Mary Reid

The leader in today's Guardian....

The government has been so preoccupied with admissions of missed targets recently - such as climate change, lifting children out of poverty and social care that it has also missed out on a bit of rather good news this week. The spin doctors must have been caught off their watch for once. The UK has come 10th out of 115 countries ranked in terms of "networked readiness", an index prepared by the World Economic Forum to measure an economy's readiness to use information technology to enhance competitiveness. This is a marked improvement on 2004-05 when the UK came 12th and on the previous year when it came 15th.

and ... wait for it ...

The two areas where the UK was number one globally were "financial market sophistication", reflecting the pre-eminence of the City, and "e-participation".

The Local e-Democracy National Project may just have had a little bit to do with the latter ....

Later

Interesting comments on this by Andy at Firetail.

American innovation (of which there has been loads) has largely been around electoral campaigning and fundraising, because there is a willing market for that work - lots of candidates, largely independent of party, raising lots of money to reach voters through old and new media. The Joe Trippi book is a good survey of what’s going on there.

Our political culture doesn’t work like that, so efforts in the UK have focussed on policymaking and local government. I think we’re far more concerned with issues of political legitimacy, engagement and low turnout.

Which is why in the US, the Dean campaign raised $3.6m in 90 days and in the UK, we’ve got a senior minister trying out a blog.

A thousand children each week will be using Dinton Field in North Kingston for sports from now on, thanks to the determination of the Liberal Democrats. 

Today the Mayor opened this wonderful facility.

Some years ago the Conservatives wanted to build on this playing field, and I led the opposition to their plans. 

I also proposed that we dedicate the field to sports and recreation for children in the area. It needed a new pavilion and the pitches had to be properly drained. This has happened, with funding from the Football Foundation, the London Marathon Trust and the Council.

Hundreds of children from local schools came along today to celebrate and to try out the pitches in a football tournament.

Dinton Field will be managed by a trust which brings together the local schools, the Council and Kingston Little League. 

First David Miliband writes a blog, then he starts a online discussion forum. I can't wait for the Cabinet webcasts...

Up to the House of Lords today to mark an ending and a beginning. 

The Local e-Democracy National Project, which I have been chairing for the last two years, finishes its work this week. We had invited the Chief Executives and Council Leaders from local authorities across England to a reception on the terrace, to tell them about the project and what we could offer them. 

The event was cheerfully hosted by the Earl of Erroll, who is a great supporter of e-government in general. 

The key speaker was Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Minister for Local Government, and it was he who announced the new beginning. From April the Government will be funding a virtual Centre of Excellence which will nurture the things produced by the National Project and develop them further.

We will also be running two International Symposia in the summer, one in Baltimore and the other in Budapest.

The start of my speech................. and the end.

People at the event:
 

From left: Myself, Lord Erroll, Cllr Matthew Ellis (Vice Chair), Isobel Harding (National Project lead), Helen Holgate (NorthLincsNet)

On the left, Cllr Derek Osbourne (Leader of Kingston Council) and Andrew Bessant (Head of Democratic Services, Kingston) chatting with Anna Smith who has been developing the Voice toolkit at Kingston.  This system enables community groups to create their own websites and develop campaigns.  It will be adopted by the Centre of Excellence. 

One of my jobs for the last two years has been to ensure that the Council appoints governors to schools.  Some governors in almost all the schools are appointed by the local authority, but I have changed the way this is carried out.

The traditional approach to appointing local authority governors was for each political party to have nomination rights in proportion to the seats they held on the Council. 

This was becoming less and less workable, and led to some absurdities.  For example, every four years, after a change in the political balance on the Council, some governors would have to stand down simply because they had been nominated by the wrong party. It was also becoming difficult to recruit new governors because some people did not like to have a political label.

The three party groups had been very sensible about this, and for some time had been swapping nomination rights, or even appointing members of the another party, in order to get the best people in post.

In the meantime, the DfES had been encouraging people to become governors and some excellent candidates were reaching us by through the School Governors' One-Stop Shop.

