Vote for a Change

Campaign web-site for that long-overdue referendum on the voting system now up and running - do have a quick look.

It's a pretty straightforward demand, given all the current political circumstances ...

... so do please sign up just as soon as you can :-)

Border's sunshine ...

St. Mary's Loch, in the Scottish Borders, as walked around (and photographed) yesterday!

Managed a few hours escape - to celebrate that 20th anniversary - over the weekend ...

... and what a fantastic few days of totally glorious weather - ideal for some easy walking :-)

No text needed :-)

Just click on the picture for a closer look at all that veg!

Positive local response ...

Local blog readers will have noted the serious vandalism problems at the Phoenix Centre, on Harrison Place/Gardens, in recent days ... not good at all.

It's been particularly distressing for the Harrison Playgroup, who use the Centre --- so, good to see such a positive response locally, and to hear that North Merchiston Club have been able to assist with temporary accommodation whilst immediate repairs are undertaken.

I do know how popular the Playgroup is - it's not just in Ward 9, but literally around the corner from where I stay and many of my near-neighbours use the facility and speak very highly of it.

20-years today!

My better-half and I have been living together for 20-years this very day!

We moved into our first rented-house, in Stoke-on-Trent, on 29th May 1989 --- and bought our first property (in the same street in Stoke!) later that year in August 1989.

Can't quite believe it's all passed so quickly, and so happily :-)

Emergency over!

Just got back from the Council Meeting to catch the last-ever episode of ER ...

... can't believe that there will never be any more (new) episodes?

I'd be willing to take any money on a re-launch in the not-too-distant future?!

"Instep" no more ...

Well, it was a pretty lengthy meeting - didn't finish until close on 8pm ... and yes, the vast majority of the time was taken up by Deputations and debate on the items at Section 7 (of the Agenda here), all of which had already been debated at various Committees having been sent there from Full Council :-(

Probably the most significant decision was the one at item 7.4 to close the Instep Service at Castlebrae High School - made no sense before I'd heard the debate, and made even less sense afterwards ...

... didn't stop the Administration pushing the closure through though.

Another classic example of Administration Members not knowing the detail of the budget they passed in February --- what was pretty incredible was that several of them had the audacity (maybe I should say honesty?) to basically admit this!

As I said, incredible ...

... but, sadly, incredibly depressing for all those at Castlebrae as it didn't stop the closure of a much-valued service.

Round-in-circles?

Full Council Meeting tomorrow - main agenda can be found here ...

... most of the contentious items are in Section 7 (Reports from Committees) as they've been referred back to the Full Council, having been sent to Committee from the Full Council (because the Administration don't like difficult issues at Full Council), due to 25% of the Members of the relevant-Committee referring them back so :-(

Confused - you should be, because the whole system has become a nonsense; and really items should just be dealt with when they first appear on any Order Paper!

UK Cabinet support ...

UK Cabinet support today for a referendum on the voting system at the earliest opportunity ... lets hope this is translated into some definite legislative action over the coming months.

Alan Johnson has now made his position clear - when any referendum happens, he will obviously vote for change to the electoral system as opposed to supporting the status quo ...

... so would I, and - more than ever - I'm convinced the majority of the UK population would also back such change given the chance.

That chance could be confirmed as part of the Queens Speech this Autumn.

Allotment-mania

Thoroughly enjoyable visit to the Bridgend Community Allotment open-day, yesterday afternoon - inspired us to spend most of the late morning/afternoon today, down at Saughton Mains ;-)

... I did take some really good pictures of the progress with the vegetable-growing, but inadvertently scrubbed them off the camera before uploading them to the computer :-(

Glorious weather all day long today - just great for gardening.

Question Time

All the Council Party Group Leaders (5 in total) took part in a BBC-style 'Question Time' earlier this morning, organised by the Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) ...

... enjoyable couple of hours, with good questions and a healthy debate between the panel and the audience.

