Mary Reid

Apparently, there is a rumour going round the Conservative Party Conference that Zac Goldsmith, their candidate standing against Susan Kramer MP in Richmond Park, is about to defect to the Liberal Democrats.

You can read about it from a right-wing blog and from the winner of the Lib Dem Blog of the Year.

This is Emily Godwin, whose photo of a waterfall won her first prize in the Mobile Phone category.

The libraries have been running a Wildlife and Nature Photography Competition over the summer and this evening was the red carpet occasion.

To my embarrassment I had left my own camera at home so used my mobile to take this shot, and it cannot begin to compare with Emily's work. She was delighted to win a top of the range mobile from Vodaphone.

All the winning photos will be framed and displayed around the libraries, but you have a chance to see all the entries at the Hook Centre for a few weeks.

It was great to see a number of very good entries from children alongside the more consciously arranged works by adults.

An 11 year old who has ambitions to be a professional is much more likely to grow up to become a professional that one who doesn't. My immediate reaction to that assertion was to assume that a child's ambitions would probably correlate with their socio-economic background anyway.

But the fascinating findings reported today in the Guardian show that even when family background is taken into account it is still true that children with higher ambitions achieve higher success. This has really important implications for all of us.

The National Child Development Study has been tracking the 16,000 children born during the first week of March 1958 in England, Scotland and Wales. When the children were 11 they were asked to write an essay imagining they were 25 years old and describing the kind of life they would be enjoying.

The study caught up with the majority of them in 2000 and recorded their actual occupations. 50% of those with professional ambitions at the age of 11 were working as professionals, though not necessarily in the field that they had originally imagined. In contrast only 29% of those with no professional ambitions ended up as professionals.

For many years we have known that children live up to the expectations held about them by adults. This indeed is one of the arguments against selection - in the days when children were described as having "passed" or "failed" the 11+ it was not surprising that they went on to enjoy academic success or failure, even where mistakes had been made (and many were - but that's another story).

But this study adds another important layer to our understanding about how people create lives for themselves. If children, whatever their background, set themselves high targets then they are more likely to be successful than those who don't.

What then enables some children to see wide horizons while others see only narrow paths?

I'm not sure that the research offers any explanations but there's a PhD in there for someone. What it does suggest is that parents and teachers should be helping children to lift their sights and to develop the confidence that they can become whatever they want. Building self-esteem must be at the centre of this process.

Before anyone comments, of course I realise that the term 'professional' is rather contentious, and that people have high ambitions to work in fields that are not traditionally classed as such. However it has given a useful framework to this study which will inevitably trigger other smaller scale research.

I have a personal interest in this story. No, I wasn't born in 1958 (if only ...) but I did work on the National Child Development Study in the 1960s. It started life as the 1958 Perinatal Mortality Survey. The findings directly led to changes in maternity services, so that resources were targeted at  mothers who were at greatest risk.

During my gap year in 1964 I worked at the National Children's Bureau which had just been set up (actually under a slightly different name) under the renowned Mia Kellmer Pringle. Initially I was the lowly number cruncher for another longitudinal study of children in Birmingham. Then towards the end of my time there the 1958 study was transferred to the Bureau and I worked for its director Ronald Davie for a few weeks, doing some initial clerical work.

It seemed an impossible undertaking. Huge amounts of data had been gathered on each of the 16,000 children - and we had no computers! Eventually the data was recorded on punched cards which were then sorted by massive card reading machines. Only later, long after I had left, was it all transferred into electronic form.

In 1972 'From Birth to Seven' was published. The length of time from when the children became 7 in 1965 to the publication of the results just shows what a massive data analysis task it was. The book showed very clearly - perhaps for the first time in a way that really caught the eye of policy makers - that social background has a marked effect on the attainment of children as young as seven.

One major conclusion was that equality of educational opportunity cannot simply be achieved by improving schools, important as that is, but that deprivation in its broadest sense must be tackled. The study also pointed up marked regional variations in children's development, which again could not be simply linked to social differences.

The famous 'Seven Up!' BBC series followed children born in 1957 was not directly linked to the National Child Development Study.  But it managed to reflect many of the findings of the research in a succinct and dramatic form.

Social policy for children has moved forward considerably since those days. Expectations of all children have been raised, although in my view this has been concentrated on a far too narrow band of skills. But there are still marked differences in the outcomes for children across the socio-economic and regional dimensions, and far to many children in the UK live in deprived circumstances.