I chatted with the Conservative and Labour spokespersons and suggested we worked towards a non-political procedure, and I'm pleased that they have supported me. As a vacancy occurred the school would tell us about their needs. We would try to match them with someone chosen from those who had applied directly, or from people we knew or from suggestions made by the school.

This procedure has been running for about 18 months so far and we met today to review it.  In the past we struggled to fill vacancies; now we actually have a short waiting list of candidates.

But we are always looking for new people, so if you would like to find out more about becoming a school governor please contact me or the Governor Support Unit at Kingston Council. 

We need people who can take a strategic view of education in the borough, so you do not need to have any specific contacts with any of the schools already.  We particularly welcome people with experience in business or public services, but don't be put off if that does not apply to you, as we also need a wide variety of people who can bring fresh thinking to their governing bodies.

A few days ago I posted my election blogging principles.  Sadly, some offensive comments have been posted anonymously since then, so I have decided to stop all comments during the election period.

On the one hand I am embarrassed that anyone should use my online space to abuse others. I can take a certain amount of flak myself - though it can be quite distressing - but under no circumstances will I allow this space to be used to make offensive comments about other people.

On the other hand, I greatly regret the loss of democratic participation.  But do use the Contact Me form and I will try to answer your questions and comments in later postings.

So my blogging commitment for the local elections becomes:

1. I will put forward the Liberal Democrat vision for Kingston for the next four years, cross referenced to the manifesto.

2. I will not attack members of other parties personally, although that will not, of course, preclude me from criticising their policies.

3. I will invite comments by email (through the Contact Me form) and will try to answer any points in my postings, but my capacity to do so will depend on the volume of questions and the time I have to give to it.

4.  I will not acknowledge any comments that include personal attacks on other people, that could be offensive to other people, or that are either anonymous or of dubious origins.

I was out door-knocking today, and one local resident told me that the Council does nothing for Chessington.

I can remember years ago when it really did feel as though this was the forgotten end of the borough - indeed I may have played a part in inventing that phrase myself. 

But all that has changed dramatically and so I reminded him of three current high value projects:

The Hook Centre - our exciting new hi-tech library and community centre - is taking shape and will be opening later in the year.

The Devon Way Centre, which will provide an activity centre for the elderly and greatly improved youth facilities, will emerge from a complete remodelling and refurnishing of the Hook Youth Club.

The complete rebuild of Chessington Community College using a £23 million grant (in picture with local councillors)

I think I should also have mentioned ...

Local councillors negotiated and made the Merritt Medical Centre happen.

There have been many other signs of economic and social vitality under the stewardship of the local Liberal Democrat councillors.

The two main local shopping centres, Hook Parade and Chessington North Parade, are thriving and have attracted popular supermarket chains. I can remember when many shops stood empty.

Chessington has two substantial business parks, and these provide plenty of jobs for local people, alongside the seasonal work at Chessington World of Adventures.

We welcomed one of the first Safer Neighbourhood police teams, and they will very soon double their numbers.

Some years ago, the Kings Centre was a significant planning gain for our community. It resulted from our vision for a unique partnership between a developer, the local Council and a church that was willing to invest time and money in the local community.

I could go on, but that's enough for now....

The local election kicks off officially today, hence the bit of legalese in the header.

I should state that the three current councillors for Chessington North & Hook are all standing again on 4th May and hope to gain your support.  We are Sue Baker, Ian Reid and myself, all Liberal Democrats.

Running a blog during an election will be interesting - very few councillors around the country have tried it, so there will be much to learn.

I'd like to set myself some election blogging principles and would welcome comments on them.

1. I will put forward the Liberal Democrat vision for Kingston for the next four years, cross referenced to the manifesto.

2. I will not attack members of other parties personally, although that will not, of course, preclude me from criticising their policies.

3. I will try to respond to questions and comments, but my capacity to do so will depend on the volume of questions and the time I have to give to it.

4. I will remove any comments that include personal attacks on other people.

5. I will remove any comments that could be offensive to other people.

6. I will remove any repetitious comments that are stifling debate.

7. I will remove any anonymous comments, or any of dubious origin. If I can be brave enough to put myself in the political arena then so should anyone who wants to disagree with me.

