John Hemming's Web Log

Today's Cabinet Meeting started the process of bidding for funds for a new central Library for Birmingham. It may surprise people who live in Birmingham that no bidding for funds had occurred so far. This, however, is the case. We have not been specific about the location as keeping our options open at this stage gives a better opportunity to achieve a more positive solution. The option of putting the Library into Birmingham's West End Cultural Quarter is quite a positive one. The West End Cultural Quarter based upon the traditional plan of a civic centre includes the Museum, two Theatres (Crescent and Rep), Symphony Hall, the ICC and a large number of live music venues. (as well as Broad St).

Imagine it: The federal government tracking you in real time, while compiling a database with information on your speed, route, and destination; where you were when; how many times you went to a certain location; and just about anything else related to your travels in your own car. The idea of systems to track where cars are already exists. There are lots of schemes whereby the real time location, speed and other matters (such as whether people are using seat belts) can be tracked. I have had a "tracker" on my car for a number of years as a tool for finding the car if it is stolen. Within the context of politicians having inherent conflicts of interest - which is why we have the separation of the estates of government - Charles Clarke's idea that he should be able to impose sanctions upon people is badly flawed. The arguments that the Labour Party use for keeping detailed records of people in a centralised ID database apply the same to the idea of compulsory tracking. T...

The National Health Service is an important issue for many people. One aspect of that has been the question as to how prevalent MRSA is (the "Super Bug"). The linked report from The Telegraph indicates that it appears on the death certificate of about 1,000 patients a year. The real question, however, is how prevalent it really is. Doctors from time to time report "old age" as the cause of death. This could include MRSA. Also Pneumonia is reported which also could involve MRSA. The difficulty is that we really need an audit of the records to find out what the true story is. Even in a City Council debate about MRSA there were two examples of people where MRSA was part of the story, but did not appear on the death certificate. The real problem is that if MRSA appearing on the death certificate causes considerable stress then there will be a tendency for it to be omitted as a cause. This makes it difficult to really know what is going on. Regardless as to how pr...

Correction fluid was used to blank out crosses on ballot papers for the People's Justice Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. Fresh crosses were added in favour of the three Labour candidates, an election court was told. It is important to remember that election fraud occurs across the country, not just in Birmingham. The difference in Birmingham is that we are trying to stop it. What about the extra three boxes The legal debate about the three boxes full of only Labour votes does not rely on the fact that they had about 1,700 Labour ballot papers all in the same handwriting and blue ink, but instead on the basis as Envelope A's with a Ballot Paper and DoI in them they should not have reached the count in that form. Evidence stolen from the court A judge in an election fraud trial today renewed his appeal that evidence, which has mysteriously disappeared, be returned . This I didn't expect. Woman tells how postal vote was stolen Miss Ishaq’s fathe...

With the Birmingham Environmental Partnerships now linked to the BSP the Environmental Partnerships have been tasked with working on practical proposals for Birmingham to deal with climate change and the other requirements for a sustainable city. My own particular interest is not in having a lot of long wordy well meaning and worthy documents, but some key actions that we need to take to improve the situation in Birmingham. The Urban Village Environmental Partnerships in conjunction with Brumcan and the various other non-statutory organisations appear now to be moving further towards results. We also have a further look at "Broadband Brum". It would be quite nice for Birmingham to progress to compete to be the most "wired" city in the world as well as taking serious strides towards being in the more sustainable large cities (I think we have a longer way to go there so cannot get as far as I would like that quickly). Ayoub Khan also obtained a court order for Moham...

I presented our many thousands of signatures against the Boundary Commission's proposals to split up Yardley to the Boundary Commission. Oddly enough there is no sign indicating "Boundary Commission". That is because they are based in the national statistics office. Hopefully they will heed both the logical arguments to retain the traditional links between Sheldon, Yardley and Acocks Green (going back to 699 and earlier) and also the strong public demand for this and against the Boundary Commission's proposals.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of the disputes between b:cen and BANF . The b:cen management don't seem to have learnt anything. Their most recent newsletter funded by part of their £2million a year grant from central government continues to launch into a diatribe against me. In particular they have a go against local government as a mechanism for making decisions. On the other hand we have the Home Offices State of the Sector Panel The most recent newsletter (December 04) indicates that CVS (Community and Voluntary Sector) organisations are gnerally happiest with their relationship with local government (and least happy with the European Union). The debate remains, however, as to what is the best mechanism for determining public policy. Should it be directly elected representatives or people appointed by primarily statutory agencies onto local Qualgos. (Quasi-Autonomous Local Government Organisation). I cannot really fathom out the logic, but it appears that the ...

