Parents are to blame for yob culture

Parents blamed for rise in yob culture

The majority of the public blame poor parenting for the significant rise in anti-social behaviour, according to a new survey.
85 per cent of respondents to a YouGov poll for Friday's Telegraph said parents are one of the two main factors responsible for the lack of respect people now show fellow citizens and those in authority.
89 per cent of people believe yob culture is on the rise, with 65 per cent feeling it has "increased a lot".
The survey also found that more than 90 per cent believe that people today show less respect for one another and for those in authority than they did in the past.
While that may be unsurprising, ministers and MPs may be more interested in some of the other findings of the poll.
The break up of marriages was blamed by 25 per cent. 22 per cent blamed the Blair government, teachers and councils and charities.
Only 14 per cent of the public believed that the government "can do a great deal" about anti-social behaviour, even though ministers have made the topic a key priority for their third term in power.
However, 39 per cent felt that "it can do a certain amount" although 30 per cent thought "it can't do very much," and 12 per cent suggested that "it can't really do anything".
Blair's flagship anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) policy has not been very successful, according to 36 per cent of respondents, and "not at all successful" according to 12 per cent.
While nearly a quarter (23 per cent) felt it had been "fairly successful", two thirds (67 per cent) said that, as far as they knew, no one in their area had been subject to an ASBO.
But only 18 per cent of people said they had been significantly affected by anti-social behaviour in the past two weeks.
21 per cent said they had been subject to "hardly any" anti-social behaviour, 17 per cent said "not much," and 41 per cent said "only the occasional incident".
Just 16 per cent said wearing a hood or baseball cap constituted serious anti-social behaviour.

Inside Boris Johson Country

Inside Boris Johnson Country
Henley has more in keeping with some gerrymandered constituency in Florida, than that of Britain. Which makes calls by Boris for democracy seem ironic and calls by Howard to take away the vote from Tory Party members over the choice, demonstrates the Tory Party disdain for democracy.

Political Joke

Political Joke

How many Tory politicians does it take to change a light bulb? Ten, one to go up the ladder and change the light bulb, and the other nine to think ‘I could do that; I should be the one at the top.’

Proposed political boundary changes

Proposed political boundary changes

19 May 2005 A rough estimate of the effects of the proposed boundary changes to constituencies suggests that if the changes had been in force in this year’s general election, Labour would have had a majority of 53 or thereabouts rather than 67. The Conservatives would still need a lead of 9-11 per cent to win power.
While the Boundary Commission is obliged to work on outdated electorate figures, using the most up-to-date figures possible would involve the transfer of only three more seats from the cities to the shires. While Wales is over-represented, if it were cut down to size it would lose about five Labour and two other seats.


All these changes, which some imagine would eliminate the pro-Labour bias in the electoral system, would merely cut the current majority to around 44. A very narrow lead in the popular vote would suffice to win a Labour majority, while a tiny Conservative majority would require a popular vote lead larger than the party has managed at any election since 1945, with the exceptions only of 1983 and 1987.

The reasons for electoral bias — differential turnout, more or less efficient distribution of the parties’ votes, and tactical voting — cannot be addressed within the current electoral system. If the Conservatives imagine that revising the constituency boundaries can cure the bias, they really are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

What would a Tory car friendly Oxfordshire be like?

I suppose, in the future if the car lobby get their way, a car friendly Oxfordshire would mean every arterial road in the County being turned into a motorway, including the Oxford to Witney road. Extra road lanes added to the Oxford Ring Road, perhaps a new motorway byepass built in the Green Belt around Oxford. Certainly fewer buses and train services linking the main towns in Oxfodrshire and massive traffic jams. No doubt many of the new roads in such a plan would have to be in the form of toll roads, so that the government could finance them and smog warnings would become a regular occurance. No doubt house prices would be even higher in Oxford, while those outside in the countyside could drop, as the time taken to commute to Oxford would become a major influence on house prices. Perhaps turning Oxford into a ghetto where only the rich can afford to live.

It is not a future I would like to see for the County.