Sounds great but still a lot of questions to be asked. 

What about the full capability link to Scotland.  Will it go up the west or east coast or both or remain a slower line. Liverpool is on a spur from Manchester so will Glasgow be on a spur from Edinburgh via Newcastle on the east coast.  That could mean Preston missing out. 

Protests from people living on the route will be considered with one person in the Chilterns saying they aren’t convinced of its value – yet living only 20 miles from London it has no value to them. Although I wouldn’t want the line near us particularly if it spoilt nice areas of green.  The M40 cuts through the Chilterns and has created an ugly gash in Englands green and pleasant, lets do better than that.

The Conservatives are listening to the people on the route and looking at a line via Heathrow.   That seems to have some sense as cutting out flights is one of its purposes. Although  is a line via Heathrow less politically messy for the Conservatives as it would run further west.

The other issue is the timeframe. It’s so far in the future that it might be overtaken by technology.  The Conservatives have said they’ll pull it 2 years forward which sounds better but not good enough.  It should be running to Manchester in 2020 at the latest.

The technology will probably all be imported into the country that built the first trains. Surely we can do better than that, where are the British companies that can do this.

Other countries are now building trains that run on magnetic fields and by 2027 will the HST begin to look like the stagecoach and horses. The canals and original railways were built quicker.

 The line is planned to within 5 metres it is said so lots to think about, need more information.

Preston has increased its Band D from £1566 to £1577.  Doesn’t sound a big increase but it sounds like a lot of money. Considering it’s a tax paid after tax. Add on your income tax, National Insurance and it really costs around £2000 per household at the mid-band, D. Some houses pay twice that and there are proposals from the Liberal Democrats to add an extra tax for houses over £1m.  They also propose a local tax that will get rid of council tax.

Fire and Police are about £200 for all regions of Lancashire.

Preston has its own rate and that is added to Lancashire’s which is £1108, unchanged.  Unitary councils like Blackburn have the one rate which at Band D is £1476, up £30 this year.  While Blackpool is £1516, up £40.

Other parts of Lancashire like South Ribble pay £1521, Fylde £1486. Although many of the rural villages have Parish Councils that charge up to £30 on top of that.

Overall the people of Preston pay the highest council tax in the region.

Across England; Lincolnshire and Norfolk seem to be similarly poorly represented.  Is it that these were more cut-off when large properties were being built, are they in private hands or council owned.  Probably the first.  In the area I can only think of Lytham Hall that might be of enough stature to become an NT property although it hasn’t much inside it.

At over £70 a year for a family membership you need to visit at least 6 properties a year to get value from your membership, although some might not view it that way.   After a while Dunham Massey, Quarry Bank Mill and Tatton Park become a bit too familiar.  Speke Hall is quite good but it’s a bit close to the city and not as relaxed to reach.  The best houses in Cumbria are privately owned: Holker and Levens.

National Trust, what are you doing for Lancashire?

The main policy and purpose of UKIP is to leave the EU and reach a free trade agreement.  It isn’t easy to say how that will impact the region particularly as we are the furthest away from the continent, although close to Ireland.  Although it could be said that free movement of people across EU borders will no longer be a right and therefore migration patterns will change.   Most of the immigration in this area has not been from the EU so it will have little effect.  Although it seems locals don’t want to do the jobs EU migrants are doing and if they do it increases costs.  So whether increasing costs will drive work elsewhere, and if there would be an increase in illegal and non-EU labour to make up the numbers is an unanswered question.

One of the policies that might be good for the area is a 40% increase in the defence budget as there is a large regional defence industry. Although it isn’t said where the money will go, I assume home defence will be the main agenda. 

Also the policy of building nuclear power stations will retain existing Lancashire jobs at Heysham and Salwick and create new ones for the replacement stations that will be required soon.

The policy to replace VAT with local tax could have mixed effect.  If local areas are able to keep their sales taxes it should benefit areas containing businesses, although it would be subject to central government agreement no doubt. Councils with mainly residential property will not have as great an income from this so whether that effects them isn’t clear.  It could start a tax war between say Preston and Blackburn to attract trade. Although it would have to be a significant change to make effect.

