John Hemming's Web Log

We do need to encourage English and British teams to see the merit of parading in Birmingham. Birmingham is far more accessible to the much of the country than London and we would do a better job than Trafalgar Square. "When we win the world cup - bring the trophy to Brum", says John Hemming MP. "I have been talking to the FA about parading the trophy in Birmingham when England win the world cup. We can do these things properly.", he said. John Hemming has been talking to the FA about alternative locations to Trafalgar Square. He met up with the scorer of the hat trick Sir Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup and the FIFA world trophy at a meeting in Parliament at which this issue was discussed."

Does this mean that the government will be trying to get rid of all of the Murals. (The link is to the Bill as it stands on the parliamentary website.)

I always attend the Remembrance Parade in the centre of town. It has been held in Centenery Square for some years now. I took a few photos this year. It is sad really that noone does a digital portfolio as it is an important part of Birmingham life. There are remembrance parades in other parts of the city, but the city centre one is the key one. Liz Lynne presents a wreath on behalf of the MEPs and Steve McCabe does one on behalf of the MPs. The Lord Mayor represents the Councillors. The service is normally presented by the Bishop, but his deputy stood in as he has gone off to York. The clerics and Lord Mayor. These are the representatives of various mainly military groups with the regimental banners if appropriate. These are serving members of various groups such as the fusilliers, TA and other uniformed groups including cadets. This is part of the General Public and part of the Legion. Observant visitors will note that it is not only Councillors, MPs, Lord Mayors and (Deputy) B...

One of these people may be breaking the law (soon). The gentleman on the Right is playing "King James I" and is entirely safe. The gentleman on the Left is playing "Guy Fawkes" and could be at the risk of being guilty of glorifying terrorism. In the same way any boys who ask for "penny for the guy" next year are taking a risk (particularly if they use a sign). To be fair anyone could be locked up for 28 days whether or not they display a "penny for the guy" sign. The Violette Szabo museum is also taking a risk as is anyone playing a videotape of "allo allo". I accept entirely that the Attorney General may decide that prosecuting such people is not in the public interest, but before I dress up in a Guy Fawkes costume I would wish to get an agreement from the CPS not to prosecute.

The above is an example of someone wearing a Birmingham Poppy. There has been a certain amount of Comment about the poppy that I wear in remembrance of the sacrifice of others. The fact is that it is a proper British Legion Poppy. Many men in Birmingham (including the parking attendant photographed in Kings Heath) wear these poppies. There are also more frilly poppies that are also available. Incidentally there is a key distinction between the Scottish Poppy and that of England and Wales (both were on sale in the Members Tea Room). The Scottish Poppy has no oak leaf and has an attached pin. Incidentally I bought my poppy in my constituency not in the House of Commons.

Friday was another private members bill day. I had turned up for two bills, but only one got through second reading. The reason for this was Eric Forth. I am not quite sure what he gets out of the process, but he turns up to filibuster the private members bills and as a consequence it becomes harder to get one through the process. A bill has to have 2 hours debate after which, with the agreement of the (Deputy) Speaker it can be moved that "the motion be now put". For that to pass as a division at least 100 MPs need to vote aye. (That is how Clare Short's bill failed, because only 91 MPs voted aye). Eric Forth managed to speak for an hour on the Microgeneration Bill before I came into the chamber. There was a bit of the "usual channels" going on about when he may be forced to end. At the end of it he accepted that if he didn't stop talking at 1.30 he would be forced to stop. Then the second reading passed without a division. The process of a division...

Gradually Labour have been removing the checks and balances that operate in the constitution. With the gradual nationalisation of the police force we are moving from the historic situation where the home office was responsible for the operation of legal procedures and the rules under which police operated, but did not get involved in operational decisions (apart from in London) to one in which the Home Secretary has at his command the whole police force. This cannot be seen as a good thing even if a relatively small sum of money is saved. The way in which the police were pressurised into lobbying MPs for the flawed internment proposals is sympomatic of a lack of concern with process and a concern merely about outcomes. Process is important because of the effects that bad process can have on undermining people's trust in the system. There are getting to be large groups of people who do not trust the system. This is not just Muslim activists and Animal Rights campaigners. Histor...

