Downing Street is being naturally coy about the precise dates that David Cameron plans to holiday in Cornwall this year, but the coming week looks like a good bet. Labour leadership hopeful Ed Miliband is already here (I think you can hear him on BBC Radio Cornwall on Tuesday.) The chances of them all meeting for a beach barbecue are probably quite slim, but the question on everyone's lips is obvious. Where's Nick?
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Only three Cornish schools apply to become academies
It looks as if, so far, only three schools have applied to opt out of Cornwall Council control and become academies. None is a secondary school.
The schools which want to go it alone are Sandy Hill Community Primary, St Austell, St Buryan Primary near Penzance and Trenance Infant School, Newquay.
The full Department for Education list is here.
What I find interesting about this very short list is why it is so different to the list of those which expressed an interest (27 in Cornwall.) Could it be that having looked at the implications, two dozen Cornish schools have had second thoughts?
The schools which want to go it alone are Sandy Hill Community Primary, St Austell, St Buryan Primary near Penzance and Trenance Infant School, Newquay.
The full Department for Education list is here.
What I find interesting about this very short list is why it is so different to the list of those which expressed an interest (27 in Cornwall.) Could it be that having looked at the implications, two dozen Cornish schools have had second thoughts?
Found: the minister for second home voters
Step forward Mark Harper, the Conservative MP for the Forest of Dean, and Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, who is due to meet North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson to talk about the issue "soon."Given the coalition government's enthusiasm for dealing with as much democratic reform as possible in a single measure, perhaps Dan can persuade Mark to accept an ammendment to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. It would seem strange to lump together the Alternative Vote system with constituency boundaries (and reducing the number of MPs) and then make second home voters the subject of a separate Bill.
Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing the text of Cornwall Council chief executive Kevin Lavery's letter to Nick Clegg on this issue "soon" - it's now more than two weeks since I asked for a copy.
Remember remember the 6th of September
and not just because it marks the end of the school holidays.
6th September is in my diary because that's the day Parliament is due to give a second reading to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill - which could spell either the end of Cornwall's exclusive ownership over its own constituencies, or the end of the coalition government.
This is Nick Clegg's "big reform" Bill, aimed at paving the way for a referendum on scrapping the first-past-the-post voting system in favour of the Alternative Vote system. The Bill is also intended to re-draw the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies to make sure they all contain the same number of voters.
And that's the problem. Because the Bill aims at radical reform in both areas, Labour has spotted the chance to whip its MPs into voting against - even though Labour's election manifesto promised a referendum on AV. And because around 50 Conservative MPs are known to be unhappy about AV in principle, there is a chance the government might be defeated. And if the government cannot deliver on voting reform, why would the Liberal Democrats continue to keep it in power?
But the main reason I'm fascinated by the Bill's second reading is that we will have the chance to see how Cornwall's six coalition MPs vote, given that support for the government would almost certainly mean the end of Cornwall and the introduction of at least one "Devonwall" constituency.
Conservative Sheryll Murrary (South East Cornwall) and Liberal Democrat Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) have pledged to fight against a Devonwall constituency, as has Cornwall Council. Yet the vote of every coalition MP might now be vital if Nick Clegg's Bill is to survive. Putting it bluntly, will they vote for Cornwall or vote to stay in power? I'm sure this is a tricky issue for some Devon MPs as well.
6th September is also the deadline for anyone wanting to bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership.
6th September is in my diary because that's the day Parliament is due to give a second reading to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill - which could spell either the end of Cornwall's exclusive ownership over its own constituencies, or the end of the coalition government.
This is Nick Clegg's "big reform" Bill, aimed at paving the way for a referendum on scrapping the first-past-the-post voting system in favour of the Alternative Vote system. The Bill is also intended to re-draw the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies to make sure they all contain the same number of voters.
And that's the problem. Because the Bill aims at radical reform in both areas, Labour has spotted the chance to whip its MPs into voting against - even though Labour's election manifesto promised a referendum on AV. And because around 50 Conservative MPs are known to be unhappy about AV in principle, there is a chance the government might be defeated. And if the government cannot deliver on voting reform, why would the Liberal Democrats continue to keep it in power?
