I admit I have mixed feelings about how we should treat the BNP: On one hand they are a political party that represents an opinion that I find abhorrent and so provide a political outlet for opinions that, thankfully, the vast majority of British people do not share. On the other, by having a legitimate political party, people can legitimately argue that they should not be excluded from parts of society, including, working in schools.

The trouble is, if you were to ban the BNP, you would still have racist people about the place, but they would not be so easily identifiable. Therefore, perhaps the best solution is to continue to allow the party to exist, but make it quite clear that its stated aims are incompatible with working with, or for, vulnerable people.

The risk is that this view could be extended in the future to, say, members of the Respect Unity Coalition (perhaps it should be?) or to UKIP. Where do you stop? The stated aims of UKIP are not racist (at least not in the view of society today) but in the future could an argument be made about it based on typical members, or about the unadmonished public comments by some of its candidates?

I don’t know what the right answer is, but I am sure that we will eventually have a world free of racism. The challenge today is to find ways to bring that day sooner and avoid measures against it, that drive racism underground and allow it to survive unchecked.

I have deliberately kept posts light of late because there are plenty of people commenting on these topics, and my lone voice would not normally add too much. In this case, though, I think it’s important to comment because the stakes are so high.

I am delighted that a more proportional system could be in place after the next election and I am delighted that, despite appropriate reservations (like that the proposals are not the best system and don’t go far enough), the Liberal Democrats are in favour of the proposals.

One thing does trouble me though. And it’s nonsense articles like this from the Times. There’s no way people would vote in the same way if there was ATV.

I suspect, for example, that more first votes would go to smaller parties like UKIP and the Cannabis Alliance. I suspect second choices would not follow the patterns that experts expect; as far as I am aware, pollsters do not actually check on second preferences routinely at the moment.

There are many people, I am sure, who do not bother to vote LibDem in Tory/Labour seats. And many people who don’t bother to vote Labour in LibDem/Tory seats. But there are probably a similar number who don’t vote for the smaller party because there’s no hope of them getting in. It is simply wrong to extrapolate from FPTP and add some unsupported assumptions RE: second-choices.

But electoral reform needs to happen before I can be proved right. Which I am

Innocent men who were held for over two years without trial and tortured, Shafiq Rasul and Rahud Ahmed, were able to meet one of their former guards after he contacted them to apologise on Facebook.

The next story was about the European Court on Human Rights’ decision that ruled illegal the Stop and Search powers used in a draconian manner by some police forces (sorry ’services’ — another 1984-ism). For a while people who look like they have Asian ancestry may be safe when taking photos in London’s tourist hotspots.

But unfortunately, it’s not all good news. A trial has begun without a jury for no reason other than that the police have lost so much authority that they are no longer able to keep safe twelve individuals to the extent that they can be trusted — at least that’s the state’s excuse. The sooner this ‘trial’ is stopped, the better. An innocent group of men (as they are until the completion of a valid trial by their peers) should not have to trust a judge with their liberty.

Two bits of good news — one piece of bad. Not a bad score by most counts. Vote Liberal Democrat and perhaps we can have even more good news from May onwards!

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I don’t particularly care about the answers, I just wanted to share my frustration with the world; frustration that pedantic attention to detail is missing from tech.

Trains across the network are in the wrong places and when some drivers start work at 4am, more trains get out of location each morning that ice makes a commuting driver’s train late.

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I will post again soon with some radical proposals that I personally believe are long overdue and desperately necessary.

But on with what I said:

“When I requested an opportunity to make a statement to this meeting, my intention had just been to explain my reasons for leaving the Conservatives in favour of the Liberal Democrats. I will still do that, but afterwards, I would also like to address some specific accusations levelled at me.

“Over the last year or so I have been struggling with my conscience: At the next General Election could I go and ring on the doors of residents of Adur and Brighton & Hove and explain to them why they should vote Conservative?

