Basildon's Towngate Theatre open for Panto again

I went to see the Pantomime at the Towngate Theatre last night. It was very good; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a beautiful princess and dashing prince and a scheming evil queen all portrayed by a fine cast, with some particularly talented younger members in supporting roles. The audience loved it, especially the children who booed, hissed and cheered with enthusiasm. It was pantomime at its best, and it marked the latest stage of a renaissance for the Towngate theatre, which has had a troubled history. The problem is that the theatre has all the facilities of top class theatre, except that its auditorium was designed to be far too small. So, it has all of the costs of a big venue while it can only generate the income of a small venue. This has meant that it has opened and closed many times as successive organisations have tried and failed to make it work as a theatre. At some points in its history it has also had a huge subsidy from the Council and so has been a political football, at that still lingers around in Basildon's politics. Now it is open again, and running better than for years thanks to an excellent team from the Council and a well-crafted policy from the Conservative Administration. The timing is also good as we are currently procuring a development partner for Basildon Town Centre, and one of the things under consideration in the future provision of a theatre for central Basildon. Ideally we will get a newer, better, and bigger theatre, but the deal has to add up and evidence of a functioning theatre already operating cannot help but make the case.

Oh, and if you live anywhere near Basildon, go and see the panto!

Reform treaty signed by Brown, by himself

In politics you often have to do unpopular things. It really cannot be helped, even when you are doing the right thing there is often some interest group that takes against you, and sometimes everyone is unhappy, like when you put taxes up. Good politicians are very aware of public reaction and do their best to minimise the number of people annoyed by any given course of action. So, Brown's actions in signing the Reform Treaty are inexplicable, though they try here. Of course, signing the treaty was always going to go down badly with anyone of even a vaguely Euroskeptic bent, but by citing a routine appointment in parliament as an excuse for missing the main signing ceremony, Brown also managed to irritate people who actually thought he was doing the right thing. This is schoolboy politics. How can it be that no one in the Prime Minister's circle told him that he would deflect not one iota of press and public approbation by this cack-handedness, and in fact would only add to it? Does Gordon Brown not employ press officers? Or is his man-management so dire that none of them dared to tell him how foolish he would look? I agreed with almost nothing that Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell actually did, but at least they did it competently. If Brown and his cohorts were organising an evening reception at a local brewery they would probably get the day wrong.

Brown takes on the Police

The government has got itself into an extraordinary dispute with the Police Federation. By not backdating a pay rise as recommended by the independent Police Arbitration Tribunal they have triggered a vote of no confidence in the Home Secretary and a ballot on the police demanding the right to strike. The facts are pretty simple: P0lice pay has risen above inflation since 1994 and they have done as well or better than the rest of the public sector. Now government finances are being squeezed and public sector pay is being restrained across the aboard. So far, so good, but what makes the Police different is that governments have historically always followed the Tribunal's recommendation, and that they do not have the right to strike. In terms of savings on the wage bill it is of the order of £30m, but in terms of loss of goodwill with a very important interest group the price is much higher than that. Some Members of Parliament understand that at least and a motion urging the government to think again has over 70 signatures, including many Labour backbenchers. Gordon Brown is standing firm, however, saying:

No policeman and no person across the country would thank us if their pay rise was wiped out by inflation...

Except it's not inflation, it's government finances that are the problem and everyone knows this. Gordon wanted an end to Boom and Bust. Let's hope he has a Plan B.

Judith Armitt Resigns

Juith Armitt, the Chief Executive the Thames Gateway project has abruptly resigned. This comes barely a week after the Thames Gateway forum event at Docklands Excel centre, where the project plans for the next three years were launched. No official reason has been given for the abrupt departure, though the Times, is running an article suggesting it was after a spat with Minister for Housing Yvette Cooper. I have no inside gossip on that, but Judith's departure is not good news for Basildon, where the Basildon Renaissance Partnership is a successful Thames Gateway delivery vehicle. We have real projects and a development portfolio of around £1.5bn that rely on support from the Thames Gateway initiative, and any impression of drift or disorganisation does not help the cause of improving Basildon District. In particular the lack of cross-party political support for the Thames Gateway is worrying, though not necessarily surprising given this sort of development. We must hope that Judith's successor can pull things together, and quickly, if the project is not to lose momentum. It is far too important to Basildon for that.

