http://www.colin-ross.org.uk/news/001050.html. Though this is one of the most difficult issues I have had to consider. After reading papers on a range of views, I have to agree with the party's position. We are not saying that we should not get rid of our nuclear weapons. The decision only needs to be taken in 2014. Tony Blair wishes to take the decision now so it can be part of his legacy, a very poor reason in my book. Our proposals are to make the decision in 2014 when we have a greater understanding of the future threats whilst cutting our stockpile by 50% now. As Ed Davey pointed out, this keeps us in the next round of negotiation in 2012 and demonstrates our commitment to disarmament, representing our best chance of achieving reduction in proliferation.

The final question asked whether we may form a coalition in the increasingly likely event of a balanced parliament. I remember this question was asked in a fringe event at the Brighton conference last autumn. When asked whether we would do a deal with Labour the audience booed. The same question with the Conservatives was met with a louder boo. The party as a whole do not want a coalition. Personally I would like to see a scenario where the rapid change in British Politics over recent years is given the reformed democracy it desperately deserves. I also believe we should hold the balance of power and support the government, or not on an issue by issue basis, leading to consensus that would better reflect the views of the country. Ed Davey assured us that any decision could not be made by the Parliamentary Party alone, it would require the support of 2/3rds of the MP's and 2/3rds of the Federal Conference.

These are going to be interesting times.

Is our Geenbelt at risk?

Last night I attended the Planning Forum Meeting at Leamington Town Hall. We were given a presentation on the Regional Spatial Strategy. This is looking at where are we going to build all the new houses we will need over the next 20 years.

Government estimates show that we may need over 1/2 million new houses in the region in the next 20 years. No one can argue that we have a shortage of houses, especially affordable.

Figures do show that we have built the lions share of new houses in Warwick District over the past few years, a lot of people feel there has been too much building and not enough of it has been affordable.

The proposals could mean that between 11-15,000 additional homes could be built in the district. Surrounding areas would also have to build new homes which could put pressure on the green belt between the major towns and coventry.

So where should we build them?

I am concerned about the impacts on traffic in and around our towns and the pressure building will put on the green belt.

I will be looking at these proposals along with your local Liberal Democrat team and would like to hear your views.

If you want to get involved this is what you can do.

1. Log on to www.wmra.gov.uk


2. Go to Regional Spatial Strategy - Revision (second item down on the left hand menu)


3. Download the 'Spatial Options' document


4. Fill in the questionnaire. (this will be your submission to the consultation)


5. Email me with your views at alan_beddow@yahoo.co.uk. Mark the subject line 'RSS'

I can then add your thoughts to the Liberal Democrat submission to the consultation.

The consultation will progress through till March 5th

Decriminalisation of Parking Enforcement

A busy evening last night, I attended the Warwick area committee where they were discussing changes to the way parking is managed across our towns. This is where Parking Enforcement moves from the Police to the Council. This will involve residents parking zones, new road markings and enforcement.

I have been interested in this for some time and am pleased to see that some of the comments residents made to me have been considered in the proposals.

Of course whilst everyone involved has made every effort to ensure the changes take place smoothly, once people are deprived of their illegal spaces and the free for all we currently have, chaos will ensue for a while until it all settles down. There will then be a review to iron out the knock on effects. These changes are set to be introduced in August 2007.

Details of the plans can be found on the Warwickshire County Councils Website.

Restorative Justice - Warwickshire VIP

I visited the Victim and Witness Information Partnership (VIP) this afternoon and had a very encouraging discussion on how we can make more use of Restorative Justice. This is something that has captured my imagination for years and seems total common sense.

For non-violent crime's rather than just slapping on an ASBO, the offender can face a Community Justice Panel where they are made to explain and apologise for their actions.
I heard how this can have a positive effect on the victim in terms of getting closure or understanding why this happened to them and for the offender it makes them confront the consequences of their actions. Part of the sentence can include a program of reparation to make amends for example repairing damage, community work and education.

The Warwickshire VIP is a ground breaking organisation pulling together many agencies within the justice system and has been used as a model elsewhere in the country.

The benefits of employing this type of justice are clear and I plan to spend some time with the Youth Offending Team to see how we can provide more support to the work they do in our county.

An Inconvenient Truth.

Last Night I joined some of our local party members at the home of Alun Wyburn-Powell and his son Christopher for a screening of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth".

Al Gore you remember came a very close second in the last US presidential election. Al has been a passionate campaigner for environmental awareness since college, difficult yet essential in a country where many live in a state of denial. This is a film that everyone should see.

The evidence that Al Gore clearly presents is overwhelming, yet he closes by telling us that we do not need to go from denial to despair without going through the stage of actually doing something about it.

All it needs is personal and political will.

The Bedworth Patriot

As I mentioned in my previous post, whilst canvassing in Bedworth I came across a BNP leaflet 'The Bedworth Patriot' which I liberated to add to my collection. (sad I know)

The lead story caught my eye as it features Leamington. It seems that the BNP are livid that Lib-Dem Warwick District Council allowed the Sikh community to put up Diwali lights along with the Christmas lights in Leamington. "It is a disgrace. Only the BNP stands up for our culture and traditions".

