Exploring Adult Social Services Part 2

Earlier this week, I continued my whistlestop tour of the borough's adult services, finding out more about how voluntary groups provide such valuable support for residents. Sutton Centre for Independent Living and Learning (SCILL) and Sutton Carers were perfect examples of the fact that Local Authorities are often not the right people to provide services themselves, instead supporting others who can be more responsive.

I've met both Sam Edwards who runs SCILL and Rachael Macleod (second from right in photo) from Sutton Carers on several occasions around a table. It is only spending a bit of time away from meeting rooms, seeing their work firsthand that you can get the fullest sense of the role that their organisations play.

First up, lunch at Sherwood Cafe. Based in SCILL, it is open to the public as well as people using the centre. Star turn was Charlie who served us and who had proved to be an excellent ambassador for the service at the Take Part, Take Pride stall in Sutton High Street earlier. We discussed the changes that were happening in Adult Social Care with the Government's "Transforming Social Care" agenda. The main thrust of this is to 'personalise' services so that the elderly or those with a disability do not simply get taken from home, left in a large room in a day centre and collected at the end of the day. Instead residents have access to Direct Payments, cash that they can spend on the help and support that they want. This helps pay for personal assistants, trips and other support when it is needed rather than being imposed. Sam's team handles this work, ensuring that it serves its purpose in being flexible, whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. I was especially impressed with the small but very able and creative team who worked with residents to go beyond just supplying basic support. They acted as life coaches, encouraging visitors to SCILL to look beyond the day to day and so investigate other areas that SCILL can help with to improve the quality of their lives and to find and build a level of independence.

Then onto Sutton Carers. I don't know many Canadians, but Rachael Macleod's default excuse for being a no-nonsense kinda gal, championing her cause is that she is from Canada. If that's the case, Stephen Harper must have a queue a mile long on Parliament Hill, with people fighting for what they believe. Persuasive, comprehensive and most of all passionate about her subject, Rachael is someone you want on your side and a real asset to Sutton Carers. Having spent sometime 'speed-dating' the staff, with 10 minutes or so looking at each area, I met someone who had dropped into the centre. Disabled herself, her husband was an alcoholic. Who else can you turn to in such an instance? Where else can you go? Both professional support and a friendly ear from volunteers who had been carers are available.

There is still more to be done to ensure that everyone knows about what is on offer and what they can acheive. We can always do more to support charities like Sutton Carers However, they are both excellent services and both great examples of what can be done when council officers have the foresight to set people free from the constraints of usual outdated practice.

Hat Tip: Radio Jackie for photo.

Exploring Adult Social Services Part 1

On Friday, I went on the first of three tours of Sutton's Adult Social Services. All councillors know about waste collection, the state of our roads and policing because these are visible services that affect everyone on a day to day basis. Support for the disabled, the elderly and for carers is a vital component of the council and the biggest area of spending with 38% of our council tax going towards funding this. However, unless you use the services, have relatives or friends that use the service or volunteer yourself, it is too easy to allow this area to pass you by. So when the opportunity came to find out more, I jumped at it.

First port of call was the same first contact that residents would have, the part of the call centre that specialises in care matters. I recall almighty problems when the new 'Paris' database was implemented which records clients' details but it seems to be working really well now with full details being shared across the service. This saves an inordinate amount of time only having to ask questions once. There is nothing so demoralising as being passed from pillar to post and having to start your story yet again to another voice on the line. Some 80% of queries are resolved at this stage. The Council works well with voluntary organisations who provide a whole host of services. Often it is just a matter of explaining what is available and where they can find the right people.

Literally next to this area of first contact sits the Access Team, made up of social workers and care managers. They have the expertise to resolve the more complicated issues and direct the teams out in the field. I was impressed to see the enthusiasm of the team. I could see two main reasons for this. Firstly they felt able to make decisions and resolve issues quickly. Secondly, they were being trained up towards being fully fledged social workers giving them a goal and a deserved sense of acheivment as they progressed in gaining new skills. There were many years of collective council service in the team. It's good to see the pride in showing me the ropes.

Next stage was a trip to the Cheam Priory Centre behind Cheam Baths (!Issue alert!). Two teams of social workers serve the Borough. Cheam is home to the West Team. I spent an hour getting to grips with the way that the teams work with the added complication of safeguarding. Finally I accompanied Helen, a Care Manager on a visit to a couple's home. Having suffered a stroke eight years ago, the husband was partially paralysed and found speaking difficult. His wife was his full-time carer. They had just returned from a few days' holiday and it was clear that this was very welcome respite from the hard work involved in simply living their lives.

Helen had seen the family before and reviewed their situation to see what more support could be offered. She had already pointed them towards the Sutton Carers Centre, an essential organisation for any local carer and discussed financial support as well as alterations to the home to make it easier to continue living independently. Small things to help make it easier getting in and out of the bath make a massive difference to the quality of life. These were proud people who were coping under difficult circumstances. Within my short visit, I could see how tiring it was for them but also how they had kept a great sense of humour.

I'm looking forward to the next visits, today and Thursday. Following that, we will be able to tackle the issues far more knowledgeably when developing policy on how to change the future of Sutton.

St Burstow Sins After All

The expenses scandal has rightly horrified and appalled members of the public. Local councillors get tarred with the same brush as being in it for ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth for the vast majority of local politicians who give up so much of their time for scant reward. Most politicians have realised that this is not a party political issue but something that MPs from all parties have been caught up in and requires a solution from all parties.

Local LibDems however have been using it as an election message in the Nonsuch by-election to get people to vote for a local councillor, not on the 23 year track record of the Liberal Democrat council, certainly not on the previous track record of the LibDen candidate who failed to turn up to a single local committee meeting in his final year as councillor representing another part of the Borough, but instead on the issue of the behaviour of MPs outside London.

Why did they not look closer to home? Paul Burstow was lauded as a saintly MP by the Telegraph because he did not claim a second home allowance. Perfectly sensible for an MP in a marginal seat with a precarious majority. However he didn't warrant further research which would have uncovered the fact that he paid his wife to do his books and then got them checked by an accountant who did his self-assessment tax return (for one example see page 91 of his online expenses. Both were paid using taxpayers' funded expenses. Nick Clegg called upon Alistair Darling to resign for doing exactly the same thing. I won't be holding my breath for the same call to come for his Chief Whip.