But the main reason I'm fascinated by the Bill's second reading is that we will have the chance to see how Cornwall's six coalition MPs vote, given that support for the government would almost certainly mean the end of Cornwall and the introduction of at least one "Devonwall" constituency.
Conservative Sheryll Murrary (South East Cornwall) and Liberal Democrat Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) have pledged to fight against a Devonwall constituency, as has Cornwall Council. Yet the vote of every coalition MP might now be vital if Nick Clegg's Bill is to survive. Putting it bluntly, will they vote for Cornwall or vote to stay in power? I'm sure this is a tricky issue for some Devon MPs as well.
6th September is also the deadline for anyone wanting to bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership.
Who will run Cornwall's Local Enterprise Partnership?
Even when Cornwall councillors vote unanimously on a subject, they usually find something to disagree about. Such was the case on Tuesday when the council voted unanimously to back a Cornwall (and Isles of Scilly?) Local Enterprise Partnership to replace the dying Regional Development Agency.
The council's Conservative leader Alec Robertson spoke in support of a body which would be "acceptable" to the business community. This drew an immediate response from the Liberal Democrat's Alex Folkes, who questioned why the business community should be in the driving seat - the LEPs, after all, will be spending taxpayers' cash.
For some at County Hall, the main issue is to get a LEP which allows Cornwall to run its own affairs, free from Devon. But whose Cornwall? If we're not careful, we could end up with important decisions about strategic infrastructure investments being taken by an unelected collection of small-town Chambers of Commerce.
The business community, as ever, is streets ahead of Cornwall Council and is organising meetings even as I write about the sort of relationship it wants to have with taxpayers' money. The council has a month to get its act together - the government's deadline for applications to set up LEPs is early September.
The council's Conservative leader Alec Robertson spoke in support of a body which would be "acceptable" to the business community. This drew an immediate response from the Liberal Democrat's Alex Folkes, who questioned why the business community should be in the driving seat - the LEPs, after all, will be spending taxpayers' cash.
For some at County Hall, the main issue is to get a LEP which allows Cornwall to run its own affairs, free from Devon. But whose Cornwall? If we're not careful, we could end up with important decisions about strategic infrastructure investments being taken by an unelected collection of small-town Chambers of Commerce.
The business community, as ever, is streets ahead of Cornwall Council and is organising meetings even as I write about the sort of relationship it wants to have with taxpayers' money. The council has a month to get its act together - the government's deadline for applications to set up LEPs is early September.
Who agrees with Nick?
BBC political editor Nick Robinson has a fascinating documentary on BBC2 at 9pm tonight - I strongly encourage you to watch it. I suspect that many of Cornwall's Liberal Democrats will conclude that their leader, Nick Clegg, does not emerge with much credit.
Nick Robinson charts the five days which followed the general election stalemate in May, when Clegg was able to negotiate simultaneously with David Cameron and Gordon Brown.
According to the documentary, when Clegg talked to Cameron, he exaggerated the offers on voting reform he claimed to have received from Brown. And when he spoke to his own party, including his backbench MPs, Clegg exaggerated the concerns of the Bank of England about the need for immediate, deep cuts in public spending (reversing his party's economic policy in the process.)
It's the sort of thing that gets politics and the pursuit of power a bad name. Love it.
Nick Robinson charts the five days which followed the general election stalemate in May, when Clegg was able to negotiate simultaneously with David Cameron and Gordon Brown.
According to the documentary, when Clegg talked to Cameron, he exaggerated the offers on voting reform he claimed to have received from Brown. And when he spoke to his own party, including his backbench MPs, Clegg exaggerated the concerns of the Bank of England about the need for immediate, deep cuts in public spending (reversing his party's economic policy in the process.)
It's the sort of thing that gets politics and the pursuit of power a bad name. Love it.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Gentleman Jim
I tried to snatch a quick interview with Cornwall Councillor Jim Currie yesterday. "Jim, can I...." was as far as I got. "No, you cannot," he snapped. "You never report anything accurately." And he stormed off.
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