My New Blog - http://kevinlynes.wordpress.com

Since starting up my Blogger site in October of last year, I've tried to post regularly - every day when I could. The response has been great, and I've been really surprised. As the months have gone on, I've started up a Wordpress blog site in addition, and used the functionality of Blogger to email my postings in from my Blackberry. I then imported these new postings into Wordpress to ensure that both blogs were the same.

Then - shock horror - the Tech Support team from Wordpress informed me that by running twin identical blogs, I was running the risk of being blacklisted by search engines.

And so I've had to make a choice. Do I maintain my Blogger site, or my Wordpress site?

I'm keeping Wordpress, so if you want to read my thoughts, observations and opinions from now on, go to http://kevinlynes.wordpress.com/.

Sorry Blogger - it's been great...

Whoever you were - thanks

Having been in back-to-back meetings since 8am this morning, I stepped outside County Hall today for some fresh air. Standing in the Members' car park checking emails on my Blackberry, a young man walked past me. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, with a baseball cap and jeans, nose stud and earrings, and he carried a can of Special Brew. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked. "Of course" I replied.

"What's it like to have a job?" he said. I wondered if I'd heard him correctly, so I got him to repeat his question. "See, I've never worked" he went on. "D'you work in there? What d'you do?" he pointed towards County Hall.

I explained that I was a County Councillor, elected every four years. I asked him if he'd ever spoken to his local Councillor. Needless to say, he hadn't. When I asked why, he told me that nobody ever asks him how he feels and nobody ever listens to him.

"You know what you want to do?" he suggested. "You want to take that suit off, put some jeans on, and get out and talk to real people."

We chatted for a few minutes more, then parted company. But as I walked back to my office along the opulent wood-panelled Cabinet corridor; as I passed my colleagues' offices with their flickering computers and ringing phones, I reflected on why we're all there. I reflected on how one of Sandy Bruce-Lockhart's most powerful policy ideas, the Kent Supporting People Programme, had come about.

Sandy had taken time to work a night shift at a soup kitchen in East Kent. He'd spoken to those less fortunate, trapped in a spiral of dependency with no clear escape route from poverty.
I have no idea who that young man was today. But I've already discussed with my officers how I can put my jeans on and go and talk to real people. So whoever you were - thanks.

Cabinet in the Community

I note that Gordon Brown took his Cabinet to the people today, visiting the people of Birmingham.  At the International Conference Centre, Cabinet Members each sat at a table of 'real people' to discuss life, the universe and everything, and Mr Brown promised to send every person in the hall a written copy of what he and his team understood from the conversation.  That should be an interesting read.

A formal Cabinet meeting ensued, preceded by a suitable media call before the media were then expelled before the confidential discussion.

After this, Labour Ministers travelled hither and thither, spreading the word in a range of media friendly settings. Ed Balls, Education Secretary visited a local school where he congratulated a hall full of visibly nonplussed students on their exam results; whilst Foreign Secretary David Miliband talked culture and was presented with what appeared to be a silver camel in a presentation box.

And all around, Mr Brown's colleagues told everybody what a jolly good man he was - Alan Johnson, Andy Burnham, even Harriet Harman appeared to have conveniently forgotten the contrary interview she gave to Andrew Marr just a couple of weeks ago.

And all the while, Brendan Barber worked the crowd at the TUC Congress into a state of fervour over plans to strike over the 'derisory' public sector pay award.

You couldn't write this stuff. The sooner it's all over and we can stop pretending Labour's chaotic circus has some intended consequences, the better.

£25,000 Deal for Pembury

I'm really grateful to Michael Romyn at the Kent and Sussex Courier (click here to go to the story) for featuring my idea for a mini-Local Area Agreement in Pembury. The idea, which will bring Kent County Council and Pembury village together in a true expression of localism, should be the first pilot of its kind in the country.

Kent County Council was the first Conservative authority to team up with the Labour Government in the first three-year Public Service Agreement, which set hard-to-reach targets such as reductions in teenage pregnancies and fires in the home. By hitting those targets we would save the Government money, so they in turn agreed to share the saving with us. After three years, we hit ten of our twelve targets completely, and came really close on the other two - earning Kent twenty two million pounds in performance reward grant.

So it occurred to me that KCC in turn could negotiate a smaller version of this directly with a community. And to me, the Pembury community is ideally placed to be the first pilot of this approach. An excellent Parish Council, a range of well attended community organisations -Scouts and Guides, Pembury Athletic Football Club, University of the Third Age and the well-attended and progressive Churches - if this idea can work anywhere, it will work in Pembury.

I've asked the community and its organisations what kind of targets they'd like to see, though I have some views about including health and well-being, and joining up younger and older residents to generate sustainability. And several people have already told me that they'd like the £25,000 reward grant I've negotiated with the County Council to be spent on something substantial, like a community minibus.

Now all we need to do is agree a small set of targets which will leave Pembury an even stronger community.

And hopefully £25,000 better off.

Sonic versus Charlton

If you've seen the TV advert for Gillette razors, you'll know the agency has enlisted the assistance of Thierri Henri, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods to respectively kick and hit balls at some unsuspecting chap trying to have a quiet shave.

The sad thing is that, having assembled this trio of sporting superstars, they then have to explain by captions who they are.

I thought this was bad enough, until I saw the new Activia advert. A group of young boys are playing football, and call for an elderly chap walking his dog to "give us our ball back grandad.". He makes a stunning curved long shot into the back of the net, then the camera shows us all that the old chap is actually Jack Charlton.

The sad thing is that the final shot is a pot of Activia yoghourt next to a framed photo of Charlton in 1966 holding up the Jules Rimet trophy.

