Friday’s Telegraph brought the news that picking blackberries on Southampton Common was no longer allowed – even though it has been a community activity for as long as one can remember. Alan Gibson who organises “foraging picnics” to collect wild fruit and nuts, says he was ordered to stop by officials because it was bad for the environment.
When he questioned further, he said he was told that the activity posed a risk to newts.
As well as blackberries, he was told hazelnuts, apples and chestnuts were also out of bounds. Staff at the council-run Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre told him that blackberry picking was prohibited because the common was a Site of Special Scientific Interest and home to endangered great crested newts.
Hawthorns’ centre staff later admitted that was not the case, but Mr Gibson says a manager insisted the blackberry picking ban stood.
But it’s not about the newts or the environment it is about the use and abuse of power.
On October 1st The Economist published an article entitled “All power tends to corrupt – but power without status corrupts absolutely” which explains that to call someone “a little Hitler” means he is a menial functionary who employs what power he had in order to annoy and frustrate others for his own gratification.
Little Hitlers plague the world. The phenomenon has now  been  the subject to scientific investigation by Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California.
More details can be found on the link http://www.economist.com/node/21530945
The Telegraph link is http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8812016/Traditional-blackberry-picking-under-threat-from-council-officials.html

We are invited to Capel St. Mary to join in the celebration of Darrell Thompson’s granddad’s 100th birthday. The gentleman (John Leonard Goddard) is quite spritely and was driven from Hadleigh in a 1940’s jeep escorted by motorcycle outriders. (Clearing out the cobwebs as he described it!)

Good wishes came from the Queen (of course) Tim Yeo (M.P. for the area) and Denis Skinner (M.P. for Bolsover and Granddad’s home M.P.).

The engineering unit at Wattisham sent best wishes and presented a print of an Apache helicopter (presumably in Afghanistan). The local Apache flight path to Wattisham flies close to the house and a small detour was made so that one was able to overfly our celebrations and salute the birthday boy.

All in all an bar raising event!

Kath Grandon and I hold a cheese and wine afternoon soirée for over forty people. The purpose is to celebrate our election and consolidate the sentiments of our supporters. The tone is set by my brief comments to the group as follows:

Thank you for coming here today to share the joy of our victories at the recent District Council elections.

I scored 595 votes up from 381 last time and Kath scored over 500 votes up from 330.

First, a few words about housekeeping. Kath has been appointed to the Development (i.e. Planning).

As the Tesco planning application is being decided on the 6^th July you may not ask her for her opinion or which way she intends to vote. This is because she may not indicate that she is prejudicial or has made up her mind before hearing the formal arguments. To do so would bar her from speaking and more importantly  from voting at the meeting. Bend her ears by all means – better still send her an e-mail. But there have been at least two attempts to find out how Councillors were disposed to the supermarket application. These P.R. and market research attempts have not as far as I am aware been funded by the Hadleigh Society or their adherents.

Thanks and appreciation goes to our spouses and families for their support and encouragement.

Alice and Roger really pulled the stops out in supporting us. I will never again complain about having to put the dustbin out when  it is raining. Alice pushed leaflets and envelopes in the late March weather for me like no one’s business and I know that Roger now has a far greater awareness of Hadleigh South than he ever imagined before.

Thanks also go to those families and friends who had the confidence or desperation to bring us their problems. It hasn’t always been easy and we haven’t always been successful but it is rare that it is given to us to be of use to our community and to be  heroes and heroines to our friends and neighbours, And for that I give grateful thanks.

We also have another new boy here today – Peter Burgoyne who we all know as our agent, mentor,   guide and friend. A man who knows all about command, control, and co-ordination. Peter roared in as the top candidate in Pinewood displacing a long standing Lib-Dem.

Before I introduce our guest of honour, today’s raffle proceeds (as in previous years) will go to the Royal Anglian regiment. They are our home team and are preparing for another tour of Afghanistan. As can be seen by the letters our efforts of their behalf are much appreciated as are their efforts on our behalf. The raffle prizes are nominal. If you don’t want any of the prizes, please take one anyway and recycle it onwards.

