The Bristol Blogger

Household fuel bills to rise 40%; food up 5-15% depending on who you believe; mortgage interest payments rising by the month; 10% tax rate gone; petrol prices way up. The list goes on …

Meanwhile at Bristol City Council - a Labour administration, remember, whose boss Gordon Brown promised “to listen” - Chief Executive’s pay is up 20%!!! chief officers’ pay is up 10%!!! And the Leader’s pay is up 100%!!!

So how is this all being paid for? Through increased taxation on us of course. Specifically we’re soon going to have to pay for our rubbish to be collected (Blogger Passim) and to park (or not) outside of our own houses. And in the not too distant future look out for that grandaddy of local government revenue raising scams - the CONgestion charge.

But don’t worry because, we’re assured, all these things will only be introduced after meaningful CONsultation with us. Indeed, someone who used to live in London has kindly written to yesterday’s Cancer to tell us how this CONsultation will work:

Having received the recent council literature about the proposal to introduce residents’ parking in Bristol, I would like to ask that when people fill out their consultation forms to consider this: in London, years ago, we had a similar survey and most people I spoke to were against it, but were concerned about the knock-on effect of streets nearby which did adopt the scheme.

As a result, people said no to the scheme, but yes to the scheme if neighbouring streets did it. That means it only took one street to vote in favour for the whole of London to eventually adopt the scheme. My street was in an area away from any local amenities and parking was tight but manageable, a bit like Bristol today. Residents’ parking was brought in and the result was that friends visiting from outside the area were less likely to stop by, delivery vans were frustrated by the need to pay, which often led to a game of “cat and mouse” with the wardens, and yes, there were parking spaces, but it became complete misery for everyone involved.

In addition although we all paid to park in our zone, the zones were so small that you had to pay again if you wanted to drive to the shops, less than seven streets away.

As with all things, this becomes a tax on the poor, as every house can only receive one permit at a cost of £40, so if you are renting a property and sharing with two or more, the second permit would cost £80 and the third a whopping £500. Is this fair?

It is interesting to see how parking problems arise.

In the last few years there have been a large number of properties that have been granted planning to convert into flats, which is of course fine, as there is a housing shortage, but why should the rest of us pay for a problem created by developers and the planning office?

Conversely, can I suggest that as petrol prices rise and with the advent of the new cycle scheme, that before we rush headlong into enormous costs for all, we wait and see whether we really need to go down this route.

The only real winner is the council, which earns a fortune from charges, parking meters and fines, and definitely not you and me.

Zoe Mack, Southville, Bristol.

“Bristol City Council still plans to introduce “pay-as-you-throw” rubbish collections - and residents could end up having to buy bags for their waste,” thunders today’s Evening Cancer.

Who’d've thunk it?

Er, anyone who read The Bristol Blogger nine months ago for starters!

In recognition of this, The Bristol Blogger - in a little recycling initiative of our own - will spend the time between now and next February reprinting all its own stories all over again and call it news.

Another big shout out to our friend Farooq Siddique, Evening Cancer columnist and self-styled voice of the Muslim community. In Today’s column Farooq dished up this treat:

For every act or planned act of terrorism, it is the Muslim community that will suffer the consequences.

Really? Do we now have to believe that the consequences of, say, the 7 July 2005 London bombings were suffered primarily by Muslims rather than the 52 left dead, the 700-odd injured plus their families, friends and colleagues, all from a multiplicity of backgrounds?

Is this embarrassing self-pitying drivel supposed to improve community relations? And does Siddique intentionally set out to offend or is he simply an insensitive buffoon? You decide.

As one door closes another one opens …

The Bristol Blogger is pleased to announce that the ink is now dry on a deal signed earlier today with Bristol United Press, owners of the Evening Post, Western Daily Press and Venue, and the Blogger is now installed as their new and groundbreaking Transport, Regulatory Issues and Political Editor.

The deal, which could be worth up to £300k over the next five years, will find the Blogger writing political leaders and providing in-depth, local political commentary across all BUP titles as well as producing a weekly politics section for the Bristol Evening Post that will include an outspoken opinion column.

