Greens and the SNP

Jim Murphy has made the obvious point that it makes no sense for the SNP to ask English voters to vote against Labour if they really want to see a Labour government.  The public position of Nicola Sturgeon is that she thinks English voters should vote Green, but anyone who considers that for  few moments knows that the effect of that suggestion is to maximise the possibility of a Tory government. 


I suspect that is precisely what Nicola Sturgeon wants.  Her more minor reason for the move is to sideline the Green Party in Scotland, something that the English Greens seem all too eager to help the SNP with.  If I were a Scots Green I would feel utterly betrayed by my colleagues south of the border.

Shahrar Ali let off the Hook

I see that the Kilburn Times has an extremely gentle piece on Shahrar Ali.  It glosses over the various ways in which the Green Party has sought to block environmental objectives, including food growing, one of Europe's greenest buildings,  carbon emissions, improved recycling, and even district heating.


The strangest of these is the entrenched hostility to Brent Civic Centre.  The environmental benefits of this building are huge, and unattainable realistically in any other way.  People who stand for election really should expect a far higher standard of accountability than appears in the piece.

The Damage of Volunteer Libraries

Dawn Finch, who is an eminent figure in CILIP, the professional body for library professionals has posted a harsh critique of volunteers running community managed libraries.  I wouldn't agree with every point in it but I recognise the general thrust. 


One point that does not come across in the piece is the effect on a wider Council service running alongside the volunteer service.  Since this appears to be the preferred model in many authorities, it is worth pointing out.


Most "stand alone" volunteer libraries actually seem to need a lot of professional support in dealing with areas that volunteers have little or no experience in.  That does not just mean direct library stuff.  It includes facility management, various kinds of insurance, legal matters, building maintenance, trade waste contracts and so on.  There is some evidence that volunteer organisations have had unrealistic, or at least misunderstood, expectations of what they can expect.  It does not appear to be understood that a key driver for many authorities are the huge weight of funding cuts hitting areas of high and rising demand for public services.  I suspect that for most of the authorities that have gone down this route, volunteer libraries are simply a relatively easy way for the authority to jettison responsibility for the building concerned.


That sort of thing, in many authorities, is dealt with by departments other than the libraries department.


On specific library expertise, again many volunteers don't seem to understand how complicated it can be or what level of pressures the library staff may be under.  One example is the necessity of tagging books if self service technology is going to work.  Take the comments here:


"One of the important subjects discussed was the exploration of what could be shared by the Brent Library Service and Community Libraries. This is very important for us because part of our future success, I believe, will be the extent to which we are able to develop a good working relationship with the Brent library service – maybe not financial (as such), but, sharing services, contracts for outreach services, volunteers, training and being part of their lending and IT services could save us a lot of headaches (and finance) and be very significant for our operation of a community library."


There appears to be little or no understanding of how relying on various services drains financial and other resources away from Brent Council Library service, and thereby endanger the effective delivery of the Libraries Transformation Project. 


In other words, having volunteer libraries can actively damage a traditional Council library service rather than adding to it.

Traffic Enforcement in Harlesden Town Centre

Since the new Harlesden Town Centre Scheme started operating, I have noticed that numerous cars still go down the street in front of Harlesden Methodist Church, where they are prohibited.  Brent Council really needs to enforce its traffic restrictions if the scheme is going to work as it is supposed to.

SNP Backs David Cameron

I was startled to read the Daily Telegraph scoop this morning.  According to a leaked memo, Nicola Sturgeon is secretly rooting for David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister.  While, the SNP preference for the Tories over Labour is obvious to people who actually follow their strategy, it will come as a big shock to some "progressive" people South of the Border.


The memo is written by a UK Civil Servant based on what French diplomatic sources told him/her of conversations between Nicola Sturgeon and French diplomats.  It is apparently standard protocol for such reports to be passed to the UK government.  It is not standard practice for such documents to be leaked to the newspapers, and Nicola Sturgeon is now denying the remarks were made, as (rather more weakly) are the French diplomats.


Cato the Elder had a good rule of thumb for such enquiries, which was to ask: Who Benefits?


