Jacqui Smith and RIPA

In April 2009 Jacqui Smith was reported as saying that councils have gone too far with using RIPA to snoop on people who commit minor offences such as littering and so on. The BBC says so here

She was to "launch a review after fears [that RIPA] was being used for "trivial offences". Mrs Rigby thinks it meant she was going to set up a committee, but it sounds like a good start.

But, it doesn't quite work out that way because in May 2009 Jacqui Smith is reported as having encouraged councils to recruit children to become "environmental volunteers", to report instances of littering and dog fouling as well as anti social behaviour, and people who put their bins out on the wrong day. It says so here

Also in May 2009 the Home Office, with Jacqui Smith as Home Secretary, was reported as giving increased powers to council employees such as dog wardens, car park attendants, park wardens and shopping centre guards to hand out on-the-spot fines of around £60 for misdemeanours - it says so here

Trained under the "Community Safety Accreditation Scheme" these people are known as "Accredited Persons".

Mrs R notes that this scheme isn't something new because The Police Reform Act (2002) (quote from Home Office site)

enabled Chief Constables to accredit employees of organisations who contribute towards community safety. People accredited under such a scheme are called Accredited Persons (APs) and can be identified by a nationally standardised badge which must be worn at all times.

According to the pdf "Acceptable Persons Powers" these are the "offences" these Accredited Persons have powers to deal with :-

They can issue fixed penalty notices for disorder, truancy, in respect of an excluded pupil in a public place, cycling on a footpath, dog fouling, graffiti and fly posting, littering, offences against dog control orders and certain byelaws

They have power to require the giving of name and address, power to deal with begging, power to require the surrender of alcohol, ditto for under 18s, power to seize tobacco from under 16s, power to remove abandoned vehicles, power to stop vehicle for testing, power to stop cycles, power to control traffic, power to direct traffic, power to photograph persons away from a Police station ...

... the list continues tabling offences for which Accredited Persons may issue fixed penalty notices, such as being in possession of Cannabis.

Now, Mrs Rigby remembers a time, it must be a million years ago, when bad people were arrested and could go to court proclaiming their innocence, or reasonable excuse. These days, with Jacqui Smith as Home Secretary, it doesn't even take a specially trained Police Officer or a PCSO to find somebody instantly guilty of a punishable offence, with summary justice handed out on the pavement.

Did Jacqui Smith, when she was speaking to the BBC, forget about these changes in the law when she complained about councils overstepping the mark? Did she forget she'd given ordinary people the power and authority to punish misdemeanours, and did she forget the budding army of pre-teen so-called "environmental volunteers" she's training to snoop on their neighbours?

PR and Mrs Rigby.

Sometimes things make Mrs Rigby feel a bit nice but dim, Proportional Representation has been one of those things.

Some politicians have been raising the idea that the current "First past the post" system of parliamentary elections is really unfair, for a few reasons.

a) The smaller political parties don't get many seats, if any.
b) The people who've voted for the smaller parties aren't represented
c) First past the post winner rarely gets "most" votes when all the votes cast for other parties are added together.

The CBBC site, probably says it better; the "Single Transferable Vote", or STV, has an explanation in Wikipedia - it's miles too long to repeat here; "Alternative Vote Plus" is explained by the BBC and "Additional Member System" is described by the Electoral Reform Society, which has a careful explanation of all PR voting systems.

Looking at these various ideas Mrs R has begun to wonder PR originates from the same sort of "It's not fair!" that's bleated out again and again when somebody gets a prize and loads of other people - who have tried hard - don't.

She wonders if it's the same sort of, "It's not fair" and "everybody should be equal" that totally confused Little Miss Rigby when she was seven and had her first school sports day. The children had to show off their ball skills and run races that weren't (to make sure nobody could be last) but unfortunately there were no real winners either, because everybody got a sticker before they went home. The teachers were delighted that nobody had ended the day in tears.

Now, you can't pull the wool over children's eyes - they know when they're being conned, and these children knew very well they hadn't done anything worthy of a special sticker - because it wasn't the same as getting one when they tried very hard with their colouring, got all their sums right, did some writing with no mistakes or read carefully during assembly.

Mrs Rigby has some simple examples of why she does not think PR is a good idea - not least because it's way outside our culture. She is also wondering who is trying to pull the wool over her eyes

In the real world there are winners and losers.

When a job is advertised there may be hundreds of applicants who will each have spent hours filling in complicated forms - they'll all have tried very hard, they'll each have done their very best, but at the end of it the employer will check Jacqui Smith's or Harriet Harman's rules about equal opportunities, and then choose the person they think is most suited for the job that's on offer.

Britain's Got Talent will end up with one winner - who will be chosen by public vote - the one with the highest number of votes wins. There's no question of ticking loads of different boxes to make it "fair" and "equal", it's simple maths and completely ignores the total number of votes cast, for all acts, when added together.

