Graham Smith's Blog

Thank you, and goodnight

Graham Smith — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:35:55 +0000

Readers wondering why I seem to be suffering from writers' block are entitled to an explanation. After two and a half years and several hundred blog posts, resulting in more than 15,000 unique visitors and more than 50,000 page views (since September 2011, according to Google Analytics), this blog is soon to disappear from its BBC platform. Cost to the licence fee: nil. If you're interested, you can continue to follow me on Twitter @GrahamSmithBBC.

Glittering prizes

Graham Smith — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:30:08 +0000

Congratulations to BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed, who picked up his third consecutive gong for best regional news and current affairs radio programme at the EDF Media Awards in Bath yesterday. Yours truly was EDF's regional radio journalist of the year, which meant that Laurence and I were able to compare paperweights on the way home. A splendid time was had by all, particularly me, as seated at my table was an EDF chap who told me all kinds of interesting things about the proposed new Hinkley Point nuclear power station. My thanks to EDF and Hold The Front Page for hosting this event.

Cops and robbers

Graham Smith — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:13:18 +0000

Thanks again to the FoI team: there's some amusing sport to be had from this list of items stolen from Devon and Cornwall police stations. Eleven thefts a year - that's nearly one a month. How did a burglar manage to steal a mattress? And what rotter has been going round nicking aftershave and the (presumably) WPCs' perfume and eye-liner?

In addition to the list of stuff stolen from police stations, there's a longer list recording the items where police have been the victims of crime while out on the street. Lots of jewellery, fishing rods and a six-pack of cider were among the swag which caught my eye. Of the 76 crimes recorded here, only seven resulted in prosecutions.

Time up for dinner time?

Graham Smith — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:02:56 +0000

We're half a year on from when we reported that two Devon primary schools were scrapping hot school meals because they said they could not afford to buy them any more.

It now transpires that more than 60 of Devon's schools have quit the newly privatised service. More than a dozen now provide no hot meals at all, except where there is a statutory obligation to help children from families on benefit.

Information Request 02597
Please could you tell me how many county schools have opted out of the school meals service since September 2011 when the county council outsourced the meals to Devon Norse?
Devon County Council's response
Between September 2011 and April 2012, 64 schools decided not to receive their school meals service from Devon Norse.

And from the Devon Norse website:

In these times of economic pressure, Norse's pioneering approach to helping local authorities maintain high standards of service delivery will save Devon County Council money, protect local jobs and contribute to the local economy.
Looking for new, cost-efficient ways of working, Devon County Council was attracted to Norse's combination of public sector experience and commercial flair. The council believes these skills will develop the Joint Venture's business to everyone's benefit.

Devon Norse has responsibility for delivering cleaning services to schools and various NHS sites and civic buildings, along with catering at many of the county's schools and for civic functions.

Devon County Council said none of this was anything of their business - schools manage their own budgets, and questions about meals should be addressed to the service provider.

Anyone for politics? All I need now is a quote from Jamie Oliver and the job's done...

You wait for months and then you get two...

Graham Smith — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:16:46 +0000

The entertainment potential provided by Devon and Cornwall Liberal Democrats over November's Police Commissioner election seems to know no limit.

In February it was all perfectly clear. After months of internal wrangling, the Lib Dems decided, finally, not to field a candidate.

And then they changed their minds. So the official position, as I write this, is that the Devon and Cornwall Lib Dems are now seeking a candidate.

Step forward North Devon's Brian Greenslade, a former chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority and a Liberal Democrat member of Devon county council. Except that Brian, who would very much like to be the Police Commissioner and who is a Liberal Democrat to his finger-tips, does not want to stand as a Liberal Democrat candidate.

This raises the highly amusing prospect of the Liberal Democrats having two candidates in the race - one of them official, one of them an independent.

Party officials are now frantically thumbing through their rule books to find out what the consequences of this might be: most seem to think that Brian could not stand against an official candidate and remain a member of the party.

How to start a war

Graham Smith — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:28:55 +0000

listen to ‘Adrian Sanders MP on the pasty tax retreat’ on Audioboo

My thanks to Torbay MP Adrian Sanders for this analysis of the government's spectacular retreat on the pasty tax. Here's part of his interview with Matt Woodley from today's Good Morning Devon. The really controversial bit is at about 2:30 - on the origins of the pasty.

Lib Dems decide, finally, to contest Police Commissioner election

Graham Smith — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:16:46 +0000

The weekend's gathering of the Devon & Cornwall Liberal Democrat regional executive endorsed a recommendation that the party should, after all, field a candidate in November.

The decision ends months of dithering and internal constitutional arm wrestling - and will put further distance between local activists and the Lib Dem High Command in London. Party leaders have said they are opposed to participation in the Police Commissioner elections.

But the soap opera isn't over yet. Now the Lib Dems must start the business of selecting a candidate. The Conservative and Labour Parties say they hope to announce their nominees within the next three or four weeks.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

Graham Smith — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:23:51 +0000

Today's news about rabies made me wonder what happened in days gone by. I found this entry in Hansard for 24th October 1918:
Mr. R. McNEILL

asked the President of the Local Government Board if, in view of the danger arising from the existence of rabies in the country, he will issue information to the public as to what facilities there are for obtaining Pasteur treatment and as to the steps that should be taken by individuals who may be bitten by suspected dogs?

Mr. HAYES FISHER

A circular on the procedure to be adopted was sent to medical officers of health in Devonshire and Cornwall as soon as the Local Government Board were informed of the presence of rabies among dogs in these counties. It has now been revised, and a copy of the revised circular will be sent to the Press.