MPs are PAYE, with their salaries being paid after tax has been deducted. The only occasion that a Member of Parliament would need to amend their taxes as a result of their work in Parliament is if they have claimed expenses for a high value item that would still be theirs should they lose a subsequent election. They then have to pay tax on that item as if it was a benefit, over a three year period. This would mean that the folding machine bought via Paul Burstow's £10k communication allowance would be taxable (which through some deft juggling of allowances ended up as a bill to the taxpayer of £15,525, one of the highest of all the MPs), but the £643.01 paid to a company to stuff 23,815 envelopes the month before and the £22.52 spent on wine and crisps "for stuffing" would not be.

Fortunately the residents of Nonsuch aren't taken in as easy as the Liberal Democrats would wish. One resident who has switched their vote from LibDem to Conservatives this time around, wrote comments on their letter. Next to "After all it's your money that is being spent", they have added "Yes we know. You waste ours Sutton." I hope that the rest of the election campaign can focus on the issues that the candidates can actually have a direct bearing on for the residents of North Cheam and Worcester Park and in the meantime, the Westminster politicians can stop the yah-boo politics that they purport to hate and get on with cleaning up Parliament.

UPDATE: The Sutton Guardian carried a story on this in their Thursday edition. Paul Burstow explained that he needed to get the taxpayer to pay for his accountant in order to account for his expenses to the taxpayer. Two issues here. He needed the accountant to do his self-assessment tax return according to the invoices. Surely accounting for expenses just requires the occasional use of a photocopier. Secondly, he didn't account for his expenses, Parliament eventually did by putting them on the website for the Sutton Guardian and others to read after being forced into it. This is in sharp contrast to Ben Wallace MP who made all of his expenses public as far back as February 2008 .

Sutton Takes Rap On Knuckles Over Iceland

A group of MPs has criticised councils for ignoring the warning signs about the Icelandic banking system. The BBC reports that the all-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee said that complacency, lack of expertise and inaction all helped put taxpayers' money at risk. The Local Government Association defended councils saying that they had received poor advice.

Sutton lost £5.5m after investing in Heritable Bank, a UK subsidiary of Landsbanki. Lead Councillor for Resources John Drage has dismissed each of the accusations over the last year despite admitting that he himself, had taken his eye off the ball. Cllr Drage is a retired Bank of England economist, working through the collapse in Japan in the nineties. When Cllr Drage fell asleep on the job, this smacked of complacency and robbed the authority of some expertise, leading to inaction, thus fulfilling all three of the accusations included in the report. End result? Sutton taxpayers are £5.5million worse off for the time being, with the latest prediction that we will lose £1.1million and get the rest back in a few years.

Introducing Georg Braun for Nonsuch

Following the death of my colleague and friend, Chris Dunlop, the by-election to elect his replacement in Nonsuch will be held on July 2nd.

We are really lucky to have an excellent candidate, Georg Braun, who lives in the heart of the ward. He has four children who go to local school, runs his own business and lives in Hampton Road which is used as a rat-run to avoid Central Road. This all means that he has a good grasp of the issues for people in North Cheam and Worcester Park. He shares the same issues on a day to day basis.

Georg has already hit the ground running in Nonsuch. Literally in his first five minutes of campaigning for the by-election he found three severely blocked drains due to longstanding neglect by the Council and called them in. He's also signed up to our Freeze The Tax campaign at http://www.freezethetax.org.uk/. He's a local guy with local priorities. He'll make a fantastic addition to the team and a strong voice for Nonsuch. I know he'll work hard to carry on Chris Dunlop's positive approach to local politics.

Georg told the local newspapers "I'm not your typical politician but Chris showed me how important our local representatives can be. His positive approach to our area has inspired me to stand for election. I hope I can count on residents' support in continuing his legacy of making a difference.

"Nonsuch Ward - covering North Cheam and Worcester Park - is forgotten by this Council. We're almost always at the back of the queue for help from Sutton Council. Our area needs a positive new vision. A Conservative-run Council can provide it and I will be campaigning for it."

You can catch up with news from the area and his jottings from the stump throughout the campaign via his blog, changeNonsuch

Get The Euro-Results First

My fingers are slightly numb after 12 hours of ringing on doorbells. Nonetheless, Iain Dale

is hosting a results show, so it's worth logging in to see if it was all worthwhile.

I'm bound to pontificate on my blog about the result sooner or later, but you should listen to those in the know first by clicking on the link and listening to Iain and commentators across the country.

Police Called In Over LibDem Leaflet

According to the Sutton Guardian, police have been called in by a Sutton resident on a contravention of electoral law by the LibDems. Regular commenter on this blog, Adrian Short has asked the Special Crimes Unit to investigate Paul Burstow and Tom Brake over claims made in their European election literature which I commented on this morning.

You can see the whole article via the link above but I have reproduced a snippet below:-

Mr Short said: “Let me be very clear that I am not a lawyer and I am not saying that anyone has broken the law.

“However, in my reading of the law, I have formed a suspicion that the law has been broken and, as with all suspected crimes, I have reported it to the police.

“Regardless of the outcome of the legal process, I think it’s very important that people understand that, whichever party they vote for on June 4, their vote will be equally valuable and will help their preferred party to gain MEPs, entirely contrary to what the Lib Dems’ leaflets are saying.”

Bob Steel, the Sutton Green Party chairman, added: “The leaflets are deceitful and patronising.
"They will only further corrode trust in politicians, already at an all-time low.

“Lib Dems apparently have such a low view of their European performance that they devote 90 per cent of their leaflet to trying to dupe voters they are electing Tom Brake to deal with local issues like recycling.”

I agree with Bob Steel. It is disappointing that after nearly quarter of a century running the Borough, the LibDems have run out of steam to such an extent that they feel the need to prop up their remaining hopes through such means. They have asked for proportional representation for years. Now they have it, they seem to have decided that they don't want to use it after all. If politicians can't be straight with the public about something so basic, what trust can we have left in them.

European Elections - Vote Conservative

Today the polls are open to vote for your Members of the European Parliament. You might not think that this is important but there are a few good reasons why it is worth turning up to your polling station and voting Conservative.

Tim Montgomerie on Conservative Home covers it well:-

• Vote Conservative because it's the vote that Labour fears most.
• Vote Conservative because of David Cameron's tough response to expenses-gate.
• Vote Conservative because the Tory MEPs are set to leave the EPP and form the largest centre right grouping in the European Parliament opposed to ever closer union.
• Vote Conservative because Tory MEPs will vote against the EU's
  ambitions to spend our way out of recession.
• Vote Conservative because it's the surest way of getting a referendum on Lisbon.
• Vote Conservative because David Cameron is the only UK party leader fit to be Prime Minister.