We still have far to go.

Just over two years ago I wrote about the plans for Special Education in the Borough. The idea was to provide more specialist places within Kingston so that fewer children would have to go outside the Borough to find a suitable place.

It was quite tricky to sort all this out at the time, as it did mean that each of the three Special Schools would be catering for a slightly different range of needs from before. Also more parents were asking for their children to be educated in mainstream schools so their needs had to met as well.

Today we celebrated one of the successful outcomes - the new sixth form housed in the splendid new Cedar Centre at St Philips. The Mayor and Edward Davey MP joined the whole school to sing "Show me the way to Cedar Centre" and to look round.

I had some cheerful conversations with a number of the young people, including Karen and Leon seen in this photo with Edward.

Children from 15 primary schools in the Borough joined Young Kingston this afternoon in Beanoland.

Chessington World of Adventures very generously offered us the use of the marquee, plus visits from animals, and, to the delight of the children, unlimited access to the dodgems.

We are now ready to take applications from children and young people for grants to support projects that they want to do and that will benefit the community.

Lots more information, pus application forms, can be found on www.youngkingston.org.uk

A special thank you to Chessington World of Adventures for making us their Charity of the Year.

The news from Burma today is appalling. You are invited to wear a red shirt tomorrow to show your solidarity with the Burmese monks and other protestors who are simply demanding the freedoms of democracy.

If you are on Facebook then go to the Red Shirt for Burma event page and invite all your friends.

A friend of Ian asked him to congratulate me on being named Blag of the Year ... hmmm

I've just got home from a significant meeting of the Health Overview Committee. The item that drew considerable public interest was the threatened closure of Springboard, the local NHS workshop for people with mental health problems. I gave some background to this a few weeks ago.

I wish I could give some encouraging news. The Primary Care Trust has withdrawn £1 million from the funding to the Mental Health Trust and recommended that Springboard should no longer be supported as it was 'not one of their core services'. There was no sense of regret by the PCT that people's lives would be placed in turmoil, and no urgency to try to find alternatives. What did emerge was very poor communications between the PCT and the Springboard community.

The Overview Panel is a Council Committee with the remit to analyse and challenge the policies of the main health providers. These are Kingston Primary Care Trust, which commissions services, and the two main local providers of health care, Kingston Hospital and the South West London & St George's Mental Health Trust. We, the Committee members, represent the residents of the Borough, who are all users of health services.

The Overview Committee does not have many powers, but it can insist on a formal consultation on proposals, so that it what we did. There has been no consultation yet about Springboard, not even consultations with the users and staff, so I made it clear that we wanted that kind of conversation to take place as well as formal consultations. At the same time, the needs of each user would be assessed in case no solution is found.

This gives some breathing space in which to explore further whether a local organisation would be willing to run Springboard independently as a social enterprise. Edward Davey MP has been working hard at this, talking with a number of potential organisations.

Today's Surrey Comet has led on the story about the huge cuts that the PCT is proposing, mentioning Springboard. (I'll do a link when they put the story online). It also refers to the related health survey that Ed is putting out across the constituency, so if you get one through the door do read it and respond.

I asked several people today, including some members of the profession, to suggest a collective noun for judges - a bench of judges? (that's only three of them, I think), a sentence of judges? (not bad), a purple of judges?

Any improvements on my title?

These windswept upholders of the law were attending the Annual Crown Court Service in Kingston today.

Last year I blogged about it from an official point of view; this year I still had to take part in the procession, wearing my Former Mayor's badge, but it was a much more relaxed event for me.

For the first time, a High Court judge attended this year as well as several of our local County Court judges.  The choir was provided by Coombe Girls School, and they sang John Rutter's cheerful setting of 'For the Beauty of the earth' which is so perfectly written for girls' voices.

I was pleased that the changes we had introduced last year to the service, to make it more relevant and inclusive, have continued. The core of the service is the statement of commitment that everyone - judges, councillors, community leaders and children - joined in.

Almighty God, we believe in a community that values all its members equally.

We believe in the power of love, not the power of violence.

We believe that we are called to share our lives so as to free each other from poverty, racism and oppression of any kind.

We reject a world where people are denied access to food, shelter, and the right to live in peace.

