A date for those left standing after the Referendum.

Duncan Brodie

It may be that you are totally exhausted by the Referendum and the continuing fall out from the debate.

However, I know that many are not, and, if not, here is just the event for you!

Articulate's series of business breakfasts continues in July with the opportunity to discuss the likely impact of Brexit on the UK economy and what a new relationship with the EU should look like.  There will be focus on the local economy and what Brexit might mean for your business.


The Guest Speaker will be Duncan Brodie, the Business Editor of the EADT, and the event takes place at the in Yaxley, at the lovely Auberge. on Wednesday 13th July between 8a.m. and 10.30 a.m.

For full details and to book FOLLOW THIS LINK. 

Deadline for bookings is 6th July.

An unkind cut? When should road verges be mown?

It’s the time of year that I start to receive calls from residents who are concerned that the verges have not been cut.

Full information about the Grass Cutting Programme across the county can be found on Suffolk County Council website HERE   I can divulge however  that on smaller roads the verge is only cut once a year .  The C road programme this year commenced on June 6^th.  The whole process will take around 6 weeks, so should be completed by the week beginning 18^th July.

It is very important that verges are not cut too early for reasons connected with biodiversity.  The charity Plantlife  has recently launched a campaign to encourage better management of verges.Information on this is available HERE.  If these are routinely cut too early some 700 species of plants are put at risk.  The practice is also bad for insect and birds that rely on plants for food. 

Suffolk’s policy, while better than cutting earlier, does not it seems represent absolutely the best practice.  Plantlife suggest that to achieve the best outcome for nature verges should not be cut until mid July to September.  However, the damage in Suffolk is somewhat mitigated by the fact that only a strip a little over a meter is cut, and a number of areas have been designated as wildlife sites, and are left uncut.  This is OK, but ideally some maintenance should be carried out on these sites from time to time.   I am not sure to what extent this happens, but at the end of the day as always limited resources have to be taken into account.

I spend a lot of time driving on C roads around the Division, and I am aware that one has to take a little more care at this time of year due to the occasional lower level of visibility caused by higher vegetation levels. Of course if a junction or corner becomes dangerous, the team will go out to remedy this as soon as possible.  Problems of this type should be reported on the County Council website.

I actually think that people drive much too fast on country roads, and believe that it is no bad thing if people find they need to slow down and enjoy the countryside at this beautiful time of the year.  In any event, we owe it to wildlife and the planet to go easy with the mowing machines. 

Paulo Bernard says it like it is

The Brenta canal in the lovely Veneto region; it's not just Venice that has canals.

Nick and I recently returned from a  trip to Italy.

We went to Verona and Padua, tourist destinations, but more provincial perhaps than Rome, which was the last place in Italy that we visited a couple of years ago.

We found a country, which , while still wonderful in many ways, was in other ways sadly diminished. This saddens me greatly.  I lived in Italy for almost a year when I left school and have always loved the country and its people.

We complain about our roads, but the pothole count in the Venento was of a completely different order, witness perhaps to the fact that public finances have really hit rock bottom.

The country has lost its fizz and confidence, even the food isn't what it was.

I think the reason why can be found by following this link from Paulo Bernard HERE.  This rather exciteable person is described as 'the most censored Italian economist'. 

I would suggest that you might glean more 'facts' about the European Union, and Britain's relationship with it,  from this clip than you did in the entire EU Referendum Campaign. Italy has not been served well by its membership of the EU, and it shows!

I cannot promise that this will be my last post about the EU, but I will do my best to move on now.

Is Brexit the death of Devolution?

It is possible that the decision to leave the European Community will prove to be the death knell of the Government's current so called 'Devolution' initiative. (I wrote about this a few days ago)

On Thursday the County Council is due to debate and vote on the issue.  However, it is possible that the change of Prime Minister and all that this entails will now significantly alter matters.  The project was very much the initiative of George Osborne, backed by Euro enthusiast Michael Heseltine.  It is probable however that very shortly others will be in the driving seat.

Moreover, many of the proposals are predicated on the assumption that we remain members of the EU.  The regions into which different parts of England are being herded look remarkably like the European Economic Regions dictated by Brussels.  The idea of an elected Mayor is copied from European practice.  The 'combined authorities' are needed in order to be the recipients of EU regional funding.