Voting for minor parties may well salve your conscience about the shenanigans in Westminster but Gordon Brown will shrug this off as only he can, as a blip. Whilst from a party point of view, I believe that Gordon Brown is the Conservative's greatest asset, as a British taxpayer, it is time that the message gets through to his Cabinet colleagues that it is time for him to go. This country cannot afford another year of hiatus with the global economic climate as it is.

Meanwhile, the LibDems have been pushing out leaflets with their usual barcharts. They are the foremost proponents of proportional representation, yet when they campaign in an election with exactly the kind of electoral system that they want, they campaign as if it was First Past the Post. They explain that only the LibDems and Conservatives can win in Sutton, Carshalton & Wallington. The only problem with this is that this is a London-wide election. You vote for a party's slate of candidates rather than individual names (unless they are independents). The ballot paper is two foot long. Messages like this only go to confuse people further.

POLLS CLOSE AT 10pm

Battling Garden Grab in Coleridge Avenue

At the last Development Control Committee, residents from the Poets' Estate made their feelings known about the latest in a string of applications to knock down an attractive house and build four houses in the garden. You can see from the number of residents in the picture, alongside Eric and Paul Kelly, that it isn't just a few Nimbys complaining.

The application is wrong for a number of reasons. The house is situated on a tight bend. Up to eight cars coming in and out would present a real danger. There would be intolerable disturbance to number 38, next door. The garden often floods as a result of underground culverts that remain from the redirection of a brook that gave Brookfield Avenue its name. Two of the houses would be built directly on the affected area. I wouldn't fancy buying one.

Finally, this is back garden development of the worst kind. Both main local parties have talked a good game about being against such planning applications. Both parties need to put their money where their mouth is and act.

I spoke to the committee about these problems. They were being asked to make a decision without knowing about the flooding, without any details of the ground levels and so the ridge levels of the housing and without details of protective landscaping. I was able to persuade them that they really cannot take a decision with so many unknowns and they decided to defer the decision until they could clarify these issues. Eric and I will keep local residents informed about progress and the date of the next meeting.

Rogue Trader Day

I've taken my eye off the ball in keeping the blog up to date in recent days so I've some catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago, I joined Sutton's Trading Standards officers and local ward police in Carshalton to go on a tour of the area for a Rogue Trader day.

This entailed driving around the ward looking for any signs of building works and interviewing both the contractors and residents. Part of the exercise was to look out for rogue traders who prey on the vulnerable, overcharging them or creating opportunities for distraction burglaries. However, most of the time was spent on just making people aware. This allowed residents to take simple precautions so they did not fall victim to such scams. It also made contractors aware of the borough's Safer Sutton Trader Scheme, which acts as both security for residents and an advertising opportunity for contractors. We finished off at a mobile exhibition in Carshalton Village where crime prevention officers were on hand to offer advice to residents.

I certainly appreciated the time spent by council officers and police officers explaining their roles and the effect that they have. Trading Standards is a small department that often gets overlooked as a lot of their work goes unsung. Even on our short trip, the police picked up some useful intelligence that may help prevent crime in the ward. That's got to be time well spent.

Eric Secures Sutton's Support for Reservists

Until Cllr. Eric Howell intervened, Sutton Council was one of a small number of London boroughs which did not officially support employees who may want to serve in the Territorial Army as Reservists.

Eric Howell got in touch with Sutton Council's Chief Executive to get Sutton signed up to the SaBRE (Supporting Britain's Reservists & Employers) campaign as a 'supportive employer'. Only 9 out of the 32 London boroughs have failed to support SaBRE's aims. Sutton was one of them.

My colleague Eric is an ex-serviceman who fought in the Suez Crisis. He was disappointed to discover that SaBRE had written to the Liberal Democrat Leader of Sutton Council asking for support, but did not receive a response.

Eric, along with fellow councillor Cliff Carter, came into contact with SaBRE last month when they went to support Sutton's very own reservist unit at the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Trophy Challenge - a new military skills competition. Sutton's TA Unit, the 210 Transport Squadron of the Royal Logistical Corps, is based in Stonecot Hill.

Commenting Eric said: "There was a motion at the last Council Meeting referring to the Armed Forces but it neglected to mention Sutton's home-grown TA Unit, the 210 Transport Squadron. Along with several colleagues I witnessed their highly impressive skills first hand at the GOC competition last month. Sutton should be immensely proud of their achievements.

"As the borough's largest employer it's about time Sutton Council got its act together to officially sign up to the SaBRE campaign. Over 70% of other London Councils endorse this campaign to give support to our brave Reservists - why isn't Sutton one of them?"

Ivory Towers Built To Top Industry Standards

The BBC have an extraordinary story this morning. There are 4.5million people on waiting lists for social housing and around 100,000 new build homes lying unsold and empty. Housing Associations are refusing to use a government fund to buy thousands of these to plug the gap because they are not of a high enough standard. Apparently, unlike private dwellings, social housing needs to be of a minimum size and built to a higher standard.

Is it just me or are you looking at this, scratching your head too? Sutton has the second worst housing stock in London, requiring £125million to bring all of their homes to a basic liveable standard. People across the country are living in social housing that may be built to a minimum size, but have tenants packed in like sardines with children sharing rooms with their parents. Enough damp and condensation is produced in many places to solve the drought problems in the south east and mould is prevalent, bringing on asthma and other such complaints. Yet a partial solution is being knocked back by those who cannot see the wood for the trees.

Millions of people in the UK have scrimped and saved for deposits, taken on bigger and bigger mortgages as the housing market exploded, in order to get a foot on the ladder. Many had to have a size of family to suit their circumstances and size of home, rather than the other way around. The social landlords that are eschewing the empty properties are peddling an ideal that is not available to those who can just about afford their own home and is not helping those who can't either. They need to get out of their reasonably sized, ivory towers, built to an excellent environmental standard natch, and join the real world. If they have the cash, buy the homes. Take advantage of the 10 year NHBC guarantee to put right any of the faults and snags.

Cameron Gets It

David Cameron gave up on his planned Party Election Broadcast on TV this week to turn his attention to the only political issue of the week, that of MPs' expenses. Speaking directly to the camera, he detailed the action that he and the parliamentary party were taking now to tackle the disintegration of public confidence in politicians. He started the broadcast with that rarest of words in politics, sorry.

