The Unions should ditch Labour

Yesterday the GMB Union broke the news that their affiliation to the Labour Party would be a major debating point at their conference. The Union which funds the Labour party to the tune of £2 million a year has a number of members who want to server ties with Ed Miliband's party. There is a lot of disillusion with Ed and his party's unwillingness to stand up for working people. This presents a welcome debate in my opinion (I may be slightly biased, but) I don't believe that being a member of a union should mean having to financially support one particular political party. The idea that Labour speaks for the working classes is simply not true, they may speak for some of us but other working class people prefer the views of Mebyon Kernow, or Plaid Cymru, or the SNP the Green Party or one of the myriad of socialist and communist parties. Not to mention the many working class people who are not left wing, the idea that poor people vote Labour and rich people vote Tory ignores the fact that there are more working class people yet time and again the Tories are voted into office. I don't think that Union support should be the sole preserve of the Labour party, as the unions are finding now there is no guarantee that the Labour party will support the will of the Unions and their memberships. There are many of us that are members and voters of other parties yet have to fund a party we do not support, this is not right. What the solution should be should be up to the unions of course. But why not give members the option which party to fund with their dues? In fact why fund any party at all? Do the Unions needs a political backer to further the improvement of the conditions of workers?

Cornwall's exports need to be better connected with the world

It strikes me that since antiquity Cornwall has been a well connected place, but it is not now. In fact since the first recorded histories we read of Phoenician traders coming to Cornwall to buy tin, this trade in minerals lasted for millennia and saw great empires rise and fall as it continued unimpeded. This trade with the Mediterranean was not just confined to metal exports, fish cured in various ways was caught and landed here and sold to the Catholic markets of Europe for the traditional meat fast on fridays. On the subject of religion we know that Cornwall was well connected with the Celtic world by the number of saints found in Cornwall who hailed from Ireland, Wales and Brittany. All of these connections of course were facilitated by the sea and our unique geographical position jutting out into the Atlantic. There is a widespread fallacy that Cornwall was isolated and remote before the Great Western Railway was built but it ignores the lessons of history and the Cornish landscape itself.

We may no longer sadly be the premier exporter of tin and copper, but why not better connect Cornwall with the sea? As we all know the A30 and M5 is a weak link with the markets of England, it's a very long road and prone to excessive traffic jams especially in the summer holidays. Being the only trunk road and usable way to up country it's not an ideal situation, but it serves not only the way in which Cornish people go on holiday and people come to Cornwall but the lifeline for the Cornish export industry. Despite Cornwall Council's honourable attempts to wrest control of these trunk roads from central government it is hard to imagine how the state will pay for significant upgrades whoever controls them. They certainly haven't don't it thus far and that was before the recession and austerity cycle, this in mind and with a rising population the situation can only get worse. The question I am posing is why are we relying upon one long and winding road? we have an airport in Newquay and one of the finest harbours in the world in Falmouth and Carrick Roads and some other fine ones besides. Why are we letting this potential go untapped.

Last month was the fantastic news revealed by Cornwall Development Company research that our food industry continues to grow, according to their figures 30% of Cornish jobs are in the food sector amounting to 18% of our GDP (link here). Cornwall has a great reputation for high quality fresh food, whether it be meat, diary products, vegetables or seafood. We also have a great reputation for prepared food and drink and Cornish products are household names throughout Britain. Not to mention Cornish and Scillonian flowers which brighten up people's lives throughout this isle. It is my opinion that these industries can continue to grow  how attractive they are with their labour intensive methods, creating proper full time jobs for Cornish people. For these industries to grow they need to reach a bigger market and reduce the transportation costs. The obvious solution is to look to the sea once again for transport. This not only circumvents the A30/M5 but would open up Cornish goods to the nearby markets of Brittany, Normandy, Ireland and beyond. Certainly we shouldn't foresake our neighbours and our status as England's bread basket but we need to realise this added potential.

I don't think moving to a sea based export system (or indeed import system) would be easy, I don't think it would be simple but the obvious attractions are there, we need to start thinking differently about the world and the problems we face. We need to take advantage of our assets and our geographical position, we also need to realise our limitations and obstacles to growth. I don't pretend to have all the answers and there are lots of other facets to this, for example could we be building renewable energy devices here in Cornwall and exporting them directly. Could we revive the idea to turn Falmouth into a container port, could we take advantage of our position as gateway to Britain and steal a march on English ports? Any ideas or thoughts comment below...

Cornwall Council's twitter ban

Today the Conservative leader of Cornwall Council took the bizarre step of banning councillors from communicating on the internet during meetings. A few councillors (lamentably none from MK) tweet during meetings, understandably some tweets criticise the regime and these have caught the attention of Cllr Robertson.

I am all in favour of people tweeting from such meetings, it provides an insight into the democratic process. It is interesting for a wide range of people, voters, organisations, political activists and journalists can quickly get the opinions of councillors. Their reactions and thoughts without spin as issues in the chamber are discussed. It also invites users of twitter to challenge the views of councillors and ask for clarification on their views in the chamber or in tweets. The real beauty therefore is that it invites people to witness the democratic process and engage with it, this is a great thing for democracy.

Also the ban is rather pointless, meetings are webcast anyway so people can hear and see proceedings anyway. (That is of course if the Conservatives don't push to alienate people from democracy further by banning those broadcasts as well.) Councillors can't be controlled in such a manner as the twitter/ blogging ban outside of the council, so they can criticise the Tories then anyway. Obviously the more instant communication during meetings is preferable as the majority of people can't watch the webcasts live.

I am appalled by the behaviour of the council on this issue it is a retrograde step for democracy. We already face a situation whereby a handful of select councillors make all the decisions and the full council is given little input on that process. Government across this isle and indeed this continent is opening up and becoming more open and democratic, I dearly hope Cornwall isn't allowed to buck this trend

As a footnote, I actually joined twitter after the Tax Payers Alliance criticised Cornwall Councillors for tweeting in meetings. That was a while ago and I haven't looked back since.