Well, a day off politics that is, and actually WORKING! Because some of us PPCs still have to do a job because that's the only way we get an income (no, you don't get expenses just for standing for parliament, contrary to what a lot of folk think when you meet them on the doorstep). Which ...
After a lightning turnaround by my friendly printer (take a bow, Tim Lockington, Chair of Ipswich Liberal Democrats), I had a day to deliver the second Stowupland and Creeting St Peter Focus. And, with some help from my massively over-qualified fellow deliverer (I can always rely on the Party President to attend our Action Days...), we've managed to deliver something like 70% of the ward. As I've noted in the past, District Council seats in places like Mid Suffolk are not all that political, and in the absence of political activity, voters tend to default to voting Conservative. And yet, ...
I have been writing for some time about the threat to the stability of Sterling from uncertainty and from the intellectual holes at the heart of the policies of both Labour and the Conservatives. While I spent much of the day in various aeroplanes, the currency markets did indeed take a sharp kick against the Pound. This is partly a reaction to the growing uncertainty about the election result. It is also a reaction to the glaring intellectual holes at the heart of the policies of both Labour and the Conservatives. The Markets are deeply unhappy with the two different ...
Having slipped out of the habit of doing dedicated linky-love posts I thought I would try and get back into it. So here is the return of "Other Reckonings": Douglas Carswell thinks the Levellers would have voted Conservative. I don't think he means the band.Tom Harris discusses something I have become extremely familiar with over the last few weeks - canvassing.Garbo writing on The Wardman Wire thinks that Brown should call a March election. Although I think it's too late for that now...Mark Pack has a fantastically detailed piece about how the internet is changing British politics and what we ...
Trivial Fact of the Day comes courtesy of politics.co.uk. And congratulations to Dominic Carman.
Canvassing this week in Stanley - if ever a place needed some investment this is it. Must be a candidate for most neglected, poorly-planned town in England 100 + years of Labour care and development! Unbelievable. If seen better townships in South Africa
Nick Clegg today set out the importance of early years education in tackling inequality in a speech to the Salvation Army. Here's how Politics.co.uk reports it: Nick Clegg has placed inequality firmly at the centre of the Liberal Democrat's education policy and attacked the Tories for not costing their plans for schools. In a keynote speech on education, Mr Clegg said his party's 'pupil premium' policy would see disadvantaged children receive as much funding for education as private school pupil. Headmasters [and presumably Headmistresses? - Ed.] would then be able to spend that money on reducing class sizes. Nick's speech ...
A meeting with the Council's department that looks after heating controls in buildings was most interesting. It gave me a good insight as to what a lot of micromanagement was being done in trying to get the best level of heating for different parts of Council buildings. Buildings where this isn't possible need to have a lot spent to be able to give the sort of controls that are needed to both...
Karen Wortham, our friend whom we met in Savannah a few years ago, sent me this link to the CNN film about the historic First African Baptist Church: Karen is interviewed in the film, which is mainly about the campaign to get African Americans to register in the US census, which has advantages for them in terms of public funding.
So Lord Ashcroft owns up after ten years mind that surprise surprise, he is a non-domiciled tax-payer. The Tories, who were bleating about patriotism but yesterday, are only too happy to take money from someone (actually a law-maker in the Upper House) who loves Britain so much, that he can't be bothered to shoulder his share. Ashcroft is willing to put in money in marginals like Keighley, to swing the elections but not pay his fair taxes. He's agreed to change his status if the Tories win. How big of him! Surely another reason to keep well away from the ...
The Redlands / University area NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group) public meeting will be taking place this week. It starts at 7pm on Thurs 4 March and will be in Alfred Sutton Primary school. Normally the meetings are well attended, and thought provoking, and it provides a chance to meet Police, people from the Council and University, and people from across our area. It will be discussing the issues important to local residents including parking, anti-social behaviour, and cleaning up the local environment.
They lurch to the right. Oh, those halcyon days when David Cameron was a "liberal conservative". We got treated to the delights of the "Vote Blue, Go Green" campaign. Yes, remember when everyone thought climate change was the big bad wolf that needed ousting. And Cameron cycled to work, and got wind turbines installed on his wisteria-pruned roof ...
In February I reported on the question facing various governments in Europe: should they buy stolen data which will help identify law breaking tax-dodgers? The German government did this in 2008 and the threat of a repeat was sufficient to cause a mini-sampede of people confessing their sins. Nearly 2,500 Germans have now agreed to pay up. That has not been enough to stop the German government though: it has not only purchased the data but is also now talking about making another purchase of an extra CD containing further Swiss data. More recently, I also linked to a story ...
Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party recently said at their spring conference that: ... it is fitting that the general election and the local elections will be on the same day. Hhowever this is not quite fitting enough for Lancaster's Green Party who demanded an earlier election at a huge cost to the environment and the local taxpayer. The local by-election is on the 1st April 2010, only five weeks from the widely anticipated general election. There are five polling booths in the John o' Gaunt ward and all of these will need to be staffed by at least ...
A very useful and productive meeting today with the Pennycook Court and Sinderins Court Residents' Association about a number of local issues, including : * Road safety* Bus services* Dropped pavements - access along Perth Road for those with mobility problems* Parking problems I am grateful to Inspector David Scott for also attending the meeting at my request to discuss the concerns over begging.