Out of interest, the main topics raised were:

• Neighbourhood Partnerships
• Fairer Scotland Fund (FSF)
• Political Party Branches being allowed (or not) to put themselves forward as 'Nominated Interest Groups' for Community Councils
• 'Tendering/Outsourcing' of Council services
• possible pedestrianisation of Princes Street
• and yes, Trams!

Off to Bridgend Community Allotment open-day now ...

Expenses

'Edinburgh Labour' Group Expenses

Unless you've been on the dark-side of the moon for the last few weeks, its hard to believe that you haven't picked up on all the coverage concerning the expenses of certain Elected Members from the Westminster Parliament :-(

Well, the 'expenses' for all of Edinburgh's 58 Local Councillors - for the year ending 31st March 2009 - are published late this afternoon and you can see all the details for the 'Edinburgh Labour' Group of 15 Councillors by going here.

You can see the complete list for all Parties by going here (2008-09 may not be there for an hour or two). If you're not certain which Councillor belongs to which Party (no jokes please!), then you can find out here.

You'll see from the 'Edinburgh Labour' table, that almost all our Group of 15 are on the basic annual salary of £15,838 - the exceptions being Ewan Aitken and myself, who have variously spent parts of 2008/09 as Group Leader which is regarded as a Senior Councillor post and for which the full annual salary is just over £24,000.

Salaries aside, the total of additional expenses claimed by our complete Group of 15 Councillors for the whole of 2008/09 is £9,797.

I'll briefly explain some of the column headings in the 'Edinburgh Labour' table for these additional expenses:

• mileage expenses - this relates to daily travel costs: principally 'mileage allowance' for car travel.
• taxis - for taxis fares related to Council work.
• subsistence expenses - 'accommodation costs' at any conferences attended.
• telephone and ICT expenses - telephone calls made for work purposes: principally 'home-telephone' costs.
• other allowances and expenses - this relates, in the main, to the £444 for an annual bus pass. As you'll see, most 'Edinburgh Labour' Councillors use this as their primary mode of travel. This column also includes any 'conference fees' and overseas travel.

As mentioned above, this totals £9,797 for our complete Group of 15 Councillors for the whole of 2008/09

In the spirit of openness, I'm putting all of this up on the blog so that people can make up their own mind about what each individual 'Edinburgh Labour' Councillor has claimed this year - and, as indicated above, you can also contrast it with what the other 43 Edinburgh Councillors have claimed (2008-09 may not be there for an hour or two).

And, I will positively welcome any questions about any of the detail for our Group of 15 Councillors - either through the comments section of this post and/or via e-mail to andrew.burns@edinburgh.gov.uk

I will respond to all queries.

Race for life ...

My better-half is doing a 5K run in a few weeks time ... first time she'll have ever completed (hopefully!) such a run, and in a moment of huge stupidity I agreed to train with her :-(

So, for the last few Friday mornings we've been doing +2K short-runs along the canal and back. I can't do the actual 5K run with her, as I'm already booked up that Sunday - honest!

But, I have to say, I've got the running-bug back again --- many (and I do mean many - like 25!) years ago I did actually do quite a bit of jogging, but have never really done any since. Cycling is just more civilised ;-)

But, you never know, maybe I'll keep training and have a go at at a longer event in the not too distant future?

all-things European

Sticking with the European theme ...

... my local Constituency Labour Party had Hugh McMahon (who was a Labour MEP for Strathclyde West from 1984 - 1999) along tonight as their main speaker. He gave a thoroughly entertaining talk and dealt admirably with a wide-range of questions.

And, I'm pleased to say, there was a pretty healthy turnout of members to hear his passionate defence of all-things European.

European Elections on 4th June

I mentioned the ongoing European Election campaigning, briefly, a few days ago ...

... well, late this afternoon I attended a short official briefing about the formalities on the day and for the election-count thereafter.

What all readers may not be aware of is that although the European Election (throughout the UK) is on Thursday 4th June, the Edinburgh count doesn't actually take place until 5.30pm on Sunday 7th June, and the final result won't be announced until around midday on Monday 8th June.

