more doublethink from Mr Salter

this is the easiest thing in the world.

On 8th May in his Reading Chronicle column Mr Salter said that Labour held "all five Labour seats in my constituency". That was a lie. Before 1st May there were six Labour council seats in his constituency and now there are five, the previous Labour councillor for Kentwood, Miss Victoria Lloyd, having stepped down to spend more time with Women's Studies or whatever it is she does; Basher McKenzie had been selected to stand in Minster but was ordered to move across to Kentwood, where he had been humiliatingly defeated at the previous election, to be humiliatingly defeated again. Net loss for Labour - one.

On 22nd May he begins his column this way . Labour, he says "won" five of the seven Reading Borough Council seats in his constituency. They didn't "win" them, they had them already and held on to them - something more likely to happen in Labour wards which are in the constituency of a Labour MP, which you are very glad is not the case in your favourite constituency, Reading East, aren't you Martin? And what about the wards outside Reading Borough? When are you going to understand that you are not the MP for Reading Borough but for an actual constituency? Why not try thinking about it now that Labour has not had it all its own way and your precious Dictatorship Dave is wailing and gnashing his teeth in the outer darkness?

couldn't happen to a nicer bloke

Manzoor Hussain has had his Reading private hire licence suspended after an alleged incident of assault. The report in His Master's Voice says he does "community work" and is involved in the Reading Muslim Council, which as you can see is rather a shadowy organisation, especially in terms of funding. Manzoor Hussain is a former heroin addict and dealer and has been a member of Reading Labour Party. He has on a number of occasions stood up at meetings and said inter alia in my hearing that education for girls was wrong and should not be allowed. Lovely chap. His entire life seems to be grant aided by Reading Borough Council. Maybe the new regime, if it is a new regime, should have a close look at this. There is a whole community out there which subsists on grants from the council, some of which are put to very questionable uses indeed.

here's another one

they really have turned ugly - would you go to Iain Dale for balance? Or to Lenin's Tomb? Or to John Redwood? this is the latest one:

It's got nothing to do with Obama. I would suggest your contributors are not prepared to take comments such as "balance my arse" lying down and will respond accordingly.
11:53

almost like the Reading boys -except I suspect this one is not one of them

he is no. 2

deputy mayor of Reading that is. Fred Pugh of course. The right decision. Politically. But get this. Josephine Lovelock made one of her personal attacks, criticising Cllr Pugh for having opposed a grant to the Reading Gay and Lesbian Helpline. Er, that is exactly what Mr Salter did, because of "Section 28". I was one of the ones he tried to push into a Labour pre-meeting of the then Community Development Committee to oppose that very grant. She didn't criticise him for it at the time. Fortunately other committee members (I was not a member of the committee at the time, he wanted me in the pre-meeting to help influence members) had the courage to stand up to him and the grant was approved. But don't forget that Mr Salter opposed it. Strongly.

The title of this post is because I have been watching DVDs of the 1960s series The Prisoner. If you have never seen it you will not be disappointed. It is just the coolest thing ever.

we are all...?

davem. posting on Harry's Place, has this to say about recent events in Lebanon (a much bigger news event in France than it is in the UK, for obvious reasons):

If any good has come out of the recent events in Lebanon, it is that finally the myth of Hezbollah as some sort of Lebanese “resistance” has been exposed for the sham that it is.
Hezbollah has shown its true colours. Now it is publicly seen for what it really is– a sectarian murder squad acting in the service of the despotic regimes of Syria and Iran at the expense of the Lebanese people.
These events have also exposed the Middle East “experts” who repeat the same old “anti-imperialist” clichés, knowing there is a receptive audience for that sort of crap.

although I wouldn't actually call the regime in Iran "despotic".

is Gordon like John?

I do have a little look at conservativehome from time to time, sometimes the comments are hugely amusing, like this one:

But English people think all Scottish people are mad thugs. This helps them become soccer managers though.

but have a look at this post there by the Reading East MP. On reflection I think he is absolutely right.