How sad that people are probably more likely to recognise Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario or some other Nintendo hero than a real person who has won their status by real human endeavour.

A shaggy dog story?

Just heard a great story from Johnny Vaughan, breakfast DJ on London's Capital Radio. It seems his dog was unwell with a dodgy tummy. Vaughan needed to take him to the vet, and covered the tan leather passenger seat of his car with a towel for protection against the effects of the tummy bug.

He put the dog in the car and went back to lock the house. The dog, preferring the smell and feel of the leather driver's seat, climbed across, knocking the gear stick into 'Drive'. The car lurched forward, pushing the car in front into a waste skip.

Trying to make a claim, his insurance company refused, on the basis that "the dog wasn't a named driver". Vaughan eventually claimed on his pet insurance, but commented that since his car premium was several hundred, but his pet insurance considerably less, he may as well cancel the car insurance and let his dog drive him everywhere...

A shaggy dog story?

Just heard a great story from Johnny Vaughan, breakfast DJ on London's Capital Radio. It seems his dog was unwell with a dodgy tummy. Vaughan needed to take him to the vet, and covered the tan leather passenger seat of his car with a towel for protection against the effects of the tummy bug.

He put the dog in the car and went back to lock the house. The dog, preferring the smell and feel of the leather driver's seat, climbed across, knocking the gear stick into 'Drive'. The car lurched forward, pushing the car in front into a waste skip.

Trying to make a claim, his insurance company refused, on the basis that "the dog wasn't a named driver". Vaughan eventually claimed on his pet insurance, but commented that since his car premium was several hundred, but his pet insurance considerably less, he may as well cancel the car insurance and let his dog drive him everywhere...

Why can't our police force just be left to police?

I've always had a lot of time for Mike Fuller, Chief Constable of kent Police. Years ago we had real problems in Pembury with anti social behaviour, and I contacted Mike to ask for help. The response was astonishing, and within a few weeks Pembury's problems had largely been resolved.

So I take very seriously his comments in today's Guardian, "Labour Making Our Job Harder" (click here to open link). He claims that as a result of government ministers ordering police to "deliver" more criminals to justice, our prison system is now creaking under the strain - to the extent that hardened offenders are either being released early, or worse still, escaping the prison system altogether in order to keep numbers down.

He also commented on the performance inspection regime, a topic which often causes concern in local government. It appears that as a Chief Constable, much of Mike Fuller's time is spent reporting to no less than thirteen separate official bodies.

This isn't the first time I've heard these kind of problems in the emergency services; the Fire and Rescue Service are in the same ridiculous situation, being over-managed and over-regulated.

Indeed, a much-trumpeted new local government performance management culture promised to reduce the thirteen hundred-odd performance indicators to around two hundred. I heard yesterday that a new range of indicators will take us back up to around thirteen hundred for Kent County Council.

Why can't our police force just be left to police?

There hasn't been another Northern Rock

Things must be getting very bad for Gordon Brown. Today's news carries the story that the IRA's army council no longer functions, and that its terrorist structure has now been disbanded. This evidence has arisen from a report by the Independent Monitoring Commission.

In response, the Prime Minister commented "I believe this will provide reassurance and hope for everybody". (to read the story on BBC news, click this link)

We've had claims of success, failures spun to give the impression of success - even success snatched from failure, and outright claims that failure never actually occured in the first place.

But this has to be the first time Gordon Brown has made headlines because nothing has actually happened.

Perhaps tomorrow's headlines will proclaim the Chancellor's skills because there hasn't been another Northern Rock?

Whatever happened to Democracy?

I had a call today from a constituent who wanted to discuss school transport. It seems her child had won a place at Oakley School for pupils with special educational needs, on the Pembury Road in Tunbridge Wells.

Although my constituent was pleased that her child was able to benefit from the wonderful facilities at Oakley, she was unable to get her to school. Her husband is seriously ill, and she herself is unable to drive, but has other younger children who attend a school some distance away in the other direction.

Her child, at eleven years old, has a mental age of just over six. She has no conception of "stranger danger" which puts her at risk both from other people, and indeed in such basic actions as crossing the road. Let alone crossing the busy Pembury Road, a main artery into the town centre, where the nearest pedestrian island is some distance away, and the 120 metre walk from there to the school is devoid of pavement. An obvious winning case for an appeal, you would think. After all, her child is clearly in no position to walk to her new school.

She asked if I would represent her at the appeal; something County Councillors have been doing for years. This is something that County Councillors have been doing for years. Every year we get calls from worried and upset parents asking us to represent them at both admissions and transport appeal. And yet, although we can still appear at transport appeals, over the past couple of years the Government have changed the rules to prevent "elected representatives" from representing their constituents at admission appeals.

This simply isn't fair. We're letting our constituents down, because the fundamental job of elected representatives, be they Parliamentary, County, Borough or Parish, is to assist their electorate. Which is precisely what the Labour Government has ensured we are all powerless to do.

Whatever happened to democracy?

New month, new responsibilities

At the end of my holiday last week, I received a call from the Leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter.  My pulse quickened slightly; was there a social care tragedy back in Kent?

The Leader explained that there was to be a Cabinet reshuffle, and he asked me to give up my role as Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services, instead taking responsibility for Regeneration and the Supporting Independence Programme.

I agreed, although my sadness at leaving Social Services is equal to the excitement with which I approach my new role.

All weekend I have received calls, emails and texts congratulating me on my new appointment. There are some very kind and gracious people around, both at KCC and elsewhere, who have all promised to support me along the steep learning curve ahead.

The Norfolk Broads were wonderful, but as someone once said, a week is a long time in politics.