Film Crusty

Voter Suppression in Pennsylvania

2012-02-14T09:13:00.006Z

Following on from "The Year of the Bible" (see earlier post) the same legislators in PA now want to restrict the right to vote by requiring voters to produce State or Federal photo ID. For those who think that's OK as almost every one has a drivers licence I should point out that those who don't have a licence are the old , the poor, the disabled and ethnic minorities,All the folks Republican's don't want turning up to vote.

I signed a petition to The Pennsylvania State Senate: Oppose House Bill 934 because it is unnecessary, it is a waste of taxpayer funds, and it will deprive citizens of their right to vote.

I added the following on the petition: As an overseas write in voter for Pennsylvanian elections I am concerned that although I have a federal photo ID in the form of my USA Passport I am aware that for many fellow countrymen such a document is beyond their reach. This Bill takes us back to the times when even Tom Paine, the man who gave our country its name, was denied a vote by state officials on the grounds that he had French citizenship.

State-sponsored "Year of the Bible"

2012-02-09T00:15:00.001Z

On January 24, 2012, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 535, a non-binding resolution declaring 2012 the "Year of the Bible."

The resolution states that we have a "national need to study and apply the holy scriptures," a position which clearly favors Christianity over other religions and violates the separation of church and state as protected by the Constitution of the United States. Our state government should strive to protect religious freedom, not seek to promote one religion over another.

A petition to the Pennsylvania State House on SignOn.org appeared at

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=270744&id=35525-14282517-071e1Zx&t=2

The petition says:

On January 24, 2012, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 535, a non-binding resolution declaring 2012 "The Year of the Bible." The resolution states that we have a "national need to study and apply the holy scriptures," a position which clearly favors Christianity over other religions and violates the separation of church and state as protected by the Constitution of the United States.

As a Pennsylvanian, I wish to make clear that I do NOT support the Bible as the preferred state religious text, and I oppose the passage of a state resolution that formally declares the Bible as the word of God and asserts that strengthening of our nation occurs by "renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through holy scripture."

H.R. 535 is not only unconstitutional, it ignores and devalues the great diversity of peoples and religions which actually constitute the state of Pennsylvania. This resolution, even though it is non-binding, sends a message to citizens that Christian beliefs are more legitimate in the eyes of the state than other belief systems. This message is especially dangerous in our current climate of anti-Islamic rhetoric and strengthened federal powers of detention.

H.R. 535 positions the state to take future action limiting freedom of religious expression and persecuting those who disagree with state-approved religion. I urge Pennsylvania's House of Representatives to repeal H.R. 535.

When I signed the petition I added the following comment "As a Pennsylvanian, at present resident in the UK, I am appalled that the state in which much of the creation of the USA and our constitution was formed proposes to favour one religion over all others and none. Like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and not forgetting Tom Paine, I am a Deist and while I wish every facility to be made available for those who's belief in centred on organized religion to carry out their religion I do not subscribe to any attempt to connect any organised religion to affairs of the state."

In response to comments made by Facebook friends I have written:-
The rights of liberty and equality spoken of in the Declaration of Independence were opposite to the authoritarian outlook of the Church. Jawaharlal Nerhu wrote on 10 Feb 1933 in a letter entitled "The Advance of Democracy " the following "The early democrats naturally took to rationalism. Their demand for freedom of thought and speech could hardly be reconciled with dogmatic religion and theology. Thus democracy joined with science to weaken the hold of theological dogmas. People began to dare to examine the Bible, as if it were an ordinary book and not something that must be accepted blindly and without questioning." I fear America has forgotten this and are in danger of regression.

Train Fares Madness

2011-10-10T12:52:00.001+01:00

Every once in a while I make a train journey to and from the Great Wen (London). I usually check three train companies for fares, East Coast, Southern and East Midlands. On this occasion taking notice of a flyer put trough my door on behalf of Northern advertising "free train tickets" and a "New online train ticket service" I tried their site first.

In three weeks from now I want to travel on the 12.35 East Coast train from London Kings Cross to Doncaster to connect with the East Midlands train that arrive sat Gainsborough Lea Road at 14.53. I use a senior citizen rail card so all the fares quoted below recognise this and have discounted the fare by one third.
The results were:
£49.15 Northern Rail
£42.40 Cross Country Trains
£16.50 South West Trains
£11.90 The Train Line
£10.90 Arriva Wales, c2c, Chiltern Trains, East Midland Trains, First Capital Connect, First Great Western, Grand Central, Hull Trains, National Express, Red Spotted Hanky*, Scotrail, South Eastern Trains, Southern Railway, Virgin Trains.
£9.90 East Coast Trains
*French travel agency that does not add any booking charges (Atos S.A.)

The moral of the story is shop around.

Trolleybus Centenary

2011-04-08T23:47:00.000+01:00

June 20 will mark the centenary of the first trolleybus service in Britain. Leeds introduced the new form of transport on their route to Pudsey followed four days latter by Bradford's service to Pudsey. Bradford kept faith with the trolleybus until March 1972 when this form of public transport ceased in here.

Trolleybuses have proved popular with many towns and cities across the world and some of the newest systems in China are most impressive.

Trolleybuses being electric vehicles are smooth, quiet, fast, efficient and non-polluting. So 100 years on it is hardly surprising that Leeds want to bring them back onto British Streets. The coalition government have told Leeds that £200 million for two routes it is too expensive and I tend to agree with that view. Leeds want to introduce a German system supplied to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. We cant afford such luxury. As buses are made in Britain surely using standard British buses but replacing the diesel engine with an electric propulsion unit would be a cheaper option .

The government will announce its decision on Leeds proposal towards the end of 2011. So meanwhile lets wallow in some nostalgia.

Life Without Car - One Year On

2010-12-03T18:45:00.000Z

In October 2009 I posted a blog entitled "Life Without Car". Now a year on I look back and note that :

1. My stress level has declined. It only rises on the very rare occasion that Messrs Stagecoach have let me down.

2. I have lost 3 and half stones in weight and now walk up to 30 miles a week.

3. I love seeing this great land from the top of a bus - views both urban and rural that cannot be experienced from a car.

4. No parking problems!

5. No visits to the supermarket. My shopping pattern has changed to little and often relying on the Lincoln Co-op and local stores.

6. Although I have spent money on trains and taxi's the net saving from not owing a car has been around £1000 over the year.

7. Some journeys are quicker by public transport such as York in one hour by train from Gainsborough.

Of course some adjustment to planning life has been made to accommodate the fact that public transport in Gainsborough is only available 6 days a week until 8pm (on Sundays there are no buses and only four trains with the first leaving Gainsborough at 2.30 pm). Timetables for services other than the principal Stagecoach services are hard to come by and considerable lateral thinking is needed when using journey planning sites, especially when working out how to access low rail fares. I also do rely on lifts from friends to reach places not served by Stagecoach.

However I am doing my small bit to save the planet so can sit on my bus or train feeling satisfied.

Radio Three makes it to TV

2010-11-15T16:44:00.002Z

Classical music , outside of the Proms, is hardly ever represented on British television these days. I can recall the great classical music television of my youth with the wonderfully informal and communicative Andre Previn conducting the LSO, the documentaries of Christopher Nupen and the operas produced by Brain Large.

So the screening of John Birdcut's film "Elgar: The Man Behind the mask" was a rare treat. I had long realised that the spin which gave the impression that Elgar was an Edwardian Gentleman was far from reality. He was the son of a shop keeper, albeit a music shop keeper, and self taught. He worked in the local asylum as a jobbing musician and composer. His Harmony Music for wind quintet, played by Elgar (he took the bassoon part) and his friends to patients reveals much about the music to come. Singers who have performed his part songs also appreciate what a wide ranging and wild composer he could be. So it was refreshing to have one's view of the composer upheld with even more evidence of the artistic and insecure temperament that was hidden behind the moustache.

Mr Birdcut's film was well researched, he interviewed the best musicians to explain Elgar (Edward Gardner, Mark Elder, Colin Davis, Natalia Luis-Bassa), and the performances were excellent, even though only brief excepts for the most part.

However at the end I wondered if the additional cost in providing visual images added anything to the story. In a climate where the BBC has to face a 16% cut I doubt this sort of film will ever appear on our screens again. Sad but I expect true, so expect classical music to retreat to the confines of Radio Three.

A Year in the Country

2010-11-15T12:58:00.000Z

A slide show using photos I have taken over the past twelve months mainly in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.

Walking the Cut

2010-11-02T21:42:00.000Z

This summer I walked the 31 miles of restored Chesterfield Canal and repeated the experience during the longer and colourful autumn. The waterways of England are one of its hidden treasures. Back in September I sailed the Warwickshire ring covering 124 locks in 72 hours of sailing over the space of six days. All this is excellent keep fit and more scenic than a gym.