Musical hits are the ones with the highest sales; the winners in the marketplace are selected by sales volume, nothing else. In fact almost everything we touch is decided by a clear difference, not by some intricate formula designed to "make it fair".

So Mrs R looked a bit deeper, she thought it was really odd that a few years ago people like Gordon Brown thought PR was a silly idea, but high-ups in the Labour Party think it's great now - why?

Is it because somebody thinks his political party might not do very well at the next election?

Mrs R thinks this might be the case, she's realised that PR often leads to coalitions because it's hard to get a clear winner and she thinks somebody is getting rather desperate to cling to power, believing it's their right to lead this country. So, how are they going to manage to retain power - by Proportional Representation of course!

Hah!

No thank you!

Flags and Americans.

Hmm, so it happens in America too.

Woman Upset after American Flag Taken Down at Work
Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.

When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. "I was just totally speechless. I was like, 'You're kidding me,'" McLucas said.

McLucas' husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.

Stifling a cry, McLucas said, "I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing."

McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said that supervisor took down the flag herself.

"The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor," McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients' families and visitors had also complained.

"I was told it wouldn't matter if it was only one person," she said. "It would have to come down."

A lot of people made angry phone calls protested outside the hospital and ...

... late Wednesday morning, Kindred posted on its website a statement about the incident. It reads, in part: "The disagreement was over the size of the flag and not what it symbolized. We have invited the employee to put the flag back up."

Story first seen on Gates of Vienna here, where there are further comments worth reading and an update here .

Brown gets D-Day wrong, again!

Gordon Brown, bless him, seems to keep making mistakes when it comes to matters military.

He made a bit of a blunder trying to keep the Gurkhas out of Britain, so people made a fuss and he changed his mind.

He decided there was no need to do anything for the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, because he didn't realise there might be some old soldiers who thought it was important to remember their ten thousand or so friends and comrades-in-arms who died or were injured on the beaches of Normandy. Quite a few people made a fuss, so Mr Brown changed his mind and decided he'd like to go too - but he seems to have forgotten somebody a bit more important than him.

He managed to forget to make sure the Queen was invited to France for 6th June.

Mrs R thinks Mr Brown should know a bit about protocol. He should know that the Queen cannot simply invite herself to a foreign country - it isn't what heads of state do. In the old days a King, Queen, or even a Prince, who wandered into another country without first being asked was called an invader, even if they were in their eighties.

Mr Sarkozy, who's Hungarian-French, can't see what all the fuss is about either. He seems to think the commemoration should be a mainly French-American affair - perhaps he wants to meet up with his pal Mr Obama.

Maybe these important chaps rely on Hollywood for their history lessons, so think America won all the battles all on its' own, but fortunately there are plenty of French people, and plenty of British people who know what really happened - if not from our own memories it'll be from tales told by those who were there - and we won't forget, nor will we get it wrong.

We know that there are 27 War Cemeteries in Normandy, the final resting place of 17,769 British, 9,386 Americans, 5,002 Canadians and 650 Poles and over 77,000 Germans. We know that others others died at sea or as a result of air battles.

We know that our Queen (No230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor) wore her ATS uniform with pride during WWII and has, if anything, more right to be on the Normandy Beaches on 6th June 2009 these two younger men who appear to have no sense of either history or protocol.

Simon Weston, the Falklands War veteran said in the Mail

Mr Brown just seems to miss the point when it comes to the military, and anything to do with veterans seems to be a grudging afterthought.'

Mrs R tends to agree. She also sometimes wonders if Mr Brown can get anything right!

Mr Darling and his accountant get it wrong

Mrs R wouldn't like to be in Mr Darling's accountant's shoes this morning when they read this item in the Telegraph. She would have thought a good accountant would know the tax rules. :-

HMRC told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday night that MPs were not exempt from tax laws and that tax must be paid on some expenses.

In a statement it said: “It’s a general principle of tax law that accountancy fees incurred in connection with the completion of a personal tax return are not deductible.

“This is because the costs of complying with the law are not an allowable expense against tax. This rule applies across the board.”

It also emerged that MPs had already been given specific guidance by HMRC prohibiting such tax- free claims, which accountants say constitute a “benefit in kind” and should be taxed.

Issued in 2005, the guidance states that “accountancy fees incurred in the preparation of the self assessment tax return or related expense claims” are “not allowed” as tax expenses.

Mike Warburton, an accountant at Grant Thornton, said: “HMRC produces very helpful guidance for MPs, which explains exactly what is allowable.

“MPs are responsible for their own tax affairs and for making their own declarations to the authorities.”

It rather worries Mrs Rigby that the Chancellor of the Exchequer needs somebody to check his Income Tax returns - in case he has made a mistake with his sums.

Somebody wants Scottish secession, with extras!

Mrs R spotted this comment in the Guardian yesterday, relating to an article written by Will Hutton

If the UK leaves the EU I will be one of the first in Scotland to sign-up for secession,joining the Euro, banning the English from taking jobs north of the border if there is a citizen from anywhere in the EU qualified and willing to take it, putting tariffs on all English imports....

