Simon Heffer thinks he's a Thatcherite, doesn't understand term

Simon is on form today, most of column devoted to trashing the Conservative Party, a few lines criticising the government to substantiate his claim of being of the Right. His most interesting line is this:

One reason why Thatcherites like me respected Ian Gilmour, who died last week, was because he had the integrity to stick to his principles, whatever the consequences.

Simon thinks that he is a Thatcherite, this is precious. She was an arch-pragmatist when it came to doing good by her country, and while she certainly came at politics from the Right, she never let herself get stranded there just because of dogma. Let us look at her record against Simon's rhetoric: he wants immediate across the board tax cuts, whereas she was unafraid to put taxes up if that was what the economy demanded. She avoided foreign wars, fighting just the Falklands that was forced on her, where Simon is casual about advocating the use of military force. She expanded property-owning to all classes, giving many families their first real capital stake in the country, whereas Simon thinks the poor should basically stay poor. As for sticking to your principles 'whatever the consequences', that is a useful working definition of insanity. Keynes said 'when the facts change I change my mind', which is what most normal people do. Mugabe is sticking to his principles and the consequences are children staving to death. Integrity is not always admirable, but we now have a clue on what makes Simon tick. There must be a great comfort in viewing the world through an unchanging prism of certainty; it is the sort of reassurance the great religions, or Marxism, can provide, but it has nothing to do with the practical politics that actually makes people's lives better.

This week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explained that his actions were driven by a firm belief in the return of the Islam's 12th Imam. He seemed quite determined. I bet Simon is a fan.

Basildon Town Centre finalists announced

The procurement process for Basildon Town Centre rolls on, with the four consortia that will progress to the next stage announced yesterday. They are all big hitters in large scale development and regeneration, and attracting bidders of this quality shows the confidence that business has in Basildon District and its community. It also shows that the Council was right to launch our regeneration programme with a high quality event in London and right to send members and officers to the MIPIM property development conference and exhibition in Cannes. We were criticised for doing both, as if the way to attract large multinationals to a billion pound project was to make them come to us instead of going to them. Basildon has huge potential; 30 minutes from London, a dynamic economy, and public sector investment already happening in the form of the University Hospital and the recently announced Further Education College. But potential is not enough, you also have to sell the offer and that is exactly what we have been doing. We also have very clear policies to support private and public sector development, and we made sure that we had the funding for the project management and support skills that you need for a development programme of this size. So, things are going well and the Council is on course to achieve our objective of changing Basildon for the better. Fortunately, that is also the objective of government when it comes to Basildon and funding has followed intent. Basildon politics is traditionally quite virulent, but on this there is broad agreement. Politics isn't always about kicking lumps out of each other.

Labour goes Tory on self-defence

In 2005 there was a Conservative initiative in the House of Commons to change the law on self defence to give greater protection to people who defend themselves when attacked in their own homes. Labour killed with the line that the current law allowed reasonable force and no change was needed. So, if you injured someone while defending home and family you faced an investigation by the police and CPS but at the end of that protracted process you would probably be all right was the message. That people should not have their lives turned over by the authorities for being victims of crime seemed not to be an argument, at least not one the Labour government would entertain. Now, in the general spirit of airbrushing out the past, Labour is back with an 'urgent' review of the law on self defence because it suddenly is just not good enough.

So, what is going on here? Well two things probably: first Gordon Brown and his crowd want to grab back the agenda on Law and Order, and this is a pretty painless way to make good headlines. Secondly, you get the feeling that quite a few things that were vetoed by the grinning one, or his wife, are now back on the table because everyone else actually thought that they were quite a good idea. Well, I agree with this one, but it is pretty poor that it took a change of Prime Minister for Labour to understand how demoralising it is for the public to read of yet another ordinary person effectively being punished by a police investigation for having some scumbag break into their home. Maybe this time common sense will prevail, and maybe some of the smug no-nothings who mouth platitudes a couple of years ago will have the grace to eat their words.

Labour Conference Amnesia

It is the first conference after a change of government; repudiating the previous set of fools, trumpeting a change agenda, extolling the virtues of the new, fresh-faced team. Our new Labour government has certainly wasted no time in promoting their new programme that sweeps away the wasted years under, err, Labour. Instead of Labour replacing Conservatives after an election we have Brownies replacing Blairites after a coronation. Except that hasn’t happened either because many of the faces in the Brown government are exactly the same faces that were in the Blair government. In an Orwellian rewriting of history the doings of the last government have been assigned to some unnamed others and then trashed with enthusiasm. So, 24-hour drinking looks to be going the same way as super-casinos, now that the casualty wards are filling up with those maimed through drink. The downgrading of cannabis may be reversed as more pitiful tales of those tipped into psychosis through skunk are reported. It doesn’t stop there though; apparently the NHS hasn’t had enough change and the new big idea is to personalise it, whatever the hell that means. So, more pointless government targets and reorganisations appear to be on the cards. Spin is one thing that hasn’t changed though, with the soundbite friendly Council Tax rebate for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan being pushed for all that it is worth. Of course the money comes from the military budget; that is the one they use to pay for things like bullets and helicopters, so our army is likely to remain short of both. What’s a few soldier’s lives against a couple of days of good headlines though. No wonder the head of the army thinks that the nation’s relationship with the military is broken.