The coalition government have indicated that they will allow British Waterways to transfer from the public sector to the third sector and register as a charity. This could be great if the estate currently managed by BW as a government agency transfers too allowing BW to become a National Trust for our waterways. Somehow I don't trust the government not to mess up and transfer ownership of the waterways to the totally incompetent Environment Agency. leaving BW to maintain and manage them.

Weight Loss - The Crusty Way

2010-10-08T17:32:00.001+01:00

Some moths ago the medics declared I was dangerously overweight. Like many people in such circumstances I was in denial. It was only the threat of becoming diabetic that brought me to my senses.

I'm 184 cm in height and weighed in at 109 kg. According to NHS weight calculator I was off the scale at the red end. A combination of diet exercise and the discipline of being weighed at my doctor's surgery every two weeks resulted in me now being only 87 kg which is still overweight according to the NHS weight calculator but only just.

1. Diet
>>WARNING<< This diet worked for me but it may not be suitable for everyone, especially if you have high cholesterol and blood pressure levels, so do check with your doctor before embarking on this diet.

Food falls into three categories.

1.1 Eat as much as you like:
Vegetables ( except potatoes)
Nuts
Pulses
Fruit
Eggs
Turkey

1.2. Restricted
Dairy products - a matchbox size piece of cheese is the daily limit
Margarine/butter - use polyunsaturated spreads
Oil - use cold pressed rape seed oil
Fish/sea food - steamed or grilled (not fried)
Bread - wholemeal - 2 slices a day
Pasta - wholemeal - 20z per day
Rice - one tablespoon full a day
Cereal - avoid wheat based breakfast cereal, use oats
Meat - low fat meats such as chicken in small portions, avoid red meats.
Potatoes - two egg size potatoes a day
Yogurt - use low fat versions

1.3. BANNED
Processed foods - especially crisps
Cakes and biscuits
Chocolate and sweets

1.4. Drink
Water- lots of it, we don't drink enough.
Fruit juice - one cup full of any on fruit per day, however you can consume more by varying the fruits i.e. one cup of apple juice, one cup of orange juice, one cup of cranberry juice.
Milk - skimmed
Tea and Coffee - as much as you like provided you don't adulterate it with milk.
Booze - no alcohol

1.5 When to Eat
Eat from 6am to 6pm, but then give the body 12 hours to process what you have consumed. Always feel a bit hungry after meals. If you have sated your hunger you have eaten too much.

2. Exercise

2.1 I was invited to attend the gym once a week but declined, not my scene. It was then suggested I go to the swimming pool one a week. This to held no attraction for me. However I do walk. At the start I was walking around 3 km per day at 3 m.p.h. Now its more like 7 km per day at 4 m.p.h. Don't over do the exercise. Do it every day and as you loose weight you will find it easier to do more. At the end of your walk you should just feel a bit sweaty.

3. Discipline

3.1 The discipline of being weighed regularly by another person on fixed dates (usually fortnightly) gives you an objective. Weigh yourself each day and write it down, likewise keep a note of the amount of exercise you have taken that day , my case the number of km walked. Your weight will fluctuate, loss does not happen In a straight line. If you loose 1 kg in 2 weeks that's fine. If you loose weight quickly you will have to fight off urges to binge on food, bad news.

3.2 The occasional lapse is human, and you can recover with this programme by a combination of less food and more exercise.

Afterwards you will find yourself not only lighter but fitter. Recently I walked up to the Cow and Calf rocks above Ilkley without noticing the climb at all. I would have been puffing and panting doing that a year ago.
Good luck, you will need it.

Bluebell Railway at 50

2010-08-05T22:51:00.000+01:00

Deep in the Sussex countryside steam trains have been operated by the Bluebell Railway for half a century. They celebrate with a weekend of activity during Aug 7 and 8 2010.

Much has been achieved over the fifty years, but there is one aspect of the Bluebell Railway that few have appreciated. AS well as preserving steam trains they have preserved the operation and atmosphere of the old Southern Railway. The Southern ran a tight ship, money was never needlessly expended and staff were kept motivated to work to the highest standards by a very small management team. Likewise Bluebell has always been careful with money and volunteers work to the very highest standards.

An old Southern Railway friend, alas no longer with us, once remarked that having sat in the C&W mess room it reminded him of his days on the Southern. The subsequent ride in a 100 seater completed the experience for him.

I think the profligate and top heavy railway system we have in Britain today could learn at lot from Bluebell.

Bread Making without tears

2010-07-04T12:26:00.001+01:00

Friends have asked how I make my bred and if I use a bread making machine. The machine is not necessary, making bread by hand is easy if you use wholemeal flour as no kneading is required. In fact kneading wholemeal bread will damage the structure of the flour and the resultant bread will be flat. So this is how I make two 1lb wholemeal loaves, it is the basis for all my bread.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs of strong wholemeal flour. the stronger, the better.
8oz of self raising flour, either wholemeal or white self raising flour
1 teaspoon of cold pressed rape seed oil ( you can use olive oil but it will flavour the bread slightly)
1 teaspoon of honey
a squirt of lemon juice
1pint and a bit of warm water
2 sachets of dried yeast

Mix the flour and yeast in a large receptacle. I use a big stainless steel saucepan, but a pressure cooker of big bowl will do.

In a mixing jug place the honey, oil and lemon juice. Pour on a little boiling water to melt the honey then add the warm water, stirring all the time.

Add the water to the flour but making a depression in the centre of the flour and pouring up to one pint of the water in. Mix well. add more water in small quantities until the dough comes away from the steel easily without leaving either any four residue ( too dry) or being sticky (too wet).

During all this preparation I hope you have been warming two 1 lb load tins in your oven on a low gas. Take out the tins and turn the oven off. Grease the tins ( I use rape seed oil on a piece of kitchen towel).

Put half the dough mixture in each tin and spread evenly . The dough should occupy about 2/3rd of the height of the tin. Now place tins in the oven, which will still be warm enough to allow the bred to rise and of course its a draught free environment. After twenty minutes turn the gas onto mark 7 ( or whatever the electric equivalent is) and bake for 20 to 25 mins depending on how crusty you want it.

Turn out bread from tins and cool on a wire rack.
That's it, simple.

You can add all sorts of things when making bread, seeds, nuts or fruit or spices. Semolina can be a useful make weight if you have run short of enough flour ( up to 8oz of the 2lb mix).

Happy baking, just think of the aroma that is going fill your kitchen.

A14 - Government show the way

2010-06-17T20:42:00.003+01:00

The coalition government has just announced the first raft of spending cuts. It includes the suspension of work to widen the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon, a saving of GBP1.3 billion. I have watched this project grow from an original estimate of GBP350 million. There is no doubt that this road is very busy and for about two hours each day can be very slow. However what was the benefit of such expenditure? I counted container lorries using this route to and from Fleixstowe. There are around 220 such vehicles an hour during the day. Take these containers off the road and put them on rail and congestion on this road disappears. The upgrading of the railway from Felixstowe to Nuneaton and Doncaster, financed by Hutchinson Ports owners of Felixstowe, has been an ongoing project that seems to happen piecemeal. It is certainly a lot cheaper than GBP1.3billion that was to be spent on just 18 miles of road. Lets hope this project will not be reinstated.

The A14 is paralleled by another spending stupidity, the Cambridgeshire Busway. Built on the formation of the old Huntingdon to Cambridge Railway it is estimated to have cost GBP161 million (originally it was to cost GBP116.2 million with Westminster coughing up GBP92.5 million and property developers GBP 12.7m, none of which has actually materialised) and no bus has yet operated in revenue service on it, they still use the adjoining A14. It was due to open in April 2009. According to the Cambridgeshire News the County Council wants to be satisfied shrinkage of soils in a dry period will not trigger future settlement of the busway. Other concerns focus on expansion joints on the River Great Ouse viaduct, “ponding” of surface water on the St Ives Park and Ride site, and flooding of a maintenance track which will also accommodate walkers and cyclists. Beam expansion gaps and a risk assessment of rubber tyre infill material, used between the beams, also need to be sorted. I wonder if the A14 improvements would be any better?

Maybe re-opening the railway would have been a better and cheaper solution.

Immigration Shambles Postscript

2010-06-09T10:12:00.000+01:00

Here is a postscript to my Immigration Shambles blog in which I recounted the experience of my sister with a UK immigration officer on attempting to return home from France.

Since then she phoned the Home Office in Croydon who told her :

That she is an immigrant not a UK citizen even though she was born here and lived here for almost all her life. She could try applying for a UK passport but the officer doubted that she would be issued with one.

That a she needs a residency stamp in her US passport and that will cost her GBP800, even though she already has one in her old US passport (I have suggested she carries her old passport with her to show the stamp to any IO who asks to see it).

