Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice):
There are no plans in the short term to extend the use of e-voting and e-counting to (i) local, (ii) European Parliament and (iii) general elections. (source)
How short term…?
Whenever there's a rise in energy prices media pieces are usually accompanied by grumbles from businessmen (and it's usually men moaning) about how the higher costs are making business harder than ever. Increased costs are always a challenge for businesses… any organisation in fact. But it really shouldn't be any surprise that energy prices are rising. It's been a matter of policy for years that fuel tax will increase ever year (Brown merely delayed the increase last year). It's also clear that with declining oil and gas supplies yet increased demand those prices are also set to rise, further augmented by carbon trading schemes.
These are not sudden occurrences. They have been in popular knowledge for years. Part of business is scenario planning to prepare for what the future is likely to bring. It seems to me that there's huge competitive advantage to be had from shifting your business away from the volatile, increasing costs of carbon-based energy sources to renewable sources. The business that can keep a lid on its costs by switching to renewables is also the one that is going to be able to offer the most competitive prices. Despite what some might argue, a greener economy is filled with opportunities, not gloom.
Despite being a local councillor now I don't want to make my blog entries too parochial so I will try to balance highly ward-specific posts with my usual topics.
However there is a local matter I do want to raise today… and it's Post Offices. At the end of last year the local Green Party hosted a meeting to discuss proposed Post Office closures for Brighton & Hove. Representatives from the Post Office were not particularly convincing arguing that long queues currently experienced were simply the Christmas rush. They also admitted that the usage figures their closure plans were worked from predated the closure of our Crown Post Office in Ship Street, a large facility that was relocated to WH Smith.
This relocation was a poor idea and seem obvious to me and so many others at the time. A wonderful building with a long history as a Post Office was vacated, and is still empty, and another service was pulled into the private space of the ghastly Churchill Square shopping centre.
Additionally the skilled and experienced staff were offered jobs at 'shelf-stacker' wages by WH Smith. Understandably they took their redundancy packages instead. We have ended up the city's main Post Office being in the drab basement of WH Smith, with low-paid inexperienced staff and huge queues – which are not a symptom on Christmas.
I've been trying to post two packages for a week. Last Friday at 2.30pm there were 28 people in the queue and I saw six or seven others turn away when they saw the queue before I too gave up having seen the queue not move an inch. On Monday at 5.20pm there were 15 people in the queue, again unmoving. Even at it's busiest times the old office had a queue that always moved.
We're in a position where our current Post Office facilities are insufficient and they want to close more – it's absurd.
I've heard too many people promise 'a new kind of politics' too many times… it's a big promise which needs to overcome huge dollops of immutable human nature. Still, despite not winning the New Hampshire primary as hyped, Barack Obama does have a special kind of charisma. Obama is reaching people who haven't voted before, and regardless of his politics that is sometime worth studying.
It's difficult to get an accurate grip of a campaign over the pond, but Obama's website is deeply impressive. It's engaging, cleanly designed and very comprehensive. It addresses a wide variety of issues, groups of people and Obama's background with a depth and clarity that significantly outstrips the other Democratic candidates.
The US Green Party are also holding a healthy primary process but, as in previous years, the voting system for presidential elections tends to polarise voters at the expense of newer parties.
I would love to see if Obama can deliver on even a fraction of the potential he appears to show at the moment… but he may never get the chance if the Clinton revival continues apace.
Jason Kitcat 