“Since it became clear to the media that the next government would be Conservative, more and more honest policies have been released. So the Conservatives will set an arbitrary limit on the number of immigrants allowed into Britain. Regardless of the fact that immigration from outside the EU is very difficult in any case, there will now be a limit set by politicians for political rather than economic or cultural reasons. Now, presumably someone’s husband will be told he cannot come to the UK; or the next Director of a large UK company will be denied access because he is that one person over the limit.

“The Conservative Party has been at sixes and sevens over its policy on the European Union promising referenda on treaties that would be illegal under international law and then, when realising this, making no decision at all about what to do about the supposed problems with EU membership. To be clear I have, in the past, been critical of the EU because like most institutions, it is imperfect, but it is better to have a policy of positive engagement than no policy and be isolated by hostility.

“A Conservative government would remove Stamp Duty for first time buyers, but this tax slows movement in the housing market at all levels and it is extraordinarily non-progressive to tax one group just because you can. The Liberal Democrats have a coherent taxation policy that will favour those who most need lower taxes.

“For the last six months, the Conservatives have been publicly confused about their stance on the Financial Services Authority. The FSA currently plans to introduce tough qualifications to try to improve the skill-level of this country’s financial advisers. The current hoo-har over Structured Products backed by Lehmans and likely future crises are the fault of advisers who do not understand how these products work resulting in poor advice being given. A Financial Stability Committee with the FSA left alone to continue where it has expertise is the Liberal policy and the right one.

“Finally, the Conservative Party website describes its policy for National Security thus: “we must defend and make the argument for our shared liberal values” while it intends to continue the fight in Afghanistan where recent laws have stripped womens’ rights back to a Taliban-level of liberality. I quote from the charity Human Rights Watch “[The law] allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her.” A new law also allows men to deny their wives food if they fail to obey sexual demands. If these are our shared liberal values…

“I could go on about national and international politics but I shouldn’t ignore the local arena. Our Council has argued for a long time that interference by Whitehall is the one major reason that we are unable to make real, significant and valuable changes to the way we run things. The Liberal Democrats have issued strong words in this respect at a national level.

“So I left the Conservative Party in my heart earlier this year. And then I found my natural home in the Liberal Democrats.

“I had hoped to work with the Conservative administration until May for the benefit of the people of Adur District and I believed, perhaps naively, that the Tory leadership was honest and, like me, here for the benefit of the residents. But it seems holding onto power is more important.

• “Rather than issue a press release that suggested that Cllr English had missed many meetings, when he had in fact missed one;
• “Rather than issue a press release that suggested I had been deselected when actually I had not sought reselection for the reasons I just gave,

“they could have spoken of their personal disappointment in the decision Cllr English and I had taken and reassured the public that they were a steady hand to run the Council.

“I made this decision on principles and I hope, despite this bad start, we can work together in a constructive and positive way in the future.”

I am extremely disappointed that the Conservative leadership have decided to take this path as I had every expectation that we would be able to work together in the future for the betterment of Adur District in a friendly way. In fact, in my letter to the Leader of the Council I made it quite clear that my reasons for leaving were not in any way a reflection on the Conservatives as individuals. The following is an extract:

I have had my differences, since 2006 when I was elected, with a few people in the party locally, but none of these differences are the cause, or even contributed to my change of heart.

I have found it an extraordinary culture shock, actually, since joining the Council as there’s a lot more ‘politics’ than I have experienced in the real world. At my usual place of work the vast majority do not gossip or insult their colleagues behind each others’ backs and if there’s a problem that needs resolving, people tend to have a chat with the appropriate person. Not so in local politics it seems!

The friendly chap who answered the phone at The Argus read me the Conservative press release and in the absence of an opportunity to respond in the paper, I have drafted the following response:

The Conservative press release suggests that I was deselected as a Conservative Councillor and rather than choosing to leave the party I was compelled by the potential of losing my seat to seek alternatives. I would like to make it quite clear that I have had no interaction whatsoever with the Conservative Party locally in relation to seeking to defend my seat as a Conservative. At around the same time as I decided to switch parties, for idealogical reasons, I also spoke to a Conservative colleague who had expressed an interest in representing the Buckingham Ward and told her that she would have my personal support (she’s a very likeable person as well as being a great Councillor and a hard-worker).