Final thanks go to Jennie Jenkins, our guest of honour. Jennie is leader of our political group at the Council. She is also Head of the Council’s Strategy Committee. Being the Group Leaderene is not an easy job as the councillors cover every spectrum and continuum that you can imagine.

There are those whom I call the aquamarine Tories because their political philosophies are pale, weak and wishy washy. There are those who are One Nation Tories and others who believe in the Divine Right of Kings and wish the clocks could be turned back 300 or 400 years.

There are those who resist change and others who embrace the moving tapestries of our lives.

Jennie manages us and ensures that we are happy to sign up to whatever the Group has decided to do. Herding cats doesn’t even describe her tasks and talents.

We’ve asked Jennie here today to give us a heads up as to where we might be all going Babergh-wise especially after the decisive vote not to merge.

Madam Chairperson…

The first meeting of the Licensing & Committee. McDonald’s at the Chilton Industrial Estate near Sudbury wishes to increase its service hours for an extra hour a day ending at midnight. McDonald’s are professionally & capably represented. The application is turned down. It is a zero sum game between McDonald’s and their clientele and the residents of the surrounding area, who are supported by a District Councillor, Parish Councillor and a Police Inspector.

The second case of the day concerns a village hall which wishes to increase its operating hours and its capability to serve alcohol for fifteen hours a day. A member of the village hall management committee (who is also a District Councillor) is present together with four objectors (two spousal couples). Why serve alcohol so early in the morning – well you might be watching a rugby match from the other side of the world, you might be celebrating and wanting to serve Buck’s Fizz or even be holding a barbecue breakfast requiring Bloody Mary’s. The application is rweaked so that everyone feels satisfied and the license is granted – everyone can be happy – which is unusual.

The newspapers today have two main political stories. First the enshrining of the Military Covenant in law and then the legal requirement to give 0.7% of our annual GDP to developing countries. The Military Covenant idea is attacked for not being detailed enough and being impractical. The idea goes back to Pericles who argued that soldiers should believe that their country is worth fighting
for and that those values will include looking after their veterans. The idea is good but the opposition and the media are treating it as rubbish. It’s a  classic case why we should pay attention  to the Biblical imperative not to cast pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Meanwhile The Times includes a column by Tim Montgomerie, co-founder of the  Centre for Social Justice and it includes the following: “Family, school, and work were the three routes out of poverty and to the good life”. More can be found on http://conservativehome.blogs.com/.

Following our tour and bonding exercise we meet Sir Henry Bellingham, Member of Parliament for North West Norfolk, currently Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. His ministerial oversight includes United Nations, Africa, Overseas Territories.

I am suited and tied and after a brief introduction by our Group Leader (John Malley of CAFOD) Sir Henry opens up the discussions by (very bravely I thought) inviting questions. He looks to me, as I am on his right, and I open the batting by asking about Uganda, large scale v. small scale aid, and the need to support U.K. manufacturers with U.K. taxpayers money. He responds very well and is fully master of his brief, stressing the process of good governance leading to full democracy and the
reduction of corruption. The newspapers that day had lead with a report of dissention in the Cabinet over overseas aid targets – so our discussions were very much on the button. He gave us a full hour’s worth of attention. We enjoyed it. He looked as if he also enjoyed the time spent with us and our CAFOD shepherd was happy with the connections made.

A quiet day – except that about 8 p.m. I get a telephone call from a friend about his daughter who had had a visit from the bailiff that morning for non payment of her (family) Council Tax. The bailiff did not gain access inside the house and promised to return on Monday – what to do and what advice do I have?

Two years ago  I attended a course promoted by the Zaccheus 2000 Trust to enable us to become McKenzie’s Friends and to assist people who are
being unfairly oppressed for the non payment of debt. I offer to call on the family at noon on Saturday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKenzie_friend  reports that a  McKenzie friend assists a litigant in person in a common law court. This person does not need to be legally qualified. The crucial point is that litigants are entitled to have accompanying assistance, lay or professional, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Their role was set out most clearly in the eponymous 1970 case McKenzie v. McKenzie. Although in many cases a McKenzie friend may be an actual friend, it is often somebody with knowledge of the area. He or she may be liable for any misleading advice given to the litigant in person. The role is distinct from that of a next friend or of an amicus curiae.