Other policies include scrapping inheritance tax, allowing doctors to work as many hours as needed and having elected health boards. How many workers want their hours to be unrestricted? Personally I’d prefer to be treated by a doctor who hasn’t been up all night.  Notice there is no mention of scrapping the 48hr working limit for everyone else.  Scrapping Human Rights laws, increasing prisons and local voting on police priorities are listed.

UKIP’s other polices include combining income tax and national insurance and raising the tax threshold to £11,500, which sounds a good idea, both of which are similar to Liberal Democrat policies.

It could be said that overseas investment will be less if the UK isn’t in the EU.  Many companies invest here in expectation of it being a place with equal access to EU markets but generally with a more business friendly climate.  Also without a UK influence the EU could take measures against UK interests, perhaps deliberately, without us having a say.  Britains standing in the world might be affected by not being in the EU with the move towards large power blocks.  Some say Australia for example doesn’t have such an arrangement but Britain has historically been at the top table and might find itself squeezed unless being outside the EU creates a resurgence.
 
Overall an interesting package of populous measures designed to appeal to those who don’t like bureaucracy and don’t like the EU.   They are similar to what many Conservative voters would like.  It could therefore be said a UKIP vote is likely to help Labour, a triumph of unintended consequences.

Now it’s raining hard making the soil difficult to work. You can’t have the season too compressed or nothing will ripen and we might be short of stuff like wheat, apples, corn.  The further north you go the shorter the seasons.  A lot depends on how the weather develops in the next few weeks.  Could be beautiful if all the blossom is out together but how stuff matures is a longer term event.

We’ve had leeks and spring cabbage in the ground over winter and they seem OK although someone said the cold comes up from underneath and spoils the hearts. So we’ll see, there’s always one merry soul waiting to say you’re doomed.

We have an outdoor apricot although it’s only given us one small fruit. The blossom is too early for round here and we’re not disciplined enough with our gardening. It needs a clockwork schedule to catch the short windows of opporunity so we don’t get a lot unless it’s inevitable like leeks.

Here’s to a good spring.

You expect the Green Party to support green policies. Yes, wind power, insulation and waste management are high on the agenda.  Along with quite high social provision and low defence provision. 

Who could argue with wind, insulation and waste measures? Insulation seems to be one of the biggest factors in reducing energy bills. It isn’t very glamorous though and isn’t going to gain technological credibility so doesn’t get a lot of press. 

All those windmills.  Are they becoming a bit of a blight already?  They’re often not turning, so not very dependable. For the region with its seas, hills and facing the prevailing wind we can expect a lot more who-ever is in power but even more with the Greens. We can also expect Heysham Power Stations to close and the fuel site at Salwick.

Waste? All that plastic packaging and milk cartons. Surely it should be discouraged.  Some countries already re-cycle twice as much as the UK without too much difficulty.

Another Green policy is an increase in public transport.  Not too long ago their promise of building 30,000 new buses would sound like manna from heaven for this region, Leyland,  but now there is hardly any bus building except some body work at East Lancs Coachbuilders, Optare.  

There wasn’t much written about reducing car use but cutting rail fares by  30% and expanding public transport implies a reduction in car use. I’m not convinced about a 30% cut in rail fares. A cut from £10 to £7 is only marginally advantageous and if I was spending that every day, a cut from £50 to £35 wouldn’t be life changing. I’m against encouraging distance commuting so in some ways an increase in fares might help that.  I have free bus use now and have never used it, so cars will need to be penalised. 

The 30,000 buses are an interesting concept. British jobs for British workers?  Including steel from Middlesbrough for windmills and buses, although probably it’s the wrong steel and too little, too late and steel making isn’t green. 

Taxes on aviation, like VAT on aviation fuel, and restrictions on new runways coupled with reductions in rail fares, might create an advantage to resorts like Blackpool.  Especially if the pound sank because of the financial controls the Greens promise. 

On defence the Greens are looking at a defensive posture and only venturing overseas under the UN. As UN don’t usually use more than Land Rovers and light armour you could say no overseas capability will be needed.  Is that goodbye to Ascension, Falklands and perhaps Gibraltar.  Aircraft Carriers and their aircraft and probably a lot of the navy wouldn’t be needed. Trident is definitely out.  I wouldn’t hold much hope for the aircraft industry in Lancashire or ship industry at Barrow.  As an area with a large defence and nuclear industry how many defence workers does it take to insulate one loft.

The Greens are also big on social welfare including workers and human rights and a citizens wage. 