All this now looks somewhat redundant.  I will be urging my colleagues to think about ditching this fraudulent initiative (if it is not halted in any event) and start to consider how we can devolve real power to the people.

A new dawn breaks

View from the window.  24th June 2016 6.15 a.m.

 

Oh what joy, in the open air

Freely to breathe again!

Up here alone is life!

The dungeon is a grave.

FIRST PRISONER

We shall with all our faith

Trust in the help of God!

Hope whispers softly in my ears!

We shall be free, we shall find peace.

ALL THE OTHERS

Oh Heaven! Salvation! Happiness!

Oh Freedom! Will you be given us?

CHOR DER GEFANGENEN (Prisoners Chorus, Fidelio)

Devolution, a deal emerges

Yesterday the shape of the so called 'Eastern Powerhouse' devolution deal emerged.

It seems that differences with Cambridgeshire (who thought that an alliance with the backwoodsmen of Suffolk and Norfolk would 'hold them back') have not been resolved.  So what is now proposed are two separate devolved areas, once including Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and one for Norfolk and Suffolk.  Each area will enjoy the privilege of their own elected mayor and each will see the creation of a new 'combined authority'.  In the case of Norfolk and Suffolk, a representative from each of the 23 local councils will sit on this body.

Thus, as I have been warning for some time, devolution = an additional layer of government.

Quite detailed information about the deal can be found HERE.

In preparation for a meeting tomorrow at which the new deal will be discussed I have been looking at this, and my preliminary conclusions are as follows:-

1. This is less about devolution (which to me involves tax raising powers as well as devolved decision making) than local government reorganisation (again).  The amounts of money being devolved from central government directly are tiny and any local taxation will come from levies on business rates.  It is questionable however whether business can actually cope with much higher rates.  Also, reading the small print, central government is retaining a strong level of supervision over the activities of the new combined authorities.

2.  Any talk of increased localism is eyewash.  The people making the decisions will be sitting in a new combined authority which is no nearer to a parish council for example than the Government is now.

3.  The new combined authorities have the potential to become quite expensive, representing as they do a new layer of government with various attached committees and boards. (I have counted about nine of these while going through the relevant information).  In theory the funding of the combined authorities is supposed to come from 'existing resources' .  I have my doubts about this concept for a number of reasons.

4.   Potentially the County Councils are likely to be diminished in power and influence at the expense of the Districts, who will be relatively unaffected.

I hope that some of these doubts will be allayed by the proponents of this so called 'devolution' in the days to come.  A vote on the matter will take place at full council at the end of the month.

Quiz for Compassion yesterday

Well the staff at Newton Green Golf Club, and particularly the catering manager Hannah,  certainly did us proud at the Quiz for Compassion yesterday evening. The Quiz was well attended, and everyone very much enjoyed the comfortable venue and delicious hot supper provided.

The event was aimed at raising funds, and also the profile, of Compassion, the charity which aims to combat domestic abuse and support victims in the Babergh area.  Charity Administrator,  Elaine Jones, who worked really hard to make the evening a success,  is shown here with the Volunteer co-ordinator Caroline and two of her colleagues.

I am not really able to comment much on the quiz itself.   About two weeks ago our preferred Quiz master, Bryn Hurren, was taken ill, and we had to decide whether to go ahead or cancel the event. Since, after a slowish start, ticket sales had picked up strongly I took my life in my hands and offered to act as Quiz Master.   Nick devised an excellent electronic scoring display on the computer and we decided to give it a go.

I enjoyed making up the questions, and I don't think anyone found them impossibly hard, although those who were hoping for questions on pop music and sport would have been rather disappointed.  I was troubled in advance by a couple of e mails from well wishers warning me of the dire consequences of making the questions too difficult.   I did however try to make the quiz a little different by creating rounds where the emphasis was broader than the usual categories of ' History' 'Geography' etc.  I hope this made the process more interesting and instructive for all.  It certainly made playing the joker more tricky for some.

Two teams were very close in the end, both scoring over 50 marks out of a possible 70, but the team seen below, Alison and David Carse, Frances and Roland Bee, Fran Gregor Smith and Tim Harbord (temporarily absent from the table), just pipped Elaine Henson's team to the winning spot.