Without UK passport or residency stamp she was told that she would not be allowed to leave and return to Britain because she has a six month visa stamp in her pass port. I have three such stamps on the same page in mine and never had any problem

They also told her she cannot work in the UK and any employer would be in trouble In fact her employer is the UK government.

She said the person on the phone was as nasty as the immigration officer. Well nasty folks tend to appoint folks in their own image, conversely nice folks appoint nice people.

Basically this shows signs of a government department with inadequate staff training, so the wrong information is given to folks. I suspect this inadequacy goes across the whole department.

I have no faith in the current Home Secretary getting to grips with this, but it would be great if she proved me wrong.

Meanwhile thousands of immigrants disappear after their visa expires and the Home Office have no idea where they are, while officers hound old ladies with East London accents, because its easier to meet their targets that way.

David Stoddart makes an impassioned plea for trolleybuses

2010-05-31T12:07:00.003+01:00

On the occasion of the return to service at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum (the world's largest collection of trolleybuses) of Cardiff Trolleybus no 203 after extensive restoration work by a team led by Brian Maguire, the re-dedication was performed by Lord David Stoddart, one time leader of Reading Borough Council and Labour MP for Swindon.

Lord Stoddart was preaching to the converted at Sandtoft, when he extolled the virtues of electric traction for buses on the streets of British Cities. He pointed out that trolleybuses were in the ascendancy in Europe and North America, but not here in Britain. He made an impassioned plea for London Mayor Boris Johnson to take the lead for Britain and re-introduce trollyebuses to the streets of the capital.

David Stoddart sits as an Independent Labour peer in the House of Lords. He sat on Reading Council from 1954 to 1972 and was council leader for 7 years. He was MP for Swindon from 1970 to 1983 when he became a Labour life peer. The Labour Party withdrew his membership when he backed the Socialist Alliance candidate in the 2002 general election in protest over the Blair government choosing to place Tory defector Shaun Woodward in a safe seat.

Graham Bilbé, Chairman of the Trolleybus Museum with Lord David Stoddard

and a Reading trolleybus in the background

London and Cardiff trolleybuses pass at Sandtoft

Visit Sandtoft

Life without car - Part 2

2010-05-24T23:56:00.000+01:00

Back in November I posted a blog Life without car.

Six moths on and I'm still surviving without a car and I don't live in a big city with 24 hour public transport, in fact buses only run 6 days of the week here and pack up at around 7pm.

My oldie bus pass has seen increased use as has my shoe leather. Walking has risen from around 20km per week to over 40km. I have also lost 16kg (35lbs) in weight over these past six months. The downside is an increased incidence of gout, a painful hereditary affliction for which walking is not a good idea.

The cold winter did not seem to affect public transport hereabouts. Buses and trains ran most of the time on time. I even went across the Pennines to Manchester one day without any problem.

Life is now slower, especially when trains and buses don't connect. However seeing the countryside from the top of a bus is more fun and less stressful than driving along and not being able to look over hedgerows.

I have used taxis four times, costing GBP5.00 on average and as yet I have not had to hire a car. Friends with their own motors do descend upon me from time to time and I make us of their good offices to buy items that would not be easy to walk home with or take by bus.

My shopping patten has changed. I use the local Co-op for most grocery as it is only 1km away. It means I will have an improved dividend due come November.

Do I miss the convenience of a car.? Not really.

Time is running out for the internal combustion engine

2010-05-23T11:49:00.003+01:00

In 1948 London Transport decided that its tram replacement programme, disrupted by the war, would be completed by replacing the clapped out tramways with diesel buses rather than with trolleybuses. At the time diesel buses carried less passengers than trams or trolleybuses so replacement was on a three for two basis. LT also decided that after the tram had be purged from the streets of the capital, the trolleybus system, the largest in the world, would also be replaced by a new diesel bus. This bus would seat 8 more passengers but due to its integral construction (introduced to London in the pre-war L class trolleybuses) it would weigh less. The bus would still seat less than the trolleybus it was to replace but then public transport was in decline due to the rise in popularity of the private car. The new bus, the Routemaster ( dubbed "Jerkmaster" by many as the automatic transmission could be dreadful, certainly when compared to trolleybus acceleration), appeared in regular service on the streets of London in 1959 . It had a design life of 14 years but some still serve the streets of London over 50 years later.

What were the factors that led LT to prefer diesel power to electric power for its buses? They were:
1. Cheap fuel source. Diesel was cheaper than eletricity produced by coal in LT's power stations at Greenwich, Chelsea and Neasden.
2. Independence from an external power source, thus avoiding the need to maintain overhead and substations. The power stations would however be retained as the London Underground was legally required to have an independent power supply.
3. Lower maintenance costs. Trolleybuses had to have their carbon insets in the trolley head replaced each night. LT seemed to forget that diesel buses needed refuelling and topped up with oil and water each night.
4. Greater flexibility in operation.

There were objections at the time from various quarters. These were:
1. Reliance on foreign fuel source, from an unstable part of the world
2. Increased air and noise pollution on the streets of London
3. Inferior, smaller vehicles.

It was the perceived cost savings from lower maintenance and cheap fuel that won the day. The Suez crisis of 1956 just delayed the trolleybus replacement. Nobody thought that oil from the Middle East could stop flowing or become expensive.

Now 50 years on not only is oil expensive, production of this finite source has peaked and can only decline.

Electricity to power road vehicles has been around for over 100 years. The problems with electricity is the poor power to weight ratio of batteries. Alternatives either consist of external power supply (trams and trolleys) or an onboard generator (hybrids). If as much effort been put into developing electricity for powering road vehicles as has been spent on the inefficient internal combustion engine we would not now be be facing a pressing and urgent need to replace the latter with the former.

Vested interests have over the past 100 years been at work in holding back the inevitable need to move away from oil to electric propulsion. However even the car companies have now realised that the end of the road for the internal combustion engine is nigh at hand. Government, as ever, lags behind. The long lead time for Leeds to have its NGT (New Generation Transit), a trolleybus system, up an running is a product of the British state bureaucracy. Leeds have a number of Whitehall hoops to jump before construction can start in 2013. One hundred years ago when Leeds were contemplating putting trolleybuses on its streets there was no such interference from Whitehall and within 12 months the system shared with its neighbour Bradford, was operational.

Meanwhile Mr and Mrs average whose parents and grandparents forsook public transport for the private car, complain about the price of petrol but do nothing to change their lifestyle. They hope that the car manufacturers will solve the fuel source problem by producing an electric car for around the same price as an internal combustion engine car. Maybe the car manufacturer will oblige. However the lifestyle of the average family is not sustainable even with an electric car. Why?

1. Modern batteries, electric motors, and computerised control circuits use significant amounts of rare metals, 90% of which are mined in the People's Republic of China. The reserves of these metals are limited and as the Chinese economy is bourgeoning there is pressure for theses resources to be used to meet domestic demands rather than export them to the old Western economies.

2. A growing population in Britain will result in ever increasing traffic congestion. Governments will be loath to spend the money necessary to provide all the road space needed to meet demand.

3. Economic slow down, at least in the short to medium term, will force some folks to review their finances and consider alternatives to owning a car.

Time they are a changing, although Mr and Mrs Average have not yet woken up to it. When they do they will demand from government that alternatives are made available to them. Unfortunately time scales for improving public transport are long, much longer that the five years of a politicians term, and even longer than they need be due to interference by Sir Humphrey. Now is the time to invest in new public transport so that when Mr and Mrs Average awaken from their motor car dream world a new dawn awaits them.

Its even more marked in the USA than it is here, but the Obama administration appears to be aware of this and is investing heavily in high speed rail and public transport improvements. I expect that by the time the USA have their high speed rail network in place on both the East and West coast we will still be plodding along with a nineteenth century railway and twentieth century motorway network.

Time is running out for oil, while electricity for road and rail is the future

Transport and our new government

2010-05-22T00:57:00.004+01:00

Having spent the first half of my working life in public transport I was eager to discover what our new Lib-Con coalition government in Britain has announced in their programme.

They start with the statement :
"The Government believes that a modern transport infrastructure is essential for a dynamic and entrepreneurial economy, as well as to improve well-being and quality of life. We need to make the transport sector greener and more sustainable, with tougher emission standards and support for new transport technologies."

Very laudable. How do they propose to go about meeting this objective?

• We will mandate a national recharging

network for electric and plug-in hybrid

vehicles.

OK but hybrid can only be a stepping stone to electric propulsion so why not press for the latter. Hybrid buses have been planned for London for some years but only a few have been delivered and their milage is insignificant. First Bus who have been awarded the contract for the 2012 Olympics should be pressed to secure electric propulsion while the buses are on site. It could be a showcase for our advanced technologies industries.