I will be the first to admit that I have not put the hours into being a Councillor that some of my retired colleagues have been able to, but I believe I have represented my constituents’ interests well where I could, and I have provided valuable input to meetings that I have attended.

One of the comments in the press release attempts to associate the amount of allowance that I have claimed to the number of meetings I have attended. This is extraordinarily spurious and should never be the way these numbers are used. It is simplistic in the extreme to suggest that the amount of allowance a Councillor ‘deserves’ should be related to how many meetings they have attended. I did miss a few meetings this year but I have responded promptly and in a helpful manner to my constituents’ requests for information, assistance and advice.

The constituents of Buckingham are fortunate to have Councillor Kennard represent them and she does work very hard for them — I hadn’t previously chosen to shout about the number of people I have helped — I think it is more appropriate to respond to the question and move on!

Since the representatives on each committee were decided earlier this year, I have only been a member of the Constitution and Audit Committee aside from Full Council meetings. This has reduced, significantly the opportunities that I have to be present at Council. This allocation of committees is carried out by the very ‘inner circle’ that was criticised in the press release announcing Carl English’s decision to represent the more reasoned, Liberal Democrat party.

Earlier in my term, however, and before the Cabinet system was adopted, I was welcomed onto the Policy & Strategy Committee for the very reason that I was able to apply intelligence and calm consideration to complex issues at Council. I was vice chair on the Housing and Central Services committee I believe for those same reasons.

So I find it shocking that the Conservatives would now suggest that they would not have chosen to retain these, sadly rare, qualities in one of their own. I believe, if the party wants to be judged on the record of its Councillors (again, according to the Press Release), it should look carefully at some of the people that have passed their supposedly stringent criteria. There are a few highly competent Councillors in the Conservative ranks at Adur and I could name them if I didn’t think that that would be rude. This reliance on a few, though, is not good for the health of Adur Council and reflects strongly on their new criteria given some of the people that I understand have been reselected.

I have requested an opportunity to speak at the next Full Council meeting on 8 December and I would encourage members of the public who are interested, to come along. The meeting starts at 7pm at the Civic Centre on Ham Road (Google Map) and if you enter the main entrance, a friendly person will let you know where the public seating area is.

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LibDems offer real democracy for residents

The ruling Conservatives in Adur have been rocked by a second defection in a fortnight, as Southlands Councillor Carl English has followed colleague Gavin Ayling in choosing to cross the floor to the Liberal Democrats.

“Since my election in 2006, I have found it increasingly difficult to defend Tory policies, locally or nationally,” said Councillor English. “On the doorstep, when people have attacked the Tories, I have found myself agreeing with them more and more that Adur is being let down by the Conservative administration. When you are asked to put party ahead of people; when you’re told what to think and say by an inner circle: then democracy goes out of the window. I felt that as the electors of Southlands ward had elected me as a Conservative then I should serve as much of my term as possible as a Tory, but I also wanted to have time to explain on the doorstep my reasons for leaving a party that has no interest in serving the community.

“Now it’s time to go, and I look forward to being able to campaign and fight freely for the residents against unjust plans and policies. I’ve joined the Liberal Democrats because they offer a chance for real change; the Labour party have nothing to offer and no chance of winning in Adur.”

Cllr English was elected for Southlands ward in 2006. With Carl on board, the LibDems have now become the official opposition to the Conservatives on Adur District Council.

Councillor James Doyle, leader of Worthing Liberal Democrats, said “Carl has made this decision because he believe in putting the residents of his ward first, a belief at the heart of Liberal Democrat philosophy, and a principle apparently sadly lacking in local Conservatives. Like Gavin, Carl sees the ongoing merger plans being pushed through for Worthing and Adur as undemocratic and unfair to Adur. I’m delighted that Richard Burt and Gavin Ayling have another colleague so soon, and I look forward to working with them to increase the number of Liberal Democrats on Adur Council, and increasing the real representation for Adur residents.”

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