Regency Ward is incredibly rich in wonderful architecture, much of it protected. Indeed the old Royal Alex childrens' hospital is in a conservation area itself. Which was why the developers who bought the land it sits on need separate permission to demolish as well as permission to build.

The original plans submitted by the developers were ghastly and completely lacking in imagination. They were the same old recycled designs for blocky flats with the sweetener of a doctor's surgery. The drawings showed a total lack of respect for the surrounding area and no attempt whatsoever to reflect the unique history and character of the area. Frankly the plans added insult to the injury of their desire to flatten the old King Alex.

The south and east-facing facade of the main building, in particular, are full of character and history. These are the minimum the Green Party would want to see preserved from the existing building. Regency residents want to keep the building and its green space (currently hidden by horrible hoardings) – it's a familiar and well loved old character.

Thanks to the lobbying of residents working with Green councillors the developers were forced to withdraw their applications. Of course we expect them to submit again. If they once again show a lack of regard for the Regency's unique architectural character and want to flatten the building, we'll fight their every step.

I think elections are fantastic, and I love the opportunity they provide to meet people. Over the past few weeks I have been out in Regency ward daily knocking on doors and meeting people all over the place. The Green Party has such a positive message, so many good things we want to achieve for Brighton & Hove, that it's a pleasure to be out there.

So many people appreciate the opportunity to engage with real politicians and political activists. Politics becomes real when you talk about it on someone's doorstep, when they challenge your views or ask for your help. It's wonderful, energising and very grounding. I also love the physicality of it – being outside, shaking hands and reminding yourself how every single street is unique.

Sometimes people are out or they are busy — perhaps giving their baby a bath or in the middle of a telephone call — that's all fine. What I do find challenging are those who answer the door with “Sorry, not interested.” When pressed it's not that they're not interested in the Green Party but that they're not interested in the election or politics.

Of course there's more to life than local politics, but everyone notices when the bins aren't emptied, hospital service is poor or police non-existent. If you're busy, say so and I'll move on; if you don't wish to discuss your politics in public, I respect that choice; and if you wish to vote for another party, let's chat about it! But if you think you have no interest at all in how your city is run and the direction it sets itself for the future… well then I'm not sure I believe you. I think actually you're saying you don't believe in politicians to set those directions. If so then I think talking is exactly what we need to do.

While I'm out on the streets of Regency asking for your votes in the up-coming by-election, back in the world of the web I can also ask for your votes. I'm absolutely delighted that this site has been nominated to the blogs shortlist for the Brighton & Hove Web Awards 07.

You can vote for this site online now. Please vote!

This week has absolutely zipped past. On Monday I learnt the sad news that Dr Hermione Roy, a Green Councillor for Brighton's Regency ward had been forced to step-down due to ill-health. We're all wishing Hermione a swift recovery and offer our thanks for her many contributions.

On Tuesday Brighton & Hove Green Party counted the votes for our local executive and I was delighted to be declared the new Chair. Earlier that day a selection process had been begun to choose a candidate for the by-election Hermione's resignation has triggered.

I'm deeply honoured to have been selected by the local party at a very well attended special meeting last night. I'm looking forward to campaigning in the wonderful Regency area over the coming weeks and to working with the ward's other Green Councillor, Sven Rufus. I absolutely love canvassing, though this will be my first winter election so gloves and hat will certainly be needed!

Now that my work observing the May 2007 elections is done, I can look forward to what the future will bring.

I still have a number of committments relating to my ORG work, specifically speaking at the main party conferences and at an e-voting workshop. However it was the election observation work itself that required my maintaining strict political neutrality.

Now that the obersvation is over and our report has been published, I can return to party politics. I'm a passionate member of the Green Party and believe we're entering a critical time for Green politics and the Green agenda as a whole.

So I've decided to put myself forward for the South East region European Parliamentary list. The regional Green Party will be having hustings and a vote over the next couple of months at the end of which I hope to be high up our list. There are so many issues I care deeply about ranging from transport policy to peace and human rights to organic farming and slow food. Now that I'm free to speak and committing more time to political life, I'm keen to do more writing about these topics, online of course!

Looking around the web many people opt for maintaining lots of different blogs. I can see how this might be easier as it lets you keep various topics in their own silos. But I've learnt, the hard way, how much energy it takes keeping many different sites running. So, rather than set something new up, I have re-organised this site to simplify and make space for some more political posts. (Details on changes to the site at the end of this post) I'm also very excited that in Brighton Pavilion constituency my local Green Party have already conducted our candidate selection and the extremely impressive Caroline Lucas MEP has been picked in the Greenest constituency in the land.

It's now or never for making a difference that will protect our planet for future generations. I'm getting stuck in…

Changes to the site

For existing readers a few pointers on blog category changes:

• Postal and e-voting are now under voting
• Geekery and Online Communities are now under technology
• Site news and other are now under notes from JK
• e-democracy and e-government have been merged into e-democ / e-gov

Additionally I have decided to stop allowing comments to be posted against blog posts, however all existing non-spam comments will be kept online. This is nothing to do with spam however. I've just found that comments just aren't really very useful. I'm decreasingly inclined to read them on other sites and anyone can reply to a blog post in their own blog (which are free and easy to setup) or by email. So adieu comments, John Gruber sums up my view:

No, I don’t have comments, but if you write something smart about something I wrote, there’s a good chance I’ll link to it.

I've been meaning to make this change for a long time. The rather obscure j-dom.org address I was using has been replaced with the blindingly obvious jasonkitcat.com.

