Question Time for Lib Dems. It Must Be Christmas

Fake Plastic Trees
You may remember that last year Northampton Borough Council 'invested' £33,000 in some plastic Christmas trees (with four illegal immigrants who were smuggled into the country in the lorry with them). The councils reason for buying the plastic Christmas trees was that it would save money on real ones in future years...well guess what...Northampton Borough Council has announced that this year there will be real Christmas trees and not the horrible plastic ones from last year. So, what has happened to the real ones, can we expect to see the council selling them on e-bay in an attempt to get some of the wasted money back? Lib Dems, spending your money badly.

Nuclear Dumping
At last the media appear to have woken up out of their slumber. On Radio 5 Live this morning there was a discussion about the proposed dumping of Nuclear waste in a landfill site at Kings Cliffe in East Northamptonshire. We have mentioned it on here a couple of times before. The hazardous waste management firm Augean plc, which runs the site, wants to dispose of low level nuclear waste and although this has been recommended for refusal by East Northamptonshire District Council, the final decision lies with the County Council who will meet in mid-December. The rubble for the landfill site will come from the massive decommissioning programme involving nuclear plants around the country. The firm says 30,000 tonnes a year in large plastic construction bags is earmarked, initially from the former nuclear research plant at Harwell, near Oxford. With the taxpayer footing the bill for waste disposal from decommissioned sites, the government wants to find a cheap option. Northamptonshire County Councillor Ben Smith, chair of the development control committee, said: "We don't have a planning policy for nuclear waste - it's a vacuum and an unusual application. We never thought this would be a location for waste from the nuclear industry. We need training and workshops so we are well-briefed before making our decision." With the council experiencing rapid growth and dwindling finances, it will be interesting to see how big a bribe is going to be waved by the government in front of the Council to accept this.

Question Time
I cannot go without saying a few words about Question Time. As expected a severely vetted hostile audience made it difficult time for Nick. One wonders how many of the audience were BBC employees as any member of the public would have had a torrid time tyring to get through the baying mob of freedom haters outside. From the opening words you could tell that there was not an 'ordinary' audience. Jack Straw got a rousing round of applause for saying something that would barely warrant a ripple of claps in a normal programme, while the set format for the show went out of the window. I feel Nick could have made a few more pointed comments, especially when Chris Huhne said the Lib Dems would cap immigration when the Lib Dems would be unable to impose any caps on immigration from the EU states without falling foul of the freedom of movement laws. Having said that Nick was in an extremely hostile environment. So while 8 million viewers were treated to bash the BNP Time we did not get to hear Jack Straw having to defend the Labour Party over the Postal Strike and the extra soldiers being set to Afghanistan to name but two. Maybe next time, if Nick ever gets invited back, we can have a more normal show where everyone is treated the same...I think it's called equality and I appear to remember the left being very concerned about the lack of it!