PM ON RADIO 4 TODAY...

PM on the Today programme.
OBFUSCATION ON DETAILS OF SPENDING 2010 -2011
What Gordon is actually waiting for is the recommendations of Total Place, due Feb 2010, to massage the details of his spending policy.
Total Place, by the way, is a classic, top-down Whitehall betise; and YOU are paying for it.
Lots of words, system-heavy, endless duplication, employing expensive consultants.
You'd think they had enough highly-paid officers to make these decisions; but no, LG officers aren't sufficiently highly-paid to think nor to express firm opinions.
They follow systemic practice and make incomprehensible statements, heavy with impentrable jargon.
Here in Dorset,Bournemouth & Poole ( our Total Place sub-region) our chosen focus is services for older people.
Lobby your County Councillor - expose the fact that there has been no consultation WITH older people OR their agencies to date!
I have been appointed to the Board - the only voluntary, unpaid member of course, and will bring a practical perspective.
But I will be the voice of logic and reality in a land of nonsense.

JOB CLUB WEBSITE LIVE...

Really good news to start the day - Job Club website is now live online.

Very many thanks to Mike at X-web designs for doing a great job.
www.shaftesburyjobclub.co.uk

JOB CLUB ...

from Nick Mason's blog...
http://www.nickmason.org.uk/?p=197#comment-88

BARMY LEGISLATION

jaw dropping story on BBC News about two women facing prosecution. Their crime? taking it turns to mind each other's children.
When I was a single parent, an informal evening child minding arrangement with a group of other single parents in the village gave is all social lifeline, as well as providing a supportive peer group for our children - as our LG officials would doubtless call it.
cannot believe that this wretched Government can now criminalise people who are trying to be mutually supportive in their communities.
We need to show that we will dismantle this pointless and damaging legislation.

TIED IN KNOTS AT JOB CLUB

One of our Job Club members asked us to assess his training skills.

As this member is a knotting expert - amongst many, many other things - we spent twenty very enjoyable minutes as we all struggled to turn our ropes into life-saving slings and winches.

I'm left-handed - with eleven thumbs - eat your heart out Ann Boleyn! But eventually, even I managed two of the simpler knots.

He must have been a good trainer!

Really good fun, great for waking the brain up and very useful.

We welcomed four new members to Shaftesbury Job Club yesterday as well as our regulars.

More jobs advertised around Shaftesbury this week - hopefully we'll be able to pair people up with some of them.

Our website is getting closer to launch - lookin forward to having that extra bit of communication.

So - If you know anyone who is looking for work, suggest to them that they might like to drop in next Friday - or any Friday - and see us in Toby's between 9am and 12noon.

LUCKY T-SHIRT & CANINE MASCOT

AS you can see in the pic, it was cold and windy; but at least it was dry.

I printed the T shirt the night before, using software "negotiated" as part of a PC World deal, when I bought my first computer ten years ago.

Really rather impressed, as the S/W was about the least intuitive I have come across...

Even more impressed was getting the transfer from its paper to the T-shirt.

It entailed my first ironing of the year!!!

The back ( which you can't see) is even better, and it certainly caught the eye!

I won the election - thanks to all of my wonderful supporters and advisers.

So I am now Councillor - Elect for Central Ward, Shaftesbury.

Thanks also to Justin Elesmore - my opponent - who was extremely courteous throughout.

... and NO.

I will NOT be running for mayor next year!

Great to have increased female representation on the Council by 100% - ie from 1 to 2!!

ROWING FOR SURE START

How great to see these guys working so hard to raise money for Sure Start. They were working in one hours shifts, and it did look pretty painful at times.
Supported in part by the Prince of Wales Trust, more money is always needed for different projects, and it's good to see people who are prepared to make a serious effort to get what they need.

50+ LUNCH CLUB

Third Shaftesbury & Villages 50+ Lunch Club, and we all had a great time at the Half Moon in Shaftesbury.

Excellent food and company - great value too.

The staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome, so we hope to return next year.

We were especially pleased to welcome some new members, and hope that they will join us again.

Thanks to Brian and Ann for organising the menu and publicity, Rachel for doing the ever-popular raffle and Diana for handling the money.

Next Lunch Club will be our Christmas knees up back at Amore- Wednesday, December 9th, so hope to see you all there - with lots of your friends & neighbours!

Before that we have a talk at Ashmore Village Hall - October 20th 10am - so bring your altitude pills. Then we have "Party like you did in 1959" at Shaftesbury RBL in the EVENING of Thursday, 12th November. Should be fun, so please ask us if you need a lift to any of these things.

We're always pleased to hear what you have to say, so do use this blog to comment, ring up, pr send an email.