If you're reading this before 02:00 on 06th July 2008, you've still got time to head down to the St Pauls Carnival, although the weather turned a bit nasty around 4pm. For some, the carnival is a celebration of Afrikan culture (spelt with a "K" for reasons that are unclear to me), for others a day out for the kids, and for others an all-day drinking session. The juxtaposition of local primary schools presenting their floats and masks, and trustafarians engaging in open drug use is peculiar, but it's all part of the festival spirit.

In my case, the day brings an opportunity to evaluate a variety of different version of the West Indian staple Curry Goat. There wasn't much branding on display, so I can't help with a recommendation for next year, but I really liked the version offered by the team with the blue tarpaulin in the stall at the corner of Wilder Street and Dean Street. In retrospect, having started early with a grilled cob of Sweetcorn and some Jerk Chicken, I probably should have stopped after the third portion of Goat, but that's nothing that a couple of boxes of Rennie can't sort out.

The organisers have really done an impressive job the last couple of years. Hopefully next year the weather will be kinder to them.

The contentious issue of charging Bristolians for on-street parking has been enough to drag the mysterious Bristol Blogger out of retirement. And with good reason: £40 quid a year per vehicle plus the hassle of having to arrange permits for visitors and tradesmen, and no guarantee that you'll be giving permission by the council to park a second car. If this were declared as an increase in council tax, it would be equivalent to a minimum of 3% on every Band D household.

As a local car owner, I don't like this policy, both because I'm already paying more tax than I want to, and because I don't believe that stringent council-led ticketing and control is the right way to solve the problem (although is it a problem? see below). My preference would be a wholesale mutualisation of non-trunk roads, to let individual home owners form friendly associations to manage their street, their approach to parking control and how much to spend on up-keep. Wearing my small business hat, I'm already investigating the purchase price of high-density, small-footprint urban parking structures, which could be a potential area of growth regardless of how we choose to respond to parking.

The trouble is that if just one area of the city did decide to go down the route of Parking Control, then the knock on effect would be to increase parking in neighbouring areas. This results in a city-wide version of The Prisoner's Dilemma.

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies ("defects") for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence.

If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

If all areas of the city vote against Parking controls, then everybody get's a good result. But if only one area votes in favour whilst their neighbours take the opposing view, then that dissenting area will displace cars into the neighbouring areas. Therefore even those who are against the scheme have an incentive to vote in favour.

Redefining the problem

If we define the problem to be "too many cars on the road", the general consensus amongst drivers seems to be that the solution is better public transportation systems for other drivers. But very few people have any desire to make the "modal shift" themselves.

But if one defines the problem as excess demand at peak times - outside the rush hour, there's plenty of roadspace and traffic moves freely - then perhaps we should try to do a bit more to incentivise road use outside peak times. How about something simple, which requires no capital investment, no new staff, no consultations, no free "Our City" newsletters, no focus groups and no extra money from car drivers or council tax payers: Let's switch traffic lights to flashing amber outside busy hours. This would improve traffic flow on major roads and might persuade commuters to change their daily pattern. Simple, cheap and easy to test.

Who Watches the Watchman?

In late news, the council are running a further consultation on "the possible introduction of state-of-the-art safety measures aimed at reducing dangerous driving and protecting lives in two areas of the city."

Bristol City Council is proposing the introduction of comprehensive Watchman Safety Schemes at Long Cross in Kings Weston - between the junctions with Kings Weston Rd and Stile Acres - and at Whiteladies Road in Clifton, between the junctions with Lower Redland Road and West Park.

Both roads have relatively high accident rates. There were 63 reported accidents on Whiteladies Road in total between January 2005 and December last year - with two people killed and nine seriously injured. At Long Cross there were 27 reported accidents during the same period, with six people being seriously injured. Speed was an issue in a large number of the accidents at both locations.

If the new Watchman schemes get the go ahead, safety cameras would be installed in both directions on the two roads. They would be switched on around the clock and would record the number plates of any vehicles breaking the speed limit. Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) would also be installed in advance of the cameras to warn motorists where they are exceeding the speed limit - and there would be clear signs to advise road users when they are entering the zones.