We believe in justice, in goodness and in people.

We believe that we are called to a life of service, of witness, of hope.

We reject the idea that nothing can be done.

We commit ourselves in the name of God, who created the world for all to share, to work together to make this belief a reality.

... is Wednesday 5th December at 7pm in the Hook Centre.

You may remember that I wrote to the Chief Executive of Kingston Hospital last week because their schedule of roadshows omitted the whole of the southern end of the Borough, and I'm grateful that she has responded so promptly. The purpose of these events is to update us all, and give us an opportunity to comment, on their potential partnerships with the private sector and on their progress towards Foundation Trust status. So put the date in your diary if you'd like to let them know what you think.

I tried to take photos of Ming Campbell at several events during conference - with some spectacularly bad results (scroll down to see a couple of the worst). 

Here he is facing the cameras as he made his way out at the very end.

All week the media, especially the BBC, kept referring to the so-called 'leadership crisis', which according to them was the main topic of conversation in the bars and lounges around conference.

Well, I didn't have a single conversation about whether we need a new leader, nor one about who should succeed him - except with a BBC reporter who wanted to know my views. The controversy was all highly manufactured by the media.

We do have a very talented cohort of younger MPs, including our own Edward Davey and Susan Kramer. Several of them will be contemplating running for leader when the next contest happens, and they are sensibly making sure that they are well-known to party members.

This is all well understood; there is nothing covert or improper about their behaviour. Indeed, most of us welcome the opportunity to meet and chat with people who could one day be leading the Liberal Democrats.

Back to Ming - here are a couple of my dismal failures...

I am astonished by the notion proposed by Hazel Blears that councils should be forced to respond to petitions which attract more than 200 signatures. Astonished because in Kingston the Council quite rightly responds to ALL petitions. Almost all are sent to the relevant committee with an officer's report with a month or two. The only exceptions are those that are directed at outside bodies.

To set the threshold at 200 means that Councils would be given permission to ignore smaller petitions even when they are signed by everyone who might be affected!  We once had a petition with 12 signatures - but that represented every single home in a small cul-de-sac, so of course we responded to them. As it happens we were able to allocate some Neighbourhood funds to create the extra parking spaces that they wanted, but even if this had not been possible we would have met with them and talked through the problem.

By coincidence, I was discussing this very point back in Kingston today when I met a delegation from South Africa. These were elected members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, a regional assembly that serves some 2 million people near Johannesburg.

The tall man at the back is Uhuru Dikgang Moiloa, who chairs the Petitions Committee. He led this visit to the UK to investigate the use of e-petitions.

After a welcome from our Mayor we spent a couple of hours in intense but very enjoyable discussion on how e-petitions can be used to extend participatory democracy to a wider audience. They were very interested to hear about ICELE (the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy) and want to become affiliated with us.  In fact, they would like to introduce other e-democracy tools as well, but are wisely building first on their present processes for handling petitions.

And - ah, serendipity - I learned that the word 'icele' in Zulu means 'Ask for it'.

James Graham, whose Quaequam Blog! won the overall Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year, has a day job with Unlock Democracy - a campaigning group with which I have a lot of sympathy. James interviewed me on what local e-democracy means for Liberal Democrats and you can view it, if you really want to, here.

.... well,me, actually. To my astonishment I really did win in both categories for which I was shortlisted in the Lib Dem Blogs of the Year awards. So here I am sharing the glory with winners in other categories, one of the judges - and a severed horse's head.

I spoke this afternoon in the Local Government debate at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton. As did fellow blogger Suzanne Fletcher from Stockton. I managed to capture her as she got started.

She spoke about the need to attract more people to become councillors and to remove barriers, for example by paying carers allowances or compensating for loss of earnings.

This is an extract from my contribution to the debate:

Why did I join the Liberals over 30 years ago? Empowerment of the people, that's why.

...In Kingston we have pioneered many ways of empowering people. We established Neighbourhood Committees over 13 years ago - providing a model for the proposals on community decision-making in the Policy Paper.All services that can be are devolved to Neighbourhood Committees; for example, planning, libraries, youth service, parks, housing management, and of course highways issues. In the case of strategic services then it is at the Neighbourhoods where the consultations take place. And we consult on everything.

But consultation alone is not enough. Citizens must have the power both to identify problems and to develop solutions themselves.

