Strange encounters in Ealing Southall

When I arrived at Ealing Broadway station today the first person I saw outside was none other than Sir Menzies Campbell! He was walking all by himself with a couple of Liberal Democrat activists following at a distance. I resisted the opportunity to stop and chat to him.

But stranger still was an incident later on when leafleting. I bent down to put a leaflet through a low letter box when I heard someone opening the gate. I turned round to see coming up behind me none other than Mark Oaten!

Fortunately I didn't shit myself.

Business transaction not political donation

Dizzy Thinks has an excellent piece on the difference between the business community and political tribalists when it comes to events. Rather than comment further I reproduce his piece here:

You say political donation, I say business transaction

The Ealing Southall by-election is getting rather funnier by the day. Allegations about possible lawsuits, and now we have "Tory candidates donates to Labour less than a month ago". Well that's the line Labour have pushed, which is understandable, elections and all.

It seems what has happened is that Tony Lit in his position as MD of Sunrise Radio, and his wife, attended an event which was celebrating diversity and was actually a Labour fund raiser with Blair and presumably other great and good Labour people too. They, that is Sunrise Radio had paid the Labour Party £4800 for a table at the event. Apparently the table also won an auction which it has yet to pay for with a winning bid of £4000.

There are of course some who would say this is evidence of shameless opportunism by Tony Lit. Weeks before he became the Tory candidate he was "donating" money to Labour. I think some perspective is needed on this though, after all, it was a business identity that was attending an event which, essentially, was a "here's a chance to lobby the Government" event as well as be seen in the local community and maintain a friendly business profile.

Whilst some people might call it a donation, anyone with a modicum of business understanding knows that the £4800 will be seen as a business transaction rather than an act of generosity. In fact, I would be surprised if it wasn't written off in the Sunrise books as part of a relationship building expenses ledger. One thing's for sure, personal political views won't have been a factor in the decision of whether to attend or not.

And to be fair, it sort of beggars belief that an event about diversity and the British Asian community would not have the nations largest Asian radio station in attendance in some way. The chances are they were probably contacted by the Labour Party and invited, rather than it being active participation the other way round. At which point a business decision was made to attend, because, funnily enough, from a business point of view it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Those of a more tribalistic persuasion might find this hard to stomach. Obviously a Labour tribalist won't buy such an argument because it (a) doesn't suit the situation to do so and (b) they're probably a public sector housing officer that doesn't understand the dispassionate nature of making a business decision. A Tory tribalist meanwhile will probably understand the point, but just see it as an excuse to blame Cameron some more I imagine.

There is one final thing to consider though. The Labour Party have (presumably thanks to Tom Watson and Joan Ryan who are dealing with their by-election strategy) just sent a message to businesses around the country that it will (a) breach a trust it may have with them and (b) use them as a political football if it's expedient to do so.

In the short term they've created a story on a Sunday when the polls look horrible for Tories, a double whammy, and politically a great hit (even though the story is devoid of any sanity really). But, in the long term, they've probably just ensured that they're not going to get a decent hearing on the largest Asian broadcaster in the country for some time to come.

Can a man serve two mistresses? or What travelcard zone is Henley in?

When it seemed as though the Liberal Democrats's candidate for Mayor of London might be Lembit Öpik many flaws with the idea soon became clear. (Is London doomed?) And no, I don't mean the possibility that it could have resulted in the capital being hit by an asteroid. Rather it is the location of Öpik's constituency:

It's still not remotely near Zone 6 is it?

Henley is not so far out (maybe Zone 14 to Montgomeryshire's Zone 100) but is still not in Greater London. And this is one of the reasons why I am deeply uneasy about the idea of Boris Johnson running for Mayor of London. (There are others that I'll go into if/when he declares and the nomination battle is underway - and at the moment it's not entirely clear if Boris is running - see ConservativeHome's London Mayor blog: Boris confirms candidacy on his website... and ten minutes later the confirmation is deleted! - but let's stick to this one for the moment.) It's one thing for a politician to represent the same or overlapping areas on different tiers of authorities - there are many councillors who represent the same area at some or all of county, district, town and parish level, as well as those who sit in the Parliaments and/or Assemblies. But even they run the risk of favouring one "core" area over the rest.

When someone seeks to represent two very different areas then it is hard to avoid questions about whether they are truly committed to either. Or which they will give priority to lobbying for when the two are competing for the same resources. Or if they have strong knowledge and a track record in representing (and in this case administering) the new area. These are points that cannot be made about candidates (or potential candidates) from other parties and then quietly ignored when the same issues arise with a potential candidate from one's own party.