Fines would not be issued instantly, as with most other speed cameras, but police would be able to follow up any driving above the speed limit captured on film and consider prosecution.

A similar scheme has been in operation at Allison Road, Brislington for the past year and over that time traffic speeds have dramatically decreased and no new personal injury accidents have been recorded.

I wonder whether the Allison Road scheme will continue to deliver such benefits? The key phrase for consideration is "Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc", with extra credit for a study of "Regression toward the Mean".

I took a quick stroll over to the Malcolm X Centre this evening for a presentation by the team hoping to create an Urban Village School in St Werburgh. They've recently been featured on the front page of the Bristol Evening Post, and today the headline act was former local secondary head James Wetz, introducing his recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme "The Children Left Behind".

The goal is to create a secondary school of around 350 peoples - a marked contrast to modern trends in the state sector to build schools with over a thousand pupils - using the principles of "Human-Scale Education",

Human Scale Education was set up in 1985 with the aim of promoting small, human scale learning communities within the state maintained and independent sectors of education. Human scale learning environments can foster the positive relationships that enable teachers to know their students well and make possible a more holistic approach to learning that engages the whole person.

A contention of proponents of Human-Scale Education is that UK primary schools offer a better standard of education because their small size allows teachers and pupils to form stronger relationships. James Wetz offered a compelling statistic to support this: of the children who leave secondary school with no qualifications, 40% of them exited primary school with marks that were average or above average. He reported the comments of a Primary Head teacher to a group of Secondary Head teachers: "So what do you do to them?".

For maximum ironic effect, this initiative is being launched just as Bristol Council are proposing plans to "super-size" many of the city's primary schools, allegedly because they "do not give the best value for money for council tax payers".

I hope this works out well for the St Werburgh's team. They've got a lot of obstacles to overcome, particularly since their stated goal is to create a school within the state sector through the "department for children, schools and families" [sic]. Two key problems they will face are the National Curriculum and the Teachers' Unions.

The National Curriculum has few champions outside Whitehall. For some the problem is that it constrains the creativity of teachers; for others the emphasis on tests and targets doesn't leave enough time for learning. Looking at the American examples given in James Wetz's film, many of the schools had negotiated independence from the equivalent US structure - typically a mandated curriculum approved by an elected school board.

The number that did shock me was the Pupil-Teacher Ratio in the UK. Would it surprise you to know it's around 16.1 pupils per teacher (Full Time Equivalent)? In fact, adding in all support staff excluding admit and clerical, on average in UK Secondary schools there are 1 staff members for every 11 pupils. And yet average class sizes are around 21-22 [anyone got the latest stats?]. So what are all the non-teaching teachers doing? A great many of them are in management roles; roles that would be unnecessary if large schools were replaced by numerous small schools. The loss of large numbers of Deputy-Head and SMT roles is unlikely to go down well with the teaching profession.

One thing that did occur to me was whether the project could work if the goal was just "build a school" rather than specifically a state school. I'm preparing an update to an old piece on Redland Green School, for which I've obtained some Quantity Surveyor's estimation sheets. The slightly out-of-date rule of thumb is that it costs around £1500 per square meter to build a new school, and another £1500 to fill it with furniture, carpets, white boards and those little pots of white glue that don't stick anything. If we go with a figure of about 8 square meters per pupil, a "human-scale" school for 350 pupils, would cost around £8,400,000.

A big wodge of cash, but not completely beyond the means of a motivated group of parents and a good fund raising operation. Dealing with the circa £1,500,000 per year in operating costs would be a challenge, but perhaps an opportunity to test-drive an education voucher scheme, and give local parents the chance to make real choices about their children's futures. Because one thing that is often forgotten is that it is to the parents that schools should be offering their services, not to the children and certainly not to the state.

P.S. Elected Ashley Councillor Jon Rogers was there, but no sign of his colleague Shirley Marshall. And now for a musical interlude...

My colleague, Nick Yarker, Conservative candidate for Bristol-West, has directed me toward a video in which he discusses the Bristol Bath Railway Path, recently under threat from a planned Bus Rapid Transit Route. (see my article here).

