FixMyStreet

Excellent idea and site - allows one to easily report potholes and other street issues that the council can then (hopefully) action.



http://www.fixmystreet.com/

St Helena Debate in the House of Lords

On Wednesday, Lord Jones of Cheltenham initiated a short debate in the House of Lords on the Future of St Helena. For the full text, click here. I was invited by Vince Thompson, my old boss from Railtrack days, who now lives on St Helena and writes for the St Helena Independent newspaper.

We were kindly hosted by Lord Jones, who greeted us at the Peers' Entrance, led us through the Palace of Westminster, encountering Lord Hoyle of Warrington, who was to join us for the debate. As we were slightly early, we adjourned to the Peers' Guest Room overlooking the Thames. This is the tea room of recent infamy regarding hiring peers, but no such excitement today, instead Lord Jones explained what he planned to cover in his speech, and that he had emailed a copy of his questions to the Government minister who would be answering, Lord Davies of Oldham, which in my opinion was a decent and constructive thing to do.

As the time approached, Vince and I were led upstairs by a friendly doorkeeper to one of the galleries, at the far end from the regular visitors area.


We sat top right

From here we watched the debate, introduced by Lord Jones, who summarised the facts of the case, that the islanders were devastated by the government putting an indefinite hold on the project to build an airport to replace the ageing RMS St Helena boat, currently the only means of reaching the island.


Jamestown, St Helena


RMS St Helena

The arguments for and against have been summarised in my previous blog entry on the Westminster Hall debate, introduced by Meg Munn MP. Suffice it to say that despite dignified and reasoned speeches by Lord Jones, Lord Hoyle, Lord Shutt of Greetland, and a somewhat limp response from Lord Howell of Guildford for the Conservatives, for the Government response, Lord Davies of Oldham rattled off the excuses which Lord Hoyle predicted would be used.

As a "tourist", I was excited to see Lord Lamont in the chamber for the end of the previous debate and some of this one, and Lord Robertson, the Nato Secretary General, popped in and out of the chamber a couple of times.

The Government response was disappointing yet predictable. Effectively the position currently is that a consultation is being held, and they will not commit to anything until this new current consultation has completed.

Although this project comes under DfID's responsibility, it seems that the Treasury are holding the purse strings and must surely be responsible for the failure to proceed. What are not clear to me (and all) are the criteria to be met for the Government to continue the project. There is a business case for doing this, the islanders want it, there has been a positive consultation, DfID's own advisors recommend it.. what more is required?

Afterward the debate, the House adjourned, and Vince and I possibly breached protocol by not standing as the Mace, representing the authority of the Sovereign, is carried from the chamber. Everyone below us, including all the Lords, stood in silence, as did the guests at the far end. By the time it became clear to us, it was too late!

Thankfully we weren't gaoled, and instead had our belongings returned by the Doorkeepers, and retired as a group to the Strangers' Bar, where Lord Jones bought us drinks which we took out to the waterside terrace. The rules of the Strangers' Bar are that MPs and Lords may entertain up to three guests. Guests may not buy drinks! The drink in this case being an excellent ale from one of my favourite breweries, RCH Brewery from Somerset. Outside, we met Calvin Harris, a Doorkeeper in the Commons who comes from St Helena.


Lord Jones, Calvin Thomas, and Vince Thompson

Calvin has not been back for over 20 years, partially because of the lack of a timely way of accessing the island. Perhaps this is the same reason that no government minister has ever visited the island.

Out on the terrace, with the Thames flowing by, we discussed the outcome of the debate. Perhaps little progress had been made, but as Meg Munn had suggested before, the important thing is to keep up the pressure on the government, something Lord Jones had achieved with admirable grace, and at short notice, as the debating time only came available because of the postponement of the Post Office privatisation.