If there are to be charging points for electric cars in our city streets then there has to be an electrical distribution system, and with some thought it could also be used to provide power for trolleybuses. Mayor Johnson has vetoed the tramway idea for London's Oxford Street, but if trolleybuses that could operate under the wires on the trunk central section of their routes and battery elsewhere ( or failing that hybrid power) the air in Oxford Street would become tolerable ( the pollution from diesel buses and taxis is dreadful). Existing buses could be converted to electric power, there would be no need to buy new vehicles, as would be the case with a tramway. The compliant I have about Leeds NGT (new generation transit) is the proposal to use German bendi-trolleybuses ( as being delivered for Saudi Arabia) rather than conventional British double deck buses.

The profusion of courier firms using diesel vans should be encouraged to go electric as the daily mileage their vehicles clock up in our cities cant be that great. I seem to recall Harrods had electric vans back in the 1920.

• We will grant longer rail franchises in order to give operators the incentive to invest in the improvements passengers want – like better services, better stations, longer trains and better rolling stock.

I assume they have Chiltern Trains in mind. This has worked well for a number of reasons other than the length of the franchise. Chiltern Trains boss Adrian Shooter is a career railway man who knows his patch in detail not only in operational and engineering terms but in understanding who his passengers are and knowing what they want. It is also a pretty self contained network, unlike say the East Coast Main Line which has seven passenger train operators on it somewhere between London and Edinburgh plus demands of freight operators.

I am not so sure that the bus bandits who have run many of the rail franchises to date understand railways at all well. NS and SNCF involvement in UK franchises have to date been at arms length. Along with DB and RATP who now show interest in the UK I hope that the experience that these state railway (regional rail and bus in the case of RATP) enterprises can bring would be helpful in establishing operators of longer franchises.

• We will reform the way decisions are made

on which transport projects to prioritize,

so that the benefits of low carbon proposals (including light rail schemes) are fully recognized.

I assume this is an attack on the much despised DfT NATA appraisal system, which was primarily designed for roads but has been applied to rail projects. The Transport and Works Act also needs looking at. The time scale for all new public transport projects is far too long in the UK because the bureaucrats need to defend their positions. In England the dead hand of Whitehall makes it almost impossible to build new railways but Scotland and Wales where the decisions are made by devolved governments new projects happen.

Roads seem to get priority over public transport. OK only 7% of journeys are made by rail. But surely better public transport will enable this percentage to rise, which it must if we are to have both a sustainable environment and thriving economy.

• We will make Network Rail more accountable to its customers.

That is an ambiguous one. Who are NR's customers? The train operators? The Government? The ORR? Passengers? NR was a creation of the former Labour administration after Railtrack as a private owner of the rail infrastructure failed. Separating infrastructure from operations was a very bad idea. Railways need to be vertically integrated to function properly. Maybe longer franchises could cover whole routes like the East Coast Main Line and include signalling and the maintenance of the infrastructure too, especially if franchisee has that experience available to them ( such as would be the case with DB, NS, SNCF or RATP). If NR is to remain its ownership should be clear. The Brown government created a new type of company called a Community Interest Company. These companies are allowed light touch regulation but are restricted in that most the profits must be returned to the community via the functions the company fulfills within the community. One of the last acts of the Labour government was to turn the last remaining body created by the nationalising 1947 Transport Act, British Waterways into a charity. Now there's an idea for NR.

• We will establish a high speed rail network as

part of our programme of measures to fulfill our joint ambitions for creating a low carbon economy. Our vision is of a truly national high speed rail network for the whole of Britain.

All very aspirational, but it is not going to happen in my life time ( I'm a bus pass holder) as Britain is unable and I suspect unwilling to engage in French style Grand Projects. Anyway Mr Byrne has told us there no money in the kitty, so the proviso

"Given financial constraints, we will have to

achieve this in phases."

is an understatement.

• We support Crossrail and further

electrification of the rail network.

I suspect this too will be delayed beyond my lifetime.

• We will turn the rail regulator into a powerful passenger champion

OK so what happens to Passenger Focus , which to my mind has been pretty useless?

• We will support sustainable travel initiatives,including the promotion of cycling and walking, and will encourage joint working between bus operators and local authorities.

The 2008 Local Transport Act helps here but some local authorities, mainly Tory, will need to be dragged screaming into agreements with bus operators. Hopefully the Government will stop the Competition Commission enquiry into bus operations, which has just started and is expected to last two years and cost millions.

• We are committed to fair pricing for rail travel.

Ambiguous, but I hope this also mean simpler pricing as the present fares structure is a nonsense. At certain times I can pay as little as GBP6.80 to travel to London by any of three routes ( the longest, but at times the quickest being over 160 miles) at other time it can cost GBP 60.00. The joke is if I book from London to stations that I pass through on my way to Gainsborough I will have to pay more for traveling a shorter distance on the same train. Bonkers or what?

• We will work towards the introduction of a new system of HGV road user charging to ensure a fairer arrangement for UK hauliers.

Unfair competition from European operators who pay less in road tax and fuel duty has been a justifiable gripe of the RHA for years, but to date nobody in government has been able to find a way round this that does not upset Brussels ( or rather Whitehall's interpretations of Brussels directives).

• We will stop central government funding for new fixed speed cameras and switch to more effective ways of making our roads safer, including authorising ‘drugalyser’ technology.

I have no idea what this is, but then I'm no longer a motorist.

• We will tackle rogue private sector wheel Clampers.

I thought this was already illegal. But a law is only effective if it is enforced.

That is the sum total of the Transport section in the coalition document. Aviation seems to have migrated from transport to Energy and Climate Change. Here the coalition offer three items:

• We will cancel the third runway at Heathrow.

• We will refuse permission for additional

runways at Gatwick and Stansted.

• We will replace Air Passenger Duty with a

per-flight duty.

OK but I would like to see airlines encouraged to use turboprops on short hauls. These are 10 times more fuel efficient than pure jets and thereby less harmful to the atmosphere. Turboprops are also suitable for small airports which will need development in view of the restrictions to be placed on expansion of London's three main airports .

What is missing?

We are an island race and 99% ( by weight) of all imports and exports are by sea. We need a clear ports policy which ensures the infrastructure for access to pots in provided. There used to be a saying years ago that Britain needs to export or die. The Brown government and the preceding Tory administrations lost sight of that fact in their rush to embrace the gambling culture growing in the city of London. Now wen need to return to a more balanced economy, one in which exports will play an important role. We need to make sure the transport arteries (including inland waterways) along which raw materials and finished products flow are more than adequate to meet demand.

Corrupt Election

2010-05-02T08:17:00.000+01:00

It is depressing to think that our corrupt election system will return the same old Tory party to power who will do absolutely nothing to clean it up.

How is the system corrupt?

1. Voter registration. This dates back to Victorian times and requires the "head of the household" to complete a voter registration form each year. The term "head of the household (Victorian if ever there was one) applies to each postal address, so where for example students are sharing a house only one of them need complete the form. Likewise a residential care home returns one voter registration form with of course the opportunity to register the deceased. I am also aware of educational residential establishments that list residents who are neither British citizens or member of EU states. Because of low turnout in local elections it is possible for such institutions to block vote one of their number into a council seat.

2. Postal Voting. There is a variety of abuses with these. Take for example our care home manager who obtains postal votes for residents and in effect sends in a block vote for the party of his choice, maybe after receiving financial inducement from one of the parties. The deceased are very good at postal voting too. Postal votes can also lead to the loss of secret voting as members of a household may be obliged or forced into voting for the party selected by the dominant member of the household. Then there's the folks who have two homes. Officially they can only vote in one constituency but having a postal vote in one and turning up at the polling station in the other is common practice for these folk. In recent years the proportion of postal voting has rapidly expanded and now accounts for about 10% of the total vote in a general election.

3. Proxy Voting. This is popular in the the Indian sub-continent where folks with British Citizenship complete proxy votes so that a member of their community in the UK can vote on their behalf. They have no idea or no interest for which party their community member votes.

4. Voting in person. There is an old saying "vote early, vote often." Folks turn up more than once and claim to be voters they know are deceased or bogus names they registered. As no proof of identity is required its easy to pull this scam.

As the main benefices of these practises are Labour and Conservative parties they have failed to change the system. In fact under Labour the easing of postal voting rules has made the system open to more corruption.

Then there is the iniquity of first past the post voting which the Tories doggedly defend but that would fill another blog.

In India, the world's largest democracy, folks must turn up at the polling station with their voting card which has their photo on it. This is checked off against the voting register which also has a photo of the voter on it. Simple and effective. After voting your hand is stamped with an ink that cannot be erased during the period of voting.

As 80% of British people have a UK passport they could be required to produce that at a polling station and for the other 20% they would have to obtain a voter registration card with their photo on it form their local council. Those seeking a postal vote would also have to appear at their council office or send to their council these documents.

Folks overseas would be allowed a postal vote but proxy votes would be abolished.