The makers are "Bristol video magazine" 5on1. I don't have any more info about the magazine as the website is down, but you can find more local videos on their YouTube channel.

Following on from my previous post, at our recent Association Management meeting, I proposed that the Bristol & South Gloucestershire Conservative Association should we petition the membership on removing Giles Chichester from our party list for the South West Region seat in the European Parliament, and that we collectively write to David Cameron urging him to request Ms Spelman's resignation from the role of Chairman of the Conservative Party

However I was unable to convince the rest of the team that now was the right time to take action; the consensus being that we should give both Mr Chichester and Ms Spelman the opportunity to discuss their financial arrangements with their respective ombudsman - the Quaestor's Office and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. However the Ladies' Committee has written to David Cameron to indicate their displeasure!

If you fancy getting involved in one of our local campaigns, now is a great time to start. We've got a Political Discussion Group taking place on June 19th (venue: 5 Westfield Park), and lots of canvassing to do in Bristol West and the other constituencies.

In other local news:

If you've got £195.00 to spare, you might be interested in a two-day pass to the Bristol Environmental
Technologies & Services Expo. I'm getting quite a lot of traffic to my blog article from people looking for their website. Looks like my Search-Engine Optimisation is better than theirs.

Tommorrow (June 10th), is the full Council of the City of Bristol. I'll be watching it over the Internet to see if I can see Shirley Marshall making one of her infrequent visits to our city. The Conservative Group have got a few pointed questions to ask of the ruling cabinet:

MQ2 COUNCILLOR J GOULANDRIS TO ASK COUNCILLOR P HAMMOND, DEPUTY LEADER AND EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR COHESION AND RAISING ACHIEVEMENT PUBLICATION OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL REVIEW

• Q1. On reflection, does the Executive Member agree that the public consultation on the Primary School Review should not have been launched just before a one-week school holiday?
• Q3. The Executive Member is quoted as saying that the aim is 'to transform primary education in Bristol and continue (sic) to raise standards of achievements'. Why does he feel so little has been achieved in recent years in terms of improved results and achievements?

COUNCILLOR R EDDY TO ASK COUNCILLOR J PRICE, EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR HOMES AND STREETSCENE

• Q1. Please can the Executive Member confirm the current status of the urgent inquiry which was ordered after the distressing discovery of an 8-year old body in council accommodation at Mawdeley House, Bedminster, in early February 2008?

MQ18 COUNCILLOR B LEWIS TO ASK COUNCILLOR P HAMMOND, DEPUTY LEADER, AND EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR COHESION AND RAISING ACHIEVEMENT PRIMARY SCHOOL REVIEW

• Q1 Please can the executive Member provide me with the evidential basis behind his presumption in favour of super size primary schools to give the best possible education?

Primary education is a hot topic in the city at the moment. The contention of the council is that schools "do not give the best value for money for council tax payers". And yet the parents say they prefer these close-knit institutions. The Primary Review Consultation is the justification for this policy, but there will be no school closures before 2010, so there's still time to fix things..

One development that I only found out about recently (via Mr Vowles)is a plan by a group of parents to form their own Urban Village School. Their next meeting is June 17th at at the Malcolm X Centre, Ashley Road, St. Pauls. One to watch, perhaps, particularly with the involvement of ex-Cotham Grammar School head James Wetz.

I was planning to write about Recycling this weekend, in response to an excellent comment from reader Elisabeth, but circumstances require that I discuss a different subject.

Giles Chichester MEP has recently resigned as leader of the Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament, due to a breach of the parliamentary rules on handling his allowances. He used a company of which he was a director to provide services to himself in his role as an MEP. According to his press release:

"I have used my family company as a service provider to support my parliamentary work since I was elected to the European Parliament in 1994. The activities of the company have been openly logged with Companies House in the UK, and it has an official contract formally registered with the European Parliament. It has been my understanding that this arrangement has, at all times, been fully compatible with the parliamentary rules.

"Eighteen months ago, I received a letter from the Quaestors' office suggesting there might be a conflict of interest regarding the company.

"I replied to this letter setting out my belief that the arrangements were fully in compliance with the rules of Parliament. I received no response from the Parliament authorities."

