Adrian Sanders Attacks!

Our local MP Adrian Sanders has had a go at the LibDem leadership in his blog. It's a bit of a rambling attack but basically he criticises them for getting into bed with the Tories and then instead of snoring loudly and kicking out all night long they appear to cuddle up close and whisper sweet nothings such as, "Look beloved leader, we might call ourselves LibDems but really we are Tories at heart and we will do what ever you want provided you will give us some power." What Adrian and most LibDems wanted was the getting into bed bit but with some very strong reminders that the present coalition could only stay in power if there was to be some bending by the Tories towards LibDem policies which so far hasn't happened. Adrian also cruised the failure of some (many?) LibDem MPs not to keep one of the most important pre election promises on tuition fees. Even the use the opt out clause would have been better than what happened. He goes on to ask if the leadership have any understanding of the long term damage they have done to the party not only at national level but to all those LibDem councillor through out the country who have run local authorities successfully for many years. (Prehaps they don't care. A bird in the hand as they say: my note). After the leadership broke their firm promise will these local councillor continue to have the respect of the local electorate?

There is more about the failure of his leaders to spend more time standing up and saying what LibDems have done so far to influence government policies so LibDem supporters will have something to cling to in the dark days ahead.

The whole blog can be read here.

Vince Cable, Why Don't You Just Move to Costa Rica? Or Maybe Sibera? The Andaman Ialands are nice at this time of Year.

And I thought that only our beloved Torbay Council could do stupid things. Turns out I was wrong. Actually I am not questioning Vince Cable's stupidity. Well, I mean he's a politician, egotistical, single minded, power mad and expected to make mistakes now and then. Though not usually on the scale of this little disaster. The long term ramifications aren't all plain to see yet but the more obvious problems are the damage to the LibDem party, that is if any more damage could be inflicted on the poor sods. Next there is the benefit to the Tory Party. Cameron didn't sack Vince because he now still has a senior LibDem, on paper, to prop up his so called pretend coalition government but one who has no credibility or power left what so ever. Also Tories can now say openly what they have always believed, that the LibDems are not a party with any idea how to govern. That will benefit the Labour party as well but there has to be a sliver lining somewhere. The chances now that Murdock will get what he wants, full control of a large section of the media. Long term this will be to the detriment of the BBC. Wait a few years and the Tory Party, which isn't exactly keen on old Auntie, will bow to pressure to reduce or get rid of the licence fee on the grounds that people now have the choice, Murdock or the BBC, so why should everyone who has TV be forced to Pay £145 a year even if they never watch BBC.*

So why didn't the editor of the Telegraph, upon listening to the tape immediately delete it's contents, then feed the tape through the shredder just to make sure it's contents didn't end up on Robert Preston's desk at the BBC. And why did Robert Preston not bin the tape as soon as it arrived from the whistle blower? Remember, The Telegraph have been campaigning for months to stop Murdock from gaining control of BSkyB and yet they hand, on a plate, the where with all that almost makes it certain he will get that control. Why? Is the desire for a story stronger than the instinct of self preservation. The same question could be asked of Robert Preston.

*Just a note for when some future government does think of getting rid of the BBC as it exist at present. I would have no objections what so ever if the minister in charge of such an idea plus a staff of civil servants were to fly first class to Australia and stay in the best hotel for a couple of weeks provided the spend at least 4 hours each evening watching TV. Then an other first class flight and a couple of weeks in a top class hotel watching TV in the Good Old US of A. If the still want to get rid of Auntie then it will confirm what I have always believed. Politicians will always vote at their parties beck and call even when it is totally against the best interests of us poor Joe Public. After all we must be stupid, we voted for them in the first place.

Private and Confidential. I don't think so

A few minutes ago a large envelope dropped through the letter box addressed to me. It had the words Private and Confidential printed on the front so the contents were for my eyes only. But if you look at the photo you can see that the nature of the contents was clear to anyone seeing the envelope. What if I had never told my partner I was getting a Stagecoach Pension? He'd know now.

The envelope didn't actually contain anything personal to me, just general information the Pension Trustees have to send out every year. It's printed on shinny, very high quality paper and mostly consist of stuff I have no interest in reading other than the bit that said Stagecoach Pensions weren't going bust and my pension will continue to be paid. It will end up in the recycle bin just, as I suspect 99% of all the other copies sent out to my fellow receivers of a Stagecoach Pension (and many other pensions run by other companies). I don't know how much this cost to send and what it's carbon footprint is but I have a feeling it could be sent by email much cheaper with almost no carbon footprint at all. Give the matter some though pension companies and help save the planet.

Palm Court and Stupid Parking

A couple of photos today. The first is the Palm Court Hotel now the smoke has cleared, well some of it, and the firemen have left the building. Hopefully the council will do something quickly. I mean we only have 4 months till the summer season starts and we don't really want a burnt out building as the main attraction do we? The balloon is bad enough. Even if they just flatten it and plant a few trees would be better than the various factions on the council using it as yet an other excuse to slag each other off whilst doing exactly nothing. The cafe and fish and chip shop at the other end of the building should be OK, they were quite far from the fire.

The second of the two photos is of a big 4 wheel drive parked on the main road outside the Princess Theatre (showing Aladdin for the next few weeks). Now this big, off road, gas guzzling 4 wheel drive thing was showing a blue badge. The blue badge shows that the driver or a passenger is disabled and therefore can park anywhere, even on the double yellow lines that are painted on this main road. Even if it is a major obstruction and a possible danger to other road users. See the bus having to go right out onto the other side of the narrow road to get past. Actually there are one or two exceptions to the park anywhere rule and one of them is even if you have a blue badge you can not park on a loading ban. This road has a permanent loading ban and now this big, off road, gas guzzling, 4 wheel drive, blue badge showing thing has a parking ticket. Now I don't have a car so I am not up to date on what a parking ticket costs these days but I hope it will teach who ever dumped this big, off road, gas guzzling 4 wheel drive thing that it is a good idea to read the rules carefully. Merry Midwinters Day.

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Some Sad But Not Unexpected News From Torquay

At 06:30 this morning, Sat 18 Dec 2010, someone or something set fire to the once much love Palm Court Hotel. At one point there were 8 fire engines in attendance but about one third of the building has been gutted.*

The hotel part of the building has been closed for years so there were no guests in residence. The left hand end of the building (looking from the sea) had been used as a bar over the last few summers but had closed at the end of the season just before the police were going to close it down anyway due to inappropriate behaviour on and around the premises.

A couple of years ago a developer signed a deal with the Council to pull the place down and rebuild as a mix of bar, hotel and apartments. Months and months went by and nothing happened. Then, eventually the council asked the developer why nothing was happening. He replied that he was still looking for backing for his project, please be patient. So the council was patient for months and months and even more months. Then the developer announced he had gone bust. There has been a for sale sign on the hotel ever since.

Judging by the damage the fire has caused the whole building will probable end up being knocked down and turned into a car park.

This isn't the first time fire has gutted an empty hotel in the Torbay area. There is the problem of squatters in empty hotels and it was very cold last night so a small fire to warm cold hands could have got out of control. Or maybe some local decided that the building was a continued blot on the beautiful landscape of Torquay and decided to speed up the process of turning the site from delerict building to block of flats or car park.

Also I am a bit concerned for the future of the hotel I used to work at which is presently standing empty and boarded up. Sorry Sherwood, it could happen to you if a buyer isn't found soon.