One way for Boris to resolve this would be to resign his seat in Parliament, not upon election for Mayor or even upon securing the Conservative nomination but now (if he is running after all). It would be a gamble certainly. But it would be the surest sign of commitment to the metropolis.

What is "good" weather?

After heavy rain, London is currently experiencing what feels like one of the hottest Julys in my lifetime. Even at night it seems impossible to escape the heat, whilst in the daytime the sun beats down relentlessly.

And quite frankly I'm sick and tired of the way everyone is automatically assuming that this is somehow "good weather". TV weather forecasters are the worst - and the BBC should remember they are supposed to be unbiased.

For me sunshine doesn't bring a tan or joy. Instead it burns my skin - my hands are starting to look like a speckled lobster and if gets much worse they'll be physically painful on touch. The heat is also unbearable at times as anyone who's been on the tube this month can attest.

Why is this so universally considered "good" weather?

Ming stops delivering

At the Liberal Democrat campaign office in the Ealing Southall by-election, the three photocopiers are named "Dave", "Gordon" and "Ming". Only one of the three is not performing properly.

You've guessed it - the useless one is Ming!

Thanks to Telegraph Blogs: Little and Large - Ming conks out for the story.

Bravo Sarkozy!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to pardon prisoners on Bastille Day. (BBC News: Sarkozy says 'No' to mass pardons) He has instead decided that the French President's powers to pardon criminals should be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a means of keeping the prison population down.

Too often the opposite attitude prevails in this country, resulting in criminals being given lenient sentences and even non-custodial sentences, exposing the system to ridicule. If prisons have to be overcrowded until more have been built, or if cell space has to be reduced to increase capacity, then those are the only sensible options. Rationing prison places does nothing to deter crime or reassure society.

Interesting petitions

In a break from everything else that has kept me from blogging much lately, including campaigning in the Ealing Southall by-election, here are some interesting petitions on the 10 Downing Street website. All, for now, are from the Education and skills section.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to...

• ...reintroduce spelling, grammar and punctuation lessons and tests in all schools.
  
  
• ...start teaching children that responsibility is as important as rights.
  
  
• ...encourage schools to celebrate christian days exclusively, as we do with other religions.
  
  
• ...make religious education in all schools compulsory.
  
  
• ...prevent holiday companies charging more for holidays in school holiday time.
  
  
• ...halt plans by the OCR to abolish the Ancient History A-level.
  
  
• ...insist that Universities provide a penny-for-penny breakdown of where the ridiculous fees students have to pay actually go.
  
  
• ...reduce prejudice against students.
  
  
• ...stop essay writing services for students.

And now back to the by-election.

Tom Watson - Two names and two faces

Labour's performance in the by-election in Ealing Southall is generating more and more nastiness. First we get the farce of an All Women Shortlist being imposed on the constituency, then retracted following a strong campaign against it. Cue outrage from the AWS advocates. (Antonia Bance: Ealing Southall) Then the shortlist that was put to the membership did not meet the hopes of those who sought to overturn the AWS in the first place. Cue outrage. (SikhSangat News: Labour Party Sikh Members Not Impressed By Labour Selection Process For Ealing Southall) It seems as though whoever in the Labour Party is responsible for overseeing the selection has decided that when it's not possible to please everyone the key priority is to outrage everyone.

Then we get the farce of Tom Watson MP claiming the Conservative candidate is not a registered voter. This is because he didn't bother to look properly. Under changes to electoral law made by Tom Watson's government, candidates are entitled to stand under their best known name rather than their full formal name. You would have thought that the person in charge of Labour's election campaign would know current electoral law!!! Clearly he also doesn't know the electoral law that it is illegal to publish false statements about candidates under electoral law. (Tom Watson MP: Who is Tony Lit? and also Iain Dale: EXCLUSIVE: Labour Breach Electoral Law in Ealing Southall)

Next Tom Watson dug his hole deeper by attacking Tony Lit for sometimes going by his full name (Surinderpal Singh Lit) and sometimes by his given name (Tony Lit). (Tom Watson MP: Who is Tony Lit? [2]) This from a man presenting himself to the world as "Tom Watson" when his full name is "Thomas Anthony Watson". Has he not noticed this?

