John Hemming's Web Log

Labour slammed the administration today for the fact that we had not resolved a budgetary problem in Leisure that has existed for at least 3 years during Labour's Administration. We were, however, able to explain what it was and how it will be resolved. In the mean time if they would like new carpet at a price below £252 per square yard or even £169 per square metre (on average) they could approach Hammond Hill who offer a much better price. Indeed they might even decide not to have top of the range carpet in their offices.

The Thursday Night Jazz Session at The Village will be reborn, hopefully this week. Anyone who is interested in Jazz Standards will be welcome to sit in. I need to spend a bit of time hunting up some horns. The forms are the standard forms (preferred alternate chords in the Best Chord Changes for the Worlds Best Standards series). I will provide a rhythm section based around a Technics SX-KN7000 Accompanier which gives a good walking bass and drums. If, however, a proper bassist turns up then he or she can plug directly into the PA. There are three mikes for vocals or horns. Unusually jazz singers will be welcome - as long as they don't require real time transposition and can sing the songs in the keys in the book.

Discussed plans for a potential campaign to bring our boys and girls back from Iraq. Between 700 and 800 injured members of the British Armed forces have not been visited by those in government nationally unlike the US Government. Now elections have happened there is no reason why British Troops should remain in Iraq. The tensions created merely by their presence make it clear that part of the recipe for peace is the removal of belligerent troops. This, however, causes the US some problems as one of their objectives for the invasion was to keep a military presence. Notwithstanding that a phased withdrawal of British Troops should start as soon as possible. I am waiting to see what the government's position will be on this, but I have had preliminary discussions today about a "bring them home" campaign in the event that the government seem not to be acting properly.

I chaired Birmingham's Holocaust Memorial event in the Foyer of Symphony Hall today. This was an event both in memory of all atrocities and in memory of the Holocaust itself. It was very well attended with over 200 people there (the first event 5 years ago had about 20 people there). We had a Normandy Veteran and a survivor of Auschwitz speak as well as a film of what happened. It is worth dwelling on these matters to remember how bad things can get. There are many tensions in the world and things are being done which exacerbate the tensions. In Birmingham I was quite clear that we are recognising all atrocities without limit. There are atrocities which continue today in many places in the world. There seems to be some debate nationally as to whether or not this particular event is inclusive or not. In Birmingham it was inclusive. I personally met Christians, Muslims, Buddhists as well as Jews who were at the event. It saddens me really that people in government ...

I have now got my new PA (1kW) and keyboard so should be able to go on the road (at least in Birmingham) with my jazz playing friends. My children are having some fun with the PA which has an onboard effects processor (in the mixer) which gives the standard digital mixes including pitch change - a really entertaining thing for a 4 year old. If they will give me a visa to visit Bearwood (ask Labour Councillor Bob Piper for that) I might even play as far away as Smethwick.

The Guardian reports on part of the story about Electoral Fraud. Electoral Fraud has gone on for many years and there are voters you can find who were happy to give parties their voting card with the assumption that the party will get an informal proxy (aka Personation, which is a criminal offence) for them. The big stress in Northern Ireland arose when one party started voting for the other parties' voters. Meanwhile through a combination of incompetence and knowing creation of political advantage the massive increase of postal voting has occurred. This in Birmingham (and many other large cities) has turned electoral fraud into a mass production industry. In one ward (Aston) I estimate between 1,000 and 2,000 ballot papers have some fraudulent element to them. It is, however, hard to prove fraud. We have two election courts being prepared for in Birmingham. We may only be able to prove that something like 500 ballot papers were cast fraudulently in Aston (that...

A positive outcome from Friday was a meeting which established Broadband Brum which is a collaboration between the private sector (eg BT), and the City Council to establish cost effective Broadband services in the City. This will be a unique thing for Birmingham. The conclusion was that Content is a key part of this. A couple of hours later the Strategic partnership agreed to cooperate on this matter. This is something where the members of the BSP can achieve a lot.

