Number 10′s response to the ecotown petition

I’ve just recieved the email link to Number 10′s response to the petition initiated by BARD on the Number 10 website.  This website was launched with much joy and gusto to allow the people to communicate directly with the driving forces of New Labour.  It was billed as a way to have the feelings of the general public heard and responded to.  Instead it has become a joke, between the humorous petitions to have Spandau Ballet’s “Gold” replace “God save the Queen” as the national anthem the real petitions have been fobbed off with responses that appear to have been written by office interns on a Friday afternoon.

So for your consideration, here is the text of the petition:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop consideration of possible Eco-town at Long Marston near Stratford-upon-Avon.”

Details of Petition:

“The site of the former Number 1 Engineers Supply Depot [ Army ] and adjoining land at Long Marston has been submitted as a possible site for a new Government Eco-town by St Modwyn and The Bird Group.By mid-February 2008 the Government are to choose 10 sites out of 50 to 60 submitted. There is considerable opposition locally as this is presently within a peaceful corner of South Warwickshire, where the need for such a new town is generally considered neither necessary nor desirable. Most importantly, the infrastructure for a new town does not exist and the site is served by one B- class road and country lanes only. A new town with a minimum population of 13,000 [ half the size of Stratford-upon-Avon ] will bring traffic chaos to Stratford,an important tourist town, with only two very limited crossings over the River Avon. I therefore petition the Prime Minister to confer urgently with Hazel Blears MP to whom letters opposing the proposals have been sent.”

To which Number 10 has responded:

On 4 November 2008 the Department for Communities and Local Government launched the second stage of the eco-towns consultation programme and published a Draft Eco-Towns Planning Policy Statement (PPS), Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Impact Assessment. In the accompanying press notice, the Housing Minister outlined the shortlist of locations with the potential to be an eco-town.  Middle Quinton was included in this list.  The consultation closed on 30 April 2009.

The Government recognises the strength and depth of feeling that proposals for new housing development generate. All representations received as part of the current consultation will be considered, alongside location assessments, before Government publishes the final PPS and list of locations with the potential to be an eco-town later this year.

No final decisions on sites have been taken. It is not expected that all locations will be endorsed. The PPS will set the toughest ever green standards required of new development in the UK and proposals will need to demonstrate their potential to meet them if they are to be short-listed. The Sustainability Appraisal chapter on Middle Quinton identifies a number of issues which would need to be addressed were the proposal to go forward.

A financial viability study of the eco-towns programme prepared with input from external advisors was published on 5 March 2009.  All documents can be viewed at www.direct.gov.uk/ecotowns

Now I believe you can read that as a condescending pat on the head, “Well done for writing a petition, it doesn’t change anything though”.

Now I’m hoping the sudden abandonment of the post by Hazel “Communities, who listens to them?” Blears from Browns rapidly shrinking cabinet means that we’ll see a more logical pair of hands at the helm of rural redevelopment in the near future.  However, I’m realistic enough to understand that with things as bad as they are right now for Brown and the Labour party, they might just keep steering into the crash just to see how much worse things can get!

Hazel Blears, no Mags!

Even the BBC were impressed with Hazel Blears turn of phrase;

So when Hazel Blears said “YouTube if you want to”, but traditional methods were best, she both coined a catchy phrase and risked publicly contradicting her boss.

BBC News – What is Hazel Blears up to?

However, she quite obviously did not “coin a catchy phrase” she just played upon the words of Margaret Thatcher in her famous quote:

“To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only this to say, ‘You turn if you want; the lady’s not for turning.’”

- Margaret Thatcher

Now poor Hazel is facing a bit of a problem, when in the one breath she denounces Gordon Brown’s YouTube policy announcement, and in the next breath she claims to support her dear leader 100%.  Sounds like a u-turn to me, even if it isn’t on YouTube!  Thirty years on from when Thatcher came to power following a winter of discontent and a decade of Labour mismanagement leaving the county with 2 million plus unemploted it seems like Hazel picked her words a touch poorly.  Here we are again in economic turmoil, with a conflicted Labour government lacking clear leadership, scrabbling at policies and u-turning so quickly that they must be getting dizzy.  Unemployment is nearing record levels, and the next general election seems pretty predictable at this stage…

So Hazel, nice to see you know your political history, but don’t expect too much from misquoting Maggie! “YouTube if you want to; the lady’s not for tubing” doesn’t have the same ring to it, makes you sound like a failed extreme sports competitor!

Oh, and while you criticise the PM’s YouTube message, don’t forget your own political career is hanging on the debacle of the Eco Towns!

You may want to compare the current Government’s performance to that of Maragert Thatcher’s starting 30 years ago.  Wonder what songs they’ll put to the Blair/Brown years?  BBC News Photomontage

U-turn of the day = ID Cards

Wow, these huge decision changes are coming thick and fast now.  FormerHome Secretary David Blunkett, after years of pushing the “We must have ID cards to prevent terrorism” button has suddenly decided that since everybody should have a passport anyway, and the law requires these to be biometric digital things these days maybe an additional card system as well is just an enormous waste of time and tax payers money.