our first time

significant other and I are fairly new members of the Parti Socialiste, and while we did what little we could to help elect a Socialist mayor in March (success! yay!) we hadn't been to a proper meeting - until last night. Neither of us has brilliant enough French to understand absolutely everything that was said, and like everywhere in politics there was a lot of talk in code and about things which had been discussed many times before so that everyone already had the context, which isn't very accessible for those who don't have the language of the meeting as their first one. But we got by all right. A lot of it was familiar, the elderly bloke carping and nitpicking, the miserable Trot woman who objected to everything, the bloke who tried to insert an amendment into a document that only he had seen and we are all going to vote on next week (the statement of the party's principles) and the fact that too many people arrived late. But it was chaired by one of the newly elected councillors, who didn't shout at anybody, didn't lecture us, and from his name and appearance is at least partly of north African heritage, so dangerously diverse by Reading standards. But was was refreshing for those of us who have spent many years as we had in Reading Labour Party was that party members actually were having an input into policy. In Reading that stopped in approximately 1991 when party members (including me) tried to stop the Labour Group from concreting over Kings Meadow. The latter is still their policy of course. Also, the meeting was friendly and new members like us were welcomed, not just at the beginning but in chats at the end too. Not only that but the meeting ended with a drink from the bar (it was held in the back room of a restaurant) and some pizza and tarte flambee. Some other members there did not have French as their first language, but were probably bilingual, and they were non-consumers of alcohol (you get my drift), but they seemed happy enough to be there, so not much fundamentalism going on in this branch I suspect. Anyway, it was a good start. The party is going to elect a new leader at its conference in November, and there was inevitably discussion of that. It seems our new mayor has come out for Bertrand Delanoe, who is Mayor of Paris (and who went to London last month to support Ken but we will draw a veil over that). Segolene Royal is standing of course. I know who significant other is keener on...

there's a VERY good girl

I thought this comment on the post below deserved a post to itself, just to see what people think of it.

It’s not your blog. The whole essence of a blog is that it is everybody’s. You are just the facilitator (or gofer as we used to call them). Without readers and in particular contributors you do not have a blog. Now please go away and decide what you would like to do with this contribution there’s a good girl.
16:38

It's when I post on Obama I am most likely to get this kind of thing.

the white working class

is the demographic Obama is still having trouble reaching. So this is what he chose to do about it, last year when he pledged to end oversight of the Teamsters' Union, which oversight was set up in 1989 to try to end organised crime's involvement in that union. The Teamsters subsequently pledged support for Obama. Spooky.

Whenever I post about Mr Obama I get torrents of abuse, some of which I let through to show readers what is out there, most of which is personal, almost all of which is emotional: "Barack Obama has made me believe in politics again" blah blah. The other thing which has recently caused me to block comments is, slightly more to my surprise, my post about Boris Johnson. Loads of porn fantasies about him come through (er...) - there are some strange people out there.

Crewe and Nantwich

I haven't posted about the by-election because it would seem like intruding on private grief, which is something I am happy to do in certain quarters but not everywhere. But here you can see an image which Guido says has actually been used by Labour in the campaign. I think Guido has made it up. They couldn't have. Could they?

run with the hare or hunt with the hounds? or both?

His Master's Voice told us yesterday that the Caversham Road Royal Mail sorting office was going to close and move its operation to Swindon. It quoted union chief Dave Warren as not pleased, as well he might not be (decent bloke Dave I always thought). It promised further reports and comment today, which we have yet to see. The site is part of the wider area earmarked for development in partnership by Reading Borough Council, John Madejski and others for regeneration of the station area. Reading Borough Council is therefore in favour of disposal of the site by Royal Mail, as are Royal Mail because of the nice fat capital receipt they will get. So the council will have no problem with Royal Mail's decision, and we expect putative council leader Josephine Lovelock to issue a statement today welcoming the move. Otherwise she would be in bad faith as a party to the original decision and we couldn't have that, could we? Not with a minority administration where everything the leadership does can be overturned by a vote. Worse still for Mr Salter, who represents a constituency several miles away but who has not been able to resist jumping in on this, and who on recent occasions has welcomed the redevelopment of the area around the station and has praised the government for supporting it. So we expect a statement from him too welcoming this move, and we will get one won't we? Won't we Martin? Martin?

UPDATE: here is what Mr Salter had to say, as reported in His Master's Voice (so it must be true):

Martin Salter, MP for Reading West, has backed the move to keep the sorting office open and launched the Not Via Swindon campaign with the CWU representatives last November.
He said the Royal Mail had made the decision “for all the wrong reasons” and added it would be bad for jobs, as well as the environment.

Not Via Swindon? Hmmm. Not a campaign I remember hearing about last November or at any other time. and a search of Mr Salter's website and that of the Reading Evening Post comes up with no results.

a special night

football season over (Racing Club de Strasbourg relegated to Ligue 2 since you ask) so what to do on a Saturday night? Last Saturday was "la nuit des musees" where from 1930 on that evening until 0100 all the museums are open, free, and many of them put on special events for the evening. We went to our nearest museum, Modern Art, at about 10 pm and saw the Kandinsky Room and an interesting exhibition of photographs. It was crowded with cheery people. Many of them had paid a few euros for seats on shuttle buses which went from one museum to another, so they could see all the city's museums in an evening. This is a terrific initiative which the French government has been running for about five years now, and it should be imitated elsewhere.

the High Court rules

that MPs Additional Costs Allowances (in respect of their London or constituency home) must be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. This I believe is in respect of about 14 named MPs, including the main party leaders, but it surely has a bearing on the others too. I wonder if legally it has a bearing on what was claimed before 2001, when for the first time mortgage or tenancy agreements had to be furnished in support of claims? Before that happened Mr Salter claimed £1000 a month in respect of a London home he did not have, and boasted about not having, and there will be payroll records at least showing that.

