CATCHING YOUR ATTENTION!

Two diverse news items have caught my eye and my attention over the last few days - both of which are worth sharing for different reasons. The first item was the New York Times coverage of the phone hacking scandal which is far more detailed than the coverage in the UK for a variety of diverse reason which amongst them may include the fact that said newspaper is not owned by the Dirty Digger or his minions and the US media feels no need to cosy up with Cameron and the Con Dems. It's a sizeable well research and highly detailed article and is well worth a read.

The second item that caught my attention was the coverage on the BBC of the immanent collapse (save for some sort of divine fiscal intervention) of Connaught, which despite its difficulties over recent moths was a FTSE 250 company which at one stage held a market value of well over £500m. The company, which specialises in social housing, is appointing administrators, as it tried and failed to secure funding for its £220m debts. Trading in Connaught's shares has now been suspended.

Why this should worry people is that this is (or was) a major private company which employed up to 10,000 people and previously made a good living from the public sector. Why we should worry even more is the fact that the Con Dem's are preparing the hack the hell out of public sector spending which could have a significant impact on numerous private companies, large and small that trade with and within the public sector.

THE BIG SOCIETY

It has been interesting to see that Nick Ramsay (the incumbent Tory member for Monmouth Constituency in the National Assembly) has been waxing lyrical about the sad decline of the quality of life in our rural communities over the past decade with the loss of many invaluable rural services such as pubs and village halls.

He goes on (and on) about the loss of the pubs and village halls that were once the heart of rural communities. His solution to the well recognised problem is that people who use local services take control of them. This is not due to any great Tory commitment to rural life, but, more down to a pressing need to once again flag up David ("Call me Dave") Cameron's flagship policy - 'The Big Society' which has been lacking of late in the media (nationally and locally).

Cameron's 'Big Society' is a nice idea, but, with present financial circumstances it may end up being consigned quietly to the poltical dustbin. One thing it does anticipate, is a future trend of Government at all levels simply being there and providing next to nothing or at little as long as it costs the least (and claiming it's expenses for the privilege).

This sudden Conservative concern about society and community is all pretty ironic especially when you consider that Mr's Thatcher a Conservative (and Blairite / Brownite) icon once said that there was no such thing as society. No doubt that provided the inspiration for Mr Ramsay, as the following extracts from the Assembly records of claims would seem to suggest that he might well have been inspired by the spirit of self interest rather than anything else:

07-Apr-08 Nick Ramsay - Second Home Electrical Goods £977.95
(Sony LCD TV £549.99 Sony Surround Sound £159.98 Product Support for Surround Sound £59.00 Product Support for LCD TV £169.00 Logik 4m Aerial Cable £9.99 Scart £29.99)

Expenses aside the new bottom line is when you have ineffective and inert Government, then if you want a civic or fair society or merely want to reopen an old railway station, save a village pub, or community centre, a local primary school (Govilon and Llanover - to name but two), a cattle market (Abergavenny) or perhaps even a magistrates court (Abergavenny and Chepstow) then it will be up to us to make Government act on our behalf (whether it wants to or not) and find the money.

Unless of course said citizens find themselves in opposition to something that Government (central or local) wants to happen in which case then they will find themselves fighting against the full weight of the machinery of Government (at all levels) and all the inbuilt bias's and intricacies of the planning system. This is not in essence the Big Society that Cameron droned on about long before the election, this is people making Government at all levels pull its collective finger out and do what they want for their communities.

Roll on the day when Government's are afraid of their people, rather than the people being afraid of their Government. And that after all is the stuff of a collective New Labour and Conservative nightmare and the beginnings of a real Big Society.

DOWN AT THE DIG

 

My second and final week on the dig at on the Priory Field in Caerleon, within the walls of the Legionary Fortress, is now drawing to a close.  It's been hard, hot and pretty exhausting but very interesting work as well as being fun. 

Final excavations are taking place this year, and will last up until mid September, involving staff and students from University College London (UCL) and Cardiff University and volunteers.

The dig is open to the public and there are guided tours of the excavation site, at 11am and 2.30pm daily, except for Monday's. You can keep up to date with progress via the excavation blog.

