Blogger bunks off

I've gone to chase tennis balls (gone are the days when I could go and hit tennis balls.) Back on 3rd February.

Sir John retires

Sir John Banham, 70, the recently-appointed chairman of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, is to retire as chairman of chemical company Johnson Matthey PLC. He has chaired Johnson Matthey since 2006 and will step down formally at the AGM in July. Cornwall Council has still not answered my question about how much it is costing the public purse (in compensation to Johnson Matthey) to have Sir John chair the LEP.

There's (not) one missing

The government won yesterday evening's Parliamentary vote on the scrapping of Education Maintenance Allowance by 317 - 258. Five of Cornwall's six MPs backed the proposal to abolish EMA - Conservatives George Eustice, Sarah Newton and Sheryll Murray and Liberal Democrats Dan Rogerson and Stephen Gilbert. I can find no mention of St Ives MP Andrew George in either lobby.

STOP PRESS:

This will teach me to read to the bottom of the page. Andrew tells me he missed the first vote because he was doing a Newsnight interview, but joined his colleagues in voting for the government (ie to abolish EMA) in the second vote, which the government won by 319 - 256.

Campaign Kernow calls time

The idea of taking a Cornish team to the Commonwealth Games has finally bitten the dust.

Cause without a rebel?

Today's Parliamentary debate on plans to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance will test the mettle of Cornwall's Lib Dem MPs. Watch out for more Hansard coming back to haunt them at the next general election in 2015 - today's 16-year-old school leavers, and their younger siblings, will be old enough to vote.

Devonwall deal in the Lords?

James Landale reckons the game's afoot.

Game over for St Tudy's new school?

I've been trying for some time to get clarification about funding for a new school at St Tudy. The crucial issue was to get central government to extend its March 2011 deadline for a £1.3million contribution. The Department for Education has just sent me this email:

"Since the school is a VA school, capital grants for projects at the school are subject to two rules which are relevant in this case.

· grants can only be paid against receipts on spend rather than as an upfront allocation;

· grants have to be spent in the year for which they are made. 2005 Targeted Capital Fund allocations would have been expected to be spent by 2008 at the latest

in view of the financial situation, HM Treasury is no longer allowing departments flexibility to carry forward unspent funding form the last spending review period into the new one."

I have asked Cornwall Council for a comment and will update this post when I get it.