Election 2022 - Menu
Liberal Democrat candidate for the King Alfred division - 2022 Somerset County Council elections Learn more
Like everybody else in a fair and liberal society (literally, a “Liberal Democracy” hence the name of our party) I have thoughts, feelings, and ideals regarding the constitution of a civil society and the conduct of those that enjoy the benefits of living under such a system.
The philosophies, social, political, and technical details of any viable society are manifold, and to understand, let alone influence all of them would be more than one could hope for of any individual. Accordingly, we each have particular areas of interest, and take it for granted and on trust that others in our society will have differing interests, and all facets of our lives will be “looked after” by one or the other of us.
For my part, my primary interests can be encapsulated within the interlocking topics of (in no specific order):
Education
(short link: tinyurl.com/mm-bai-edu)
I firmly and passionately believe that education, in all its forms, is the universal panacea, the cure for all our problems. I am lucky to have been able to work in educational establishments which have catered for a broad cross-section of our society, and I have witnessed first-hand the transformative and empowering magic of showing a young student, an adult learner, a prisoner that missed an education, an enthusiastic “Silver Surfer”, that one trick, that one vital piece of the puzzle, or the answer to the question they were too shy to ask. When people discover their spark and start to forge ahead into their own world of discovery, there’s no stopping them.
And it’s addictive.
There should be no-one that feels that education is “not for them”, or is allowed to fall behind. Education must always be free and open to everyone, in all walks of life, and of any age.
Helping those that want to discover how the world works, whether it’s at the “Burns the Bread” baking school, the local primary school, or in further education, is one of life’s great gifts. All our hopes for the future are pinned on those that come after us taking our knowledge and experience, and expanding on it until, hopefully, the societal value of the student outstrips that of the teacher.
The Natural World
(short link: tinyurl.com/mm-bai-pnw)
Everything that we are, everything we see, do, touch, breath, consume, and revere either comes from or is dependent on the bounty of the natural world. It is as well to remember that without the input of our planet by the year, the day, hour, minute, and second, we would simply cease to exist. It is an exercise in gross hubris to believe that we can continue to use, burn, despoil, and ignore our only platform for survival without there being severe and irredeemable consequences.
As with my comments on education above, our options for environmental salvation rest squarely with the generations coming after us. It is our task to lead the way, to do the groundwork, and allow them the space to repair what has been done to our one home since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Quite aside from recognising the globe as a life support system, it provides us, especially in rural Somerset, with both work and leisure. Farming is in the very bone of our village communities, and it is what has made our land what it is. We must be careful not to assume it will always be compliant.
It is also unspeakably, terrifyingly beautiful. From the mists of the Somerset Levels to the peaks and valleys of Mid Wales. The comfort of a Cotswold village to the daily pulse of the Thames, Tyne, Medway and Mersey. Each microcosm has its own grace and splendour.
So it comes back to us. Without human interference the green shoots and tendrils of encroaching nature very soon reclaim the land, and fauna thrives. When we speak of “conservation” we’re not really talking about conservation of our planet for the sake of Earth itself. The Earth will be alright. It’ll recover. It always has.
No. When we talk of conservation of the natural world, we’re talking about conserving it for us, and if we don’t address the issues signposted to every nation at this very time, it’s a problem that will rectify itself in a stark and dramatic fashion, and it won’t be to our benefit.
Public Finance
(short link: tinyurl.com/mm-bai-pf)
“Time is money” is a line that’s frequently trotted out when people talk about the business of labour, and to a certain degree they’re correct. In the most base sense, time spent idling is time not spent generating a financial income. In real terms (and in real life) the exact opposite is true. The value of a certain amount of money received is commensurate to the perceived value of the time spent by the person doing the work (this is only true of “real” professions where a skilled worker applies herself to a task. Managing a hedge fund where money is used to generate more money to the detriment of everything else in society isn’t “work”, it’s more akin to finding loopholes in law to allow social piracy). The parable of “The Engineer’s Hammer” is a case in point. The job may have only taken him fifteen minutes, but the value of those fifteen minutes is very large indeed.
