Old, old story

Once again, Liberal Democrat vote share does not translate into actual seats. In this case, it is the outcome of the local elections in Great Britain. We increased our vote share over our performance in 2015 yet, except in Scotland*, lost councillors. I understand our actual percentage was well in excess of what opinion research was predicting.

It took five years for our last peak in membership to result in a record-breaking advance at Westminster in the 1997 general election. One hopes not to have to wait so long this time, nor that the UK will be an ungovernable wreck when it happens.

*where proportional representation is in force

Further civilising strides by Canada's ruling Liberals

Liberal Democrat International reports:

Legalising marijuana will make Canadians safer, insists PM Trudeau

Thursday 4 May 2017 17:05

As the Canadian government moves to legalise marijuana, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC – LI full member) and Prime Minster, Justin Trudeau, has given a candid interview setting out how the shift in drug policy might bring about a fundamental change in Canadian society. Addressing the Canadian public’s questions and concerns regarding his plan to legalise production, distribution, and use of recreational marijuana, the Liberal prime minister said: “Convincing me to move towards legalisation was very much done on a policy basis; the fact that the current approach is not working, it’s hurting Canadians, it’s funding criminals and we have to make a change in our policy.”

Recognising that adults in Canada are making the choice to are making the choice to use marijuana, Mr Trudeau added that “criminal organisations are making billions of dollars a year on that trade means that somewhere our system is failing… to keep Canadian safe.”

Referring to the counter-arguments to his policy in countries such as the United States of America, Justin Trudeau concluded “we see states like Colorado move forward with a commercial mind-set…  whereas we are approaching it purely from a health and safety standpoint.“

The full interview with Prime Minister Trudeau can be watched here.

The polls are about to open

Those of you who have not already voted by post in the 2017 local council elections have between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. to cast your ballots. This election has more direct effect on your local services than the other little affair in June which is receiving so much attention by the media.

Good luck to my fellow-candidates, Cen Phillips (Aberavon), Sheila Kingston-Jones (Cadoxton), Charley Cross (Cimla), Keith Davies (Coedffranc North), Helen Ceri Clarke (Coedffranc West) and Taz Taylor (Sandfields). Thanks to family and friends who have done so much for me in Bryncoch South.

Best wishes also to Liberal Democrats who are standing throughout Wales and in some contests in England.

Posting may be scant today

It's been a long night.

Why I am standing for Bryncoch South tomorrow

I have put up a mini-manifesto on my purely locally-political site. What caused me to throw my hat into the council ring again in this particular ward was anger that a young Labourite had clearly been using Bryncoch South as merely a rung on a ladder of political ambition, and that he had been drawing a councillor salary for the last couple of years on false pretences. To find out more, read the Neath Ferret, or, better still, its most regular contributor, Stan. Search on his web site - http://www.spanglefish.com/stan/news.asp - for "invisible man".

There are other things I want to do if I am elected, like improving cycleways and footpaths in the county borough - easy enough on the old Neath RDC side, where community councils like Blaenhonddan and Dyffryn Clydach are doing a good job, but tricky for the rest. We also need an integrated bus time display system, like Cardiff's. The new indicator boards which have gone up in Victoria Gardens (and, by the way, when is a new bus station with decent access for the disabled to be set up nearer the rail station?) are helpful, but do not take account of late-running buses or cancellations. Nor do they help people waiting in the shiny new bus shelters outside the town centre. They also need maintenance, or they will go the way of the Port Talbot indicator of the 1990s. As one Plaid Cymru activist complained to me the other day, the trouble is that Labour councillors drive everywhere.

We also need to investigate the effectiveness of social services since so much was outsourced, and also how the county borough is fulfilling its duty to looked-after children. I am sure that at least two Liberal Democrat councillors will be elected tomorrow and a further three have excellent chances. I hope that I can be part of a largest-ever LibDem representation on the council.

Chinese influence in Afghanistan

One has to be worried that thirty Afghani journalists have undertaken a course in "media management" in Beijing.

Strong and stable leadership

Strong leadership is not an end in itself. One wants to know where a putative leader intends to take us. The phrase "strong and stable leadership" is redolent of twentieth-century dictators, but surprisingly web searches turned up only more recent examples. There were hundreds of Mrs May references, of course, but also the following:

Australian Senator Pauline Hanson, whom even Paul Nuttall might reject as too extreme, praised Vladimir Putin's "strong" leadership;

"Strong and stable" is a favourite phrase of Hungary's Viktor Orbán. Typical is this extract from an address of last year, which (coincidentally?) also foreshadowed another of Mrs May's favourite themes:  “we need alignment of interests, reconciliation and cooperation. To this end, we need a large, strong and stable people’s party”; and

Also in Hungary, the leader of the nationalist and “radically patriotic Christian” Jobbik party Gábor Vona said: “The West is uncomfortable with the idea that Turkey will remain strong as long as Erdoğan is its leader. Turkey has a strong and stable government.”

So Conservatives who parrot the "strong and stable" message are aligning themselves with those who might be described as "elected dictators". Is this the future they see for the UK?

Violent protests against foreign fat cats

It is amazing how history repeats itself. Resentment against people from mainland Europe making money in English towns was alive and well five hundred years ago, on "Evil May Day".

As in centuries before, May Day was a holiday in the Tudor calendar under the reign of King Henry VIII. But in the weeks leading up to May in 1517, tension was rising in the City against the many foreigners who had made London their home, some becoming very wealthy.