As others have reported, this approach demonstrated that at least one of the leaders actually realised the severity of the problem and was prepared to address it rather than ploughing on regardless. In stark contrast, the Labour party put out an anti-Conservative video, almost totally unrelated to the elections ahead. Sutton resident Adrian Short has highlighted the disingenuous approach of the LibDems in their election literature. It is ironic that the main proponents of greater proportional representation in elections mislead people to think that the European election is a two-horse race here, with statistics from the last General Election to back up their claims, when it is in fact a regional election. On June 4th we will be voting for a party list of candidates to represent the whole of London in the European Parliament. The LibDems may be close to the Conservatives in Sutton, but this is far from true in most other parts of the capital. This is not an election where you need to consider voting tactically. Simply put the cross next to the party that you believe represents you best. If you need help working this out, have a look at the website Vote Match.

At Least Gordon Brown Is Consistent

Several trees have been felled to cover the MPs' expenses story over the last week and there is little that I can add apart from my horror at some of the more excessive stories and my disappointment that the majority of the MPs who are working hard trying to
accomplish what they set out to do when seeking election, are being tarred with the same brush. Local councillors tend to get written off as feathering our own nests as well, despite the fact that there is no scope for expenses as far as I am aware, beyond travel for lead councillors representing the authority on official non-political business.


Gordon Brown hasn't come out of this well but he has been consistent in his slightly creepy detachment from reality. Have a look at these two videos of interviews filmed a couple of weeks apart. The first is a Channel 4 interview about the Youtube appearance and his 11th hour backtracking from a daily allowance (known in Brussels as SOSO - sign in, sod off.) The second is a more recent appearance on BBC when he was caught on the hop by David Cameron's firm line. Both times he tried to accuse the interviewer that they had their facts wrong. Both times, the interviewer was spot on.

Small Steps for Blog Power

Nine days ago, I wrote about the lack of care taken about keeping the Council Offices' front door reasonably inviting. It is a small matter but since it is often the first thing that visitors see when coming to the Council, it should demonstrate a standard of care that the Local Authority aspires to acheive across the Borough.

Someone has taken note and got the Marigolds on, scrubbing away the green stains that have built up after months of rainwater leaking from the gutter. The leak still appears to be there so I hope that a permanent repair is next. Thank you to whoever sorted this out. Now, whilst I have your attention, what can you do about this £8million of taxpayers' money that you are spending on the controversial Sutton Life Centre?

Councillor Chris Dunlop

I'm still a little dazed this evening after hearing the sad, sad news that my colleague and friend Chris Dunlop died yesterday. Chris was a councillor for Nonsuch ward and worked really hard as the sole Conservative representative, tackling issues for all constituents. He was always keen to help residents and colleagues whenever he could.

His particular interest was education. He sat on a few committees looking at standards across the borough and was passionate about his role as a governor through some difficult times at Overton Grange. Music for young people was a particular key issue for him as he campaigned for a suitable venue for schools' orchestras to play in Sutton. In his ward, he campaigned to keep decent leisure facilities in the west of the borough and recently worked closely with Philippa Stroud to set up the Friends of Cuddington Park.

The smile in his council portrait photo is true to his personality, a jovial man who would make time for people, look for the good in people but a straight speaker. His work as an IT network specialist, took him around the country. He fitted in his Council work as best as he could as well as a home life with his wife Michelle, and children, Amelia and Harry.

Chris, the shock of your untimely passing will go, but I'll miss you; the memories will remain.

The Benefits of Virtual Education

I came across a German article about 'Die Umstrittene £8million Sutton Leben Zentrum' (Controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre) the other day. However, the Germans referred to it as 'Sutton's Apocalyptic Playhouse'. Whatever your view of the centre is, the 'virtual' nature of the lessons in safety may prevent the situation in the video above.

Of course, British police are very different. I'm not sure that dropping a truncheon on his foot would have garnered the same response. Suffice to say, Sutton's LibDem councillors don't need lessons from this DEA agent in how to shoot themselves in the foot.

Bid for £2,000 Sutton Speaks fund

As part of this year's 'Take Part, Take Pride' festival in Sutton, the Council are looking for bids from residents to improve their local area. The Sutton Speaks fund offers residents the chance to choose how Sutton council should use £2,000 to do work or create something special for your particular area.

You can tell the Council how you'd like them to spend this money. The festival organisers will shortlist a few ideas and invite those who have suggested them to join the Sutton Speaks event in Sutton Town Centre on Sunday 12th July when the public will vote for which will win the bid.

If you have an idea about where this money should go, you should be able to share it by emailing takeparttakpride@sutton.gov.uk, visiting the website (although I couldn't see how to do this without just emailing in the first place, they might fix this), or sending in your idea to:-

Take Part, Take Pride 2009
Chief Executive's Office,
Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way,
Sutton, SM1 1EA

Council Committee Cabin Fever

I have just put the finishing touches on the Conservative list of appointments to Council Committees for the next municipal year. It has taken me a while and I feel like sitting in a darkened room with a cold towel to recover. Each year, it is a matter of getting the right people into the right jobs whilst not being able to please everyone in the process.

Our 21 councillors cover 62 different committees, ranging from the Licensing Committee to the Carshalton Coronation Commemoration Trust. Some of these meet rarely, some of them I am not even sure what they are for. What I have seen is that if we should win the election next year, we have to cover a massive 103 different committees. Time for a shake-up I think.

Media Coverage of the Controversial £8.5million Sutton Life Centre

ITV London came to Sutton on Wednesday to cover the story of the Sutton Life Centre. Moving swiftly on from my jauntily-angled hard hat, the parents at Brookfield School said it all, when they pointed out that if the Council are going to lavish money on safety, they would rather have a lollipop lady.

Conservative Home have published an article that I wrote, which you can read here. The Evening Standard and the Metro have also covered the pet project which is costing the equivalent of 10% of all of the Council Tax raised in a year in Sutton.

24 Hours Is A Long Time In Sutton Politics

In the US television series "24", Jack Bauer gets everything wrapped up, saving the world in just 24 hours. Back in the real world, it takes the same amount of time for LibDem councillors to realise that they shouldn't be examining their masters' decisions without having the full facts in front of them.