There are a lot of questions that Labour cannot answer. I asked two of them during the 3rd reading debate yesterday (see link). The Terrorism bill is far from acceptable, but we still need to address how to handle the real situation. I am in the process of making contacts within Birmingham to look at the issue so that we might be able to find a consensual way forwards. There are solutions that assist with what is a very difficult situation. It has to be recognised by the government, however, that detaining people without giving a reason is the last resort. That is what internment is. They try to claim that it is not internment, but from the perspective of anyone outside the process, it is just the same.

Division 85 (also the link) is the division for inserting 28 days. Division 84 is the division for not inserting 90 days (see ante for reasoning). The Birmingham Mail editorial last night made the key point that Tony Blair had not won the argument. The underlying issue is complex and as often tends to happen the key legal issues got completely lost. After arrest there are two processes charging a suspect and then remanding in custody. Any constraints on reinterview exist only in the PACE* code and not in primary or secondary legislation. It, therefore, rests entirely within the control of the executive (the government) to change the guidance to allow terrorist suspects to be charged quickly and remanded into custody. This would get around the difficulties that would be caused by long periods of detention without charge. Let me emphasise that the issue of detention without charge is key. This is not a matter of there not being a trial, but a matter of there being no proper ident...

World Cup Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which day in 2006 has been earmarked for the return of the football World Cup trophy to England in the event of victory in Germany.(John Hemming) A: In the event of the England football team being victorious at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, suitable arrangements to celebrate this success and to welcome both the team and trophy home will be made with the relevant authorities. (Richard Caborn, Minister of State, Department of Culture, Media and Sport). Wholesale Gas Prices I Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the likely variability of wholesale gas prices during winter 2005–06. (John Hemming) A: Variability, or volatility, is a normal part of the working of a well-functioning commodity market. Current UK wholesale spot gas prices are determined by the price of oil and the day-to-day balance between demand and supply in the UK gas market. When the market is tight sm...

The amendments on this issue have been "selected by the speaker". He has selected a committee amendment to replace three months with 90 days then 60 then 28. There is a tactical aspect to this. If the 90 days amendment passed then the others would fall. Strictly the 90 days is an improvement on three months. However, there is a need to vote tactically on this. The underlying issue, however, remains the same. If we introduce Internment in England we are likely to see an increase in violence. This could arise from a range of sources. The new laws will apply to Animal Rights Activists who may not kill people, but do damage. They will also apply to a wide range of other fanatics. There are issues that need to be looked at like the resources available to forensics and issues like facilitating an early charge (even if on a lesser offence). There is nothing in law that prevents a reinterview after an initial charge. The matter that confuses me is why Blair is driving this ...

This is a picture of Graham Stuart MP for Beverley and Holderness. As with me he uses email a lot and as such needs to use an external mail server (that is external to the House of Commons systems). He, however, cannot get a good enough phone signal in his office so he has to either wander around the garden or sit on this bench at the entrance to the cloakroom to download his emails. The EDM (860) about this now has 27 signatures.

Now and again people ask for pictures of me that they wish to use. I have just uploaded some to flickr so that they are generally available. If you want a higher resolution version please click on the photo to get to the flickr account.

One interesting aspect of Division 74 was that Hansard's list of names and the tellers' count differed by 2 votes on the ayes. When MPs vote they first walk into rooms around the North (Aye) and South (No) of the chamber of the House of Commons. Then they walk out of those rooms. As they walk through the doors out of the rooms (lobbys) they are counted by "tellers". There are two tellers on each exit. One supports aye and the other supports no so there are four tellers in all. Inside the lobbys there are people sitting at three high desks with lists of names and they tick of the names of MPs as they walk past them. Clearly you can count the name listed as well as count the people leaving the rooms. Your party gets stressed if you don't vote with it. That can result in all sorts of sanctions the strongest of which is removing the whip and, therefore, potentially preventing you from standing with the party at the next general election. (cf Howard Flight). The qu...

