The Gloucestershire Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Gloucestershire Politics’

Quay St Gloucester

It is good to see that after all the fuss there are now many community led library branches either open or about to open. Churchdown, Painswick and Mitcheldean are just a few. The Mitcheldean Library Action Group has now set up the new GL17 Community Hub to take on responsibility for the centre and is determined services will not be hit.

There has been a very vindictive and politically led campaign by the self styled “Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries”, that does them no credit at all. In particular on the tig site some of their comments have been particularly offensive. Continued denigrating comments about individual councillors seem to be their forte, and denigrating the wonderful volunteers who are giving their own time for the community also attract their bile.

It is past time these “protesters” started to look at the real world. The council does not have an unlimited pot of money and libraries simply must take their share of the cuts that are affecting everything in this terrible recession.

Social media is all the rage at the moment, and we do get a lot of enquiries about using Twitter and Facebook by business. The short answer is, yes, it can help your business, but not if you take it to extremes. You will notice some who seem to spend inordinate amounts of time tweating and posting, but beware, most of them are paid by media companies to do it. So you are much better off seeing to your business than wasting hours on twitter and facebook.

Remember your blog is still the best bet. In a blog article you can go into great detail, add images and graphs and of course links. The savvy ones will have plugins for media groups like twitter on the blog, so that way you get the best of both worlds.

The subject of the big society seems to be confusing and annoying people at the same time. Of course there is lots of politicking going on as well, but the essence to me seems quite simple.

What do we expect the state to provide for us, and are we prepared to pay for it. I think the library protests are a good case in point. Libraries were not initially provided by the state at all. The victorians regarded this type of project as the duty of well off members of the public and business, and it was businesses that built and provided them. It is the same story with the magnificent town halls that were built in the last couple of centuries. They were built by business that were proud of their locality.

Sadly nowadays people expect the state to provide them, not with just the basics, but all the luxuries as well. I have never believed that the state has a duty to maintain my lifestyle of choice, but looking at all the protest lately, I’m in a minority.

Instant fines of £80 will be slapped on anyone caught using the city as an “open litter bin”. Posters and a radio campaign will spearhead the drive, launched today by Gloucester City Council. From August, instant fines of up to £80 will be dished out.

Quite right too. Litter is an increasing problem in our towns and the countryside.

Organisers of this summer’s music festivals have been asked by the government to warn about “legal highs”.

Minister for Crime Prevention James Brokenshire wrote to festival organisers asking them to warn people how such substances could be dangerous.

He also said drug laws would be changed so temporary bans could be introduced on “emerging substances” while scientific advice is sought.

Letters were also sent to councils and police forces in festival areas

This is one of the great cons practiced by all political parties. They show public concern, but fail to acknowledge that their policies are simply not working. Are they going to warn them about the mushrooms that grow wild everywhere ? How about the flag iris ? That is grown in many gardens, is 100% legal and contains a mind altering drug.

It is past time that we had a politician with the guts and determination to really look at why we have such terrible problems with drugs in our society instead of the sticking plaster approach that seems to remain with us.

The National Identity Card scheme will be abolished within 100 days with all cards becoming invalid.

The bill to axe the cards and the ID register will be the first put before parliament by the new government – with a target of becoming law by August.

The 15,000 people who voluntarily paid £30 for a card since the 2009 roll out in Manchester will not get a refund.

Thank goodness. This was a hugely expensive scheme that never worked properly, and was an invasion of privacy. It is good to see the nanny state we have had under Labour being dismantled.

We have a board on our community forums specially set up to discuss the 2010 general election. Even before the election was announced I sent invites to every single candidate in the county inviting them to make their case to local people on a local forum.

Naturally not one of them has had the balls to take part. In fact only one even bothered to reply to my email. What they want is carefully managed interviews that they can spin on. They certainly dont want to talk to the people who are going to be voting for them and paying their wages.

Shame on the lot of you

Gloucestershire police wants to sign up special constables after announcing almost 100 fewer police officers would be on the beat due to funding cuts.

They do seem to have forgotten the huge increases they have been given over the last 5 years.

If you would like to be a special constable call 01452 754 353. for details or go to their web site at

http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/Special%20Constabulary/item5133.html

I have sent invitations to all the parties and candidates in Gloucestershire that I can find email addresses for. I do hope we get some response here.

Last week the European Court of Human Rights ruled the power to stop people without suspicion was indiscriminate.
The government is appealing – saying it is vital to make cities a hostile place for any possible attacker.
The demonstration comes after a year of rising tensions between professional photographers and police over the exact scope of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

This special stop and search power allows police in specifically designated areas to stop people without suspicion of wrongdoing in an attempt to make it difficult for potential attackers to move around.
It is used in some key areas of London and other cities or airports where counter-terrorism officers suspect that violent extremists may be looking for targets. According to the latest available figures, some 36,000 people were stopped under the power between April and June last year.
But photographers say the practical effect has been that increasing numbers of people with cameras are being left intimidated, angry and afraid after being asked to account for their actions.
A series of controversial stops over the past year have included photographers being stopped while taking pictures of landmarks and public buildings.
A separate counter-terrorism law, which in theory restricts the rights to photograph police officers, has added to the tensions.
Advice to officers
Shortly before Christmas, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police, warned officers they risked losing public confidence if they did not use the Section 44 powers sensibly.

Police, and others are still stopping photographers when they have no right to do so. To see your rights and to comment take a look at this thread