CHEAP ALCOHOL CURB'S CALL

It's interesting to see that there has been a call for a UK-wide "floor price" for alcohol - which should be established to reduce consumption, and this according to a commission which was set up by the Scottish Labour Party. The alcohol commission has recommended a UK-wide ban on alcohol sales below the total cost of production, duty and VAT. The commission also said that consideration of a levy on alcohol retailers should also be considered, to help pay for alcohol-related services. The Scottish government, which wants to set a basic price per unit, said the report passed the buck to Westminster. Concerns about the damaging effects on health of rock bottom price cheap alcohol have been raised in Wales, lately last November.  I wonder if we will hear a peep from the Con Dem's?

NOBBLED? - SURELY NOT?

News that the Com Dem Coalition Government has quietly shelved plans for an independent inquiry into the £25 billion-a-year energy industry which has been subject to lengthy and repeated criticisms surrounding accusations of profiteering on electricity and gas, should come as no surprise to even the most impartial observers of the consequences of a warm relationship between the political parties within the Westminster village (and without) and the energy supply companies.

Interestingly enough, for sometime before the last Westminster general election, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats made repeated criticisms (and much political capital) from New Labour for its failure to tackle prices charged by the Big Six suppliers. Both the opposition parties publicly and repeatedly demanded an inquiry by the Competition Commission. 

There was a hope that an inquiry into the nefarious activities of the energy supply cartel (sorry companies) might have had the power to reform the industry, encourage new entrants to break the hold of players such as British Gas and EDF on 99 per cent of the market and even possibly impose price caps. Yet, it appears that barely four months into the Coalition Government, there will be no inquiry has been called for and the Department of Energy and Climate Change confirmed on the 17th August that it has no plans to refer the industry to the Competition Commission.

Hmmm... perhaps there ought to be an inquiry into the dubious (and financial rewarding (in cash and kind) relationship between our political parties and the representatives of the energy supply companies who are keen to shower enough goodies around during Party conference season (and beyond) - perhaps not? 

A SCOTTISH PEOPLE'S BANK

A group of prominent Scottish business people are investing around £10m into the Airdrie Savings Bank. The Savings bank, which currently has seven branches in North Lanarkshire, is this year celebrating its 175th birthday. It is Scotland's only surviving independent savings bank and operates as a mutual so has no shareholders, it does not pay out dividends. The investors, who include Sir Tom Farmer (the founder the Kwik Fit), Sir David Murray (a major shareholder in Rangers Football Club and chair of the property-to-metals group Murray International Holdings) and Brian Souter (chief executive of the Stagecoach transport group), amongst others are helping the Lanarkshire bank expand and lend to more businesses. Now that's an interesting idea...

FORMER TORY DONOR BACK IN THE UK

The former Conservative party donor Asil Nadir (the former Polly Peck tycoon) has voluntarily returned to UK. Whatever his motives for returning, after he fled the UK to North Cyprus some 17 years ago to evade a potential trial for fraud, his timing is quite interesting. Nadir who was charged with fraud and 66 counts of theft when he was chief executive of Polly Peck, a business empire which traded in products as diverse as groceries and electronics. It has been alleged that he (once Mr's Thatcher's golden boy) secretly transferred £34m out of the company, leading to its collapse.

Now With Turkey in the process of trying to negotiate it's entry into the European Union, a number of loose ends need to be tided up, two biggie's include the on-going problem of Cyprus, along with Turkey's continued oppression and persecution of the Kurdish people. The former is particularly important to Greece and also to Cyprus (the non-Turkish occupied portion that is) as the Cypriot Republic is also an EU member.

While David ('Call me Dave') Cameron and his predecessors Brown and Blair would have liked to ignore or brush under the carpet so to speak the plight of the Kurds, there are plenty of voices within the EU who won't that happen. I digress the real motivation for Mr Nadir's return may lie in the fact that Turkey, anxious to smooth a path into the EU is bringing pressure on nominally independent Turkish Cyprus to cease to be a safe haven for criminals, embezzlers and other unsavoury characters, whose presence is an embarrassment to the Turkish Government on the mainland. 

Additionally, the election of a Conservative (well a largely Conservative) Government may have been interpreted by Mr Nadir, as an indication that he might receive a slightly warmer and more friendly reception now, rather than ending up being extradited by the increasingly co-operative Turkish Cypriot Republic, where he has been hiding for the last 17 years. I wonder how long it will be before he graces the door of Downing Street? If I was Mr Cameron, I think would stay in Cornwall and leave that one to Mr Clegg...