Daniel Hannan for Vote Leave and Brexit

Thursday February 25 at The Athenaeum in Warminster I took my first steps into Political Activism. I joined a 'full house' of apparently mostly like minded individuals attending a meeting of the 'Vote Leave' campaign.

We were (at least I was) there to hear Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for Britain's South-East Region. I first became aware of Mr. Hannan  several years ago when I lived in the US. He was a guest of Sean Hannity, a Conservative host of a prime-time show on the Fox News Cable Network, the only National Center-Right TV News source in the US. I no longer recall the specifics or even the subject of their conversation, only that I was impressed by Hannan's easy ability to communicate his 'Conservatism'.

I now follow Dan Hannan, on his website, in his blog  and on You Tube. In my opinion he makes the most comprehensive, convincing and compelling case for Brexit I have heard so far. The speech he delivered on the 25th. was something of a 'stump' speech, one I have seen in various forms on You Tube refined over the last couple of years, but with perhaps a new added urgency as June 23rd looms.

I understand That Dan Hannan has declined the Leadership Role in the Vote Leave campaign and while I respect this personal choice and even sympathise with his rational I believe it to be a mistake. 

The Vote Leave campaign does not have the time and the resources to compete head-to-head with David Cameron, his bureaucracy and the vested interest blocks, all busily trying to scare the electorate into inertia. Dan Hannan's intimate and apparent near encyclopaedic knowledge of the EU. His 'refined' arguments against absorption into the 'Superstate' project and his vision for the future outside of the EU I would argue offer little that a Brexit believer can disagree with and much that would appeal to those we must win over to our side if we are to be victorious June 23.

I believe that the Vote Leave campaign can be won and that Brexit offers our Country (and much of Europe) a bright and independent future. But time is short, Exceptional Leadership is required and I believe and I am convinced that Daniel Hannan can provide that Leadership.

If you truly believe in Brexit it's time you took charge Dan.

No EU Superstate

While our fearless leader, Big Dave Cameron  has negotiated away our Nation's future in secret. ( I heard it described as 'keeping on lowering the bar until everybody trips over it.') We must prepare for yet another visit to the ballot box June 23 this year. I suspect this almost indecent haste is part of his strategy. Choose a time in the summer when he can hope for a low turnout, then just keep his fingers crossed. That way, with a low turnout, if he wins he'll claim victory but if he looses he can claim the poll as unrepresentative and either disregard it or, more likely, do things the EU way and keep holding votes every year or so until he gets the answer he wants.

As one of those who voted to join the Common Market (as it then was, and still should be) I find this European Union Transnationalism of much of our political class grossly abhorrent. A Common Market of six western European states which we joined in the seventies has, forty years on, now morphed into a bureaucratic behemoth with scant regard for the wishes or indeed welfare of the 350 plus million people it wishes to subjugate.

The democratic deficit which is so clearly apparent in the EU,is at the very heart of this mega-bureaucracy. From it's founding after the Second World War it's purpose has always been abundantly clear, It was (and indeed still is) a Protectionist Regulatory Bureaucracy tasked with protecting the uniform mediocrity it would impose and enforce across it's member states. The net result has been economic growth almost exclusively through geographic expansion  and the introduction of successive waves of low cost workers imported from that expansion Eastwards.

This moribund behemoth offers no peace to people interested in self determination. Its obsessive introspection stifles free speech, free thought and free enterprise. Unelected Apparatchiks in Brussels constantly expand their regulation of even the minutiae of our daily lives whilst those we had thought we elected to run our affairs must seek permission to do so, not from us as it should be, but from those same Apparatchiks.

I am constantly mindful of a quote from Daniel Webster. “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters” . It is as true today as then, the only real difference is that those men now benefit from a much more powerful and intrusive Government.

When The Last First Bus Leaves - Rural Public Transport

The last First Bus will be departing Frome for Shepton Mallet and Wells in August. That was First Bus's service 161. Wells based, this service had recently (within the last two years or so) been reduced to five schedules per day, having thus reduced it's viability and its customer base First Bus will now be able to withdraw service all together. Thank you First Bus!

So then, we need to examine Public Transport in this particular rural area (Mendip District & Frome), or rather absence thereof. Indeed the concept and purpose of Public Transport needs review.

Our elected representatives, at various levels, constantly complain at the high cost of supplying even rudimentary bus service while our government, retailers and our NHS focus ever inward towards a 'centralized' model of efficiency with scant regard to user access.

Rural Bus Services are generally non viable except as an adjunct to high frequency high densty City to Town hub and spoke schedules.(Bath to Frome, Warminster, Trowbridge or Bristol to Wells, Street, Weston-super-Mare) and  local (Town) services.

All may not be lost, modern communication services may yet open new horizons for rural dwellers who have no personal transport.  Services like Uber on the internet have set a model that should readily translate to a rural environment plus ride-share programs needs to be easier to set-up and use particularly, it should be legal for those providing a 'ride-share' to collect a reasonable, maybe regulated, contribution from the passenger. Hackney Carriage License holders will complain as always but a little competition should help consumers.

Lastly (for now) There should be a role here for local government, maybe less as a regulator than as a facilitator. Service providers and users should be registered. There should be codes of conduct for each. The obvious solution should be to operate a cashless system, indeed very much as Uber does now.

Frome Cryer -What it's About

Frome Cryer - What Is It About?

I recently realize that I have been in and around Frome (on and off) since my family moved here in the late 50's. First in Coleford then Nunney, where I live today. During my youth Frome was a Market Town of some note with a reasonable manufacturing base and a vibrant quarrying industry near-bye. Although I retained family ties to the area and was a regular, if not frequent visitor, most of my adulthood has been spent away. The Frome and Nunney I have returned too are much changed, but, I have to say not always much improved.

So, to the purpose of this blog. I need to vent!   The subject matter will be ...... pretty much anything I choose, from Frome Medical Practice, Public Transport, Local Government, Schools to Retailers, Traffic, Development, Restaurants, Pubs and Housing Associations. In fact if I've got something to say, here's where it will be.

I will post my own thoughts and comments, I will welcome your comments but if I find them gratuitously offensive I will take them down. It's my blog so I am the final arbiter. I give fair warning, check my profile, I'm a free speech advocate, think before you comment.  I am happy to have you submit your own (original) copy for publication by e-mail, either in reply to my comments or to open a new thread but I reserve the right to edit before publishing. Anything edited will be returned to you for resubmission.