Today Cllr Rupert Read and I are launching our campaign to become the joint External Communications co-ordinator for the Green Party’s national executive.
We believe we have the campaigning, communications and management experience to deliver winning campaigns in this General Election year. As elected councillors from two of the top target constituencies (Rupert from Norwich, Jason from Brighton) we can help ensure close collaboration during this critical year.
Going down with swine flu in the final few days of the Goldsmid campaign was pretty galling. I missed those golden last days of campaigning and of course the count…
When party chair Simon Williams rang me with the result I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the result was beyond my expectations. I had been quietly hoping for a narrow victory over the Tories, but a 350 vote margin – wow! Amy summed it up best with “Goldsmid: Epic Green Win”
Turnout was 9 points above the Regency by-election, I think a sign of the greater interest in the Goldsmid result and warmer weather (the Regency by-election was on a cold 13th December).
There has been some debate in the blogosphere over why people voted Green. Labour activist Dan Wilson argues Greens aren’t passionate about the city, that we’re using it as a vehicle for Westminster success. Nevertheless Wilson also claims Greens don’t have any achievements from 13 years on the council.
All I can say to Dan is, if we didn’t care about this city there’s no way we’d still be working our socks off 13 years later! Many changes were Green initiated from council webcasts to refusing directly elected mayors, much more in our archives.
I think Brighton Politics blogger is right to surmise that Labour’s collapse in support in Goldsmid had many good national and local reasons and that the city’s political landscape has changed. (Former?) Labour activist Neil Harding also agreed with this analysis. Of course fellow Green Cllr Ben Duncan also was keen to celebrate our success.
Mary Mears and others were quick to criticise our policies or claim our leaflets had been misleading. They somehow arrogantly prefer to assume that voters are stupid than actually believe voters may have preferred the policies and approach used by the Green Party! Perhaps easier for our opponents to swallow when facing our second straight by-election win, first seat won off a Tory and first seat in Hove.
Having lead the design and writing of all of our leaflets in Goldsmid I’m very confident in stating they were truthful and straightforward. We discussed our policies on:
We also touched on our opposition to privatisation, ID cards, nuclear power & weapons, wars and council tax.
We additionally exposed some of the cosy votes Tories and Labour have taken together, giving each other additional allowances as well as forcing in the new council constitution a year early. Our leaflets had to rebut some of the false allegations from others and explain to voters that Alex was blocked by the Tory mayor from speaking on residents’ behalf.
I’m very happy with how the leaflets were received. Based on what I’ve seen from the opposition we not only covered far more policy than all the others combined, we were more positive and avoided personal attacks.
The other parties were all misleading about us at some point or another but Labour, as usual, excelled in false allegations. They claimed that Alex hadn’t attended local meetings when she had (in fact despite Labour Cllr Melanie Davies trying to block her), claimed Alex was a student when she isn’t and claimed she works for Caroline Lucas MEP when she doesn’t.
So, unless there’s truly a skeleton in the closet to be exposed, I think once again we see negative campaigning doesn’t work.
The Green success story continues, we’re set for more hard work in winning votes for the General Election. And the Green group of councillors know we need to work harder than ever to make this council work for the city and keep people’s faith in us. With power so finely balanced lots of negotiation and detailed proposals will be required but we might, just might, be able to get more Green policies in place if councillors in all parties can stay open minded and resist petty back-biting. We shall see…
Back in September 2005 I was in Canada for a cousin’s wedding. I had been married about 3 months, my new wife was expecting our first child and we were driving around Quebec and Ontario to meet family while sight seeing.
The local radio was mind numbingly poor, far too smooth the whole time. So we stopped at an HMV to buy a CD. We decided on a Jackson compilation. The clerk gave me ‘deeply uncool’ look, clearly displeased with our choice.
This double CD of Jackson 5, the Jacksons and just MIchael was played non-stop for hundreds of miles, it went the distance.
We found it the other day and it’s seeing heavy play again. I refuse to judge Jackson’s private life, I have no idea what of we know about it is true anyway! What I do know is that he was extremely generous, holding a Guiness record for most charities supported by a pop star.
The man was an extraordinary dancer, talented songwriter and gifted singer. But above all he was so breathtakingly in the moment when he performed – he totally embodied his performances. That’s something I deeply admire. RIP.
