Monday, June 26, 2006

Appropriate Sentencing.

Yesterday an elderly woman was given three months in prison for refusing to pay £800 Council Tax.


The juxtaposition of this and another item in today's Times highlights the conflict about appropriate sentences. "Council Tax rebel jailed for three months for owing £800" and "Judges threaten to quit over attacks on their lenient sentencing".
There was nothing lenient or appropriate about the three months given to Mrs Rooney. The criticism in this particular case should be the lack of perspective and over reaction in such a savage and inappropriate sentence. There were a number of options. If this was Mrs Rooney's first offence an absolute discharge could have been considered. At the very least the sentence should have been a suspended one.


It is little wonder that the jails in the United Kingdom are filled to overflowing when such ridiculous and excessive judgements are made.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Membership of Political Parties.

The extent to which Leaders of the main political parties should pay attention to the views of their members is debateable. The membership (for instance) of the Labour Party is less than 200,000 where as there are about 44,000,000 registered voters in the United Kingdom. That is to say members of the Labour Party represent less than half of one percent of those registered to vote at a General Election. The position in the other main parties is no better.



Accordingly the strategy of Leaders paying lip service to the dinosaurs in their respective parties is understandable. To have any hope of winning policies should be attractive to the majority 99 per cent of the registered voters.
The uncouth and vulgar Jonathen Ross.

Although a committed anti- Thatcherite I was appalled by the latest obscenities about Mrs Thatcher by Jonathen Ross when he interviewed David Cameron. Ross is the unfunny man of TV and should be sacked. The saving of 18 Million pounds he is to be paid could be used to reduce the licence fee. Clearly the BBC have more money than they can sensibly use.

- Bill Kearns, Southampton, England

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Honours in the United Kingdom.

If we must endure the largely meaningless award of honours can we at least ensure that those rewarded reside in the United Kingdom for taxation purposes.

Monday, June 05, 2006

A new Administrative Capital for the United Kingdom.

The present water shortage and the government plans to make it worse by building thousands of new homes in the South East calls for a new United Kingdom strategy.

The South East based on London is the administrative, financial, commercial, tourist and artistic capital of the United Kingdom and has to provide housing, commercial accommodation and services for all these activities. There is nothing Government can do about the latter activities (nor should it be allowed to) but it can do something about London and the South East being the administrative capital of the United Kingdom.

The problem of overcrowding and excessive demands for accommodation and services in London and the South East requires a radical decision that would move Whitehall, Parliament and the Royal Households to the provinces. London would remain the centre of the other activities. The parsimonious movement of a small amount of Government Offices and Agencies to the provinces is gesture politics and does nothing substantial to resolve the central problem.

What is required (and it is a fundamental and absolute requirement) is the wholesale removal of Central Government, its appendages and paraphernalia to a location (or locations) outside the South East. Such a relocation would at a stroke radically diminish the demand for property and services in London and the South East.

It is interesting that many countries (USA, Australia, Canada, Brazil and others) now have a commercial capital and an administrative capital and there is absolutely no reason why the United Kingdom should not follow their example.

Will it happen? I suspect not. Not until the problem has become even worse than it is at the moment and no doubt more expensive to solve.