So, in Kingston anyone can join in the discussions at Neighbourhood Committee meetings - not just at formal Question Time. When a problem needs to be solved often a street meeting is held - literally standing on the pavements. For more complex problems a working party of residents, council officers and councillors meets and works through the feasibility of several solutions - and it is this group that then consults on their proposals with their neighbours.

Petitions have always been a lively aspect of local democracy. Unlike petitions to No 10, any petition to Kingston Council guarantees that an issue appears on a Council agenda.  The petitioner is encouraged to present their case and often gets involved in framing the solution.

And we pioneered online petitions, which widen the spread of people who use this mechanism - indeed, some of the most significant petitions have been led by young people.

But let me make one thing clear - this is not direct democracy. Direct democracy, is not, in my view, very democratic at all, except on simple either/or decisions. Direct democracy, especially when coupled with weak elected representatives, leads to dominance by the loudest groups. It overlooks the real minority needs.

What we practice in Kingston is what I call participatory representative democracy. It requires strong leadership from elected representatives. Our job is to ensure that all voices are heard and that the needs of the weak are balanced against the needs of the strong.

That is true empowerment, and that is why I am still a Liberal Democrat.

I've just received a notice from Kingston Hospital about the public roadshows that they will be running in the next couple of months.  They want to update the public on plans for a potential partnership with the independent sector and on their Foundation Trust application, and to give us all an opportunity to discuss the proposals.

All well and good BUT they seem to have excluded people living south of the A3!!  I have written to the Chief Executive of the Hospital, Carole Heatly:

Dear Carole

I have just today received the information about the Kingston Hospital Public Roadshows.

I was pretty shocked to discover that a whole section of the Royal Borough has been left out, even though roadshows are being held as far afield as Richmond, Elmbridge and Wandsworth. I'm referring to the whole Chessington area south of the A3 which includes some 23,000 residents.

People in this part of the Borough have had to campaign vigorously for a bus link to Kingston Hospital, which has been under threat again recently, and this has only underlined the feeling that their needs are forgotten. Some use Epsom Hospital, but that, of course, is likely to provide a significantly reduced service in the future so people will become completely dependent on Kingston.

The roadshows that have been arranged within the Borough are not easily accessible by public transport from Chessington - two buses, at least, are needed for both. And car parking is limited at all the venues.

The best outcome would be if you could add a further roadshow in the South of the Borough and ensure that it is widely publicised. Alternatively, we would be very happy to offer you a slot at one of our Neighbourhood Committee meetings.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Best wishes

Mary

Mary Reid
Liberal Democrat Councillor, Chessington North & Hook ward
Co-Chair, South of the Borough Neighbourhood
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

That caught your attention!  In fact, the Liberal Democrats are a federation of local parties.  Each local party, in our case Kingston Borough Liberal Democrats, is autonomous; we are member driven, with no central power group that can overturn the views of the membership.

This is best seen at work at the Liberal Democrat Conferences - the main Autumn Conference begins in Brighton on Sunday.  All policy is decided here, by the members. Ming Campbell and the Parliamentary group can bring forward policy proposals but they can, and have been, defeated by members. Any member can put forward a policy motion, provided it is supported by a certain number of others.

There is, however, a gatekeeper, in the form of the Conference Committee, which determines which motions actually get on the agenda. There does have to be a filtering process since far more motions are submitted than can be debated, but as you can imagine the Committee's decisions are subjected to detailed scrutiny. But then any member can stand for the Committee and the delegates elect them to this thankless task.

Each local party sends voting delegates - the number of delegates allocated is based on the local party membership figures. I'm a delegate this year, having been unable to attend for more than the odd day for the past two years. Any party member can attend the conference, whether or not they are a delegate, and you can just go along for a single day if you can't make the whole event.

You can download the agenda from this page on the Lib Dem website.

This page also provides a list of the 300 or so fringe meetings that fill the breakfast, lunchtime and evening slots. Actually the fringe meetings are one of the best parts of Conference - the other being all the chance meetings with other members in the bars and lounges of the conference hotels.

I'm really looking forward to Conference this year. On Sunday evening there is the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards, and as I've been shortlisted in two categories I'll be there practising my "I love you all" speech. On Wednesday evening, Liberal Democrats Online have a session called "Steve Webb wrote on your wall". Steve is the MP for Northavon and has over a thousand Facebook friends, most of whom are 18-25 year olds in his constituency. How does he do it?