Immigration Shambles

2010-04-30T07:34:00.004+01:00

Nick Clegg was quite right to point out that Tory and Labour governments had made a complete shambles of the immigration service. While Mr Clegg was pointing this out during the leaders debate on April 29th my elderly sister was having a hard time with a UK immigration officer at Lille station.

My sister presented her US passport (we have dual nationality as our mother was a GI bride). The IO asked for evidence that she was resident in Britain. Now her passport, like mine, states that she was born in the UK but that did not satisfy jobsworth so my sister showed an NHS E111 card, her UK driving licence and her London Borough Freedom Pass all of which failed to satisfy jobsworth who claimed they could all be forgeries. The folk my sister was travelling with suggested to jobsworth that using that logic her estuary accent was a forgery too. The IO said she could not let my sister enter Britain. The folk she was travelling with, one a Jamaican who had passed immigration without any problem, stood by her so the IO went off to phone her supervisor. Ten minutes later the IO reluctantly stamped my sister's passport. By contrast the French officials had been civil and saw no problem with letting a US citizen into their country. I have had similar problems with UK IOs but have always managed to charm them into letting me in.

This jobsworth is typical of an immigration system that does not work. Why pick on an elderly white lady with an East London accent who has travelled on her US passport all her life? The IO at Lille did tell my sister that she would have to get a UK passport in future and that she would be in trouble with the Home Office if she did not do so as she would not be allowed out of Britain on her US passport. This is of course rubbish although since 2001 we are required by the US state department to travel into and out of the US only using our US passports, they will not accept UK passports. I suspect IO's motivation is driven by targets rather than common sense.

My father, head of security in the Immigration Office at the time Roy Jenkins was Home Secretary, will be turning over in his grave at this story.

When I first travelled to Europe, over 40 years ago, not only did immigration check you out customs checked you as there were limits on how much money could be taken out of the country (I seem to recall it was called exchange control and the amount of any foreign currency you purchased was entered by the bank into the back of your passport). The Home Office and Treasury there knew who had left and with how much money. No computers in those days it was all done on index cards. You passport was stamped out and in ( as they still do in France).

Then the Thatcher administration in one of its attempts to cut government spending withdrew all exit checks. Since then the Government have no idea who has left Britain and are therefore unable to tie that information in with who has arrived. Another cut, also during Thatcher's time I believe, was to withdraw reporting at a police station. Immigrants on visas were required to report weekly at their local police station. The information was sent, by paper, to the Home Office who entered it on your index card. If you failed to report then PC plod would pay you a visit.

Now in the age of all things digital the government can't co-ordinate the information it has. If it could then my sister would not have been detained as a swipe of her passport through the electronic reader would have shown she had the right to enter.

The system does not work. I have two passports and the system certainly can't cope with that. According to the US Embassy there are 250,000 folk like me with dual citizenship in Britain. I use my UK passport at this end of the journey and my US passport at the other end. No problem then, but why should I be obliged to have two passports when there is supposed to be electronic intelligence systems that share such data between authorities.

Like many other systems operated by government today it has failed. Oh and by the way the country that generates more illegal immigrants to Britain than any other? Its Australia. But they are white and speak English so that's all right then.

After writing this blog a friend asked "Why has Shop UK a permanent open sign on it? " THis was my reply:
"Because of Blair and his target madness. Under Blair all government departments became target obsessed as Blair and his cohorts lacked the confidence to trust the professionals. In the case of immigration the targets lead officers to go for soft touch methods of meeting them. Actually chasing and deporting those who over stay became to difficult. Now Labour and Tories are in denial. They ignore the mountain of illegal immigrants (most arrived on student visas and disappeared). The result of their failure to keep a check on who is coming in and going out ( without the latter you can't know who has overstayed their time) is that criminal gangs use illegal immigrants as slave labour on the land and in brothels. Now I don't suggest there is any connection between the criminals and politicians but it is appalling how the politicians choose to ignore what is going on. It may be because it does not fit into their target culture."

Blue Skies

2010-04-18T20:06:00.004+01:00

For the past few days the skies around here have been a perfect blue, with an occasional cloud. No vapour trails thanks to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Long may it last. The last time I flew was in January 2007. Not only do I not fly I also no longer have a motor car and added to the water butt which provides a supply for the downstairs loo I reckon I'm doing my bit for the planet.

I hope this natural event, which sooner or later will abate, but will also return at some future date, makes folks stop and think about the lives they lead.

Many especially in the South East of England and our major conurbations are encapsulated in a life that operates at an unnatural pace and is focused on things material, part of the greed culture introduced by Mrs Thatcher. Do folk really have to jet off on holidays and are those business trips really necessary in the internet age? 99% of the UK's imports and exports are by ship, we are after all a maritime nation by virtue of being a collection of islands.

The outgoing government were hell bent on ripping up a whole village (Sipson) and fields for yet another runway at London Airport. The Conservatives want to divert the planned high speed railway between London and the Midlands via London Airport. The economic downturn has reduced the number of flights in any case. Let spend less on airports and diverting railways to serve them and more on our railways and our rail link with Europe. Both DB and SNCF, the German and French state owned railways are keen to expand into Britain.

Both road vehicles and aircraft need to be propelled by electricity. So far the problem has been a mater of power to weight ratio. Batteries are heavy and reduce the payload of the vehicle and are so heavy that it is a non-starter for aviation. Maybe more investment in to light weigh storage of electricity might be the answer. Couple this with producing nuclear fusion ( which is how the Sun generates heat) on a scale large enough to generate electricity then we will be able to return to ever more roads and airport runways and terminals if that is what society wants. Meanwhile let us cut our cloth accordingly. At the time of writing this epistle there are calls to bail out airlines, like we did the banking system. The answer is no.

By the way according to the Lincolnshire Echo the RAF are grounded too.

Lets keep our skies blue and clean.

We, the people, can cause change

2010-04-02T21:25:00.003+01:00

As a result of my previous blog I have been asked by GFE :
“Ipso facto, M'Lud...
...but what are we going to/can we/ do about any of it...?”

Here are some things you as a citizen (actually you are not a citizen but a subject of Her Majesty) can do.

1. Vote. If you cannot bring yourself to vote for any of the politicians, go and spoil your ballot paper. As with all the following suggestions its a numbers game. The more who do it the more politicians and Sir Humphrey are likely to take note.

2. Identify which part of our corrupt system of government pisses you off the most. For many this will be aspects of the NHS, and so you should try to focus on that part of any large organisation, such as the NHS, which is the seat of your malcontent. In the case of the NHS this likely to be the Primary Care Trust who pay for hospital treatment you receive and pay your GPs. Write out in one sentence the nature of your complaint and a second sentence stating how you want it rectified. For example : The Blogsville PCT is an unelected body that arbitrarily decides how funding for care shall be allocated. We, the people of Blogsville, want the majority of the members of our PCT either appointed from elected representatives ( i.e. Blogsville Councillors) or directly elected by the voters of Blogsville. Communicate your two sentences to your MP and ward councillors asking them to support your aim (type in your post code at http://www.writetothem.com/ to find out who represents you, you can also use this site to send your message to them). Then let all your friends know what you have done and ask them to do the same. Remember its a numbers game, the more the better. If you do this during the election campaign contact all the candidates, at least for the main parties and seek their endorsement of your proposal. After one of them is elected in due course contact them again to remind them of your issue and that they supported you during the election campaign (that is if they did support you o f course).

3. Use the media. Local media is usually desperate for news. Some politicians may offer to do this for you. Make sure you meet the press with the politician. If your complaint centres on a location meet here and be photographed. Have a clear and unambiguous statement in your head. It should be the two sentences you developed in stage 2. Do make sure you have researched your issue fully and that you have all facts and figures to hand.

4. Tenacity pays off. Just keep on pressing your point. Some issues will require you to complain to bureaucrats first. Follow the correct procedure and make sure you have written evidence of each stage so that when you do raise it with a elected representative you have the evidence to hand. Check the world wide web you might find a group or site that raises your issue. If you have to trawl though pages of bureaucrat speak and heavy documents watch out for appendices, its there that the really contentious items are often placed in the hope nobody spots it. Be prepared for your issue to become time consuming. That is why I suggest focussing on only one issue, I doubt you will be able to do justice to more than one issue at a time even if you are capable of multi-tasking.

5. Below are three sites that may be of help.

mySociety runs most of the UK’s best known democracy websites. Using their site 200,000 people have written to their MP for the first time, nearly 19,000 potholes and other broken things have been fixed, over 10,500,000 signatures have been left on petitions to the Prime Minister, and at least 77 tiny hats have been knitted for charity.

POWER 2010 is a campaign run by the Joseph Rowntree Trust designed to give everyone the chance to have a say in how our democracy works for us.
Campaign for direct democracy GB wants to promote change which will lead to the introduction of new democratic tools such as citizens' law proposal, the veto referendum plus the MP-recall.