The SNP categorical denials don't convince me since it seems very obvious that they want to stop Labour forming a government.  Why else ask people in England to vote Green, and Welsh voters to go for the Welsh Nats.  They also have a long record of denials that turn out to be false statements on legal advice to the EU, the Oil price, the currency and so on.  They have used up what credibility they have.


I imagine the French diplomats are hugely embarrassed to be dragged into an election campaign in their host country, but they had no reason to misinform the UK Civil Service, or to assume the communication would be leaked.  They do now have good reason to try to distance themselves from the whole thing, as it is career threatening for any diplomat to be anywhere near this.


I can't see why the UK Civil Servant who wrote the memo should have wanted to include misinformation.  I imagine s/he is cringing under a desk at the moment wondering what is going to happen.


In terms of who leaked it.  I don't see it as being either the SNP or the Tories since their effective alliance cannot be openly acknowledged by its very nature.  It can't be Labour, because how would they get it?  If I were heading the Leak Enquiry, I would be visiting the Liberal Democrat SoS for Scotland office, as it seems most likely to help the Liberal Democrats.

Ibrahim Taguri Not Standing

I gather Ibrahim Taguri is not standing after all, so it will be up to Lauren Keith to lose for the Liberal Democrats in Brent Central.

Have Brent Volunteer Libraries Reached a Dead End?

I was involved in a twitter exchange about Brent libraries with some one who thinks that Brent has three volunteer libraries actually operating.  This is not so.

There are four groups that want to operate libraries in Brent.  The one closest to doing so is the so called "Barham Library", which is operated by former councillor Paul Lorber and other Liberal Democrat sympathisers.  It is not clear whether it is actually lending books or selling them.  If you sell books, in my opinion you are a bookshop, not a library.  The stated aim of the group is to take over the former Council building in Barham, but as this has now been leased for 15 years to ACAVA, this seems unlikely.

The other three groups are linked to sites in Kensal, Cricklewood and Preston.  The former Kensal Rise library is now in private ownership.  The owner is trying to sell it, leaving the site in limbo until is becomes clear who the new owner is and what they want to do with it.  The Cricklewood site is also in private ownership, and has planning permission to convert to housing combined with a community space.  It is not clear what the community space might be or when a conversion might occur.  Again the owner has put the building on the market, so the eventual outcome depends on the will of the new owner.

This leaves the former Preston building.  I have pointed out that there are a number of obstacles to developing this building as a library.  It is not clear whether these include asset of community value status. 

All this is to my mind something of a distraction from the successes of the Brent Libraries Transformation Project.  The last stage in this will be the opening of the new Willesden Library Centre in the Summer.  Hopefully Willesden Library will become as great a success as Wembley Library now is.  That would be the crowning glory of the strategy. 

Would Volunteer Libraries Help?
Those who are still hoping to form community managed or volunteer libraries really just never accepted the strategy in the first place.  I recall one member of one of the campaign groups even claiming that the judge had decided against the Council even though the published Judgement shows that is nonsense. 

The danger is that such groups could seek to persuade the Council to rewrite its winning formula to suit their own desires for voluntary libraries.  It is not commonly appreciated that these may actually have extra costs.  One example would be in technology and book stock.  But there are various other ways in which extra voluntary libraries, far from adding to a service, actually drain resources from it in terms of management expertise, training and so on.  So I hope that if the Council tries that route it is mindful not to damage the existing Brent Library service in the process.  After all, by now Brent Libraries are probably some of the most improved in the country.


UPDATE


There have been a couple of comments to this which I have not published as they are both libellous and personally offensive.  That is my usual practice.  If you don't like it, feel free to go elsewhere.

SNP Holding Feet to the Fire

It seems to me that the SNP's suggestion of holding Labour's feet to the fire is unravelling.  The most recent pledge to back Labour's plans on Income Tax implies it is the other way around.  The SNP, a party with little or no commitment to social justice judging by its record at Holyrood is finding itself adopting Labour policies.

It is rather different from the "King maker" role Alex Salmond envisaged.  The basic reason is that having ruled out a deal with the Tories, the SNP have nowhere else to go other than supporting Labour.  All very strange.  

