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. 

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!

Sick of the puff pieces and the wifelets

I know its raging against the machine but I'm really cheesed off with all these cringe inducing mockumentaries particularly from ITV. First we had weeping Gordon. Then smug, I'm an ordinary guy, Dave. My feelings were summed up by India Knight in yesterday's Sunday Times.

I could write reams about the utter mindless nothingness of Sir Trevor McDonald’s interview with David Cameron last Sunday, but I might get apoplexy. At a later date I hope to return to the extraordinary fact that Cameron, who must have been preparing for weeks, had absolutely nothing of any interest or substance to say. It was amazing to watch — you kept thinking, go on, say something with a bit of heft. But no. And whose idea was it to wheel on the posh ginger bloke to explain that posh people were absolutely tuned in to ordinary life? Couldn’t they find anyone who hadn't been to Eton? Baffling.
I will return to it, but for now I’ll content myself with asking — Trevor McDonald: why? So, he can read an Autocue: jolly good, round of applause. But ITV has brilliant reporters and interviewers and even a couple of authentically grand old men. Why use someone who came across as if they were going to explode with pleasure just at being in Cameron’s company, who chuckled paternally at everything he said, eyes shining with love, who didn’t ask one single even slightly tricky question?
It was like watching Grandpa Werther interview Igglepiggle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so lame.

Last night it was Cleggy's turn. I have no intention of watching any of them. Why couldn't we have somebody grilling all 3 leaders on the major issues of the day, like, I don't know, lets see, THE ECONOMY. It could be intercut with, not cooing snippets from lovely wives, but critique of policies from academics etc. I yearn for some real political debate instead of all this pap.

Hello

Hello. Been meaning to do this for a while. The New Year and an imminent election seem to be good reasons to get started. As I say in my profile I am disillusioned with party politics in the UK at the moment so I will be musing on ways to improve this and hopefully some of the opportunities that may come up during the election. I am worried about some of the right wing tendencies in the Lib Dems at the moment so will be exposing those where necessary but also praising them where appropriate e.g. the new tax policy.

"We propose to raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax from current levels to £10,000, cutting the average working age person’s income tax bill by £700 and cutting pensioner’s income tax bills by £100. These plans will mean that almost 4 million people on low incomes will no longer have to pay any income tax at all."

I am however most worried about the Conservatives winning the next election. I am old enough to remember how awful the last Tory government was and never want to see its like again.

A good place to start then is something that Lord Tebbitt said this week. (I cannot believe that the first post I make on here is going to be quoting that old expletive deleted). On his blog he said

"And I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty – and that is Nick Clegg. Lord knows, Frank Field and Iain Duncan Smith spelled it out in words and figures that only a simpleton could fail to understand, but the two main parties are unwilling to bite on the bullet and commit themselves to raising the income tax threshold from £6,475 to something like £10,000 or £12,000."

One of the biggest mistakes Labour made over the last few years was to get rid of the 10p tax band. This policy immediately reverses the damage, gives lower paid people more incentive to work, goes some way to alleviating poverty and gives loads of middle income people a shot in the arm in these difficult times. Well done Nick and of course Vince.

I will also be posting about the environment and transport as they are two of my passions at the moment and they are inevitably intertwined with each other and of course politics.

Any feedback, even if negative gratefully received.