Irish Border Question

Still testing

The technology solution is bollox. Guardian

Government paper on the economic consequences of Brexit

Doing a little trial here.

Business Insider

Guardian story

Great theme song for the Bedroom Tax protests

NHS Privatisation

Fabulous cartoon from http://www.cartoonkate.co.uk

Source: cartoonkate.co.uk via John on Pinterest

UKIP to win Eastleigh?

Today is a very strange day for me. If I had not got so disillusioned with the Lib Dem leadership I would be down in Eastleigh helping to get the vote out. As it is I'm sitting at home and wondering how it will all pan out, and I've come to a rather odd conclusion.
If I was in Eastleigh I would probably have voted NHA Party as a way of protesting about the privatisation of the NHS. However the by election has come too early for them and they are not likely to win it. Bizarrely as a life long Liberal and pro European I want UKIP to win and think they might actually do it. Let me explain.
I have hated this coalition with a passion since its inception. A UKIP win tonight could deal a fatal blow to it. If as seems likely the Tories come third it will throw the party into paroxysms, with the backwoodsmen braying that they have to steal UKIP's clothing. They might even be brave enough to mount a coup against Cameron. A more right wing leader would be very difficult to work with even if Clegg managed to survive.
If the Lib Dems lose the seat, I don't foresee an immediate coup, but when there is another wipe out in the County Council elections in May and the relationship with the Tories becomes horribly fraught, a lot of MPs and councillors are going to be looking for another solution other than the disastrous Clegg regime before 2015.
A UKIP victory will not mean a new dawn for them. I've had 40 years of being on the wrong side of that argument. But it could mean the end of the coalition and hopefully the beginning of the end of the Orange Book experiment in the Lib Dems.
So swallow hard, put on a Polly Toynbee clothes peg and "Come on UKIP!"

Fantastic letter in today's Guardian

Fantastic letter in today's Guardian

I am an ambulance medic and part of a two-man crew. We often get up at 4am, check over a 999 frontline ambulance, then drive anything up to two hours to our area of cover, all in our own time. Then follows a 12-hour intensive shift, where we deal with anything from multiple car pile-ups to seriously ill children. We are sometimes abused both verbally and physically. Sometimes we are threatened with sharp implements and have to negotiate or even physically fight for our safety.

Half-hour rest breaks are not always taken due to the demand on services. We then have the drive back, where we have to clean our vehicles before driving home. The stress is monstrous, but we are exempt from any legislation that makes sure we are not worked to death as we are an emergency service. Our average wage is about £15 an hour. We are life savers, counsellors and sometimes just company, as we hold the hand of someone beyond help. We have cultivated a black sense of humour so we do not crumble and, even so, often cry on the way home. I am sure there are many other professions which have their own untold stories of daily physical and mental hardship.

I would like to say to Sir Philip Hampton of RBS that our wages are "modest" for what we do (RBS chief underpaid, says chairman, 12 February). A multimillion-pound pay packet for a banker's success or failure is not "modest". We take home in a gruelling year of real blood, sweat and tears what Stephen Hester earns in six days. I wish that those who earn such sums would realise that their renumeration is not right. Perhaps they should not apply terms to themselves like "I have one of the hardest jobs in the world" (Fred the Shred) until they see what others do on a fraction of their wage. What comes out of their mouths undermines millions of hard working people in this country. If an ambulance turned up to one of their children severely injured on a country road, would we seem only worth £15 an hour? As they watched as we fought for their child's life, far from back up and hospital facilities, would they reconsider the value of jobs that do not make a profit?

Would they consider our wages modest as they apply this term to their own? Modest is a powerful word and has to be earned.
Name and address supplied

Sometimes cartoons just sum it up.

Bedroom tax, more government bolleaux

Sadly even mega brain Lib Dem minister Steve Webb has demonstrated he doesn't know what he is talking about when he says people can work a few extra hours to make up for the bedroom tax. An analysis done by a housing trust shows that someone might have to work up to 76 hours to pay for the loss! At every turn they demonstrate not just stupidity but total lack of compassion.