Stupendous Incompetence by the DfT and others

2010-04-01T09:13:00.001+01:00

I have been reading Edward Leigh MP (Gainsborough, Con, so he's my constituency MP) valedictory speech as chair of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee on Tuesday 30 March (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100330/debtext/100330-0017.htm#10033082000059) He said:

"We hear so often about the sharing of back-office services, as if this was a great achievement. The PAC has heard great claims about these back-office functions. Let us look at one. The Department for Transport planned and implemented a shared corporate services project. That is the sort of language that the Treasury loves. This was carried out with stupendous incompetence. Rather than saving the taxpayer £57 million over 10 years, which, of course, all adds up to these £11 billion of efficiency savings, it will, because of the incompetence with which it was carried out, cost the taxpayer an extra £81 million, so no efficiency savings there. Perhaps one reason was that the computers spewed out instructions in German. Perhaps the thinking was that the only way to be efficient in Whitehall is to speak German. Unfortunately, most of the clerks in the Department for Transport do not speak German, so do not place too much credence there."

Well that about sums it up. All the political parties claim they will make big cuts in government spending by using such techniques, but the governance of departments by senior civil servants is so poor they end up spending more than they save.

One problem is that although there are ever tighter restrictions on politicians and their relationships with suppliers and contractors there are far fewer restrictions on their Sir Humphries.

Paul Reynolds, Lib Dem PPC for North West Leicestershire writes in Lib Dem News (26 March 2010): "There have been two disgraceful scandals over helicopter purchasing (by the MoD) wasting hundreds of millions of pounds. The responsible civil servant was rewarded with a lucrative job with helicopter suppliers. The scandal of NHS computer systems has been well publicised, with billions of pounds wasted, but senior IT staff responsible gained jobs with big firms that supply NHS IT systems. The same happened in road building (and he's not referring to Marples Ridgeway 50 years ago), and with Customs and Revenue. And it does not stop there. Senior regulators have joined companies that they have been regulating, and senior officals have awarded large contracts to consulting firms in which they own shares, and then made a killing by selling those shares once they have risen as a direct result of the contracts awarded by the very same civil servants."

It is more than stupendous incompetence, it is corrupt even if it legal .It is time we, the people, revolted and demand accountability. One way would be to reduce central government and divolve to local levels where politicans are directly accountable to the local peole. I've covered that area before on this blog so I won't repeat myself.

Meanwhile back at the stupendously incompetent Department of Roads (sorry Transport) . Friends in the transport industry disparage the DfT's IT initiatives because they fail to operate sensibly and waste loads of money.

For example take the DfT TransXchange. It is a data format intended for both the registration of bus
services with the Traffic Commissioners and as a general data format. It doesneither well and permits wide variations in interpretation and ambiguities.

An expert has commented to me :"I have had a quick look at the documentation [of a particular element] and I'm flabbergasted ... [detail removed] ... Madness. They are incorporating meta data about presentation into basic data ..."(Meta data is data about data)

Another expert commented:
"TransXchange is going the way of JourneyWeb and probably other UK DfT initiatives. The people defining these standards ... [may not] be particularly talented, or simply thrive on creating maximum complexity (quite possibly commercially driven). Our experience is that there is no way we can influence these standards. In the past every attempt has been labeled has "they are being difficult". A very clear stand by [the German journey planner company] HaCon vs DfT left them out of the UK market ..."

And a friend in the business has written to me:
"These formats have been under development for ten years. Ill thought out, technically inept, and continually being respecified by ad-hoc committees, they have huge consequential costs in consultancy and software development. They have been a colossal and unnecessary waste of public money.
This has also put back the prospect of decent integrated UK-wide public transport information by years.

"Unfortunately, being directly involved in work arising from these projects I cannot risk being seen to publicly criticise them - we have already been warned off by a public official. However, anyone caring to look into them would find a can of worms."

I rest my case.

Letting Them Down

2010-03-31T16:54:00.001+01:00

When I was young, and that was a long time ago, ten percent of teenagers went to university and their education was paid for by the tax payer. The rest of us went to polytechnics to learn a trade, became apprentices or just went to work, it was a time of full employment.

The polys eventually became unis and upped their game. Mr Blair declared in 1997 that he wanted half of all school leavers to have a university education. In a target driven culture this had led to a lowering of standards and the burden of the increased cost of eduction is met by student debt. Many graduates today realise they have been duped by a system that is really only interested in meeting its targets set by Whitehall. With unemployment at 2.16 million plus a further 8.16 million of which 2.31 million are students, not registered as seeking employment they have the right to feel betrayed (figures come from the National Statistics Office.

In Spring 2007, on a conference call with students, then-Senator Barack Obama called for major reform to federal student loans:

"We shouldn't be providing billions in taxpayer-funded giveaways to private banks. We should be providing an affordable, accessible college education to every American."

I don't recall any such statement from UK ministers, instead they agree to increases in tuition fees.

Now UK politicians have been found wanting for Barack Obama has been as good as his word. He signed a bill this week that make education more affordable for most Americans. It:

-- Ends subsidies to special-interest private lending companies.

-- Doubles funding for Pell Grants to help more students afford a college education. (These are $10,000 grants for children of the poor).

-- Will cap a graduate's annual student-loan repayments at 10 percent of his or her income.

-- Helps an additional 5 million Americans earn degrees and certificates over the next decade, by revitalizing programming at our nation's community colleges.

Republicans and Tea Party members call Obama a Socialist and compared to our supposedly socialist Labour government he appears to be a socialist.

Time for we, the people, of Britain to demand a fairer support structure for students both at uni and CFEs. This might mean less university places but in view of the poor standard of many them it will be no bad thing to divert resources form poor academic courses to vocational training.

The trouble with UK politics

2010-03-22T11:23:00.000Z

The UK General Election will soon be upon us. Most folk I speak with do not intend to vote as they tar all politicians with the same brush. I point out that they have no right to complain with their lot in life if they take no part, however small, in the democratic process. Their view is understandable. Politicians have their noses in the trough and are more interested in themselves than the electors. Government in Britain is highly centralised ( that was thanks to Margaret Thatcher) and Sir Humphrey has no intention of letting go. The Blair presidential style of government has brought to fruition the words of Harold Laski (1893-1950)chairman of the labour Party at the time of the landslide 1945 election. Laski in 1931 wrote " Our government has become an executive dictatorship tempered by the fear of Parliamentary revolt." Today it is not even subject to the latter. Maybe a hung parliament will bring back some control on the executive.

Jawaharlal Nehru in a letter to his daughter Indra Ghandi entitled "the Failure of Parliaments" ( dated 6 August 1933) wrote "To an ordinary observer the British Parliament continues as before, but as a matter of fact it has changed greatly. In the old days the House of Commons excised power directly and the average member had a good say in the matter. Now it is the Cabinet or the Government that decides every big question and the House of Commons can only say yes or no to it. Power has thus been transferred, and is still being transferred, from the legislator to the executive." He goes on to explain:"Parliament and democracy are only considered desirable by the possessing classes so long as they maintain existing conditions. That is, of course, not real democracy: it is the exploitation of the democratic idea for undemocratic purposes. Democracy, if it means anything, means equality: not merely the equality of possessing a vote, but economic and social equality." he warns that the failure of democracy in Europe lead to fascism.

So please vote this May and then hold your elected parliamentarians and local councillors to account. Become active.

An elector's hope for the new government

2010-01-05T09:59:00.004Z

This year the British electorate will go to the polls to vote for a new Government. It is possible this could be the biggest electoral shake up since 1945. The danger is however that the two tired old political parties that have governed since 1945 will conspire with Sir Humphrey to ensure that after the election the status quo returns It is up to us, the voters, to make sure this does not happen by quizzing the politicians and voting for those who are most likely to change our governmental structure.

Here is my wants list as a voter for the next parliament to do:

Hold a referendum on a written constitution. We are the only democracy that does not have one and therefore the people do not set the framework for the politicians. A constitution could be based on the German constitution which was written by the British after World War II. The German Federal system of Government was also devised for them by the British. If we could do it for them why have we been unable to do it for ourselves?
Introduce some form of PR (The Jenkins commission AV system could be easily implemented) and introduce individual voter registration ( at present it is the responsibility of the "head of the household" to register voters which of course is open to abuse).
Create an English parliament located outside of London (Winchester or Birmingham come to mind) with 300 members that has powers commensurate with the Scottish Parliament and restrict Whitehall ( and a reduced Westminster parliament, say 300 members only) to matters that pertain to the whole of the UK only such as defence and foreign affairs. This would lead to the dispersal of most of the Whitehall civil service to local government. Reduce the tiers of local government (i.e. abolish counties and districts in favour of unitary councils). Scottish friends point out that if the Tories take power in Westminster then Scotland could vote to leave the Union and Westminster would be reduced to being an English parliament.
Direct election of the Prime Minister
Abolition of the monarchy at the end of QE II's reign. Monarchy is not conducive to true representative democracy stemming from a written constitution. This would also result in he separation of church and state.
Strengthen the powers of parliamentary committees to scrutinise Government, both national and local.
Replace the Lords with a Senate consisting of 100 folk. 1/3 elected, 1/3 the great and the good appointed and 1/3 selected by lottery( as is done for jury service) from the electorate to serve for one term.

