Today I was joined by Labour colleagues to protest outside County Hall in Trowbridge, against the scandalous 22% rise in allowances for members of the cabinet. Wiltshire’s Conservative councillors are woefully out of touch, as hard working families struggle with austerity.

It was good to see the Labour group leader, Cllr Ricky Rogers and his colleagues; and the Labour parliamentary candidates for Devizes (Chris Watts) and Salisbury (Tom Corbin). Independent councillors Terry Chivers and Jeff Osborne also joined the protest.

The protest of around 50 people, including GMB and UNISON activists, also focused on the low pay of council employees; local authority unions had organised protests outside councils offices right around the country.

More new blogs!

1. Angry Immigrant (Unaligned) (Twitter)

2. A Room of Our Own (Unaligned/Feminist) (Twitter)

3. A World for the Future (Unaligned) (Twitter)

4. Chris McHugh (Labour) (Twitter)

5. Free North Campaign (Free North)

6. Mutare Orbis (Unaligned) (Twitter)

7. Northern Light (SPGB)

8. Political Eh-conomy (Canada – Unaligned) (Twitter)

9. Public Domain Productions (Unaligned) (Twitter)

10. Push Back Politics (Unaligned)

11. PWF (Labour) (Twitter)

12. The Anger Theory (Unaligned) (Twitter)

13. Unite Manchester Finance (Unite) (Twitter)

14. What is Wrong at the TUC? (Unaligned)

That’s your lot for January/February. If you know of any new blogs that haven’t featured before then drop me a line via the comments, email or Twitter. Please note I’m looking for blogs that have started within the last 12 months. The new blog round up appears on the first Sunday of every month, and is also cross-posted to A Very Public Sociologist.

Chippenham born MP, Jeremy Corbyn, will be joining members of local history groups, trade unionists and others interested in Chippenham’s past at a one-day local history event on 29th March: Episodes in Wiltshire’s radical history.

The series of talks has been organized by the White Horse Trades Union Council, who staged a successful similar event in Bradford on Avon in 2010. Perhaps surprisingly, the organizers claim, Wiltshire has been at the heart of dramatic events during its history, despite the image given by its quiet small towns and rolling green pastures.

Talks will be given about Dame Florence Hancock, one of the country’s early women trade union leaders, who 100 years ago led a dramatic strike at Chippenham’s Nestles factory; about the local activist Angela Gradwell, who as well as being the first woman solicitor, was an accomplished singer, writer and sportswoman; and about how rich and poor were treated differently in the criminal justice system during Wiltshire’s past. Organisers are also intending to show a short film of how Ken Gill, one of the country’s most firebrand national trade union leaders during the 1970s, attributed his political leanings to growing up in poverty in Melksham.

Mr Corbyn MP will talk about how a Chippenham boy became one of the country’s best known backbench MPs. Other speakers include noted historian, Professor Steve Poole from the University of the West of England, local trade unionist and amateur historian Rosie Macgregor, and Nigel Costley, the secretary of the South West regional TUC.

Organiser, Andy Newman, who is the chair of the White Horse TUC explains: “The day-school will bring together professional academic historians, local amateur historians, and activists from Wiltshire interested in how ordinary working people engaged in extraordinary events that shaped history.” Mr Newman added “It is a common misconception that the big events in history all happened in places like London, but people just like us made history right here in Wiltshire”

Admission is free, and refreshments will be available for purchase.

The Cause, 42 The Causeway, Chippenham, SN15 3DD. March 29th 2014, 10 am until 4:00 pm.

Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, yesterday spoke to the BBC television news making it clear that plans to address flooding in the Somerset levels, including input from locals, had to be with him within six weeks. This is a ridiculous abrogation of the responsibilities of government, as the danger of flooding is not only well established in the area, but was dramatically revealed by earlier flooding in 2013. Plans should not only have already been in place, but should have been acted upon before now.

Government policy on flood prevention is in chaos, as Friends of the Earth recently revealed that David Cameron and Owen Paterson have both issued misleading statements, falsely claiming that they were spending more than the last Labour government.

David Cameron stated last week in the House of Commons: “In this current four-year period, we are spending £2.3 billion, compared with £2.1 billion in the previous period”. His beleaguered Environment Secretary has repeated the claims on numerous occasions. But a new briefing just published quietly by Defra states that the Coalition are spending less during the current 4 years (£2.34bn between 2011 and 2015) than the last government committed under the previous 4 years (£2.37bn between 2007 and 2011).

What is more, Owen Paterson has removed “prepare for and manage risk from flood “ from Defra’s key responsibilities and issued four alternate priorities which do not include flood prevention.

The Department’s priorities until Mr Paterson’s arrival were to:

• support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production;
• enhance the environment and biodiversity
• to improve quality of life;
• and support a strong and sustainable green economy, including thriving rural communities, resilient to climate change.

In addition, Defra had two other major responsibilities:

• prepare for and manage risk from animal and plant disease; and
• prepare for and manage risk from flood and other environmental emergencies

Owen Paterson defined new priorities, which are:

• to grow the rural economy;
• to improve the environment;
• to safeguard animal health; and
• to safeguard plant health.”

Flood prevention was explicitly removed as a target; and indeed the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee criticized the Government in July 2013 for the delays in enacting the provisions on sustainable drainage from the Flood and Water Management Act 2010

Three years after enactment of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, its provisions on sustainable drainage have yet to be implemented. We have previously criticised the Government for failure to reach agreement with key parties, such as local authorities, on how implementation is to be funded and managed, yet Defra is unable to commit to commencement before April 2014. Sustainable drainage is a key aspect of managing flood risk and it is vital that the measures are implemented without further delay.”

The BBC recently reported yet further delay:

“There is disarray over government plans to prevent new developments making flooding worse, BBC News has learned. The 2010 Flood Act states developments must be landscaped so water from roofs and drives seeps into open ground, and does not rush into the water system. But details of the law have been delayed for more than three years.”

It is tempting to ask whether Owen Paterson’s famous skepticism over the issue of climate change influences his reluctance to acknowledge the existence of elevated likelihood of year on year flooding, and therefore his unwillingness to put in place adequate defences. In Parliament Owen Paterson has refused to endorse the Prime Minister’s view that climate change is contributing to the increase in abnormal weather events.

While the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats disingenuously present themselves as friends of rural communities, their unwillingness to plan or invest for flood defence, based upon an unholy mixture of climate change skepticism, incompetence and penny pinching, is undermining both the economy and infrastructure of areas prone to flood.