Where on earth were the police ?

A man was assaulted and is now fighting for his life in hospital after being beaten up in the heart of Norwich's "clubland" down Prince of Wales Road.

The big question for me is how could this have happened at 1.00 am, in the heart of Norwich, an area where there has been a constant history of drink related violence late at night, yet the police were seemingly not there or failed to intervene before the victim suffered life threatening injuries ?

If I had to place police anywhere on a Friday night in Norwich is would be half way down Prince of Wales Road between Mercy and Chicago's, which was exactly where the incident took place last night.

The other issue is what were the numerous doormen doing whilst this was happening ?

A friend of mine some years ago was beaten badly in Norwich late at night whilst so called professional trained doormen shouted a warning to the men beating him up to "go now, the police are here", whilst when it came to court the doormen told the CPS that they saw "nothing".

People out on a late night in Norwich need the police to anticipate danger. If I know where the problems will be, why were they not there ?

Google Street - Doing wonders for Norwich's tourist trade

Google Street is getting lots of headlines this week and Norwich is one of the 25 cities that Google decided to feature, although it is a Norwich I barely recognise.

Oddly, virtually every shot of Norwich seems to be in great weather and sunshine, things which I certainly don't recognise as being typical of Norwich. It did make me wonder when the city was photographed, but looking at specific shots of buildings I knew to be closing and area where building work was ongoing, I have worked out he photography was done during late July, which oddly was our sunny week last year.

So Norwich had better prepare for a boost in tourist numbers who having seen Google Street, will be under the false impression Norwich is some sort of tropical paradise. Oh how disappointed they will be,

More bank stupidity

Oh dear, and in Norwich too.

At least this bank error does not require billions of pounds in government bail out funds.

In defence of the City of Norwich

I really could not have mounted a better defence of the city of Norwich than Malcolm Redfellow does HERE.

Well worth a read.

Why people think they can get away with assaulting people on our streets

The death of Frank McGaraham in Norwich few weeks ago made all the national headlines, and I wrote shortly afterwards about the fact that the justice system does not seem to help prevent these sorts of crimes.

For anyone who doubts that this is the case take the case of Mr McGarahan's relative who was assaulted in separate incident that same night, and the fact that the person who assaulted him for no reason has been effectively let off with no more than a slap on the wrist. What ever sort of deterrent is a £100 fine ?

What a pathetic justice system we have.

Norwich Banker's Murder - Do the police and the CPS take similar crimes seriously ?

The shocking news of the murder of in Norwich of good samaritan Frank McGarahan, the man killed on a night out because he intervened to stop a group of men assaulting a homeless man on the streets says much about our sick society.

The problem though for me is that this type of attack is not uncommon in Norwich, only the fact that this ended in a murder has made this more significant.

A son of a friend of mine was lefft for dead a few years ago after being kicked and punched by a group of youths outside a club. At the time the bouncers outside the club stood on and watched only shouting a warning to the attackers that "the police are here" when a police car turned up. Despite the number of winesses, the case presented by the police was flimsy, with it taking the mother of the victim to ask witnesses she knew to go to the police station and demand to make a statement. Then, when the new stronger case came to court, the CPS nearly loused the whole thing up by losing files and failing to tell witnesses properly that the case had been moved before finally allowing the attackers to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be effectively slappped on the wrist for the near murder they had committed.

The victim, who was beaten unconscious made a remarkable recovery, and this in part seemed to affect the seriousness with which both the CPS and police treated the case. He could have easily died, but that seemed to matter little.

The truth is that there are thugs out each and every week looking for fights and looking for an easy victim to beat black and blue, but the legal system and policing in this country seems completely disinterested until a murder happens.

Sadly people like Frank McGarahan pay the ultimate price for this.

400 Norwich Union IT jobs to go

Norwich Union are set to announce today up to 400 job losses amongst IT staff in Norwich. Aside from the devastating blow this will have on the local economy, it is yet another sign that Norwich is, for Norwich Union, just a brand to put on their logo and any sense of having an interest in the economic well being of the city is long gone.

On the bright side, this will no doubt be good news for India, as every set of job losses in the UK sees more and more jobs transferred to India just as other companies are repatriating jobs back to the UK.

"A New Life In The Country " on Channel Five insults Norwich

Watching the TV programme, "A New Life In The Country" on Channel Five this evening was rather delightful, looking at the restoration from a ruin of an old water tower in Norfolk, that was until they ran their competition.

The question was;

"Which if these is a famous town in Norfolk ?"

Instantly, I thought of all our towns. Swaffham, Watton, Dereham, Downham Market, Diss, Wymondham, Stalham, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn, Cromer, Wells, Holt, North Walsham and Sheringham (apologies if I have missed any).

So what were the choices ?

