John Hemming's Web Log

Work in progress on Platform 1. Platform 11-12 on the Right are going to get a bridge at Xmas. Its a bit dark, but you have an example of a train supplying materials to platform 1. Stephenson Tower on the left and the Telephone Exchange on the right. The new Western Concourse taken from the Hill Street End (plus some people).

On Monday I spent a bit longer at the station than I normally do. That was because I was looking at the development work. It is interesting seeing the redevelopment of the station progressing. This was a project I supported from its initiation. The first stage of the development is to build a new concourse on the West side of the station. This is the Navigation Street and Hill Street side. A new "kiss and ride" route will be built which comes up from Hill Street and goes down into Navigation Street. Once the work on the West side is completed they can shut down the old concourse and redevelop that side as well. The plan is to open the West side in Autumn 2012 and then the full station in 2015. The platforms are also being refurbished. Platform 1 is being worked on at the moment and hence is out of use temporarily. A train is being used to provide the materials for this. Once this has been done work will transfer to Platform 12. The real challenge is to redevelop ...

There still seems to be a lot of confusion about the issue of student tuition finance. There always will be a cost for tuition whether you call it fees or capitation. Somehow or other the costs of the lecture theatres, lecturers etc will have to be paid for. There are three potential sources for this. One is from general taxation, another is from individual students and/or their families and a third is collectively from graduates. The government's proposals retain a proportion of funding from general taxation even though it goes through the finance system. They reduce the proportion that is raised from individual graduates. Only a minority of graduates will ever hit the cap. It increases the proportion that is raised collectively in two ways. Firstly by increasing the amount contributed by those graduates who earn over £21,000 per annum whereby the net present value contributed over a lifetime increases because the additional annual cost increases until people earn over £41,0...

My office in Sheldon has closed today. This is because of threats against the safety of my staff and potentially also against constituents visiting for help with their problems. The police have advised us to close the office. Those people who are making the threats need to recognise that the people who suffer are my constituents who may be homeless, destitute or facing arbitrary action by the state - where their last resort is to come for help from my office. The demonstrators are arguing that we should not be making any cuts in Higher Education. It is clear, looking at the global financial situation, that we have to make cuts in some areas. Hence the demonstrators need to think carefully about what they are saying. I support wholeheartedly protecting the more vulnerable members of society against cuts in services for them. That does mean that there are quite severe cuts in Higher Education. The alternatives are much worse. We are proposing a fairer alternative to the current sy...

The link is to today's story in the Sunday Telegraph about The Sims. Those interested in the issue should see the effort that the Civil Servants are putting in to refuse to admit the truth about adoptions from care. Something like 40% of the children leaving care (defined as subject to a care order or police protection) are leaving through adoption. When you consider the children under 10 then it is a majority. That is not supposed to happen. See this written question as an example.

The link is to a story about Stuart Syvret being released a short time ago. I spoke to him a few minutes ago and he is now out of jail although the issue will be revisited later.

Stuart Syvret's new address is: HMP La Moye La Rue Baal St Brelade Jersey, JE3 8HQ Channel Islands I am sure he would welcome cards from well wishers.

According to Channel TV Stuart Syvret has been jailed for 10 weeks. Former Senator Stuart Syvret has been jailed for ten weeks and faces heavy fines after being found guilty of breaching data protection laws. This looks like an attempt to put the frighteners on people critising the failures of the rule of law in Jersey.

I am pleased to hear that the main board of Tesco have now given the green light to the final phase of the Swan development subject to agreement on a S106 planning agreement and S278 roads development agreement.

The link is to a story behind The Sunday Times' paywall about an autistic boy whose parents were threatened with care proceedings because they were blamed in part for his behaviour. This is quite a common problem.

The link is to a story about someone who was abused in care who attacked the wrong tier of government. Much that this is futile and not in any way to be encouraged I wonder where else in the world it happens. I know the USA has similar problems in the care system, but not as extreme as those in England. However, I wonder where else the children who have been through the system are often so opposed to it (not always of course).

There has been a garbled article published in The Times today about the mortgage on my london flat. It is based mainly on what I put on my weblog in May 2009 here It gets a bit complex with me having a mortgage on Fletcher Buildings then clearing it and then getting another one. It remains my view that what I did was not only within the rules and cleared by the authorities at the time, but also saved money for the taxpayer. If you look at my posting of May 2009 you will find that my personal expenses over a period of years were £45,075 less than those of Khalid Mahmood MP. There were other options such as selling and repurchasing or renting out my own flat and renting another via ACA. Those would have cost the taxpayer more. What doing this achieved, as opposed to simply leaving the flat without a mortgage, was to enable me to put more revenue expenditure into the subsidy that I provide to my constituency activities. I know that parliament now doesn't allow MPs to buy properties...