2nd 10cc hit ...
The amiable Nigel Stanley draws my attention to a new approach from the defenders of the Robin Hood Tax. First, let me remind you of the basic view of those opposing this well-intentioned but naive attempt to make everything better: the tax will be on transactions, not bankers transaction taxes tend to hit end users – they ...
As those listening to the Tay Talk In on Radio Tay AM yesterday will know, I gave feedback about what happened to the Logie Secondary School's Roll of Honour, dedicated in 1951. I quote our City Archivist about the Logie Secondary book written by Peter Murphy, the last Head Teacher of the school: "A copy of this book is available for people to look at here in the archives and also at Local History, top floor Central Library... I think we're all agreed that the memorial perished in the fire. The Central Library volunteers have put together a WWII roll ...
I'm keeping the slight title change from last month. The reason being that the Wikio rankings lifted to number 4 Lib Dem last month. Considering February has three days less than January I'm quite happy about stats. Last month I had 3,816 absolute unique visitors up from 3,753 in December up 2.5%. They made 5,623 (5,419) visits +3.8% and 6,980 (6,798) page views +2.7%. All of which are new records for this blog. My busiest day was the 15th February although both the 14th and 24th were just behind. The 24th was when for some reason google images in Australia ...
Twitter has gone crazy today with all the various attacks and defence over the Lord Ashcoft Non Dom status Story. Just have a look at the Eric Pickles Tweets on Twitter today. All these accusations flying around Twitter just say one thing too me. Are not all the parties, like the expenses story, simplying not clean on party donations. The Liberal Democrats being cleared by the Electoral Commission after donations made by Michael Brown now a convict fraudster. Labour Parties various donations from a number of non-doms (outlined on Iain Dales Blog). The illegal gifts by retired bookmaker Alan Bown ...
It's a good idea to try fighting an election if you fancy yourself as a bit of n political theorist. You have to articulate your ideas to other people and, if you get elected, grapple with a succession of problems that are not of your choosing. Mark Reckons gives his experience of fighting (and coming second in) a couple of by-elections in Bracknell. Peter Black continues his admirable crusade against the cull of Badgers in North Pembrokeshire. "Following the public meeting in Newport, Pembrokeshire where I discovered that the Welsh Governemnt are funding extra police officers in the cull area ...
This morning I had the opportunity to meet Maya Stratton (Sustrans Bike It Officer) and take part in the launch of Sustrans country-wide Virtual Bike Race to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the National Cycle Network. The event was organised at the Grove Primary School on Campkin Road to encourage children to cycle to school. Nationally the aim is to showing them that they can travel half the Cycle Networks' 12,000 miles without ever leaving their local area . This event also marked the start of the Grove's "Healthy Living Week". This week-long event focuses on healthy living across the ...
The BBC reports that the markets and pound are jittery on the news that there might be a hung Parliament after the General Election. Leaving aside my thoughts on whether 'market confidence' is more important than democracy (and a weaker pound helps UK manufacturing), surely the BBC report is just plain wrong. For the last two weeks we have had polls which showed that a hung Parliament is likely, but the markets didn't wobble significantly. But as soon as a poll showed that Brown could still be PM after the election.... Panic on the streets of London!
So Lord Ashcroft finally admits to being a non-dom for tax paying purposes. Now we have left, right and others slagging each other off about you've got more non-doms than us. For me whether or not he is an non-dom is a non-issue. It's legal. Get over it. It may be that it's undesirable, but it's only just come to seem so in the wake of the whole expenses scandal. Is that what all the fuss was about? Well, not really - I'll come to that in a minute. The most immediate impact of this saga is on the Conservative ...
The really damaging thing about the Ashcroft affair is not that the Tories have received substantial funding from someone who is not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes. It is that senior shadow cabinet members have spent years squirming to find words that disguise this fact but do not involve telling an outright lie. Some examples: William Hague: My conclusion having asked him is that he fulfilled the obligations that were imposed on him at the time that he became a peer. Interviewer: So is he resident in the UK and paying taxes here? Caroline Spelman: A donation has ...
Somehow Gordon Brown found time in his busy schedule to visit Reading today. Lucky Reading!This wasn't a social call, however. The Prime Minister was launching his government's 'Safe and Confident Neighbourhoods strategy' - why? because after 13 years of a Labour government millions of people are still highly fearful about crime and anti-social behaviour (especially here in Reading, where fear of crime is higher than the national and South East average). And also because the Labour government is fearful that thousands of former supporters have turned their back on them in places like Reading. Mr Brown's visit comes just days ...
Microsoft have announced that they will be giving their users in Europe the choice to switch browser from their default, Internet Explorer. This option will happen people's next automatic update. As well as offering the choice between; Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome; people will be given the choice of seven other browsers, including; Flock and Green browser. I personally think that this is a good thing, for it will help those relatively inexperienced users to discover the differing options that they have available to them. Of course Microsoft are hoping that people will just stick to their Internet Explorer (via ...
