Cllr Adrian Smith

Leicestershire Fire & Rescue are bringing the Princes Trust Team Programme to Hinckley & Bosworth.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this programme, take a look at the local website: http://www.lfrs-team.org/

This is an excellent scheme for young people, and especially those that have not had the easiest start in life - it makes them work both physically and mentally, and if it all goes to plan then it should help them on the road to long term quality employment and being generally good citizens.

At the moment they are looking for 2 week work placements for the young people, and also for a community project for them to get stuck into.

If anybody knows of anything that might suit, please let me know!

When I said yesterday that the EU was not working, I didn’t realise just how accurate I was: From the BBC:

The temporary relocation of the European Parliament to Brussels next month from Strasbourg has reignited a row about where it should be based.

An EU official has confirmed to the BBC that the building in the French city cannot be used yet because part of its ceiling has collapsed. About 200sq m (2,152sq ft) of the ceiling caved in on 7 August. Nobody was in the chamber at the time.

They can’t even build parliaments properly anymore.

I’ve been reading up on some of the debates that have been ongoing in the European Parliament & Commission about how to tackle soaring fuel prices.

On the one hand there is the French, and to some extent the UK, who want to force through a stabilising measure that will cap VAT on fuel in certain circumstances - specifically, they propose to institute a mechanism that cuts back VAT if the barrel price of oil surges, so for example if oil reached $150 per barrel, the VAT would remain at the level charged for $130 a barrel.

On the other hand there are the Germans and Swedes who are adamantly opposed to this on two grounds:

a) The EU has no business distorting natural market forces (bit late to worry about that now!).

b) They believe that the surging fuel price is as a general result of the dimishing supplies of fossil fuel, and the EU should not use short term knee jerk reactions to prop up conventional fuel systems, but should use the prevailing situation as a catalyst for driving new ways of fuelling.

I can see the need for debate on this, but really, the fact that British supermarkets were able to make bigger impact on the wallets of drivers than the entire EU must tell us that the EU is not working properly.

I applaud the fact they are having a serious and high minded debate about a serious issue, but debate on its own is not enough.

The most notable thing about the report I read was the comment from the Swedish Prime Minister. He said that if Swedes are finding it difficult to fill their cars up, then they should go out and put longer hours in at work, and earn it.

Brave man.

In an effort to learn something about bins and waste management, I have been a earnest reader of Waste Matters a publication from the Leicestershire Waste Partnership.

This is a 16 page full colour glossy publication, which must cost thousands to produce. The information it contains is nothing that could not be put on a website or in an email - probably to more effect as well. Paradoxically wasteful of the waste partnership.

The summer 2008 edition contains a selection of articles on new initiatives across the County - some of them are quite good, such as making the recycling system easier for disabled people to use, a new system in North West Leics which is a rip off version of Freecycle, and steps being taken to reduce waste being generated before it needs recycling across the County.

There are also some completely pointless articles, such as the full page article on a new small roadsweeper for Charnwood, and a trip to a place in Essex - I can only imagine it was space filler.

I massively supportive of almost all efforts to reduce waste, and manage it in an environmentally sound way - which is why I dislike expensive glossy booklets promoting it. It’s very hard to make a case for recycling and waste management when it is evident that you do not comply yourself.

I await the Autumn edition.

From BBC News:

Mr Johnson was elected London mayor in May, replacing Labour’s Ken Livingstone, who had held the post for eight years.

Questioned as to whether he was finding the job hard, he said: “I am full of fire. I am like a greased bounding panther.

“My legs are steel springs and every day I get out of bed and I beat my chest. Every morning I am full of wonderment that the people of London have done the honour of making me their mayor. I really am.”

Indeed.