The Gagging Law in 5 minutes

There's got to be a better way to handle budget cuts than more cuts.

I cannot help but think that the way many local councils are handling the budget cuts (or planning to handle them) is backwards.  Rather than shedding staff and outsourcing services to companies that will have to cut standards to turn a profit, surely it would be better to look at how they can save through local shared services and increase income by offering more services to local businesses for a fee.

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"

This is pretty much what I've been saying since politicians started saying that we should give tax cuts to the rich to create jobs.

Student Protests - Again

Just emailed this to BBC Breakfast:

Much as it was suggested that motorists remember which petrol stations inflated their prices now and not shop there in the future, hopefully students (and those who now will not have the opportunity to become students) will remember the actions of the Tory and Lib Dem parties now in their future voting behaviour. Politicians are there to serve us, the voters, unfortunately they will only do that if they know they will be held to account for their actions.

I do think that a lot of the problems with the political system in recent years are that voters have tended to take a very short term view and failed to hold politicians to account for their actions and/or have gotten wrapped up in some short term single issue and allowed unsound ideologies to dominate the political debate leading to a party who are destructive to the opportunities and rights of the majority of people to become dominant.

Student protests

John Hemming MP (LibDem, Yardley) was on BBC Radio WM this lunch time as his office had been invaded by by a group of students. He wasn't there but did sound very unhappy at them being there, complaining they were disrupting the work of his office. He made reference to someone having been arrested in Saudi(was this the Imaam who had been arrest by the Saudi religious police then released when Radio WM publicised the situation or someone else?) and to a couple who were destitute as they had received no benefits.