Spineless Liberal Democrats and Hibs win 5 in a row!

Southwark News picked up a couple of good stories this week the most unbelievable is the one on the proposed new Fisher stradium in Southwark Park.

When the 9 local Lib Dem Councillors, including the Council Leader Nick stanton, were asked for an opinion 5 were apparently unable to give one!! Talk about spineless!! In fact Stanton was so inept that all he could say was "Hard to comment since I dont know what it is!" Surprising since it was the front page story of the SN last August!!
The SN also reports plans to sell of the Corporate Training Resource Centre at Cator Street one year after spending £1M pounds of public money refurbishing it!! What an appauling waste of our money and this at a time when they have just closed the Livesey for a fraction of that money!!

Hibs 2-0 away win over Falkirk last night was the fifth straight win in the past 3 weeks and has moved them up from 8th in the table to fourth and two points away from the 3rd place UEFA spot!!
A real topsy turvy season with a long unbeaten run at the start followed by a complete collapse and now a long winning run again.
The 3 men pictured Fletcher and new boys Rankin and Nish really are playing well and Ian Murray relly has fitted straight back in and looks as goods as when he left us for Rangers 3 years ago. in truth mixu has them palying with a lot of flair (perhaps a little less than with Collins) but has tightened up the defence and we look an all round stronger and more balanced team and are now favourites for the 3rd place spot. Celtic at home is the next match, dad will be there and I will be watching on Setanta!

Libs Dem/Tory Coalition set Tory 2006 Budget in 2008!

Wednesday night's Council Assembly of course went as expected with the budget agreed, the Livesey museum to close, Meals on Wheels to increase by 50%, social care removed from the elderly but never mind £2M agreed to pay Consultants to tell us how to move to an expensive new building!!!
Whilst the Lib Dem?Tory line was all about the poor Government settlement the Southwark News cleverly spotted that the budget proposals were very similar to the budget put forward by the tories in 2006!!
As SN writing comments it does make you wonder who is running the Council? We all know of course that the Tory tail is wagging the Lib Dem dog and Southwark Council has for the past 6 years been under Tory control! Well spotted Southwark News!
Best comment of the night goes to Ian Wingfield who said "I have always advocated consensus working but noone has ever agreed with me!" and strangest comment goes to Toby who said that this Government settlement was "the worst in local government history!". I really had to remind him about Margaret "there is no such thing as society!" Thatcher as I really think that he had forgotten about her!!!


I took Shauna and "boyfriend" Oscar to see Pinnochio yesterday for the half term and they behaved well and I sang along with the songs!
The picture is of them on the bus to Catford!


Hibs have their 3rd home game on the trot against Inverness Caley and a third win would really put them back in the running for the 3rd place UEFA spot in the SPL!
Dad's going and a full house expected as it looks as if Hibs have turned the corner?

Couple of Mentions in todays SLP, Council Assembly looms, Half Term outings and Hibs on the path to recovery?

I had a couple of mentions in the SLP today one on the plan to ask Housing Associations to pay for the Wardens to patrol which is all sounding a bit deperate and really shows how the Lib Dem/Tory Council have mismanaged a very expensive service costing £6M per year and are now rushing headlong to scrap it! What a waste of money and a wsted opportunity to really have an effective and popular warden service but it is now so discredited that I am not sure many tears will be shed if and when it is scraped which will be a real shame as there are some excellent and commited people working as wardens and there is a very positive contribution that they could still make but I think that the "black spot" is upon them!
The other was on Nick Stanton's stupid comment that the Camberwell Leisure Centre was top of his list for closure next year and it was a good chance to call him an "idiot" on record!



I have had a quieter week at the Town Hall just as well as I am moving office at the University (now complete!) and am taking 6 year old Shauna out to see Pinnochio on Thursday at the catford theatre and Tutankamun at the o2 on Friday!
I missed the Tut exhibition first time around and this will probably be the last time so i am looking forward to seeing it myself!


