Careful what we post…

It appears that I'm not the only Missourian that made a trip across to Europe recently that's making waves here. Granted, I'm here on a visa and did so willingly, and these waves are being exemplified by way of my interview this week being re-published in The Romney Marsh Times, which serves the Shepway and surrounding areas of Kent. (Many cheers to Andy and his publication for providing that opportunity.)

However, a family from O'Fallon, outside St. Charles (which is outside St. Louis), found out two weeks ago that their Christmas photo was purloined by a Prague grocer and plastered across the city. A friend of the family living in Prague tipped off the family. The store, Grazie, which specializes in importing Italian and other European foods, quickly apologised to the family and offered to send them a sampling of their products. Meanwhile, the Smith family (who already have a name for themselves on the blogosphere with extraordinarymommy.com, are taking efforts to make sure it doesn't happen to them again. You can read her take on it here.

Just shows how we should be careful what we post. (*mutters to the side about those fanfics from 10 years ago.)

And on a more disheartening note, The Times of London reports that the accused 88-year-old gunmen who shot at two security guards at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington yesterday, killing one of them, attended meetings of Virginians sympathetic to the British National Party. This revelation comes on the heels of the BNP gaining two seats on the European Parliament in Brussels and/or Strasbourg. However, this group of US sympathisers has since disbanded. Apparently the BNP isn't as anti-Semitic as its one-time symphatisers.

Snippets from Prater interview: local governance structure

During my interview Monday evening with Tim Prater, the Liberal Democrat who represents Folkestone West on the Kent County Council, we discussed several issues affecting not only Folkestone but also Kent and Europe as a whole. When discussing these, it's important to know how local and county governments are structured in the UK. In this first audio instalment from my interview with Prater, he explains how local governments are structured and what areas they cover.

Prater explains the pyramid of governance in the UK

Two additional instalments, one on successful efforts to allow Gurkha troops to settle in England after their service and another reflecting on last week's European Election results, will follow tomorrow.

An interview with one of Kent's newest county councillors

Photo: Kent County Councillor Tim Prater, Liberal Democrat from Folkestone West

Folkestone West’s newest county councillor Tim Prater spent ten hours Monday going between introductory meetings and interviews in Maidstone, describing the experience similar to the first day of school.

Prater finally sat down at the Providence Inn in Sandgate just after 7 p.m. with his wife Season and mother-in-law Ann Rimmer, both of whom were recently elected to Sandgate’s parish council. As the Liberal Democrats’ lone county councillor from Shepway District, Prater had already made a name for himself after winning election to the Folkestone Town Council in 2006 and the district council a year later. His victory Thursday over Robert Bliss, the Conservative’s leader on the Shepway council, came by 11 votes and three recounts, erasing a 1600-vote margin from 2005.

Prater’s victory, one of two LibDem gains from the Tories, drew the Tories’ ire over the weekend.

“I’m happy to find a letter from the chair of the local Conservative Party on their Web site which claims that I had stolen the seat from the Conservatives,” Prater said “I don’t believe I could have stolen that seat because it wasn’t his [Mr. Bliss’s]. I don’t believe it’s mine either. I believe it’s their [the voters’] seat. They lend it for four years on trust to the person that they think is going to do the best job for them.”

Prater said that Shepway’s ranking as least improved local council in the England and front-page coverage of Tory MP Michael Howard’s expense claims for £17,000 of gardening work factored into his win, as Conservatives experienced negative swings in Folkestone.

The state of Kent’s roads, particularly in the eastern half of the county, was the top issue residents brought to Prater’s attention, he said.

“They’re full of puddles, they’re not even in a fit state,” Prater said, adding that the current estimate has Kent crews needing almost 300 years to bring the county’s roads up to standard.

Prater said that the previous county council, which had a 37-seat Tory majority, increased funding for this year, but did not budget that increase for next year.

“Suddenly in an election year, they found a few extra pounds for it,” Prater said. “Something that we’re very clear on is ‘OK, they put more money in it this year. I want to see it next year, and the next year as well.’”

Prater has shown in interest in politics since he became old enough to vote in 1991 and said he works by the mantra “don’t get mad, get even.” While attending Aston University, Prater became involved with the Liberal Democrats, writing a news letter and setting up phone fundraising operations during the late 1990s.

Since 2002, Prater has operated Prater Raines Ltd. with Web developer Matt Raines. The company has developed over 350 Web sites, principally for Liberal Democrat groups and candidates across the United Kingdom and Europe.