The council is proposing to change the secondary schools in Bath - below is what we have been told. Steve and Nigel both believe that Culverhay should be co-ed - please let us know your viewsWhat this means for Bath In Bath, the proposal is to further raise standards and improve the quality of schools buildings, reduce the number of schools with surplus places and create the right size schools
A number of the bollards are missing from the roundabout in Oolite Grove, we have asked for these to be replaced.
Something I have heard frequently is that if we were to end up with a hung parliament after the general election with David Cameron's party having the largest number of seats then he would quickly go to the country again to try and get a majority. Firstly, I am nowhere near convinced that this would be the case. If the result was so close as to deliver a hung parliament then there would be no guarantee that Cameron would end up in a better position after a second election. Indeed he could end up in a worse position and perhaps ...
The Weston Mercury has the story: THE Green Party's Weston candidate has withdrawn from the General Election contest before it has even begun – because he wants the Liberal Democrats to win. Dr Richard Lawson had been nominated by his party to fight the Weston seat currently held by Conservative John Penrose. But Dr Lawson has today announced his decision to withdraw his candidacy 'to increase the chance of the Liberal Democrats taking the seat'. ... [Dr Lawson] said: ""My candidature was founded on the idea that Weston was a safe Conservative win. That platform becomes shaky if Weston becomes ...
Mon 1st
18:45
Liberal Democrats will vote against decrease in pension payments for almost 9m pensioners
The Liberal Democrats will tomorrow vote in Parliament against the decision to freeze state pension top-up payments this April, which will leave almost nine million pensioners worse off. Last December Ministers set out plans to freeze payments of the State Earnings Related Pension and the Second State Pension, effectively cutting state pension payments by £515million next year. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Steve Webb said: "Labour has betrayed pensioners by promising to increase their pensions when millions are actually set to receive a real-term cut this year. "Freezing pension top-up payments will leave almost nine million older ...
I have just attended a most interesting afternoon discussing climate change at the invitation of the Green Alliance think tank. They have invited small groups of candidates (about 25 in all) from the three main parties, whom they have identified as having a real chance of winning and who have shown a consistent interest in green issues. We have been guinea pigs in a programme to ensure that new MPs are up to speed with all the current issues and best placed to exert an influence if elected. Partners in the exercise are Ashridge Business School and the Tellus Mater ...
Commenting on David Cameron's speech at Tory spring conference Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "Once again the speech was short on specifics and on the key assurance of fairness that is essential if we are to tackle our economic problems. "We need fair taxation, new green jobs, a fair start for our children and a fair political `system that gives voters real choice to sack miscreant MPs."
Being a blog that gets involved in campaigns it can all seem a bit negative sometimes. I wish there was more I could be positive about like my blogs on the Parks in Bracknell and Point Royal. But one very positive part of Bracknell is the new £37million pound college paid for by the Learning and Skills Council. I recently attending an open day event there where I was able to walk around the facilities and talk to staff and the Howard O'Keeffe the Principal and Chief Executive of the College. I studied a National Diploma in Computer Science after ...
Strong rumours reach me from different sources that an interesting candidate, with connections to persons unmentionable, intends to put their name forward as an independent parliamentary candidate in Bedford. I understand that this is in order to scupper the parliamentary ambitions of Tory candidate Richard Fuller. Poor Richard is already looking a tad beleaguered following the trouncing of the Tories in the Bedford Mayoral elections - with a local party publicly tearing bits out of each other, he certainly doesn't seem to have the solid committed team on the ground. So, apparently said candidate will declare at the weekend.............I await ...
The Core Strategy Fails to address housing numbers from a local perspective. The Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) housing numbers have been dictated by Government at Westminster and were based on the growth that was expected a couple of years ago. It is unlikely that this level of growth will happen. The Core Strategy is driven by growth, but why should we accept the growth that Government want
In February 2010 I gave this talk as part of the "Distinguished Practitioners Series" at Nottingham University: Good afternoon, and thanks for inviting me to address you today. The first time I visited Nottingham University was just over 15 years ago for a job interview when, in their wisdom, the panel decided not to offer me the job - and as a result rather than moving on from a PhD to a career in academia I instead moved off into computing and then politics - including 10 years at Liberal Democrat party HQ which I twice ran the party's general ...
... We'd say a big thank you to the 33,686 'absolute unique visitors'* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in January. That's a small decrease compared to our Jan. '10 figure of c.38,000, but then February is a shorter month - and we are up over 40% on the equivalent figure for Feb '09 of c.24,000. This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 March 2009 - 28 Feb 2010) to 316,939, almost 40% higher than the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 228,076. The 5 top-read stories during the month were: 1. Clegg sacks Jenny ...
A little over three weeks ago, I wrote to Urban Vision (copy here) and requested a walkabout so that I could personally show them the dreadful state our road had deteriorated to. Less than a week later, I was pleased to be joined by Steven Lee (Director of Engineering at Urban Vision) on Seedley Park Road where we met and discussed the current condition of the road and poor previous attempts to fix it. Steven promised an immediate fix for the pothole and longer term, a partial re-surfacing of Seedley Park Road in the Summer. I am pleased to report ...
I've signed up to the Royal British Legion's Manifesto for the general election, and I'm very proud to do so. The brave men and women serving our country in the armed forces deserve better than the raw deal they get now – too many leave the service with little money and support. The Lib Dems are ...