John Baron MP: Government admits plans for ISTC in Basildon have been shelved

Letter confirms that independent hospital will not be imposed on local NHS

Commenting on a letter he received from Health Minister Ivan Lewis MP today in response to his correspondence of 2^nd November, John Baron MP welcomed news that the local campaign against an Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) in Basildon has paid off. Ivan Lewis confirmed that “Basildon is not currently one of the sites being considered”. Despite rumours about the local project being cancelled, this is the first time the Department of Health has admitted that plans for an ISTC locally have been shelved.

John said:

This is great news for local NHS patients – our campaign has really paid off. An ISTC would have disrupted existing services, taken resources away from Basildon Hospital, and had a knock-on effect on training budgets and cross-subsidy of emergency services. It is no wonder that the hospital and SW Essex Primary Care Trust were both opposed.

Having raised this matter in Parliament and in writing many times, I am relieved the Government has finally listened to the views of local people. It would have been completely wrong to impose an ISTC against the wishes of the local NHS. Ministers admitted as much to me months ago, but now we have a concrete assurance.

Trust in government and local government

There is a problem with trust in government. The Labour government has a history of spinning and dishonesty and their poor reputation has been compounded by the latest party funding scandal. Of course Conservatives have had their own troubles and the popular media finds it difficult to portray any politician in a positive light. In fact, if you wanted to make a subversive, mould-breaking film today you could portray a government and its officials being absolutely straight in the face of a crisis or a complex issue. This lack of trust leaks into local government, where Councillors routinely find their integrity being questioned when they make contentious decisions. I've been taken to the Standards Board for England on four occasions; in each case it was found that there was no case to answer but the fact that we have a process where anyone can start an official process against a Councillor speaks to an institutional lack of trust. The last one, by the way, was because some individual thought my handwriting indicated membership of a secret Masonic cult. Instead of being told to seek help, this person's delusions were entertained and the process grimly gone through, though all concerned thought it absurd.

Lack of trust can have very serious effects. Some Councils, for example, will not talk to potential developers in advance of a planning application because their Councillors are terrified of an appearance of impropriety. This is a disastrous policy if you want to attract investment for the good of your community, but at least you don't get investigated by faceless bureaucrats. In Basildon we have had a series of press articles probing our regeneration efforts, stirred up by the so-called Wickford Action Group, who feel empowered to spray accusations and innuendo around at anyone they happen to disagree with. To be fair, most community groups aren't like that even when they are arguing against Council policy. I have a lot of respect for those concerned about the Sporting Village project for example, who have put their case very forcefully and effectively without resorting to accusation and abuse. They are the sort of people you listen to. Others get filed with the Masonic cult chap.

Latest election prediction

The Electoral Calculus website had been at it again:

A new prediction has been posted on 6 December 2007 at www.electoralcalculus.co.uk.

Recent polls now show a strong Conservative lead over Labour. ComRes (Independent) has a lead of 13% (up from 8%); Ipsos-MORI has 9% (up from 5%); YouGov (Daily Telegraph) has 11% (up from 3%); and ICM (News of the World) has 11% (up from 8%). Overall the Conservatives are now 9% ahead of Labour (up from 4%), and are now predicted to have an overall majority for the first time in several years.

The current prediction is that the Conservatives will have an overall majority of 8 seats, winning 329 seats (+45 seats since 17 November 2007).