What makes me suspect none of these will happen?
Maybe some politicians can prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

Constitution, What Constitution?

2009-12-03T19:40:00.000Z

The following is my reply to the weekly column Edward Leigh MP publishes in the Gainsborough Standard. Needless to say the newspaper declined to print it.

Dear Sir,

Edward Leigh, Gainsborough's Member of Parliament writes in his column (26th November) that the State Opening of Parliament is "a grand occasion when all elements of the British Constitution come together. " In this the bicentenary year of the death of a former Lincolnshire excise man , one Thomas Paine, I would like to draw Mr Leigh's attention to Paine's "Rights of Man" written in 1791 in which Paine explains that Governments must arise either out of the people or over the people. He tells us that: "a constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none." Paine goes on to explain that the constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government. It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article and which contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organised, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, the powers which the executive shall have. In fact a constitution relates to the complete organisation of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act and by which it shall be bound. In Britain there is no written Constitution. I had hoped that the scandals that rocked Parliament this year would result in the British people being asked to agree a written constitution so that government can be of the people rather than over the people. However it is in the interest of both major political parties to keep the status quo and I doubt much will change unless the British people revolt, a most unlikely occurrence given the history of this country.

Yours sincerely

Barry C Coward

Life without Car

2009-10-25T18:52:00.001Z

Recently my aged motor car suffered a terminal failure. Over the past six years it had cost me GBP1500 per anumn to operate and maintain. My bank declined to loan me money for a replacement. They would have loaned the money if I had a mortgage, but as I own the freehold to my house no loan was forthcoming, how perverse is that? So until I have saved enough for a replacement car I shall have rely on my feet and public transport. Other alternatives such as car hire (the nearest hire company is 20 miles away) and car sharing (no such scheme exists in our local authority area) are non-starters.

I live in a small town 33 miles east of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield. Buses run six days a week during the day (no evening or Sunday services). The town service is half hourly and interurban services are hourly (with gaps morning and evening when the buses are on school duty).

My nearest railway station is just 1km away from my home and close to our award winning shopping centre. That's the good news. Three trains from Sheffield stop there each week, all of them on Saturday. That is a great improvement as it used to get of one train a week in one direction only! However there is another railway station 3km away from my home and 2km from the shopping centre which is served by an hourly train (except Sundays, when the first of 4 trains calls at 3.30pm).

Using public transport will mean I am obliged to stay at home on Sundays, which might be fun for church going Christians, but I'm not one of them.

Recently I had to revise plans for a journey to London as there is no evening public transport to get me home so a day return to the capital is out of the question. I am obliged to stay overnight in London or anywhere else beyond the range of our local rail and bus services.

Of course trains and buses are not co-ordinated so any interchange will entail a long wait. For example changing trains from the local to an East Coast Main line train to London invaribly results in a 50 minute wait. Thus the total journey time to London ( a distance of some 150 miles) is around 2 hours 35 minutes plus 30 minutes to walk to the station. Coming home from London I was lucky to have a 9 minute connection from the express train to the local except that when I arrived at the interchange station the local train was cancelled so I ended up with a 69 minute wait.

Local trains maintain an average speed of around 33 miles per hour, when they are not cancelled or late. The late running is usually caused by signalling faults on the line. The trains themeslves are aged and based on a bus design that is no longer to be seen on the streets of Britain. As the British government buys new trains for the private railway companies and as the British government is bankrupt these trains will have to be kept going for many years yet.

Using public transport is slower than jumping into your car. In fact overall journey times when not using the fast East Coast Main Line is the same now as it was 100 years ago.

Using public transport keeps you fit. To reach my useful rail station I need to walk for 30 mins through the town. There is a bus but it takes 20 mins to cover the 3km and the bus stop is a 5 min walk from my home.

I have not yet attempted to cost the journeys I would make in a year but I do benefit from an OAP's bus pass (free bus travel after 9.30 am) and Senior Citizen rail card which gives 30% off most rail fares. If I were neither young nor old I suspect my public transport bill would exceed the GBP1500 my car cost to run.

Of course public transport is not as comfortable as the car. Main line trains are fine provided they are not full. I'm tall so I have leg problem on most trains and buses. The notable exception is the 36 bus from Leeds to Ripon. This has leather seats with arm rests and plenty of leg room. However the ride is as bad as any bus these days. Timetables require drives to go flat out once they leave town and on the upper deck of a bus you will need to hold on tight.

Bus and coach travel is not like I remember from my childhood days. Trolleybuses were smooth and fast with seats that were adequatley spaced and supportive. They were also environmently friendly so Britain got rid of them. Coaches were both smaller and slower than today ( the maximum speed would be 50 mph). Actually coach interiors have improved (except for leg room) and they have air conditioning these days.

There are places public transport does not reach, one being the trolleybus museum at Sandtoft where this photo was taken. Such locations are out of bound until I have another car. If only my next car was electric like the trolleybus of old. Hybrids (petrol electric as developed by Stevens of Maidstone back in 1906) are well out my price range.

Anniversaries

2009-06-14T23:25:00.006+01:00

Anniversaries abound every year but in 2009 there are a significant number that come over the horizon of Film Crusty's world. Here are a few:

1. Political events

1619 - The most memorable year in the early history of Virginia for the colony secured from the British government the right to self government with every man resident in the colony being enfranchised. Sorry ladies you had to wait 300 years to become enfranchised. However this freedom won from the British by the Virginians was counterbalanced by the arrival of the first slaves from West Africa in the same year.

1649 - No doubt inspired by the freedoms enjoyed by the colonial folks in Virgina an Agreement of the Free People of England was submitted to the Long Parliament of 1649. The Agreement had sprung from the debates chaired by Oliver Cromwell and General Ireton held in St Mary's Church, Putney in the autumn of 1647 while the Parliamentarian Army was encamped on Putney Heath awaiting a reply to a demand to abdicate from King Charles. The Agreement was a manifesto for constitutional reform and although the 1649 parliament never found time to debate it, many of our civil liberties stem from this document notably universal suffrage, equal parliamentary constituencies, the right to silence in the dock, everyone being equal under the law (originally in Magna Carta of 1215,a document revived during the English Civil War), the right not to be conscripted into the army.

1809 - Tom Paine dies an embittered old man in New York state. Paine, a wordsmith so great at communicating that President Obama was able to incorporate Paine into his inaugural address without folks realising he spoke words written over 200 years ago. Paine was not only responsible for stirring up the independence cause in America he came up with the name United Sates of America and patented the tubular steel suspension bridge back in 1790. However Paine's personal demeanour resulted in him losing more friends than he kept, so apart from events in Thetford (his birthplace) and Lewes (his last UK home) this year he is a forgotten footnote to history.

1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln, President Obama's mentor. Unlike Paine Lincoln's personality ensured him a secure place in the history of the country that Paine had named the USA.

2. Music

1759 - Death of George Frideric Handel who's choral music, and most notably Messiah, changed the musical world and especially music in England for ever.

1809- Death of Joseph Haydn. For me Haydn's music has always been my first love. I suspect its his humanity and wit that comes shining though his music. He was the greatest master of silence in music, just listen the the pauses in the piano sonatas.

1809 - Birth of Felix Mendelssohn, Queen Victoria's favourite contemporary composer.

1979 - Film Crusty attends a meeting called by Peter Middleton at which the British Music Society was formed to promote the British musical heritage. In those days Lyrita tracked a lonley grovve for British Music and broadcasts and performances of composers other than a select few headed by Elgar were rare. Much has improved over the years but the BMS is still needed to champion the cause.

3. Transport

1859 - Opening of Brentford Dock. Th Great Western Railway approaching London from the west were unable to directly access the Port of London, the world's busiest port, situated East of the City of London so in 1859 they opened their own dock on the River Thames at Brentford. Celebrations of this event Will be held at Brentford Dock on July 11 and 12.

1909 - The launch of steam narrow boat President, which happily is still steaming as an ambassador for the Black Country Museum. A museum in which I had a small part in its creation in the mid 1960s along with my friend Roy Clark.