There are other policies about building solar arrays in Africa and using high voltage d.c. transmission lines to bring in the power.  As well as local generation.  It’s not long ago I was reading about the advantages of the a.c. distribution system so I must re-visit that. Surely a policy like that couldn’t be written without engineering awareness. 

The Greens also support the EU, but not as a nation, and support international co-operation, who doesn’t.

As you’d expect, some big changes would result and I was a bit surprised that they seem quite left wing when out of the major elements of the ‘green zone’.   I’d support a ‘greener’ track in many aspects and use of local producers and local workers appeals. There’s always a downside to this type of social engineering in that if basic stuff becomes more expensive you’ve less to spend on enjoyment. In conclusion they won’t get my vote but have my support as a pressure group.

Endeavour is scheduled to land in Florida on Sunday but bad weather might make it land in California. I have a friend in Los Angeles who says they hear the sonic boom as it approaches. I’d love to see and hear that.

www.spaceweather.com

The Made In Preston Blog is 1 year old and has about 180 posts. I thought it’ll only last a few weeks but it’s still hot. So tonight I’ll pop a bottle of wine and some bottles of beer and to cap the excitement watch Question Time at 10.30.  It’s either that or Newsnight.

What happens when a blog is a year old?  Are it’s teeth growing and a bit of hair. Sometimes it’s like a vent. Richard Wilson comes into mind as you find some ridiculous thing on the news and decide it’s a topic to rage about or maybe strongly agree with.

The most enthusiastic commenters are Russian, probably 10 a day. Their mail comes in the form of long stories with certain words spread about in them.  There is one person in East Europe who keeps writing about Grand Pianos although it has a strange link.  The fixer divides mail brilliantly and with one click the rubbish is gone.  I’ve switched off comments on old ramblings for a while.  You can make contact via the Made In Preston website.

The other good thing about the blog is a bit of deeper thought on matters.  Also the stuff doesn’t drop out of thin air. Sometimes Preston is a bit limited so for that reason the blog Origin North West has been started for broader topics.

So it’s upwards and onwards for another year.

Tuesday 16th: Derby 5 PNE 3. From 1-0 up to 5-2 down.

Darren and the teams record in the league is:

Bpl h.0-0, Sheff U h. 2-1, Swansea a. 0-2, Barnsley h.1-4, Ipswich h. 2-1, Peterborough a. 1-0, Bristol C a.2-4.

Played 8, W3, D1, L4, F11, A17, pts 10 out of 24. With 15 games to go, the trend takes them to about 18 more points which will give them 57. Enough. Phew! 

In the past a struggle in January and such a forecast has resulted in a lot more points. Sometimes your luck runs out though.

Saturday PNE are at Newcastle who won 4-1 tonight. Forecast 1-1.  Defence sorted.  Good result. Well done to the team and Darren.

In 2005 the results were:

Preston – Labour – majority 9,407.  Achieved 50% of the vote.

South Ribble – Labour – majority 2,184. Achieved 43% of the vote.

Ribble Valley – Conservative – majority 14,171. Achieved 52% of the vote.

Fylde – Conservative – majority 12,459. 53%.

Lancaster and Wyre - Conservative – majority 4,171. 43%.

West Lancashire – Labour  – majority 6,084. 48%. 

Chorley – Labour – majority 7,625. 50%.

Since October 2007 the Conservatives have been well ahead in all the major opinion polls but the lead has decreased over the last 6 months. Whether shocks are in store due to expenses and apathy, hard to say. 

Some of  the seats are being changed. For example Lancaster and Wyre will become Wyre and North Preston. Ribble Valley will extend  into South Ribble and an element of Preston constituency south of the river. South Ribble will move south.

Assuming there will be an overall swing to the Conservatives only one constituency on the list above looks likely to change: South Ribble. According to UKPollingReport this seat is Conservative target number 50 and the boundary change is mildly advantageous to Labour.

Chorley is regarded as a bellweather seat that since 1964 has changed with the government. Yet it is 152 on the Conservative targets which would signal a comfortable C win. The boundary changes are said to be mildly advantageous to Labour according to UKPollingReport.

West Lancashire is Conservative target 134.

The Conservatives need to win an extra 117 seats to get an overall majority. On current trends 80 seats looks more likely, but it’s all to play for.