If you can think of more recent cases of rabies in Devon or Cornwall please let me know.

How Devon was saved from Cornish flag outrage (or not)

Graham Smith — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:53:23 +0000

I'm really not sure what to make of this - an outrageous attack on Cornish self-identity, or much ado about nothing? The controversial bit is at about 3:12. I do wonder if this isn't a case of you-couldn't-make-it-up life imitating art.

North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson is clearly of the former opinion. He emails to say:

"When the last runner with the Olympic flame left Cornwall and set off across the Tamar Bridge, he held in his hands a Cornish flag that was sadly confiscated by the police who were running alongside. Despite a helpful policeman initially carrying the flag with Mr Ball, his colleague clearly received instructions to remove it.

"This incident has understandably sparked anger across the Duchy. To many in Cornwall, this sends out a signal that English, Welsh or Scottish identity is fine, but that Cornish identity is not to be accepted by the London-based Olympic authorities.

"I have written today to Seb Coe, the Chairman of the LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) about the incident. As a former Cornish MP I am sure he will agree with me that Andrew Ball and the people of Cornwall quite rightly deserve an apology."

Were the Metropolitan Police security team really thinking about politics as they approached the Tamar Bridge last weekend? And I'll do my best to post Lord Coe's reply to Dan.

Accidents will happen

Graham Smith — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:49:23 +0000

The trouble with stories based on reams of data is that they are like looking for a needle in a haystack, with no clear idea of what the needle looks like or the shape of the haystack.

So when the Ministry of Defence press office helpfully drew my attention to the Site Event Report Committee's annual publication scheme, my heart leapt - and then sank just as quickly.

These documents detail hundreds of nuclear incidents and accidents at Devonport dockyard over the years - some years running at the rate of one a week. My heart leaps - what a story! But then my heart sinks. What's the context?

Is the detail contained in the annexes to these reports good news or bad? It's obviously good that the MoD choses to tell us about it. And in an environment which must involve several hundred opportunities for something to go wrong every day, it's probably good that, on average, only one thing goes wrong per week. And it's a matter for considerable relief that the vast majority of mishaps are relatively trivial.

But the quest for context poses yet more questions. How much of this is old news? For example, on 8th November 2008 this happened:

"Whilst conducting a primary plant discharge, the hose between the submarine and the PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) on the jetty split discharging liquid from the submarine to the environment. One member of Ship's Company came into contact with the spray from the hose."

This sounds serious, and it was. A "Category B" accident, forcing managers and MoD civil servants to do the unthinkable - tell the minister. Yet I've been doing stories about Devonport for 30 years and I don't remember that one, nor can I find any mention of it in any local media archives, so maybe the minister kept it to himself, at least for a while.

And the SERC documents don't appear to mention some other accidents which we know happened, such as the 30th April 1992 "large fire" on board HMS Turbulent. I definitely remember that one because I was in a local television newsroom which just happened to have a camera crew in the dockyard when it happened. Subsequently an old fashioned Parliamentary Question solicited the somewhat disconcerting information that, on average, there's a fire on a nuclear submarine about once a month.

So what does this leave us with? Stacks of data detailing hundreds of mostly trivial "incidents" which the rules say must be reported. Look hard enough and we find a handful of serious mishaps capable of causing real concern. I quite like data-driven stories. But I prefer original eye-witness testimonies. If you have any, drop me a line.

Can Devon learn from Cornwall?

Graham Smith — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:54:45 +0000

The Mayor of Torbay tells me the time has come to consider abolishing every council in Devon, including his own. Gordon Oliver thinks a super-unitary council, covering the whole of Devon, could save millions of pounds. His critics wonder if the dustbins would ever get emptied......you can hear all about it on Good Morning Devon, with Matt Woodley on Wednesday morning.

Hello Goodbye

Graham Smith — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:49:22 +0000

Cornwall councillor Chris Pascoe texts to say he's quitting the Lib Dem group and joining the Independents. Next year's elections are suddenly in focus.

Crime and punishment (2)

Graham Smith — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:39:14 +0000

My thanks to the FoI team at Devon and Cornwall police for crunching yet more numbers for me in relation to juvenile arrests and subsequent criminal proceedings. This follows my earlier inquiries about DNA and fingerprint records. The team has now refined its answer to exclude those arrested, but not taken to a police station. Over the past three years, 12,257 under-18s were arrested and "processed" at a police station. Only 4,970 (40%) were charged with any offence. This means that of the 14,300 juvenile arrests during this period, about 2,000 (presumably the younger ones) never made it to the police station and have therefore not (yet) started a DNA/fingerprint record.

Yet more glittering prizes

Graham Smith — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:41:59 +0000

It's not just local councils which like to let their hair down at awards ceremonies. Congratulations to BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed, on yet again being shortlisted at the EDF SW Media Awards for his lunchtime phone-in. Laurence has won this award so many times that they really ought to create a separate "not-counting-Laurence" category for everyone else. Modesty prevents me drawing too much attention to the shortlist for radio journalist of the year.

It's all about timing

Graham Smith — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:19:45 +0000

Last week Cornwall councillors voted 10-9 in favour of a 15,000-home estate at Threemilestone, near Truro. Had they not done so, they would have killed immediately any chance of a sports stadium on an adjacent site. This morning councillors voted 55-46 against putting taxpayers' money into the stadium project, which has planning permission but practically no funding. Any thoughts about what would have happened to the housing application if it had been considered after today's decision?