Friday's meeting of the BSP (erstwhile CSP) was the first meeting that I have been to that seemed to take anything further forward. We are still having a certain amount of Omphaloscopy , but we did manage to move on to a wider consideration. Where the Strategic Partnership can achieve a lot is by ensuring there is effective communication between different communities of interest in Birmingham and that we don't have lots of disparate groups of people going off doing random things in isolation. What it can do is actually achieve "partnership working". What it should not try to do from the perspective of philosophical principle is to try to control things in minute details. The next step is to have reports considered that are much much shorter. People feel there is a status in writing long and detailed reports. For something considering a city of a million people long detailed reports will be of no great merit if we want to move things on. What was particularly nic...

There has been considerable debate about how to fund improvements to council housing. Three options are generally made available by government: Stock Transfer - where all the housing stock moves to an RSL (Registered Social Landlord - aka Housing Association) ALMO - Arms Length Management Organisation - where the goverment gives the council about £4,600 per property if they set up a remote structure for managing Housing. PFI - Which is where a contract for managing properties is created. The fourth option is whereby the stock continues to be managed by the council potentially involving tenants as part of the management. What Birmingham is doing which is unique is to offer tenants a positive retention option that can be funded. Housing Finance can be a bit confusing. In essence by recycling money that comes in from the sale of housing land we can fund the 4th option. (Which is required to make up the missing £165 Million.) Essential things in housing, however in...

The story so far: Someone was run over with his own car in 2003 whilst it was being stolen. Another person was caught driving it the next day. On returning it to the owner it was found to have drugs in it. Clearly it cannot be proven that the person driving it actually stole it. However, the police state that the CPS indicate that it would be "abuse of process" to prosecute the driver for "handling stolen goods" (or more precisely driving stolen goods). The response from the CPS is that they need the name of the defendant to be able to search up the case and give their reasoning. The police, however, cannot give the name of the defendant because of Data Protection Regulations. Seems like Catch 22. The story is not over yet. *CPS - Crown Prosecution Service.

There is an inquiry into the Parliamentary Boundaries going on in The Council House today. I have put forward our case that Yardley, Sheldon and Acocks Green should stay together (as has been the case for about 1300 years). Whereas as far as Labour were concerned Bordesley Ward had a natural affinity with Washwood Heath in 2004 now Labour are calling for the following seats: Washwood Heath, Hodge Hill, Shard End, Sheldon South Yardley, Stechford and Yardley North, Sparkbrook, Bordesley Green Acocks Green, Hall Green, Brandwood, Billesley As usual Labour show no real consistency save self-interest. Another example of Labour inconsistency is on the 2nd runway at BIA where Solhull Labour oppose it and Birmingham Labour support it.

The Labour Group have expressed concern as to the accuracy of my earlier report on the refurbishment costs of the Labour Group Offices. To confirm the figures are: Room Decorations Carpet Lighting Total M187 2,301 4,545 350 7,196 M191 1,885 4,545 700 7,130 M185 3,120 4,545 1,050 + 326 9,041 M183 2,535 1,235 700 4,470 M177 2,970 3,025 880 6,875 M179 2,600 3,185 700 6,485 Total 41,197

I encountered our new Street Sweeping machine on the Coventry Road in Sheldon today. It had a flat tyre and had been sitting there for about 2 hours. This shows the problems with managing things through targets and statistics. We don't have a statistic which measures how long it takes the depot to come out and sort out a flat tyre. Common Sense dictates that the depot should move reasonably quickly to sort this out, but Common Sense and the Public Sector don't make easy bed fellows. There is no sense in having yet another statistic of "how long does it take to fix the street sweeper", but at the same time what is the sense of having the machine in existance if it is merely laid up with a flat tyre.

Was part of a number by 10cc in the 1980s Tablature for this is available along with the lyrics. (in the chorus). Art for art's sake money for God's sake Art for art's sake money for God's sake. Gimme the ready Gimme the cash gimme a bullet gimme a smash gimme a silver gimme a gold make it a million for when I get old Which raises a number of questions. The role of semantic art - music (with words), poetry, drama, fiction is not clear. What is clear is that it does not operate in isolation from reality. Much of the saga with Bezhti has remained outside the public domain. This particular dispute was primarily driven by a large number of consultations which put the contents of the play "in the face" of the Sikh community. I still believe that if the Birmingham Rep had not consulted on the play it would have passed with little comment. The fact was that they highlighted the whole thing with the Council of Gurdwaras then having as...