Nothing else has changed, no links will be broken and you don't need to update your address book. Thanks for reading.

I've now put online my last six columns for LinuxUser magazine. Writing a monthly column has been a fun experience and a good challenge in writing – I've had to submit the words each month as opposed to posting when the inspiration comes to me.

I must say that the several months when I felt without a topic, often it was knowing that I had to write which made me come up with some of my favourite columns. So there is something in that advice to new writers to just keep on writing.

In other news I've revamped the links to blog entries, making them much shorter – but old format links will still work. This should all be reflected automatically in menus and the RSS feed but do let me know if you find any oddities.

It has come to this I'm afraid… My wife has lost her pregnancy weight and I'm still flabby. My best suits don't fit anymore… and I have two weddings to attend this summer.

Yes it's time for radical, immediate action. With immediate notice I'm giving up all ice cream, ice cream derivatives and substitutes until my birthday, 14th September. At that point I will enjoy only in moderation with appropriate supervision.

Given the heat we're feeling in Brighton these days I know this will pose a serious challenge. I'm a big (yes, yes) Ben & Jerry's fan… I love the history of the company and I adore their creamy, chunky delights. I've had a history of eating a 500ml tub in one sitting. Let me report that I've now got this guzzling down to only a half-tub. Given the fat in just 100g of BJ goodies this is still very much not good.

The last few days I've been resisting all frozen temptations but today has been a real struggle. So before I cracked I decided to make it into a bit more of a definable journey instead of just 'resist, resist, must resist… oh sweet sweet ice cream, I still love you (then inaudible as face disappears into tub)'

My last dance with Ben & Jerry was their scarily moreish 'Wich – How the biscuit bit stays soft and chewy even though it's frozen, I don't want to know. It's all goooood. Probably best if I don't think about that too much.

So that's the plan. No ice cream until mid-September. I'll let you know what happens. I think my wife knows what to buy me for my birthday.

Newborn baby induced sleep deprivation brings a new found appreciation for the glorious powers of coffee. I've always loved coffee but our life-long romance is finding new depths in these sleepless days.

Over the years I've tried more than my fair share of coffee from all over the world. Costa, Starbucks, Neros… of course. Blends from Whittard, Nespresso, supermarkets and small shops. I've tasted espressos in Rome, Toronto, Paris, Montreal and Havana. Drinking Jamaican Blue Mountain beans I'd actually bought in Jamaica was a particular highlight – wonderful beans which are absurdly expensive in the UK. I mourn the old Seattle Coffee Company that thinly veiled Startbucks investment vehicle which they then acquired to officially enter the UK market after Seattle had proved the market's viability. Their Sugar Daddy Americano was quite gorgeous. I'm not the only one who misses them it seems.

But all that doesn't matter as a about six months ago I discovered, without doubt, the greatest coffee in the whole wide world. I was at Clapham Junction station, on my way to see a client. It was cold and I needed a pick-me-up so I stopped at a tiny coffee kiosk on one of the platforms. Covered in orange panels it proclaimed to sell fairtrade organic coffee. I'd passed the kiosk thousands of times without trying it, today was the day.

I ordered a latte and the friendly staff encased in their tiny box of a kiosk began their ministrations on the steaming monster of a coffee machine.

When I received my drink and tried it, I couldn't believe the taste. Rich, earthy, deep and slightly sweet. I looked inside, yes it was coffee – amazing! It was reminiscent of that Ally McBeal coffee tasting scene with Georgia…

Anyway I asked them where they got their coffee from and it's from a fine company called Union Coffee Roasters. They have a incredible selection of roasts and blends which you can buy from their site. I started off with their Espresso Collection to help me sample their roasts – they were all wonderful. But for me the winner was and still is the blend I first tried that cold day in Clapham. The divine Organic and Fairtrade Natural Spirit Blend.

Enjoy. I do, a cup at a time!

At 1.03am on Sunday 19th March our little baby girl, Ella Izabela Kitcat, was born. We'd planned a home birth but we ended up in the hospital. It wasn't the cosy experience we wanted but mum is totally ok and we now have a beautiful, big healthy girl.

First up, it's true true true, sleep does seem like a very distant memory. But the joy and laughter she brings is just boundless – the effort that goes into caring for Ella diminishes into nothingness with every grin, gurgle and squeak. She's just so adorable.

Some tips for others about to embark on their journey into baby life. You get inundated with so many product samples, brochures and coupons around this time it can get overwhelming. Here are three pointers:

Mea culpa I thought baby wipes were a dumb marketing ploy to squeeze more cash out of parents. But I take it all back – baby wipes save the day with every nappy change. We use the wonderful unscented bio wipes from Nature boy & girl which are sold in Boots.

What I was right on with was that Dr Harvey Karp's Baby Bliss: Your One-Stop Guide for the First Three Months and Beyond was a life-saver for us. It's simple, easy-to-follow advice based on what cultures around the world have been doing for hundreds of years. If you have a baby under 6 months check it out now, it all works.

Finally we tried the whole gamut of nappies for newborns. The big brands didn't really work that well for Ella. Also we weren't happy with the bleach, perfumes and other chemicals in those brands. As I expected, we ended up with an ecological, biodegradable brand, the Moltex Oko. It peforms better than the other brands, is bleach and other chemicals free and really good value when bought online.

That's it for now. I promise not to bombard people with kiddie stuff… Instead for more great parenting advice visit Netmums