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Why are councillors punished for standing up for voters?

3:56pm Friday 12th October 2012

IS it any wonder that few people bother to vote in local elections these days?

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Give the vote to 16-year-olds? Madness.

11:56am Thursday 11th October 2012

Should 16-year-olds get the vote in the referendum for Scottish independence then Hitler will applaud from the grave, says Editor Ian Murray.

Just because Sir Jimmy cannot answer back doesn't mean we shouldn't ask questions

5:37pm Friday 5th October 2012

Accusations made against Sir Jimmy Savile pose questions over whether the dead should be protected from defamation

We all want growth - just not here mate

2:25pm Thursday 4th October 2012

As Cala Homes win the right to build 2,000 properties on Barton Farm, can't we look on the positive side now?

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How would One Nation Ed have coped with my mate Razor?

2:17pm Thursday 4th October 2012

As Labour Leader ed Miliband plays on his comprehensive school education, I wonder how he would have fared at my own Black Country comp?

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Book early for the sex hotel closing down sale

2:15pm Thursday 4th October 2012

They're up in arms in Woolston at the opening of the city's first sex hotel. But is it such great shakes?

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Devil is in the detail - and the footwork

9:09am Friday 28th September 2012

If St. Edmund’s Church in Southampton can ban Yoga in the church hall because it is anti-Christian, as reported by the Daily Echo this week, then why not Zumba? From the amount of folks I have seen making right fools of themselves trying to emulate the fit young things on the publicity videos, it surely is the work of some mischievous spirit. And as for Line Dancing? Clearly the work of the Devil.

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A betting man would not wager on Labour agreeing to a super casino for Southampton

9:08am Friday 28th September 2012

Southampton City Council look set to give the green light to a new super casino. But will it come back to haunt them?

Why missing maths teacher would be Mr Anonymous

9:05am Friday 28th September 2012

Next week a new law comes into force giving unique protection to teachers. Why should they alone get such protection?

Why I think Number 10 no longer bats for Britian.

10:07am Tuesday 25th September 2012

Is merger plan for BEA good business, or a way of destroying Britain's independence for ever? In the end only the bankers will profit.

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Anyone know the rules to strip billiards?

12:45pm Thursday 23rd August 2012

Prince Harry gets caught with his trousers down – well everything down – stark naked enjoying a game of strip billiards in Las Vegas with a bunch of equally nude lovely ladies.

What we need are more binmen in this world

12:43pm Thursday 23rd August 2012

Now more than ever, as we cope with crippling financial crisis and general malaise, what we need are strong, positive role models. It struck me this week we need look no further than Southampton's bin men to find those to emulate. They have always shone through, of course, as fine, hard-working chaps, but Tuesday saw final confirmation in my eyes of our binmen's selfless character. Last week in this column I wondered out loud just what detail the trumpeted deal to bring to an end the conflict between Southampton City Council and council employee unions would actually contain. How would the square be circled as the authority under its new - well fairly new - Labour administration sought to fulfill it's election pledges to restore pay cuts to council staff, avoid any new job losses and prevent cut backs in services. On Tuesday we learnt the detail of the deal now to be put to union members for final agreement. In essence it confirmed that pay levels would be restored - apart from those earning over £65,000 and there I shall shed no tears - but there was an immediate sting in the tail. Unions had promised 4,000 council staff they would win them three months worth of salary in compensation from the council in a legal claim. Unite and Unison claimed the council under Tory rule had not carried out the correct procedure for consultation before salaries were reduced. So certain were they of victory that the unions advertised - in this paper and elsewhere - for non-union staff to join up and benefit from the legal bid. It was a clever and, no doubt, an effective recruitment strategy. So concerned were the then ruling Tories that the council would lose such a legal challenge, my sources tell me, that following advice the council put aside £600,000 a year to cover the cost of the £12m loan it would need to meet the compensation payouts. The city must breathe a sigh of relief then that the unions have agreed to call off their legal challenge for compensation as part of the deal. Quite whether that is how union members will see the loss of their three months salary in compensation - amounting to £6,000 or more for some staff - I cannot say. Certainly if I was an employee who had signed up to the union and their promises I would now be seeking a refund on my union fees. No doubt Unison and Unite will point to the pay level restoration and claim this as fair compensation. But this was something Labour had promised already to do in their election manifesto. Pay restoration then was already in the bag. Quite why the unions have then thrown away a certain £12m pay day for members I can only speculate on. A cynic might say, that having seen their political allies into power they had achieved their aims and dropping the compo claim was quid pro quo. But who am I to say if this is correct. Certainly council staff, now asked to sign off on the no compo but more pay deal will be mightily miffed if they then discover in the council's mini budget planned for November they are faced with hundreds of job losses as a result, which is what Tories in opposition predict. Certainly the people of Southampton will be more than miffed if to restore pay and maintain jobs services are hacked to smithereens. But there I am being cynical again, and I'm trying avoid that at a time where we need to remain positive. Which brings me back to our fine binmen and their example in all this. You will recall that that it was strike action by the binmen (there are no women bytheway) that finally brought the city to its knees in the council's pay cuts dispute. Streets lined with rotting, stinking garbage symbolised the whole, sorry saga. The irony was, the binmen were not facing a pay cut at all. With salaries under the £17,500 threshold no binmen lost any salary, in fact they were due to gain £600-a-year under the Tories. But still they went on strike, one can only imagine in solidarity with their fellow union members. Now a cynic, not me you understand, might have thought no one, not even our bin-chaps, would do something for nothing, and that come the day the deals were done there would be a silver lining in it for them for their time spent on the picket lines. But cynics, eat your thoughts, for come Tuesday's agreement and we see that no, no rise for the binmen, not even the £600 originally on offer. They gained nothing more from turning the city's streets into rotting sewers than the thanks of colleagues who now see their pay restored. How selfless of them. What an example to us all.