On the Hibs front a couple of back to back home wins against Gretna (4-2) and more impressively Aberdeen (3-1). Aberdeen are in great form and I saw them demolish us only 6 weeks ago so a real turnaround.
Mixu is now shaping the team with Nish and Rankin both playing well and Fletcher back to his best. Good to see Shiels playing so well as John Collins was always trying to send him on loan or sell him! Hibs now back in 5th place from 8th a week ago but really only a couple of wins of 3rd place and a European place and that must be their target!

Fletcher really is turning into something special and must be in line for a full Scotland cap very soon. Obviously Celtic and Rangers are already hovering overhead but with his new contract they will have to pay big money. Amazingly rumours abound that Real Madrid are interested in him!! I am pretty clear, and infact predicted so at the end of last season, that he will not be a Hibs player next season but will have moved onto bigger and better things!

Lib Dem/Tory Administration use budget scaremongering to speed up the "hollowing out" of Camberwell!

On Tuesday the Executive laid out their cuts proposals after weeks of "softening up" the press including Nick Stanton using Southwark Life completely inapropriately to vent his political spleen !
All the soft targets are there of course including the elderly, disabled and children, a cut in the Wardens with a plan to get HA's to pay for having them cover their area? Hands up those who think that is going to work?
The Livesey wil close and the plans for a Discovery Centre seem as pie in the sky as well Bob Skelly went on about it in the last Administration! Mind you it appears that he will be getting his old Executive job back in May after serving his time for the crime? So that's all right then!
Whilst many of us are working with the local community to encourage investment into Camberwell Leisure Centre Stanton thought it sensible to say that the Centre was top of his list for closure next year! A real boost to the campaign scuppering any chance of a rescue plan! What an idiot!!! This after a Lib Dem Campaign in Brunswick Park not 2 years ago promising full redevelopment!! They have no morality and no shame about anything that they do! They are an embarassment to Southwark!

If that is not bad enough we now hear that the Town Hall will also be sold off stripping pretty much any Council presence out of Camberwell to relocate in Tooley Street! this will have serious consequences for the local economy but as an Executive member reported to us the Lib Dem line is "there are no votes in it for us!" unbelievable and unfortunatley these people are "running" this Council!
Good to know that they will give £2M to consultants to work out how to fit all of the staff into the new offices, money well spent and obviously more important than social care for the elderly!
This selling off the family silver is completely immoral and we will have to take over a Council in chaos and in tooley street when we win in 2010!

They are in for a long night with us next week at Council Assembly but the Lib Dem/Tory deal will no doubt hold firm whilst most of the Lib Dems will sit there in silence putting their hands up when their strings are pulled, a case of lie back and think of the Special Responsibility Allowance! Disgarceful!

A Busy week at the refreshers Fair, campaigning and Hibs get a point at last!

I spent quite a lot of last week at the Refreshers Fair at London Met talking to Students as well as a very hectic week in the Town Hall.
I was hoping for a quiet weekend but got the last of the Calanders out on Saturday and was out campaigning in a Constituency action day on Sunday!
We have Labour Group tonight to talk through the Tory/lib dem budget which looks a real mess, they really are falling apart!!


I did see Hibs play Dundee United on Setanta on Saturday and they were lucky to go in at half time only a goal down to a very impressive Dundee utd team. They played better in the second half without any great fluency and should have won it in the last few minutes with 2 wasted chances!
Hibs look really poor disjointed and struggle at the back but Ma-Kalamby is playing well as is Murray who looks something like the form he was in when he left us in 2005! Nish and Rankine looked good and beuzalin had a good game in midfield but i think that it will be a long hard season for us and dont think we will take 3rd place as Dundee Utd and Motherwell are just playing too well at the moment although we have better players1

A Busy week in the Town Hall, Trip to Ireland and Hibs have Cup Replay with Rangers!

