Are Nigel Farage & The Daily Express Lost in Space?

“BARKING Brussels politicians have proved they live on another planet by pouring millions of pounds into the pointless European space programme” [1]. One of my favourite recent headlines, and pure disinformation. EU annual space investment is €204 Million, we pay about £21 Million of it. The UK also spends £200 Million, 65% to the European Space Agency (ESA), the rest invested into UK industry and Universities.

Why spend so much on Space? Look at the bottom line! The UK Space sector is worth £7.5 Billion p.a., employs 27,000 people (7.3% annual increase), and grew despite the economic crisis [2]. Venture capitalists dream of such returns. The combined EU/ESA/UK investment of £221 Million is dwarfed by the turnover of £7.5 Billion, with 1000s of skilled jobs, manufacturing, spin-outs and tax receipts.

So what has Space got to do with me? Have you ever watched a TV weather forecast, its sunny so  you go away, and book a hotel with your mobile? You have just used  [SKY or] European Satellite Broadcasting (SatCom), to get a weather forecast from Europe's Meteosat Earth Observation weather satellite (EO), made your journey using Satellite Navigation (SatNav), and maybe had your phone call relayed by Europe's Artemis communications satellite.

Space derived services are so pervasive we use them daily. SatCom is the biggest sector, employing 1000's and supporting a host of creative industries. Space is expanding into new areas. Scotland's NHS24 uses SatCom to broadcast health advice to patients homes. SatNav is used to optimise the deployment of ambulances on roads, and tells us when the bus will arrive. EO is used for surveying, crop management and finding water and minerals.

Every wondered why your old SatNav dumped you in a field? GPS is not as accurate as we think. The USA has another SatNav system, the Wide Area Augmentation System, broadcasting 'corrections' to GPS, but only over North America.  Thankfully the ESA/EU equivalent, EGNOS, began broadcasting similar 'corrections' in 2009. All major SatNav Systems (GPS, Russian GLONASS, Europe's GALILEO, China's COMPASS, India and Japan's SBAS systems) will soon use the same transmission standard, providing a truly world wide navigation system.

DeMontfort & Leicester Universities work closely with industry, developing Space derived products: e.g. SatNav location of people with dementia, and EO + SatNav managing road networks to reduce congestion and improve air quality. Thanks to a new EU project led by the City Council we now network with similar teams (universities, industry and government) across Europe, promoting the development, deployment and manufacture of products and services that use Space data.

The Space economy is growing fast and the East Midlands is at the heart of that growth.

Eric Goodyer is a reader in Instrumentation at DeMontfort University, and works with local business to develop new products and services.

1.     Express Newspapers 2010

2.      http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/bispartners/ukspaceagency/docs/10-1195-size-and-health-uk-space-industry-2010

Design & technology - Not Needed in Britain? (or the end of the Regional Development Agencies)

 

“The only thing holding back my company is the lack of Engineers”. That was the strongest message that I brought back from a briefing organised by the Scottish Development Agency, where they presented the EU's Horison 2020 Space programme, offering Euro 1.7 Billion over 7 years for British & European businesses to bid for. Why I had to go to Scotland to get this information I will deal with later. It is the damage being done now to our Education System that is more important.

Britain is a trading nation. We have translated our design skills into products that have filled the retail outlets of the world. Our expertise in delivering technological breakthroughs, that result in innovative products has been the mainstay of our manufacturing, and wealth creating base. We are not a nation that can rely on high volume, low quality, products. British expertise is best when it delivers cutting edge advances, applying our design and technological skill to produce the best. Low volume high quality delivers great returns for UK PLC.

So why is this Government so opposed to developing creativity in our education system? When Michael Gove announced his new English Baccalaureate, presented as a new certificate of excellence in education, he personally intervened to remove Design & Technology from its syllabus. How is our economy to recover from the banking crisis without Designers producing new products to sell to the world? How can we compete if Technology is relegated to an 'also-ran' subject? These essential subjects were replaced by Biblical Hebrew, Latin & Greek. I have no objection to classical languages being offered, but can the Government explain how they can rebuild our manufacturing base? Surely Mandarin, Japanese, Russian and Spanish will be better suited to support trade with emerging industrial nations?