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And it was all going so well for Auntie

9:59am Friday 10th August 2012

Should have known the BBC couldn't keep it up.

Council cuts hound us even after death it seems

9:54am Friday 10th August 2012

Even in death it seems, we cannot escape the cuts. Yesterday the Daily Echo reported how Southampton City Council is making redundant Jim Emery who has been caretaker of the Hollybrook Cemetery for the last 26-years. In that time he has helped untold thousands of mourners attending the cemetery to tend the graves of their loved ones. And in an easy to understand way he has helped the departed by doing so. In axing Jim’s job – and forcing him from his home at the cemetery just two years before his retirement – the council shows its lack of respect, not just for Jim and all he has done, but for the families and even the dead themselves. Jim’s role will be replaced by a variety of people who will be tasked to keep the cemetery tidy and safe. May be this will work, but I doubt if they will be able to do the task with the care and commitment of a full time warden. How sad. When I go I will most likely be turned to ashes to be scattered, quite where I haven’t yet decided. But if I was to change my mind and opt to be buried I would like to think there was a Jim on hand to look after those who need the comfort of knowing I am well cared for. And that there was, somewhere up there – just six feet up there – someone who was looking out for me.

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Troll's arrest is silly move by Plod

8:30am Tuesday 31st July 2012

There are many countries in the world where what you say gets you into deep trouble with those in authority.

Sack all the bankers - and to hell with schools, pensions, care services and the NHS I say

1:55pm Wednesday 4th July 2012

Great fun to see all of our politicians - and not a few commentators in the media - cock-a-hoop at the fall of Barclay's Bob Diamond.

The great Bananagate slip-up

12:45pm Tuesday 3rd July 2012

As political crimes go it was up there on a par with the great Westminster Salad Scandal.

Not giving up my motor just yet

12:43pm Tuesday 3rd July 2012

The idea of an Oyster-Card style initiative for Southampton and Hampshire has merit.

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BBC - Berlin Broadcasting Corporation?

9:19am Friday 29th June 2012

It’s hard to understand why it has taken almost 70 years since the end of the Second World War for Britain to et around to honouring the hundreds of thousands of bomber aircrews.

Rock and Roll never dies

9:17am Friday 29th June 2012

As a survivor of the Isle of Wight Festival – no, I don’t camp, but I still think I deserve the campaign medal – I feel sufficiently qualified to comment on the whole mud-soaked debacle that saw thousands sleeping in their cars on jammed roads as the torrential rains fell.

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I too was an abandoned child

11:19am Tuesday 19th June 2012

Sympathise with Mr and Mrs Cameron after they left their eight-year-old daughter Nancy behind at the pub after enjoying a Sunday lunch with friends.

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Beware of judges making laws

11:18am Tuesday 19th June 2012

If the image of so many of our senior politicians cow-towing to Lord Justice Leveson when appearing at his enquiry into the state of the media fills you with a warm glow, it shouldn’t .

Baaa I say!

11:18am Tuesday 19th June 2012

Danny Boyle says the world will be grateful we didn’t attempt to compete with China and stage an Olympics opening ceremony with the wow factor. Now they can all follow suit with a low-key approach following decades where such ceremonies have become progressively more extravagant.

