Congratulations and commiserations

Many congratulations to George Ferguson and commiserations to the other candidates, especially to Marvin Rees. You have to work hard to become the first elected Mayor of Bristol - but the much harder work begins now. It's a new way to run Bristol with many uncertainties and it has to be made to work. I hope that people in all political parties will work well together and that George's cabinet has someone from each political party with councillors currently on the city council. I hope this is a victory for independent-minded thinking from political people inside and outside of parties. I hope that power is genuinely and effectively spread out into communities, with real opportunities to participate. I hope George's decent record on sustainable development becomes the norm for development in the city. I hope George takes full note of the very large number of votes given to parties (the Greens, Labour and the socialists) supporting the living wage and the fairness agenda and the good number of votes given to the only woman candidate, the Greens Daniella Radice (who was only one percentage point behind the Lib Dems). Feels good to have voted for someone who has won an election - after 30 yrs as a voter!

Very good, gracious speech from the new Mayor George Ferguson here and I agree particularly strongly when he said this,

"I want to use that mandate to go and ask the prime minister and the government in general for more powers for Bristol and for more resources. I think we deserve it.

"We have delivered what they wanted, now they have got to deliver what we want."

People paramount

Bristol 1st indicates that the people of Bristol are paramount rather than any single political party. The logo marks out what mayoral candidate George Ferguson stands for: representing all Bristol's people and involving them in decisions - and involving in his cabinet, as a matter of principle, people purely on the basis of expertise and not party allegiance. I'm strongly in favour of this pluralist and inclusive approach.

See: stories here and here and Bristol 1st website here
http://www.bristol1st.com/

Cut the power and influence of the Murdoch empire

Dear Mr. Cameron and Mr. Hunt,
Murdoch's empire is far too big and pervasive already, so I'm opposed to allowing it to own all of BSkyB. It's necessary to take a firmer line on media plurality as large corporations cross-promote, harm their rivals, cut the choice and narrow the range of information, its interpretation and any critique. In this way analysis and opinions available for consideration by the public are cut - taking us further away from a more informed and fairer society.

As we've seen all too clearly in the case of the phone hacking scandal the Murdoch empire lacks scruples, ethics and decent standards. There should be tougher penalties for breaches of standards and more teeth for the Press Complaints Commission. The Murdoch empire is unlikely to stick to decent standards without tougher penalties and an empowered regulator - it might not do so even with these things and so reviewing the law may necessary.

Please refuse to give Murdoch full ownership of BSkyB. At least have the proposed deal reviewed by the competition commission. I ask you to arrange for a full judicial inquiry into the hacking scandal and not to make any final decisions on Murdoch and BSkyB until it is full and complete.

Yours sincerely
Glenn Vowles
85 Somerset Rd, Knowle, Bristol, BS4 2HX

http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_messages_2/?rc=fb&pv=42 - go here to send a message to the government on Murdoch fully owning BSkyB. Be qucik though - the deadline is approaching.