West Berkshire Conservatives at odds with Cameron regarding using brownfield land for housing

David Cameron has just announced a policy to provide discounted housing to first time buyers. Part of the policy is that these homes should be be built on "brownfield" land. However, at last week's West Berkshire Council meeting the Conservatives voted in favour of a report that recommended that a review of protected employment land should not be done until after housing sites are allocated on "greenfield" land. This means that more greenfield land is being allocated than is necessary - please see what I said about it.

The new policy says that the price of the homes would be reduced by 20%. This would be paid for by removing "planning obligations" such as the requirements to:

• Provide affordable homes
• Contribute to expansion of schools
• Contribute to road improvements
• Pay the Community Infrastructure Levy

However, although superficially attractive, there are major flaws in the Conservative policy:

• Brownfield land is more expensive to develop, The land may need to be de-contaminated and there may be hidden problems under the ground.
• The cost of planning obligations is reflected in the price of land, not in the price of new homes. Developers pay less for the land because they know that they are going to have to pay for the planning obligations. The Conservative policy means that developers may not have to pay for the planning obligations for developing land that they bought at that reduced cost.
• It would reduce the number of affordable homes built for rent or shared ownership.

Alan Macro
Councillor for Theale
West Berkshire Council
www.theale.org.uk

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Why we need an English Parliament and Government

The Conservatives are promoting the idea that decisions that only affect England should be decided by only English MPs. This is superficially attractive, but has a major flaw. UK Government ministers are selected from MPs (and lords) representing constituencies in all countries of the UK. Under the Conservative idea, you could have ministers representing Scottish, Welsh or Norther Irish seats asking English MPs to vote for policies and budgets that they themselves cannot vote for. They may not, of course, get a majority of English MPs to vote for their proposals. There could be major conflict between what the full parliament and what the English subset would approve. This could lead to major constitutional problems.

We have had many Scottish and Welsh government ministers:

• Danny Alexander (Scot, First Secretary to the Treasury)
• Gordon Brown (Scot, Prime Minister and Chancellor)
• Alistair Darling (Scot, Chancellor)
• Alec Douglas-Home (Scot, Prime Minister)
• Bevan Aneurin (Nye) Bevan (Welsh, Health Minister)

Another alternative would be regional parliaments. However not all regions are well defined and not all of their inhabitants fully identify with them. Therefore the best solutions are an English Parliament with an English government reporting to it. The parliament and government should have the same powers as the Scottish assembly. The powers of the Welsh and Norther Irish assemblies should also be enhanced to match the Scottish Assembly.

Alan Macro
Councillor for Theale
West Berkshire Council
www.theale.org.uk

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Billy Connelly has got it exactly right about nationalism and Scottish independence

The Big Yin is quoted in today's Times as saying that nationalism is "the history of war and horror", adding "it is all based on the belief that, because you were born on that bit of planet, you are imbued with certain talents and gifts. It is nonsense. I am a citizen of the world and I like it that way."

I couldn't have put it better...

The full article can be viewed here (paywall)

Alan Macro

Fuss over UKIP's posters has played into their hands

UKIP unveiled its £1M worth of billboard posters yesterday. They were immediately branded as "racist" by Labour politicians and questioned about this by the media. This played into UKIP's hands - they got far more media coverage than if they hadn't been criticised.

I would not have called the posters that I have seen, like this one:

racist.

They are unfairly anti-immigrant and in very poor taste, but I don't think they are racist in the normal sense of the word.

Alan Macro

Blair wrong to urge the west to "reach out" to Putin in fight against Islamic extremists

Tony Blair is reported to be calling on the West to make "common cause with Putin" in the fight against radical Islam.

However, Blair has done more than anyone in Europe to encourage radical Islam by involving Britain in the second Gulf War. This was represented by radical Muslims as an attack on Islam, especially since the accusations that Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction" proved to be completely unfounded.

Putin's Russia has treated separatists in Islamic Chechnya very brutally. He is the very last person that we should be co-operating with.

I'm not sure that targeting "radical Islam", rather than Islamic extremists, is going to help win friends in the Muslim community either.

Alan Macro
Lib-Dem Councillor for Theale
West Berkshire Council

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Bio security - an effective alternative to badger culling

I have always been puzzled as to how badgers are supposed to infect cattle with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) given that the main method of disease transmission is via exhaled breath. The number of occasions that a cow breaths in breath exhaled by a badger must be very low compared to the number of times that they breath in breath from another cow.

I was therefore very interested to read this letter in The Times (paywall) by Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases Keith Neal (ignore the headline - this reflects the second letter). He says that the disease can also be passed in faeces and urine but:

• cows are unlikely to eat badger faeces
• urine quickly soaks into the ground

making direct disease transmission via these extremely unlikely.

He suspects that badger to cattle transmission may be caused by badgers getting into places where cattle food is stored and urinating on the food. He points out that the best way to stop this transmission id by better bio security (to stop badgers getting into such places) but that this requires expenditure by farmers.

In other areas of the world in which bTB has been reduced, such as Ireland, there has been a emphasis on improving bio security, among other measures.

Can ask.fm be banned? A more realistic way of tackling cyberbullying

The father of Hannah Smith, who committed suicide after cyberbullying, called for the ask.fm website she used to be closed down. That's understandable, however it is probably not possible. ask.fm is based in Latvia and does not appear to have broken any British or Latvian laws. Prime Minister David Cameron has told parents that they should tell their children "not to use these vile websites". I regard myself as being reasonably Internet savvy but not heard of ask.fm until this tragedy. How are parents supposed to know about such sites? How can they be expected to monitor their children's internet access when this may be outside the home on a smart phone?

One solution might be for an organisation to assess sites that allow posting by children and teenagers and give them a safety rating. They could look at things such as:

• whether anonymous posting is allowed
• the ease of reporting abuse
• whether the site is moderated
• number of staff available to investigate reports of abuse.

Such websites should then be encouraged to display the rating in a prominent place. Parents, children and teenagers could then be advised to look for the rating before using a site. Perhaps the NSPCC or Childline could get involved in this.

Schools also have a role to play. They should be advising pupils about the dangers of revealing personal information about themselves and of posting revealing photos of themselves. They should also be prepared to offer support to pupils who are being bullied, both physically and online.