Further Education Campus for Basildon Town Centre

The result of a competitive tender for a huge £250 million Further Education package for South Essex was announced today. Both Competitions were managed by the Learning and Skills Council, Essex.

Much of the money will be invested in building new further education facilities in Basildon and Thurrock town centres, including a new campus in Basildon Town Centre. This, of course, works very well with the regeneration plans for Basildon Town Centre.

In Basildon, the winning Consortium will be led by SEEVIC College, who will be developing centres of excellence in sport and recreation, health, social care and medical technologies; business administration and financial services and engineering. These are serious subjects for the 21st century, and represent a shift away from some of the 'softer' vocational, but relatively low-skill subjects on offer in the past.

Councillor Malcolm Buckley, Leader of Basildon Council, said:

We are committed to raising education standards in the District and we are delighted to welcome yet more investment into the area. Raising standards and aspirations of our young people is vital to the future of Basildon.

This investment will not only help to raise attainment levels and standards of education, it will also be a major catalyst in the £1billion regeneration of Basildon town centre, and see the creation of a world class college campus in the heart of the town.

Too right, Malcolm.

St. Andrews Centre in Billericay safe, for a year at least

In response to his letters and the petitions to both Basildon Hospital and SW Essex PCT, John Baron MP has received an assurance that there will be no downgrading or closure of services at St Andrew’s Centre, Billericay – at least for the coming year. The hospital has said the matter will not be reviewed again until it looks at activity targets for the financial year 2008/9. However, John is pressing for a longer term guarantee and, with the help Cllr Terence Gandy, Billericay Town Council, and others, is calling for the petition to continue.

John said:

Whilst welcoming confirmation that St Andrew’s will remain fully operational for another year, I am disappointed that Basildon Hospital could not go further. I am therefore asking for a longer term guarantee that there will be no downgrading or closure of services. This should not be difficult given that the population in the area is growing and therefore demand for St Andrew’s services can only increase.

I would like to thank all those who have both organised and signed the petitions in recent months. But, we think it best to continue with the petition because it is important that we illustrate the strength of feeling on this issue. As a local community, we are absolutely committed to St Andrew’s remaining fully operational in the years ahead.

Simon Heffer wants war with Mugabe, can't find map

Simon has decided that Mugabe must go and that British military intervention is the answer. Now, Mugabe is a disgusting, murderous genocidal madman and he has wrecked his once-decent country in an orgy of robbery and violence. However, the hard truth is that no vital British interest is threatened by that tyrant, any more than in is by the Burmese Junta. What reason is there for British soldiers' bodies to be returned flag-draped from Southern Africa? Especially as none of the surrounding African countries appears to be prepared to raise a finger to help the suffering people of Zimbabwe. That fact presents a very practical problem in any case, that Zimbabwe is land-locked and surrounded by friendly powers who would not assist an armed British intervention. Simon makes light of this though.

I know our Army is overstretched, but if we can get them into Afghanistan we can get them into Zimbabwe.

What on earth does this mean? Just because our soldiers can be deployed to one country it does not follow that they can be deployed to any other country. This is illogic to the point of idiocy. Maybe we should gently remind Simon that a soldier can physically only fight in one war at a time, and hold a whip-round to get him an atlas.

His other stoke of genius is to privatise the Bank of England, the argument running like this.

As for the Bank he heads, I'd go the whole hog with the independence lark, and privatise it. If the clearing banks are unhappy with the way the lender of last resort conducts itself, then let them run it. The dozen institutions that have the largest deposits with the Bank of England should be allowed to nominate their chairmen to form the court of directors, and one of them should be voted in as governor on a rolling three-year contract. Then, if anything goes wrong, the banks have only themselves to blame and the Government is, happily, taken out of the equation.

Perhaps someone should hold Simon's hand and explain that 'if anything goes wrong' with the banking system it is not just the clearing banks that suffer, it is their customers and just about every one else involved in the British economy as well. The idea that the government could wash their hands of the regulation of financial services is bonkers, and bear in mind it was only a couple of weeks ago that Simon was calling for bankers who didn't behave as he would have liked to be locked up. So, he has travelled the spectrum from extreme authoritarian to libertarian in the space of a few days. Consistency is not really his strong point.