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Dancing sheep - is that all we will get?

11:17am Tuesday 19th June 2012

Sheep, cows and a few old nags. And there I was worrying that the highlight of the Olympic opening ceremony would be that singing dog off Britain’s Got Talent.

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Three cheers for the Queen

2:59pm Friday 8th June 2012

ONE of my earliest memories is as a young boy sitting in the school hall watching the Investiture of the Prince of Wales.

Media witch-hunt missing issue of all-powerful BBC

4:55pm Friday 1st June 2012

AS the political in-fighting goes on around the career – or possibly soon to be lack of career – of Culture and Media Secretary Jeremy Hunt and what he thought about the proposed BSkyB takeover he was considering, the central theme appears to be getting lost.

Well done ladies - now let’s hear it for the boys!

4:11pm Friday 25th May 2012

CONGRATULATIONS to Andrea Waring, pictured, the deserved winner of the Daily Echo’s business Mother of the Year Award this week.

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You can keep your passionate politics

5:13pm Friday 11th May 2012

YOU have to hand it to the French, they do a good election. Or at least they throw an impressive victory party.

Silent witnesses to moving event

THIS week’s anniversary of the sailing of the Titanic on its ill-fated journey into history has been a worldwide event.

Muddying the waters over salaries and bonuses

WHETHER or not the bosses of water companies deserve to be pilloried over the amounts they are paid and bonuses they receive, I had to smile at at least one report into the debate this week.

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Charities need to face harsh facts about tax

FOR some reason I didn't realise I had a choice to either pay tax or give my money to some other good cause.

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Cry BBC and let loose the dogs of panic

10:15pm Thursday 29th March 2012

Panic, panic, panic - reports the BBC.

That sinking feeling on Titanic - along with all the stereotypes

5:44pm Monday 26th March 2012

I feel certain I wasn’t the only person to get that sinking feeling while watching Titanic on Meridian on Sunday evening.

For whom the bell or even road tolls? Erm, no one actually

8:03am Saturday 24th March 2012

The brouhaha over government proposals to hive off our road networks to private companies to maintain and develop is understandable.

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Heart attack victims seldom grab the headlines

8:00am Saturday 24th March 2012

Like everyone I was concerned for the health of Premier League footballer Fabrice Muamba who collapsed with a suspected heart attack during a match between his side Bolton and Tottenham.

If we run out bankers - blame the old hag on the broom

7:59am Saturday 24th March 2012

The Chancellor is a brave man. A cowardly politician does not willingly remove a scapegoat and place himself in the firing line.

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You have to admire Liverpool's pluck

10:29am Wednesday 21st March 2012

They call it the Shanghai of the North, which may be a little far-fetched.

The tweets who run our police forces

4:07pm Thursday 15th March 2012

Hampshire police are to go ahead with closing down the front offices of several local stations.

Shame on you Asda - wave the flag

3:55pm Thursday 15th March 2012

I read that Asda has been having a word with some of its suppliers complaining that they are packaging their goods in Union Jack boxes and wrappers during this patriotic period of the Jubilee and the Olympics..

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Saving the Precious - or hands off our Bilbo!

9:54pm Tuesday 13th March 2012

It’s as British as fish and chips and Robin Hood.

Has Eastleigh become a secret police state?

10:10am Monday 12th March 2012

What does the story of three Eastleigh councillors trailing a former mayor along the road to film him using his car without a tax disc tell us about what is going on at that authority?

Stay strong today to avoid fighting longer and harder tomorrow

12:04pm Friday 9th March 2012

The terrorists’ greatest weapon they can use against us is our compassion.

If not bikers on footpaths - then why mobility scooters?

12:03pm Friday 9th March 2012

We knew it would be venturing into controversy.

No one prepared to say sorry

12:02pm Friday 9th March 2012

Vulnerable Jonathan Ray died alone in his sheltered flat, surrounded by rotting food, lying in his own urine and faeces.

There's nothing wrong with un-paid work placements

12:42am Friday 2nd March 2012

The newsroom at the Daily Echo provides work experience for many people throughout the year.

They can call me Luv when I'm older

12:40am Friday 2nd March 2012

Oh don’t stop them calling me ‘luv.’ I’m certain – in fact positive – the findings of the Commission into Dignity for Older People in Care are correct.

What is it about rock stars and sticking their nose in?

1:35pm Thursday 1st March 2012

I read that Pink Floyd founding band member Roger Waters says the Falkland Islands should be handed over to Argentina.

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