A- Cardiff
B - Norwich
C - Edinburgh

What ? Norwich ? A Town ?

Norwich is, for the benefit of Channel Five, a city, given its royal charter many centuries ago. If we were a town then the football club would be Norwich Town, not Norwich City !

Describing Norwich as a town is like describing the QE2 as a boat.

P.S. For anyone who wants to know which planning authority they were on about in the TV show that refused to allow the man to use solar panels on his water tower, it is Tory run Broadland District Council.

Norwich residents to pay more if they have a longer one (car that is)!

Norwich City residents are to see increases in their car permit prices based on how big their car is.

Small cars under approximately 3.92m will pay £16 per year, cars under 4.45 m will by £22 and any larger cars will pay £30. The move seems to have been largely welcomed by the three main parties and in my view is a good idea.

Shoddy journalism in the Norwich Evening News gives a false impression of Norwich schools

The Norwich Evening News today prints a story which is astounding in its shoddiness and lack of professionalism when they report on the state of Norwich schools.

The most shocking of misleading claims in the report is

" nine of the county's primary schools are failing to provide good enough maths and English education. "

Actually, this is wrong, so wrong.

Looking at the Ofsted report of one of the schools highlighted in the report (Catton Grove Middle) showed that

"The quality of education provided by the school is good. The quality of teaching is good overall and this ensures that the pupils learn well."

Whilst a quick look at the Ofsted report for Mile Cross Middle School shows the report to say

"Teaching and learning are good overall. During the inspection some outstanding lessons were observed. All staff provide excellent role models for kindness and good manners. There are a significant number of pupils who need help to maintain an acceptable standard of behaviour. Within a framework of very good relationships, teachers manage these and other pupils extremely well. Teaching assistants are proficient and are valued as essential members of the team approach. In outstanding lessons, lively teaching engages even the most reluctant learners so that they learn at a very good rate."

It is interesting to note that Ofsted, a group of inspectors from outside of Norfolk, are aware of the challenging nature of pupils in differing parts of the city even if the Norwich Evening News does not.

So it is clear that the teaching at these two schools was rated as "Good" by Ofsted, and was not as the Evening News claims "failing".

The Evening News also fails to mention that some of the schools listed have special Learning Supporting Centres, which take statemented children often with learning disabilities or low attainers with learning needs. This will, of course, lower pass rates at those schools. But hey, I'm sure the Norwich Evening News wouldn't let the facts get in the way of a story, would they ?

Did the journalist bother to report the "added value" scores for the schools they listed which showed at least one of those schools listed in Norwich to actually be performing better than average out of Norwich schools. Indeed, its "added value" score was higher than a number of schools in the more well to do parts of the city.

Is this the same Norwich Evening News who after one local school got a rating of "good" by Ofsted chose to use as its headline the one criticism that Ofsted gave of the school rather than the many glowing positives listed by the report ?

A quick scan of the Evening News story will highlight the fact that they spell the word "Norwich" incorrectly in the eighth paragraph. Should teachers be taking lessons from the journalists at the Norwich Evening News when they cannot even spell Norwich correctly ?

Norwich leading the way with totally "free" wi-fi

Channel Four did an interesting piece for the news last night about free wi-fi in Norwich.

Norwich is leading the way in providing wi-fi, but unlike other councils, including many Lib Dem ones, Norwich is pioneering completely free wi-fi, with no costs, hidden charges or fees. They are using a slightly slower speed Broadband so as not to be a direct competitor to super fast broadband speed wi-fi operators, but the service provided is suitable for internet browsing, e-mail, even music downloading and some video downloads.

It is nice to see Norwich leading the way, and particularly good that Norwich is going along the free route, allowing people to share in the technology, not charging them for it.

The is also a nice report HERE, which is about three minutes long, explaining how it all works. But interestingly for me also, as my brother (who works in I.T. pointed out to me, he appears in the reports for about 1 second, near the end, stirring a coffee.

Norwich Union to re-patriate 150 jobs from India

Norwich Union have announced that 150 jobs dealing with household insurance claims will be re-patriated to the UK because of cultural differences.

Apparently these "cultural differences" actually mean "language problems", or so said BBC radio this evening.

Before we get over excited, Norwich Union are still movign another 1000 jobs out to India and will ahve 8,000 people emploed in India rather than the UK by the end of the year.

At least Dell, GE capital, AXA/PPP Healthcare and Powergen have moved all their jobs back to the UK, and deserve to do well on that basis. Certainly I want to support companies that use UK call centres whenever possible. If you want to do this, there is a website that offers advice on using UK only call centres. Click HERE to go to the job-savers website.