Brent Central Liberal Democrat Candidate Admires David Cameron

I see that the Liberal Democrats have announced their Brent Central candidate as Lauren Keith, who was defeated in Mapesbury last year.  Entering the campaign so late means that she is really just a paper candidate, as I imagine she would have been in Barking where she was due to stand before Ibrahim Taguri was forced to drop out.  Sarah Teather MP has endorsed her just as she did Ibrahim Taguri.  I wonder whether Mr Taguri still plans to stand as an independent.


Ms Keith's political take seems to a bit different to the way Sarah Teather has usually pitched herself.  Here is Ms Keith:


"I am not a Liberal Democrat who is going to apologise on the doorstep for the Coalition. I think it was the best situation that could have transpired.
The Conservatives are not the party they were in the 1980s; they have a leader who is clearly much more in the centre-ground of politics, and his and Nick’s personal chemistry certainly attest to a political dovetailing as well. You need look no further than the disquiet about Cameron and the coalition coming from the traditional right-wing elements of the party, and the brewing arguments over defence spending to see that Cameron’s Conservatives are a different breed.
Our parties share the same ideas about Localism and Civil Liberties, and I am sure that this Parliament will see new and revolutionary action being taken on these issues and that this will prove to be the major legacy of the next five years.


Full article here.

Business Fears Over the SNP

I have just seen the lead story in the Financial Times this morning.  A survey of chairmen and chief executives of FTSE100 companies reveals that the fear a Labour/SNP government.  The only specific policy objection comes from someone who thinks SNP involvement would lead to a rise in Corporation Tax.  Should we not be worried that senior Executives are so ignorant that they don't realise that cutting Corporation Tax is the only tax policy the SNP have?  The SNP is a really quite right wing party more interested in cosy corporate deals that any sort of social reform.

George Osborne's Housing Disaster

As usual, Red Brick Blog does an excellent takedown of George Osborne's irresponsibility in housing policy.  Essentially the Tory Party refuses to understand that the housing market does not build in response to demand or to house prices going up.  In pumping up the housing bubble, he simply unbalances the economy still further.

Police Investigate Ibrahim Taguri

Some more details on Ibrahim Taguri have emerged despite the Liberal Democrats ongoing silence.  According to Matthew Holehouse of the Daily Telegraph, police are investigating "potential evasion of restrictions on donations" after the Electoral Commission asked them to.

Parking and Benefits

The Guardian recently gave some examples of the kind of petty reasons that can trigger benefit sanctions.  Many of them appear trivial, and some outside the ability of the person sanctioned to control.  The effect of cutting someone's benefits when they have very limited financial resources can involve real hardship including hunger, and one would think a humane society would be less strict.  It would not be hard, even in those cases where someone has done something wrong, to have some sort of warning system.  Instead, the whole system seems to set out to be as harsh and demeaning as possible.

I am struck by the efforts of ministers to relax parking enforcement.  I suspect the reason for the contrasting attitudes is simply class hatred.  Minister genuinely hate people on benefits, regarding them as an American style underclass (even those most work on low pay); in contrast getting a parking ticket is something they can imagine people like themselves getting. 

Library Technology and Volunteer Libraries

There are some details on the use of RFID technology in libraries here, which I find curiously interesting.  One of the things that supporters of volunteer libraries don't always seem to appreciate is that combining a non-Council library with Council libraries would mean integrating with the Council technology.  That would mean tagging all the books in the volunteer library before they became compatible with either the self service machines or the management system (for using the catalogue for example). 


That would be a considerable cost to the Council, in addition to whatever technology support was provided.

The Queensbury Development Rejected

The proposal to redevelop The Queensbury in Willesden has been rejected.  The Inspector's report is here. 

The Planning Committee originally gave three reasons for refusal: the sheer size of the building, the lack of onsite affordable housing and the failure to agree "planning gain".  This last was a technical reason that is generally added to any refusal like this.  The affordable housing objection appears to have been more or less settled by the time the matter got to the Inspector.  The main thrust of his report therefore is on the scale/character reason.

