Since when has being born and bred in Reading been a negative thing?

Some of you may have noticed the Conservatives, namely Cllr Ballsdon and Cllr Willis, trying to stir up trouble on blogs and Twitter about a completely harmless statement on a piece of Reading Labour literature.  They are saying it's racist because the candidate's statement says she was born and bred in Reading and one of us.  Read it here for yourself:

'Eileen McElligott is a mother of three who was born and bred in Reading. She grew up on Dee Road Estate, gained a degree in Zoology and returned to live in Reading. Eileen now works in the Pharmaceutical Industry and is a School Governor. She will fight for us here in Church Ward because she is one of us.'

How is this in anyway racist?  Being born and bred in Reading is something to be proud of surely?  It is after all, in my opinion, an excellent town to live in.  Sadly I cannot claim to be Reading born and bred - just bred after my first few years being in Derbyshire.  If I was, I would be more than happy to proclaim it.

As for the statement 'one of us'.  Again, how is this racist?  Who is defining 'us'?  Reading Labour are defining it as a resident, a family, someone being effected by the harsh cuts brought about by national government, a worker, a parent, a Labour member.

To be honest their cry of racism smacks of desperation from a party torn apart with internal rows.

You want your trolley back? Here's the bill....

Anyone who lives near a supermarket knows how irritating and, sometimes dangerous, dumped trollies are.  Battle Ward has a Tesco in it's centre and a Waitrose and Asda nearby so dumped trollies are a regular feature.  The trolleys are currently reported and the supermarket collects them once or twice a week.

If approved at Cabinet on 16 April 2012, Labour led Reading Borough Council will be able to charge for collecting, storing and returning the trolley and, if not collected, destroying it.

I hope this means Battle ward is no longer littered with abandoned shopping trolleys!

No surgery Saturday

Battle Library is closed for Easter this weekend so there won't be a councillors surgery. If you do have any issues to discuss, please get in touch.

Pupil Premium: Reading’s children lose out while wealthy Wokingham’s gain!

Reading & District Labour Party Media Release  

1April 2012

The Government’s ‘Pupil Premium’ grant, which is a reallocation of existing school funds, is doing the opposite of what the LibDems originally wanted it to do - because the Conservatives have changed the way funding is allocated, areas like Reading with higher levels of child poverty are losing out.

Last year the Pupil Premium was calculated mainly on the number of children having free school meals, but it is now calculated on the number who have had school meals at any time during the last six years, which has meant that wealthy Wokingham and Windsor and Maidenhead are seeing a doubling of their grant at the expense of areas like Reading which is getting a much smaller increase. Because over all schools funding is staying flat this means that Reading's children will lose out on funding.

Labour’s John Ennis, Lead Councillor for Education & Children’s Services, says: “It's ironic that the Pupil Premium – which was proclaimed as helping the most disadvantaged children - is now actually benefiting wealthy areas at the expense of areas with much higher levels of child poverty.  If I had voted LibDem in the last election I would be feeling cheated by a government which is clearly committed to unfairness."

The pattern across the country is the same. The area with the lowest figure for children living in poverty is Rutland with 8%, and their grant is going up 126%. The highest figure for children living in poverty is Tower Hamlets with 51%, and their grant went up just 60% - less than half of the increase in Rutland.

Authority	Indicative main Under 16s  pupil premium   in Poverty (2009) Change (%)         (%)
Windsor and Maidenhead	102                 11
West Berkshire	99                   12
Bracknell Forest	98                   12
Wokingham	98                   7
Slough	82                   24
Reading	67                   23

Buds and seeds

My obsession with my garden continues and this past weeks fine weather has meant I have finally got some planting done.  The baby was in a co-operative mood and didn't climb the garden furniture so I planted:

Runner beans
Courgettes
Squash (I am trying to grow at least one for the third year - fingers crossed)
Cherry tomatoes
Tomatoes
Chillis
Garlic

I will plant more in the next week or so.  My new dwarf fruit trees are starting to bud, my cherry is setting itself up to blossom and my nectarine tree looks stunning.