Basildon Council Cabinet passes Compulsory Purchase Order

It was Basildon Council’s Cabinet last night; that is the public meeting of the executive Councillors that run the authority to formally make the key decisions for the Council. Unlike some other Councils we run a mixed party Cabinet, with 8 Conservatives and 2 Labour members. We don’t have to, the Conservative majority could easily dictate an all-Conservative Cabinet, but this way is better for democracy. It does mean, however, that the Cabinet often disagrees and it did last night on two matters. One of these was a compulsory purchase order on a site in Basildon Town Centre. Now, these are often emotive because no one really likes the idea of an impersonal local authority taking away someone’s property, even though they are fully compensated. The trouble is that not doing them can often leave large-scale regeneration plans foundering because assembling the land for building projects can be stopped by just one holdout holding the entire project to ransom. In this case it was a garage, part of a national chain, where the site would contribute to a housing development that we desperately need. Out policy is that we only turn to CPO after good-faith negotiations have been exhausted, and they certainly were in this case. However, Labour, in the form of their leader, voted against it. Let’s hope they wouldn’t do anything so foolish if they ever were to run Basildon again. It is a lack of political push in things like CPO that leaves so many grand regeneration plans gathering dust on shelves. If you want to make a real change to your community it is not enough to talk the talk; you have to walk the walk, and that can mean making hard decisions. If you are not up for that then, frankly, don’t put yourself up for election.

It was the Labour leader alone last night, there was no sign of his deputy, who is now also the prospective Labour candidate for the Basildon and Billericay seat and there were no apologies either. If you are not up for attending Council meetings then that’s another reason to not put yourself up for election.

Simon Heffer gets it wrong on Northern Rock

Simon opens his latest missive with the following:

Just as war is too important to be left to generals, the economy is too important to be left to politicians. This was blindingly clear from the antics on Monday, when a bank in no danger of failing was underwritten by the Government.

Presumably, Simon thinks that the economy should be run by journalists since he has called for borrowers and lenders to be locked up in previous columns. He is also wrong in a simple matter of fact: the government has not underwritten the bank; it has underwritten the depositors if the bank were to fail. Unless he has insider access to Northern Rock Simon also has no basis for his assertion that it is no danger of failing either. The stock market certainly does not agree; check out Northern Rock's share price, but what do they know against Simon's massive experience in wholesale finance? He then moves to his central thesis.

Taxpayers have now become bankers. At a stroke, the fundamentals of the capitalist creed on which many of us thought our economy was based are compromised. There is no price on risk, except that paid by the state with our money.

Can anyone actually be this stupid and still be able to use cutlery? Regardless of the government's guarantee Northern Rock are still facing the same penalty that any company faces when they make a bad decision: they are going to lose money. The price on risk, which Simon thinks has evaporated, remains the same. All that has changed is that were Northern Rock to go bust ordinary depositors would not be wiped out as well as shareholders. Why it is important for capitalism that grannies' lose their life savings just to drive the point home is unclear to anyone but Simon. His view is that in the absence of customers feeling financial pain British bankers will go crazy.

They now, as I see it, have carte blanche to take the most awesome risks with the money of their depositors, knowing that if they goof badly, the taxpayer will compensate their aggrieved customers.

So, the prospect of financial failure leading to a loss of their jobs, reputations, pensions and savings, most hold shares in their own institutions, is not enough. All that keeps these madmen in check is the thought that their customers might suffer. Not very plausible, Simon. He carries on in this vein for some time with no context on the credit crunch, the operation of wholesale banking markets, the comparative regulatory actions of the Bank of England, Federal Reserve or European Central Bank, nothing, in fact, that a decent treatment of the subject demands. Instead, we get a saloon bar rant of the type that first requires imbibing four pints and a double whiskey. He then gives Gordon Brown a bit of a kicking, conveniently forgetting that he has spent most of his journalistic career cheering him on, before moving onto familiar ground in criticising the Conservative Party. He demonstrates that he is unfamiliar with the Conservative front bench team in the process, which is pretty catastrophic for a political columnist. Hint Simon, you could always use google.

People shouldn’t write about things they no nothing about. The trouble is that in Simon's case that would not leave a great many topics for him to attempt.

Allan Davies Labour PPC for Basildon & Billericay

It appears that Cllr. Allan Davies in the new Labour PPC for the Basildon & Billericay constituency, where he will come up against the excellent incumbent John Baron MP, who is the current MP for Billericay.

Based on the Electoral Calculus website, the numbers look like this:

Basildon and Billericay
Region: Essex
MP John Baron (CON)

Electorate	64,873	Turnout	60.20%
	2005 Votes	2005 Share	Prediction
CON	16,454	42.13%		43.34%
LAB	12,867	32.95%		34.16%
LIB	4,830	12.37%		8.87%
OTH	3,096	7.93%		9.00%
MIN	1,805	4.62%		4.62%
CON Majority	3,587	9.19%	Pred Maj	9.18%

Allan is a current councillor on Basildon District Council who currently represents Fryerns, having done the chicken run from Laindon Park in May, leaving is replacement to get royally thumped by the Conservative candidate. He's actually quite a decent bloke, quite Old Labour, though a young man, and not one of these sad individuals that you occasionally find in all political parties who acts as if members of opposing parties are servants of Satan. However, if I had to pick between the two of them to have next to me in a foxhole, or a in meeting room for that matter, then it's John Baron every time. The good thing about Allan being the PPC though is that we should have a decent debate on the issues that matter to the people of Basildon and Billericay, not the unpleasant personalities that have emanated from some previous Labour candidates in our neck of the woods. It should make Basildon Council politics a little more interesting too.