Yesterday's council meeting had two main items of business: The Council Plan - a summary of what the council is trying to do. The Budget - next years planned finances including a Council Tax increase of 2.8%, The behaviour of the Labour Party was unusual. They said that they had no proposed changes to our Council Plan. They also called for a Council Tax increase of only 1.5%. Their calculations involved taking £3,642,000 out of the "rainy day" accounts (contingencies, balances, reserves) which is risky as it makes it harder for the council to cope with unpredicted issues. At the end of the meeting they refused to vote on the budget. Why they would not press the "abstain budget" is not clear. It is as if they all walked out. However, the budget has now been set. It involves an increase from £301,096,000 to £345,363,000 on Social Care which is £44,267,000. It involves using the fourth option for housing and resolves a number of other matters. Labour's...

Apart from police evidence as to who did what (and other allegations), there are two key areas of dispute in the Bordesley Election Petition. These relates to the ballot papers that were counted. One relates to a particular group of three ballot boxes that contained lots of Envelope "A"s. Each of the Envelope "A"s contained both a ballot paper and a Declaration of Identity. The Commissioner at the time of writing has picked on the interesting point in law which is that if the electoral procedures are operating correctly then there should be no Envelope "A"s containing both a ballot paper and DoI. In theory the ballot paper is placed in Envelope A and Envelope A and the DoI are placed in Envelope B. When EnvB is opened the number on the DoI and EnvA should be checked. At that stage if there is no DoI then EnvA should be opened. Therefore at the count there should be no EnvB's with DoIs and Ballot papers (because if that had been what had happened t...

The Labour Councillors responding to the Bordesley Petition have now walked out of the court. This has, however, not stopped the court continuing. The Petitioners have started by identifying the different types of fraudulent votes. The first category they have identified is those votes where the signature of the voter on the Declaration of Identity (DoI) differs from the signature of the voter on the Application for a postal vote. That means that either the application or DoI is bogus. It could be that the application is bogus, but the voters signature on the actual DoI is correct. However, it is a good measure of fraud in an election. 1,500 ballot papers are alleged to fall into this category. (that's 4,500 local election votes and 1,500 European votes) The case continues

A last minute attempt by the Labour Councillors to have the petition adjourned beyond the election failed at the Bordesley Election Court today. The Commissioner had made it very clear he believes the issues in the petition need to be resolved before the General Election. He maintained this position.

So, Gordon Brown has decided that money spent filling in potholes is a Capital payment. Similarly the subsidy to rail travel is also a capital payment. What it really means is that he has actually given up on his "Golden Rule". He is fiddling so many of the figures that he is now falling back on the debt as proportion of GDP calculation. None of these statistical changes make any difference to the real world. What they mean is that Gordon Brown is to be as trusted as Tony Blair. (ie not trusted). I don't have a proper source of information for these figures, but I believe that the roads figure is £2.7bn pa and the rail subsidy is £6bn (don't know over how many years). I am still more concerned about Labour fiddling the elections than I am concerned about Labour fiddling the books.

Our budgetary proposals have been welcomed across the city. People recognise that we are acting on the issues that they are concerned about. They also welcome our movement towards more cost effective governance. More money for Social Care. The budget goes up by 11%, sustantially more than the increase from Central Government. The fourth option for Housing. Birmingham and Cambridge (Lib Dem Run) have both committed to providing the resources for the fourth option. Park Keepers - 1 Park keeper for each district. Bus Wardens - bus patronage has been going down because of difficulties with the service. Kerbside collection for recycling not just paper. More support for Apprentice type training A system to stop the council losing messages More effective action on graffiti, flyposting and dumping. All in all, a Cleaner, Greener and Safer City than under Labour and with one of the lowest council tax increases in the country at 2.8%. What we must do, however, is to continue the process of c...