It is a busy week for me at the Town Hall with the Shadow executive and OSC last night, where Borough Commander Malcolm Tillyer discussed the future plans for policing in Southwark. My guess is that the Lib Dems saw an opportunity to make political capital over plans to close 3 stations in the borough but the rationale behind it all of course makes sense and we all agree that consultation on future uses for the buildings including some level of community use is essential!
We have the Camberwell Community Council this evening where we will be saying farewell to Sargeant David Gywther from the Camberwell Green SNT . He has been outstanding and will be sorely missed but I of course wish him well in Greenwich in his new Inspector's role. On Wednesday I Chair the Childrens Services and Education Scrutiny Sub Committee with feedback from early visits to Youth Clubs which I think of all of us have found really positive and useful.

On Thursday there is the Camberwell Branch Labour Party AGM and I think that we can reflect on a very positive year with our campaigning and successes across the two Wards. I am looking forward to a well attended and very positive meeting ahead of the Election Campaign.

I am going to Ireland with my parents and my sister for Easter to visit the family in both the North and South and visit our family's "home" towns of Sligo (in the case of my mothers family) and Longford where my dad was born and which is apparently the home of the Friary Family so it should be interesting? We shall of course see lots of our family in and around Monaghan and have booked a house in the village of Rockorry where many of my family live and which I last visited when I was 8 year old! I intend to sample lots of Guinness over the 5 days!
I watched the Cup game on Setanta on Sunday and was depressed at half time as Hibs were being completley outclassed by Rangers! Only a very on form Ma-Kalamby kept them at bay along with some desperate defending!But talk about a "game of two halves" we controlled the second half and were really unlucky noit to sneak a win. Fletcher and Sheils both were excellent and new boy, Inverness Caley, Rankin also impressed. So a replay to come at Ibrox where we beat them 3-0 two years ago!
I was full of expectation for a Scottish victory against France in the opeing game of the 6 Nations with France making so many changes but could not have been more wrong. It was a good French performance to win 27-6 but a really poor Scottish team and not a lot to look forward to this year it appears which is a shame after a pretty good World Cup only a few months ago?

Council Assembly as bad as ever and Hibs face Rangers in the Scottish Cup!

Last night's Council Assembly was a really miserable affiar with the Lib Dem/Tory doing a really crass "softening up" process blaming Government for a harsh settlement ahead of no doubt swinging cuts in leisure centres (including I reckon the closure of Camberwell Leisure Centre!) , ending the wardens scheme and more worrying huge cuts in Youth Service and Social Services care ! They will nowever spend over £2M on Consultants to tell staff where to sit in the new enormously expensive Tooley Street building!

They used Leader's diatribe, questions and motions to build up their "case" for the "slash and burn" that they are going to inflict on the residents of Southwark in a few months.
Of course non of it is their fault, even the huge hole in the decent homes budget, but is of course the Labour government and Labour Mayor's fault for everything! There wer 5 Motions last night on really serious issues which wcould easily have had cross party backing but they conspired to ensure that non of them did and the meeting was a total farce.
What upset me what Stanton's childish approach to politics which after 6 years as Leader shows that he has learned nothing and in fact is getting worse. His incomprehensible ranting is absolutley ludicrous in the extreme and never gets beyond everything good is Lib Dem everything bad is Labour and it really is impossible to deal with him on any rational basis.
In the Decent Homes debate we offered cross party working to come up with a solution and after much waffle finally got the truth out of Kim, he does not trust us to "keep our mouths shut"!!
Well what can you say or do after "leadership" shown by the gruesome twosome like that?
They really are fiddling whilst Southwark burns and god only knows what wreckage we will have to clear up in 2010 when we finally get rid of this pathetic bunch!!

It looks like Hibs have got Colin Nish but perhaps only for next season when we need him now so hopefully a deal can be done to get him now?
We also tried to get Riordan back on loan but were turned down as Celtic want shot of him so we will have to buy! he really should have stayed another year or taken up the offer of going to Spurs as Celtic have once again ruined an exceptional player!
Where is Chris Killen now! He and Riordan top scorers in the SPL with Hibs where are they now?
It is Scottish Cup weekend with us facing Rangers at Easter Road on Sunday. On the face of it and on current form we dont really have much of a chance but I do recall the Cup match 2 yeasr ago when we played them at Ibrox and beat them 3-0 so I suppose it is possible and with some of our injured players back we should at least give them a game?