Public finance is a very precious thing. When we as a Government authority ask you to pay council tax, business rates, etc., that money must first be earned. To earn the money takes you time. That time, a portion of your life, that you’re giving up and can never get back, is a precious thing. Is working to earn the money to pay your council tax a better use of your time than you enjoying your child’s fourth birthday party? What could be “worth” more than that?
I understand that paying into the public pot is a necessary evil, that we have to do it to keep society ticking along, but I’m under no illusion that it’s “free” money for us to play with.
Every time I authorise the spending of public money, or arrange another member of staff to do so, or go to a group meeting, I’m very aware that you’ve given up a precious portion of your time and your life to allow me to do that, and your faith is with me not to waste your time.
Your time is the most precious thing you own. Through careful management of public finances I will absolutely pledge to cherish it.
Animal Welfare
(short link: tinyurl.com/mm-bai-aw)
Mahatma Gandhi was said to have stated “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. We live a relatively cosseted existance in the UK, and we have the freedom to act in moral or immoral ways without the worry (generally) of starving or being attacked.
We have the wealth to be able to (again, generally) look after our old, our young, and our infirm, and we have the option to care for those with less ability to defend themselves. This includes our animals, both as companions and livestock.
The British are known as an animal-loving nation, and we don’t have a cultural history of animal neglect or cruelty as might be seen in some developing nations (and some which are allegedly “civilised”), but that doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels or assume that there’s no room for improvement.
I must make it absolutely clear that I am not a vegetarian. I have always eaten meat, fish, milk, and eggs, and I suspect that I always will, but we must be absolutely certain that at every stage of food production, from field or river to slaughterhouse or processing plant, that we grant the animals that feed us as much respect as possible, and as much as we would hope would be granted to us were the tables turned. Animals are not simply semi-sentient, mobile vegetables.
I will always oppose hunting for sport, and I consider the very idea repulsive. I know that farmers shoot animals, but it’s usually to provide food or protect livestock or crops. It’s a fascinating thought that someone would find a giraffe or lion in the wild and consider its destruction a healthy pursuit of leisure. In the 21st Century it can surely only be seen as a symptom of an unsound, possibly dangerous mind.
Local Infrastructure
(short link: tinyurl.com/mm-bai-li)
When Curtis LeMay blithely stated that he had the option to “Bomb them back to the Stone Age” (when commenting on the USA’s disastrous campaign in Vietnam) he was making an horrific yet astute observation on the topic of Twentieth Century civilisation.
In our comfortable Western societies we all rest easy with the assumption that in the morning when we wake the electricity supply will still be available for our morning cuppa, that the roads will be broad, long, and well maintained enough to deliver the croissants to that nice man in the village bakery, that litres of sparkling, fresh water will be available from several sources in our own homes, and that, generally, tomorrow will be just as safe and secure as yesterday.
For many, possibly most people in the world, this is simply not the case.
I sound cloyingly sentimental to myself when I recall just how fortunate we in the Western world are, and it is patently incumbent upon both us as a wider society and us as your elected representatives to ensure that, indeed, tomorrow will be just as safe and secure as yesterday.
Within the interminable rounds of meetings, committees, sub-committees, votes, arguments, site visits, late-night telephone calls, visits to Parish and County Council seminars, etc., we try to ensure that everything you expect as value for money from your Council and Income tax is provided to you.
Every member of your Council, whatever the party affiliation, carries out a number of tasks to undertake oversight of the management of our locale. Many of them feed into each-other with slightly overlapping remits and it is the duty of every member to ensure, as far as possible, the smooth running and well-being of every facet of Council with which she or he has access.
This ties in very nicely with my thoughts on Public Finance above. One without the other is worthless.
