September 2 2010
Out of the wood
Thanks to everyone who emailed their support during my recent brush with the Ombudsman.
As you will probably have read in the Western Telegraph, the Ombudsman has discontinued his investigation into the complaint against me by the chairman of Manorbier Community Council (MCC), Cllr Raymond Hughes
In fact, Cllr Hughes claimed that my description of what went on at one MCC meeting as "fascist tactics" (Abuse of power Above criticism Oct 8) had brought Manorbier Community Council (MCC) into disrepute, but, as the Ombudsman points out in his letter, my not being a member of that authority renders that impossible.
In any case, looking MCC's dismal past record, especially its expenditure of vast sums of public money on futile legal actions, it wouldn't seem to need any help from me.
Though, to be fair, it should be said that most of this was set in train before Cllr Hughes took up the reins.
Having decided that I couldn't bring MCC into disrepute, the Ombudsman initiated a separate investigation into whether my remarks about MCC's activities had brought the office of county councillor into disrepute.
On that count, he found no evidence to support such a charge.
Over the weekend I was contacted by the Western Telegraph for a comment which I duly provided.
At the head of the email I wrote "Please use this in its entirety, or not at all"
I am not sure which part of this instruction the WT didn't understand, but the comment appeared in the paper heavily edited.
They published my statement up to and including: "As I told Cllr Hughes when he threatened me with a libel action unless I retracted my remarks and offered him an apology, I am of the firm belief that, in the light of the facts, what I wrote was fair comment on a matter of public interest." but excluded my explanation as to why I thought my comments were justified.
It read: "One of the incidents referred to was the passing by MCC of a motion of no confidence, proposed by Cllr Hughes, in my colleague Cllr Malcolm Calver (see Western Telegraph passim) as Manorbier's county councillor.
According to MCC's minutes, this motion only scraped through with the help of Cllr Hughes' casting vote.
At the time, Cllr Hughes was under investigation by the Ombudsman, following a complaint by Cllr Calver that he had failed to declare an interest at a meeting where candidates for the post of community council clerk were short listed.
In view of Cllr Calver's complaint against him, not only should Cllr Hughes not have proposed this notice of motion, but, even had it been proposed by another member, he had a duty under the Code of Conduct to declare his prejudicial interest and withdraw from the meeting.
Incidentally, in respect of Cllr Calver's complaint, the Ombudsman found that' Cllr Hughes' participation in the appointment of someone with whom he had a close personal relationship to the position of clerk was a breach of the Code of Conduct, and Pembrokeshire County Council's standards committee concurred."
I do recall the WT making quite a splash about the motion of no confidence in Cllr Calver, so I thought that, in the interests of balanced reporting, the paper might have felt obliged to report the dubious circumstances which brought it about.
Wrong again!
F-word As I have observed previously, you have to be very careful about the use of the F-word in a column like this.
The problem arises because people with a poor grasp of 20th century history tend to conflate fascist with Nazi.
And to describe someone as a Nazi is serious matter indeed.
However, while the Nazis were undoubtedly fascists, not all fascists are Nazis.
During my lifetime most of Europe has at some time or another had fascist governments and while such regimes were often extremely unpleasant most didn't practice industrial scale genocide or routinely send tanks over their neighbours' borders.
Indeed, in its pure form, fascism involves a coherent political and economic philosophy based on corporatism - authoritarian rule by the big battalions headed by the state.
Sometimes this involves the state entering into a compact with big business, sometimes with the trades unions and sometimes with both.
And it has to be admitted that fascist regimes have had their successes in bringing down unemployment and inflation.
While accepting that it was difficult to come up with a precise definition of "fascist" George Orwell warned against rendering the word meaningless by using it as a term of general political abuse.
However, Orwell said that, despite the lack of a clear definition, most people had no difficulty in distinguishing between fascism and democracy.
He wrote:"By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."
One of the features of democracy under the rule of law is that constitutional rules prevent the majority riding roughshod over the minority.
Without such rules you have what Lord Hailsham called an elective dictatorship.
To my mind, anyone who uses a position of power, especially if they are elected to that position, to do down an enemy, or promote the interests of themselves or their friends is adopting fascist tactics.
Unfortunately, there is quite a lot of it about.
It was way back in August 2007 that I first suggested that the world economy was floating on a sea of unsustainable debt (Living beyond our means).
A year later it became apparent that many of these loans - mortgages, in particular - were uncollectable [sub-prime crisis] and the banks which held them as securities had to be bailed out by their respective governments.