The Liberal Democrats took the odd decision to scrutinise how the controversial £8.5million Sutton Life Centre was going only one day after the decision was taken to build the thing. As I'd had 24 hours to read the financial information that was supplied just ahead of the council meeting, the previous evening, I asked several questions based on these papers, including why fees and surveys represented such a high proportion of the total project cost, and why Sutton Council was taking £279k in consultancy fees from its own project.

Lib Dem Cllr Myfanwy Wallace asked why I was the only councillor with this paperwork as she found it difficult to scrutinise the project without it. When I could lift my head from my hands, I exclaimed that it was a shame that she did not pipe up at the Council meeting the day before. It is extraordinary to think that councillors think it is OK to put their hands up to spend £8.5million without the full facts but not when they are asking a few questions after the event, when the builders have gone in. Although I asked about the fanciful expected visitor numbers, the rest of the session rarely lifted above whether jacket potatoes would be served in the cafe. I despair!

The part of the meeting about paperwork can be heard via the box below. The voices that you can here are Cllr Myfanwy Wallace, Cllr Roger Roberts (Chair) and Cllr Graham Tope (Lead Cllr for Community Safety, Leisure & Libraries), all LibDem:-

Civic Pride Draining Away

It's not the most attractive photo that I have featured on my blog in the last 3 years, but it is a whole lot prettier than the top of the drainpipe with the pigeon droppings caked on.

I don't normally have this sort of morbid fascination with office rainwater drainage, but this happens to be right next to the front door to the Civic Offices. It is the first thing that visitors see, in what might be their only exposure to the Local Authority.

Sutton Council's motto is "Take Part, Take Pride." A week of community activities are being planned on this theme, where residents go on a litter pick, or show off their attractive neighbourhood. It is just a shame that the Council cannot keep to its own script.

This has been like this for months. The damp has spread. Further along the gutter leaks, dripping down the side of the building. At the back of the offices overlooking the car park, the box guttering is held together with string.

Meanwhile £2million has been diverted from the budget to maintain and repair council-owned buildings to help pay for the controversial £8.5million Sutton Life Centre.

Sutton Life Centre Forced Through

Full Council last Monday turned out to be the usual bunfight but confirmed that meetings of all 54 councillors have as much influence on council decisions as Gordon Brown does on his facial muscles.

Two main items were discussed, the future of leisure provision, where the LibDems confirmed that Cheam Baths would close by 2015 and the controversial £8.5million Sutton Life Centre. Councillor Tim Crowley, Conservative Spokesman for Finance & Value for Money requested more financial details the previous Wednesday having discovered that contractors were due to start on site, the day after the decision to build was made. What was the point of pretending to make a decision when it was clear that it had already been taken. We were told that even delaying the decision may lead to Sutton Council having to pay financial penalties to the contractors. The requested information was supplied to me and Cllr Crowley at 4.10pm, less than three hours before the start of the meeting. 52 councillors had to vote on whether to spend £8.5million (astoundingly, the equivalent of 10% of all of the Council Tax raised in the Borough), without full details of the consequences of their actions.

After a 20 minute stand-off, the LibDems forced through a vote to debate the issue, without full disclosure to all councillors. Conservative councillors questioned the need for the Centre in the first place, but majored on the fact that we didn't actually have the money to build the place, instead relying on diverting money from the reserves and schools repairs budget amongst other smash and grab raids to cover the costs. It is clear that this is another case of the LibDems spending money to justify their existence. Residents were up in arms when they were asked to pay £35 for green garden waste bags. Well, guess what, you've just had your pocket picked of £44 each for a project that many will not use. Only one LibDem councillor even bothered to mention finance in the debate.

Yes, but we'll be getting spanking new community facilities won't we? - Undoubtedly; a new library that is smaller than the one that it is replacing, youth facilities to replace the youth club that was flattened to make way for the centre, a climbing wall that is more expensive that privately-run "Craggy Island" at Oaks Park and the multimedia area to teach citizenship at three times the price of the existing facilities at nearby Sutton Junior Tennis Centre. Even Vince Cable has been to Sutton to tell us that we are in the middle of the worst recession since Sean Connery found a few hairs on his pillow. However, we seem to be splashing out residents' cash whilst they are cutting back for fear of losing their jobs. The LibDems used their majority to push the thing through, supporting it to a man. The builders are on site. Work has started on the mausoleum to the LibDem's reign in Sutton.

Sign the Petition

Email smears, the unravelling of the budget and the mess made of MPs expenses. Just three things illustrating the fact that we face a year-long car crash in slow motion waiting for the end of this very tired government. Surely best to put the poor chap at the helm out of his misery, which is clear to everyone despite his best attempt to smile. Why not join me (and 7088 others at time of writing) in signing the petition asking him to resign.

Guido Fawkes makes the point that over two million people watched Dan Hannan MEP tear a strip off the forlorn PM in Brussels recently. If just half sign the petition, the message will be clear.

Thanks to Beau Bo Do'or for the picture.

Happy St George's Day

I didn't have my camera with me when admiring the flag of St George flying above the Civic Offices this afternoon, but the picture to the right reflects the same sunny background that is lighting up the national day in Sutton today.

St George's Day has been lost somewhere along the way. St Patrick's Day is celebrated more in many parts. It was disconcerting to see the flag hijacked by the British National Party whilst surfing for a picture to accompany this article. Even the many football fans who fly the flag see it as a tribal symbol of a game that in all reality has lost the club versus country debate some years ago anyway.

I'm off to a celebration dinner in Sutton this evening. Nothing to do with the Lib Dem Council who have restricted the marking of the day with a small event in Worcester Park Library. I'll leave you with a message from the Mayor of London, Boris:-

"Right now, without thinking, can you say what day it is today? For the (I suspect) sizeable majority who said Thursday, feeling rather smug at their mental sharpness, I am sad to say you are wrong. Well, not technically. Today is indeed Thursday. But the real point missed, is that it is St George's Day.

"Living in such a vibrant, cosmopolitan city you end up celebrating all manner of national and religious days. Some you celebrate as heartily as those to whom they apply. St Patrick's day is an obvious one, where every pub in the land is decked out in green.

"But St George's Day is still without fanfare, either forgotten or tucked away in a cupboard somewhere. This year, I want London to wholeheartedly celebrate. That is why the flag of St George will fly above City Hall today. I will be getting on a Routemaster bus and going across the river to the famous Leadenhall Market to join traders and Londoners in celebration.

"Last weekend, the Globe Theatre held a celebration event to mark Shakespeare's birthday. This weekend, there will be an English music festival in Trafalgar Square.