Bedroom tax- Another coalition disaster

Again I'll come back to the rights and wrongs of this one, but this government couldn't organise a very good drink in a brewery. According to Channel 4 fact check it is going to increase spending in many areas, as well totally disrupt peoples lives while they move. You couldn't make it up.

Call Clegg part 2- Benefits crunch for the disabled

One of the frustrating things about being on Call Clegg  a few weeks ago, (see below) was the inability to follow up with questions or comments on what Nick was saying. Because my question about benefits being squeezed was in the week where the 1% cap was debated, he commented on that. When I tried to broaden it he seized on the benefit cap as his straw man to answer. What I really wanted him to address was the cumulative impact of the massive onslaught against the poorest in society that is being perpetrated by this government.

A Canadian paralympian with his medal at Heathrow

During last summer I was one of those people who volunteered for the Paralympics and I spent a fantastic month being constantly awe struck by the hard work and dedication of people, many with enormous handicaps, as they strove to gain medals or just to take part in a life enhancing event. A lot of hypocritical bullshit was spouted by coalition politicians at that time, and it was great to hear Osborne booed by the crowd.







Well Mr Osborne is getting his own back by stripping hundreds of millions of pounds in benefits from disabled people, despite continually denying that he was doing anything of the sort. But I've long given up on expecting honesty from this government.

The one thing you can say is they are very creative in finding ways to salami slice every penny of money while implying that recipients are scroungers. The whole issue is horribly complex, but there is a great blog which I urge you to visit.  They have started a petition which I would again urge you to sign. Don't be put off by the jargon. They are speaking the government's language in trying to get this whole disgraceful thing re-looked at.

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

At the time of writing there were 19,400 signatures please help get it over the 20,000!

So Mr Clegg, can you tell me how you reconcile Lib Dem values with such a disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable in society?

This is a subject which I will return to as it will be something that bites the Lib Dems on the arse big style. 

And my fav cabinet minister Michael Gove

Osborne's advice on tax avoidance

I suppose with his trust funds and everything he's a bit of an expert! 

John from Woking on Call Clegg

I suppose its time to out myself. I am John from Woking who called in to the Nick Ferrari show on LBC yesterday. When I heard that Clegg would be on this new programme I immediately sent in my question and was lucky enough to be chosen. I assume it was because they knew it might be controversial. I must admit I was not prepared for how viral it all went. The phone never stopped ringing and I was interviewed by the Mail, Standard, Mirror, ITN and a few others that are a blur. I have had my Warhol moment.

Any way there you have it I am John Doran the County Councillor for Horsell, Woking between 2005 and 2009. I joined the Liberal Party in the run up to the 1974 elections during Thorpe-mania. And I am so very angry about what has happened to my party under Clegg.

I know this blog has had more come backs than Frank Sinatra but while preparing myself for Call Clegg, I started realising, noting and researching all the things that this government is doing that scare the pants of any self-respecting Lib Dem, so I will be blogging about that stuff in the next few weeks.

 Finally a word for my old colleagues in the Lib Dems. I apologise for any embarrassment I may have caused you. Many of you feel similarly but perhaps not as strongly as I do. I tried hard to follow your advice and fight the good fight from within, but it became impossible. I wish you all the best in future elections. You do not deserve the millstone of the coalition weighing you down.

Links to stories about call Clegg. The "bit" with my question can be reached by hitting the link in the second sentence.
 Daily Mail
Guardian
Mirror
Telegraph
ITN
Eagle

And of course the obligatory Steve Bell cartoon from the Guardian

It's not going to be debated. We're doomed

So Conference is going to debate the Shirley Williams motion in good politburo fashion. I think our party has just committed suicide:(

48 hours to save the NHS, and the Lib Dems.

I know many of my Lib Dem friends dislike Polly Toynbee but I think her article in today's Guardian and their editorial do sum up how important the events in Gateshead over the next 48 hours will be for the future of the NHS and the Lib Dems as a political party.