On 18th January I reported eight local potholes to West Berkshire Council. I had log numbers given to me, and a promise that the problem statements would be passed to the Highways Maintenance team. One of the eight received attention, but with the others – nothing happened – except that the potholes got bigger. I complained again on ...
The gilt market is down. The pound is really down. The faces below the blue-rinse in Brighton are grim (despite the Spectator thinking the speech was just fine). All because of a YouGov poll in the Sunday Times (see LibCon premature celebration) – apparently. The logic should be clear. In a crisis the Labour party is ...
I rarely book train tickets. For all I know what follows may be a normal experience, but for me it was more than a bit over the top. I wanted to book tickets for a trip in the early summer. One from Lewes to Alnmouth, returning a few days later, and one for Kings Cross to Alnmouth for the same days and times. I spent a couple of hours on various websites yesterday checking different options and prices, and seeing if I could book seats to travel together. It might have been possible for a more intrepid traveller, but I, ...
Mon 1st
16:54
Tories and Labour squabbling like children in the playground - "But he's doing it too !"
When I am dealing with a disagreement between children, when it is clear they are both in the wrong and both behaving in a way that is not acceptable, I let them know that the argument "I'm doing it because he is doing it" or "But he's doing it too", are simply not good enough reasons for doing something. If it is wrong then it is wrong, whoever is doing it. So whilst I agree with Iain Dale that the Labour Party are showing stunning hypocrisy in criticising Lord Ashcroft's tax status, it is actually no defence for the Tory ...
I am not in the best of humours today. My mood can be best described as foul with a strong undercurrent of teary. It does not cheer me in any way to have it confirmed that the billionaire who's given the Tories millions is, although he lives in the country, not domiciled here for tax purposes. This means that he doesn't pay UK tax on his earnings outside the UK. And while he doesn't pay tax on his earnings outside the UK, he quite happily sits in the UK Parliament and makes laws for the rest of us to follow. ...
Like many people in Luton I was greatly saddened by the loss of Caroline Rhiney, an employee of the Rights TUC Centre. As someone who knew Caroline for many years and worked alongside her in the TUC I knew her to be a passionate, dedicated and committed member of our town's community who was a true friend and inspiration. Caroline's popularity was clearly evident with the large number of people coming from across Europe to the Caribbean and all sections of our diverse community in Luton to pay their respects. Rather than a sad occasion we gathered together with her ...
We had confirmation this weekend that tens of thousands of pounds from Lord Ascroft has been channeled into Sefton Tories. Now we have the damaging admission from Ashcroft that he does not pay full UK tax. It really is a scandal that when ordinary citizen's are struggling to pay their way and make ends meet a multi millionaire can avoid paying full UK tax and hand out millions to the Tories instead. Ordinary people don't have that choice, nor should Ashcroft. Locally the Tories simply could not deliver the volume of leaflets that we are seeing. Sefton is awash with ...
Last Saturday's article in the Telegraph, 'On the campaign trail with Esther Rantzen', looks to me to be a model of how I expect many journalists will cover the election campaign in Luton South. It has all the elements I'm afraid I am going to have to get used to: A concentration on Esther Rantzen to the exclusion of anything else The obligatory references to funny shaped vegetables The obligatory insults to Luton A superficial understanding of the political realities in the town No mention of the Liberal Democrats No discussion of anything of actual substance whatsoever Very, very irritating. ...
It has been quite difficult to find any material in respect of the reporting of parliament. It is well known that reports of parliamentary proceedings cannot result in a defamation case.It is also clear from the case that I will cite later that reporting parliamentary proceedings cannot be contempt of court.This deals with the issue of the super injunction. In essence the work of John Wilkes in
A start has been made. A very very rough start. Click here. Let me know what you think. This wasn't really just an excuse to give Megatron boobies at all. (sponsor for March is in the works, btw, but for now I'm leaving [IMG: [personal profile] ] nanila's logo up there. Feb is a short month anyway, and I don't begrudge her a couple of extra days).
I first published this at 17:39 yesterday but, sadly, RSS issues at my end prevented it being posted at LibDemBlogs until now. I am not sure that David Cameron's speech this afternoon will do much for the Conservative's poll ratings at all. He does mention a few policies (about 18 either vague or broad ones). We've heard ...
So the Tories haven't sealed the deal yet. There seems to be a great deal of puzzlement as to why HM Official Opposition isn't gliding gracefully into the role of HM Government, most of all from the Conservatives themselves. Even Labour seem confused. Some believe that the Conservatives have been only too ready to sit back ...
The BBC has been leading with the story that 25,000 jobs are to go this coming year in English local government. Not unexpectedly, the biggest losses are in Birmingham, the biggest council in the country. Job losses are common across authorities of all political persuasions. The main reason is simply that there is less money in the coming year for local government to spend. The biggest drop in
This morning's admission by the Tories' single biggest donor, Lord (Michael) Ashcroft, that in the 10 years he has been a voting peer he has been registered as a non-dom to avoid paying tax on his non-UK income has generated a lot of comment today. Let's start with the facts. Lord Ashcroft, through his company Bearwood Corporate Services Ltd, is the biggest donor to the Conservative party, having given a total of £5,137,785.15. Lord Ashcroft made further personal donations of £111,726.09. Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable named him as a 'non-dom' in the Commons in December 2009, asking Harriet ...
