John Hemming's Web Log

The DTI have appointed "independent" investigators to further investigate what happened with MG Rover. This will be the second "investigation". It will also be the second investigation to omit looking at the involvement of the DTI, The Labour Government and others in the Labour Party. Questions that need to be answered include: a) Did the government and or Labour Party cooperate with others in excluding independent community and workforce scrutiny at the start. b) Why did noone take any action in 2003 when it was possible to improve the situation. c) What involvement does the DTI have in causing the administration.

The vote in France on the Constitution does raise complex issues. Like many of these debates the issues that determined the vote were probably mainly nothing to do with the constitution itself. Looking at the text it appears to be a bit messy and something generated very much for the convenience of the bureaucracy. The simplistic "pro-European" argument is that "something must be done" - "this is something" - "therefore this must be done". I do like Graham Allen's approach which is one of revisiting the issue. The failure to agree the constitution has no immediate effect. However, we really do need to understand what we are trying to achieve. Do we want a "light touch" Europe which maintains a customs union and economic union. Alternatively do we want something that in terms of an "ever closer union" gradually eradicates differences between different parts of the union as they get "ever closer". I personally...

With a bit of luck the French will kick the European Constitution into the long grass today. However, otherwise it is likely that the issues will start being considered in the UK relatively soon. As with many of these debates the key issues will be swallowed up in an ill-informed debate concentrating on straight bananas and the like. The key question for me is the balance of power between the centre and localities (be they the UK parliament, Various assemblies or local authorities). The European Union was made into a Federal System by Margaret Thatcher with the Single European Act 1987. The SEA introduced qualified majority voting into the Council of Ministers. Before that all governments had to agree substantial policies or they failed to be agreed. Clearly there is a role for some Qualified Majority Voting. Within the EU there are three types of decision in the bodies where people are represented by governments. Simple Majority Qualified Majority Voting. "A qualified majority...

Political Hack a Birmingham based Labour Party activist jumps to my defence (thankyou) for writing a blog. I did not see Paul Dale's Iron Angle column as actually being an attack on the concept of running a blog. I run a blog for a number of reasons. It is an effective communication tool. I can put details on about issues relating to my constituency. They are then automatically indexed by the search engines so people can find current information. People who know I do this will know where to look. Although possibly 2/3rd of my constituents don't have access to net at the same time we are still putting out leaflets and the like. On a wider basis it prevents me from having to do press releases. Any newsworthy information can be put on the blog. I tend to work with a small number of journalists (eg Paul Dale, David Bell, Jonathan Walker, Jonathan Guthrie). This makes my life easier. If I have what I think a newsworthy story I will put it on the blog and talk to a specific j...

The DTI claim the UK will be a net importer of oil by 2010. Using the figures from my answer of 2004 having 88 MTOE production and 82 MTOE consumption and taking the figures from the DTI website (see link) of 22.6 production in Q1 2005 as opposed to 25.5 production in Q1 2004 one would presume that the UK already is a net importer of oil in Q1 2005.

I asked where the SureStart centres would get the funding from after the government's 6 years funding stopped and the answer is: "Centres would also be able to generate additional revenues by charging parents for some of their services such as childcare." I have also heard today that I now have an office. They have avoided the question on cuts in hospital beds. I have done a graph following the Answer on oil production The government claim the UK will be a net importer of oil in 2010. The trend on a straightline basis from the answer is 2005. I have previously estimated 2007. There are 16 universities that do degrees in culinary arts The challenge is where that relates to other cooking qualifications. My main concern is with the government encouraging people to spend money on a degree level qualification for a job that pays £15K (eg a Pastry Chef). Interstingly I am getting the answers to my own written questions more efficiently from www.theyworkforyou.com than ...

The same story in the post This story appeared on the blog a while ago. The problem arises when youths become aware that all they will get is a caution which then facilitates a substantial amount of crime. There is a role for cautions, but this is not it. At the same time we need to link to communities to handle probation and community service issues. I have been working with people within the communities of Birmingham to look at behaviourial modification. The only certainty at the moment is that the current system does not work properly.

Emigration has gone up substantially under Labour. It is clear that people are less happy living in Tony Blair's Britain. The link is the first response to one of my Written Questions from last Friday. It shows an increase from just under 240,000 people a year in the mid 1990s to over 350,000 a year in 2002 and 2003. I suppose from Labour's point of view many of these are not Labour voters. It is an important issue because is relates to quality of life. There are people who have said to me that life in the UK is getting so aggressive that they want to leave (and are doing so).

I find it interesting that perhaps the key health debate has not really hit the media. The question is how to organise the health service. Should we move everything towards "primary care" GPs. Alternatively should we be looking instead at creating more care through institutions. There has been a heavier burden in recent years in Accident and Emergency units. Some of this is caused by the difficulties in booking appointments with GPs. Other aspects lie with the fact that there is total confusion as to how many people are actually registered with GPs in comparison to those who live in an area. There are potentially a number of different strategies that could be adopted. That which finds favour in government at the moment is a substantial reduction in hospital beds - which will reduce hospital infection because people won't go to hospital. There is some merit in this argument, but it seems to be driven far too strongly down the route of scrapping beds. (Which after al...

