Nick Perry for Hastings & Rye

Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster has been named amongst the MPs voting to retain what has become known as the ‘John Lewis List’ - the allowance for furnishing MPs’ second homes.

On 3 July, MPs voted at Westminster on the details of their own expenses package.

Serious criticism has been levelled at MPs for being able to claim up to £24,000 to provide themselves with electrical equipment, kitchens and bathrooms.

Mr Foster appears as part of the The Times’ ‘Hall of Shame’ on the issue [see Times article]

Liberal Democrats are united in wanting to reform the expenses system.

Local Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner Nick Perry said,

“I am glad that Liberal Democrats in Parliament have been leading the way on trying to get more transparency about MPs expenses.

“That Michael Foster has voted the way he has is just one more example of how Labour is losing touch with the public.

“In an economic situation which is shaky for so many, it is obscene that MPs have voted this way.

“Michael’s predecessor, Conservative Jacqui Lait, has been in the news for her own expenses record, and now Michael backs the status quo…

“Could it be that he and many of his Labour colleagues are planning for their enforced retirement after the next election?”

Voting was 172 to 144, majority 28.

MPs who voted for the reforms have reacted angrily to the result.

Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey, a member of the committee which recommended the reforms, said:

“It was a total own-goal on the part of the House of Commons.

“An opportunity to put our house in order and be seen to put our house in order has been passed up.

“They took all the nice bits of the package but not the ones they didn’t like. They took the spoonful of sugar but refused the medicine.”

[What do you think?]

Many thanks to all those who came and supported the Mayor’s Fair on Sunday at Alexandra Park.  We had great weather and a great time.  There’s really no better place to be on a sunny day than Hastings and Rye!

Link to Question Time website

Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has slammed Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper MP over public sector pay. Taking part in the BBC’s Question Time programme, which was held at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, on Thursday (26 June), Nick responded angrily to the Minister’s request for public sector workers to accept below-inflation pay rises..

Nick said, “How very dare Yvette Cooper ask us to accept a sensible 2%. If her government had been as enthusiastic about taxing those who have benefited disproportionately from the boom, then I would be more willing to listen to what she has to say.”

Nick is an approved social worker in working age adult mental health services, and is a member of UNISON.

Nick, Tricia Kennelly, and Honorary President Phyllis Jeffries (pictured) travelled to Henley today to help Stephen Kearney create an upset in the by-election triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP (now Mayor of London) Boris Johnson.

Following the visit, Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg phoned up to offer his personal thanks.

Our own Nick said, “It was lovely of Nick Clegg to ring us to acknowledge our efforts.  It was a pleasure to go and help Stephen Kearney out.  And it was great to see the Lib Dem by-election machine in full swing. Now it’s fingers crossed for 26 June!”

Key local Lib Dems met in Winchelsea on Saturday to prepare for a busy year of campaigning which will culminate in the East Sussex County Council elections in May 2009.

Fortified by the Rye Lib Dems Summer Strawberry Tea, Lib Dem Group Leader on Rother District Council, Cllr Sue Prochak said,

“I am excited to see the energy of the local campaigners in Hastings & Rye. Lib Dems on Rother District Council will continue to advocate for Area Committees, more effective recycling, and improvements to the Council’s capacity in respect of promoting sustainable tourism.”

Parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, Nick Perry, said,

“The Strawberry Tea was an excellent event, not least because we have had a chance to get together with local activists such as Sonia Holmes and John Smith, and to focus our minds on the issues for the County Council campaign.

“We Lib Dems will be re-doubling our efforts to improve East Sussex’s record in respect of climate change, recycling, and the delivery of improvements across Social Services.

“The Liberal Democrats are offering a progressive agenda for change, and we will be coming to talk to you about it soon!”

Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner Nick Perry has joined forces with the Hands Off the Conquest team to urge the Independent Reconfiguration Panel for the Department of Health to back choice and safety for local parents.

The IRP swung into action when East Sussex County Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee referred the PCTs’ decision on maternity care to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson MP.

Speaking to panel members at the Hastings Centre on Thursday, Nick said,

“I am here as the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner, but also as a new dad whose baby was born at the Conquest in November.

“My partner and I had fantastic care, particularly from community midwives. They allowed my partner to labour as long as she could at home. When we finally needed to get to hospital it took us 20 minutes - and this was only from Manor Road in Hastings.

“Think very carefully about the decision you make. Think very carefully before you take away the right of parents to try to have their babies at home, and get emergency treatment safely if this is not possible.”