Young Kingston is the new charitable fund that I set up during my year as Mayor. Yesterday the funds collected for the Mayor's Charity were finally handed over.  The grand total raised through the Mayor's Charity and since is just over £23,000.

I'm absolutely delighted and want to thank the Young Kingston Steering Group, the Mayor's Charity Committee and especially Alison Croucher who runs the Mayor's Office and was responsible for managing most of the fund raising events.

Some of the Steering Group members, in our fetching t-shirts, with Grant Gordon and Nigel Hay from Thames Community Foundation who are managing the fund for us

So what happens next? Well we have invited children from all the local primary schools to a party at the end of the month at Chessington World of Adventures - heartfelt thanks to them for making us their Charity of the Year. Then we will be truly open for business and ready to accept applications for grants.

Young Kingston's aim is to help children and young people from the age of 5 with projects that will benefit the community or develop their skills.  The theme, as for my mayoral year, is empowering young people, but the grants will only be a small part of what we offer. Young Kingston Advisers, trained volunteers from Kingston University, will be on hand to support and guide the young people at every step on the way, from putting in an application to planning an event and then feeding back the results. And the grants panel itself will consist of young people.

We want young people for all sections of the community to learn first hand the skills of planning, and the pleasure that comes from taking a project through successfully. There's more information on the Young Kingston website.

Oops!  Between us we have managed to plan two Neighbourhood meetings at the same time and at the same venue on Thursday - so plenty of scope for confusion there.

The Police Safer Neighbourhoods teams for Chessington South and for Chessington North & Hook will have their open meeting this Thursday at 7pm in the Kings Centre. This is your regular opportunity to hear about crime prevention and community safety in the area, and to let the police know about anything that worries you.

It is also the last meeting with Sgt James Ellis, who has developed so many effective initiatives, and has been praised right across the Met. It will be a chance to say farewell and wish him well in his new job.

The South of the Borough Neighbourhood Committee will also meet in the Kings Centre on Thursday, but in a different room, I'm pleased to say!  Our meeting starts at 7.30pm so you could start off with the Police then switch over to us.

The item on the agenda that is likely to generate the greatest interest is the planning application for 21 houses on 44-60 Leatherhead Road. At the last meeting we deferred this and asked for more reports about the flooding risk. The applicant has appealed against non-determination and submitted a duplicate application - this is a technicality which allows us to decide on the application without compromising the appeals process.

We will also be looking at the Annual Library Review and plans for the next year.  I have also been on the Overview Panel working party that has been looking at library provision across the Borough, so some of the plans will depend on that.

There are a couple of items dealing with potential double yellow lines - one refers to the junction of Chessington Hill Park and Moor Lane, and the other at the corner of Selbourne Avenue and Red Lion Road.

Anyone is welcome to attend this meeting, and can join in the discussions. The only exception is the item on planning applications where people who oppose the application may speak but only if they have registered to do so in advance - this is because we are in quasi-legal territory and have to allow equal representation from the applicant and any objectors.

Over at our local recycling centre in Cox Lane you can now recycle drinks cartons - the type made of foil-lined card.  These are almost all made by Tetra Pak.

I was looking up Tetra Pak in Wikipedia and found myself getting all nostalgic for their very first product, which was a tetrahedron shaped pack for orange juice (hence the name).

They were, to be truthful, rather awkward to open, but as children we could buy them ready frozen. With a corner cut off they could be enjoyed as ice lollies, but they still made a sticky mess, of course.

I was trying to check out the company's Kingston connections. In the 80s and 90s they had an office block at the corner of High Street and Kingston Hall Road, which I believe was their UK Headquarters.

Tetrapaks are one of those ubiquitous products that you can't imagine not being around. They have made the owner, Hans Rausing, one of the richest people in the world.

It seems that the company itself has been supporting local authorities to recycle their cartons after widespread criticism - their dedicated website Cartons are Recyclable blasts you with the key message!

When people have mental health problems it can be difficult for them to hold down a permanent job.

Springboard is a Kingston based NHS service that provides commercial work in a supported environment. It has printing, bicycle repair, woodwork, poppy (yes, poppies for the Royal British Legion) and other workshops at Tolworth Hospital, as well as a café at Roselands Resource Centre. The service offers formal vocational training as well as employment. Some people regain confidence and learn skills at Springboard, and then move back into regular work; others need its support in the longterm. 