This dispute in Liverpool is interesting because it it not unique. I have heard of a large number of instances when Council Officers (and particularly senior council officers) have used the Standards Board as a threat against Councillors. In at least three authorities the leader of the council has been removed from office for things which vary, but would not normally be judged as being corrupt. In practise the whole system which involved sacking a Labour councillor for going out of the wrong door, sacking a Lib Dem Councillor for writing to an MP and suspending an independent councillor for being rude about officers undermines democracy. Oddly enough MPs are allowed to be rude whilst councillors are not supposed to be rude however upset they are. With the Audit Commission applying tight constraints and targets on local authorities this government has massively undermined local democracy. In a number of local authorities you end up with a situation in which there is a tension between ...

The saga with Moor St Station is an example of the difficulties of coordinating large numbers of different organisations. We have new platforms, but Network Rail won't sort out the signalling.

As someone who both drives a Land Rover Discovery and also is a member of Greenpeace it strikes me that this is some form of confusion going on. Various Greenpeace activists (from outside Birmingham) disrupted the Moat Lane plant last week. Greenpeace say: "The Land Rover Discovery only does 12 miles per gallon in the city" that's from the web page linked above. Land Rover say: Urban L/100km (mpg) TDV6 Manual 11.5 (24.6) TDV6 Auto 13.2 (21.4) V8 petrol 20.9 (13.5) Now my own vehicle does far better than 12mpg. Indeed the diesel figures are actually 24.6mpg for the Discovery 3 (that's for Urban motoring) Greenpeace may be better arguing that people should buy diesel Discoveries as they do 24.6mpg rather than the petrol ones which do 13.5mpg. I wonder if they have read the wrong column and are quoting the figures of the numbers of Litres required to do 100km.

Danny Alexander who is MP for Inverness, Nairn, Something and Other (Badenoch and Strathspey for those who wish to know) also is MP for Loch Ness and hence the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) is one of his constituents. This cat: is a bit like Nessie. Patches I have only managed to get photos of in a very blurred manner. However, in guarding bottles of booze Patches has stayed still. It remains that there are two cats to go. They are rarer specimens. The one that the Labour Party have claimed is dead is in fact live and growling (it sort of growls in the middle of the night) and I may get another photograph of it. In the mean time we have the Birmingham version of Monopoly in the House of Commons Library.

William Hague, Eddie O'Hara, John Redwood, John Hemming, Chris Huhne, John Hutton, George Osborne, Dominic Grieve, Jeremy Hunt, Sion Simon. (Also Viscount Eccles, but he is not an MP) and does it matter? I knew about some, but not all.

I have linked the text from Hansard of my maiden speech. The issue of the No 99 bus is quite an urgent issue. The difficulties arise from the 1985 Transport Act and the fact that it is difficult to plan bus services such that they work in a planned manner. London is allowed to use sector tendering. Why is Birmingham required to have a free for all.

One of the unwritten rules of parliament is that you are supposed to do a "maiden speech" before asking questions, writing amendments, Early Day motions or going into the ballot for a private members bill (which is next week). I did my maiden speech today along with 3 other Lib Dems (David Howarth - Cambridge, Julia Goldsworthy - Falmouth and Camborne and Danny Alexander - Inverness, Nairn, something and other). I promised to put a copy of the Birmingham version of Monopoly in the House of Commons Library which I did after the debate. Rob Flello (Stoke on Trent South) who used to be Birmingham City Councillor for Longbridge also did one as did another 3 Labour MPs and I think 2 Tories.

Today was a demonstration by the "Make Poverty History" campaign. On Monday I spoke to a diplomat about the actions of Western Governments. He was quite cynical in that lots of nice words are spoken, but little action occurs. This is probably more to do with the nature of systems of government than anything else.

The Queen's Speech really demonstrates why this government is so incompetent. It seems quite clear to me that the government at the most senior level don't really understand what is happening on the ground. The normal systems of feedback are not operating properly. This was seen when the GP targets stopped people from booking appointments in advance. One of the bills talks about having laws fade away. One hopes that this does not apply to Habeas Corpus which has been on the statute book since the 1600s. On Health Improvement they really need to be looking at the way anti-biotics are handled. Too many diseases are developing resistance and still anti-biotics are prescribed for viral infections (at the request of patients). It really seems odd if statutory legislation is needed to improve cleanliness. As far as getting private contractors into do NHS work they need to tread quite carefully. There can be systems of feedback that come in to undermine the core NHS and result i...

There are many odd customs in Parliament. One is that one can only book a seat if you turn up and put a prayer card in. If you are not, however, in the chamber when it starts sitting then you lose your place. Together with three other Liberal Democrat MPs from the Year of 2005 I took part of the vigil on the electoral system. is a photograph of Steve Williams MP for Bristol West and myself. Whilst uploading the images I found another cat. Still no white persian though. There are, however, three cats to go. I have also been sent the press release about the deportation last Sunday from the group that went to Israel. It appears following: A group of seven women from Birmingham were barred from entering Israel and deported back to Birmingham from Tel Aviv airport last Sunday, after being threatened with imprisonment. They were going to deliver money raised at an ecumenical fundraising meal and money collected by the local Catholic Community for projects working with malnourished chil...

Research commissioned by John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, has revealed that the democratic mandate (proportion of citizens voting for the government) of the Blair Government is the lowest of the Countries that are members of G8 and lowest of all, but Poland in the EU. Taking all the countries in the EU and G8 only Poland's government has weaker support in the electorate at 19%. The elections in Poland, however, resulted in a minority government. Only four countries the UK, Poland, Latvia and Canada had support from less than 1 in four of the electorate with Latvia's government having slightly more support than the Blair government. Canada, however, also has a minority government. The Czech Republic, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia has support from between 1 in 4 and 3 in 10 of the electorate. The USA, Japan, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden has support between 3 and 4 in 10 of the el...