Once we could rely on our Local Education Authorities to work with local businesses to identify the skills to get a job. However as the Government seizes direct control of more and more of our schools, local say in how they are run and what they teach is slipping away. The Academy Programme means that over 50% of our schools are now directly controlled by faceless bureaucrats in London, responsible to the Minister, and not locally elected representatives.

As a contracting chartered engineer, (no I do not fix washing machines), I have spent my whole career working for small businesses, who have great ideas and want to translate them into products and economic success. They need engineers, designers and technologists to help them deliver success. They also need business support and money. I understand this need, I have been there myself.

One of my most successful products was a simple device, a light bulb that could be switched on and off by a text message. It may sound trivial, but it was one of the first demonstrations of what is now a huge industry, Machine to Machine communications over the mobile phone network. It spawned one of the first vehicle alarm/immobilisations and recovery systems that could operate throughout Europe, and is now owned by a major car manufacturing company; a system that delivers near instant passenger information at railway stations; and a safety system that monitors the readiness of emergency lighting throughout the UK. I was able to get business advice from my local Business Link office, and I secured 50% finance to progress my ideas, by open competition for a locally administered business development grant. All these local agencies have gone, swallowed up into centrally administered quangos, run by London. How can a Whitehall civil servant understand local business needs? The announcement that only 5% of the Regional growth Funds has been spent in 2 years is evidence that the most damaging decision taken by the Government was the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. A view almost echoed, and certainly strongly hinted, in Michael Heseltine's recent critique of the Government's lack of an industrial policy.

So why was I in Scotland? One of the EU's key roles is to support the creation of multi-national collaborations to advance European expertise in a range of industries. Currently known as Framework 7, this world leading Science & Technology support programme will be relaunched as Horizon 2020 from 2014. Amongst its technological achievements are advances in science that have resulted in Stem-Cell therapy now being deployed to treat spinal cord injuries and blindness, advances in High Speed Internet, the display of stereoscopic and immersive audiovisual content, and supporting the development of the GSM standard that has resulted in Europe leading the world in mobile phone technology. Briefings about these sources of financial support for business used to be held regularly by East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), but no more. EMDA also offered assistance to business to apply for innovation grants, with special emphasis on small business – again all gone. It may be possible to get some information about Horison 2020 if you are English, and know who to ask in London. Fortunately, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's devolved administrations have not abandoned their local businesses. They run seminars on obtaining EU funding, where business partnerships are built. It was at one of the events in Scotland (either about the half the audience were English refugees) that I heard the plea for more engineers.

This Government simply does not understand the needs of Britain's wealth creating industries. Their centralisation of power, and money, has resulted in an education system that is fast becoming not fit for purpose, a withdrawal of professional and financial support for private sector employment in the English Regions, and a total lack of commitment to innovation and creativity.

Dr Eric Goodyer has been engaged in the design and development of commercial instrumentation for measurement, automation and control for 35 years. He runs his own design consultancy business, and lectures part-time at an East Midlands University training the engineer's of tomorrow.

Mother Knows Best - Labour's Election results a personal perspective from a Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Mother knows best. On my weekly filial check-in her first words were “ do these people really want to be governed by a bunch of Eton College boys”. Yet here we are; despite the fact that George Osborne, Oliver Letwin and David Cameron have all been forced into a humiliating repayment of their allowances. Their only economic proposal to date is to cut inheritance tax, which will benefit 3000 of the wealthiest people in the UK. This Tory's policy vacuum has apparently 'won'. I do not accept this; in Leicestershire where we are no longer the official opposition coming a poor third behind the Lib Dems, the Conservative vote barely increased from 42% to 44%. Nationally they achieved only 38%, hardly a mandate for government. We must be honest, the Conservatives did not win, Labour lost.

