Strikes are good #3: Barnet teachers fighting for their pensions

To supplement an earlier post, here's Barnet NUT on the pensions demonstration in central London today. My sense of the day was that the strikes - those by teachers and civil servants, I don't know about lecturers, though I would guess those as well - were well supported, and spirits were high among those taking action. Certainly, people enjoyed the march and rallies (there were two since you couldn't fit everyone into Westminster Central Hall).

Ed Miliband has made a tit of himself today condemning the strikes; this evening he posted a really lame defence of his earlier remarks - the comments (most of them) are spot on.

A tale of two leadership contests

The tension is mounting here in Barnet as Tory group and council leader Lynne Hillan prepares to go head-to-head with Mark Shooter. This bout is scheduled for Tuesday 7 September, at an undisclosed location (well, I don't know where it's happening).

The odds are shortening on Hillan (I can't remember how I know, but I know!). She has done enough, backing down over Allowancegate, and she has enough cronies about her to see off the challenge from the plutocratic whippersnapper. But her career has almost certainly been shortened by this episode, and Shooter might make a name for himself and go on to greater things. (Or he might just be a nice, ineffectual posh boy who... goes on to greater things cf Matthew Offord.)

I forget why I started this blogpost... oh, yeah! The other party...

The other one, no, not the one that's being led by the nose by David Cameron's Tories. The one that ran the country (ha!) until a few months ago. The Labour Party.

Of course, the Labour Party have their own rather less interesting leadership contest going on, for leader of the party nationally, the man (or woman!) who would be PM.

Hendon Constituency Labour Party is endorsing Ed Miliband in this contest. It's only an endorsement and is not binding on anyone's votes. Members of the Labour Party and affiliated trade unions and Labour MPs will all have an individual vote - they'll just be weighted outrageously heavily in favour of MPs. Ain't democracy grand?!

Predictably, I (yes, I get a vote!) am going to vote for Diane Abbott, the most left-wing candidate (I'm not sure she actually qualifies as left). I think the worst of the candidates I have seen is Ed Balls. He gave the most creepy and inept performance in the "Newsnight" debate a few weeks back; he has been the most willing to tap into xenophobia; and I saw him in action at the teachers' unions' lobby of Parliament against the axing of Building Schools for the Future. (Ridiculous pic below of Balls trying to look noble next to a dishy blonde.)

Ad Miliband (I call him that because he sounds adenoidal) will be answering questions at an event organised by Hendon CLP this Sunday. I'll miss it, as I will be stuck in motorway traffic heading back into London from Milton Keynes (see previous blogpost) - hmm, not such a bad idea going there, after all.

In spite of the strong challenge by his younger brother, I predict David Miliband will win ultimately. But is anyone watching?

Here's that pic of Ed "Queen Bee" Balls I promised you:

Which way is the wind blowing: the strange case of Vestas Blades UK

The government publishes a new energy white paper tomorrow. The Guardian has an interview with the Energy and Climate Change secretary Ed Miliband about its contents here.

On Monday Miliband opened Little Cheyne Court in Kent, "the largest onshore wind farm in the south-east of England". It's on Romney Marsh in Kent. Local Tory MP Michael Howard opposed the wind farm. I'm with Ed Miliband on this issue: "Opposing wind farms should be socially taboo, says Ed Miliband". And, yes, I would have one in my backyard.

Right now, the UK's only wind turbine blade manufacturer, Vestas Blades UK, is due to close on the Isle of Wight with the direct loss of 600 jobs. Vestas say there is not enough UK demand for the type of blades they make on the island, and they are moving production to the US and China. Critics are inclined to believe that Vestas just want to make blades where the wages are lower.

Here's one seeming paradox that could be easily solved, it seems to me, by a method that is good enough for failing banks: nationalisation of the closing plant. And, unlike nationalised banks, the Isle of Wight plant turns a profit.