In a fit of excessive precaution, I left my house in London to catch the train and then Tube to Kings Cross for the 2.30pm train to Newcastle. I am heading home after 10 days of filming in Westminster with a couple of trips to Greenwich and Oxfordshire to take a few memory cardfulls of photos. Alas, I have arrived at KX with 50 minutes to spare. So I am making use of the new seating area in the
Following the public meeting in Newport, Pembrokeshire where I discovered that the Welsh Governemnt are funding extra police officers in the cull area for the five years that they will be shooting badgers I tabled a question seeking more information. I have now had a response, which I have set out below: Peter Black (South Wales West): Will the Minister confirm whether she is funding extra police officers in the North Pembrokeshire badger cull area for the period of the cull, and if so, how much will this cost and what extra provision is being funded. (WAQ55693) Elin Jones: We ...
At last after years of speculation, the man who is bankrolling the Conservative campaign in marginal seats, has come clean on his tax status. He is a "non-dom" and does not pay tax on his earnings abroad in the UK. As the Guardian says, Lord Ashcroft's confirmation puts to rest a decade of speculation about his tax status and raises serious questions for the Conservative party, which has been part of cross-party moves to ban non-doms from parliament: Ashcroft made a statement on his website (pdf) in anticipation of the release under the Freedom of Information Act today of the ...
The BBC today published their usual St. David's Day poll setting out how people would vote in a referendum to give the Welsh Assembly full law-making powers within the defined areas of competence set out in the Government of Wales Act. Actually, they did not phrase the question like that but you get the gist. The results of this poll were quite encouragiung, confirming a trend towards more people being prepared to vote 'yes' in a referendum. A total of 56% of those questioned said they would vote for full Senedd law-making powers, with 35% against. I believe the 'don't ...
Its taken years and years of investigation and reporting but the report prepared off of the back of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry is finally done and dusted, however the release of the document may be delayed thanks to the General Election.......amongst other things. The Guardian posted this in their article on the report this evening: The inquiry ...
I pointed out before that the key to getting a boost in support out of TV leader debates isn't so much winning the debate as beating expectations: if people expected you to do dreadfully and you come out doing ok that's almost always a boost to a campaign, whilst being seen as doing ok when the expectations were that you would walk it means you lose support. So the pressure really is on David Cameron as he's the one going in to the debates with highest expectations on him according to the latest MORI opinion poll: Which leader do you ...
I missed the post by Duncan Borrowman from last week highlighting the dodgy bar chart being used by the Tory candidate in Luton South. Read 'Lies, damn lies, and Luton Tory barcharts' on his blog. As Duncan says; "it shows you are getting desperate when you use a barchart of an opinion poll of 1,004 adults taken across 97 constituencies and somehow try to claim it applies locally."
Two weeks from now, the Lib Dems' spring conference will all be over and delegates will be back home on the ground in their constituencies. The new location of Birmingham for our conference brings a whole host of opportunities to Lib Dem members who live in parts of the country previously untouched by conference season. Training The most important of these is that you do not need to be a delegate to benefit from party training and fringe sessions held away from the main venue. The party is running a full day of training in Birmingham on Saturday, 13th March ...
Interesting interview in the Guardian from the guy who trained Obama as a community organsiser in Chigago He has been working with community groups in Manchester and says "In my experience the Labour party in your big cities like Manchester is one of the most alienating forces in Great Britain." He goes on to say, "Barack could never have been elected in Great Britain. He would have had to suck up to the Labour party for 30 years before they gave someone like him a chance." I hope that in the Liberal Democrats community activists will find a better ...
A planning application came in last week for "Link/Infill to the rear of shop premises and new entrance canopy" at 10-12 Kings Hedges Road (the piano and music shop). The application reference is 10/0139/FUL and more details can be obtained in the usual way from development control. In case of difficulty get in touch with the team.
In his speech to Tory activists in Brighton yesterday, David Cameron declared it his 'patriotic duty' to get rid of Gordon Brown and install himself as prime minister. A day later, and what do we find? That the deputy chairman of the Conservative party and major donor to Tory campaigns, Lord Ashcroft, doesn't even pay ...
The ALDC office will be closed on Tuesday 2nd March 2010. This is to allow for essential maintenance to the office and phone systems. If you would like to contact ALDC, please email info@aldc.org or fill in the advice forms as usual. We will not be contactable by telphone as the phone lines will be disconnected all day. We will be back up and running again as usual on Wednesday 3rd March. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
So Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft has finally admitted that he doesn't pay proper tax in the UK. He has 'non-dom' status which means that he avoids paying UK tax on the vast majority of his income. He has said that he will change this status next year - if the law is changed - but has (legally) escaped paying full UK taxes for many years. This seems in contrast to what the Conservatives told us back in 2000 when he became a peer. Then the message was that Lord Ashcroft would be resident in the UK for tax purposes. According ...
