Paddy Tipping is our MP

Although I've been a bit more diligent of late, I don't put as much content onto the site as I would like to. I have therefore decided to throw the site open to anyone in his Sherwood constituency, as it would benefit from some different angles and opinions.

If you would like to become a contributor, then please contact me and I will give you a password to create your own posts. This offer certainly extends to Paddy Tipping and anyone on his team, and also to other candidates/parties, although I would ask them to make clear their interest.

The only other condition is that you don't contribute from a position of anonymity. When I started the blog I didn't put my real name onto the site, but I subsequently decided that it wasn't very fair to lurk in the shadows and write posts, some of which were very critical, from a position of anonymity. He has to stick his head over the parapet and use his real identity, so I think that anyone posting on this site should do the same.

Badger Culling and Bovine Tuberculosis

In a recent Commons ,
question on testing cattle for TB, Paddy Tipping encouraged the examination of other options to culling badgers (who carry the disease).

Bovine tuberculosis is an increasingly serious and costly problem. The focus so far has been on badger culling, but does the Minister accept that better farm biosecurity has an important role to play in reducing the incidence of the disease?

Badger culling is a very controversial issue and there is disagreement over its effectiveness. Many argue that only complete extermination (which would be very difficult, expensive and ethically dubious), would be effective, as partial culls can increase the spread of the disease by dispersing the surviving badgers.

Nottinghamshire County Council funding

There's been an absolutely flurry of activity from Paddy Tipping MP, which I am struggling to keep up with. Next up is a written question:

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was allocated to Nottinghamshire county council for (a) 2006–07 and (b) each year since 1996–97 in (i) cash and (ii) real terms.

To which Phil Woolas, ODPM minister returns a number of figures, which you can see
here

The gist of his covering blurb is that due to changes in funding methods, and allocation of responsibilities, you can't compare like with like.

Presumably what's behind Paddy's question is the growing problem of council tax rises and funding.

Paddy Tipping lodges question on claims handling

Paddy Tipping continues to pursue the cause of local miners with written question

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what organisation she intends to select to regulate claims handlers.

Bridget Prentice (who?) (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs) replies

The Compensation Bill provides a power to designate or set up a Regulator to ensure we have maximum flexibility to safeguard consumer interests. It also allows the Secretary of State to regulate directly if necessary.

My noble Friend Baroness Ashton of Upholland will be announcing further details on the Government's proposed approach at Report Stage in the House of Lords.

This has presumably been prompted by the issue of solicitors charging Nottinghamshire ex-miners to handle claiming from a government compensation scheme. The details are a little obscure, but in essence the solicitors appear to have offered a paid service to the miners without telling them that a similar service had already been funded by central government and would therefore have been free. They have not broken any law by doing this, but the common interpretation would be that they have grossly abused the trust of their clients. Perhaps worse still, union officials, who put the miners in touch with the solicitors, appear to have personally profited from participating in cheating the people whose interests they have a duty to protect.

A46 campaign continues

Nottinghamshire MPs struggle to get improvements made to the A46 continues in a cross-party effort. Hucknall Today quotes Paddy Tipping as follows:

"I had an informal discussion with Stephen Ladyman following the debate.

"He convened a meeting with officials to look at the budget position of the A46. He accepts that there is a problem and is talking to officials about a variety of ways forward.I'm confident he is taking the matter seriously and hopeful that we'll get a reasonable outcome.

"I use the A46 a lot and it is a very dangerous road with a bad accident record.
The whole of the rest of the road has been upgraded and it just makes sense to do this."

Paddy Tipping argues for devolution

In a recent debate Paddy Tipping asked

Does the Chief Secretary accept that one important way to make efficiency gains is for central Government to have a more strategic, slimmed-down role, with resources devolved to local level, so that local solutions can be found for local problems?

Des Browne (Chief Treasury Secretary) replied

Absolutely—[Interruption.] Let me just make the point that, in the whole of my public and political life, I have been arguing for and supporting devolution. Certainly, no Back Bencher needs to persuade me of its importance, or of what it has delivered for Scotland. The most important thing for my hon. Friend and his constituents is not only that decisions are made at the appropriate level—and some of them ought to be devolved - but that we devolve jobs out of the south-east. Part of the process of the efficiency agenda involves moving jobs from London and the south-east to the regions of England, Scotland and elsewhere, and we have been successful in doing so.

(Note the way Des changes topic dramatically half way through, and uses the word devolution incorrectly. Relocating civil servants isn't devolution unless you also transfer control of them from central to regional level.)

This is not the first time Paddy Tipping has spoken in favour of devolution, for example this long speech back in 2001