You may have been aware of the grand plans a good number of colleges in Brighton & Hove had been preparing over the last two years. These plans involved new facilities, amazing new buildings, incredible resources and flights of architectural imagination. Certainly I didn’t agree with all the detailed plans but I welcomed the additional resources scheduled to be ploughed into education in our local colleges.
But the resources weren’t in fact there. In an astonishing, jaw-dropping tale of mismanagement it subsequently emerged that the Learning & Skills Council, a government quango, had massively overpromised. They had told hundreds of colleges to proceed with their plans, take out loans and hire consultants, architects etc to flesh out their plans. However finally the LSC had to admit they couldn’t afford to pay for all the schemes they had initially suggested should proceed.
How so many colleges could be led up the garden path by a government body beggars belief, it’s an epic cock-up whereby hundreds of colleges will be left out of pocket due to government failings – taxpayers are paying for these problems.
A committee of MPs have come to similar conclusions. More from the excellent Westminster blog I Spy Strangers (who I feel report on Parliamentary business in an old fashioned way – which is a good thing in this context):
A committee of MPs has castigated the âfinancial fiasco of the capital programme in further education collegesâ and blamed the âheinously complicatedâ management structure at the Learning and Skills Council.
…
âBut, as we set out in this report, no-one was keeping an eye on the total amount of money which was being committed and the value of applications coming forward.
âIn December 2008 it suddenly dawned on the senior management of DIUS and the LSC that the total potential cost of projects which had received âApproval in Principleâ exceeded the capital budget and many more applications were in the pipeline.
âFar from trying to damp down increasing demand in 2008 the LSC had been encouraging it.”
I hope Brighton & Hove’s colleges pull through this, I know we’ll support them 100% in trying to recoup their losses from the government.
Care UK's Managing Director Mark Hunt is highly misleading when quoted in a recent article in The Argus “Health centre 'reservations'” which covers the panel report on the GP-led clinic . Mr Hunt claims that “93% of our NHS walk-in centres are rated as excellent or good”. However Care UK's website reports only 4 such clinics, add in the fifth just opened in Brighton and you still can't make 93% into a whole figure.
Mr Hunt seems to be quoting his firm's interim financial report for 2009 which claims a “93% 'Excellent' or 'Good' overall patient experience in Care UK's Primary Care services”. So this figure covers more than just the walk-in centres which are a small part of Care UK's business. Mr Hunt also failed to state that it was a patient experience rating which, while important, does not cover the clinical issues only qualified inspectors could check.
Mr Hunt also claimed Care UK has “an outstanding reputation for high quality services across the country” but nobody would believe that if they had seen the BBC Panorama documentary detailing his firm's failings in providing care for the elderly. Care UK were sacked by Hertfordshire County Council less than a year into a contract, the NHS also terminated a diagnostic services contract with them in the West Midlands. Care UK have had critical reports from inspectors of the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Healthcare Commission. The problems experienced at Care UK's Sussex Orthopaedic Treatment Centre in Haywards Heath have already been previously discussed on this blog.
Mr Hunt is not being straightforward with The Argus' readers. I sincerely hope the new health centre in Brighton provides excellent quality care, but I'm deeply concerned by Care UK's appointment and that NHS contract procedures did not allow its previous problematic history to be properly taken into account.
I'm sorry to say I wasn't all too surprised when I heard the sad news that a body had been found in Newhaven, thought to be from a Brighton waste collection. As the details emerged it's been confirmed that as far as we know Scott Williams was alive and well when he went into a bin for respite from the weather.
From what we know at the moment, I believe Mr Williams was in a commercial waste bin, not one of the city council's communal bins. My understanding from previous dealings with commercial waste problems is that businesses should keep their bins locked at all times — so someone failed in that duty. We also know that rough sleepers on at least one occassion have narrowly missed a similar fate after sleeping in one of the council-provided bins. This issue is a risk for all waste collectors.
The enormous pressure for efficiencies on all services has inevitably led to fewer staff, more automation and daily pressure for rounds to be done as quicjly as possible. We all want value for money and taxes to be kept as low as reasonably possible – hence the disgust at MPs' abuse of taxpayer funds to their own personal benefit.