BUP Group Editor Mike Norton said: “This is a fantastic appointment for the group. It continues our commitment to bring the very best journalism and writing to Bristol and the West Country and will help to beef up our newspapers’ political coverage.”

The Bristol Blogger said, “This is great news. It’s always been my dream to work for the Bristol Evening Cancer.”

Look out for the Blogger’s first column EXCLUSIVELY in the Bristol Evening Post tomorrow, Tuesday 1 April.

“[The Bridge Cafe at the Clifton Gorge Hotel] is essentially Modern British - whatever that means these days - and it’s unfussy and unpretentious,” writes Cancer food critic Mark Taylor.

And here’s a sample of the menu to prove it:

Pan-seared scallops with pea purree and crispy pancetta

Whole lemon sole with purple sprouting broccoli, sautee potatoes and parsley beurre blanc 

Smoked salmon and avocado tian with chilli and coriander dressing

Free-range duck breast with a celeriac rosti and spiced jus

Pina colada pannacotta with pineapple crisps and coconut tuille

Seems a bit more pretentious than a rack of barbecue ribs from Franky and Benny’s at Hengrove Park …

The back of a bus and the council’s new chief exec.

A reader writes … (Made me laugh anyway)

Sir,

Have you noticed the resemblance between our new Bristol City Council Chief Executive, Jan Ormondroyd and the back end of a bus? Are they by any chance related? I think we should be told.

Indeed, would it not be possible to extract some added value fr om our £180,000 a year for Ms Ormondroyd by attaching some kind of guide rail to her and running her up the Railway Path at weekends?

I understand this to be what is referred to as a “win-win” situation in local authority circles.

Councillor Bradshaw would get his guided bus, the Railway Path would remain untouched and Ms Ormondroyd would have an excellent opportunity to perform a clear public service role each week.

Yours etc.

I C Taxwasting (Miss)
Westbury On Trym
Bristol.

And in further “Junket” Jan Ormondroyd news, we are presently unable to confirm the rumours that Jan will be working exclusively from an upmarket office block situated by the Thames in Southwark in order to easily access the city’s decision-makers …

And finally …

Following yesterday’s Evening Cancer report that mad scientists at UWE are developing tiny robots that can think for themselves, the paper ran a vox pop sensibly asking locals: “Do you have problem with robots that can think for themselves?”

Good question.

Jean from Longwell Green wisely pointed out, “there is a risk these intelligent robots could take people’s jobs.”

While Lizzie from Downend was concerned that “we run the risk of losing control - just like in all the films!”

Mark Packer from Kingswood meanwhile thinks the robots “may even do some of the jobs we don’t want to do.”

And the Bristol Blogger said, “I’d love to see Kerry McCarthy think for herself.”

Have a good weekend … And if you can’t be good be safe.

Willard: Who’s in charge here?
Soldier: In charge? I don’t know man. I thought you were in charge…
Apocalpyse Now

If you’re looking for any hard news about the city these days - as opposed to articles about what the weather’s like or what local cancer charities are doing to raise money over the weekend - why not try page 53 of the Cancer?

Last Friday found our old friend, Merchant Venturer and unelected SWRDA board member John Savage, slipping a highly partisan article under the radar on the advantages of Bristol Airport expansion. It seems he’s even gone to the expense of forking out for his own economists to discredit Stop Bristol Airport Expansion’s economic research.

And today on page 53 we have something that appears suspiciously like a planted article about the Railway Path headlined ‘Green protest could cost us’ in which “an expert” who refuses to be named claims that “green protesters could lose Bristol millions in transport investment“.

Obviously no so-called “green protestor” is invited to reply to these claims and provide some balance to the article. Instead we get a comment from “West of England Partnership spokesman Simon Caplan”.

Caplan, by sheer coincidence, happens to run Bristol City Council’s communication department, despite Labour Councillor Faruk Choudhury recently assuring us that they - along with West of England Partnership - have nothing to do with the BRT proposal. The BRT plan says Choudhury “is only a consultant’s report prepared for the West of England Partnership.”

