John Hemming's Web Log

Annesley and Felley PC, Annesley LD Rachel Madden 168 (72.7) Ind 63 (27.3) Majority 105 Turnout 24.2% LD gain from Ind Camborne TC, Camborne South Con 304 (29.9) Mebyon Kernow 289 (28.4) LD 263 (25.9) Lab 161 (15.8) Majority 15 Turnout 19.4% Con gain from LD Rotherham MBC, Wickersley Lab 871 (31.1; -4.8) Con 824 (29.5; -9.4) BNP 538 (19.2; +19.2) UKIP 373 (13.3; -11.9) LD Steven Scutt 191 (6.8; +6.8) Majority 47 Turnout 30.0% Lab hold Percentage change is since May 2008 Shrewsbury and Atcham BC, PimHill Con 341 (45.6; -34.9) LD Helen Woodman 331 (44.3; +44.3) BNP 59 (7.9; +7.9) Independent Anti Incinerator Candidate 16 (2.1; +2.1) [Lab (0.0; -19.4)] Majority 10 Turnout 46.5% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2007

The links is to a good article on Community Care where a GP argues: There is no parallel between being underfed and overfed Obesity cannot be connected with child abuse According to David Rogers, public health spokesperson for the Local Government Association, "parents who allow their children to eat too much could be as guilty of neglect as those who did not feed their children at all". The LGA's conviction that overweight children should become the subject of child protection procedures was reported under the headline "Fat children 'should be taken from parents' to curb obesity epidemic" (The Times, 16 August). I first encountered this facile presentation of obesity as a form of child abuse at a case conference about a teenage girl some years ago. Social workers accepted that her parents were devoted and there was no hint of neglect. Nevertheless, they cited a case in the US in which authorities had been blamed for the death of a morbidly obese young w...

Melksham TC, Melksham Spa LD Jon Hubbard 713 (51.4) Con 562 (40.5) Lab 112 (8.1) Majority 151 Turnout 29.6% LD gain from Con

Rhondda Cynon Taff UA, Cilfynydd Lab 331 (43.5; +5.0) LD Stephen Powell 252 (33.1; -19.8) Ind 85 (11.2; +11.2) PC 67 (8.8; +0.2) Green 14 (1.8; +1.8) Con 12 (1.6; +1.6) Majority 79 Turnout 35.5% Lab gain from LD Percentage change is since May 2008

During the recess I have an opportunity to deal with things that I don't have time for whilst the House is sitting. This includes going to meetings in the Constituency and visiting constituents to look at issues that I cannot see otherwise. I am also spending time on upgrading my casework computer system. I run a form of CRM that I have written myself in Java running on the JDatastore SQL server. Over the past few weeks I have had a real struggle trying to get JSP pages to work on Tomcat 6.0. I have found some interesting errors in the way in which Eclipse (the programming environment) creates the server.xml configuration page. It creates it with an incompatible parameter in the CONTEXT section which has to have the source parameter removed, but at the same time then the directory it looks for is not webapps, the wtfwebapps hence the parameter needs to be changed on the basis of ..\wftwebabbs\(application) The system still fails to properly initialise jasper and cannot find javax.s...

From yesterday's telegraph (see link): In his most outspoken criticism of the Jersey authorities, Mr Harper told the Telegraph: "I can quite clearly say that the investigation is being held up. There are people on the island who just don't want us going down the route of this inquiry"

COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS RECOMMENDATION No. R (99) 41OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS TO MEMBER STATES ON PRINCIPLES CONCERNING THE LEGAL PROTECTIONOF INCAPABLE ADULTS (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 23 February 1999at the 660/I' meeting of the Ministers' Deputies) The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe, Bearing in mind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948; Bearing in mind the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 16 December 1966; Bearing in mind the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950; Bearing in mind the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomed...

In working on an ECtHR application which hopefully over time we will publish I have reviewed X v Croatia that refers to two pieces of international law (nothing to do with the EU). The European Convention on Adoption is one. This shows how far out of line England is on these issues. The second is Principles concerning the legal protection of incapable adults this is not available in a text form although I am going to try to run it through an OCR and post it later. In England we seem to use the mental capacity process to remove rights from people rather than protect their rights.

Maldon DC, Maldon North Con 339 (40.8; -8.2) Green 200 (24.1; +24.1) Ind 115 (13.9; +13.9) BNP 107 (12.9; +12.9) Ind 69 (8.3; +8.3) [Independent Maldon Democratic Alliance (0.0; -51.0)] Majority 139 Turnout 26.5% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2007 Nottingham City UA, Wollaton West Con 2769 (62.2; +15.6) Lab 1042 (23.4; +3.0) LD Glyn Johns 424 (9.5; -4.5) UKIP 220 (4.9; -3.5) [Church of the Militant Elvis Party (0.0; -2.0)] [Green (0.0; -8.7)] Majority 1727 Turnout 41.3% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2007 Richmondshire DC, Newsham with Eppleby Con 295 (59.4; -40.6) LD Amanda Adams 130 (26.2; +26.2) Ind 72 (14.5; +14.5) Majority 165 Turnout 46.8% Con hold Con elected unopposed in May 2007 From Janet Battye: - Hebden Royd TC, West End LD Chris Sawer 176 Lab 131 Majority 45 Turnout 29.7% LD gain from Lab

The abuse of the provisions relating to the "capacity to instruct" a solicitor continues in the Family Division. It appears now that this is a special trick used by some social workers and legal departments to prevent people from fighting the system.

