Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Electoral observing in Britain.

The British Electoral Commission has published their New Code of Practice for Electoral Observers and a link to the consultation response paper. Here are key actions from their email. And I paste the specific links after that.

“We are now taking forward a number of actions to update the scheme. These include:

· launching a new online application process for individuals and organisations seeking accreditation as electoral observers from January 2019

· redesigning the electoral observer ID badge which will be issued to all observers from January 2019

· developing a programme of work to improve the guidance we make available to electoral observers, and those running elections

· introducing a voluntary feedback mechanism for electoral observers from the next scheduled elections in May 2019

· updating our approach to how we handle applications for accreditation of electoral observers”

The response is here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/publications/consultations-and-responses/response-to-feedback-on-the-electoral-observer-scheme-and-code-of-practice-consultation

And the revised Code of Practice here:
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/electoral_commission_pdf_file/0004/13927/Code-of-practice-for-electoral-observers-Web.pdf

Pre-election processes comment. Overall I personally agree with the changes, mostly improvements in the working of the scheme, but criticise a couple of areas where no change is proposed. The Commission has engaged with feedback received. For example on the issue of whether observers should notify administrators in advance of where they intend to observe. Also in relation to observers giving feedback (both encouraged, but not a requirement). On the other hand they state, pretty pathetically, that observers cannot observe pre-Eday processes such as “access to electoral registers and staff training” because we “cannot provide for this without changes to the legal framework.” Instead of proposing to Parliament to improve the law. (The same answer you get about not being able to inspect candidate election expenses online which is pathetic in the 2010s).

In response to a question from my Irish colleague, Michael G, I made this point – I cannot think of any legal reason why the organisers cannot invite anyone for good reason to observe training. It would seem wholly reasonable to invite accredited observers to do so if they wish. I can also think of no practical reason. I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong – there are a miniscule number of people registered as accredited observers in the UK. I personally know three only.  So I don’t think numbers wanting to observe would be a problem. [I’ve now checked the numbers and give more details at the end – there are actually 250 observers, though not all British.]

The requirement of being politically impartial comment. The Electoral Commission are reiterating their very wide interpretation of a being politically impartial requirement. This was a key area that I objected to. They have considered, engaged with (slightly) and rejected the critique of such a requirement. “Some suggested that political impartiality should only apply during an election period, rather than for the full length of the accreditation. In summary they – public officials – decide (full extract below) “members, officers or employees of a UK registered political party who would be, or are likely to be, politically active during their accreditation period must not apply for accreditation.”

. “Being affiliated to a UK registered political party, or a non-party campaign group, does not automatically disqualify a person from being accredited as an electoral observer. However, members, officers or employees of a UK registered political party who would be, or are likely to be, politically active during their accreditation period must not apply for accreditation.

If we find evidence that an applicant has previously campaigned, or has been politically active, we will contact the applicant to make sure they are aware of and can meet the requirement for political impartiality during their period of accreditation. We believe this is essential to maintain integrity and confidence in the independence of the electoral observer scheme.”

These restrictive criteria seem to me to clearly infringe an individual’s right to both freedom of association and freedom of expression. If they exercise their freedom of expression or freedom of association even significantly before an election period they are barred from being able to be an observer. It erroneously gives the impression as well that people who are party politically active are not able to be objective.

A personal note (as an aggrieved self-publicist 🙂 ). In an administrative error, I find that the Commission engaged with the points that I made but did not actually list me in the respondents to the consultation [unless, erroneously, as an international observer abroad they have put me in their category of ‘accredited observer’]. I suspect this is the misinterpretation of law by many government and public bodies (and petition websites) that believe if an individual replies to a consultation (or signs a petition) data protection means their identity should not be revealed, even though the individual is specifically replying to a public consultation / signing a public petition. I never intend my responses to public consultations, or signature on petitions, to be secret.

The number of independent accredited election observers in the UK?

I am surprised to find that there are 250 accredited observers in the current UK list that runs out at the end of December. Although this includes both officials from government departments and some foreign government and organisation observers I guess from the designations.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/elections-and-referendums/observing-elections-and-referendums
These numbers include 20 from a Ukrainian NGO (one that I haven’t heard of myself, ‘Leading Legal Initiatives’), UK Cabinet Office and Scottish Government officials, Korean and Singaporean diplomats. The UK NGO Democracy Volunteers is the largest group (50), and there is one enterprising school listed, Stowe School. I know at least 5 of the people on the list.

