Tories may 'lose broadband vote'

In article ,
J G Miller wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where needed.

This makes life a bit simpler for the residents of these areas,
who don't have to try and remember "who deals with what" when it comes
to roads, refuse collection, highways, council tax, schools, etc...

So who deals with the local ambulance service, or the local fire and
emergency service, or the local police service, all of which used to
be under county council control.

In many areas the Police force covers more than one County, so this
shouldn't be a probem. Ambulance services are provided by the NHS not teh
County Council. Even some Fire & Rescue services cover wide areas eg the
London Fire & Resue Service works across many boroughs.

It's a good job that public opinion put Prescott in his place on that
one!

Yes, Scotland and Wales get devolution from Westminster but not the
more populous regions of England.

--
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On 18/03/2010 21:34, charles wrote:
In ,
J G wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where needed.

And writing as a (Welsh) community council member, I would agree with you!

This makes life a bit simpler for the residents of these areas,
who don't have to try and remember "who deals with what" when it comes
to roads, refuse collection, highways, council tax, schools, etc...

So who deals with the local ambulance service, or the local fire and
emergency service, or the local police service, all of which used to
be under county council control.

In many areas the Police force covers more than one County, so this
shouldn't be a probem. Ambulance services are provided by the NHS not teh
County Council. Even some Fire& Rescue services cover wide areas eg the
London Fire& Resue Service works across many boroughs.

Absolutely. In my area, Gwent Police covers the counties/county
boroughs/cities of Monmouthshire, Newport, Caerphilly, Torfaen and
Blaenau Gwent.

Similarly, Avon and Somerset Constabulary covers Bristol, Somerset,
North Somerset, Bath & Northeast Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Police services are organised on a regional basis rather than being
county-based, and sometimes still use the names of former counties which
no longer exist (examples: Avon and Gwent).

In the case of Wales, the ambulance service is organised on a national
basis.
http://www.ambulance.wales.nhs.uk/

George

In article ,
George Weston wrote:
On 18/03/2010 21:34, charles wrote:
In ,
J G wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where needed.

And writing as a (Welsh) community council member, I would agree with you!


as a matter of interest, do the Welsh Community Councils have revenue
raising powers? I know that in pre-devolution Scotland they didn't because
the Governemsnt in the 1920s didn't like the way the Scottish Parish
Councils were spending their revenue (on poor relief) so the PCs were
abolished and CCs put in their place operating with a block grant. This
may have changed post Devolution - I don't know.

--
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Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16

On 18/03/2010 22:27, charles wrote:
In ,
George wrote:
On 18/03/2010 21:34, charles wrote:
In ,
J G wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where needed.

And writing as a (Welsh) community council member, I would agree with you!


as a matter of interest, do the Welsh Community Councils have revenue
raising powers? I know that in pre-devolution Scotland they didn't because
the Governemsnt in the 1920s didn't like the way the Scottish Parish
Councils were spending their revenue (on poor relief) so the PCs were
abolished and CCs put in their place operating with a block grant. This
may have changed post Devolution - I don't know.

Yes - our community council sets a precept on the county council but the
amount is chicken-feed, just enough to pay the (part-time) clerk's
salary, to make small grants to deserving local organisations and to pay
for our ongoing responsibilities in maintaining graveyards in local
churchyards.
The only money claimed for members is £300 per year chairman's
allowance, which enables him or her to perform their civic functions
without going out of pocket. The rest of the elected members do the job
for nowt, despite incurring personal costs for phone calls, travelling,
printing, etc.
Yes, I know - we're bloody daft - that's probably one of the reasons
that I sit here bashing away on newsgroups rather than getting out more!

George

George Weston wrote:


One way might be to make the UK into a Federal country, like the US or
Germany, divided into four States, with each state having equal
law-making and local taxation powers, with the UK government being
solely concerned with higher matters of state, for instance defence,
foreign policy, etc.?


Go one better, its a union of four countries already.

So devolve an English parliament to balance that issue, and split it
into shires as it always was, and where appropriate, town, county
borough and parish councils, with ALL matters that have no impact
outside a given authority being ENTIRELY the responsibility of that
authority.

If Brighton wants to ban heterosexual bars, let it.

For example.


And tell Europe that while we are delighted to be part of it, and have
free trade with it, people and goods and laws that do not pass national
boundaries are none of its ****ing business.


George

David Rance wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 George Weston wrote:

The Royal County of Berkshire exists but in name as a geographical
entity. The unitary authorities within Berkshire are Reading BC,
Bracknell Forest BC, Slough BC, Wokingham DC, West Berks Council and the
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Thanks for that - a prime example of what a mess results from
splitting up an historic shire county into small pieces!
I can understand cities within the area of shire counties doing their
own thing but Berkshire doesn't have any!
(In any case, as far as I'm concerned, Slough is still in
Buckinghamshire - and I'm sure that the majority of Berkshire
residents would have similar feelings!)

Many years ago Reading was a County Borough. Then in the 1970's
reorganisation it lost that status, but now it appears to have regained
what it lost - or has it? It is canvassing for city status but it's
doubtful if it will get it.


needs a cathedral first. Or possibly these days a mosque.

David

George Weston wrote:
On 18/03/2010 21:34, charles wrote:
In ,
J G wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where needed.

