Lord Goldsmith is looking into the issue of "Britishness" with the suggestion that schoolchildren partake a similar pledging ceremony that American junior school children perform . It won’t be long before the Dally Mail suggests that it becomes a duty for everyone not just schoolchildren to perform.

   Over at Conservative Home thay are getting very exercised about the speaker Martin "witch-hunt." Here. it’s been my privilege to meet him on several occasions and watch him in action on the floor of the House of Commons and at other parliamentary functions. I have noticed that there has been a definite "He should go" campaign on the right wing blogs for some weeks now, so I am unsurprised at the current situation. What d’you think?

Scarlett, Wildrose, and Howlermonkey Would like to thank all of the party members that the attended the policy forum at the combined university of Cornwall facility. I would also like to thank Nick Round for you work on the platform for Cornwall document that was launched by Ben Bradshaw Jude Robinson and Labour south-west. You can pick up an electronic copy of the document by clicking Here. After the launch of the platform a blitz was organised for central Redruth at which several teams sallied forth into action. I’ve included here some photographs of the event .

HM would like to thank all the party members who helped canvass and leaflet throughout the constituencyof Camborn and redruth. Here's some pics of the Halyle Copperhouse-canvassers. I hope that all the LH Blogers were out and about too. If you have some pics of your action day please add them on this thread.

Merry Xmas to all LabourHome bloggers.  From Howlermonkey, The Wildrose and Nelson. Have a good one!!

As you probably know there has been a campaign in support of the Fire Brigade Union in Cornwall in the face of fire service cuts by the Lib Dem controlled county council, backed by the five Lib Dem Cornish Mps. Recently Councillor Ken Yeo, Executive member with responsibility for the Fire Brigade, attended a meeting last week with the Fire Minister, Parmjit Dhanda to plead for more money for the Cornish Fire Brigade. He did this knowing that the Executive had agreed to spend more money on a newsletter than it would take to maintain the current fire cover at Falmouth and Camborne.
He and the Cornish LibDem County leader and 4 of the countys Lib dem MP’s groveled for more dosh. Thay said Cornwall should get extra support because of its geography, demographics and the tourist industry. On local news Jula Goldsworthy MP was seen stamping her little foot, and saying that the meeting was "Very frustrating". The Fire Service is not the only area under threat, re-organisation following the move to Unitary Authority status is expected to bring huge job losses in Cornwall to add to those already gone or going at Imris.

But this morning my Snarfer found this press release. I am given to wonder if this decision was made on the return trip to Cornwall on the train. This is indeed a huge climbdown by the Liberal-Democrats on Cornwall County Council, and a victory for people power in the face of utter incompetence of the Lib Dems here in Cornwall. Although the last paragraph seem somewhat ominous with regard to fire service issue being revisited in the future.

Next years Defra Cuts

Defra has not fully recovered from the £200m cuts imposed by the Treasury last year after the department mismanaged the biggest reform of agricultural subsidy in a generation. The new cuts are expected to affect all 50 of Defra's agencies, dealing with canals, animal health, waste groups, national parks, forestry, fisheries , sustainable development and environmental protection. New money will be available for flood protection following the floods in Yorkshire and Gloucestershire this year, but will not be paid for three years.

Friction TV is the new tory web TV channel. I've tryed to load it a fue times but it stalls my laptop totaly, so I have to give it a full reboot every time. Maybe it's Dave's revenge for all the nasty things I've said about him.

British Airways (BA) has announced a ban on carrying surfboards on all flights (effective from 6th Nov), the surf community across the world has been reacting to the shock new position and taking decisive action to push for a reversal on the decision , surfers from across the globe, including the World Number One, Mick Fanning, have been signing up to a global petition created by the British Surfing Association (BSA) and international governing bodies, key surf brands and thousands of individuals have been issuing statements and joining a group on the social networking site, Facebook.

Here in Cornwall surfing is a billion-pound industry thousands of surfers will be using Newquey airport to transit through to the surf beaches available to the professional and weekender. There will undoubtedly be a knock-on to the local economy with an estimated 500,000 people in Britain who surf

Recently I posted on the subject of fire service cuts in Cornwall. To which I attended the protest march from the fire station at Falmouth to the fire station at Camborne via Penryn and Redruth, a distance of approximately 18 miles, along with more than a thousand protesters. The fire service cuts have been introduced by the Liberal Democrat controlled county council, they are erroneously blaming the government for its lack of funding. For details see here. Http://www.labourhome.org/story/2007/9/16/5028/77905

Five years ago I took a train journey from Chicago to flag staff Arizona. This let me to look into look literally into back yard America. The levels of poverty that I saw was to say the least shocking.  This fiscal year the American economy is predicted to grow at only two per cent, with the probability of 2.5 per cent growth next year. Now very few international economies are tied to the dollar, with the dollar sinking fast the Bretton Woods agreement is now dead.

HM Would like to thank all the activists who gave up their time to campaign for Jude Robinson in Hayle on Saturday. A special thank you goes out to the Swindon members for their support. Thanks, and keep it up.

With all the flooding in the country, has anyone seen our David - the Minister that slashed the Environment agency flood defence budget. If seen, please email helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk as the department would like to know his whearabouts.