Men in white coats to target Alan Duncan...?

Alan Duncan could be challenged as MP for Rutland and Melton by the likes of Martin Bell or even Terry Waite after his ill-judged comments to the man who dug up his lawn that MPs are forced to 'live on rations' following the expenses scandal...

Prescott tells Americans: Don't listen to Tory right wing on NHS

Attack the NHS and incur the wrath of Labour...

Never forget that the doctors and the Tories opposed the introduction of the NHS over 60 years ago - just as the hard-right in America are fighting Obama's health care reforms today.

But Prescott has told America not to listen to the misrepresentations of British MEP Dan Hannan who fuelled the anti-reform debate with an ourtargeous attack on the NHS.

Same old Tories eh?

Bet some of his best friends are gay...

So Tory MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer believes that homophobia does not exist...

I wonder what Nick Boles has to say about his colleague's latest outrage. Boles of course is reported to be openly gay - and Tory parliamentary candidate for Stamford and Grantham.

More to the point, I suppose, what's David Cameron's response to this latest challenge from the hard-right of the Conservative Party...

You'll remember of course that Dave wants us to think that the Tories have changed and are no longer the anti-gay Nasty Party.

Dave's reaction to Helmer?

Er, not a squeak.

Same old Tories eh?

Senior Tory's whinge after expenses scandal...

So Alan Duncan thinks MPs are 'treated like sh**' and have to 'live on rations'...

The Tory MP for Rutland and Melton been forced to apologise after being caught on camera giving his private views on the expenses scandal - in which he was well and truly embroiled but refused to apologise for claiming a large wodge of public money for repairs to his ride-on lawnmower!

Who says the Tories are no longer the Nasty Party?

UPDATE: The BBC carries more of Mr. Duncan's comments when he was being secretly recorded in which he appears to justify claiming £1,000 a year to maintain his garden by saying the actual cost was £2,000 and he could have 'claimed the bloody lot'.

What's that saying about when in a hole...?

What a way to run a railway...

Chaos on the East Coast Main Line this morning.

Some sort of breakdown north of Peterborough blocked the line, meaning no London-bound National Express trains after the 8.04.

As the platforms backed up with people, First Capital Connect added to the misery with further delays.

The station announcer seemed to have an endless resource in excuses as first a train was cancelled due to "earlier signalling problems", then another was delayed due to "awaiting a crew" and a third late due to "lack of availability of carriages".

Was I naive to think there was a simple solution to FCC's apparent dilemma of a train crew without a train as well as a train without a crew...surely it didn't need the brains of an Arch Bishop to get at least something moving?

When it looked like the earliest train to get to London would be the 9.15 FCC service which "only" stops at Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade and Stevenage before Kings Cross, everyone gravitated to Platform 3A to patiently wait...

(One commuter on Platform 2 lost his rag, which provided a few minutes entertainment as he remonstrated with a gaggle of rather self-important station staff, one of whom arrogantly warned him: "Don't push it!"

Which of course, would be rather sensible advice, for railway staff to have followed in the circumstances...)

Needless to say, the 9.15 was also seriously late. And with no indication of when it might actually turn up, passengers started moving back to Platform 2 where the even slower 9.23 was waiting with the prospect of SEVEN station stops before KX...

What a way to run a railway...

Senior Tory attacks Tory NHS plans...

Mad. Naive. Dangeorus. Hazardous. All words used to describe Conservative plans for the NHS. All chosen by senior Tory David Davis in an article he penned for a Sunday paper!

With friends like that...

Local councillor says she is victim of BBC 'sting'...

A leading south Lincs councillor has been defending her actions after a BBC undercover investigation into alleged discrimination against migrant workers trying to rent accomodation in Spalding.

Angela Newton (Independent), Leader of the Opposition Group on South Holland District Council, who works as an estate agent, has strongly denied any suggestion of racism and says she was 'brainwashed' and has told the Lincs Free Press that she was the victim of heavy editing by the BBC programme which was broadcast earlier this week.

Strong stuff.

Look who's a Twitter now...!

I have to chuckle: Lincolnshire County Council has finally joined the modern world of Twitter...

When I joined Twitter some months ago, the Stamford Mercury (one of the first local papers to join Twitter) ran an article allowing me to explain why, as a county councillor, I thought it was a useful way of communicating with electors.

A barrage of wry comments of derision - mainly from the dinosaurs on the Tory benches - was aimed my way, largely dismissing the very idea of Twitter. Many of the old-timers are of course fully signed up members of the Flat Earth Society who think that the internet is a passing phase that will never replace the quill pen!

I stopped being a county councillor a couple of months ago. But let me warmly welcome Lincolnshire County Council to the 21st Century...!

PS: Good to see that our Conservative-run County Council has joined Twitter despite David Cameron's attempt at being 'cool' by swearing about it on a radio programme aimed at a younger audience the other day when he was asked if he was a twitter...