Not according to their new spokesman Caplan it’s not: “the West of England Partnership is committed to developing a network of state-of-the art rapid transit routes to deliver a step-change to public transport in the sub-region. The partnership is determined to secure government funding for the critical schemes that will form that network,” he says.

Not a mention of consultants there. So who is in charge of these BRT plans? Consultants? The West of England Partnership? Bristol City Council? The responsibility and accountability seems to be shifting on a daily basis now.

Following Saturday’s Guardian magazine ‘Big journeys around a small island’ feature, which listed the current incarnation of the Bristol and Bath Railway Path as one of the UK’s great journeys, comes a story in today’s Evening Cancer announcing that the Sustainability South West charity has given the path an award for being one of the “South West’s top 10 urban green spaces”

The Blogger however would like to give out this week’s “You couldn’t make it up if you tried award” to the the path’s wreckers Bristol City Council who, we learn, “were invited to the presentation” and “were presented with a commissioned piece of artwork, made from Cornish pewter and Forest of Avon oak, at a Sustainability South West forum.”

Did they take their sketches of their new proposals for the path along to show everyone then?

It’s Tuesday. Must be time for Cancer editor News Bunny Norton to wheel out his Islamo-looney, Farooq Siddique to give us his highly personal take on Islam in his ‘A Muslim in Bristol’ column.

Strangely enough Norton’s stopped posting Siddique’s column on the Cancer website now, which is an especially nice touch this week as Siddique, in the wake of Ibrahim Mousawi’s visit to Bristol (Blogger passim), has called his column “Our rights to free speech” - which is obviously not a suitable subject for us to freely speak about on the Cancer website.

And what do you know? Siddique’s in favour of free speech. Apparently “It’s essential for the discovery of truth.”

But wait! There’s more … There are in fact limits to free speech. “Of course freedom of speech has never meant the ‘freedom to offend’,” he says as he explains why he thinks the notorious Danish cartoons mocking Muhammed are beyond the pale and should be banned.

Presumably, then, Siddique thinks nobody is offended by his Islamist friend Mr Mousawi and his Hezbollah organisation with its commitment to the destruction of the State of Israel; it’s nasty little anti-semitic TV station; it’s blackshirted Nazi saluting paramilitaries; its random firing of missiles into civilian areas of Israel and its attempts to get a notorious child killer released from prison?

What could possibly offend anyone about any of that compared to a few silly cartoons in an obscure foreign newspaper?

It’s been another big week for Bristol journalism …

“Dream Jobs! How to get them by those who know,” announces the front cover of this week’s Venue.

Sounds good. We could all do with a dream job. Here at the Blogger we’re ready and waiting to take on the chairmanship of the Committee of Public Safety (Bristol Area). So how do we do it?

To answer this burning question, Venue consults none other than “Festival Organiser Emily Eavis”. Although quite what’s so exciting about spending your life producing endless Health and Safety risk assessments so that 100,000 students can listen to Paul McCartney is anybody’s guess.

Emily is, of course, the daughter of Michael Eavis, the former organiser of, er … Glastonbury Festival! So how on earth did she ever get this dream job?

Luckily Venue hacks are on hand to interview Emily and explain this mystery: “There’s no course or qualification as such,” explains Emily helpfully.

“Get some work experience, work on different events, see how other people do it,” she sagely advises.

Oh and also make sure daddy’s a wealthy landowner who can just hand you a job on a plate …

Meanwhile - in this busy week for top journalism in the city - over at Harry’s Place they’ve been taking an interest in the vice-chair of the Bristol branch of the NUJ, Tony Gosling.

Apparently the brilliant investigative hack and public representative for the footsoldiers of our city’s media army in their endless battle to bring us the truth has decided that Wednesday’s earthquake in Lincolnshire was in fact covert underground nuclear testing conducted by the MoD at a secret airbase!!!

Blimey. If this is the best our hacks can do then you begin to see how Cancer editor New Bunny Norton has risen so far. Compared to the rest of them, arriving in town two years ago and completely not transforming the city’s ailing rag by changing its font slightly and introducing a horse and pony page on Saturdays begins to resemble journalistic genius.