SE5 Forum AGM, Brian Paddick responds , Dispatches and Scotland get Burley!

I attended the 2nd AGM of the SE5 Forum and my picture shows Mark Dodds present the Chairs report to a packed meeting.
The organisation has clearly progresd well in it's 18 month life and we heard o the next steps last night to really solidify the position of SE5 Forum in Camberwell. Congratulations again to all those involved and i look forward to working closely with it in the future on the key isssues affecting camberwell over the next few years.


To his credit Lib Dem Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick responded to my Blog and just to clarify I have nothing but respect for Brain's police career and in fact signed 2 on-line petitions in support of him when he was under attack by the Evening Standard and other right wing press!. But Brian has chosen to be the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor, dont know when he joined the Lib Dems, probably joined yesterday candidate today like so many of the Southwark Lib Dem Councillors? Anyway I respect him responding to me and I look forward to the campaign focussed on issues and not personalities, perhaps a forelorne hope?
There is interesting feedback form the early stages of the US Campaign suggesting that Hillary actually lost votes when she criticised Obama and there is a feeling that the dominance of neagtive campaigning over the past 20 years may be coming to an end thank god!

I did watch the "hatchet job" Dispatches programme on Channel 4 and have to say that amongst the periforal stuff there were a numnber of very serious and apparently well researched allegations made against Ken and his administration that he really needs to respond seriously to. I was especially concerned by the allegation that Lee Jasper commissioned a consultant for over £14,000 to develop and run a smear camapaign against Trevor Phillips. I hope that it is not true as it would be a serious breach of his role and if true heads will have to roll!!
I also agreed with issues raised over the process, in particular the weakness of Scrutiny at City Hall and I cant really argue for more at the Town Hall and not do the same at City Hall can !?
I really do loath highly paid special advisers, unelected and unaccountable and who seem to take Executive action and appear to treat elected members with contempt and the sooner that situation is controlled, whether in No 10, City Hall or Southwark Town Hall the better!
Bottom line for me however is that London needs a Labour Mayor and Ken Livingstone has been an excellent Mayor and deserves his third term.

News breaking today that George Burley will be the new Manager which I thing is a good choice and he has enough time to get into the role ahead of the first World cup Qualifiers so good luck to him!

Lib Dem/Tory Exec Scaremongering about Budget, Lib Dem Mayoral candidate Paddick is Embarrassing and Hibs Lose again!

Lib Dem Leader Nick Stanton has used and misused the Press and the Council Web Site to spout out his propoganda whining on about the Government settlement and predicting cuts like closing leisure Centres and massive cuts in social services hitting the elderly and youth projects, always the soft targets for cynical politicians!

His Pravda like rantings on the Council's Web site proporting to be "news" realing show how little respect they have for the democratic process and we can already see in the Council Assembly Agenda stupid motions asking Executive members, especially GLA Candidates, to write letters to themselves criticising the Mayor! It really is quite pathetic!!
The Council is in a real mess with it's finances but of course it is everyone elses fault though I notice toby has had enough and will not be managing the finances after May! The Housing department is is complete meltdown and Senior managers throughout the Council are heading for the Exit faster than the audience at a Ming Campbell speech!


Talking of the Mayoral elections BBC London interviewed all of the main candidates last week and Brian Paddick was an absolute embarrassment! He kept on saying that he was not a politician but I think that we all got that particular message some time ago!

He could not identify a Lib Dem policy if it was tatoooed on his arm and is really just making it up as he goes along including keeping old people off the buses and tubes as they get in the way!!
He kept on getting into a panic when he made some sweeping statment and then was pressed by the interviewer as to whether that was a Policy commitment at which point he went pale and tried to change the subject!!