"St George's Day has been ignored in London for too long. We have much to be proud of in this great country. England has given so much to the world, politically, socially and artistically. There are many who feel that London is not just the capital of the United Kingdom, but also the capital of England.

"So I am calling on all Londoners to don silly hats, step out into the sunshine and celebrate England's great patron saint.

"Let me know what you think by commenting on the Blue Blog. It would be great to hear from you."

I'm The Only Voter In The Village

Entitled 'One Man, One Vote', the BBC has got a great story on their website. Not about electoral reform or Robert Mugabe's latest twisted bid to retain power, but about the forthcoming Indian elections.

This man is Guru Bharatdas Darshandas who looks after a temple in a forest in Western Gujarat. He has a polling station to himself for next week's General Election. On 30th April, five polling officials accompanied by two policeman will travel to the Gir Forest to pick up his ballot. I know that the Indians took to bureaucracy like ducks to water when the Civil Service system was introduced under British Colonial rule. However, it is amusing to see that they have kept up with current British practices of public sector job creation. I await a new rash of "How many ... does it take to change a lightbulb?" jokes. I wonder if Mr Darshandas refuses to tell intrepid canvassers, who brave the resident Asiatic lions, which party he supports?

How Spin in No 10 Works - Part 1

I've left so-called Smear-gate to the Westminster Village experts until now but there are a couple of points that don't seem to have been picked up by the political mainstream.

Firstly, one point from the unlikely political analysts popbitch.com; a website more used to throwing muck around about celebrities.

"The News of the World landed the McBride-Draper Tory smear email story so it was weird to see on Sunday they didn't run with it on the front page. Instead the tabloid had a bizarre headline, "Obama's brother in sex quiz", which sounds like something Jacqui Smith's husband would watch on TV, but was in reality a random story about Obama's half-brother being refused a visa to enter Britain.

Even more weirdly, the story was not written by a NOTW journalist but bylined Gloria De Piero, GMTV's Political Editor. De Piero is a close friend of Derek Draper, a colleague of his wife Kate Garraway, and an ex-flatmate of Damien McBride's then-boss Tom Watson.

So, surely a coincidence that this was the front page story? Otherwise I guess we'd have to assume that the uncalled for and unnecessary smearing of the family and reputation of the world's most popular politician is acceptable to the Labour Party now?"

Secondly as a footnote, it is ironic that Gordon Brown has been caught out by the release of the content of personal emails just a few weeks after a law has come into effect allowing the Government access to the contents of every personal email sent in the UK for up to a year.

Finally Gordon Brown seems to be taking media lessons from John Prescott. He finally gave an apology of sorts today and said "I take full responsibility for what happened. That's why the person who was responsible went immediately." It surely doesn't take a Cambridge PPE graduate to find a hole in that reasoning and wonder why Gordon Brown is still Prime Minister. I'm afraid it is just symptomatic of another statement of empty words drafted without thought.

This is the second worst cock-up of Gordon Brown's Premiership, the first being the bottled election. Both have been caused by his biggest fundamental weakness, his hatred of political opponents. He can play the big stage, whether it be terrorism, floods, foot and mouth or economic crisis. However, when he has the Conservatives in his sights, he is like a child in a sweet shop and cannot help himself. I was only 11years old when James Callaghan lost the election but despite the Winter of Discontent, this seems even more like someone who needs to be put out of his misery. Please, someone spare us and find him a soft exit now.

Going Potty Over Potholes

The BBC reports that a Parish Council in Essex has asked that potholes be left unfilled for a while longer in an unusual bid to slow traffic. Representatives of the village of Navestock claim that they are the original traffic calming measure and so want to leave them unfilled for a year.

They seem to have read the first chapter from LibDem Sutton's book on traffic management where the winter maintenance budget has been cut and speed humps sprout like wrinkles in Nora Batty's stockings. However they haven't got to the bit where Conservative Councillor Cliff Carter led the calls for potholes to be tackled and secures £250,000 of funding to tackle the worst ravages of the recent snow and ice.

I seem to remember the pothole theory being tried before somewhere in the South West but have not heard any recent updates where it has been rolled out across the UK with a fanfare so I guess it wasn't so popular. Not all of the village are in agreement with a local retired police officer saying that 'it beggars belief'. Essex County Council agree with the copper and are bringing in the tarmac as I write. The potholes may calm the traffic but I doubt if they have the same effect on the drivers.

Mash The State - Following Sutton Council's News

The Guardian Technology website covered the launch of a new initiative to improve online communication by Local Authorities across the UK. Sutton resident Adrian Short is behind the project, Mash The State that seeks to get every Council to offer an 'RSS feed.' This may sound like a bit of technological jargon, mainly because it is! All it really is though is a simple instruction added to the website which allows other computers to pick up the latest stories from the site.

Something that will take no more than a minute to do, would allow Council news to be broadcast around the area and beyond automatically. Instead, the Council has to rely on people being keen enough to take the trouble to go to the website and scour it for news. Plenty of people these days have one or two sites, that they visit which do the looking for them, aggregating news and information from various sources. The Twitter feed on the top right hand of this blog is doing just that. Adrian runs a community site, Sutton Active which seeks to bring local news together from a number of sources including this blog. Adding a feed is a small thing that is easy to do, will become more important as Web 2.0 continues to develop, and best of all, is free. I've asked that Sutton Council should do this. The new-look council website cost £208k, it should be all-singing and all-dancing, never mind a simple tweak like this. Mash The State is looking at all Councils in the UK. Offering your support might encourage other Local Authorities to use the Web better.

Reality Check on Monopoly Money

Last week the G20 calmly agreed to spend $1 trillion on trying to bail everyone out of the mess that we are in. Reports suggest that the UK's debt is set to surpass £2trillion. Somewhere along the way, people become detached from these impossibly large figures. This includes Ministers who bandy them around as tokens rather than people's hard-earned money. There are ways of illustrating these figures, such as the Conservative's "Dad's Nose, Mum's Eyes, Gordon Brown's debt" campaign which calculated that every child born in the UK has £17,000 debt. Even this is difficult to take in. I've found a general example to illustrate $1trillion.

$100 is the highest denomination bill issued in the States.

$10,000 is less than 1/2" thick consisting of one hundred $100 bills.

$1million is represented by this small pile of 100 packets of $10,000.

$100 million starts to look more impressive, fitting on a standard pallet.

$1 billion starts to pique the interest of government ministers.