So Lord Ashcroft the Tories biggest donor is "non-domiciled" in the UK for tax purposes. The biggest non-secret in Westminster for years has finally be admitted. However, with David Cameron claiming that he wants to clean up politics is Lord Ashcroft going to become resident and domiciled as Cameron expects all peers in the Lords to be? Well....not yet, the Tories biggest donor, having given at least £4 million in recent years, is going to wait until a change in the law makes him do so. So I guess it isn't going to be Lord Ashcroft's 'patriot duty' to pay ...
Having argued for over two years that the outcome of the general election is likely to be one in which no party wins a majority, the Yougov poll yesterday, giving the Conservatives a lead of only 2% highlights the possibility that they may not become the largest party in Parliament. I speculated last week about Brown possibly being strengthened against his own party if he leads a minority Labour
The news this morning that Lord Ashcroft, the largest donor to the Conservative Party, is a non-dom is further evidence that the Tories talk of 'change' is just hot air. People have been asking about Lord Ashcroft's tax status for years and only now do the Tories let us know what the real situation is. A "non-dom" is someone who is resident in the UK but not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes - although they will pay some UK tax they will not be fully taxed in the UK on their interests overseas. Now we know that Lord ...
(Note: Since I wrote this post, I have had a reply from Alec Robertson as detailed in red below) It's the start of a week of programmes on the BBC focussing on local government. Over breakfast there were the competing delights of Evan Davis ripping Local Government Minister John Denham to shreds on the Today Programme (scroll forward two hours and 10 mins) and the four party leaders in Cornwall speaking to Radio Cornwall (scroll forward about 2 hours). But the main headline concerns a survey by the BBC about the level of job cuts in councils around the country. ...
Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Simon Holbrook has criticised the Conservative Budget proposals as irresponsible and raised concerns about the Conservatives' intentions for the future of vital front line services. The Conservative Budget proposals were revealed last week and will be debated at Full Council today, 1st March at the ...
Across the media, David Cameron's speech is examined with all the attention due to the chicken entrails in the auguries of ancient Rome. But in the end I think that the chicken entrails probably carry more meaning than the endless trail of meaningless banalities that Mr. Cameron put forward. "Vote for change" means nothing if we do not know what will be changed and what will be kept the same. I know that politicians are afraid that if they put forward detailed proposals they will have to face tough questions, but it is not much of a change if they ...
Sarah Harding one of Birkdale Lib Dems leading activists spent the weekend at the Liberal Youth Conference. I was out canvassing at the weekend when she sent me an email asking about the Contactpoint data base that the government is setting up and which Sefton is an early adopter I'm sorry I didn't have time to get back to Sarah. Contactpoint is really another one of those data based beloved of New Labour which will have a very intrusive impact on many young people's lives, cost a minor fortune and be of questionable worth. Liberty did a briefing on it ...
Following the admission this morning from the Tory Lord Ashcroft that he is non-domiciled for UK tax purposes I have just spotted the following from Eric Pickles on Twitter: ericpickles19 minutes ago from UberTwitter@johnprescott have you told Lord Paul to pay back 10 years of tax or shall I tell him? ericpickles8 minutes ago from UberTwitter@johnprescott have you told Lakshmi Mittal to pay back 10 years of tax or shall I tell him? ericpickles4 minutes ago from UberTwitter@johnprescott have you told Sir Ronald Cohen to pay back 10 years of tax or shall I tell him? The other day when ...
Here is a short clip on the Liberal Democrat fairer taxes policy - where no one will pay any tax on the first £10,000 of their earnings. We have currently an unfair tax system where a cleaner, for example, will pay more in tax proportionately than a banker! Putting money back in the pockets of low and middle income earners re balances this unfair tax system and encourages and values work. (Also on YouTube here)
A former US grassroots campaigner, now working in Manchester, has claimed that Labour is an alienating force in our big cities and Obama would never have made it in the Labour Party. Gregory Galluzo, the Guardian claimed on Saturday, trained Obama in grassroots politics over a decade ago. Galluzo is quoted in the Guardian as saying: In my experience the Labour party in your big cities like Manchester is one of the most alienating forces in Great Britain. It is a very small group of people that controls the city council and they get voted in because they are Labour, ...
Recent polls have shown the Tory vote crumbling nationally. In South Luton they have no Councillors at all and only two in the constituency as a whole, compared to the Liberal Democrat's 11. With the Liberal Democrats the only viable alternative to Labour it is essential that people in our community come together and the support the Liberal Democrats. Labour have allowed for Margaret Moran to keep claiming our money and will be rewarded for bringing shame and negative national attention to our community on the day of the election. How can we trust Labour again when they refuse to ...
The Government has spent well in excess of £20 million on design fees but it is SO good to hear that Andrew Adonis has 'postponed' the building of £7.5 billion fleet of high speed trains. For 'postponed' read 'cancelled.'' Good. Good. Good. It's said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee, and what the Inter-city express procurement programme was doing would have landed us for decades with a double-humped camel. Civil servants in the Department for Transport came up with the brilliant idea of a train that could use both diesel and electric propulsion - but would ...
On Saturday 6th March Smarter Travel Sutton are launching their 'Spring into Action' cycling campaign here in Wallington. Travel advisors will be outside the Old Town Hall between 11am and 3pm giving out cycling advice and vouchers offering free cycle-related products and services. If you bring your bicycle along you can take advantage of the 'Doctor Bike' ...