The link is to the judgment on Bailii. It raises some interesting questions as to the merits of appointing the official solicitor to remove individuals' rights as to act in family cases.

The link is to a story in the Mail on Sunday about how children have been illegally placed in Jersey and then lost. The existance of paeodophile networks in Child Protection is not a new story. What needs to be recognised is that the secrecy of the system allowed them and their actions to be kept secret. There is, as can be seen from Liz Davies' comments, considerably more to be revealed about the links between England and Jersey. However, the government have decided to turn a blind eye to this issue. It is much like the government minister on Thursday being unwilling to say anything about the government's position during a phone call. What Family Court Secrecy enables is the real threats of imprisonment (and frequent imprisonment) of those people who speak out about injustices and malpractise in child protection. That is how it protects abusers. It does not protect the children. The aggressive nature of many local authority legal departments feeds this culture. Any criti...

Cardiff UA, Pentyrch Con 554 (41.9; -7.8) Lab 542 (41.0; +10.2) PC 129 (9.8; -10.0) LD Alex Evans 97 (7.3; -0.6) [Ind (0.0; -7.1)] Majority 12 Turnout 48.2% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2008 Cherwell DC, Kirtlington Con Elected Unopposed (100.0; +26.6) [LD (0.0; -26.6)] Con hold Percentage change is since May 2006 Gateshead MBC, Whickham South and Sunniside LD John McClurey 1612 (72.5; +4.4) Lab 394 (17.7; +4.2) Con 217 (9.8; -8.6) Majority 1218 Turnout 32.3% LD hold Percentage change is since May 2008 Lincolnshire CC, Louth Wolds Con 1013 (49.9; +13.5) Ind 361 (17.8; -0.6) LD Eric Needham 304 (15.0; -18.4) BNP 219 (10.8; +10.8) Lab 75 (3.7; +3.7) UKIP 59 (2.9; -9.0) Majority 652 Turnout 31.9% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2005 Oadby and Wigston BC, Oadby Uplands LD Samia Haq 774 (55.3; +1.0) Con 625 (44.7; +16.4) [Lab (0.0; -17.5)] Majority 149 Turnout 40.3% LD hold Percentage change is since May 2007 Suffolk Coastal DC, Witnesham Con 316 (53.7; -28.8) LD Andrew H...

I have encountered a wide range of political responses to things, but yesterday's conference call with Michael Wills MP has to take the biscuit. Here we have a situation in which a Crown Dependency's police investigation has clearly found evidence of 5 children whose bodies have been disposed of unlawfully and concealed in a childrens home. We have a large number of witnesses to various forms of child abuse. Although three people have been charged there is a list of 5 people where the prosecution process has been halted. Jersey is a Crown Dependency that gives the Privy Council a power to intervene. Senator Stuart Syvret, Austin Mitchell MP and I arranged a conference call to discuss this issue with Michael Wills MP (Minister for the Crown Dependencies). Michael Wills' response was to say that he didn't want to explain the government's view unless there was a meeting with all three of us present. He know that Austin was in the USA until September. Austin was qu...

As with the other reports they find little understandable logic in the judgments of cafcass. It takes a bit of time to understand the importance of this. In most instances service users did not experience a service which had been planned systematically by Family Court Advisers; case planning documents were not completed or were not comprehensive, for example. Most files had some case notes, although these were often illegible. Evidence of assessment, such as evidence of the Family Court Adviser weighing and analysing the evidence from interviews, was almost always absent from the case records. It was therefore not possible to understand how FCAs were making their judgements.

I have linked to the Community Care story. This picks up on the key message from the interviews by Lenny Harper reported by the BBC as Jersey murder inquiry 'unlikely' Community Care have correctly identified the issue that the remains of at least 5 children have been found concealed in a children's home. It is worth listening to Lenny Harper's interview on the BBC site as he explains the situation. The issue here, its links to the mainland and the attempts to cover it up are very live issues. As a director (with Stuart Syvret) of Justice for Families Ltd the first steps towards judicial review of the UK government's failure to ensure the application of the rule of law in Jersey have been taken. We are holding a conference call later today with the government to look at this issue.

All the increases in gas prices are not necessarily going to ensure that gas is available during winter. It will, of course, as usual, depend upon the weather. The design of the UK gas market is reliant on a relative abundance of supply. Obviously supply and demand will match, but only at the cost of destitute pensioners and "excess winter deaths".

Accepting the unreliability of early figures June is thought to have produced 86.51 mbd of oil and burnt (or otherwise consumed) 86.2 mbd. This marginal surplus of production over demand is as expected resulting in a price reduction. Demand is probably being reduced further than the predictions as well.

The link is to a story from Scotland that I am not aware of anything other than in the media. This is where children were forcibly adopted because of an allegation of MSbP. The 16 year old has now returned from her adoptive parents to her birth mother (much like the Tammy Coulter story). The problem with these stories is that the children, birth parents and adoptive parents suffer from a what starts with a miscarriage of justice.

What concerns me about this trial is that tenuous medical evidence which is insufficient to convict was allowed to get to the stage of charging and prosecution. I suggested to the previous Attorney General that they needed some people in the CPS with scientific training to check the expert evidence. This as usual raises the question as to how much money has been made by the experts giving evidence. We really do need to be careful about having a system that rewards experts for the answer "guilty", but not the answer "innocent".