Cllr. Gavin Ayling

I have been quiet lately and that is for several reasons:

1. David Cameron’s foray into politics has done to the Conservatives what Blair did for Labour. That is to say that they may be more electable according to the media, but he is also betraying his core beliefs and principles and not attempting to convince people of the underlying truth of his beliefs. I hope that he doesn’t go so far as has Labour in abandoning completely the principle on which the party was built.

For all the bad things Labour’s done since 1997, it is nowhere near its principles and so, to its credit, no-one can really stand up and say “Look how awful things are”. Things just aren’t as good as they should be… Tax is too high, freedoms have been eroded a little etc.

This is not to say I believe what I said in the last paragraph. Just that it is difficult to convince people otherwise when things are so stable and not terrible.

2. Of late, as I may have said before, I have been challenging my own beliefs and I have found them wanting in some areas. No politician would normally admit that so I hope you understand that it is a difficult thing for me to say.

3. Adur Council is very well run; most of what is wrong with Adur is out of Adur Council’s hands — with the inept (although officially perfect, County), or more seriously with the government of Britain.

I have said on these webpages in the past that I blame the British government and the lack of democracy for a lot of the country’s problems, but that is not the whole problem. Mostly it is the selfish complacency of the electorate. People are aggressive to their elected representatives without first arming themselves with the facts. They only get involved (in large part) with what is going on around them when it affects them personally.

The sort of people who read this are not the sort of people I am describing here, ironically. The problem people are those who do not read the Herald, have never attended a public meeting or a meeting of the Council and only ever make their opinions known when we are discussing building social housing near their home or when their home is near a planning application.

People criticise politicians for being out of touch, but when normal people don’t tell politicians what they want, and the vocal minority with a vested interest does, what hope does the politician have of knowing what people want?

So this, rather than being a bitter rant, is a call to the people of England and of Britain. If you care at all how your country is run, find out how it is run. Don’t rely on the media, but read about our constitutional make-up. And if you find, when you have learnt, that there is something that is not right (and there is plenty) then do something about it. E-mail me at the very least!

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s Christmas and you may be feeling some guilt for spending so much money while those in other countries do not have the same opportunities. Or, and I think this is more likely, you’re just a nice person like me

Either way, Kiva’s what you need.

Kiva is a way of giving charitably but not giving away your money. Once the person who used it has profited from using their entrepreneurial spirit, the money is returned to you to invest in someone else. All you lose is a small amount of interest!

So loan some hard-working people some money and see what they can do with it to improve their lot and the lot of their home country’s economy!

Sign up at Kiva.org

I went to see Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at the Brighton Centre last night.

I’ve never been much of a music-buff but I’ve loved the double-CD for a long time. Last year we were unable to obtain tickets due to their popularity and my Dad actually bought them a year ago for last night’s show!

It may sound unnecessarily girly, but I found the whole first half extremely moving. The music was (in the traditional sense of the word) awesome and at exactly the right volume. What really made it, though, were the images that accompanied the musicians and singers on stage — simply perfect.

If you can get tickets (you can’t, actually) then I cannot recommend it enough. Really.

He may not be a nice man, he may even be a terrorist. But if he is, lets prove it in court. And if we won’t prove it in court, bloody release him.

I feel sick just thinking about how complacent the British have become.

[Cameron] held up the NHS as a “best of British” institution: “created by a Welshman and benefiting from the skills of doctors trained in the great medical schools of Scotland.”

… and financed by the poor of England to the benefit of the poor and wealthy of Scotland.

Last night the Policy and Strategy Committee of Adur District Council (ADC) had to make some tough funding decisions.

If you find your favourite project has been dropped or had its funding cut, write to the Prime Minister and copy in your local Councillor and explain that the burdens on Council Tax in the south of England imposed by central government are making life unreasonably difficult for Councils, for tax payers and for those who rely on assistance from the local Council.

The minutes of the meeting will show which projects did not make the cut and which projects have had their funding modified (reduced). In the meantime, you can see the choices we had to make in Annex 2 (the last page) of Agenda Item 5 of the meeting on 4 December 2007: Policy and Strategy reports and minutes

So a police officer has been banned from driving for forty-two days for driving at 90mph.

This, depending upon how you look at it, is an extremely soft penalty or an extremely harsh one. I would err on the harsh side.

No-one was hurt by his driving and if he’d been in an accident speed would statistically have been unlikely to be a contributing factor. Even if it were a contributing factor, that same argument could be made all the way down to not allowing the car to move at all.

When the police flout blatantly foolish and draconian laws (as does almost every commuter on my 84-mile round trip each day), it must surely say something about the validity of the law. If it was so dangerous to drive at a speed over 70mph, surely there would be at least one crash on the M23 each day?

Let’s make the speed limits sensible and consider no speed limits on some straight, flat motorways.

Google’s Search History on my personalised homepage today had a few items that I most certainly did not search for and that were made while I was at a Council meeting and while no-one was using my PC at home (I checked).

So it seems Google have a security leak which is troubling at the very least. Suffice I’ve changed my passwords for everything (which took some time as you may imagine!)

I suggest you change yours too.