West of Centre

Denbighshire County Council (DCC) have just published their Resident's Survey Report. And an interesting read it is too. But before scrutinising the content of that Report, it is interesting to note that the Local Government Data Unit has just announced that DCC was one of the top 5 performing Councils in Wales during 2015/16. But sadly, the Resident's Survey Report was not used to come to this conclusion. If it had been used, it would be difficult to believe that DCC is one of the best performing councils in Wales - unless the others are even worse. Although I'm not sure if DCC are legally required to conduct a Resident's Survey, I would have thought it to be an obvious thing to do. To quote the Local Government Authority, "Understanding the resident's views is a key element of assessing the effectiveness of an authority, alongside cost and performance information. Furthermore, understanding resident satisfaction and being able to make informed comparison...

The Golden Rule dates back to the days of ancient China during the time of Confucius in 500 BC. Older versions of this principle exist but the message is clear. Confucius proclaimed, "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself". Just about every major religion offers it's own version of this maxim. In the Mahabharata , Vidura advises his King of the value of dharma (right conduct) and the need to "treat others as you treat yourself". In the book of Leviticus in the Bible, we read, "Love your neighbour as yourself". In the Tamil Tirukkural we are advised that "the proper punishment for those who have done evil to you, is to put them to shame by showing them kindness in return and to forget the evil and the good done on both sides". In ancient Greece, Thales advised, "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing". In ancient Rome, Seneca the Younger warned slaves to "treat your inferior as you would wis...

The Proms season this year has featured several performances for music lovers to savour for many years to come. One performance in particular stood out for me. In world music, there can be few bigger names than Daniel Barenboim. Where to start? Now aged 74, this Argentinian man is also a citizen of Israel, Palestine and Spain. In music parlance, he has done it all. He remains one of the great piano players of his generation and, for 20 years until her death from multiple sclerosis in 1987, he was married to the legendary cellist, Jacqueline du Pre. It takes an extraordinary man to conduct Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde in Jerusalem. Wagner's music had been effectively banned in Israel since the Nazi Kristallnacht in 1938 in which Jewish homes, schools, hospitals and synagogues in Germany were ransacked. It was of course merely the prelude to something far more disturbing. Barenboim though, did perform Wagner in Jerusalem in 2001. If that wasn't enough, he directed the Berlin...

One of the most slender majorities achieved in the 2015 general election saw the shadow chancellor Ed Balls beaten by the Tory candidate Andrea Jenkyns. She won the seat with a majority of just 422 votes thus consigning Balls to the political wilderness. This week, Balls took time out from his latest venture as a contestant on "Strictly Come Dancing" to launch a withering attack on Jeremy Corbyn's "Leftist Utopian fantasy". At best it was a desperate comment from the man whose past record is far from enviable. On losing his seat in 2015, he was reported to have received a "golden goodbye" payment of £88,000. Since then, he has become a Senior Fellowship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a visiting Professor of King's College London and Chairman of Norwich City football club. Good work if you get it. Like Corbyn in 2015, Balls had stood as Labour leader in 2010 but where Corbyn succeeded, Balls failed. The political career of Ed Balls w...

I have just returned from a family break to York. York is a city which continues to prosper from it's rich history and, as ever, I found myself finding a connection with our home town of Denbigh. It did not take long although the source of the connection may surprise some people. Although Denbigh now boasts a "Chocolate Shop", it's connection with chocolate is rather less obvious. The connection goes back to York in the late 1700s. In 1796, the York Retreat opened it's doors for the first time. Still open today, it was originally opened by the Quaker William Tuke for people with mental health needs. At first, it was run mainly by Quakers for Quakers but it soon became open to people from all backgrounds. The ethos was based on "moral treatment". Before the advent of moral treatment, "lunatics and idiots" (as the mentally ill were then categorised) were often shackled and chained and kept in inhumane conditions. Bedlam in particular had come t...