8. I will not remove comments putting opposing political views unless they violate points 4, 5, 6 or 7.

9. I may turn off comments entirely if I am unable to moderate them effectively. I would prefer not to do this as it removes transparency. If I have to do so, I will invite comments by email and will try to answer any points in my postings.

Later

I'm having some technical problems with the comments moderation function on this platform - probably my own fault, as I haven't used it before but have relied on reactive moderation.  I have turned off comments temporarily to avoid legal problems. In the meantime do use the Contact Me link to email me and I will respond to comments online if possible.

I've just returned from a meeting with the Kingston Youth Council.  They wanted me to tell them a bit about life as a councillor, then to discuss with them different ways in which they can interact with the Council and get their views across.

I'm very impressed with this group of young people. Halima Moin is the Kingston's Member of the UK Youth Parliament and chairs Kingston Youth Council.  She has some clear ideas for campaigns she would like to run.

I suggested ways in which the Youth Council could ask the relevant councillors or council officers to get the information they need, and more importantly to find out who the decision-makers are and contact them directly.

Some of their issues relate to other agencies, such as local businesses, health or police, but we can put them in touch with each other and support the communication.

During my two years' tenure as portfolio holder for Children and Young People one of my main aims has been to make sure that the voices of young people are heard. Recently I introduced a proposal to make KYC a formal consultative committee of the Council, so they should get consulted on a number of Council proposals. Since then we have developed a Young People's Participation Strategy which is supported by all the bodies involved in the Children's Trust.

Halima also wants to take steps to get positive stories about young people into the press to counteract the negative images than sometimes come across.

She has my full support.

Footnote, Monday 27th March

I had to turn off comments today after some highly offensive personal comments were posted. 

We had a rock band staying with us over the weekend. 

Our son's band, The Vapour Trails, is based in Bristol, but they had a gig at the Barfly, Camden. 

So Sunday saw us all listening to the new lineup and enjoying Duncan's songs. 

Ian and I were not fazed by being 30 years older than anyone else in the place.

Well, not much...

What counts as a 'political use of public resources'? 

This is a very important issue for councillors and MPs who run their own blogs and websites.  We are all limited by our codes of conduct, which state that council or parliamentary resources should not be used for political purposes. So do we set up pages on the Council's website and accept the restrictions, or do we go for political freedom and run sites that are independent of the Council like this one?

Our democratic system, at parliament and local government levels, is designed to be political. Opposition is built into the system in the belief that this enhances accountability and produces better decision-making.

This then is the paradox: on the one hand political activity is seen as necessary for a healthy democracy, but on the other hand all traces of it have to be obliterated by the very institutions that it serves.

This dilemma has been brought sharply into focus by the emergence of David Miliband as a blogger.  His blog is hosted on the website of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Now I'm pleased to see a member of the Government, especially the Minister for Local Government, giving it a try, and I'll be watching it closely - but not for the reasons that you might expect.

Can he manage to write a blog without being 'political'? More importantly - does he want to?

Would his blog become political if he mentions the Labour Party by name?  What about endorsing Labour Party policies?  What about justifying Cabinet decisions? Or does it only become political if he comments on the views of other parties?

I will be interested to see where he draws the line. 

And if he does get political - under any interpretation - I will not be complaining.  Instead I will be celebrating any small step that he takes to give dignity to political activity and to challenge the rules about the use of government resources.

The question is - will he dare to be a politician?

Kingston Council has just revealed its new-look website.  I rather like it, especially the mysterious blue bridge.  

What do others think?

David Miliband, the Minister for Local Government, is the first minister to start a blog.  I admire his courage.

With my 'lead member for Children and Young People's Services' hat on, I do have to serve on rather a lot of committees.  More and more of them involve agencies working together to provide services for children - council, Primary Care Trust, Kingston Hospital, police and voluntary sector - together with users of the services - young people and parents.  

Today I attended two of them, starting with the Health and Wellbeing Board. We heard about how the PCT is dealing with its financial problems. 