As a member of three councils, Prater says that it will be a challenge to manage his time between the three but that he will be able to provide a shortcut for discussing issues between bodies.

“I’m planning to go to those meetings as well so that when they’re bringing up issues that need assistance from Kent who deal with things like the highways–there’s a lot of road issues, a lot of parking issues, a lot of street light issues down here–they are things that I can take from those meetings and go back up the chain and say ‘here’s a real problem,’” Prater said.

Prater said that councils often don’t communicate with one another. As a short circuit, he adds, he will be able to communicate discussions from the county and district councils to his district’s town councils.

Following the slashing of the Labour Party’s representation on the county council from 20 to two, Prater’s arrival adds to the LibDem’s count of seven councillors, placing them in the official opposition. With only ten of Kent’s 84 councillors not affiliated with the Tories, Prater says he and his colleagues will do their best to ensure their residents’ concerns are properly voiced.

“You can only bring up the issues which are in front of you and just make it as clear as you can,” Prater said. “Often these things are not political. They are issues about management, they are issues about making sure the right thing is done. It’s often not a fundamental difference in opinion on some of these things.”

Prater has experienced a similar minority situation on Shepway District Council, where the LibDems also have an official opposition with six members to the Tories’ 36.

“What you’re doing is watching what for the majority group is doing and pointing out when they’re making mistakes, and doing it in a way that is hopefully constructive but is equally forceful.” Prater said. “Just because there are a lot of them doesn’t mean that they are right. Groupthink quite often sets in on these things, and it becomes very easy as a very big majority to think that because you come up with the idea that it has to be right, and there is always another way of doing something.”

Prater said that several ideas the Conservatives will propose will be right for Kent or almost right but need some tweaking from the opposition.

“We’re going to be the ones who are sitting in the room who are reading things and going, ‘is there another way of doing it? Is there a problem with this? Would people understand this, and if they understand this, would they like it?’” Prater said.

Prater said that with the word expenses mentioned often the past three weeks, he and fellow Shepway District councillor Tom McNeice have not been involved with excessive reimbursements.

“People say ‘you can claim expenses at district council, you can claim mileage allowances, you can claim food and subsistence allowances,’ and we can say ‘yeah, we can,’” Prater said. “In the last two years, neither of us have claimed a penny. And that does kill an argument very quickly.”

Prater added that he does not plan to seek reimbursement for mileage and believes the basic allowance as a county councillor should cover mileage to and from Maidstone. He said that expense claims at the county and local level also should be made available for public review to determine whether a councillor’s claims are reasonable for the amount of work he or she does.

Prater maintains an office on Sandgate High Street and operates a personal Web site at http://prater.org.uk/. He says he can also be reached via Facebook or through his Twitter user name @timprater.

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For the remainder of the week, The Missouri Expatriate will also upload audio clips from our interview with Tim Prater.

Technical edit: Technorati Profile

EU '09 Elections: And the big winner of the night is…

…Yasmina.

No, that's not the name of some random party in the EU. She happens to be the winner of the season of The Apprentice, hosted by entrepreneur (and newest member of Gordon Brown's dwindling Cabinet ranks as the "enterprise czar" and peerage) Sir Alan Sugar. The show's finale, which was moved up from this Wednesday as to avoid conflict with a World Cup qualifier for England, was aired on BBC1, as European Parliament election results were relegated to BBC2. Whether this is a cause or effect as to the lack of understanding and/or relevance for the European Parliament is for debate, but BBC's programming decision reflects the latter at the least.

Which easily coincides with the vote swinging away from Labour and not to the Conservatives and LibDems, but parties outside the Westminster Three, namely the ubiquitous Greens, Eurosceptic UKIP and the far-right British National Party. Yesterday as the Labour vote total fell dramatically, further degrading the longevity of Gordon Brown's stay at 10 Downing, the swing and lower voter turnout was dramatic enough to where in the North West and Yorkshire, two BNP candidates emerged victorious as the final recipient of seats to the European Parliament from each region. Naturally, established and centre-catering parties are alarmed over the success of the BNP, who actually had a lower vote total than in 2004.

What does this mean for the next general election? For one, it means the prime minister's resolve winds up hardening as to toughing it out for all 361 days until the latest date possible for a Parliamentary election, provided he doesn't get trampled by enough backbenchers during a party caucus meeting tonight in the Palace of Westminster. UKIP's resounding third-place finish in 2004 was squandered when in-fighting between the party leadership and eccentric talk show host Robert Kilroy-Silk, who defected to start Veritas, but with an increase vote total last weekend, UKIP could give entrenched pro-EU candidates, particularly Conservatives, a challenge. As for BNP, the fact that four candidates succeeded to earn seemingly substantial posts (two county councillors and now two MEPs) will put a larger bullseye on them. Will that in turn increase their desire to get their message out and/or put more wool on the wolf? Will enough of Middle England, upset with the excesses of Parliament, realise the risk of doing nothing and instead find a completely different, more sensible option?