I had the misfortune to watch Hibs play Hearts on Setanta and saw too really poor sides play out a pretty poor match with us losing by a goal helped by yet another goalkeeping error!

Interesting to see Ian Murray back although David Murphy has gone I am glad he went to Birmingham rather than Celtic!

Hopefully we can get Colin Nish from Killie before the transfer window closes and another central defender would be good. We are now 8th out of 12 after topping the league in October so we really are in relegation form so Mixu needs to trun it around fast or we will not make the top 6 which really would be a disaster for us!
Looks like the Scotland Manager will be named soon and rumours are that Souness in in the pole position?

Back to the Grind with Mayorla and GLA Elections, a huge Council budget hole and Mixu is new Manager!

I have now returned from a restful break in Edinburgh apart from the Flu which i am now just about over!
We had our first Camberwell branch meeting of the year last night and talked about the GLA and Mayoral Elections in May and we will be working hard in Camberwell to get ourt vote out and to build up our voter id in the 2 Wards so it can be a really positive time for us and alwasy a good time to get new members and to make more existing memebrs active in what is already a thriving and very active Branch.

The Southwark news was full of the budget constraints and the need to find £30M of saving s over the next 2 years. Stanton of course whining on about the fact that it is all this Governments fault or the mayors fault or anyone who is not a Liberal democrat but we will put that all to the test in the Chamber over the next few months. Interestingly Thomas and eckersley dont want to do an executive job anymore so there will be a scramble no doubt amongst the Lib Dem flottsom to secure a nice £45K salary for a couple of years anyway!! The Decent Homes programme is also in a mess as is of course the entire Housing Department after another catastrophic reorganisation so it really is all falling apart for the Coalition but unfortunately Southwark residents will pay the price!

Hibs appointed ex player Mixu Patteleinen as manager after a good spell in Finland and I think that the fans will be happy. Just hope he has time to strengthen the squad in January and stop the rot where they have not won in 11 matches which is real relegation form. Only good things is that hearts form is even worse and they could well find themselves going down which would be a real discrace!! .... but quite funny!

Enjoying a Restful Christmas apart from watching Hibs Lose!

Nothing much going on politically apart from stupid Christmas and New year Statements from the Scottish First Minister bleating on about Scottish Independance.
The Scottish press are very upset today as the new Microsoft Earth has not got up to date images and still shows the Scottish Parliament site as a Contruction site although the building has been open since 2004!



I watches the Hibs V Rangers match without much expectation and in truth it was in parts a one sided affair and only Rangers slacking off gave us any chance in the game with a very good goal from Zemmama althouh a 2-1 defeat probably flattered us!
In truth the Hibs players played well against an in-form Rangers but the injury hit sqaud was really exposed and is currently threadbare not having built up the sqaud in the summer and we are now paying a heavy price with defeat after defeat and sliding down the table. We need a new Manager quickly and we need new players in the January window especially Colin Nish from Kilmarnock and a good full back and central defender or it will be avery long season. We could do with Riordan or Killen back on loan from Celtic or even Kris Boyd who cant get a name at Rangers? Only bright note is that Hearts are in an even worse state than we are!!
I wont see the home game against Motherwell on Wednesday as it has been rightly posponed after the sudden and tragic death of Motherwell Captain Phil O'Donnell at the end of yesterday's match against Dundee United, collapsing on the pitch and pronounced dead very soon after!


All our problems will only get worse when David Murphy leaves in January, Celtic and Rangers fighting it out for him!
We will be sorely missed and will leave us even deeper in trouble and will no doubt score against us next time we play the Old Firm!
On a brighter not the £5M Training Centre is open, the best in Scotland and one of the best in the UK, and the new East Stand will be up for the start of next season bringing the capacity upto 20,000 and completing the redevelopment. all good news for the future but we need to give fans something now and at least we have the memories of that amazing Cup win in May but wont wait another 19 years to repeat the experience!

Christmas Shopping in Glasgow and Hibs hold onto point against Celtic at Parkhead!