It is very odd that the Health service at regional and national level gives no priority at all to children, in spite of the Government policy enshrined in 'Every Child Matters'. As I have said before, this is one of the most humane reports to have come from any government since the 1944 Education Act. This is not just about the sharing of information about children at risk, though that is part of it, but is a vision for integrating all the public services used by children and families. So why does the Department of Health ignore it?

My next meeting was the Children and Young People's Partnership - a gathering of about 30 professionals who together are making it happen in Kingston. A lot of the joined-up services will be offered through Children's Centres and schools.

The Partnership has produced, for the first time, the Children and Young People's Plan for Kingston.  It will (hopefully) be adopted by the Council's Executive next Tuesday and later by the boards of the other agencies.

Then later in the year all the agencies will be jointly inspected under a new regime, called the Joint Annual Review.  The main question that will be asked is "How have things changed for the better for children in Kingston?" And they will ask children to tell them directly. 

The Plan is rather lengthy but summary versions, including one for children, will be published once it has been approved.

There is no mistaking what the men are thinking about when they sing "Oh, oh, oh".  Then the girl's voice rises to the highest notes in a pure When Harry met Sally moment.

Orff's Carmina Burana is a celebration of spring and the joys of youth - food, drink and love, but mainly the latter.  It is sung in a curious mixture of cod Latin and old German, but that isn't a problem as all the meaning is carried in the bawdy and, at times, very funny music.  From the drinking song to the sweetest songs of seduction, we know just what is going on. And it opens and ends with the famous 'O fortuna' which has been used in so many adverts.

But there is nothing here that matches the raw explicitness of many pop songs, so I do find it odd that some people are unhappy about singing it.  Most choirs, like Kingston Choral Society which I belong to, use churches for their concerts, and that has challenged some sensitivities. But I don't belong to that brand of Christianity that labels the pleasures of life as sinful. They have been given for us to enjoy - responsibly, of course (but then I would say that, wouldn't I)

OK, so this was all a puff for our performance on Saturday 8th April at 7.30pm in Kingston Parish Church.  You can book tickets online on the Council website.

Comments are turned off a present because of abuse. If you would like to add your views please use the Contact Me link on the right.  I will post any comments that are on topic. But please give your name and/or a valid web address. I will not post anonymous comments or ones from dubious sources.

I was down in Bristol today for the launch of Campaign Creator. This is a brand new tool which lets community groups develop campaigning websites for free.

The bold thing about this initiative is that Bristol Council is actually encouraging groups to oppose it. This led to a lot of discussion about how community activists could interact with councils without losing their independence

Stephen Hilton,, who leads the project, said that having acquired government funding to get it started he now wants to hand the ownership to community groups themselves.

It was good to hear Cllr Barbara Janke, Leader of the Council, and an old Lib Dem colleague, full of enthusiasm for Bristol's e-democracy projects.  She announced that she is about to start a blog, so I look forward to adding her to my blog roll.

I bumped into many of the movers and shakers in the e-democracy world who were all pretty impressed by this. Prof Stephen Coleman, whose seminal 'Bowling Together' inspired many of us to get into this field, chaired the event, and Steven Clift of Democracies Online was over from Minnesota to speak about projects around the world.

I also chatted with Tom Steinberg of My Society (responsible for PledgeBank, TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem etc), David Wilcox of Partnerships Online, Jill Sanders from Oncom in Richmond upon Thames (one of the best online community sites that I have seen) and people from BBC Action Network, plus several suppliers and consultants who have breathed life into other e-democracy projects. 

But it was the local community activists who brought the conference alive, relating their good and bad experiences of getting councils to listen to their views.  Paul Slatter of Birmingham Community Empowerment Network, backed this up from the platform with some real stories.  He made one strong point - authorities can't give power to people, however much they might like to; people have to grasp power for themselves.

Comments are turned off a present because of abuse. If you would like to add your views please use the Contact Me link on the right.  I will post any comments that are on topic. But please give your name and/or a valid web address. I will not post anonymous comments or ones from dubious sources.

