He who pays the piper...

Just in case you haven't spotted this story about business donors funding the Tory shadow cabinet. Grant Shapps (Tory housing spokesman) "declined to comment on why five of his six backers were connected with his brief". Kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Buying babies

I don't usually like drawing attention to Daily Mail stories like this - about a Nigerian woman who has been convicted of buying a baby to qualify for a council house in Britain. Usually such stories are grossly exaggerated or taken out of context to promote a certain political agenda and stoke up certain prejudices (immigrants taking our housing, defrauding our welfare system, etc). But this caught my eye for a couple of reasons.

One is that the woman was actually convicted, so it's not one of those urban myths (like Somalis in Bristol being given free cars by the Council, and Poles being given free mobiles so they don't get homesick) and not a mountain being made out of a molehill. The other is that when I was in Uganda I was told that there was a real concern about child-trafficking in northern Uganda, where many people live in camps for internally-displaced people, and that one of the main motives for trafficking was 'to get a council house in Britain'; (the others were sex-trafficking and child slave labour). It's horrendous if this is happening, and very difficult to prove.

It is common within certain African communities or informal adoptions of children to take place, for example, where a child has been left orphaned. There is often no documentation - particularly if they come from a country like Somalia, where there is virtually no bureaucracy in place - and DNA tests are irrelevant. So there is no way of telling if the adoption is genuine, or whether the children are being used.

The article quotes someone from the Ecpat UK pressure group, which campaigns for tougher laws against child traffickers, saying: "We are seeing increasing evidence that children are being trafficked into Britain for benefit fraud. They arrive from all over the world and our concern is what happens when they have served their purpose." The article doesn't say what happened to the child; presumable he's been taken into care, as his original parents are untraceable. I hope they manage to find him a good home in Britain.

Men reading books

At the relaunch of Air Balloon's after school club today, I saw on the wall a photo-montage of men sitting reading with children; I was quite struck by the photos, some of which were quite touching, showing what were obviously quite tough, working-class men engrossed in children's story books with young pupils. Turns out that the headmaster had had the bright idea of inviting fathers, grandfathers and other male relatives into the school to encourage boys to read more. More than 100 men turned up which is really impressive. I think it's something which ought to be replicated in schools across Bristol.

Two 'g's in blogging

That's a reference to the link to my blog on my main website, which has now been corrected!

My website stats are steadily rising, which is good - we're on track to hit the 30,000 mark this month. Obviously nowhere near Mad Nad's 250,000 hits per month, but I'm not sure I want to go down the path that's required to hit those kind of figures. I have no idea who most of these people are, or why viewing stats can vary from below 500 to over 3000 on consecutive days - it doesn't seem to be linked to how often I post things - but it's good.

We're currently refreshing a lot of the content - e.g. linking news stories to issues pages, adding more links to outside organisations, and generally freshening it up a bit. And I will get round to doing the 'Local Heroes' page one day very soon! The idea is to have whatever the opposite of a rogues' gallery is, of amazing people who have done good works in east Bristol and made a real contribution to the local community. First up is going to be Reg Gregory, a wonderful man who must be 84 by now, and was instrumental in bringing the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre into being (as well as loads of other things). Other candidates include Richard and Joyce Smith, who persevered for years in their campaign to save Arnos Vale cemetery - shame I couldn't be there for the cutting of the turf ceremony this week. It's an amazing place.

Just a list of things to do tomorrow...

I don't know why I always end up staying up to watch 'This Week' on a Thursday, when I've arrived home late from London and I've got a really busy day to follow and, more to the point, it's rubbish (Bruce Forsyth talking about US politics? Lord Levy posing on a tennis court? Andrew Neil just being Andrew Neil?)

My first appointment tomorrow is at Trinity Road police station, to talk to an officer about vice and drugs. Then it's Refugee Action, to talk about Government policy on asylum seekers. Then the office, to sign letters and to take a scheduled phone call from the Department of Health. Then I''m off to the brand new Bristol Metropolitan school (formerly Whitefield Fishponds) - I'm really looking forward to that as I've visited a number of times when building was in progress and I've heard that the new school is phenomenal. After that it's the launch of an after school club at Air Balloon school. Then it's the second meeting of the fledging Somali forum in Barton Hill. And then our monthly Labour Party meeting (and I've just realised I haven't written my GC report to members and won't have time to do it tomorrow... oh dear).

Lord Levy is now talking about the 10p tax rate. I'm off to bed.

New poll on website

Seeing as it now looks like Labour will be running the Council for the next year, what do you want them to do? I've given five options (because I'm only allowed five): better public transport; tackling crime and anti-social behaviour; making Bristol the 'green' capital of Britain; improving school standards; or more affordable housing. No doubt it will suddenly occur to me at 4 in the morning that I have missed out something really, really obvious. (Social services? Oh dear). Health services I've left out because that's not really a Council responsibility. I won't make a prediction because I'm sure people will then vote for something else just to prove me wrong, but I have a fair idea what will come out on top.

What is the point of (electronic) tagging?

Some of you may have read in the BEP about the somewhat bizarre case of Peter Ogden, the 73 year old man who has been electronically tagged and subjected to a curfew after being convicted of failing to report a road traffic accident. He has also been banned from driving for a year. Leaving aside whether or not Mr Ogden was guilty of that offence (his account of the incident is in the BEP article), the question remains: does the punishment fit the crime?

I spoke to a journalist from ITV today, before appearing on their evening news programme. She had asked for a briefing from the Ministry of Justice on the use of tagging. They described electronic monitoring as "a credible alternative to custody" which can "introduce regularity into often chaotic lifestyles" and "disrupt the pattern of offending behaviour".

I have no problem with that: if, for example, you have young criminals who prowl the streets at night, breaking into houses or stealing cars, or drunks who are constantly picking fights in pubs and carrying out assaults, a curfew monitored by electronic tagging could be an effective way of dealing with them rather than sending them to prison. It protects the public, eases the burden on the prison population, and reduces the likelihood of them reoffending (at least until the tagging is over).

But Mr Ogden is not a career criminal, or a persistent offender, or a neighbourhood nuisance. His only previous conviction is for a speeding offence. There is no suggestion that he caused the accident through dangerous or even careless driving (the woman was hit first by another car, and that driver has not been prosecuted). And yet he is now being confined to his home between the hours of 4pm and 11pm, with an electronic tagging device attached to his leg. I can't see what purpose is being served by this at all.

I've briefly spoken about this to a Home Office minister, just in passing, and will be writing to Jack Straw to seek his views on the appropriateness of using electronic tagging in such circumstances. I have also tabled a written parliamentary question to see if I can find out how often tagging has been used when people have only been convicted of road traffic offences. I can see it might be justified in the case of a repeat drink driver, or someone who has been convicted of driving whilst disqualified, as an alternative to imprisonment, but as far as I am aware (and it's been 20 years since I worked at a magistrates court, processing hundreds of traffic offences) failing to report an accident isn't even an imprisonable offence. (Although I suppose it must be now, if they can impose an alternative to custody as a sentence). It's very strange.