The BBC reports: Conservative donor and deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he is "non-domiciled" for tax in the UK. He said he agreed with David Cameron that anyone sitting in the Lords must be "resident and domiciled" in the UK. He said he expected "to be sitting in the House of Lords for many years to come", suggesting his status would change if the Tories win the election. Mr Cameron said, in another statement, he was "pleased" that Lord Ashcroft had decided to clarify his position. Lord Ashcroft has donated millions of pounds to the Conservatives in recent ...
Following last week's Council Meeting to consider next year's budget for Darlington a couple of mildy interesting things happened.First, down the Quaker, I discovered that the original proposed budget was not shown to or discussed within the Labour Group before it was published. It was the work solely of officers and the Cabinet. As an only slightly-the-worse-for-wear Labour councillor told me, "
The BBC has the story here. Interestingly, he says being resident for tax purposes was "not a condition" of his peerage! So can we find out the precise conditions and who let it through?
It's Monday morning. It's the 1st March, and the question everyone's asking is, "Where the hell did January and February go?". For our Welsh readers, meanwhile, may we wish you a very happy St David's Day. On with the day's main news ... Result of LDV poll on Tories' evaporating lead Yesterday LDV ran an insta-poll asking our Twitter followers and site readers what you thought was the main reason why the Tories' opinion poll lead has shrunk so fast. Here's what the 147 of you who voted told us: The three top reasons according to you: 29% – Over-reliance ...
St Albans seeks to be "Hertfordshire's premier community." The Old Albanians Rugby Club can justifiably be described as Hertfordshire's premier rugby club. [IMG: 2010_0223StAHalfMarathonPoolC0001] I always enjoy visiting the magnificent new pavilion at Woollams for lunches or dinners. Recently I was a guest of Geraint John at the annual lunch to celebrate the Mini and Junior rugby programme of the club, held before the OA's dished out a 34-15 thumping of great Hertfordshire rivals Bishops Stortford. The St Albans forwards are pretty fearsome – you only need to see the team photo to realise that! My own snatched picture from ...
Terrible morning outside, rain lashing on the windows. Fortunately I have a lot of stuff to be getting on with inside - correspondence and planning. At 1pm it is suddenly a lot better, and just after two I am out on the doorstep in Blenheim and then Prittlewell wards. I'm in streets where I would expect to find as man conservatives as Lib Dems. The Conservative households do seem pretty downbeat about things - perhaps they have seen the headlines and polls this morning. These must have caused great anguish down in Bournemouth. Conservative activists have been telling themselves for ...
Nearly two years after my last blog post I am in the process of refurbishing the site and checking the links ready to start blogging again. My absence from the blogosphere for so long was caused by a number of different things which all occurred around the same time...a flooded house and redundancy to name but two. The house ...
Well, the Echo has published details of the Conservatives' complaint about the Council's conduct in apparently distributing literature in favour of the Labour Party's candidate at the forthcoming General Election.While the Council is right to be investigating this seriously, it would appear to be an example of thoughtlessness by Council officers rather than a blatent attempt to promote Jenny
I wonder if the Manchester Labour Party are going to call for action against Gordon Brown?
Last Thursday's Special Council meeting in Darlington to agree the budget for the coming year started off slowly but then became much more deliciously bad-tempered as the evening progressed. Indeed, I wondered if everyone had gone to sleep when no hands went up in the air following the Mayor's call for debate. It seemed that the Tories, as the official opposition, were waiting for someone else to
I have emailed the Permanent Secretary for Tax, Dave Hartnett, asking what steps older people should now take if they fear they might have overpaid tax on their savings income. This follows a Parliamentary report warning that more than two million older savers have been hit in this way, presumably including many people in Hendon. After a lifetime of paying their taxes, older people should not now have to pay more than they really owe. These overpayments are very worrying and unfair. I have asked HMRC to tell me what people should do if they fear they have overpaid, so ...
New toy! Here's a twist on Googling your own name: Personas is part of an exhibition by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at MIT Museum. You type in your name, watch the visualisation process (screenshot below) and end up with a coloured bar (screenshot above) which sums up you and anyone else who shares your name. "It is a critique of data mining, revealing the computer's uncanny insights and inadvertent errors. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world where digital histories are as important, if not more important, than oral histories, and computational ...
A telephone scam involving fraudsters posing as Council staff has recently been reported by a Heald Green resident. The scam was first uncovered in other areas of Greater Manchester last year, and the Council issued a warning to local residents on its website at the time. The scam involves residents being contacted by phone and informed that they have "overpaid" their Council Tax. They are asked for their bank account details so a refund can be processed and a £39 administration fee debited. It is believed that several scammers are operating in the borough and the amount of the so-called ...
Today, as a Make Justic Work ambassador, I am off to watch the first screening of "The Fear Factory" in Leicester Square, followed by the launch off the latest NEF report "Punishing Costs". I havc no doubt I will emerge fired up and angry about a system that does nothing to reduce crime and everything to destroy young lives. NEF Press Release below: Locking up children and young people for non-violent offences is costing the taxpayer millions, while doing little to reduce the amount of crime, says a new report from leading independent think-tank nef (the new economics foundation). The ...