And writing as a (Welsh) community council member, I would agree with you!

This makes life a bit simpler for the residents of these areas,
who don't have to try and remember "who deals with what" when it comes
to roads, refuse collection, highways, council tax, schools, etc...

So who deals with the local ambulance service, or the local fire and
emergency service, or the local police service, all of which used to
be under county council control.

In many areas the Police force covers more than one County, so this
shouldn't be a probem. Ambulance services are provided by the NHS not
teh
County Council. Even some Fire& Rescue services cover wide areas eg the
London Fire& Resue Service works across many boroughs.

Absolutely. In my area, Gwent Police covers the counties/county
boroughs/cities of Monmouthshire, Newport, Caerphilly, Torfaen and
Blaenau Gwent.

Similarly, Avon and Somerset Constabulary covers Bristol, Somerset,
North Somerset, Bath & Northeast Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Police services are organised on a regional basis rather than being
county-based, and sometimes still use the names of former counties which
no longer exist (examples: Avon and Gwent).


which IMHO is utter crap. You dont want vast monolithic organisations,
you want stratification. Regional crime squads probably need to be
national crime squads, but the bobby on the beat needs to be YOUR bobby,
from YOUR patch in a station that isn't 40 miles away, that you can talk
to easily, cos he hangs out in the local pub.


In that sense most other countries have local cops and national cops.

In the case of Wales, the ambulance service is organised on a national
basis.
http://www.ambulance.wales.nhs.uk/

George

George Weston wrote:
On 18/03/2010 22:27, charles wrote:
In ,
George wrote:
On 18/03/2010 21:34, charles wrote:
In ,
J G wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:10:02 +0000, George Weston wrote:

but they all have one thing in common, which is that they all cover
*all* council services in their areas.

Except where there are parish or town councils.

writing as a Parish Council Chairman, I should point out that very few
Parish Councils provide 'services' other than cemeteries - where
needed.

And writing as a (Welsh) community council member, I would agree with
you!


as a matter of interest, do the Welsh Community Councils have revenue
raising powers? I know that in pre-devolution Scotland they didn't
because
the Governemsnt in the 1920s didn't like the way the Scottish Parish
Councils were spending their revenue (on poor relief) so the PCs were
abolished and CCs put in their place operating with a block grant. This
may have changed post Devolution - I don't know.

Yes - our community council sets a precept on the county council but the
amount is chicken-feed, just enough to pay the (part-time) clerk's
salary, to make small grants to deserving local organisations and to pay
for our ongoing responsibilities in maintaining graveyards in local
churchyards.
The only money claimed for members is £300 per year chairman's
allowance, which enables him or her to perform their civic functions
without going out of pocket. The rest of the elected members do the job
for nowt, despite incurring personal costs for phone calls, travelling,
printing, etc.
Yes, I know - we're bloody daft - that's probably one of the reasons
that I sit here bashing away on newsgroups rather than getting out more!


Indeed. parish councils are utterly toothless anyway. They may
recommend, they may request, and they will be completely ignored IME.

The classic case here, in that John arsehole prescott, has decided that
there's lots of empty space in a true blue county, and therefore in the
name of affordable housing, he and a fat cat developer will conspire to
build houses where there is no work, no facilities, inadequate roads,
and turn a small market town into a dormitory town for another town 20
miles away, thereby increasing traffic, and wrecking what's here now.

And making a fat profit.

No one here wants it apart from the very few who stand to make a profit
out of it.

But the councils will get their grants cut if they dont go along with
it. So we get it, and travellers camps (EU subsidised) and overspill
from London (shiftless bloody crims and chavs) foisted on us. And guess
which way THEY will vote.

And they even had the bloody cheek, when I downloaded the 'comment'
form, to protest, to ask me what my age, sex, education, income, sexual
orientation, ethnic origin and religion were.

At which point I drew a line through it and told them that I was a
citizen of the nation, the county and the parish, and that frankly was
all they needed to know.

And under reasons for my objection, I told them that it was because I as
an aforesaid citizen of the aforesaid places, didn't want it, and nor
did any one else, and in a so called democracy that ought to be all THEY
needed to know.

I'm voting Tory, not because I am a tory, or have any great regard for
them really, but simply because they are the ONLY party apart from
possibly UKIP and the BNP, who are both too distasteful and unpleasant
to get my support, who seem to have any intention to give the country
back to the people who live in it. Free from all but the absolutely
unavoidable interference in their lives.


I've lived in a police state. I don't want to live in one again.



George

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:23:14 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

needs a cathedral first. Or possibly these days a mosque.

Birmingham was the first English municipality to achieve city status
without having a cathedral, and more recently Sunderland became a
city and it does not have a cathedral.

Conversely, although there is a cathedral in Chester, this municipality
lost its city status and was downgraded to borough in the recent merger
to become Cheshire West and Chester.

In article ,
J G Miller wrote:
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:23:14 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

needs a cathedral first. Or possibly these days a mosque.

Birmingham was the first English municipality to achieve city status
without having a cathedral, and more recently Sunderland became a
city and it does not have a cathedral.

Conversely, although there is a cathedral in Chester, this municipality
lost its city status and was downgraded to borough in the recent merger
to become Cheshire West and Chester.

Guildford also has a cathedral, but is not a city.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16