Well done David, you only started wasting cash on this idiotic scheme in 2001.  So today’s question is:

How much did it cost the British Taxpayer for Labour to decide that ID Cards are not a good idea?

• BBC News – Blunkett seeks ‘end to ID Cards’
• The Telegraph – Senior cabinet ministers ‘discussing dropping ID Card scheme’
• The Telegraph – Scrapping ID Cards should be just the start

Another Labour U-turn

Last October Jaqui “Big Brother” Smith wanted to force the monitoring and storage of all internet and communications traffic into a single government database.  The plan was described at the time by the BBC as “Giant database plan Orwellian”.   Industry and politicians spoke out, liberty groups clamoured in concern, and those of us working in the tech industry wondered how the hell it could be done without creating a single point of failure that would be the dream target for hackers world wide.

Over the last few weeks we’ve seen interest in this topic rise again, when desperate to make up for a flotilla of failed policies, poor management, and economic idiocy the Labour bandwagon decided to keep pushing the “It is to keep you safe from terrorists” button (after all it worked so well for George Bush).

Fortunately for the people of Great Britain this new half baked plan has failed, and Jaqui Smith has launched a dramatic U-turn (The Telegraph – Jaqui Smith scraps plan for email database) but don’t start cheering yet.  She is instead suggesting that the communications companies keep these records for her (BBC News – Plan to monitor all internet use).  So look forward to higher internet and phone bills as the firms have to invest in massive data storage facilities to securely hold all the details of your phone conversation with Aunty, or your emails to your school friends.

We’ve moved one point of failure to many privately owned points.  Will the phone company hold your records safer than the Government, who knows, possibly they are less likely to leave laptops in trains or taxis, but that is only because you’d get fired for that kind of idiocy in the private sector.  That being said, if Jaqui Smith faced the wrath of Donald or Alan on “The Apprentice” she’d have been fired in week 1!.  This “save everything” solution doesn’t address the real problem, that intelligence gathering is becoming more complex in the digital age and without serious investment in both technical solutions and sensible legal checks and balances you rapidly create more problems than you solve.

Question: Why are these records really being kept?

If it was phrased as

“the British Government plans to tap every phone in the UK“

there would be far more outrage, but this is indeed what they are suggesting.  The only differences are they’ll be bugging your email too, and they’ll let the private sector keep the tapes!  What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Messing with time

The stupidity of the incumbent British Government knows no bounds, and today they’ve made two great leaps towards further idiocy!

First off, a quick pet peve of mine.  Speed doesn’t kill, reckless driving kills.  Even the government’s own statistics show that excessive speed plays an active part in less than 5% of injury causing accidents (See here for details and DfT facts).  So, lets slow down all our A roads shall we: The Telegraph – A-road speed limits to be reduced to 50mph Wow, they’l cut a third of road deaths by changing a rule that according to their own data only impacts one twentieth of accidents.  I’m pretty sure 5% is less than 33.3%! Could it be that Gordon Brown and the Labour massive are actually just realising that all the speed camera revenue is dropping as people figure where the cameras are, but by randomly changing speed limits around the country they can create some more revenue!  I hear the pennies jingling!

Next up, TIME!

The Telegraph – Putting clocks forward two hours in summer ‘would save hundreds of lives’

Yes, not happy with ruining Great Britain PLC. they’ve decided to target time now.  As you know all time is calculated from the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England. So the crazy scheme is to have Britain operate between 1 and 2 hrs ahead of the Prime Meridian, again to save lives!!!  As the official report claimed:

A move to “double summertime” would also yield benefits including energy savings from lighter evenings, more opportunities for sport and leisure and a boost to British business from being permanently aligned with other western European nations.

So let me show you the times that the sun rises and sets at:

	GMT Sunrise	GMT Sunset	Current Rules Sunrise	Current Rules Sunset	Nu Labour Wacky Time Sunrise	Nu Labour Wacky Time Sunset
Dec 21st 2008	08:03	15:52	08:03	15:52	09:03	16:52
June 21st 2009	04:42	21:20	05:42(bst)	22:20(bst)	06:42	23:20

As you can see the change for the average worker (assumed to be working from 9am to 5pm and commuting between 7am and 7pm) is no difference whatsoever.  Light changes very little during their main travel times, and in the winter they still commute in the dark.

However, for schoolchildren the journey to school (leaving 8am in class at 9am) is much worse in the winter, with them arriving at school in darkness!  Oh, and don’t forget that the chances of alcohol fueled violence on the streets of a Friday or Saturday night will go up in the summer as it stays light enough to cause mayhem into the wee small hours with this brilliant plan.

How idiotic is this?  They admit themselves that:

“There would be a particular impact on northern Scotland resulting from the darker mornings,” it says. There could also be “negative impacts” on areas such as agriculture and the construction industry.

What? So you can accept creating more stressful and dangerous working conditions for two major industries and a large number of people living in the north, but not worry because you’ll be okay in your state funded second homes in London!  Who cares that real people are inconvenienced by your stupidity!

At a time when Gordon Brown’s lousy Government is struggling to look like it has half a brain in the entire cabinet it is reports like this that make you wonder how crazy they really are!