The underlying ethos of our Party is that we work together for the common good. All citizens have equal value, and should have access to the same opportunities; thus we alone empower individuals to seek their own fortunes regardless of class, personal finances, race, sex or disability. It seems to me that some members of our party have lost touch with our values, believing that they have a greater right to determine policy that our collective being. Locally we work hard to improve our local services, and make a difference to people's lives. We do everything that should be done, communicating, listening and adapting our ethos to everyday needs. In that way we slowly build support. But all that can evaporate because of one foolish deed in Westminster. Whispering campaigns, secret plots and e-mails, and the arrogance of resignations on the eve of poll. I wonder at times if Labour's team in Westminster draws more on PG Wodhouse then socialist creed. Are we too being infected by the jolly japes of Eton College.

So where next? The Labour Party in the country must recapture our central role in policy-making and service delivery from the centre. We decide who will be our leader and when that leadership election will take place - not the Daily Telegraph or any part of the media, and certainly not a few self appointed individuals in London.

Nationally our standing has been severely damaged by both the allowances scandal and the worldwide banking crisis. The status of Parliament can only be repaired by visible change, delivered speedily and seen to be effective. Early publication of the details of MPs allowances could've staunched the poisonous drip of insight from the Daily Telegraph, but that time has passed. What is now needed is more than just a reform of pay and conditions, but a tangible return of power to the electorate. I have always been a closet supporter of some form of proportional representation. Not the purists vision of huge multi-member seats determined by single transferable vote (STV). Hardly anyone knows who their MEP is, and STV can only create more distance between the electorate and their MP. Nor do I support any method that includes any form of closed party list; we are seeking to return power to the electorate not take more away. A modest and realistic compromise is alternative transfer voting (ATV), by which voters list their candidates in order of preference. It retains the simplicity of a single MP representing a specific area, and avoids party machines having control over who is at the top of the list. Every vote will count, as when minor parties are excluded their votes are redistributed to their next choice until one candidate achieves 50%.

On the economy the Government's policies are working; but this incredible success has been drowned out by the gibberish from Westminster. House prices have stabilised, the car scrapage scheme is resulting in increased sales, Sterling's value has recovered, inflation is coming back on target. The last indicator that will go +ve is unemployment. Now is not the time to distract the Government from it's most important task of rescuing the British economy from the Banker folly and greed.

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon in the knowledge that this evening two of the finest promoters of the interest of the East Midlands, Glenis Willmott (Labour) and Bill Newton Dunn (Lib-Dem) are likely to lose their seats as MEPs. To be replaced by whom? On the same weekend that we are honouring the sacrifice of those who fought on the Normandy beaches to rid Europe of National Socialism, it seems likely that we will be sending a member of the Nazi BNP to represent us in Brussels. What sort of message does this send to our allies?

Many former Labour voters supported the BNP not because they themselves are racist or fascist, but because they fear for their jobs and homes. We must address these issues. Simply kicking out a Black, Asian or a Pole from a job does not mean that you will get their job. What creates jobs is the commitment of the Labour Party to economic regeneration both locally and nationally; and what secures jobs for individuals is education and training. The Labour Party has invested in training and skills, in schools, colleges, universities and through workplace training and apprenticeships. The pressure on housing is almost exclusively due to demographic changes, we are living longer, marrying later, in choosing to live independently in our own homes in old age. Only the Labour Party is committed to building sufficient new homes to meet the nation's needs. We need to get this message out.

These are just a few of the policies rejected by Leicestershire voters on Thursday.
Waste: To investigate the use of anaerobic bio-digesters rather than simply building a giant incinerator.
Transport: To realistically examine reopening closed railway lines and opening a new stations. To make school buses are affordable. To reduce reliance on cars.
Housing: To support the need for new houses. Our towns are overcrowded, and rural villages of dying because young people can no longer afford to live there.
Older People: to promote realistic alternatives to privatised ( and thus lower cost ) care homes, including the use of technology to enable older people to choose to continue living in their own homes.

The future for Labour is bright. Our policies are correct. The economy is improving. It is time to take back control of our Party from unrepresentative cliques, who in my opinion seem only interested in their own promotion rather than the agenda for social change that we all believe in.