1959 - London starts to abandon the world's largest trolleybus system. It was to be the death knell for all Britain's trolleybuses. Despite a campaign pointing out the stupidity of relying on inferior motor buses which pollute our streets and rely on imported oil form unstable parts of the world that last trolleybus stem in Britain closed in 1972. Today trolleybus operation is confined to three museums; The Black Country Museum, the East Anglian Transport Museum and the Trolleybus Museum here in Lincolnshire, by far the world's largest collection of trolleybuses. The Trolleybus Museum celebrates is first 40 years in 2009, that's longer than the average British trolleybus system lasted (33 years).

1959 - Meeting in Haywards Heath that founded the Bluebell Railway, Britain's premier steam railway. Four students (who celebrate their 70th birthdays this year) called a meeting with the intention of re-opening the recently closed railway from East Grinstead to Lewes by running a commercial service using an ex-GWR "Flying Banana" diesel rail car, to be augmented with a two-car DMU when funds permitted. After these plans fell through the idea of re-opening the Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes section as a steam "museum" railway was proposed and rest is as they say - history. If funds permit the Bluebell Railway will reach East Grinstead in 2010.

1969 - Bournemouth closed its fine trolleybus system. The system had a number of features that were unusual. Christchurch High Street was too narrow for a conventional turning loop so trolleys used a turntable. The driver held the booms clear of the wire while the clippie pushed the bus round. Trolleys had a open rear platform for boarding and a door operated exit at the front. The doors were opened and shut by the driver. These trolleys had two staircases, at the rear for boarding passengers and at the front for alighting passengers. This system of boarding and alighting was devised to cope with heavy demand during the holiday season. Bournemouth's trolleybuses covered some 39 route miles with 127 vehicles at its peak. Plans to build a town centre by-pass spelled the end for the trolleys. Soon after the system closed the pier area was to despoiled by a flyover of monumental ugliness.

References:
1619 Great Charter of Virgina

1619 First reference to slaves reaching Virginia

1647-9 The Putney Debates and the Agreement of the People

1859 Brentford Dock

1909 Video of steam narrow boat President

1959 Bluebell Railway

1969 The Trolleybus Museum

1969 Video of Bournemouth Trolleybuses

1979 British Music Society

2009 Obama's Inaugural speech writer

A danger to democracy

2009-06-14T10:25:00.002+01:00

The dreadful 1960s Chelsea Barracks in a fashionable are of London was sold by the Ministry of Defence to Omani developers, who engaged Richard Rogers (architect for the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff's dock) to devise a development with affordable housing as well as luxury apartments. Some £30m has already been spent in amending the plans take account of comments from locals. A compromise plan was due to be voted on by Westminster City Council but then Prince Charles who dislikes the plan wrote a personal letter to Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, ruler of Qatar. The Omani ruler agreed to the request from the British ruler in waiting and the planning application has been withdrawn.

The developers have now engaged Prince Charles' Foundation for the Built Environment, a charity behind the dreadful Poundbury development that now despoils the Dorset landscape.

The Prince's interference is totally unacceptable. It is feudal. Prince Charles, always eccentric if not an out right nutter has again shown he is unfit to be a constitutional monarch. The monarchy must end with the reign of his mother. The British government in their proposed constitutional reforms must write the monarchy out of our future and turn the British people from subjects of their majesties into citizens.

America changes gear - Britain is stuck in reverse

2009-01-22T16:24:00.005Z

A new president who is educated ( Barack Obama is a Constitutional Law professor) and in touch with The People is a welcome sign for Americans who have grown weary of the Bush presidency which focussed on making the rich richer and the poor poorer ( just like a third world state).

On his first day at his new office (built by slaves after the British Navy had burnt down the original White House in 1812) President Obama addressed his White House staff thus:

"However long we are keepers of the public trust we should never forget that we are here as public servants and public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization. Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans. But the American people deserve more than simply an assurance that those who are coming to Washington will serve their interests. They also deserve to know that there are rules on the books to keep it that way. They deserve a government that is truly of, by, and for the people. As I often said during the campaign, we need to make the White House the people's house. And we need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave. The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they're being made, and whether their interests are being well served. The directives I am giving my administration today on how to interpret the Freedom of Information Act will do just that. For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. ."
(read the whole address at http://london.usembassy.gov/obama007.html )

Hmm I somehow thing that would go down like a lead balloon if a British Prime Minister addressed his cabinet and Sir Humphreys with such statements.

In fact Obama depresses me here in Britain as our system of government could never through up such a Prime Minister.

2009 Bi-Centenaries

2008-12-09T20:53:00.003Z

In 1809 two of my heroes Tom Paine and Joseph Haydn died. It is most unlikely that the two men ever met, but I would like to think that had they done so, possibly in London, it would have been an interesting meeting of minds. From his music is it obvious ( well it is obvious to me any way) that he had a keen understanding of human behaviour. Haydn also had a developed sense of humour, which I suspect Paine lacked.

Haydn developed classical music as we now understand it notably with is symphonies, piano trios, string quartets and piano sonatas. His masses are fine works too as Beethoven acknowledged. Unlike Paine Haydn clealry charmed his way through life.

Paine through his writings set the course for the emancipation of slaves, the creation of the Untied States of America ( by the way he came up with this name for the new nation), but he also patetned the tubular suspension bridge (fifty years before its time) and he denounced organised religion. I somehow think Haydn might have agreed with Paine on this matter at least.

In 2009 I expect to hear much about both of these great men.

Documentary Film in Crisis

2008-11-24T08:21:00.004Z

During the past 40 years I have seen documentaries move from sponsored films to television and now its on the move again to the internet. Television as we know it is in terminal decline and the future is the internet. Cinema has revived since I started but the idea of filling a programme with a documentary is dead. Drama docs seem to fail as well. I also read that costume drams have delicniing audiences on television now. So documentary has to embrace the internet to survive. The problem is that anyone can access the internet with their programme, in which the production standards are often so awful it puts potential audiences off. In fact I find production standards pretty low on television these days too. Maybe its because I was taught by a generation who had created documentaries with feature film production values.

Students I met at this month's Sheffield DocFest had no idea how we made films 40 years ago and were fascinated by my telling them how it was done. We will soon be dead and gone, and future generations will have to rely on the BECTU History project (a great resource indeed).

A forgotten Black American hero from Croydon

2008-04-04T11:05:00.008+01:00

Today, April 4th, is forty years since the murder of Martin Luther King. It had been fifty years before Dr King that the black peoples of America had a champion of such stature.

The previous champion had been the most unlikely of all folks, a working class boy from Croydon, Surrey, England who had made a name for himself as a composer. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was born of a father from Sierra Leone and an English (white) mother. His father having gained a doctorate returned to Africa leaving his wife to cope with their baby son. She married a railway worker in Croydon. Young Samuel's talent for the violin was spotted by a local music teacher and with financial support from a church minister he went to London's Royal College of Music. While still a student he had a great sucess with a choral work Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (1898). The publicity surrounding Hiawatha's Wedding Feast created a huge demand for tours both within the United Kingdom and abroad. Among the most important for the composer's career were three tours of North America in 1904, 1906 and 1910.

About the time he wrote the first part of his Hiawatha trilogy Samuel began collaborating with the African American poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906). Roanne Edwards writing in Africana Encyclopedia, says of Coleridge-Taylor: "He was also a leading exponent of Pan-Africanism, which emphasised the importance of a shared African heritage as the touchstone of black cultural identity." In the foreword to the 1969 edition of Sayers', Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician, His Life and Letters, Blydon Jackson writes:

"American Negroes who were born in the earlier years of this century grew up in black communities where the name of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was as well known then as now are such names as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.... Gentle as he was in manner, refined as was his calling, he was still a fierce apostle of human liberty and a crusader for the rights of man. He was a parable for the black consciousness of our present time."

The Inconvenient Truth about Paine

2008-03-19T21:36:00.001Z

Next year Thetford in Norfolk, birth town of Thomas Paine and Lewes in Sussex the last home of Tom Paine in England are putting on festivals to mark 200 years since his death in New York on 8 June 1809.

So far nobody in the USA seems to have though about organising a festival for the man who created their country and gave it the name United States of America. There's not even at statue of Paine in Philadelphia where he made his impression on America. The Philadelphia City authorities refused a request for a statue back in 1944 on the ground that it would offend Christians as Paine was a deist.

If you don't know anything about Paine I've posted a short biography of this man who enabled the American colonies to break away from the British yoke, invented the suspension bridge, wrote "Rights of Man" in which he called for the emancipation of slaves and women and the creation of state pensions among a host of other corrections to the inequalities of the time. The biography is at http://www.eavb.co.uk/Paine/paine.html

Whilst imprisoned in Paris during the French Revolution Paine wrote "The Age of Reason" in which he demolishes organised religion. I have pasted Paine's central argument at http:///www.eavb.co.uk/Paine/index.html

I read in the Camden Journal that Sir David Attenborough intends to make a documentary film on the life of Tom Paine. That should be worth watching.