Leamington Spa is proud of its diversity and any part of our community who wishes to celebrate their traditions and customs are welcome to do so.

Bedworth by-election

I spent yesterday morning campaigning with Alice Field who is standing in a by-election in Bedworth. I believe Alice would be a superb councillor for Bedworth and would help address what local people see as the neglect of their town by the borough.

In this seven way election many people told us that they had voted Labour in the past yet they were unsure now.

As Colin Ross experienced the day before, we often found ourselves working the same roads as the BNP whilst in one road Labour were delivering.

Tunecast.. !!!

My Tunecast has arrived. This is a little box made by Belkin that you plug into your MP3 player and it transmits your tunes to your car stereo... FANTASTIC!!! does exactly what it says on the tin. I can now play my eclectic collection of music, including tunes I have harvested from MySpace, Demo's I am working on and sadly you may think 'Political Podcasts' on my travels without all that tedious burning them down onto CD.

Up until recently these devices that only transmit a few feet were illegal we have my friend Don Foster, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath & Shadow Culture Spokesperson to thank for changing this, he felt that the Wireless & Telegraphy act needed amending to move with the times.... Nice one Don!!

Warwick Hospital - not as bleak as the Tories make out.

I attended the Warwickshire NHS PCT Board meeting in Warwick yesterday and found this to be an informative meeting. The new Chairman Bryan Stoten was very clear in his criticism of what he termed 'hysteria' surrounding the future of the hospital. He said that there were no plans to close A&E or Maternity. Bryan went on to say that he had been concerned that for about 3-4 months there had been almost a delight by certain groups in spreading doom and gloom about the hospital and making claims that were simply untrue.

I have watched the Tories marching around Warwick & Leamington for some months now under the banner of 'Save Warwick Hospital' when clearly the Hospital is not under threat. Bryan Stoten's comments along with recent local newspaper headlines confirm what I have suspected for some months now, that the Tories are marching under an empty banner.

Now 'Save the Hospital' is a great banner to march under even when there is no threat to the hospital and a cynic might question the motives of the local Tories, I fear they may have shot themselves in the foot over this one when the local paper comes out with headlines such as "Hospital pours scorn on Conservative claims that A&E might be closed."

UK Rubbish Mountain the size of Warwick

A friend and former Parliamentary Spokesperson for Warwick & Leamington, Linda Forbes sent me an interesting news story this weekend. It seems that the UK's Landfill is now the size of Warwick.

I was discussing only this morning how by garden composting and recycling my newspapers and bottles my weekly rubbish has reduced significantly, yet I am concerned with the amount of plastic packaging we get from our supermarkets each week. The UK throws away more rubbish than any other European country.

We clearly have to do a LOT more to reduce the volume of rubbish we throw away each week. I would like to see our supermarkets using less packaging and more ways of reusing the packaging we do get.

You can read the full story from the Local Government Association on the Warwick & Leamington Lib-Dem website.


http://warwick-leamington-libdems.org.uk/news/000062.html

Saddam's Death

Whilst I am not a big fan of the death penalty, considering Saddam ordered the indiscriminate deaths of thousands of innocent people I did not loose much sleep worrying about it. I did find the way he was executed distasteful and detracted from the seriousness of the crime and the sentence. It was an indignity for the rule of law.

Shopping Choices can make a difference.

My first shopping trip of the new year has reminded me of one of my new years resolutions. I want to be more aware of the choices I make while shopping.

Recently I had my Carbon Footprint measured and was surprised to find that around 50% of my personal contribution to the destruction of our environment comes from food. The majority of this is down to transport costs and as more of our food is flown across the world small choices we make in our shops can make a significant difference.

Another way we can make a difference is by choosing FairTrade products. It only costs a few pence more to buy FairTrade coffee and sugar for example, yet by doing so we are supporting thriving communities in developing countries, not through hand outs but by paying them a fair price for the crops they grow.

I really believe that many of problems in the world can be solved by lots of small solutions. As consumers we have the greatest power in the choices we make and simple things like thinking about where our food has come from sends a powerful message to the industry that supplies it.

Family Christmas

I have managed to see all of my family this Christmas. My Sister had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago and so I took one of my teenage sons over to see the baby and to take my sisters two boys over to visit my mother. My youngest nephew had always been quite shy around me and my boys, since he has become a 'big brother' he has really grown up and sees his role as a great responsibility so it was really nice to get to know him.

Boxing day I went back round to my sisters where they had an open house with various friends of my sister and her husbands popping in. My Mom is especially pleased as this is her first grand daughter after four grandsons. My other sister had come up from London and was there, so it was good to get us all together on a really happy occasion.

This made me chuckle.

Live Music @ The Jug.

I popped down to The Jug & Jester last night where, The Tide, Men in Caves, Circle 3 & King Tide were holding a Pre Launch Party for a regular slot they are organising on a Wednesday night.

The live music scene in Leamington is starting to flourish again over the past couple of years and this is all due to the hard work and efforts of the people involved organising gig's and events, raising money for charity and generally encouraging up and coming musicians in the town. There is a fantastic arts scene in both Leamington & Warwick which is sometimes just outside the mainstream.

It was good to bump into a few old friends and I hope the regular slots starting in January are a success.