The link is to the story about the Oldham East and Saddleworth Election Court. This was a case about some last minute Labour leaflets making allegations that are clearly untrue. It is a common habit of the Labour Party to deliver a last minute negative leaflet on the Wednesday before the election day (normally Thursday). Hence it is good to have them warned that they are not allowed to make things up about their opponents.

This is a video that is worth looking at although it is a bit long and you don't get into the issues right at the start. I don't agree with everything they say, but it is clear that they have some things right. There are some real problems in the system. To find out more about it you need to follow my questions about Secret Prisoners.

The two things I was pressing for as part of the funding of student tuition have been announced today. The first of these was to make the scheme more progressive so that those graduates who earn quite a lot more pay more than those who earn more than average. The second was to have some system whereby those who wish to pay upfront pay a premium and participate in burden sharing on an equitable basis. That makes good progress down the route that I am looking for as a "fairer system" as I am pledged to do.

On Page 20 of Labour's 2010 Manifesto it looks at welfare reform. More people with disabilities and health conditions will be helped to move into work from Incapacity Benefit and Employment Support Allowance, as we extend the use of our tough-but-fair work capability test. This will help to reduce the benefit bill by £1.5 billion over the next four years. We will reassess the Incapacity Benefit claims of 1.5 million people by 2014, as we move those able to work back into jobs. Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who try to cheat the benefit system. on page 19 Our job guarantees will put an end to long-term unemployment and a life on benefits. No one fit for work should be abandoned to a life on benefit, so all those who can work will b...

I think there is getting to be a bit of momentum behind the campaign to sort out English child protection. The link is to a story in the Sunday Telegraph. The only people in a position to reform this system fundamentally are those who set it up in the first place under the 1989 Children Act – the politicians. But they have, with one or two shining exceptions – notably John Hemming – walked away from the Frankenstein's monster that Parliament created. It is now up to them to support Mr Hemming and all those horribly maltreated families who are campaigning for one of the most out­rageous scandals in Britain today to be brought to an end.

I mentioned one of the UK's secret prisoners today in the House of Commons. These prisoners are different to those imprisoned through the courts where the Family Court bans the name of the prisoner being revealed. These are people whose legal capacity to decide where they live is removed from them by the Court of Protection. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 specifies in detail the circumstances in which someone can be jailed ostensibly to protect them. In these situations the system decides that someone does not have either the capacity to decide where they live or indeed to instruct a solicitor to argue about the issue. There are two problems with how the system currently works. The first is the wider one of accountability. Someone is locked up with no right to instruct a solicitor to contest the jailing and the media are banned from talking about it. Obviously my comments in the House of Commons can be reported, but without that it cannot be talked about on threat of imprisonment....

John O Shea has now started a bidding war on gilt yield graphs. I think, however, that looking at 1900-2009 is sufficient. The figures here are annual averages, but they show clearly how it is possible to have problems with the interest rate on government debt. The peaks were indeed during the Labour Government of 1974-9. Labour, although they were in theory talking about cuts of just over 40bn do now seem to be arguing against all the cuts. Incidentally given that "there is no money left" the funds for Royal Mail do have to be raised on the equity markets. Labour have left no choice on this. Labour were aiming to do a similar thing. There are a number of key priorities 1. Protecting the Post Office Network 2. Maintaining the Universal Service Obligation. These are our objectives.

The chart below is the current 10 year gilt yield chart from bloomberg. It looks back at what happened with gilt yields. As we went into the recesssion and there was an attempt to drive down interest rates the gilt yields followed. Then they popped up a bit and averaged around 4% going into the general election although there was a peak with a bit of extra uncertainty. Then they went down to the 3% level where they have remained. We as a country are "in hock" to the markets because we borrow money from them. The only way to be less "in hock" is to borrow less. The government's policies are in many ways traditional keynsian as there is not an attempt to remove the deficit overnight. The Coalition Government's cuts are about of the same order of magnitude in fact as those initially proposed by Labour. They get rid of the deficit faster because of lower interest rates (1% on 1 tn is 10bn). Labour now appear to be arguing against any substantial cuts. Th...