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

The demolition of the Coach House at 23 Aigburth Road, Liverpool (El Chocon)

(Destruction of) Local history, corner. In July I was horrified that the demolition of the only surviving historic building on the north east side of Aigburth Road was allowed. This is an area historically of large Victorian houses, with terraced streets opposite. At the back of one of the few remaining Victorian villas was a period old coach house, full of character. It was demolished on behalf of the Vinco Group property developers, with the permission of Liverpool City Council – the planning officers of Liverpool City Council recommended allowing it – and no objection from the country’s official conservation body, English Heritage. A ‘historic buildings adviser’ Peter de Figueiredo wrote the report in favour of demolition of this historic building. Local councillors made no representations, and only 5 local residents did (all objecting to the large scale development of the site). I suspect that virtually no resident of the Aigburth Road area had any idea that this vandalism was being proposed and would be waved through by the City Council, backed by a ‘heritage expert’ for hire, acquiesced at by the body supposed to protect England’s heritage. So that one of the few historic buildings in what is supposed to be a conservation area is now gone.

One resident objected to the proposed flats on the basis that they would be five storey in height, out of keeping with anything else in the area. That is correct and it is not considered in the Planning report at all. That could be because the planned block of flats on Aigburth Road was reduced in height (according to Figueiredo’s report) in a revised application “following discussions with the Council and Historic England.” The planning officials adopt a line of Historic England (did they used to be English Heritage?) “the location of the new building means that it will be read in the context of the surrounding modern structures, rather than the historic development along Alexandra Drive.” What this bizarrely points out is that demolishing an historic building (albeit one altered and with few original indoor features) will mean the new building will be read (on that side of the main road) in the context of other modern buildings. The fact the historic building was a feature and part of the cityscape seems lost on the heritage officials. My usual view that those tasked with conserving and celebrating Britain’s heritage care mostly about the large and very old, rather than smaller and newer or industrial, is reinforced. And that planning laws about conservation can usually be overcome if the developer and development is large enough, but not as often when commonsense is asked for in relation to individuals genuinely trying to do their best.

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Theresa May & Conservative Party squabbling let us all down.

We have to work together across Europe and multinationaly to overcome the great problems of our time. War, economic hardship, terrorism, environmental damage and catastrophe, organised crime, social breakdown. Brexit is the greatest threat to working together, the greatest surrender to isolation and hate, the greatest abdication of leadership by our political leaders and representatives in generations. It is a direct threat to peace, social and economic and political cooperation in Europe, that puts us all at risk. Theresa May is unprincipled, valueless and lacking in vision, in it as a politician just for being in it. A hypocrite. Someone who sells weapons to Saudi Arabia to slaughter civilians cannot be a Christian. Someone whose Government seems oblivious to the obscene gap between the super rich and poorest workers cannot be a Christian. I am not religious but too many people falsely claim to follow caring peaceful religious values when their actions do not reflect that.

Theresa May is unprincipled & hypocritical but these Tory MPs who are queuing up to stroke the tail of the reactionary DUP dog are just horrible. Historical dead ends. The Democratic Unionist Party play the historical envy and division game – they actively resist and hinder improvements in Northern Ireland, blind to the huge benefits there have been over the last twenty years. Sinn Fein also play envy and historical untruth and blame but they are not holding a British Government to ransom.

Yet what of the UK’s ‘Official Opposition’ Labour Party in this time of need. The Labour Party, Britain’s ‘Official Opposition’? They prefer tribal party advantage to statesmanship. The Labour Party, its Leader Jeremy Corbyn, most of its Shadow Cabinet & MPs, and heartland activists put party and sectional interest before that of tackling the greatest political challenges of our age. They prefer to score tactical victories over the Conservatives, to keep their ideological and tribal purity. Britain suffers because in part they make the mistake that Liberal Democrats used to make – of refusing to say anything controversial in case they lost votes. Unlike the Lib Dems, Labour does put forward its policies – it’s just that many of its policies are highly sectarian and divisive and do not include telling anti-EU voters that they were lied to for thirty years and voted in a referendum based on lies and not knowing what they were voting for. The whole of Europe suffers while most of Britain’s political representatives refuse to play a leading role in Europe. The SNP, Greens, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru, along with a few principled and brave Labour and handful of Conservative MPs have been exceptions.

The British media don’t report that the DUP represent only 36% of the voters of Northern Ireland. The clear majority do not support them. For UK totals – only just over half the vote of the Green Party, less than one third of the Scottish National Party, less than twice Plaid vote for 2.5 times the seats, only 12% of the Lib Dems vote. 10 extreme reactionaries leading Tory Government & Labour policy. All the while while they refuse to do their jobs in Northern Ireland by them and Sinn Fein failing to run the Assembly. Endangering all the improvements since the 1990s and blaming everyone else but themselves for their failures to sustain and increase improvements for all.