Mrs R thinks this is a fair indication of the deep, ingrained, almost institutional, hatred that some Scots have of everything and everybody south of the border.

She reckons that if this person's wishes were ever fulfilled it should be on the condition that those Scots currently living in England, and in positions of authority within a country they may dislike, should return north!

An MP's threatening letter.

Mrs Rigby notes that some MPs don't seem to realise they're there to listen to their constituents, even if they don't like what they hear.

It's reported in the Mail today here that Brian Jenkins has written to his constituent Warren Clegg, threatening legal action concerning a letter in a local newspaper.

A Labour MP was accused of ‘bullying’ yesterday for threatening to sue a 21-year-old student who criticised him for not backing the Gurkhas.

Warren Clegg, a member of the Territorial Army, received the threat in a letter from his MP Brian Jenkins.

It was hand-delivered to Mr Clegg’s mother Julie Steggles at their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire – two days after her soldier husband John, Mr Clegg’s stepfather, had left to serve with the Army in Afghanistan.

Mr Jenkins, writing on House of Commons notepaper, said: ‘You have damaged my good name. It is my intention to seek legal redress unless you able [sic] to prove your allegations or are prepared to fully retract the offending comments and apologise unreservedly.’

In a letter two weeks ago to his local newspaper, Mr Clegg said: ‘I wrote to Mr Jenkins in support of the Gurkhas; as usual, my opinion as one of his constituents did not warrant a response.’

He said Mr Jenkins had ‘voted to keep the Gurkhas in poverty’ by not agreeing to let them settle in the UK.

Yes, some of the Mail article is padding - Mr Jenkins probably didn't know that one of the family had gone to fight in Afghanistan, probably didn't know that Warren Clegg is in the TA. And, maybe, Mr Jenkins was trying to save taxpayer's money by delivering the letter by hand.

But, instead, Mrs Rigby thinks he's highlighted a symptom of the country's malaise. You see, Mrs R has noted that the first thing a lot of people do when they run up against a problem is run to a lawyer - and attempt to get compensation of one sort or another. She hadn't expected an MP would do the same, especially not now, when politicians of all parties should be doing their utmost to rebuild the electorate's trust.

Mrs R would have thought his best route would have been to make an appointment, talk to the chap who wrote the letter, try to sort out their disagreement amicably and, maybe, even apologise - and mean it too, not with crocodile tears. Doing this could even have led to a positive report in the press, which might have helped him at the hustings.

Mrs Rigby thinks it's the duty and responsibility of our politicians to lead by example, and had thought they would realise that doing nothing about an irritation can sometimes lead to a good result.

By being heavy handed Mr Jenkins has brought this matter into the public eye.

Mrs Rigby wouldn't mind betting he wishes he hadn't bothered She wonders if he's just remembered that scratching a tiny little midge bite can make the itch a hundred times worse.

Audit - unavailable.

A questioner on Newsnight tonight mentioned that any spending of Public Money is required to be audited, by law. Apparently it's never happened to Parliamentary finances.

Mrs R went off to look at the Audit Commission, to see if she could find the rules. Unfortunately the site is broken, there's a little message that says :-

Internet Services are currently unavailable

Unfortunately all Audit Commission internet services are currently unavailable due to a system outage. We are working on the problem and expect a return to normal service tomorrow morning (Friday 22nd May).

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

© Audit Commission 2009

Mrs Rigby realised that it had probably been swamped by the number of hits. She wonders if any .gov site is run properly - she remembers the disaster that was the launch of the 1901 census online!

If you want to take a look for yourself the Audit Commission is here

Mrs R then wandered off to look at the Treasury site here, but there's no mention of Standard & Poor's statement - "United Kingdom Revised Outlook To Negative On Deteriorating Public Finances; 'AAA/A-1+' Ratings Affirmed"!

A "citizen" who lives in a "region".

Mrs R is asked, now and then, for her opinion.

The other day, in the profiling questions at the beginning, she was asked of which "region" she was a "citizen". These were the options : -

• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Mrs R wasn't aware that either of these were "regions" she had thought they were countries.

Maybe somebody, somewhere, knows something she doesn't and people like Mrs R are sleepwalking into a living in a Republic - because it's in those that individuals are referred to as "citizens".

Citizens is also a term that nice Mr Brown is using increasingly often when he refers to the people of the United Kingdom.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is on top of the world.

At sixty five Sir Ranulph is the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Everest, where he planted the Marie Curie flag at 01:00 UK time this morning, 21st May.

Well done Sir.

Mrs Rigby knows that Sir Ranulph, who suffers from prostrate cancer, has had a double heart bypass and lost the fingers of his left had through frostbite, is raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

He is hoping to raise £3 million, let's help him along the way.

His "Everest Challenge" site is here and here is where donations can be made.