Labour government hammers Basildon

We got details of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement this evening, the money that the government gives Basildon Council every year to help fund local services such as our sports centres and rubbish collection. It wasn't very good. The three-year settlement gives Basildon an increase above the CPI measure of inflation of 2% in 2008/9, 1.32% in 2009/10 and 1.55% in 2010/11, which sounds fine until you realise that the spending increases caused by government policy are well above that, most notably Labour's failure to fully fund concessionary fares for the over 65s. Basildon got less than many other Essex councils; for example Castle Point gets a rise next year of 3.1%.

This settlement gives Basildon a shortfall of £751,000 over the three-year period against our very conservative projections and the Labour government has coupled this with an announcement that Councils will be capped from making council tax increases above a certain level...which they won't tell us. So, we may end up having to make service cuts as a result, which could mean putting people out of work in the middle of a recession. The Labour members on the Cabinet resorted to bluster and then downright dishonesty. We were told that this shortfall in revenue funding was is some way made up for by the capital funding that we had received for regeneration projects, but of course they are not in any way related. We were told that it would be worse under the savage cuts of a Cameron Conservative government, but the Shadow Chancellor has already made it very clear that a rapid and imprudent reduction in government spending would not occur. We were told that the money could be made up from Council reserves, which made me wonder if they had been reading the same financial reports as me. The Labour deputy leader in particular seemed to find the situation amusing.

What is going on is that Brown's economic failures are coming home to the British people. Because government finances are in a mess then Britain is badly placed for an economic slowdown and a debt-ridden and high-taxing government is running out of both ideas and cash. That is why Basildon is feeling the pain and why the local Labour party had no option but to talk nonsense in an effort to defend the indefensible.

Northern Rock delusions

A colleague of mine was worried that I have been too hard on Northern Rock. He is not a banker, but there is a dawning realisation outside of the trade just how bad this situation has become, and a fair amount of denial if some of the comments on this blog are to be believed. Not only is Northern Rock in crisis, it is getting worse by the day as more deposits drain out and more loans fall due for repayment without further loans to repay them. Without treasury support then this would be an ex-bank, with its shares valueless. At the moment there isn't a realistic rescue plan, and the Virgin bid has many unanswered questions, like the fact that loan funding other institutions has not been arranged, that Virgin is putting only a few hundred million of its own assets into the deal, that most of the other cash comes from existing shareholders and the hopelessly optimistic business plan assumes that the saved bank can capture 25% of the UK banking deposit business going forward from 2008.

Unless a new source of capital can be found then the only alternatives are administration of nationalisation, either option a progressive disposal of assets and a dismantling of the business. It is a mess caused by a Labour government who would not overrule the Bank of England to provide liquidity to the markets and then overruled the Bank of England to provide support to Northern Rock when it couldn't find funding on the capital markets. Either the market should have been supported or Northern Rock allowed to go bust. As it was policy stumbled from one strategy to another and so predictably failed. It's a bit of a cliché, but I wouldn't trust this lot to run a whelk stall.

Janet Daley thinks Cameron should go easy on Brown

Writing in her column yesterday Janet Daley, a writer who I always have time for, sounded a word of warning about David Cameron's treatment of Gordon Brown. Her view was that the Prime Minister is clearly in the middle of a psychological crisis and that putting him under sort of pressure that Cameron has been exerting at PMQs was needlessly cruel. She was also mindful of the potential political price that could be paid if Cameron had come across as a bully. Of course, she has a point. If Cameron was perceived as picking on a man in a state of collapse then he would face criticism, and rightly so, but the thing she misses, or appears to miss, is the context. We are not talking about some David Brent figure going over the top at a junior member of staff. This is the Leader of the Opposition versus the Prime Minister in the Mother of Parliaments. Both men should be the products of a Darwinian selection process that arrives at people who can represent the whole country's interests in peace and war, to find those few characters that can take the unimaginable pressure of the very top job. If they can't then they shouldn't be there. Put simply, Brown should be able to hack it. If he can't then he should never have put himself forward for the job.

To put it another way: big boys games, big boys rules.