Local MP to Fix Minimum Wage Injustice

Hat's off to Michael Connarty this weekend. The
Sunday Mail tells of the bill he about to introduce to ensure that restaurant bosses do not pay the minimum wage from the tips that are earned my their employees.

A tip as defined by the Mirrian Webster Online Diction is:

Tip 10 Function:noun
a gift or a sum of money tendered for a service performed or anticipated is an reward

Note that this is for the service rendered as a reward, not as a right which is what the pay people recieve is. I'm glad Michael is seeking to close this particular loophole in minimum wage legislation.

Although I'm still upset that his name is not on this list, it is good t see he isn't fully on the dark side.

Smokescreen or Counter Smokescreen

Defence Secretary John Reid has been defending the police. Saying the the Tories are using the political activies of the police over the last week over the 90 days they said they needed to detail suspected terrorists.

Firstly when the police come under the Minstry of Defence? Are they not under the remit of Charles Clarke the Home Secretary?

Secondly the fact is that the Tories along with a large number of Labour back-benchers and the Liberal Demcrats support the most draconian period of detention without trial in any western democracy to rise it to 28 days. That is a four fold increase from earlier this year already. This was offered as a compromise.

Therefore, is not the smokescreen that Dr Reid is trying to errect over the fact that his government colleagues were trying to make us even further the most draconian free state?

Wikablog

Woke up this morning and in between waiting for my online chess oponents to respond to my moves noticed Susanne Lamido and other Liberal Democrats have found and listed themselves on what is seeking to be the ultimate list of all blogs. I was good to see that the Lib Dems are by far the best represented UK political party on this list.

Although to be fair Bloggers for Cameron and Boris Johnson represent the Conservatives. Niether Labour nor Socialism are currently listed in the category index so maybe the spin doctors are circling threateningly around Labour bloggers seeking to prevent publicity of possible rebellion.

There is also a Who Do You Think you are kidding Mr Prescott blog campaigning for an English Parliament. No doubt I will have fun finding out more blogs as time goes by.

One of the strangest categories was for Noddles which brought up one blog. Fortunately it mentions more that just noddles and will not be fielding candidates in any by elections in the near future.

Scottish By Election Results

Colin Ross was bemoaning the fact that we are failing to staind candidates in the West Midlands. However, here in Scotland by election fever has carried on. It is six weeks since we had a hat trick with Westminster, Holyrood and Council election by elections on the same day.

Although we did not stand a candidate in Dumfries and Galloway last month we again were fighting three elections in Scotland this week.

In the Murrayfield ward in Edinburgh Mike Crockart increased the Lib Dem vote by 10.5% to close the gap on the Tories. Labour and the SNP vote dropped dramatically and even the Conservatives suffered a dent in their share.

Over in Glasgow in Knightswood Park Katy Gordon leapfrogged the Scottish Socialists and Conservatives with an 8.5% increase to come a very credible third. Closing in on both the SNP and Labour carrying on the trend of the Lib Dems in Scotland's largest city.

Only in Loanhead in Midlothian did our vote go down. However, the Labour candidate had held the seat until being defeated by an independent in 2003 and two indepedents and a strong local SNP candidates caused quite an intriguing day.

I agree with Colin however that we need to stand candidates in as many by elections as possible as we should always be working on building nad maintaining our local presence between elections.

Health Centre Set to Move: Possibly Out of Town

Linlithgow's health centre is set to move from its High Street premises under the latest plans from NHS Sotland.

One possibility is to move it out of town to he Blackness road. This would further add to the traffic problems which the town is already concerned about. Moving the health centre to the North of the town centre would add more vehicles to the busy High Street as people are less likely to walk if able following a new build on that site.

Another alternative is the County Buildings which are set to be vacated by moving services the multi-purpose Civic Centre centralising a large number of council services in Livingston.

Linlithgow Community Council are understandably up in arms are are preparing an alternative town plan to present to West Lothian Council.

Just Who is Out of Touch Tony?

Tony Blair is saying that certain areas of Parliament are out of touch with the public over the terrorism bill.

However, interesting viewing is the BBC poll on the topic.

Just now of 145472 Votes Cast:

52% favour 28 days or keeping it at 14. (28 and 24 % respectively)

7% will allow up to 42 days only 41% will allow 90 days hardly a resounding majority Mr. Blair.

Going by my reckoning that makes 47.5% of MPs in favour of the 90 day detention which is 6.5 more than the general public. Therefore maybe Tony has a point and is making us aware that his majority should have been cut further in yesterday evening's vote. Very honourable of you Tony to point that out to us.

28 Days a Policeman's Lot

The result of the terrorism debate on period of detention has led to defeat for Tony Blair.

The Vote for 90 days was defeated by 322 votes to 291.

The second vote on the 28 day ammendment the vote was 323 to 290.

There was a heated aftenoon which kicked off with the Prime Minister stating in PMQs that he was backing the police over the 90 days and that he expected every member of the house to do so as well.

The debate on the terrorism bill followed and it was clear the the Prime Minster's final pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

Alistair Carmichael one of the Liberal Democrat Home Affair's Spokepeople said:

"This is no flight of fancy because we have been here before - detention without charge is not a new concept. We tried it in Northern Ireland - we know what the consequences of that were."

As someone raised in Northern Ireland who experienced the result of internment while a child I can understand exactly what he means. I'm glad the 90 days was not handed over to the police because they wanted it without thought of the rights of our citizens.

What now for Tony Blair following his first defeat on any vote? Has he finally lost his authority? Will he step aside now?

The nation is watching with interest.