Party, Brewery, Organise...

'Tis the season of goodwill to all, and down in government do they mean all.

Firstly the Chancellor loans £24 billion to Northern Rock, more in hope than expectation of seeing the money returned.

Then, should any of the 25 million names of the 'lost' computer discs be defrauded, the government will reimburse their losses. As usual the long-suffering tax payer will pick up the tab.

Just when we thought they couldn't get any worse, Alistair Darling's statement in the Commons today exposed greater levels of negligence and incompetence than I thought possible. Gordon Brown states that a government's first priority is to protect its citizens and then they manage to lose the personal details of 25 million people, including National Insurance numbers and bank account details - exactly the kind of information of use to terrorists.

As always with 'New Labour' the buck will stop at some poor middle or junior ranking civil servant, and the elected Minister will announce an enquiry and cling to his job.

If you ever defined power for its own sake you would see a picture of the Labour cabinet.

Darling said that the van carrying these discs belongs to TNT, who work for the government carrying internal mail. I've seen these vans displaying a sign which reads 'carrying internal mail only' and have assumed this was TNT's own post; I never realised this internal mail was highly confidential information about you, me and our loved ones.

As Eddie Mair said today on Radio 4, would you trust this 'bunch of incompetents' (his words not mine) to run an identity card scheme.

I've said this before elsewhere, but I'll say it again: this lot no longer have the moral authority to govern us, and it's time they gave all of us the ability to vote whether they stay or are replaced.

Welbeck Part 2

Unfortunately the application to extend the opening hours was granted recently.

We can look forward to more rubbish, more vermin, more traffic & more noise.

Thank you Wakefield MDC

Support Your Local Soldier, Sailor & Air Crew

Wakefield MDC was established in 1974 & has always returned a Labour council. In the last 33 years the council has never adopted any policy proposed by the Conservative group, irrespective of its merits.

This suggests to me that the Labour group acts on its own narrow self interests, and doesn't therefore always act for the benefit of Wakefield's population.

A case in point: at the last council meeting a Conservative councillor suggested offering free access to sports facilities throughout the district for serving armed forces personnel & their dependents living in the WMDC area.

This seems to me a way for us to show support for military personnel irrespective of our views on Blair's cavalier wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, and at minimal cost to the council & tax payers.

The ruling Labour group paid lip service to the idea & then put forward several weak objections, which meant that the suggestion was kicked into the long grass, never to be seen again.

Wakefield Youth Conference

On Saturday 24th November a group of young people have organised the 1st Wakefield Youth Conference (www.myspace.com/wakeyyouthconference) taking place at City Limits Young People's Centre on Thornhill Street.

The event is to establish a Youth Council for Wakefield which will then be able to lobby the full council ensuring that young people have an input on decisions made locally that will have an effect on them.

Food and refreshments are provided totally free, and it starts at 10.45am, and there are, amongst others, media, environment and drama activities taking place.

As CJ Cregg said in The West Wing (but probably someone else said first) 'decisions are made by those who show up' so I hope anyone eligible reading this turns up, and encourages others to do the same.