Did I really hear this on Radio 4 News today?

"Leeks are causing a problem in the new Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff"

Comments are turned off a present because of abuse. If you would like to add your views please use the Contact Me link on the right.  I will post any comments that are on topic. But please give your name and/or a valid web address. I will not post anonymous comments or ones from dubious sources.

Over the last four years, Kingston schools have remained near the top of all the league tables. Remaining at the top is just as difficult as getting there in the first place, but there is a real buzz in our schools. 

In 2005 year 67% of pupils in Kingston schools gained 5 or more high grades at GCSE, placing them sixth in the country. 

You would expect the schools in Richmond to achieve much the same, and indeed they used to be our closest rivals. But since Richmond Conservatives took over the reins in 2002 their results have dropped to under 55%.

That is not the end of the story.  Schools are now subjected to the much harsher, but fairer, ‘value-added’ assessment. This is based on predictions made when each child is 11, looking at their SATs scores.  A score of 1000 for a council means that, on average, when the pupils got to 16 they lived up to their predictions.

In 2005 Kingston scored 1005.6. Only six other councils in the country got higher value-added scores. 

Richmond scored 977.7. This is a lower score than the most disadvantaged councils in London, such as Lambeth, Tower Hamlets or Southwark.

The off-topic comments have continued in spite of asking people to take their personal arguments elsewhere.  The final straw was a comment that purported to come from a council officer, when it clearly was not from him.

I have turned comments off for the time being, but with great reluctance.  The last thing I want to do it to stifle debate. I have never deleted a comment just because I disagreed with it.

So if you would like to add your views please use the Contact Me link on the right.  I will post any comments that are on topic. But please give your name and/or a valid web address. I will not post anonymous comments or ones from dubious sources.

For once I find myself defending Tony Blair.  I was on the M11 last night so missed the Parkinson interview, but it seems he said that he prayed about the decisions he had to make and that God would be his judge. 

He did not claim that God was on his side in the war against Iraq, nor suggest that God had sanctioned his decision - had he said either I would be the first to criticise. This perhaps is where he differs from Bush, who does seem to see himself as a leader of a Christian crusade, something I find totally abhorrent.

If you have a religious faith - whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or any other - you know that it is something that is fully integrated into your life.  It is not like a hobby, which can be very absorbing whilst you do it, but can be locked away in a shed or cupboard at other times, or limited to a particular day of the week. Faith runs through all aspects of your life and informs the moral, social and aesthetic choices that you make. So the suggestion that politicians can separate their faith from their politics deeply misunderstands spirituality.

I would hope that any politician faced with important decisions would spend time reflecting on the moral issues and the consequences of their choices - some will express that in terms of prayer.

I do think that Blair made the wrong decision, but I don't doubt that he struggled with the moral and spiritual issues before he made it. But like him I believe that our ultimate judge is God, and that nothing is hidden from his gaze.  In the meantime we have to face the judgement of the people we represent.

So there you are ... a clear win for Ming, smiles all round, Simon and Chris genuinely generous in defeat.

72% turnout. The breakdown of the voting is here. 

A lot to report today - but at the moment I'm recovering from a live interview on Sky News.  They sent a car to pick me up but we arrived with only a couple of minutes spare. Just a quick dab of powder and I found myself sitting at the large studio desk in front of that massive back screen.

They wanted the views of grassroots Lib Dems - and apparently had found me through this blog! Another unexpected side effect....

It was quite a long discussion, with Ben Ramm joining in from another studio. I explained why I voted for Ming (gravitas and statesmanship), but I also said that the campaign had generated a lot of interesting discussion and that each of the three candidates had the potential to be a good leader.  We do not want a David Cameron clone - that's shallow politics - nor do we want to move from our bedrock principles of social justice, civil liberties and empowering citizens.

To the question about the rocky start to the election I had one simple reply - Dunfermline!

None of the polls has really been able to replicate the demographic of the party membership, so the result is still unpredictable, although Simon is unlikely to get past the first preference count. I'm looking forward to the announcement at 3pm and the beginning of a new chapter in the party's history.