As I've already mentioned I've been reading John Golding's book about the Labour Party in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  One of the things that strikes me reading it is the drip drip of references to the great and the good of today's Labour movement and members of the PLP.  So I thought it might be fun to have a look at how John has people lined up at that point in the Party's history.  I'm not going to put people like Heffer and Benn in, or indeed many of the Trades Unionists who were so important at the time, but whose names are not going to be household names anymore.

In some of these cases the list is my interpretation of what John has said so I may have put some people in the wrong category, but not too many I think.

One of the issues that the Liberal Democrat group on the council raised as part of their alternative budget proposals was the introduction of advertising on public spaces, including roundabouts and litter bins.fficeffice" />

I’m torn between the desire to raise revenue from other sources than the Council Tax and the feeling that the levels of advertising we have around us has reached saturation point.

The amount of money that might come our way in the short term is very small, the word our officers used to me was “marginal”.

However, I’ve recently seen the way that it is done in Bromley and in ffice:smarttags" />Aberdeen and on the roundabouts the adverts are small and clearly being used by local firms rather than multiples and the “dark forces of international capital”.

I’d be grateful for any thoughts you may have on this.

(As a wholly political aside, for those of you who don’t keep up with Lewisham’s budget setting debates, I point out the level of ambition of the Lib Dems.  The Council’s budget is over £300 million, and the Liberal’s put in a cost neutral alternative budget with changes to ours of only £120 thousand.  Steve Bullock, the Mayor has agreed to look into all the expenditure proposals and if they are sensible we’ll adopt them in year.  I’m afraid not all the savings proposals were as sensible as this example, there was the usual opposition ploy of calling for less money to be spent on communicating with the public, and a rather philistine attack on public art.)

David Boothroyd, a Labour councillor in Westminster, has started a blog; I've added it to my list of favourite blogs already, and want to wish David luck.

I had a briefing from the Council Officer who takes the lead on energy efficiency issues for Lewisham last week.  One of the things that struck me is the very practical nature of the outcomes from this work.  Savings that when added together mean that residents in the borough are hundreds of thousands of pounds better off than they would have been, with the majority of help going to those on low and fixed incomes.

Having had a look at the Save Energy website I see that they have all sorts of useful tips about what all of us can do to save ourselves money.  They also have a pointer to the sorts of grants that are available to people locally who may want to take action.

I'm afraid that I've been ill for what seems like forever, but has probably been a couple of weeks.  Hence the break in the blogging.

I have, however, learnt a bit about throat infections (quinsey by the way) and the longevity of medical terminology even if the understanding of what causes them has moved on a little.

Upshot is that I'm likely to have my tonsils taken out at some point in the near future. 

fficeffice" />The following are Labour Group's nominations for civic positions for next year. Just to let people know that because we have a directly elected Mayor he gets to choose his own cabinet, which is why those positions aren't mentioned here.

Civic Positions

Chair of Council – Cllr. Les Eytle

Vice Chair of Council- Cllr. Dave Bodimeade

Chair of Overview and Scrutiny -  Cllr. Alan Smith - 18

Three Chairs of Planning Committees

Cllr. Skip Amrani

Cllr. Robert Massey

Cllr. Terry Scott

Chair of Licensing – Cllr. Alan Till

Chair of Public Accounts Committee - Cllr. Paul Maslin

Chair of Children and Young People Select Committee - Cllr. Jimi Adefiranye

Chair of Adult Care and Health Select Committee – Cllr. Peggy Fitzsimmons

Chair of Social Inclusion Committee – Cllr. Pauline Morrison

Chair of Environment Select Committee – Cllr. John Muldoon

Chair of Quality of Public Services Committee -   Cllr. Peter Dawson - 20 

Vice Chair of Public Accounts Committee -   Cllr. Stephen Padmore

Vice Chair of Children and Young People Select Committee - Cllr. Marion Nisbet

Vice Chair of Adult Care and Health Select Committee – Cllr. Sam Owolabi-Oluyole