Who's holding our council to account...?

This week's Stamford Mercury has run South Kesteven District Council's press release on the appointment of the new Chief Executive word for word.

What, no questions...?

What on earth is going on at South Kesteven District Council...?

Tory Leader of SKDC Linda Neal is trying to justify banning anyone who doesn't already work for the council from applying for the £105k a year top job.

At the same time, she refuses to confirm reports that she authorised a £100,000 pay-off to get rid of the biking Duncan Kerr who mysteriously and suddenly quit the job a couple of months ago - the Grantham Journal says he was sacked.

The Council insists that their deal with Duncan Kerr to quietly pedal all the way to the bank is "confidential" and nothing to do with us - local taxpayers who are forced to stump up the money!

Congratulations of course to Beverly Agass, whose appointment as new Chief Exec was rubber-stamped at a meeting of SKDC. I don't know if anyone else even applied for the job, but I'm sure we all wish her well.

And congratulations to the Grantham Journal for asking the right questions.

The Journal reports that the council voted to get rid off former boss Duncan Kerr and

The position of chief executive was only open to internal candidates already working within the council.

Council leader Linda Neal defended the appointment process.

She said: "I would like to state emphatically, Mrs Agass actually got the job - we did not give it to her.

"There was nothing about the whole process that gave any leeway to Mrs Agass because she was already working here."

Except of course, that if she wasn't "already working here", she wouldn't have been allowed to even apply for the job!

For the record, I've posted on the debacle HERE, HERE, and HERE
mysterious departure of Duncan-the-bike-Kerr.

Three arrested after local burglaries...

Good to hear from local police that they arrested three young men last night after a spate of burglaries in the Deepings.

Police were called to an address in Clover Road, Market Deeping, shortly before midnight last night after a garage was broken into and an electric scooter taken.

The offenders were apparently disturbed by the occupants and ran off. Police attended the scene, made searches and stopped a vehicle a short time later.

Three men, all in their early twenties and all believed to be from the local area, were arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The trio are currently 'helping police with their enquiries' at Spalding Police Station where they being questioned in relation to a number of other recent offences in the area.

A true British hero from Lincolnshire...

Respects to bomb disposal officer Captain Dan Shepherd from Lincoln who has been killed in Afghanistan while trying to defuse an improvised explosive device.

I never met Captain Shepherd, but I understand we had at least two things in common - we went to the same primary school - All Saints in North Hykeham, (albeit separated by some 30 years!).

The Echo reports that Captain Shepherd is from Doddington Road, which is a stone's throw from where I grew up.

We also both served with the Royal Logistics Corps - Captain Shepherd as a professional soldier and myself only briefly after Peterborough-based 5 Royal Anglian were re-badged RLC towards the end of my 20 years in the Territorial Army.

Unlike Captain Shepherd, I was never called up for active service.

He has made the ultimate sacrifice doing what he was trained to do - putting himself in danger to try to save his comrades from yet another lethal roadside bomb planted by the Taleban.

That takes balls of steel.

A true British hero.

Whistle-blower Bowles in Lincs hospitals row...

The whistle-blower whose actions led to the Tory Leader of Lincolnshire County Council being jailed for abuse of office is back in the news.

David Bowles was Chief Exec at County Hall but was forced out by the Tories - at huge public expense after he called in the police to expose the criminality of Jim Speechley.

I'm on record as saying his reward should have been a medal - not the sack. I was a member of the "Appointments Committee" and saw first-hand the disgraceful way he was hounded out of office.

It was an absolute disgrace which piled further shame on Lincolnshire after Speechley went to jail and eventually saw Speechley's Conservative successor - Ian Croft from Bourne - banned from holding office.

I wasn't surprised when Bowles was snapped up to run Lincolnshire Hospitals - which he went on to lead into a financial surplus.

But now he's 'between jobs' again. And there's a dispute over whether he resigned or was suspended by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

Lock up your sheds and garages...

local thefts.

Second class service for Deeping...?

How long does it take Grantham-based South Kesteven District Council to deal with fly-tipping...?

Apparently, it depends where you live.

Weeks ago, a resident of Deeping St James contacted SK over some dumped tyres at the corner of Outgang Road and Hall Meadow Road.

Nothing happened. So he emailed SK, and also passed on the information to DSJ Parish Council.

Over the next few weeks, he tells me he reported the fly-tipping TEN times to SK before anything happened.

With no action from SK, our parish council clerk told SK that unless they dealt with the problem, she would pick up the tyres herself.

Then an apology from SK to our resident for an email going astray and finally, this week, the tyres were removed.

Overall, a poor service.

In contrast, I understand that the latest issue of SK Today, the Council's own newsletter, has an article bragging about picking up fly-tipping in Grantham within 24 hours of it being reported.

So why does Grantham get a service within hours while we have to wait weeks before anyone takes any notice...?