Iron Angle in The Birmingham Post on Saturdays is an equivalent of the Parliamentary Diary written about Birmingham City Council . Today it features me confirming that yes the City Council does have a biscuit budget. The background to this is a debate at Full Council where the Labour Leader (Sir Albert Bore) criticised the Lib Dems for having lunch at £14.95 each on the general fund when we spent 6 hours unpaid on a Sunday reviewing council matters. He claimed that Labour paid for all their own group food. I didn't quite believe this and therefore did some research to find that the Labour group spent thousands of pounds on food and that their group executive charged the Council Tax Payer £113 per month for food. Much that Sir Albert Bore claims that he had paid for it we could not find the cheque. Sir Albert was a bit miffed about this and said he would prove that they have paid for it and he wanted an apology. I am still waiting for the proof. As part of this proce...

One of the useful things about the internet is that you can go back to source . Whereas prior to the net it was possible to get hold of the original text. Now it is very easy. Bush's inaugural speech has various elements to it. "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." I suppose this is the key change. In the past the US was generally very introspective. Now the Project for a New American Century 's ideology has come to the fore. This is not surprising given the Close Associations between the Bush Administration and PNAC. "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you." Tyranny is set as Bush's enemy and Liberty is his objective. D...

I attended last Night's City Housing Liaison Board for half an hour. Last time I attended there was an attempt to exclude me from the meeting which resulted in 22 votes for me to remain and 8 votes for me to be expelled. Last night, however, noone objected to me being there as an observer. It appears that a number of those members of the board who backed Labour when there was a move to exclude me no longer back the Labour Party. The tenants and leaseholders are unhappy with the Labour Government reneging on their promise of a level playing field for social housing. They also refused to have a briefing from the Housing Department on the "Our Homes Appraisal". They rightly take the view that they voted overwhelmingly against Stock Transfer and as a consequence the government should accept that. They agree with us that wasting £1.6 Million on yet another consultation about Stock Options (The "our Homes Appraisal") is a waste of money that noone needs...

Councillor John Hemming, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council and Chair of the Birmingham Strategic Partnership has welcomed the success of operation Trojan 3 dealing with crime and buses. Working together the Police, City Centre Management Street Wardens and Travel West Midlands Bus Inspectors ran an operation entitled "Trojan 3" around buses and bus stops over a period of 9 days. The team boarded a total of 392 buses, Checking 5699 passengers, 289 fixed penalty notices were issued totalling in excess of £3000 pounds. In addition 14 arrests were made, 1 for theft of dvds, 4 were wanted on warrant, 2 for non co-operation, 2 for offensive weapons, 4 drug related one of which was a an A class drug, 1 person was searched, his bag contained hard core pornographic material, on further investigation he was found to have absconded from Manchester where he was awaiting deportation. This offender was known to the Wardens, he had previously been a st...

The Graham Report has now been released. I welcome the publication of the 10th Report into Public Standards. This report recognises that the current procedures where councillors have been sacked for: - sitting in a meeting with a constituent without saying they are a councillor (Coleen Gill-East Riding-Lib Dem) - writing to an MP (Coleen Gill-East Riding-Lib Dem) - taking the wrong route out of a dinner (Blackpool-Labour) - agreeing to the erection of gates (Tameside-Labour) - representing a constituent as a solicitor (Tory) - saying F**k - amongst other things (Peterborough-Tory) - issuing a leaflet complaining about lack of action on anti social behaviour (Hull-Independent) - revealing an officer's salary (Yorkshire somewhere - SDP) - revealing an unlawful payment to a nuclear power company (Lancaster-Green) are wrong. It is important, however, that any changes fully recognise that the role of the councillor is to hold the system to account. If people ar...

Andrew Stunell MP has now issued his private members bill about planning controls on telecommunications mast. It continues to surprise me that noone has noted that in the third quarterly report of DSTL into the TETRA system there is sign of a non-thermal effect from TETRA signals. This is the key debate that the Home Office commissioned research was supposed to answer. On the Police Reform website it says: Results from Dstl studies show that TETRA signals have no effect on calcium exchanges in cells – the main concern of the Stewart report; Yet in the third quarterly report from DSTL it uses the phrase: "no statistically significant effects" Note the important difference in the use of the adjective "statistically significant" Whereas on Page 13 of the report in the graph it shows a clear effect (that does not always occur) when the signals are switched on and when they are switched off. I would have thought they should have done substa...