Those people who honestly supported leaving the European Union on legal, economic and political grounds have been misled and sold a fairytale by fraudsters and dangerous ideologues. There are some people with genuine reasons for opposing the European Union as it was, or usually as it became. These are not the Brit nihilist anti-EU extremists who dominate social media, the ones who don’t mind which nasties they are in bed with. I hope the thinking Leavers will reconsider and join a campaign so that we can stay in a reformed streamlined EU on better terms – something British Prime Ministers should have lead a coalition of other countries to achieve. If you are on the side of Jacob Rees-Mogg, extremist Conservatives, reckless wreckers like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, ideologues like Len McCluskey, Mick Cash, nasty populists Kate Hoey, Frank Field, Aaron Banks, tax exile billions & the haters of the Mail, Express & Sun. & Vladimir Putin & Trump, then you are are on the wrong side. A minority of extremists, oligarchs & profiteers are trying to force our country away from values of tolerance and fairness. All of us have to try and stop them before we lose what has made Britain the great country that it is.

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Michael Dobson’s talk on ‘Spaces for Shakespeare’ in Zaporizhzhia, south east Ukraine.

A review for Shakespeare Magazine of Professor Michael Dobson’s lecture in the ‘Shakespeare Days in Ukraine’ series, and as part of his tour of Ukraine, in April and May this year. This is on the Shakespeare Magazine website. The review includes the link for the Shakespeare Days in Ukraine festival from this Spring. A very impressive programme of events coordinated by Professor Nataliya Torkut and members and friends of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre. It is worth noting that Zaporizhzhia is in the region next to the War. It is a completely peaceful city despite a war in parts of two regions of the country 100 miles away. There are more shopping malls than Liverpool and more sushi restaurants than Manchester (pity, I don’t like sushi). I would have said more coffee shops also but the UK has had a further explosion of coffee shops in the last 18 months so we’re probably equal to this large city in SE Ukraine, bigger than Liverpool, that nearly no one in the UK has heard of. Great support for the people there that an intrepid Shakespeare public scholar from Birmingham has been to visit. (There are many alternate spellings, Zaporizhia from Russian, is more common still online, and you see Zaporozhye also). There are many great things about the city – Russian, Soviet, Ukrainian, industrial, post-industrial, concrete, green and nature; but the roads and pavements are terrible except in some public areas, and the driving catastrophic.
http://www.shakespearemagazine.com/2018/10/earlier-this-year-professor-michael-dobson-the-director-of-the-uks-shakespeare-institute-visited-a-university-in-ukraine-to-talk-about-spaces-for-shakespeare-an/

 

The Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre website:
http://shakespeare.zp.ua

Mostly in Ukrainian (a few links in English).

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

How many British citizens have applied for passports of other EU countries because of the Brexit vote and how many have moved to other EU countries?

I asked “What monitoring is the UK Government doing to find out how many UK citizens have applied for passports of other EU countries since the referendum .. how many UK citizens have .. moved to other EU member states”
“The Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) does not hold information in the scope of your request” Our Govt really is clueless about the effect on British people. This from a Government that bangs on about immigration but UK Government has no records of UK migrants.
National Statistics, the official UK Government statistics body, do not keep any record of British citizens leaving the UK. I travel abroad between one and six times a year and never once, ONCE, have I ever been asked whether I am leaving and coming back.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_many_british_citizens_have_a#incoming-1238373

Another request via whatdotheyknow.com

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Policies for dealing with buddleia.

For some time I’ve been very concerned about the damage caused by the pretty, bee friendly but highly invasive plant, buddleia. I was going to ask my City Council if they had policies on this topic but decided to start with the national authorities I thought might be responsible.
Here are links to my questions and answers. The Environment Agency does not deal with these plants unless they are causing a blockage within a watercourse.
“Invasive and injurious plants are not reportable to the Environment
Agency.
Only if weeds are causing a blockage within a watercourse and flooding is
imminent would be reportable to our incident communication service on 0800 807060.”
They then posted useful information on harmful weeds and invasive non-native plants.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/policies_for_dealing_with_buddle_2#incoming-1221226

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) does not have the information at present because “Defra is currently developing a rapid risk assessment for Buddleia which will assess the associated risks and impacts of the species to GB.” So it looks like they are taking this problem seriously, which is good.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/policies_for_dealing_with_buddle#incoming-1252253 (a couple of the initial acknowledgements were obviously meant for someone else and attached to my request by mistake).

Thanks to the WhatDoTheyKnow site for making it easy to submit public Freedom of Information requests.

Buddleia-DEFRA-FOI2018-18546-Response.pdf (2057 downloads )

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

A remarkable Shrewsbury woman in historic Monastir / Bitola.