Judging by Matthew Parris’ Times column this week, there won’t be many Conservatives who will be filled with thanksgiving and gladness at David Davis (their Shadow Home Secretary) resigning his parliamentary seat to raise the profile of the 42 days detention without charge issue. However, I imagine Caroline Spelman will.

Caroline Spelman MP is the Chair of the Conservative Party, and I had occasion to meet her when I was involved with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty. She is very nice - for a Conservative!

But I doubt she will be glad of Mr Davis’ resignation in the same way that we Liberal Democrats are.

Like David Davis, Liberal Democrats urged the Government not to extend the time allowed to detain someone without charge from 28 to 42 days. We believe that (whatever the judicial safeguards) this is a fundamental affront to the traditions of British liberty. We don’t think it’s necessary. And we think that (like the illegal Iraq War) it has the potential to be highly counter-productive, and to radicalise extremists rather than apprehend them.

Mrs Spelman may be glad however, because Davis’ resignation has taken the media spotlight away from her own travails, and the confusion around historic payments that she made, out of the public purse, to a nanny.

I mention this not to have a go at Caroline Spelman. In any event, the relevant parliamentary body will pronounce on her case in due course.

I mention her because I empathise with someone wanting to get involved in politics and having the responsibility of caring for a young family as well.

The way that Parliament operates is notoriously un-family-friendly. It is a travesty that it remains so, and that it remains open to the accusation of being like a nineteenth century gentleman’s club.

It seems that we have stark choices to make. Either we change the way Parliament works, or we forego being able to send as our representatives to Parliament, people of child-rearing age, who want to have children of their own, and who want to have functional family lives.

I do not believe that our legislators should have to make a choice on this.

At the moment, my partner and I are trying to arrange things so that she can go back to work part-time. I am hoping to reduce my hours so that I can look after my daughter one day per week, and for the time when neither of us can care for her, she will be going to nursery.

We don’t have the money for a nanny. Not that we would necessarily opt for this kind of childcare if we did.

We are just discovering how hard it is to juggle work, bills and bringing up children.

In my view, this proximity to the process of trying to bring up children can be helpful in terms of forming good social policy, and legislation that really works.

So whatever the result of the investigation for Caroline Spelman, I hope that Parliament will take the opportunity to reflect on its approach to its Members with young families, and put its Houses in order.

Pigs might fly.

Dear (Rye & Battle Observer) Editor,

How right Rita Cox is (Letters, 13/06) to upbraid Rother District Council for losing its oomph on the Udimore Road appeal.

It is a crying shame that the Inspector has decided for the appellant, and that a Greenfield site will be lost.

Once again, this is a result of Labour central government targets, and Conservative complacency locally, combining to disregard the expertise of local people on their own community.

Many of the people I have spoken to on this issue, who know Rye much better than I do, have told me how problematic this development could be in terms of rainwater run-off and the effects of flooding on current housing stock.

Rye has just returned Mary Smith of the Campaign for a Democratic Rye - the local group that, like the Lib Dems on Rother District Council, is arguing for Area Committees - at the by-election of 22 May.

What better example of how an Area Committee could benefit Rye and its neighbouring communities, than to have been able to put the local view to the inspector?

Whilst I may be biased (!) I genuinely believe that Labour and the Tories are not at all committed to enabling the voice of local people to become heard via any meaningful political mechanism.

Rest assured, your Liberal Democrat campaigners are still taking the fight to them.

[Please let me know your views!]

Dear (Hastings & St Leonards Observer) Editor,

A St Leonards couple have contacted me stating that their electricity Direct Debit has increased to a monthly charge of £82 (up from £53) for a small flat.

This was based on calculations that the couple could not understand, so they cancelled their Direct Debit, in order to check the charges.

Their first quarter bill confirms the scale of the increase and there has been a further increase in the second quarter.

It is clear that the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners might need to go up from £200 to over £500 per household just to hold the line.

What is our MP going to do about it?

Yours sincerely,

[What do you think?]

Following reports today in the national media that child poverty, pensioner poverty and inequality are all on the up, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner Nick Perry has questioned Labour MP Michael Foster’s version of Labour’s 11 years in office.

Nick says,

“In our MP’s column at the end of last month, he heaps praise on Gordon Brown and the achievements of the Labour Government.

“Today’s report shows that the Government has failed to harness good economic times and make them work for our poorest.

“There is no confusion about these figures. As Larry Elliot of The Guardian reports, ‘the DWP figures showed the incomes of the poorest 20% of households fell by 1.6% between 2005-06 and 2006-07 while those of the richest households rose by 0.8%.’

“This means falling incomes in Hastings & Rye, and increases in fat cat salaries elsewhere. Is isn’t it time for Michael Foster to admit that Labour is failing our poorest?”