And don't forget, that the number of Scottish MEP's has indeed been reduced (following further EU expansion) from 7 to 6 for this election!

A New Politics?

Good to see that the Guardian has today launched a campaign for a complete over-haul of the constitution ... full details can be found here.

The series summary reads:

"The row over MPs' expenses and the role of the Commons Speaker has led to widespread sentiment that an entire political class has been discredited. There is now a growing recognition that no return to 'business as usual' in Westminster is possible: the machinery of representative democracy, legislature and the executive is dysfunctional and ripe for reform.

Public dissatisfaction with politics and politicians has never been greater in modern times: a national debate is needed on what must change. Columnists and commentators from the Guardian and Observer make their suggestions, but in keeping with the new spirit of the age, this is about creating an open forum: join the conversation on political renewal."

Sounds like a bloody good idea to me!

Part1 AGM completed!

Relieved to report that I survived the 'Part1 Labour Group AGM' last night and remain as Edinburgh Labour Group Leader ;-)

--- actually, quite a contrast (as mentioned before) to a couple of the other local Political Groups?

Clearly, even STV-PR won't stop overt ambition :-))

COMMONS IN CRISIS - it's time for real change

Regular blog readers will know of my (very) long-term commitment to electoral reform, and to STV-PR in particular --- indeed, you could say this has all culminated in my being Chair of the UK-wide Electoral Reform Society since last December ...

... and, regular readers will also know that I was down in London for the most recent ERS Council Meeting just last weekend. There were some pretty significant decisions taken on Saturday, and I'm (personally) very pleased to see an important campaign starting to take shape today - some more background can be found here.

I'll explain a bit more in a second, but one of my colleagues summarised it very well on Saturday - a simple, clear explanation (I thought) and it goes like this:

• politics is broken (who would now disagree with that?)
• First-past-the-post (FPTP) is part of the problem
• the winner-takes-all mentality clearly pervades our whole 'body-politic'
• politicians cannot be trusted to fix this themselves
• after all, they are about to admit they can't be trusted to fix their own expenses by agreeing 'independent' oversight!
• to fix this problem, we need to ask those who matter most - the people of the UK
• we need a referendum on the voting system
• a promise of such a vote is, after all, a long-standing Government commitment
• we need that referendum vote as quickly as possible
• that should be on the day of the next General Election

And, as ERS Chair, I've just written to all our supporters laying out the need for the campaign that's been launched to achieve the above. I'll repeat that letter here:

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“A formidable array of reformers is gathering to demand a referendum on the principle of PR be added to the ballot paper at the next election. Let the people decide if they want to blow fresh air into parliament.” Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Dear Supporter

Westminster is in crisis. The events of the last week have dented the reputation of the entire political class, and shown to the country the growing gulf between politicians and public.

We need to call last orders on unrepresentative and ineffective parliaments, and on majority governments backed up by little more than a third of the votes. The present crisis has awakened people to the need for radical change and that gives us an opportunity to demand a new electoral system at Westminster.

That is why the Electoral Reform Society is joining with other organizations in demanding a referendum on the voting system on the day of the next general election. This may be Labour’s last chance to deliver on its promised referendum in 1997. We want to give people a chance to vote not just for their MP, but also for a fresh playing field for politics.

As a councillor in Scotland , elected by STV, I’ve seen first-hand how electoral reform has delivered real accountability in our town halls. If we are to see decent, accountable government at Westminster we will need your help.

It's time to take action ...

Today Polly Toynbee, Steve Richards, Helena Kennedy & George Monbiot have all taken aim at our decrepit system. But in every national, regional and local paper there is a living debate about the future of British democracy.

We need you to be a part of that debate. Get the message out in your area - on accountability, on choice, and on the need for real change at Westminster.

More information is available on our website. If you want to get more involved as our campaign for a referendum builds contact: referendum2010@electoral-reform.org.uk or phone 020 7928 1622.

Good luck!

Councillor Andrew Burns

Chair, Electoral Reform Society

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I hope some of you out there may join in :-)