Former Royal Marine Al Carns did not resign against Labour. He resigned for what he believes Labour should stand for. That may prove a far more dangerous act.
Richard, ... I think your concern about unequal ward electorates is a fair one and I’ll be interested to see your final analysis. MYonly caution is that low turnout does not necessarily prove that large numbers of registered electors do not live there or are ineligible to vote. It It may point in that direction, but it could equally reflect disengagement, mobility, poverty, language barriers or a host of other factors. If you can evidence the distinction between registered electorate, resident population and actual voting population, you may well have uncovered something very interesting indeed. 🧐
Richard, thank you once again for taking the time to comment.
You ask which party I support. The answer remains Labour, (Only our dear Lord knows why..!!!) although I suspect you already knew that from the latter part of your comment. Loyalty, however, does not require blindness, and I have never felt obliged to cheer every decision made by my own side.
On Myron Hrycyk, the reason I mentioned his name was simply curiosity. At first glance I wondered whether it might be Welsh, then checked and found the background interesting. Had the name been Mohammed Shah, I doubt I would have done the same, because the likely broad origin would have seemed more obvious and less unusual to me. The point was not criticism of foreignness, but a passing observation about a name that caught my eye. Happy to critique foreigners however if they deserve it ..
As for Al Carns, yes, he was parachuted in, and I have expressed reservations about parachuting candidates into seats over the years, of parties . However, when he recently stood down from his ministerial position over defence spending, it suggested to me that he possesses a degree of conviction and courage. Given his military record, I expected him to be brave physically. What interested me was whether he would be brave politically. On that score, he appears to have answered the question. Passed the good guy test if you will
You may well be right that Birmingham is no longer the workshop of the world. Sadly, that is self-evident. But I make no apology for wanting more manufacturing, more apprenticeships and more skilled jobs. If BSA motorcycles were once again rolling off a production line in Birmingham, whether they were motorcycles, drones or something entirely new, I would regard that as progress rather than nostalgia.
On young people, I part company with many of my contemporaries. Every generation since Aristotle has complained that the youth are idle, feckless and doomed. I remember older people saying similar things about my generation, and I disliked it then as much as I dislike it now. I prefer to look at the potential young people have rather than constantly catalogue their fAults.
Where I do worry is not about the young themselves but about the guidance we give them. Too often we seem content to shuffle people onto short-term Mickey Mouse courses and training schemes that generate paperwork and grant claims but little in the way of enduring skills. I would rather see apprenticeships, workshops and industries where people can learn a trade and build a future.
So yup, I am nostalgic in some respects. Not because I believe the past was perfect, but because I am not yet convinced that what we have replaced it with is necessarily better.
I have just about finished my analysis of all ward elections. I have one thing further to do and wish to make it available online… my last issue though is somewhat important, and I have asked the boundary commission for comment first. It has to do with the size of each ward’s electorate in the city. I am worried that a vote in one ward is of less value than in another ward. I know this cannot be perfect and there has to be some divergence but when one single member ward has 7000 odd electors and another nearly 10000 this cannot be right. The boundary commission in its report spoke of the need for locality to be taken into account. And for future population growth to be considered but the first factor creates anomalies while the second is an inexact science. Added to which what if, as with most very recent population growth here, that growth comes from immigrant communities say the Congo whose citizens have no entitlement to vote in any UK election. I noticed this problem when I looked at turnout… in most wards turnout increased by 10 or more % from around 30% to over 40%. But in a few turnout stubbornly remained at around 20%. I began to think that the actual number of people who lived in these wards and actually entitled to vote differed from the people on the register. Its a bit more complex than that which I explain in my summing up… because there are an awful lot of people on the electoral register in Ladywood eg that don’t even live in Birmingham and either legally or illegally they sublet to foreigners who have no entitlement to vote. Thus under 20% voting at elections is not uncommon in some areas. This then becomes a factor at General Elections too. When I have finished do I put the whole thing on here or elsewhere… suggestion would be good.
PS thanks for your thoughts… he may be Yugoslav in origin… well what our generation called Yugoslav… as to the young… just because Aristotle moaned about the young and people have done ever since does not make him wrong… indeed (using Ockham’s razor) he and successive generations were probably right!
I wonder sometimes which party you now support Mike. In your previous article you mentioned the forename and surname of the chief commissioner as being foreign… with an implied criticism… I wonder if he had been called Mohammed Shah would you have commented on it? Now today you mention Al Carns as if he was a Brummie and no mention of his “foreign” names… you know perfectly well that he was parachuted in (rather appropriate that analogy) by the Labour Party into what was a safe seat and that he has nothing to do with Birmingham. You are always condemning the way your party forces imports into seats of which these people have no connection. Carns is a Scotsman why not a Scottish seat… answer there are no safe Labour seats north of the border. As to Birmingham being full of grafters and soldiers… that is history… if that were true now how is that it has far more people on benefits than the average for the UK and a lower number of entries in the armed forces and a larger % of young unwilling to fight for King and Country? Sorry but you live in the past and if you cannot recognise that things have changed you are unable to solve the problems of the present. You may wish Birmingham to be the workshop of the world but it has not been for decades. You may wish it to be full of grafters but it is not. That these things are no longer true is not the fault of Brummies. It is far more complex than that… but it has become “benefit street” and that needs to change.