And for the record I technically go by several variations of name. As well as using "Tim" as my first name, there is deep ambiguity over whether or not there is a hyphen in my surname - I use one but other members of my family don't. And as many internet registrations don't allow spaces and hyphens "timrollpickering" has almost become another name for me. I am sure many others do. Perhaps Tom aka Thomas Anthony Watson would like to spend more time getting his facts straight and less making gaffes.

Time for a Constitutional Convention?

The announcements about constitutional debate and change (BBC News: Brown sets out reform proposals) and the immediate refusal to even consider addressing one of the biggest grievances (BBC News: PM says no to English-only votes; and yes, I do still oppose a two tier MP solution but think there has to be some change made) exposes the very poor way in which constitutional changes are made in this country. All too often one governing party rams through changes with few if any concessions to opposition concerns, creating long-term instability for the sake of short term gain. And it exposes defenders of perceived unfairness to the charge of self-interest - anyone who thinks Brown's attitude on the West Lothian Question does not have such a tinge probably thinks that Joh Bjelke-Petersen was only concerned about communication problems in rural areas when defending the "Bjelkemander". (Malapportionment - irritatingly often confused with gerrymandering - is something that is worryingly creeping into this country, albeit covertly and perhaps unintentionally, due to the Boundary Commission's rules.)

Currently we're in a transitional period where the problems of devolution are starting to rear their heads in earnest, where completing the reform of the second chamber has been dragging on for years, where local government remains a mess, where the rights and responsibilities of both citizen and state are not fully codified and so forth. Some solutions could tackle more than one problem - for example both the United States and Australian Senates are made up of an equal number of senators from each states (give or take the provision for territories). Could an "equal say" upper house make it easier to resolve the problems of voting power in the Commons?

So perhaps it's time there was a grand constitutional convention. Yes it'd be made up of the usual politicians and scholars. But to sit down, address many of the issues fully and openly, and try to find ways forward to resolve them would surely be a better way than relying purely on the government of the day. Whether we need a written constitution or not is an open question that could be debated as part of this process. But rather than calls for piecemeal tinkering, perhaps now is the time for a real examination of how this country is governed.

June on this blog

Once again it's time for the monthly look at who's been visiting this blog. For those who wish to see stats for earlier months you can now click on one of the labels at the end of this post. Comparisons are with the stats for May.

First off the sites most people come from:

1. Google (-)
   
2. Blogger.com (-)
   
3. Mars Hill (-)
   
4. Wikipedia (+5)
   
5. MyBlogLog (+1)
   
6. ConservativeHome (+10)
   
7. Facebook (+6)
   
8. Imaginary Walls (NEW)
   
9. Caroline Hunt (RE-ENTRY)
   
10. Young Unionists (RE-ENTRY)
    

Dropping out of the top ten are Cllr Iain Lindley's Diary (at 11, down 4), Antonia Bance (at 12, down 8), Cally's Kitchen (at 29, down 19) and Peter Black AM (dropping off the radar altogether).

A bit of a shake-up of positions, but the top three seem as unshakable as ever.

Then we have the top ten search engine requests that brought people here:

1. doctor who blink (NEW)
   
2. what does your birthday say about you (-1)
   
3. doctor who tonight (-1)
   
4. tim roll-pickering (-1)
   
5. seals of office (NEW)
   
6. sutton surrey map (+1)
   
7. non oxbridge prime ministers (NEW)
   
8. problems with christian unions (NEW)
   
9. laura blomeley (-1)
   
10. langua franca (RE-ENTRY)

Rather a tame month compared to some. Meanwhile amongst the eyebrow raising searches are quentin davies sleaze - is there something we've not yet been told? - and "radley college" bullying, something I'll address another time.

Finally as ever we have a list of all the cities detected that people are in:

BARI, BELFAST, BERKELEY, BIRMINGHAM, BRISTOL, BROOKLYN, CAMBRIDGE, CARDIFF, CHICAGO, DALLAS, DENVER, DORTMUND, DUBLIN, DULLES, DURHAM, EDINBURGH, ELY, EMERYVILLE, FAYETTEVILLE, GLASGOW, GROSSE POINTE, HARLOW, HARROW, JACKSONVILLE, LANCASTER, LEEDS, LISBON, LONDON, LONG BEACH, LUTON, MANASSAS, MANCHESTER, NEW YORK, NOTTINGHAM, PITTSBURGH, PORTLAND, REDMOND, SAN DIEGO, SHEFFIELD, SINGAPORE, SITKA, SOUTHAMPTON, SUISUN CITY, SYDNEY, TEL AVIV, TORONTO, VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON and "others".

Thank you all for reading!