He emphasises the importance of the building in historical terms at some length.  Firstly, he sees it as a cornerstone of the Mapesbury Conservation Area.  He concludes that: "the building makes a positive contribution to the character and appearance of the Conservation Area.  The preservation of this contribution would be desirable."  Interestingly, he also argues that the 110 Walm Lane building also helps mark a transition from the more commercial Willesden Conservation Area to the residential Mapesbury area.  Finally, he regards it as having a good relationship with the listed Willesden Green station.

He also argues that the designation of the area for secondary shopping makes this level of development appropriate, compared to a denser development.  This may be an important factor in future applications. 

He also comes down rather hard on the "tower" element, which was the main element I criticised when refusing it at Committee. 

The main grounds of refusal is therefore the effect on the historical character of the Conservation Areas and the station.

This is important as Fairview is likely now either to make another application, or possibly to sell it to another developer, who would presumably want to submit their own scheme.  If such a scheme could be made in a way that met the Inspector's historical concerns, it would be likely to be granted either by the Committee or on Appeal.

Air Quality and Traffic Policy

Paris has felt forced to introduce emergency traffic measures to combat poor air quality.  Essentially, they all aim to reduce car use.  This could all be done much more conveniently if it were done gradually.  I have pointed out before that improving air quality can be done through policy that promotes sustainable transport.


Unfortunately in London where we have similar problems, we seem to be going in the wrong direction.  Boris Johnson has been intent on making public transport more and more expensive compared to car use.  Early on in his administration he resisted air quality measures.  Eric Pickles joins with the same populist car dependency agenda by seeking to restrict parking enforcement in various ways (which in some ways can be to the detriment of car drivers as well as adding to poor air quality). 


In Brent, the Borough's strong support for air quality has been knocked back through various tinkerings with parking charges.  The recent Budget was passed with provision for changes to parking charges, but they seemed to me to lack coherence.  Certainly, they did not strike me as aiming to increase sustainability.  Some suggestions, like the increase in visitor fees in CPZs, seemed so high as to jeopardise public acceptance of CPZs at all. 

Voter Registration

There is still time to register to vote in the forthcoming elections.  Every election I meet people who have left it too late.  Don't miss out.

Liberal Democrats Ridiculed

Danny Alexander's Alternative Liberal Democrat budget seems to have earned him widespread ridicule.  This is no doubt deserved.  Signing off a budget you co-wrote and promising that you and your party will vote for it sits unconvincingly with presenting an alternative budget.  Especially when you look like you are holding a child's lunch box. 

Yet it doesn't seem that uncommon now to ignore your actual commitments and believe in something entirely different.  The SNP, for example, seem quite unfazed by the collapse in oil revenues to a thirteenth of what they expected during the indyref.  Had Scotland voted yes, it would now be in utter crisis. 

It is as if these debates were simply a work of fiction without any effect on people's lives. 

Brent Liberal Democrat Silence

Brent Liberal Democrats seem to have fallen silent following Ibrahim Taguri's suspension from the party.  As far as I can see any new Liberal Democrat candidate would be lucky to save his/her deposit.  Perhaps they won't select and Mr Taguri will be able to escape expulsion if he stands as an Independent?

Brent Garden Waste Collections

The Kilburn Times is carrying a hostile story on Brent Council's garden waste collections. Paul Lorber gives a lengthy comment which entirely ignores the fact that the Council is having its budget slashed by the Liberal democrats in government.

The main point of attack is the cost of bin disposal.  This subject deserved greater scrutiny than it got last year.   It seems the take up of the new garden service is very low, and therefore a large number of the old bins will be taken in.  Those that are not needed can presumably be melted down, which potentially will yield a profit for someone.  A number are to be retained on the assumption that the service expands over time, in which case the Council will have to go through the cost and process of cleaning them before using them again. 

Another point is the design of rounds, which will be more complicated in streets where only a few households are covered.  In the present collections, it is normal for the crew to walk ahead of the vehicle, putting the bins out ready to be loaded.  With a very low take up, I would assume this would not be possible, and some probably more cumbersome method will have to be devised. 

What a pity that all this was not talked through when the decision was being made.