Richard, ... I think your concern about unequal ward electorates is a fair one and I’ll be interested to see your final analysis. MYonly caution is that low turnout does not necessarily prove that large numbers of registered electors do not live there or are ineligible to vote. It It may point in that direction, but it could equally reflect disengagement, mobility, poverty, language barriers or a host of other factors. If you can evidence the distinction between registered electorate, resident population and actual voting population, you may well have uncovered something very interesting indeed. 🧐
Richard, thank you once again for taking the time to comment.
You ask which party I support. The answer remains Labour, (Only our dear Lord knows why..!!!) although I suspect you already knew that from the latter part of your comment. Loyalty, however, does not require blindness, and I have never felt obliged to cheer every decision made by my own side.
On Myron Hrycyk, the reason I mentioned his name was simply curiosity. At first glance I wondered whether it might be Welsh, then checked and found the background interesting. Had the name been Mohammed Shah, I doubt I would have done the same, because the likely broad origin would have seemed more obvious and less unusual to me. The point was not criticism of foreignness, but a passing observation about a name that caught my eye. Happy to critique foreigners however if they deserve it ..
As for Al Carns, yes, he was parachuted in, and I have expressed reservations about parachuting candidates into seats over the years, of parties . However, when he recently stood down from his ministerial position over defence spending, it suggested to me that he possesses a degree of conviction and courage. Given his military record, I expected him to be brave physically. What interested me was whether he would be brave politically. On that score, he appears to have answered the question. Passed the good guy test if you will
You may well be right that Birmingham is no longer the workshop of the world. Sadly, that is self-evident. But I make no apology for wanting more manufacturing, more apprenticeships and more skilled jobs. If BSA motorcycles were once again rolling off a production line in Birmingham, whether they were motorcycles, drones or something entirely new, I would regard that as progress rather than nostalgia.
On young people, I part company with many of my contemporaries. Every generation since Aristotle has complained that the youth are idle, feckless and doomed. I remember older people saying similar things about my generation, and I disliked it then as much as I dislike it now. I prefer to look at the potential young people have rather than constantly catalogue their fAults.
Where I do worry is not about the young themselves but about the guidance we give them. Too often we seem content to shuffle people onto short-term Mickey Mouse courses and training schemes that generate paperwork and grant claims but little in the way of enduring skills. I would rather see apprenticeships, workshops and industries where people can learn a trade and build a future.
So yup, I am nostalgic in some respects. Not because I believe the past was perfect, but because I am not yet convinced that what we have replaced it with is necessarily better.
I have just about finished my analysis of all ward elections. I have one thing further to do and wish to make it available online… my last issue though is somewhat important, and I have asked the boundary commission for comment first. It has to do with the size of each ward’s electorate in the city. I am worried that a vote in one ward is of less value than in another ward. I know this cannot be perfect and there has to be some divergence but when one single member ward has 7000 odd electors and another nearly 10000 this cannot be right. The boundary commission in its report spoke of the need for locality to be taken into account. And for future population growth to be considered but the first factor creates anomalies while the second is an inexact science. Added to which what if, as with most very recent population growth here, that growth comes from immigrant communities say the Congo whose citizens have no entitlement to vote in any UK election. I noticed this problem when I looked at turnout… in most wards turnout increased by 10 or more % from around 30% to over 40%. But in a few turnout stubbornly remained at around 20%. I began to think that the actual number of people who lived in these wards and actually entitled to vote differed from the people on the register. Its a bit more complex than that which I explain in my summing up… because there are an awful lot of people on the electoral register in Ladywood eg that don’t even live in Birmingham and either legally or illegally they sublet to foreigners who have no entitlement to vote. Thus under 20% voting at elections is not uncommon in some areas. This then becomes a factor at General Elections too. When I have finished do I put the whole thing on here or elsewhere… suggestion would be good.
PS thanks for your thoughts… he may be Yugoslav in origin… well what our generation called Yugoslav… as to the young… just because Aristotle moaned about the young and people have done ever since does not make him wrong… indeed (using Ockham’s razor) he and successive generations were probably right!
I wonder sometimes which party you now support Mike. In your previous article you mentioned the forename and surname of the chief commissioner as being foreign… with an implied criticism… I wonder if he had been called Mohammed Shah would you have commented on it? Now today you mention Al Carns as if he was a Brummie and no mention of his “foreign” names… you know perfectly well that he was parachuted in (rather appropriate that analogy) by the Labour Party into what was a safe seat and that he has nothing to do with Birmingham. You are always condemning the way your party forces imports into seats of which these people have no connection. Carns is a Scotsman why not a Scottish seat… answer there are no safe Labour seats north of the border. As to Birmingham being full of grafters and soldiers… that is history… if that were true now how is that it has far more people on benefits than the average for the UK and a lower number of entries in the armed forces and a larger % of young unwilling to fight for King and Country? Sorry but you live in the past and if you cannot recognise that things have changed you are unable to solve the problems of the present. You may wish Birmingham to be the workshop of the world but it has not been for decades. You may wish it to be full of grafters but it is not. That these things are no longer true is not the fault of Brummies. It is far more complex than that… but it has become “benefit street” and that needs to change.