Here is the story, in 7 photos taken from a display in Shrewsbury, of a British woman who led a team of nurses and was killed in shelling there. Katherine Harley was a prominent suffragette. The city was called Monastir then (its Ottoman name). I recommend a visit to Bitola and the guides don’t mention these stories. They do tell you about the Serbian and French and German war graves, plus historic Ottoman and Jewish cemeteries. Those are the next photos. Shrewsbury display from the Bear Steps gallery. Larger images in gallery at the end.

The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (1).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (2).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (3).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (4).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (5).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (7).
The story of Katherine Harley from Shrewsbury who came to be nursing in the Balkans in WWI. (8).

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Good luck to all my friends in Macedonia for the referendum on Sunday.

Good luck to all my friends in Macedonia for the referendum tomorrow. I really hope that voters vote positively for the Republic of North Macedonia and defeat the extreme nationalists on both sides who want to keep hostility between people alive. This vote is a fantastic opportunity for a country that I love to put people who want neighbours to work together first, for the benefit of all the people of the countries in the region.
Britain has longstanding historical links with Macedonia, mostly forgotten. Here is the first British consulate in Bitola, and site of the one closed a few years ago. Now the town is renowned for its cafe culture. That historic southern city was also on the frontline in World War I (the ‘Salonica front’) of British, French, Serbs and allies against the Austro-Hungarians.

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Sefton Coast & Wirral more WW2 heritage neglect.

Cycling several times this Summer along the coast between Crosby and Hightown has reinforced how Sefton Council really is terrible at marking and commemorating World War II history and heritage. You can pass within yards of the gun emplacements defending the mouth of the River Mersey and have no idea that they are there. Fields just inland retain pill boxes but there is no effort to work with farmers to give access to these or mark them, explain what they were for. Nothing to see but they are actual physical reminders of that most terrible conflict and the direct effect that it had on every part of our country as well as the rest of the World. Sefton is also pretty bad on countryside access, maybe because the borough is artificially cut off from its rural West Lancashire hinterland. Hightown, a large commuter settlement in the middle of the borough is totally cut off inland from any on foot or safe cycling access to the countryside.

In Bootle (also Sefton borough) along the Leeds Liverpool canal there are some signs indicating engineering to stop flooding being caused by bomb damage during the War. These look like they were put up by British Waterways / the canal authorities, or a local regeneration initiative rather than directly by the Council. Is Sefton however worse than other boroughs in the Liverpool City Region? From cycling and walking on the Wirral it looks like Wirral is nearly as bad. There is some commemoration done by local public spirited citizens, especially the posters remembering ships bombed in the river Mersey pinned up along the Seacombe, Wallasey, New Brighton promenade. Elsewhere on the Wirral there is the same startling ignoring of World War 2 physical history. There are pill boxes guarding a key strategic bridge near the chemical works at Port Sunlight, between historic Port Sunlight and Bromborough. They are there but nothing is done to explain their significance. Surely those younger than us who were brought up on War films in the 1970s may not appreciate this. There is a prestige housing development next door, has the Wirral Council (Wirral MBC) asked if they would contribute to some upkeep and explanation? A very small but extra historic feature for visitors to Lord Lever’s model workers’ village to see.

It is only once you cross the modern administrative boundary from the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral into the South Wirral district of Neston (under the modern Cheshire West and Chester Council) that there is one really clever, innovative and welcome initiative. A war time pill box turned into a bat box. I first saw a neglected looking pill box crossing the road between Neston and Parkgate on a short walk on the Wirral Way. Turn your head to the right, towards the car park (if heading south) and there it is. I’d cycled past it several times before over some years without ever noticing the structure. A closer look – at this pill box in the actual car park – reveals that it is not neglected at all. It has been turned into a home for bats. A fantastic local environmental initiative that also both utilises and recognises one of our important parts of Second World War infrastructure. Well done to those involved.

Photos:
Explanation for cyclist at pill box photo. Cycling with my friend Dr Jon Clarkson (a World War 2 enthusiast and expert) by chance I saw for the first time this pill box slightly inland of the A565 at Formby. Local GP Jon also pointed out the dragons teeth anti-tank obstacles along the former railway line and drainage ditch at key choke points on Downholland Moss. There are a few still in place of the Quality Street like triangular concrete blocks. These sites are just over the administrative boundary of Sefton MBC into West Lancashire Council. There is no interpretation or information about the features visible.

 

Parkgate Bat Box. See also about the significance of the pill box location on Station Road explained on the Parkgate Heritage Trail site: http://www.parkgateheritagetrail.org/home/locations/stationroad/

 

For those interested there is detail on different types of anti-tank obstacle on the Pillbox Study Group site. http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/other-wwii-defensive-structures/anti-tank-obstacles/

The site is a mine (no pun intended) of useful and interesting information.

http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/