I spent the day in Glasgow yesterday with my sister and nephew and we had a good chance to have a look around and do some last minute christmas shopping including the Winterfest Market in Argyle Street.



After the recent turmoil Hibs picked up a surprising point by drawing 1-1 with Celtic at Parkhead. We have taken 4 out of 6 points against Celtic so far which is great but we need to keep it going against rangers and Motherwell at home over the next week, not an easy job either game. Hopefully I will be at both games with dad so we will see how things progress?

Christmas Shopping Done and John Collins Quits Hibs!

Just about finished all my Christmas Shopping and now getting ready for Chruistmas with my sister and two of my nephews joining us on Christmas Day in Edinburgh.
Princess Street was busy as ever and cold but a great place to shop and the Winter Festival is in full swing!
looks like I shall be expereincing the joys of Wii as my two nephews will be testing them out no doubt?

Of course the big Hibs news was the sudden departure of boss John Collins citing the lack of funds made available to him by the Board! This is somewaht questionable given the departureof Laurie Sanchez from Fulham the day after and I would not be surprised to see Collins announced as the new Manager any day now? This will not warm him to the Hibs faithful so he had better not plan a return visit any time soon! In truth he made the team play attractive football and the 5-1 CIS Cup Victory was a stunning performance and one that I was very fortunate to witness! The serious players revolt only a month after the Cup win did raise alarm bells re his man management skills and this may be his problem in the future.

Hibs now face Celtic away today and Rangers at home next Saturday without a Manager in a critical part of the season so really crap timing by Collins!

There are lots of names in the frame including ex player Mixu Pattellainen currently doing well in Finland and Billy Davies recently sacked harshly in my view, by Derby County. Mark McGee of Motherwell would be my first choice but he may be being lined up for the vacant Scotland job ?

Anyway interesting times ahead!

Back in Edinburgh, Lib Dems go for "Cameron Lite", Southwark worst performer for Traffic tickets and Hibs open new £4M Training Centre

SoI am safely back home in the bosom of my family in Edinburgh after a usual positive experience with EasyJet (not like the Tv programme at all!) but we did have to fly around Edinburgh seven times for over half an hour as something fell off the palne in front of us and onto the runway!!
I suppose I was please that bits were not falling of my plane!

The Lib Dems really are becoming a bit of a bad joke with the outcome of their Leadership election nothing short of shambolic!

Clegg, astonishingly only an MP since 2005, beat Chris Huhne to the Lib Dem leadership by 20,988 votes to 20,477 - a margin of just 511. So now we know that around half the Lib Dem members see him as "Calamity Clegg" but prefer the new press title of "Cameron Lite" with his endless vaccuous statements like "you know who" but without the personality! The idea that him and Huhne will work together is laughable as they had to be almost physically restrained after the cameras were switched off on the Politics Show!

The Times reported the following today:

"Local councils are dismissing challenges to thousands of parking fines despite having poor evidence or no proof against the drivers.
Which? magazine uncovered a big disparity in the way different councils handle parking fines. Motorists in some parts of the country are almost three times more likely to appeal successfully against a fine compared with elsewhere, figures suggest.
Hackney, Hillingdon and Southwark, all London councils, are the worst offenders, says the magazine."
Last year Southwark Council lost 84 per cent of 2,256 cases heard by an adjudicator and failed to offer evidence in six out of ten of them. Hackney lost 86 per cent of disputes and did not contest 44 per cent.
Overall, Londoners have a 75 per cent chance of successfully appealing against a parking fine."

Yet another Department in complete meltdown! Whilst Stanton fiddles whilst Rome burns Southwark Residents are getting a worse and worse service with reorganisation after reorganisation and all the senior experienced Managers voting with their feet!! What a Mess!

Hibs opened their £4M new Training Centre yesterday wiuth out doubt the best in Scotland and probably one of the best in the UK?

It wont stop Collins getting a hard time from the Hibs fans though, only a win will do that but it is a great investment for the future!