Well, really!

Ladies and Gentlemen

On the train into Kings Cross this afternoon, the nicely-spoken lady who normally makes the simple "The next station is Finsbury Park" announcements broke into my dozing time south of Stevenage with an unexpected 'ladies and gentlemen'. It was clearly something serious...

"Ladies and gentlemen. This is an important announcement to help you when boarding the train. When you hear the hussle alarm, stand clear of the doors and do not attempt to board or alight."

Well, really!

Danger! School Run

Talking of double standards, as we were, it sometimes seems the most dangerous place to be a pedestrian is near a school at going-home time. The other day I was almost run over on the pavement, as I walked past the local junior school, by a HUGE 4x4 behaving like a demented rally car. The middle-aged bimbette in the driving seat seemed oblivious not only to me but more importantly to the stream of youngsters pouring through the school gates and weaving their way between the parked buses and across the road.

Still, her little darlings were already safely strapped in to her tank, so it didn't matter...

Community Policing?

Four cheers for the four Welsh police authorities, who have now all rejected the government's demands that they should merge. Charles Clarke has set a deadline of tomorrow for them to agree to merge voluntarily, or have the merger imposed on them. Well, really! So much for giving local people more control.

This week the all-party House of Commons Welsh affairs committee accused Westminster of "rushing", and said it wasn't convinced that one force was the right way forward for Wales. But Welsh Secretary Peter Hain was dismissive, and said that while there needed to be safeguards [that S-word again] a merged force was the "only serious option" to meet modern demands.

Strangely enough, on his website Mr Hain says: "I believe in a participatory democracy in which decision-making is decentralised, and in which each individual citizen is empowered... The task of our Labour Government is an enabling one, not an enforcing one. Our mission is to disperse rather than to concentrate power."

Who Needs Parliament?

The Beeb reports that the new Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has come under fire for potentially taking Parliament out of the loop when the government wants to change the law. "The bill is intended to allow ministers to axe red tape," it says, "without the time-consuming need for full parliamentary scrutiny." Well, really! Who wants to waste time on parliamentary scrutiny?!

Cambridge University law experts have warned that "the government could rewrite almost any act", adding that the planned new law could allow the government to curtail or abolish jury trial, place people under house arrest, rewrite immigration laws or sack judges. Jim Murphy, the MP for East Renfrewshire and Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, insisted the bill would have safeguards built in. Ah yes, safeguards...

Community Confusion

So young David Miliband, the Minister for Communities, has come up with the bright idea that local people should be given more control over their lives, calling for a "double devolution" from central to local government and then "to citizens". [You always know there's something serious afoot when MPs start talking about 'citizens' instead of 'local folk']. Nice thought David, but I have the impression that everything has been increasingly centralized over the last eight years, so why the change of heart? Nothing to do with pressure from the Tories and Lib Dems, is it?

How does this new policy square with that of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which plans to dump half a million new houses in the south east in the next 15 years (80,000 of them here in Hertfordshire, surprisingly already the most densely populated county in the country) while at the same time knocking down streets of perfectly good Victorian terraces – ripe for cost-effective refurbishment – in the north, very much against the wishes of local people in both cases.

The Fat Controller would also like to do away with county councils, replacing them with massive regional government such as the unelected East of England Regional Authority. He even wants to cancel the 2007 local elections [can he do that?] on the assumption that county government will be dead by 2008 – according to the Beeb, ODPM officials said it was "highly unlikely" the [May 2007] elections would go ahead, not least because "it would not be very efficient to hold elections for a one-year term".

Miliband Speak with Forked Tongue.

However Alan Milburn clarifies everything in a Guardian piece today: "A less deferential, more democratic world is threatening a crisis of legitimacy for the active politics that is the hallmark of the left." Er... OK, got that.

Bikes and Horses

Went out on the tourer this afternoon, for the first time this year. In fact for the first time for a few months as I was busy on other things in late summer and autumn last year. The weather was good for a fair weather cyclist like me – cold but a little sunny. But my legs are bad!

On the way home I rounded a bend at a reasonable speed to find myself nose to nose with a horse. Its mate was the other side of the road. If I'd been in a car I might not have been able to stop and they almost certainly wouldn't have heard me. A plummy voice said "Sowweee" – but didn't encourage her horse to change course – and I squeezed between it and the hedge as I searched for a low enough gear to get going again...

pik ur mp W txt msg?

Monday this week the Lords were debating the Electoral Administration Bill, which among other things aims to encourage more people – especially younger people – to vote. Which is good. One suggestion is to set up polling booths at supermarkets (next to the vegetables, perhaps). Another is to offer voting by text message. Well, really! Is that kewl? I don't think so!

Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat) said it would mean "reducing democracy to the level of Strictly Come Dancing or Big Brother". I agree with the noble lady. Old fashioned as the traditional polling booth may be, with its stub of pencil (do they actually make them that short?) and rickety woodwork, it does create a feeling of taking part in democracy in some way, forcing you to think at least for a moment about where to mark your shaky cross. Going down the pub with your mates and sending the Returning Officer a text after a few pints isn't quite the same.

PMQ Déjà-Vu

Nice to see Tony Blair's old sparring partner William Hague on good form at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons today, after four and a half years away from the front bench. Mr Hague is standing in for David Cameron who is on paternity leave. (Congratulations DC):

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, standing in for Mr Cameron, joked it was the first time in history all three parties had been represented by a stand-in for the real leader. [A reference to recent comments about a Blair-Brown dual premiership]

Mr Hague questioned why Mr Blair continued to back new laws banning the "glorification" of terror, which he said were unworkable. He accused Mr Blair of "posturing" saying the Tories wanted a "watertight law designed to catch the guilty rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines".

From BBC News

Lights Out

Parliament has tonight voted for a complete ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, with a majority in favour of exactly 200 – far more decisive than anyone had predicted. An excellent result! And long overdue. Labour MPs had a free vote, possibly to avoid the embarrassment of a big defeat.

But the ban won't come into effect until 'the summer of 2007'. Well, really! Why not? It's not as if the drinks industry, or anyone else, has to make big preparations, other than clearing away the ashtrays. It seems to me that much of the health momentum will have been lost by then. And a few more people will have died.

Thin End of the ID Wedge

So, MPs have voted to go ahead with ID cards, with only 20 Labour rebels, despite some predictions that the move would be rejected, and despite earlier defeats by their Lordships for very sensible reasons. I wonder if they realize what they're letting us in for. Undoubtedly there'll be Creeping Compulsion – the card is voluntary for now, unless you need to use any government services. For a start, anyone applying for a passport after 2008 will be forced to have parts of their body photographed and held on the central computer; a good job mine doesn't expire until 2012 :-)

Of course it's not unknown for government computer contracts to run late and over budget, so 2008 might be optimistic on their part. And the Passport Office has had its cock-ups in the past as well. The problems are only just starting; trouble is it's we who have to pay for this very expensive experiment.