The Palace of Westminster - we were at river level under Big Ben

Again, as a tourist, part of the fun of being out on the Strangers' Bar terrace was of seeing so many familiar faces, inside and out - Liam Fox, Tony McNulty, Charles Kennedy, Geoff Hoon and many others. On finishing our beers, Lord Jones escorted us back to the Peers' Entrance. I should mention that even walking the corridors of the Palace is a wonderful experience, the walls and decor steeped in history, but sadly for us there was little time to pause and enjoy. What I would give to have free reign of the palace for a day, to be able to explore what is a huge complex. I have my doubts as to whether much of the place is opened up on the Open House weekends!



For me personally, this was a marvellous visit, and my sincere thanks to Vince for inviting me and Lord Jones for being our gracious host. Vince and I retired to the excellent pub nearby, The Speaker in Great Peter Street, to write his report for St Helena radio.

The Varying Volume Levels of BBC Podcasts

The BBC's podcast offerings are a fantastic selection of the best of radio output that the corporation broadcasts, and I take full advantage of this, currently being subscribed to:

1Xtra Drum and Bass Top 5
Analysis
Broadcasting House
Craft Beer Radio (non-BBC)
Craft Beer Radio - Extra Feed (non-BBC)
Crossing Continents
Digital Planet
Discovery
Documentaries
Dr Karl and the Naked Scientist
Excess Baggage
File on 4
Forum - A World of Ideas
From Our Own Correspondent
Front Row Highlights
Front Row Interview
Great Lives
In Our Time
Law in Action
Material World
More or Less Behind the Stats
Newsnight
Paul Jones Rhythm And Blues
Politics UK
Radio 1's Best of Unsigned / Introducing
Radio 4 Choice
Start the Week
The Bottom Line with Evan Davis
The Now Show / Newsquiz (Friday night comedy)
Thinking Allowed
Today in Parliament
Today Lead Interviews
Weekly Political Review



NB: not all of these podcasts are active at any one time - shows run in seasons. If you want a starter, I would recommend the weekly Broadcasting House, which aims to be the radio equivalent of sitting in a cafe with friends reading the Sunday papers. Also Today in Parliament is a fascinating daily round-up of what has been going on in our political sphere - a great pod if such things interest you (and they jolly well should!). To subscribe, so that the pods are downloaded automatically, use any podcast software such as Happyfish (the one I use) or iTunes.

Anyway, I recently felt spurred into emailing the BBC regarding the fact that the musical podcasts above (Paul Jones Rhythm And Blues, Radio 1's Introducing etc) are significantly louder than the spoken word pods. Why is this? I can only assume it is a handover from the broadcasting trick of setting your atation louder so that it stands out as people tune their radios. Completely unnecessary, and the cause of irritation to me every time my mp3 player moves on to one of these shows when I am briefly aurally assaulted until I can reach the volume control on my mp3 player. Stop this practice, BBC!



Anyway, here's the correspondence:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I listen to many of the BBC's advertised podcasts and am generally very happy with the setup, thank-you.

One issue I do have though is that you clearly ramp up the overall volume levels for the "music" podcasts - for example Huw Stephens Radio One Introducing Show.

I understand that there are arguments for doing this with broadcast radio, in order to catch the attention of someone channel surfing, but this is completely unnecessary for podcasts, and every time I find myself scrambling to access the volume control on my mp3 player, today almost having an accident doing so.

I would be grateful if you would pass my comments to the appropriate person, and ideally consider normalising volume levels across all of the BBC's podcasting output.

Thanks in advance,

Sam Crawley

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And the Beeb's response:

Dear Samuel

Thank you for your e-mail.

I was pleased to learn that you enjoy the BBC podcasts but understand that you feel the music podcasts are much louder than the spoken word ones.

Please be assured that all of your comments have been registered on our daily feedback log, this is a daily report of audience feedback that's circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

Thank you for taking the time to contact the BBC.

Regards

BBC Information

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I don't suppose anything will be done, but I live in hope, both for myself and for my hearing!

Time to Consider?

With apologies to the "Time to Consider" viral ad campaign all over London Underground at the moment.