We shall see in the coming weeks. Or days if Labour's implosion is fulfilled this week.

Conservatives extend majority in Kent

Kent County Council election results maps. From KCC Web site.

Labour's popularity woes could not be emphasised more than the voice of Kent voters on Thursday.

With all of Kent County Council's 84 seats up for grabs yesterday, Labour could only retain two of their 20 seats. The Conservatives, who entered with a 37-seat majority over the Labour Party, now have a commanding majority of 74 councillors. The Tories defeated Labour in 18 of Labour's defending seats, and gained one from the Liberal Democrats (Malling Rural North East) while spotting the LibDems two. The LibDems will now be the primary opposition party with seven members.

Throughout the traditionally Conservative county, Labour experienced negative swings as the Tories and Liberal Democrats made modest vote gains, fueled by the ongoing expenses scandal and lower voter turnout. In Dover's district, all five Labour councillors were cast aside in favour of incoming Conservatives. A twelve percent swing against Labour cost leader Mike Eddy his seat, resulting in him placing sixth in the Deal dual division behind colleague Terry Birkett.

Across the county, negative swings for Labour allowed smaller parties to gain votes. Notably in Gravesham and Dartford districts, candidates from the Green Party, Eurosceptic parties England Democrats and UK Independence Party, and local parties made sizable gains. A 25 percent swing against Labour allowed Richard Lees of the Swanscombe and Greenhithe Residents Association to claim a seat, becoming the only non-Westminster party to earn representation on the county council. In Maidstone Central, where a six percent swing allowed the LibDems to claim both seats over a Tory incumbent, the one UKIP candidate earned more votes than both Labour candidates combined.

Labour's only two holds came in dual divisions where two councillors were elected. Leslie Christie remained the top-vote getter in Northfleet and Gravesend West, with the Tory's Harold Kraske placing second. In Ramsgate, Elizabeth Green placed second to the Tory's John Kirby, while Green's colleague Alan Poole fell to fifth behind another Tory and a UKIP candidate.

General resentment toward MPs caught up in the expenses scandal was evident in the Shepway district, where Michael Howard's defence of his £17,000 claim for gardening on his rural Folkestone home and £44,000 for renting a constituent office in Folkestone's town centre also caused backlash on Tory incumbents. The Liberal Democrats were able to claim Folkestone West, as Tim Prater defeated Robert Bliss by 11 points, a nine percent swing away from the Conservative incumbent. The remaining Tory incumbents also experienced negative swings, mostly toward UKIP, but were able to retain their seats.

The obliteration suffered by Labour in Kent was echoed through the rest of England, where Labour only mustered an estimated 23 percent of the vote and lost control of all four councils where they had a majority. Labour's majority in the northern county of Lancashire was reduced to six seats total, with the Tories assuming the majority and the ultra-nationalist British National Party claiming their first council victory in their history. The Tories also gained majorities from the LibDems in Devon and Somerset in England's south west, despite their vote share shrinking to 38 percent from last year's 44 percent.

Election results for the European Parliament will not be released until Sunday night, but if local election totals are a foreshadow, Labour may face further significant losses and put into deeper jeopardy the tenure of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Stacking the Deck

As I write, the reshuffling & patching-up of Gordon Brown's Cabinet is underway. Based upon the first two announcements, it's not much of a reshuffle, particularly with the alleged flat-swapping Chancellor Alistair Darling remaining at Number 11, and Jack Straw remaining as Justice Secretary.

The third announcement appears to indicate that the suturing process for Brown's authority is at full steam. Alan Johnson will accept the role of Home Secretary, shifting from Health. Johnson has been suggested for some time to be the next-in-line were Brown forced out or stepped down. His reportedly accepting this role bucks the report from the Guardian that backbencher MPs seeking Brown's removal had 75 Labour signatures. (This report happens to be one line toward the end of the main story reporting on the resignation from cabinet of Works & Pensions Secretary James Purnell, an MP from Manchester.) Purnell's announcement to leave the Cabinet came with a call for Brown to stand down if they wanted Labour to remain in power next year.