Tommy Burns

who has died aged only 51, was manager of Reading only briefly, in 1999, and that was when I met him. The man with the firmest handshake I have ever experienced. I tried to help him with schools for his children. I don't think he was given enough of a chance at Reading, it took a lot longer than a season to turn the club round, as subsequent events showed. I'm sad for his wife Rosemary and their four children, who all did excellently at school in the end. Goodbye Tommy. I hope Reading remembers you. Obituary in the Telegraph here.

Tommy died of skin cancer. He was a red-headed Scot. My own red hair comes from my Scottish family, and my father and grandfather both had skin cancer, fortunately nothing invasive enough to cause a big problem. I never sunbathe, never have, because my skin is too fair and I always burn. Whatever your own skin colour, even if you are black, please don't sunbathe. Skin cancer is a foul way to go.

at the heart of the Oxford Road

Cllr Tony Jones has commented on the New Statesman
piece about Reading Labour, and you can read his comment along with the others as ... well, telling the truth anyway, which the Paul Gittings piece didn't.

Robert Mugabe would be proud

not content with telling everyone that they won the election really, the Reading Labour boys have on their website the Dear Leader as if he was still with the "moronic members of the public" - and they have Tony Jones as a Labour councillor!

not the best MP in Britain

I highlighted on Tuesday that WriteToThem.com, which monitors MPs' responses to their constituents, has rated Mr Salter "low" as he replied to only 31 out of 85 communications within a reasonable interval. Modesty forbids me to suggest that sometimes I break stories in Reading, but the Reading Chronicle has gone quite big on this, and says "Salter hits back" - he points out that he spends a lot of public money on postage writing to constituents, and of course to many people in other constituencies, especially Reading East but also Newbury, Wokingham and Henley. Er, missed the point Mr S. Your constituents who write to you do not expect to be put at the bottom of the pile behind polemics directed at Reading East and other neighbouring constituencies. Your writing to people telling them how wonderful you are is not the same as responding to your constituents' concerns. Your writing to people in Reading East trying to pass yourself off as the "Labour MP for Katesgrove" (much good that did on 1st May) should not be taking priority over Reading West concerns.

I was pleased also this week to be able to highlight Mr Salter's important new role on the commmittee for the draft Marine Bill, which upset Westminster Watch in the comments (perhaps he was keen to get a place on the committee and missed out). It was particularly pleasing that Mr Salter found out about this appointment from my blog, or from having the contents of my blog reported to him. The Chronicle cites Mr S as saying that there is a clause in the Bill on "catch-and-release" which will prevent "Eastern Europeans from taking fish for the pot or for commercial gain". Now I fully confess I have not read the Bill. Nor I imagine has the minister responsible for it. But I would struggle to see how even the most skilled parliamentary lawyer could draft something which specifically excluded "Eastern Europeans" from a particular activity. How could it be monitored? Speaking with a funny accent? Being Catholic and speaking with a funny accent? Mr Salter has said this before. Apparently the fish know when an "Eastern European" is poaching them, and they don't like it. Now an Englishman... Well, we know which dogs are being whistled at here, don't we, Mr Joe Baker of the Reading Angling Association?

a major U-turn

on constituency boundaries from Mr Salter in the House yesterday:

Martin Salter rose—
Mr. Hammond: I believe that the hon. Member for Reading, East is one of those Labour Members—
Martin Salter: It is Reading, West, which is the preferable part of the town. Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the early-day motion criticises not the thrust of the policy but its retrospective nature? That is the nub of the debate.
Mr. Hammond: To Conservatives, Reading is Reading, and it is a very sweet word.

My emphasis.

LibDems are a bunch of jessies - it's official

According to His Master's Voice here (so it must be true) there is going to be a minority Labour administration in Reading. Meet the new boss, just like the old boss. If that administration takes a decision which goes "against the grain", says LibDem leader Gareth Epps, then the LibDems will be a bit cross. Imagine:

Minority Labour administration: Ha ha ha, we won the election really! Fools! We'll destroy you all! Tractor production is up! Now we're concreting over Kings Meadow! Ha ha ha!

LibDems: Er, is this wise?

Minority Labour administration: Ha ha ha, we'll destroy you all, etc etc

Cllr Tony Jones: Both my grandfathers were coal miners.