I find this explanation unacceptable. Although I am absolutely certain that Mr Chichester acted in good faith and that there has been no misappropriation of funds, the mechanism he chose for receiving his - extremely generous - allowances was to say the least lacking in transparency. For me, the essence of Conservatism is to deal with public funds in a manner that is beyond reproach and open to public scrutiny. And for that reason, just as Mr Chichester's position as group leader was untenable, so his acceptability to represent the Conservative party for the office of MEP must be ruled out.

At the next meeting of the Bristol & South Gloucestershire Conservative Association, I will be proposing that we petition the membership on removing Giles Chichester from our party list for the South West Region seat in the European Parliament. Given that his position on the list was automatic, as the existing office holder, this works out well democratically as the remaining five people on the list were all selected by a ballot.

(More thoughts to follow on my dislike of closed list proportional representation and degressive proportionality. And I'll write something about the wretched EPP-ED group as well)

And just as I was putting my thoughts together on this topic, another misunderstanding over allowances by one of my fellow party members came to light.

A decade ago, the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Caroline Spelman MP, used part of her Parliamentary allowance to pay her nanny's salary. Ms Spelman's contention is that her nanny did both secretarial and childcare work, and that this is all within the rules. Her statement to the press:

Speaking outside her home, Ms Spelman explained that when she became MP for Meriden she inherited a backlog of correspondence and work from the seat’s previous holder, Iain Mills, who had died unexpectedly.

To cope she hired Miss Haynes to work in the constituency office Ms Spelman had set up at her home in Solihull.

Ms Spelman said "(Tina) would deal with the secretarial side of things while the children where in school and after school provide child care for my kids.

As with Giles Chichester, I very much doubt that there has been any intentional wrong-doing, nor any misappropriation of funds. But nevertheless as Conservatives - in particular the national leadership of the party- we must be beyond reproach in handling tax payers money and representing the people. The moral high ground is at times rather barren and rocky, but that is the ground we seek to hold.

Therefore on this basis, I will also - at the next meeting of the Bristol & South Gloucestershire Conservative Association - be proposing that we write to the party leader, David Cameron, urging him to request Ms Spelman's resignation from the role of Chairman of the Conservative Party. Her reselection for the parliamentary seat of Meridien is of course a matter for their local association.

I view the entire system of Parliamentary allowances - European and UK - as irretrievably broken, and I'd like to get shot of the whole lot. Their purpose is supposed to be to assist Parliamentarians in representing their constituents, not to support the lifestyle aspirations of a political elite. I recently itemised the potential take of a UK Member of Parliament:

[MPs receive] a basic salary of £61,820. Ten percent of that salary can be invested in the world's best pension scheme, the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund. Parliamentarians also receive a staffing allowance of up to £90,854, Incidental Expenses Allowance of up to £22,193, up to £5,000 pounds of IT equipment, £2,916 of London weighting if they're in the Big Smoke, up to £24,006 of Additional Costs Allowance [a second home and the infamous "John Lewis" List], up to £10,400 for "communications" plus practically unlimited reimbursement for personal transport expenses and mileage, and up to 30 trips for WAGS and children. Have a look at The Green Book for the full story.

Ignoring the value of the pension (which is considerable) and the travel allowances (which are very nice indeed) - this is a total of £217,000.00 per annum. I have also not included the large chunk of cash MPs receive as "Winding Up" money if they lose their office at a general election

It's time to simplify this whole mess. Doing it for the European Parliament may be a tough proposition, but for the UK parliament we should boil all these allowances down to a single payment. I'd suggest £61,820 plus travel expenses as a good number. It's certainly much more than the average British wage of £28,589.60.

I've proposed as much at the blog of local MP Kerry McCarthy (Lab Bristol East). I think a desire to constrain unnecessary expenditure by MPs at a time of economic hardship for British voters is a good area for cross-party collaboration. My suggestion to Kerry was that we collaborate on an Early Day Motion to effect this change, to be called "The McCarthy Bill". Or perhaps it could be the "Williams Bill" or the "Primarolo Bill" or the "Naysmith Bill". I believe I shall ask around the local area to see if I can find a sponsor.