With bins we see so few staff on rounds that they don't have time or capacity to check bins for rough sleepers before emptying them. Brighton & Hove has a high level of rough sleeping and homelessness issues, we should be checking these bins more carefully.
I feel this story points to the bigger issues in so many ways:
Drinking is all too often the common factor across so many tragic stories in the news. A recent scrutiny report by councillors highlighted that Brighton & Hove's teenagers are above the national average for drinking. How do we turn-around the culture which leads to drink fuelled accidents, violence and health problems?
We need to be producing so much less waste, which would mean fewer large bins for people to use as a refuge.
There are potentially some good economies of scale and interesting possibilities if local councils were to collect commercial waste from shops and restaurants. This could replace the four or five private firms all sending trucks to different premises on the same streets in addition to council collections for residents.
The pressures for efficiencies and cost cutting never diminish. The fight over the political middle ground by Labour, Tories and LibDems leads to incrementalist policies which do little or nothing to reform the fundamental systems and processes on which our government is based.
So called 'big debates' are fought over tax credits, 10p tax rates and so on. Yes this do hit people in the pocket – but we're arguing over tweaks really. We Greens want to scrap the complex raft of means-tested, forms-based credits, rebates and top-ups in favour of a simple to administer Citizens Income. We would also eliminate the unfair system of council tax which exacerbates local government's financial woes. Instead we would have a land value tax which not only would be fairer but would discourage properties being left empty, firms running huge speculative 'land banks' and would encourage people living in houses of a suitable scale.
Scott Williams' death was all to preventable. But we won't be able to create a people-centred system of government services without more fundamental reform than the fiddling round the edges the other parties are fighting over.
Yesterday I joined the Seafront Business Association in Bartholomew Square outside Brighton Town Hall to express our concern at the huge rent increases the Council is trying to impose on seafront businesses.
People love Brighton's unique seafront with its wide variety of unique, independent shops, pubs and clubs. The level of interest was very encouraging with BBC South Today, Meridian, The Argus, GSCene, Brighton Visitor all coming to cover us. I'm told we were also reported on several local radio stations.
I then presented the petition at the Council's Cabinet meeting, asking Council Leader Cllr Mary Mears for a response. Cllr Mears response was couched in lots of sympathy and concern for local businesses but basically argued that the Council have to get market rates for our popular seafront. She did say that she'd instructed officers to be sensitive and sympathetic to the difficulties businesses were experiencing at this time, a tacit acknowledgement that the approach thus far has been heavy-handed and legalistic.
The problem remains however that the Council's consultants seem to be valuing the rents based on the businesses being hugely profitable, running 12 months a year and that they didn't have significant upfront investment costs. Most of the current traders took on virtually derelict arches and spent large sums to get them into shape for business. Furthermore most cannot and do not trade all year round because of the weather. All it takes is one bad summer to put them on the edge.
I didn't hear any action to re-calibrate how council valuations are being done so the fight goes on…
Press release: Seafront traders take on town hall
UPDATE: Video of presenting the petition now online…
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/ptN0QNhKC8w&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
UPDATE 2: Video of the BBC South report now online too…
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/JW8_MabYHxA&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
I’m very pleased that the report into Care UK being contracted to run Brighton & Hove’s GP-led clinic contract was approved by today’s full Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee. We’re going to keep watching Care UK’s performance very carefully given the criticism they’ve come under for other contracts across the country.
More detail in my press release which is copied below.
You can read the full panel report on the Council website here.
My earlier blog post on Care UK and private corporations getting involved in the NHS.
REPORT RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT QUALITY OF CARE AT NEW HEALTH CARE CENTRE
A special report looking at why Care UK was chosen to run Brighton’s new ‘GP-Led health centre’ has raised concerns about the ability of the company to deliver quality care. *
The report, produced by members of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC), states ‘members still have reservations about Care UK’s ability to deliver the quality of care required it is evident that special measures must be put in place for monitoring the early progress of this contract.” **
Green City Cllr Jason Kitcat, who sits on HOSC and is also the Green Group of Cllrs’ spokesperson on Health issues said:
“Our investigation found problems with both the method used by the PCT to decide who should run the health centre, and their final choice of Care UK.