Finally $1trillion or $1,000,000,000,000. The man can still just be seen at the bottom left of the picture.

Life Centre or Life Sentence?

A picture of an ostrich just didn't cut the mustard when writing about the latest on the controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre.

As expected, Sutton's senior LibDem councillors queued up to sing the praises of the Sutton Life Centre.

It was wonderful to have a library that would be open for longer than the one that it would replace, like the one at the Phoenix Centre in Beddington, without mentioning that many users of that library bemoan the fact that it may be open for longer but it lacks one small thing; books.

It was great that we would have a state of the art centre to teach Junior Citizenship, the silver bullet that would stop our young people getting involved in antisocial behaviour and drugs without recognising that such a course already exists in Sutton at one-third of the proposed charge per pupil.

Sometimes, even I am startled at the detachment of the LibDem administration. The Executive meeting on Monday when this was discussed was one such time. The Life Centre might just work. The 40,000 children that need to come to provide most of the income may arrive by the coachload. People may be chasing each other up the climbing wall to get their turn. Starbucks may start sending their trainee Baristas to the Sutton Life Centre to get experience as cappucino follows moccachino out of the cafe door. Kevin Costner built a baseball field in his farm when told by ghostly voices in 'Field of Dreams', "build it and they will come". He built it, they came, but it was just a film. You cannot play fast and loose with public money. It is not appropriate to say that because we have got £4million from a national grant, we need to bend over backwards to match it at a time of financial turmoil, moving money away from education, adult social services and reserves to fill the gap.

If the project falls short of its income target by 20%, the Council will have to find £95,000 each year to keep the place open. The conditions of the grant mean that if the Council sell the building or change its use in the next twenty years, we may need to pay the £4million back. Councillors always have to balance risk. We are still £5.5million light after taking a Treasury management risk in lending the money to an Icelandic bank. This is a risk too far at the wrong time. The business plan is fanciful at best. In order to find 40,000 children to turn up to pay for the building, a massive proportion of children from South East England will have to come.

According to figures contained in the business plan, there are an average of 33,900 children in each year group in schools within the target area of a 1 hour drive of Sutton. The centre is aimed at Years 6 and 8 meaning a total target market of 67,800. The centre needs 40,000 children to come which is 59% market penetration. In order to do this, the plan only allows for a paltry marketing budget of £5000 and £1300 stationery. This does not stack up well amongst organisations with a touch more experience and know-how as this list showing their percentage of their respective markets shows.

• Starbucks 16%
• Tesco 30%
• Barack Obama 53%
• BBC Radio 54%
• Apple iPod 70%
• Microsoft Windows 88%

Since, the Sutton Life Centre is pitching comfortably above the most popular man on the planet, the assumptions surely need at least a cursory second glance from someone independant and with something approaching a business brain. The G20 won't be swooping down to the Holiday Inn working how to bail us out if things go awry. Let's get it right now.

At least the Executive have had the good sense to bring the decision to a meeting of the Full Council before we did. We had our form ready to call-in the decision but it was not needed as the LibDem councillors realised that pushing this through would be one step too far.

The Full Council meeting is on Monday 27th April starting at 7pm. It is held in the Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, SM1 1EA. You are most welcome to come along and see where your money is going. If you use Facebook, you can add your voice by joining the group Unaffordable: Shelve the controversial £8million Sutton Life Centre! and just as importantly, please invite all of your friends to do so. If 3003 people can want Wizard man to switch the Christmas lights on in Sutton, I really hope that a few people are moved enough to try to save a few million quid of taxpayers' money. The message needs to be sent loud and clear: the public purse, filled with taxpayers' cash, should not be the plaything of politicians.

Conservatives to Protect Back Gardens

Back in 2006, I posted about a speech that I made in Council when we sought to protect our back gardens from in-fill development. Figures show that around that time some 41% of brownfield development in Sutton was in fact on gardens. I don't have the up to date figures.

Yesterday in Westminster, Shadow Housing Spokesman Grant Shapps MP unveiled the Conservative Green Paper "Strong Foundations: Building Homes and Communities." A Green Paper is basically a statement of intent by a political party detailing the outlines of policies that it will introduce. There were some interesting proposals for social housing which I will endeavour to cover later but I was glad to see that the party have reaffirmed that they will tackle the issue of garden-grabbing head on.

"We will also reverse the classification of gardens as brownfield land and allow councils to prevent over-development of neighbourhoods and stop ‘garden
grabbing’."

Brownfield land was meant to be land that had been built on previously that was surplus to requirements, no longer fit for purpose or not as efficiently used as it might be. Including gardens in this definition dramatically changed the makeup of towns and cities. It certainly has in parts of Sutton where streets of reasonably sized family homes have given way to flats.We know that demand for housing in the area is great. As usual, it is getting to that balance which is important. It should be for local people to decide where that point is rather than a crude one size fits all policy from the centre.

Mr Smooth

There's little point Gordon Brown trying to keep up in the slick stakes with President Obama. Luckily he is too busy saving the world from ourselves to worry about what people think.

Spurred Into Action

At last night's Executive meeting, in amongst more weighty issues, we were treated to a lecture from Cllr Dombey on how to get things done in local committees. This followed a recommendation from the Carshalton & Clockhouse committee to the Executive that urgent action was taken to repair the wall on the A232 by All Saints Church. Cllr Dombey's contention was that it was better to speak to officers rather than trouble the Executive with such matters as illustrated by the fact that officers had started to gather quotes.

Unfortunately the Deputy Leader of the Council couldn't have been expected to have all of the background to hand. The matter was recommended for referral to the Executive by Cllr Hamish Pollock, the single LibDem on the committee with the unanimous support of the remaining five Conservative members. He has been trying to get some repairs done for eight years without success. I am sure that he will be pleased as we all are that the recommendation to the Executive has had the desired effect of breathing life into a situation that has been mothballed for so long.

Freeze The Tax - Freeze The Life Centre

You will have received your Council Tax bill by now, showing another inflation-busting increase. Well, we tried. The only part of our bill set by a Conservative, that of the GLA precept, was frozen by Boris. George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor has pledged to give council's enough money to freeze council tax if they can peg their increases to less than 2.5%. This is a fair partnership between national and local government; you do your bit and we'll help. Meanwhile, we sought your views and shared them with the ruling administration.

We believe that Sutton could have joined the thirteen other London Boroughs that are freezing or cutting their tax, helping their residents when they need it most. You can see more on why we believe this is possible and how we could have acheived it without any frontline cuts at the website http://www.freezethetax.org.uk/.