Toynbee says

Two NHS motions compete at the Lib Dem conference in Gateshead this weekend. Shirley's name is on the one calling for support of the bill that she has so eloquently opposed until now. The other motion, from DrEvan Harris and GP Charles West, seeks to stop it altogether. Shirley's will argue that concessions have effectively removed commercialisation – see her letter. Harris's view, backed by the medical profession, is that the legal duty on commissioners to promote competition remains red in tooth and claw (detailed in his Political Science blog). Will the party rebel as it did before or will her assurances convince? Only half an hour on Sunday has been set aside for this debate, yet that half hour may set the fate of this party, if it abandons this last chance to stop the bill........ 

Plenty of decent Lib Dems went into this coalition, Vince and Shirley among them, but how will they emerge? Claims of minor mitigation are no excuse for all they have voted for. There is a breaking point between a party and supporters that can never be repaired. When, in a year or so, the NHS is in deep disarray with waiting lists soaring, the party will wish it could boast of having voted down the NHS bill in Gateshead this weekend.

The editorial says

 But the party must now recognise that the other side has ratted on the deal that it reasonably thought it had done. There have been worthy advances on public health, but the welcome change of tone on markets was not satisfactorily reflected in the bill. Yes, there was some widening of Monitor's remit, and more recently the restoration of the legal duties on the secretary of state. On closer reading, however, many changes were not what they seemed. Rather like a pompous individual who says "not unlike" when "like" would do, the bill's new mandate for Monitor to "prevent anti-competitive practices" adds syntax without changing the underlying thought. If you doubt the basic continuity, just read the defiant defence of the competitive thrust of the reforms which Mr Lansley recently penned for Health Service Journal; there he compared the nascent market in medicine to that in electronic goods. Lib Dems may half-believe and half-hope that they have changed the design, but the architect himself smiles on with satisfaction as he watches the foundation stones fall into place, exactly where he wants them.....

Delegates may be told that the tweaked bill represents the best deal they could get. Contemptuous Tories, who mutter that with a sixth of the MPs their partners are ripe for cutting down to size, will be thrilled by such talk. The truth is that there were two Lib Dem voters for every threeConservatives in 2010, and the Tories cannot rule alone. If the Lib Dem voice speaks loud and clear, it will count. There may also be claims that it is simply too late say no. Don't believe it. Officials know it's not done until it hits the statute book, so have developed plans B and C. It may even be said that the Lords cannot halt a bill on third reading. In fact, though it has not been done for a while, it is perfectly allowed.

To be clear my first thought in all of this is to protect the NHS but as a life long Liberal I am also concerned by the fate of the party. I do not want an NHS where my GP's first thought is about maximising his profits rather than patient care or my local A&E is run by Halliburton. Although Labour have a lot to answer for in beginning this competition mantra, the NHS over the last few years has reached record levels of satisfaction and is one of the most cost effective health services in the world. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Dr Evan Harris, a former Lib Dem MP has been one of the leaders of the opposition to the bill, he says

...after the so-called "listening exercise", the government made the bill much worse by requiring GPs to promote both choice (and thus competition) and "innovation" above tackling the deep-seated problems of unfair access to healthcare and gross disparities in health outcomes. No Liberal Democrat should support a bill with that order of priority. So while Lib Dem peers have won important concessions, especially in the area of competition law, and while the bill now contains requirements designed to preserve integrated care, it still goes well beyond the coalition agreement...... 

Unless there are more last-minute changes to deliver what the party required, at this weekend's party conference I urge Lib Dems to call for the plug to be pulled on this legislation – for the sake of the NHS.

In a recent poll 57% of Lib Dem members  came out against the Bill and three quarters said it would damage the party's electoral chances, while only 11% of those that voted Lib Dem at the last election support it. Personally I am unaware of any Lib Dem who is in favour of this bill and I know many who are against, a good few of whom will be supporting Winchester Lib Dems motion to ditch the Bill. The membership of the party has been in serious decline over the last year, and many like me have stopped being active. There have been a few high level resignations already, including one of the most knowledgeable and influential figures on the NHS and I am sure that if the party is instrumental in getting this bill on to the statute books many more will resign or sit on their hands. No amount of patronising guff from Clegg or Tim Farron will change that. Going into future elections as the party that saved the NHS or the party that privatised it, will, in my opinion, be the difference between survival or oblivion. 