I had two items of casework today that related to people hiding their business identify. If you trade as an individual "Sole Trader" you are supposed to tell those people who you are dealing with what your real name is. If people have a problem with your business they need your name and address to take legal action. It appears that people are getting around this by concealing their names. I have also received permission from Thailand to publicise the case of a UK Citizen who wishes to return to the UK. He was a bus driver and worked for 30 years paying taxes in Birmingham. His pension although quite high in Thailand is not enough to live on in the UK. However, he is caught by the "Non-habitual resident" rules in that he cannot get housing benefit in the UK to top up his pension. This also hits people who go abroad for work then return to the UK. In essence there is a concept of a "social contract" whereby people pay taxation and expect support in r...

Cataract Operations Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cataract operations have been performed by the independent sector on behalf of the NHS in each year since 1997; how many of these operations in each of these years have required the national health service to provide a follow-up service to patients with needs relating directly to their operation; and what the mean cost has been to the NHS of each such follow-up procedure each year. (John Hemming) A: As part of the centrally procured independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) programme, Netcare has delivered over 18,000 ophthalmology procedures since February 2004. The Department does not collect figures on the cost of follow up treatment that may take place in the national health service, but all independent sector providers, working under the ISTC programme, have agreed local level service agreements to ensure suitable follow-up care arrangements for patients. (Liam Byrne, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Departme...

Energy Campaigner John Hemming MP has written to Malcolm Wicks MP to ask him to reveal more details of the planned "peak oil" study that was flagged up by the head of the Department of Trade and Industry's energy markets, Claire Durkin Ms Durkin said on Wednesday "We can expect that an investigation will be announced within the next few weeks aimed at allowing a more open discussion on the arrival of "peak oil," the point at which worldwide oil production begins to decline," She was speaking to an industry gathering at London's Energy Institute. Durkin said that although the peak is widely acknowledged as inevitable it isn't an immediate prospect. "There is no imminent danger of global oil production peaking," she said, as new technologies and growing supplies outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries will meet market requirements. " The speech comes as a diffuse coalition of geologists, economists and activist...

Having treated Labour MPs as mere lobby fodder for many years it does appear that they are getting a bit restless at the moment. Charles Clarke recognised that the government could actually lose parts of the terrorism bill in the House of Commons and so moved into consensus mode. It is all rather odd actually as it is difficult to work out why the government are doing what they are doing with the Terror Acts. Recently Terror Acts have been used to deal with heckling at the Labour Conference and a woman walking on a cycle path. The Violette-szabo-museum could be guilty under the act for celebrating the sabotage that Violette Szabo committed in France as a British SOE agent during the second world war. The eternal problem is that of defining "terrorism" - something which the government are not doing that well at. The government's other substantial failing is in not understanding that they really need to act in a way that does not increase the amount of terrorism in the wor...

As far as I can tell if the standard rules apply David Blunkett got a payment of £15,000 for resigning on December 15th and will get £18,000 for resigning today. There has been less than 11 months between the two dates. The normal ministerial extra salary is 74K. For 11 months he would get, therefore, 67K. However, if you gross up the 33K tax free that comes to over 50K and he has done 6 months of work as a minister which is 37K. In other words by resigning twice during this period he has earned a gross equivalent of 87K as opposed to what would have been 67K had he merely kept his nose to the ministerial grindstone. That, of course, is a mild exaggeration as clearly his ministerial extra ceases from now onwards - not that he was that short of the funds from the various "jobs" that he had after resigning as a minister, which were the cause of him resigning this time.

Clearly cabinet ministers who leave through the revolving door to the cabinet picking up a tax free payment of £18,000 each time are not likely to have a problem with poverty. Having failed to be called at oral questions to ask the Prime Minister how often he thinks it is fair for a Minister to receive such a tax free severance payment I then went to meet up with the Trade Justice Lobby - see picture. Sadly my camera battery ran out of power - much like the country may this winter - resulting in few good photos. At least someone in the government is being sensible Energy Campaigner John Hemming MP has welcomed the revelation today in an email to John Hemming that Sir David King, the Chief Scientific Advisor to the government, is doing some scenario planning on Gas and Oil Reserves. "We have had lots of bland statements from the government that everything is well. However, the CBI and a number of large energy using companies share the concerns I raised in early September that th...