Today I spent a few hours doing some analysis for the Election Courts which happen over the next 4 weeks. Gradually the true evidence is being provided by people such as the police, the CPS and the returning officer. I cannot reveal anything about that here as it will have to wait until the court. There is, however, a lot of evidence of various sorts. One aspect I can talk about is the redirection of postal ballots. Quite a few ballots have been sent to addresses just a few hundred yards away. This is done even if on the next year's electoral roll the voter remains at the original address. This is what we call the "Pendle fiddle" because it started in Pendle where postal votes were misdirected to a collection of central addresses. More information on this is available here The Pendle fiddle has been used in Birmingham, but not as much as in Pendle. For example in the 2003 local elections 27 postal votes were sent to the home of the Labour Agent rather than the vo...

I thought it would be useful to put the Aston Election petition on the web. I need to tidy up the layout, but I haven't got the time for that at the moment. The words are verbatim. I have been involved in three election petitions. One failed in 2000 and was based around Sparkhill. It failed because I told my lawyers that it needed to be served in 5 days and they got it served in 6. I also have advised the Bordesley Petition. This particular petition was one I drafted. I have been working on raising the profile of the massive election frauds committed mainly by the Labour Party across the Country for some time now. With a bit of luck we will prove that in court by the end of March. I hope to get the Bordesley Petition and put that on the web as well. There are about 2-3 petitions per year. These two petitions are the first to come to court based upon fraud in about a century. There were some that came close, but people pulled back. The strength of the Aston petition is ...

The Village have decided to cancel all the live entertainment on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun. That means, for the moment, no more Jazz Evenings.

BBC news Issue Before the war Now Weapons of Mass Destruction No threat Now a threat Terrorism No threat from Iraq Iraq a "breeding ground" British Soldiers no deaths Many Deaths Iraqi Civilians few recurring deaths Thousands of Deaths The real issue about Iraq is that going to war was not the only option. Sanctions shored up the regime of Saddam Hussain because his regime handed out food. It would have been quite possible for the Ba'th regime to have been removed by the Iraqi people if it has not been shored up by the West. Saddam had murdered large numbers of his own citizens, but at a time when the regime was supported by the USA. There were more options than either do nothing or go to war. It is, however, now too late. One key element of getting calm after the elections is the phased withdrawal of the belligerent troops. Bring our boys and girls back.

see Page 8-9 of the report For all of Labour's woffle about anti-social behaviour they continue to fund training for graffiti artists to be better graffiti artists. Extracts from the report: ============================================================================ Hugh Thornberry NCH Director said: "I am really impressed. What a great piece of work." Karen Stone NCH Assistant Director said: "A fantastic representation of ideas of children and young people and their creative skills." The Spray it ‘n’ Say it Report and DVD is available January 2005. Spray it ‘n’ Say it Phase 2 is currently being planned by BCF in Partnership with The Haven, LIFT Project at Welsh House Farm. ============================================================================ There is clearly an issue to be tested here. The issue is whether or not the children who have been taught to do graffiti have managed to restrain themselves from doing it in places where it is not wanted and wh...

Labour's 2005 General Election Campaign booklet is called "operation third term". In section 8 relating to Postal Votes it says: Labour supporters with a postal vote are four times more likely to vote than Labour supporters who vote at polling stations. If we can get them to apply for a permanent postal vote it helps our electoral prospects in future elections. That is not surprising if their vote is stolen and filled in for them. It only takes one Labour activist to fill in hundreds of postal votes. They say: After the ballot papers have dropped: From this point your election campaign should be all about making sure that Labour supporters use their vote. Brief your volunteers • Under no circumstances should they handle or view the ballot paper until it is securely sealed in its envelope. The best way to increase the number of Labour voters voting by post is to make sure that every time a volunteer contacts a Labour voter they offer a postal vote application form. In the...

Six Birmingham Labour city councillors alleged to have masterminded a campaign of postal vote fraud will face a High Court hearing without legal representation. The Labour Party confirmed last night that London-based law firm Steel and Shamash was no longer acting for the Bordesley Green and Aston ward councillors. (extract from article in Birmingham Post linked above.) It remains that there is a question as to what Labour Candidates were doing on an industrial estate after midnight with hundreds (and possibly thousands) of postal ballots. Election Day story about postal votes It also remains the case that there was electoral fraud not only in the two wards which have election petitions, but also other cities. The Labour Party are driving to have postal votes because they know that they get more votes. How many are honest and how many fraudulent is not clear. What is clear that thousands are fraudulent in some wards. (and hence parliamentary seats as well)