When that failed to work the oracle, central banks across the world resorted to quantitative easing (QE - questionable economics, if you ask me).
The result of all this is huge government deficits that have to be financed and eventually repaid.
There is currently an argument going on between the Labour Party and the government about the speed with which the deficit should be tackled.
I should point out that the deficit is not the same as the National Debt.
The deficit is the amount by which the National Debt goes up each year and the coalition's draconian austerity plans will only slow, not reverse, the increase.
George Osbourne says that, without a credible scheme to bring government spending under control, investors will demand a risk premium for holding UK government debt.
In that scenario the cost of servicing the debt becomes a significant part of public spending, eventually leading to a downward spiral of the type suffered by Greece and Ireland.
The opposition argue that cutting public spending, and condemning 600,000 public servants to the dole queue, will reduce demand in the economy, leading to more job losses, more lost demand and a downward spiral of a different sort.
Sadly, I think they are both right and and whatever is done the next leg of the recession will be with us by Christmas.
Asserting herself
Tomorrow (3 September) Pembrokeshire County Council is running an assertiveness awareness course for elected members.
According to the blurb, the course will enable members to "develop awareness of assertive behaviour as a way of becoming more effective".
Included in the programme are opportunities for participants to explore situations "where members need to behave assertively" and "practice some assertive tools and techniques".
There are occasions, especially when out electioneering, when such techniques might come in handy.
I recall one such instance during the 2004 campaign when I knocked once too often at a constituent's door.
One of the most important gifts in electoral terms is to know when to knock again and when to shove a leaflet through the door and move on.
After all, you don't want to get up the voter's nose by dragging them away from their dinner/favourite TV programme, or whatever.
On this occasion, I misjudged the situation and a man in a dressing gown, obviously straight out of the bath, opened the door.
I held out my leaflet - photo to the front - and started on my well rehearsed patter.
But, before I was properly in my stride, the man interrupted.
"You're a f****** politician, you're all the f****** same. F*** off!" he said, slamming the door in my face.
I put him down as a non-supporter though I consoled myself with the thought that he was unlikely to vote for any of my rivals.
I doubt that a course in assertiveness would have helped in these circumstances, especially as the gentleman, if that is the correct description, was much larger than myself.
Some of you might think that, in these straitened times, assertiveness courses and the like are a complete waste of public money and you are probably right.
But my own objections are purely personal.
The sad fact is that Grumpette is able to attend this event while I have a prior engagement.
As if I wasn't downtrodden enough, already!
Lighting the way During my annual trawl through the county council's accounts, I came across a number of interesting examples of how our money is spent.
With several hundred thousand invoices to trawl through, what I discovered represents only a small sample, but they will provide valuable ammunition when the council gets down to implementing the cuts made necessary by the government's public spending purge.
Over the next few weeks I will be bringing some of the more eye-catching examples to your attention.
For instance there is the bill from a firm called the Publicity Centre for 20,000 Adva-light torches "carabiner light silver printed one colour black @ £1.05 each".
I have no idea what purpose is served by these torches but they obviously play a vital role in the operation of the machinery of government because the invoice - total cost £24,966 - includes an item "Additional cost for delivery by air - 2,000 pieces at 25p - £500".
The important question is whether this money might have been better spent on employing home helps or providing music lessons for our children..
This is the question that should be asked by your elected representatives but never is because the budget-setting process involves the members nodding through large sums of money under vague general headings without any idea how it will actually be spent.
The Coalition's plan to require all items of public expenditure over £500 to be published on the web, would go some way to addressing this problem.
I have a confession to make.
During a rugby trip to Edinburgh back in about 1995 I shared a twin-bedded room with another man.
Ditto, during a trip to Dublin the following year.
And on numerous golfing weekends in exotic places like Brecon, Llandrindod Wells, Cardiff and Chepstow I always shared with the same person, who was, wait for it, ex-Navy.
I wish to stress that the choice of these sleeping arrangements was motivated entirely by the desire to minimise cost.
Is Tenby the new Damascus?
Shortly after visiting the seaside resort, Professor Stephen Hawking - dubbed our most famous living physicist-is publishing his most recent book, in which he lays bare his change of heart about the existence of God.
In his 1988 best seller, A Brief History of Time. Professor Hawking appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe.
Now, after a week in Tenby, he has seen the light, and says that gravity alone is sufficient to explain how the Universe was set in motion.
* A bottle of Merlot to any reader, who, hand on heart, claims to have read A Brief History of Time from cover to cover.
** Two bottles, ditto, to anyone who understood it.
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