I have been meaning to blog on this for a while and have been prompted by a post on Political Betting which talks about the odds on Alistair Darling becoming the next Labour leader. I have not seen much discussion elsewhere of the possibility of the current Chancellor of the Exchequer succeeding Brown. The talk is all of people like the brothers Miliband, Ed Balls, James Purnell (until he decided to leave politics) and in a caretaker role Alan Johnson or Jack Straw. I wonder why Darling is so often overlooked. After all: He has political longevity: He is one ...
Happy St David's Day. I'm off to drop the boys off at school, and will stop by at Holt's to buy a daffodil to wear in my buttonhole. Co-incidentally, I made a pot of leek and potato soup yesterday, and given how cold it was last night (and today) ...
Is Scottish Televion (STV) truly an independent broadcaster or has the Scottish Government been manipulating it for its own PR? The reason the question has to asked is that a letter has come to light between STV chief executive Rob Woodward and First Minister Alex Salmond. The letter gives a commitment tot STV coverage of the Scottish Government's Homecoming festival last summer and mentions plans to introduce more Scottish programmes. However a telling line is: "I will write separately to Linda Fabiani (then the culture minister] to introduce our commercial director, David Connelly, to explore how we can incorporate our ...
Listening to David Cameron's speech at Tory spring conference, it was painfully clear how yet again he was so damnably short on specifics and on the key assurance of fairness that is essential if we are to tackle our economic problems. As Chris ...
I watched with amazement yesterday the Hampshire Police press conference where they asked for information on the whereabouts of Anthony Marsh who is suspected of murdering his partner Stephanie Bellinger and eight-month-old daughter Lily. There sat with the police and a police family liaison officer was the poor mother of Anthony Marsh who looked for all ...
As water has been cascading down Hyde Road, emerging near the junction with Sandheys Grove since November, it comes as no surprise that there's a problem there today. This time, it seems that the road is being dug up just before it collapses (unlike last year), however this means that Hyde Road is currently seriously reduced in width at this point. I'm trying to find out how long the work is estimated to take, meanwhile if you can manage another route today is a good day to try it. It would have been a much smaller job had the reports ...
So many reports going on about potential cuts in Local Government – we need to come out fighting for the role of local councillors putting forward our views on cutting more MPs and devolving power from the centre. The Labour Government wants to have efficiency savings – I say cut Whitehall. There needs to be a ...
21 years ago this summer I was heading overland from Belgium to Keiv. We had an RAC route list to get us along the way. I was too young to be insured on the minibus with the rest of the team so did most of the navigating. As we were heading through Poland approaching the village of Żelazowa Wola I started to hum this. The reason was that the list of directions of course indicated that we were approaching the birthplace of Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen, better known by the French version of his name Frédéric François Chopin. He was of ...
Inaugural General Meeting Saturday 13th Early Evening 18.15 – 19.30 The ICC, Hall 6b The Social Liberal Forum has been up and running for just over a year now. We always intended to make it a membership-based organisation and that time has come! At this year's Lib Dem Spring Conference in Birmingham, we will be holding our first general meeting to agree the organisation's constitution. Anyone who is a member of the Liberal Democrats and agrees with our aims and objectives is welcome to attend and have their say. The proposal from the current executive committee (to be confirmed at ...
Leven Bridge on the road between Yarm and Ingleby Barwick has cracked and the road is closed. One thing it has highlit is the probelms of children from Ingleby Barwick travelling to Yarm to school, and a long detour will be necessary. A great flurry of e-mails over the afternoon pointing this out. Obviously this is an awful problem and the detours will make it worse. I have always supported...
The long-standing practice known as 'The Cranford Agreement' has avoided easterly departures off the northern runway over Cranford, wherever possible. It means that when the airport is operating on easterlies, most departures use the southern runway and arrivals generally use the northern runway. Alternation is not therefore used on easterly operations. Stemming from an undertaking given at a public meeting in 1952, the Agreement was designed to protect the residents of Cranford, close to the eastern end of the northern runway, from the high noise levels experienced on the ground from departing aircraft. In January 2009 the Labour Government announced ...
CentreForum's latest piece of research is launched today: our first major economics report since A Balancing Act won Think Tank Publication of the Year.
One of the phrases you'll hear in India (were you to be there today) is "it's all right it's Holi". I must admit the festival of Holi is one of my favourites as it celebrates good harvests and fertility of the land. Folk go around in high ...
Do you remember a Monty Python sketch in which Graham Chapman says "I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired." It does go on in a similar fashion but it is a parody of politicians who say very little and talk in jargon. I was reminded of this sketch yesterday when Peter Hain was interviewed by Andrew Marr. Peter is in election mode. He said "what is absolutely vital to the great decent progressive majority in Britain is ...
Monday: Happy March, and this week, it is Great British Pi Week, and, as a celebration of our Christian heritage, for one week only, π will equal its Biblical value of 3 exactly. Get your condensed circles while they last! Around the World in a mere 76 days! Almost 5% less football (also: cricket, tennis, golf, snooker - does not apply to Rugby as that is a game played by men with odd shaped balls... ...what?!) Cuddly Cthulhu endorses this non-Euclidean geometry. Please enjoy your pies responsibly. .