So my voting colleagues have a total win/win. Vote for the "Withdrawal of the Health & Social Care Bill" to be the emergency motion chosen for debate and then vote for it in the debate, thereby hopefully saving the NHS and the party!

Fawlty Towers or Chelsea Football Club

Two descriptions this morning of Tory controlled Surrey County Council. An ex councillor from Guildford, Chris Ward coined the first witticism and the second was tweeted by the Chertsey Herald. Why? you may ask.

Well they're at it again. When the opposition councillors on SCC want to wind up the front bench (ie the Cabinet) they shout "look behind you," that's where the real opposition lies. Childish I know but...

3 years ago, just before the last SCC elections, Andrew Povey led a palace coup against the then leader Nick Skellett, who had previously stabbed Mr Povey in the back when he was leader. They've got nothing on Macchiavelli these guys. There were wholesale changes to the front bench. Two years on Mr Povey's deputy David Hodges led a revolt that saw him elected as leader, and more wholesale changes. Now less than a year on Mr Hodges has sacked 2 of his closest allies, Cllr Ian Lake and Cllr Denise Saliagopoulos.

 It seems they had started a company called Charterhouse Chancery to offer hospitality during the Olympics

Charterhouse Chancery can arrange packages for visitors to the UK in particular for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Company is based in Surrey which has excellent connections with London Heathrow and London Gatwick Airports. Surrey's strengths for London 2012 are its proximity to London and the Olympic Park, closeness to Wimbledon for Tennis, it is on the route to the South Coast for the Olympic Sailing and the rowing at Eton Dornay near historic Windsor Castle.

A good bit of Tory enterprise you might say, except that they forgot to declare it as an interest, despite the fact that Mrs Saliogopoulis is Cabinet member with special responsibility for the Olympics and the £750 million of contracts that will be generated in Surrey. Mr Lake said it doesn't matter because the company hasn't traded yet. Hmm.

Full report and interview with Mr Lake on BBC Surrey.

What have the Lib Dems ever done for us?

I am going to publish this without comment (for now). It was published by a senior Lib Dem Mark Pack.

As a matter of fact I'm back.

It's been nearly 2 years since the General Election and my last post. I was pretty despondent after that election and basically withdrew from active politics. I feel betrayed by Nick Clegg and the coalition. It is worth remembering what is in the constitution and the beginning is on every Lib Dems membership card,

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives.

I cannot for the life of me understand how any Liberal Democrat could say that what the coalition is doing fits in anyway with this paragraph. I am one of the few who was against the coalition from the beginning but it is becoming more and more clear that grass roots Lib Dems have reached a breaking point.

One of the reasons for resurrecting this blog is that I think we are reaching a critical phase in UK politics. This weekend the Lib Dem conference will try to debate the disastrous NHS bill. It will be a pivotal moment in the history of the party, which may destroy it or revive it. (More in a future post). Next week we will have another Thatcherite budget designed to slash and burn public services and increase unemployment while the deficit continues to grow. In April millions of people will begin to lose benefits in a way that is cruelly designed to inflict most damage on the most vulnerable. In May we will have another round of local elections including the London Mayor. If last May is a guide, the Lib Dems will face another disaster. In the run up to the next election we have Lords' reform, the Scottish referendum and the new constituency boundaries, all with unknown consequences for the political landscape.

As a life long member of the Liberals/LibDems I believe the coalition is an existential threat to the party. I want to collect as much information as possible to provide ammunition to those within the party who want it to survive as a radical 3rd party and not an Orange subset of the Tories. So if you see a story or website that might be of interest please link to it or message me.

I have fought the Tories for most of my adult life so I will be posting about them and the way they are pretty much still "the nasty party."

Finally I will also occasionally post on the environment and transport, two subjects close to my heart.

It returns

Why did I ever give them the benefit of the doubt? They are not fit to govern.

Yet more evidence that the nasty party is still racist. (Homophobic yesterday!)

"Two Tory councillors have been suspended from the party after sending a racist joke."

Full story here. Nuff said.