What Norwich voters should know about the Green Party's leadership

Norwich voters have in recent years elected a few Green councillors. I am friends with one of them, and a very nice person she is, although I'd would never vote Green. The real reason for this is that I know what they stand for, and it's not just caring for the environment (all political parties do that now to a greater or lesser degree).

So I was pleased to see Joe Otten highlight some details about the Green's new joint principle speaker on his blog HERE. It really should be read by all potential Green voters, especially those living in the leafier much more middle class parts of Norwich who don't have a clue that they are voting for people with such ideas.

I would urge everyone to find out what the Greens stand for. At the moment in Norwich is is just opposing anything that does not work well and claiming credit for everything that does work well, but it is actually much more serious than that !

Ian Gibson to stand again for Labour in Norwich North

The EDP reports today that Labour MP Ian Gibson will be standing again in the Norwich North constituency at the next election. Read about it HERE.

This will be good news for the Labour Party, who have lost votes and seats in local elections in Norwich North in recent years, but have comfortably held the parliamentary seat because Ian Gibson, despite his faults (messing up a quote a la John Kerry which then implied that his constituents were inbread being his biggest gaffe), he is known locally as a vocal and reasonably hard working MP who has support from people who will not normally vote Labour because he is prepared to stand up to Blair on key issues.

With the removal of Taverham and Drayton from the Norwich North seat, the seat will certainly have a notional Labour majority of about 7,000 next time and I guess Labour's chances of holding the seat are much stronger with Ian than they would be without him.

More rubbush from a business leader about education - If industry chiefs are this uneducated, how can they lecture others ?

Yes, its a long headline, but it needs saying.

Patrick Snowball, the Chief Executive of Norwich Union spoke in Norwich about how education was letting children down.

The EDP reports that he "launched an astonishing attack on Britain's education system yesterday - calling for the return of competitive sports days and the egg-and-spoon race to help prepare pupils for the world of work."

Just how out of touch is Mr Snowball ? I am in my seventh year of teaching and at every school that I have worked there have been competitive sports, competitions, and an encouragement for children to work co-operatively in team events also.

Mr Snowball's comments smack of someone who knows nothing about what what is going on in the education system and he seems to have his head stuck in the mid 80's when there was a move away from competitive sports, which has long been reversed.

Its funny how also how Norwich Union can lecture the education system on not turning out people who able to work for Norwich Union when Norwich Union themselves are sacking highly trained workers, already trained to work for them, to replace them with battery farm workers in India ,employed under worse terms, for lower wages and without the legal shackles of financial services regulations that protect customers.

As one Norfolk headteacher puts it in the EDP article,
“It strikes me that NU are under pressure for cutting jobs locally and are looking for something to blame. His comments also show a lack of knowledge of what is going on in schools. We've been running egg and spoon races for some time.”

Perhaps Mr Snowball should visit a school sports day in the summer with some of the hundreds of sacked Norwich Union workers. I guess Norwich Union would see it as giving extra time for parents to be with their children.

Lessons for education from the likes of Norwich Union are things we could do without. I have worked for Norwich Union and believe me, there is nothing we can learn from them !

No return fares in Norwich - Another scam from First Bus

First bus, the company famous in the Norwich area for their poor time keeping, rudeness and dirty buses have come up with a great new plan to further annoy local people. Bizarrely, they are scrapping return tickets !

The principle of a return ticket is to provide a discount which encourages people back on to buses and avoid them seeking other methods of transport home. The problem is in Norwich that there are no alternative methods other than a car or taxi, so the only thing this will encourage is more people using taxi's rather than thinking that they've already paid for a bus home so they may aswell use it.

This is a scam, plain and simple. First Bus might want to dress it up or come up with excuses, but anyone with even half a brain knows the truth. It is already cheaper for myself and my wife to drive a car in to Norwich and park for several hours than it is for the two of us to get the bus. This will make it even more cheaper to use the car.

Could Mid Norfolk Tories have had so many things go wrong in their selection if they had tried ?

Almost unbelievably, given the furore and fuss caused already by the Mid Norfolk Tory candidate slection , two more candidates have dropped out of the selection meaning tow more who didn't make the shortlist now have !

It's all outlined very well in the EDP, but it does highlight a clear difference between the recent selections made by the Liberal Democrats in Norwich South and Broadland and the way the Tories select candidates.

Lib Dem seats appear more willing to select and shortlist local people committed to their local areas, and not just career politicians. I'm not saying this is true of every Conservative association, but the setting up of the "A list" has meant that an element of discrimination has come in to force inthe Conservative Party whereby your local credentials, your wanting to serve the community you live in and your unwillingness to want to be come part of the "glitterati" celebrity set that makes up the Tory `A list` means that you will find it virtually impossible to get shortlisted for a winnable Tory seat.