The problem is that Kingston Primary Care Trust is withdrawing Springboard's funding.  The PCT has a £22 million deficit and is dropping any services that it considers non-essential. Springboard is run by the South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust, and is dependent on the PCT for funding.

Edward Davey MP, is campaigning to keep Springboard open.  He is quoted in the press: "This is the worst cut I have seen. Most cuts result in some kind of alternative provision. In this case, there is nothing for the service users to go on to, and they will probably end up at home on the sofa and on medication."  Susan Kramer MP has been meeting with the PCT as well.

I attended a meeting yesterday with Edward which brought together a number of local organisations who feel that it is vital that Springboard continues, probably as an independent social enterprise. 

If you would like to help build a future for Springboard contact Edward Davey's office on 020 8288 0161.

I find myself speaking on local e-democracy at about a dozen conferences a year, usually representing the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy (ICELE).

At these events I'm often talking to local government officers about e-petitions, online consultations, forums, community websites and lots of other ways in which they could offer increased participation to citizens. It's really all about championing good democratic practice.

But I grab any chance I can to discuss these things with elected members. And ICELE has now published a booklet specifically for councillors. It's called 'Reach out with eDemocracy' and its all about using the Internet for political gain.  You can download it for free in either screen readable or printable formats.

It covers blogging, of course. ICELE is the sponsor of ReadMyDay, the platform that I am using, which is why it can offer a free, ad-free, 25Mb blog account to councillors. 

In Kingston five councillors are using ReadMyDay for their blogs - links to the others on the right.

It seems extraordinary now that in the past processed foods were not labelled with their ingredients. This caused me some problems because my second son was cow's milk intolerant. The EU milk mountain was being routinely offloaded and milk was making an appearance, so we were told, in all kinds of products including, bizarrely, one food that he loved - baked beans. 

Compulsory food labelling, when it came about 25 years ago, was a huge blessing. But it also revealed the extent of the use of chemical additives in processed foods. It soon became common knowledge that colourings and flavourings changed the behaviour of children. The yellow food colourings, especially tartrazine (E102), were highly suspect

So parents that I knew then simply stopped giving children squash or fizzy drinks when they got in from school. Quite a number of them claimed that their child no longer ran around in a pretty wild state after school since they had started giving them milk or fruit juice instead. Children would routinely turn up at parties with their own supply of drinks and strict instructions not to give them anything else. We banned junk drinks, especially Coke, from our home, even though our children showed no signs of hyperactivity.

So today's article in the Lancet on the research into the effects of food additives on children's behaviour, with huge coverage in the media, only seems to confirm something that has been widely known for over 20 years. So why the fuss now?  Is it another story along the lines 'Only clever (male) scientists know the truth; (female) parents' knowledge is subjective and anecdotal, and therefore valueless'?

What is true though, is that the Government has not taken the obvious step and banned the responsible additives. Instead it has referred the matter to the European Food Safety Authority - and we all know how long that august body will take to make any sort of recommendations.  The Food Standards Agency has revised its guidance recommending that people avoid certain E numbers, but isn't it astonishing that this advice was not already in place?

These very ingredients enable the multi-national food companies to produce nutritionless junk drinks extremely cheaply, and hence generate huge profits. So just how much pressure have they been placing on governments to stop them banning the additives? Does anyone know?

So there I was today, chatting with a reporter and asking him if he read my blog.  (The answer is off the record ...)  I hope he's reading this because I've just discovered to my astonishment that it has been shortlisted for the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards!

Now the winner of the Best Designed Lib Dem blog is chosen from votes on Liberal Democrat Voice, so this is a very unsubtle way of asking you to vote for me! - but only after you have visited the other four shortlisted candidates and decided that you really do prefer my lovely purply-pink flowers.

Helpful hint, the poll is in the right hand column but you have to scroll down.

No, I'm afraid I don't have any inside knowledge about Brown's intentions. But elsewhere in the world, it seems that Jamaica's first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, and her People's National Party, have lost the General Election to the Jamaican Labour Party. The preliminary count gave the JLP 31 out of 60 seats, and this moved to 32-28 in a recount yesterday. With a handful of close results the recounts will probably go on until tomorrow.

So the new Prime Minister wi