Although a reshuffle can shore up Brown's authority, his keeping in the highest echelons of Cabinet those under fire for their excessive expenses, particularly when their constituents are feeling the pinch of a global recession, will not help the Prime Minister generate a "Dewey Defeats Truman" type headline within the next 12 months. Already, Labour is experiencing significant losses in the earliest election returns, losing all but four council seats in the heavily Conservative and rural Lincolnshire county, about 120 miles north of London, and ceding sole control of Bristol's council to the Liberal Democrats by way of losing eight seats. Closer to London, Labour failed to pick up any of the 66 seats in the recently consolidated Central Bedfordshire council. It still remains likely that when European Parliament results are released Sunday night, Labour could fall to fourth behind the LibDems and the top two parties from 2004, the Conservatives and UK Independence Party.

Again, it takes just 33 of these backbench rebels seeking to douse Brown to force an election through a no-confidence vote proposed by Plaid Cymru and the Scottish Nationals, if they're willing to stick their necks out for the good of their constituents. Or their golden parachutes.

The worst time to hear "You've got mail"

Polls in the UK have just opened, and Britain will be the first EU nation to cast votes in the European Parliament election. The remaining 26 nations will cast their votes over the coming weekend. I'll have more on how it will shape out and how the parties coagulate when they arrive in Strasbourg or Brussels.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown bid a tempered adieu to another Cabinet member yesterday, communities secretary Hazel Blears. Blears made no secret of her disapproval of Brown's performance, and went home to her constituency to campaign for her fellow Labour candidates in today's elections wearing a pin saying "Rocking the Boat". She, along with others who resigned this week from Cabinet, were potentially on the way out anyway as Brown contemplated a reshuffle in the wake of the expenses row and potential humiliation in the polls.

Meanwhile, several Labour MPs are reportedly circulating an e-mail to gather signatures forcing an internal leadership battle. For the e-mail to take effect, 20 percent of Labour's MPs (just over 70) would need to sign it, backing one candidate who would be willing to challenge Brown, to force a snap leadership poll.

More interestingly, should enough of Brown's closest advisers convince him that he's cooked and needs to step aside to salvage Labour's reputation and keep him from becoming England's version of Kim Campbell, then in the ensuing leadership contest, a candidate would only need the support of 40 MPs. Or, were every non-Labour MP to vote in favor of a no-confidence motion, only 33 Labour MPs would need to defy their whips and vote to topple their own government. Of course, they wouldn't survive for long in their own party caucus.

Unless they were already on their way out. Currently, seven Labour MPs have announced in recent weeks that they will leave Parliament when this term is done, and three of them have been barred from returning to Parliament as part of Labour. Public resentment toward these defrocked MPs over their excessive claims further intensified when word came of their golden parachutes should they leave when Parliament dissolves. Were these particular MPs interested in keeping their dessert from the public trough, they could easily back efforts to dissolve Parliament before Parliament takes up much-needed reform legislation and disciplinary action.

Is there any guarantee that these MPs would actually be petty enough to put their golden parachute ahead of their own party's interests? Hardly, but given the chaos of the past several weeks, it's entirely possible.

Eenie Meenie Miney Mo, time for Gordon Brown to go?

It seems that when politicians are ripe for criticism, they always seem to resort to visiting an elementary school or preschool. It's well known that George W. Bush was lambasted for not bolting out of a third-grade classroom in Florida when he first learned of the 9/11 attacks. I also recall a news clip Index photographers pinned to the wall in 2004 when Dennis Kucinich (according to the Post-Dispatch's headline) declared he was in it to win it to a group of listless fourth graders, including two in the front row who weren't granting him eye contact. And during the 2008 election, Tina Fey suggested (via her impersonation of Sarah Palin in the VP debate) joked that third-graders helped her prepare for that debate moderated by Queen Latifah (er, Gwen Ifill).

Today, Gordon Brown joins the ranks. Just as three of his ministers have announced their resignations, his chief lieutenant Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, too could be on his way out as a result of his potentially fraudulent claims on both his London flat and 11 Downing Street, four Labour MPs barred from running for the party again as a result of their expense claims (including three who have already announced they're leaving at term's end), more Labour MPs expressing serious doubts about the current party leadership, a brick wall dead ahead in the form of Thursday's local and European elections, and two nationalist parties, Wales' Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, announced they will introduce a motion of no confidence before Parliament next week, (interesting quirk on that I'll expound on later this week, I should add) guess where the Prime Minister was, as filmed by the BBC?

Visiting a preschool.

Wonder if the kids helped him prepare for what will likely be another gruesome grilling by David Cameron & Nick Clegg tomorrow afternoon during the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions.