Hat into the ring

taking a break

Spent the day by going to Licensing Committee, taking a look at potholes and high kerbs in Paulton, then putting together a newsletter.
Now packing to take children to Suffolk tomorrow so we can see my Mum and Dad. Nick will join us for the weekend.
So that means I'll be away from the computer and the blog for a week.

Have a good week.

going to westminster

Travelled up to London yesterday for meeting at House of Commons. A good number of South West activists there and an informative and enjoyable day. Met up with current South West Labour MPs too.

Just been asked to take part in Bath Uni's Union Week next week. The MOnday is themed around "representation" and they want all three major parties to be there to talk to students and for a panel session at lunch time. Sadly (and I mean that, I'm not being facetious) I'm away next week with my children for half term. So, spending time today and tomorrow getting people together to represent Labour. It's a great idea and I congratulate the Student Union for doing it.

Have to take elder daughter to have two teeth out today prior to having a brace fitted. Poor Jen. Much TLC will be called for. Making some soup for her! At least her dental care is free. The cost of medical treatment comes home to you when you have to take a pet to the vet. One rabbit with sore eyes? All sorted out, but £70! Help! Thank heavens for NHS when it comes to humans.

fair trade

An answer for AJE who asked what I said about Fair Trade. That it's a step on the way to making trading between North and South (broadly speaking) more balanced. We did a role play where the buyer from a big multinational company drops the price being offered for something like cocoa or coffee with no warning. One of the youngsters playing the part of a cocoa farmer said "But that's not fair". Exactly right. The children asked about rich people or countries just giving money to poorer people/countries so we had a bit of a discussion about aid and trade and I told them how Bono said recently, "justice not charity". The Yr 6 pupils are going to run a Fair Trade tuck shop, maybe do an Assembly to tell the rest of school about Fair Trade and lobby the staff to get Fair Trade tea and coffee in the staff room. The point was to get them thinking and to see what they could do about it, taking some action. It's citizenship.

I'm really concerned about the animosity generated by problems and opinions about the Rec in Bath. I know that people on all sides of the argument(s!) feel strongly, but litigation rarely helps heal such rifts properly. I'd like to see the discussion have a fresh start from here. Any consultation on ideas for the future uses of the Rec must be truly open and thorough, engaging as wide a variety as possible of residents (including young people).

hi Tim

Discovered today that I have at least one reader of my blog, Tim, who is political assistant to Lib Dem Group on B&NES council, so......... Hi Tim. It's encouraging to know that there are readers out there. Do comment, please!
Home now at the end of what should have been a much shorter Council meeting. Give councillors a chance to talk and they'll fill all the available time. I rather think that we should have Council meetings more often (once a month), but have Standing Orders which make them shorter. I ended up discussing that after the meeting with other councillors, so it's not just me.
It's a good thing women can multi-task as today I had to be Group Leader, Political Assistant, PPC, Company Secretary, wife and mother. It's an interesting life, but at almost midnight I'm glad I'm home for a cup of tea and then off to bed.
One good thing about a long council meeting was that driving home I caught Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy again on Radio 4.
Goodnight.

The Societies Fair at Bath Uni went well with a good number of new members signed up to Labour Students. I've arranged to go to meet them and discuss campaigning in the middle of next month.

Today I'm off to a primary school to talk to 60 10 and 11 yr olds about Fair Trade. I'll start off with a role play involving chocolate - that stands some chance of catching their attention! Then later it's time to print and collate the report to Parents from School Governors. And finally over to Bath for a committee meeting to get some campaigning moving in Bath.

All in all campaigning of one sort or another seems to be the order of the day.

party on, dudes

Caught the last twenty minutes of "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" on TV last night. "Most excellent."

Busy day ahead today. Off to Bristol to pick up some banners and leaflets from Regional Office, then over to Bath University to help on the Labour Students stall at Societies Fair (what we used to call Freshers' Fair). Last year we did really well with a good number of new members. Hope we can do it again.
Labour Group meeting tonight, preparing for Council on Thursday.
In between times I have to buy some paint (making sure it's the right kind of paint, of course) for the garage floor.

back to Bath?

Top story for the last couple of days in local press is Dan (Norris MP)'s call for a good, hard look at whether residents in Bath & N E Somerset would be happier and better off if the authority was decoupled. There are plenty of folk in the N E Somerset part (which Dan represents as MP for Wansdyke) who are feeling ever more fed up over issues like the cash going into the disaster prone Bath Spa project and over double taxation. They really are wondering if they would be better served by a council separate from Bath. For a good many in Bath the feeling is mutual; the Back to Bath campaign gathered 13000 signatures. There are problems of size, economies of scale, etc involved in looking at smaller authorities for sure. But would you have to have two councils of 65 councillors? Would the structures be the same? As many departments and directors?
Where there is as much discontent as there is at present it warrants a good debate, with residents given the chance to speak their minds and to hear the facts about how any alternative would have to come about. Politicians should be willing to listen.

a week for everything

I have now discovered from my husband that as well as being Walk to School Week and Sign Language Week it's National Meeetings Week. So we should all be walking to meetings and conducting them in sign language. It would probably be very good for all of us!

blogging

Blog's gone live and Tom Watson kindly put a piece about it in his blog. Result: I have two comments from readers! I feel encouraged to keep at it now.

Tom commented on me having a tricky surname, but as comments on his site point out, it can be helpful because a) people often want to know the origin of the name so it's an ice-breaker and b) it encourages people to get into informal mode and use your first name. And, of course, it does begin with "A", thus putting me at top of ballot paper (or pretty close).

Been getting papers ready for a school governors' meeting on Thursday. We're having a briefing on Breakfast Clubs from Elspeth from the Early Years Team at the Council. I hope this is something we can get moving. It's so important for youngsters (and all of us) to get a decent start to the day. And it would move us in the direction of extended hours and extended school offering even more to the community. It won't happen at once, but I think there is enough support and will to give it a go.

time to go live

Well, I've delayed long enough. This blog has to go public. I'm prompted by being asked about it by a local newspaper reporter. Must email Tom Watson MP whose blog is really good and see if he'll be kind enough to put a link to my blog on his.
I've sent a letter to Bath Chron (no sign of it yet) about the ten things a third Labour term will bring for people. It's so great to have these aims for the future, aims to campaign on, rather than negative campaigning as evidenced in Sian Dawson's (Tory spokesperson for Bath) letter to Chron last week.

Listening to the news about Tory conference. Liam Fox praising Mrs T. With the recent stuff about trying to get out of Human Rights legislation on the pretext that that it is at the root of the "compensation culture", their opposition to real European solidarity and the insistence that less government is automatically better government it all adds up to going further and further right. I lost count of how many times Oliver Letwin said "fat government" or "fat bureaucracy" on radio interview this morning. The assumption is that people will automatically link "fat" with "unhealthy" or "bad". Being too thin isn't healthy either.

Interesting to discover from Tom Watson's website that it's sign language week. The youngsters at our local Primary learn some sign language as a parent has that skill and goes into school to share it. It's also Walk to School Week. I saw the Walking Bus intrepidly braving the rainy weather this morning.
Made our young do some walking yesterday as we went orienteering in Forest of Dean. Only 3 miles or so. Think all enjoyed it and we found course quite easy so may try a harder one next time...........