Not only that, but obsiously some candidates who were on the Tory Mid Norfolk shortlist and were professing their desire just last week to represent Mid Norfolk and its people were at the same time saying exactly the same thing to other constituencies in order to become their candidates too. Does this build trust in politicians ?

At least in Norwich South and in Broadland the Lib Dems have, in Simon Wright and April Pond, selected local candidates who are keen to work for Norfolk and the communities in which they live and work. It remains to be seen if Mid Norfolk Tories will do the same.

Norwich South Lib Dems select "Norfolk Boy" Simon Wright

I was delighted to hear last night that Simon Wright has been selected as Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Norwich South.

Norwich South, as many people will know, is a top target for the Lib Dems and is also the seat of former Home Secretary and Labour MP Charles Clarke. At the last general election, the Lib Dems leapfrogged the Tories to go in to a strong second place whilst the Tories fell back to third place, meaning this seat is a real two way contest, a two horse race as Lib Dems like to say.

I am a friend of Simon's, and he is also my ward colleague in Fakenham where we are both councillors until next May, so I am somewhat biased. However, he is an absolutely star at everything he does, be it his council work, speaking at council, his work for Norman Lamb (whose winning 2005 campaign in North Norfolk was masterminded by Simon leading to him winning the Lib Dem agent of the year award for 2005), to his general all round manner. Never one to go negative, concentrating on the positive, he is a formidable and honest campaigner for ordinary people and ordinary values. Born and bred in Norfolk, he appeal to many people.

There has been an enormous amount of vitriole, and a lies, coming from Tories in Norwich, aimed at Simon in recent weeks, and in my political experience, this is usually a sign that Simon is a real threat.

This is just the shot in the arm the Lib Dems in Norwich need after poorer sets of local elections recently. However, the signs are positive, a recent by-election hold against the odds in the city (yes, in Norwich North and not Norwich South, but it indicates a trend), the Lib Dems still topped the poll in the 2006 local elections across Norwich South, and a new candidate in Simon Wright with a proven campaigning track record who lives firmly in the city (which was always a handicap to the previous Lib Dem candidate who lived in Suffolk).

Go for it Simon !!!!

Norwich Lib Dems follow County Lib Dems in opposing incinerator

The news in the Norwich Evening News today that Norwich City Council Lib Dem group have come out against the incinerator is good news. However, it is important to note that :

1) The incinerator is outside the City and falls within Costessey, where the Lib Dems oppose the incinerator and have for some time.
2) Norfolk County Council Lib Dems have opposed the incinerator for a long time, voting against it at County Hall on numerous occasions.

There are those, like Norwich City Conservatives who claim to campaign against the incinerator whilst at the same time Norfolk County Tories have been the ones who are promoting it ?

Of course, this hasn't stopped the Greens from trying to claim the credit, but then again, these perennial "oppositionists", always claim the credit for everything that works but take no responsibility for anything else.

On a personal note, I feel that Norwich City Lib Dems have made the right decision, if a little bit late. But, in the same way as I praised the Tories in Mid Norfolk on this blog for changing their minds over their selection of candidates, the Lib Dems in Norwich deserve praise for following what their County Council colleagues have been saying for some considerable time.

Incinerators are not the way forward and the location was totally unsuitable. But decisions about future waste solutions need to be made quickly and with more political consensus so that people cannot use this issue in the future for their own political gain. The environment is too important an issue.

Well done to the Evening News though for campaigning on factual evidence throughout this process and without political bias on the whole incinerator issue.

Hi-tech Norwich - Good publicity for a "Fine City" at last !

It's been really good to see the amount of coverage given by the BBC and a lot of bloggers to Norwich being the first "Wi-fi" city. It is just a shame that it has come as such a surprise to people living outside the County that we have computers here.

People have a view of Norwich based on the fact that virtually evey character who has ever been written out of Eastenders moves to Norwich or Norfolk and is never seen or spoken of again. Likewise, we are all portrayed in the press as a bunch of turnip eating inbreds, not helped when one of the local MP's referred to us as much in a recent interview - A great shame as despite my politics being different from this MP's, he is a diligent constituency MP who works hard for the area - whilst everyone forgets all the bright, witty and intelligent people who come from Norfolk (people conveniently forget the Stephen Fry, for one, is a Norfolk boy !).

My best mate from university came up a few weeks back to Norwich from London and was completely surprised by how nice the place is, but also how it had modern it was in so many ways (I think he was expecting outside toilets and a shared communal pump).

So, well done to all those people who have tried so hard to make Norwich the leading city for free wi-fi. Perhaps it will make people realise that Norwich is a vibrant go-ahead city with a thriving financial services industry (head offices of companies like Norwich Union, Moneyfacts, its4me.co.uk).

It won't stop the jokes, but we all know the truth. Norwich reallly is "A Fine City"