Residents Culture

Exploring the minutiae of residents explorations and encounters

Secret

Squirrel
Secret Squirrel voices concerns over the potential loss of green space across the UK

Old

Sloper

Old Sloper considers the political landscape

here were disturbing reports (Sunday Telegraph, 5 May) about trading off nature reserves, woodlands, meadows and animal habitats for development. This means developers could have a license to trash previously untouchable wildlife sites and areas of outstanding natural beauty, provided that they put aside money to create new habitats under a government scheme to put a value on wildlife. I think the whole idea is monstrous and is just another way to evade planning rules and developers access to prime green field sites. This is just not on! Like the ghastly HS2 scheme, which also threatens to destroy large swathes of our beautiful English countryside, this controversial proposal should, in my opinion be scrapped. An anonymous resident expresses opposition to a recent environmental proposal being championed by Environmental Secretary Owen Patterson, whose department (Defra) is planning trials of the proposal in Essex, Warwickshire, Norwich, Devon, Doncaster and Nottingham.

e have heard many tributes to Margaret Thatcher recently; one of her greatest legacies was reform and democratisation of the trade unions. The ballot act of 1872 introduced the secret ballot into parliamentary elections, which was one of the main points of the Chartist movement which formed the ethos and principles of the labour party. The fact that in 1972 there were no secret ballots in trade unions indicated they were completely out of date and had far too much power. Thatcher wanted to stop members of the trade unions being victimised and often beaten up by fellow trade unionists, and so she introduced secret ballots into the trade unions. The current political landscape could do with an injection of Thatcher-style politics. The fact that David Cameron has a number of old Etonians as his advisors in the cabinet is a great tribute to that educational institution. In my opinion, it highlights some of the failures of the state system: mainly the abolition of grammar schools by the public school educated Labour Secretary of State for Education, the late Anthony Crosland (Westminster). It indicates to me that the grammar school system should undoubtedly be restored. Congratulations to UKIP and Nigel Farage, a Huguenot, for their success in the council elections. This reinforces the fact that large sections of the British Public are thoroughly dissatisfied with the main political parties and their views. In fact, I have read that 34 per cent of conservative voters want the conservative party to link up with UKIP. If the Conservatives want to win the next general election, in my opinion they must put forward joint conservative/UKIP candidates in most, if not all, of the constituencies. Secondly, they should opt for Nigel Farage as Deputy Prime Minister over Nick Clegg. Many of UKIPs policies have found favour with a large number of Conservatives and Labour voters and are based on common sense, which has been singularly lacking in many of the Liberal Democrats / Conservative proposals of late I feel. According to a national newspaper, the government could save 440 million by deporting the 11,000 foreign prisoners who cost 40,000 per year per head (inmate figure from Prison population statistic document published by parliament.uk). Our judges should stop kowtowing to the European Court of Human Rights, in respect of the deportation of foreign prisoners. If the Conservative party wants to win the next election in 2015, it should do a Margaret Thatcher (who moved her tanks onto Labours lawn and won the 1979 general election) and move the Tory tanks onto UKIPs lawn, joining forces with them.