Instead, the biggest drain on this coming year's budget, the £8million Sutton Life Centre is coming up for the go-ahead at tomorrow's meeting of the Council's Executive. £4million is coming from a grant from national taxpayers, the other £4million is coming from us directly, here in Sutton. The Council have raided the reserves, taken money originally given to Adult Social Services, delayed repairs to schools and kept unexpected windfalls that you were owed, just to shore up this pet project. I've already written about the way that planning was obtained in a hurry. The Executive have had only six days to see the business plan. However, since it only contains six pages of financial information for an operation that is aiming to turnover £3/4million a year, they could come to a conclusion quite quickly.

The clincher is the target market. It is aimed at schoolchildren in years 6 and 8 that are within a 60 minute drive of the site. According to the figures contained within the user profiles in the report, it is safe to say that the Sutton Life Centre needs to attract 60% of the entire population of children in years 6 and 8 living in South London and North Surrey. Not even Bill Gates would attempt market penetration of that kind within a 12 month period. They are helped by the fact that they will stop the existing Junior Citizenship programme thus forcing local schoolchildren to go to the new building or miss out. The fact that the existing scheme costs schools £3 per pupil and the new one £9 per pupil suggests that schools are going to be out of pocket again because of the Local Authority.

The charge of £9 is another optimistic assumption. According to the report, there is one place in the country vaguely comparable situated in Milton Keynes. Sutton's business plan requires twice the number of visitors paying a higher price simply to break even. I suspect that tomorrow night, the LibDems will be leaving their legacy to the people of Sutton. The likely £95k per year needed to keep the place open with just a 20% shortfall in income will provide 95,000 reasons why not to vote LibDem at the next local elections.

Residents show support for War Memorial Hospital

Last night, around 50 residents came to a public meeting in All Saints School, called by Conservative Parliamentary candidate Ken Andrew to talk about the future - or lack of it - of the Carshalton War Memorial Hospital.

Ken spoke of the history of the hospital, built by public subscription following the Great War, what it meant to residents today and the effect that its loss would have.

Andrew Grimes from the NHS gave a presentation about the overall programme of changes for healthcare in the area. The War Memorial was one part of a far wider-ranging project. You can see a copy of his handout here. He explained how although Carshalton was getting a good deal from the changes, it was decided that the Intermediary Care beds that had once been planned for Carshalton were being put into the Wilson Hospital in Mitcham. Andrew explained that no decisions had been taken, although the business case for the changes has been given to the powers that be for approval.

I added some points that I have made several times before, including the fact that it was like selling the family silver with the land lost to public service forever. The NHS change their mind on healthcare provision as often as a Jimmy Choo devotee changes her heels. If we continue to shed sites like this we will end up with the predicament that residents in the west of the borough find themselves in. Worcester Park has seen a lot of house and flat building in the last few years. There is a massive shortage of GP places and school places but no land to fix this infrastructure problem. Since I live in Salisbury Road, I also joined the residents in their additional concern about what will go in its place and the effect on the area. As I have reported before, Cedar Close is involved as part of a land swap to maximise the revenue available to the NHS as well as getting more modern facilities for the present residents with learning difficulties.

Residents then had plenty of opportunity to raise their concerns. Some of the more elderly neighbours questioned the legal right of the NHS to sell off the land. I have been promised the legal opinion obtained by the NHS. Others believed that the lack of intermediary care in Carshalton would push patients back into their homes prematurely. We have been promised a further public meeting about such care matters in the near future. The feedback from the meeting was positive with residents able to get their views across. I've had a pop at the poor communication from the NHS in the past, but Andrew Grimes did a difficult job very well for the NHS. I hope that the decision makers continue to listen and take heed.

LibDems Greatest Hits from 2008

I came across this video during an idle moment and thought it was worth revisiting as a reminder of another example of the remoteness of the present council administration. It is a clip of the local ITV news from last autumn discussing the changes to school transport for children with Special Educational Needs. In case you weren't following the story, the change went through, rubberstamped by the LibDem backbenchers at a full meeting of the Council. Autistic children were exempted from the change after some passionate campaigning from affected residents.

The changes are being introduced anytime now. I'm still not convinced that the expected savings will materialise. In the meantime, children and their parents are being put through massive upheaval to their already difficult lives. Rather than fronting up about the fact that this is a cost-cutting exercise, the Lead Councillor claims that the move is greener and will give the children exercise.

Sutton's Empty Houses

Last year Sutton was 6th in London for having the highest proportion of empty houses. Many of these were private homes. The Local Government Association has called on the Government to cut VAT on refurbishment work to encourage owners to bring them up to scratch and occupied. At the moment, new builds are exempt from VAT but refurbishment is not. A separate campaign, Cut the VAT has more details.

In the meantime, residents have been asking what is happening with the empty property in The Square. There have been security problems over the period whilst it has been empty. It has been earmarked for some residents moving from Orchard Hill in Carshalton. The Primary Care Trust seem to be the sticking point. I hope that they start to accelerate their efforts to rehouse people from Orchard Hill which was due to have been closed down last year. Whilst the delays continue to this major project, Stanley Park High School remains unbuilt, the property above remains empty and some residents remain in unsuitable accommodation.

Shooting the Messenger about Jargon

This week's Sutton Guardian had a story about the use of council jargon that was excellent in every regard apart from one. I was accused of using a bit of jargon myself, when in fact, I had only used it in a previous article slamming the use of council-speak. The bit of jargon was no ordinary word. It was 'deliverology'; a word that I believe was first used in Tony Blair's 'Delivery Unit'. Both of the phrases in the last sentence should be committed to trial in the lexicographical equivalent of the Hague.

Anyway, here's my response, which I hope that the Guardian will publish next week.

"I was somewhat surprised to see that I had been singled out for criticism for the use of the word "deliverology" (Tories call for end to waffling jargonology, Guardian 26.03.09). The only time that I have used this barmy word was when slamming its use in these pages last year. I have heard it used elsewhere but still have no clue what it actually means. I would be grateful if any readers can enlighten me.

I'm always happy to take criticism on board and I am my own biggest critic, but I think on this occasion my direction of travel has been tested for soundness by my colleagues and we are coterminous in that the outcome suggests that my use of the government lexicon is a predictor of beaconicity. Either that, or to translate for the real world, anyone that knows me would think that I am pretty jargon-free."