“The whole selection process seemed to unfairly favour big business over smaller and more local providers, because of the complex and intensive bid system.
“In choosing Care UK, the PCT have plumped for a company with a very mixed reputation – their management of the Sussex Orthopaedic Treatment Centre led the Healthcare commission to put it in special ‘measures’ after concerns were raised about hygiene among other things.
“In light of this, we’re urging the PCT to monitor the new health centre very closely and want a comprehensive update on how things are going after the first year.
“I’m really pleased we were able to find a cross-party consensus while drawing up this report, and would like also to commend the PCT for their co-operation with our investigation.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
Following detailed questioning by Cllr Jason Kitcat and members of Keep our NHS Public Brighton, the Chair of the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee called for a panel to be formed in March 2009. The panel examined the process and bidders involved in the procurement process for a city centre GP-led health centre. These health centres are a national initiative created on the insistence of Labour health minister Lord Darzi.
The new ‘GP led health centre’ in Brighton opened on the 1st of July 2009, on Queen’s Rd, Brighton.
** Please see pages 65 – 66 of the report
For more information, please call Cllr Jason Kitcat on 07956 886 508
The age of deference has long gone, and I don't mourn it's loss. To me deference carried with it unquestioned authority which led to paternalism.
However deference and familiarity are not inherently tied together. It is striking how people struggle (probably unconsciously) with how to address one other in correspondence. For example in recent emails and letters I have had:
Dear Councillor
Dear Mr Kitcat
Dear Cllr Kitcat
Dear Jason Kitcat
Dear Jason
I don't wish to be overly formal. I also am certainly not looking for deference. I very much see my role as being a servant of the people.
But for someone I've never met, let alone corresponded with, I personally wouldn't open a letter on firstname terms. I wouldn't greet them on firstname terms either when I first met them.
In many cases I think people aren't aware of the distinctions: they rarely write formal letters or emails and so just write them as they would a message to a friend.
Others do intentionally use familiarity as a tool in managing relationships. Officers in some public services are notable for always using first names, perhaps that's their training.
Why does it matter? I think properly addressing people says something fundamental about how we treat each other and respect each other.
There's little I can do about this issue except try to correspond in the way I think most appropiate but I hope that by blogging it I might at least raise awareness amongst my tiny readership!
I'm reading Peter Oborne's excellent “The Triumph of the Political Class” and it probably couldn't be a better time to be reading it as Parliament continues to dig itself into a deeper hole. I wish I could quote whole swathes of the book on this blog, but I shan't. It is a shame more of Mr Oborne's work isn't readily accessible online – there is an excerpt of the book here on the Daily Mail website which doesn't seem to be that reliable at the moment.
Anyway one thing that struck me in the book is Oborne's absolutely searing yet precision attack on the relationship between the new political class and the media, he argues that they have in many cases become one. For example Sky’s Political editor Adam Boulton being married to key Blair advisor Anji Hunter.
Oborne argues that, along with the increasing disregard for Parliament, a situation arose where politicians and reporters colluded in reporting unreal events as being reality – statements never really said, actions never taken, figures based on no facta and so on.
The Tories were not doing well in this Blairite environment where so many connections, lunches and favours intertwined the media and New Labour people. So, in the same way that Blair outdid the Tories to win office, now Cameron is trying to be the Better-Blair. Like Blair, Cameron comes across well on TV, but he also is not honest about his policies or values. A Blair mimick is the last thing we need right now. Blair was in many ways a disaster for this country, leading as he did an assault on our democratic system, human rights, civil service, position in the world through ill-advised wars and undermined the status of MPs in our mode of governance.
Cameron offers nothing new and I just hope more people will realise that Cameron is not an alternative to Labour. It's the same kind of thinking, the same kind of new-politico-media people with the same dishonest values which got us into this mess.
There are honourable exceptions but Parliament as a whole has failed to hold the executive to account, to prevent expenses abuses or to stand up to the epic scale of dishonesty being perpetrated by our politicians. Oborne has documented so many huge mistruths and inexcusable omissions that one is left to believe the entire culture of Parliament is rotten – and they have got away with it.
Cameron, Brown, Clegg and their lot have been party to these acts for a long time. They are a disgrace to politics and we deserve better.
Jason Kitcat 