Nick campaigning with Julia for affordable housing

Liberal Democrats in Hastings and Rye are calling for government action to tackle the growing shortage of affordable homes.

The call was made after Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner, met leading affordable housing campaigner Julia Goldsworthy MP at the party’s recent Spring Conference in Liverpool.

The Conference voted to back measures to build 1.3 million new affordable homes over the next ten years in England. The plans aim to greatly reduce the waiting list for social housing which currently stands at over 1.6 million, up nearly 60% since 1997.

“I know that many people in Hastings and Rye have difficulty finding an affordable home,” said Nick.

“Many young people are stuck in the parental home unable to move out. Many young families cannot afford to move to the larger home they need.

“The plans agreed by the Liberal Democrats would help those on council and housing association waiting lists to get the home they need at the price they can afford.”

Julia Goldsworthy MP said,

“I was pleased to be able to discuss housing with Nick. Across the country, the Government has failed to ensure there is enough social and affordable housing available. The Liberal Democrats have now agreed plans that will ensure we have enough homes for all.”

The missing £10 million for coastal defences

Dear Cllr Pragnell and Mr Foster,

I am advised by Lib Dem councillor for Castle Ward, Paul Smith, that the Labour Government has withdrawn £10 million of promised investment in coastal defences for Hastings and area.

Cllr Smith was given this information by the Conservative Group on Hastings Borough Council when he questioned, at the Council’s Budget meeting, the disappearance of the sum from the Council’s ongoing capital programme.

This is of great concern to us. And it is brought into focus by the kind of weather that we have had today, and that we will continue to have.

I wonder if you could give me your understanding of the situation?
I must say that, if it is true that DEFRA has withdrawn this money, it makes a mockery of local Labour’s attempts to grab themselves some green credentials just before the 1 May election. It is less than impressive to grand-stand about climate change on the one hand, and to fail abjectly to plan for its realistic repercussions on the other.

Of course the Conservatives’ flimsiness on green taxes and environmentalism is undeniably worse.

Whilst you may not accept these last political comments, I would be grateful if you would respond on the facts regarding the funding.

In anticipation of your replies; yours truly,

Campaigning with Norman Lamb MP in Conquest

Thanks very much to Norman Lamb MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, who visited Hastings and St Leonard’s today to visit the Conquest Hospital and to boost Margaret Williams’ election campaign in Conquest Ward.

Norman came out with us on the doorstep and what a fantastic reception Margaret got.  Whilst it is a brave move to take on the Tory Leader of the Council, there is a real sense in which Margaret can win this ward on 1 May!

My letter to Michael Foster MP about Post Office closures

Dear Michael,

I have enclosed the wording of the amendment on the Post Office Network that you voted against on 16 October 2006:

“This House believes the Government is putting the future of the Post Office network and of Royal Mail at risk by their continued failure to take the tough and overdue decisions needed; further believes that many local post offices have closed or are under threat because of the uncertainty over the future of the subsidy to rural post offices after 2008 and the withdrawal of public sector business from the network, including the pension book, the television licence, passports and the decision to withdraw the Post Office card account when the existing contract expires in 2010; shares Postcomm’s concern that over 6,500 remaining rural post office branches are vulnerable and could close over the next few years; further believes that the Post Office network provides significant social and economic benefits and can play a key role in tackling financial exclusion and helping rural and deprived urban communities to survive and thrive; further believes the delays in finalising the investment package for Royal Mail is undermining Royal Mail’s ability to compete in the postal market following liberalisation last January threatening jobs and Royal Mail’s market share; and therefore calls on the Government to end this paralysis in decision-making at the heart of Government so that the Post Office network and Royal Mail can make the investments they need with greater certainty about a sustainable and stable commercial future.”

Given the current situation regarding post office closures locally, do you now regret your decision to vote against this amendment?

Be glad of your response.

Yours truly,

Norman, Conquest and New Labour

Every quite often, something happens to remind me why I didn’t join the Labour Party.

This week there have been more reminders than usual, and I want to share a couple with you, because they are connected.

The first was a positive one. On Saturday I attended Lib Dem Spring Conference in Liverpool. It was a miserable day with the wind howling, but in the afternoon I took part in the debate over our party’s new health policy [see link: http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/liberal-democrat-spring-conference-backs-radical-plans-for-the-health-service.14000.html].

This was a fantastic debate, with some really radical ideas to make the NHS more accountable to local people. Following the votes on Saturday, Lib Dems will be seeking to introduce directly elected Local Health Boards – so we don’t have the situation which occurred recently over local maternity services, where the PCTs voted against what local people wanted.

We will also be seeking to protect our older people in need of care, and those suffering from mental illness, by introducing a ‘Care Guarantee’ (£2 billion invested in a personal care payment for all elderly people requiring care, based on need and not their ability to pay) and giving greater emphasis to Direct Payments and individual budgets.

Not only is the Liberal Democrat Party the only party that still makes party policy on the Conference floor, but we are coming up with empowering, costed, popular policies with which to go in to the next General Election.

It was Norman Lamb MP, our Shadow Health Secretary, who guided the Health Policy through Conference on Saturday. And I am delighted that Norman will be visiting Hastings on Thursday this week: to stop off at the Conquest Hospital, and to boost the election campaign of Margaret Williams – our candidate in Conquest Ward.

However, Norman is not the only political visitor to Hastings on Thursday. Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of New Labour, is also in town. And it has been the PR around her visit that provided me with my second reminder…

You see New Labour is still not being straight about fundraising. You will remember that they have had their fingers burnt recently about illegal ways of receiving donations.

There is ambiguity about whether Harriet Harman is coming to Hastings in her role as Minister for Women, or as a Labour politician – the PR says she is coming as part of the commemoration of women’s involvement in the political process.  But what she will be attending is a Labour Party fundraiser.

This is just typical. The Lib Dems will be out on Thursday trying to get a local woman elected to the Borough Council. The Labour Party will be commemorating the Suffragette cause by, what a surprise, looking after its own interests.

You see the Labour Party has one overriding concern. It has one love. At the end of the day, what matters to New Labour more than anything else – more than principles, more than ideology, more than social justice, more than you and me – is itself.

That is the key to understanding everything that is New Labour.

And that, among other things, is why I am not.

Lib Dem Spring Conference in Liverpool

Apart from a nasty stomach bug I had a great time in Liverpool at the weekend.  My dad is still based in St Helens, so it was handy for Ruth, Zoe and I to pitch up and for me to toddle off on the Saturday to attend what turned out to be a fantastic health policy debate.

I am always proud of the fact that the Lib Dems remain the only major political party to set party policy on the floor of Conference.

I was sorry to have missed a speech by Vince Cable due to attending some training, but I did hear Brian Paddick’s speech (and spoke to him briefly afterwards) and I was very impressed.  I think his membership of our party and his candidacy for Mayor of London can only increase our credentials as a party that has the know-how to reduce crime in the UK.

But the highlight of the day was definitely the debate on health policy.  There were a couple of really important amendments to be discussed on the composition of Local Health Boards and the limiting of private sector involvement.  In respect of the LHB amendments, and after a long think, I voted for the motion unamended; and then voted for Amendment 3 – the limiting of private sector involvement in the NHS.

This was an important debate for our party, and in my view, this policy keeps us at the progressive forefront of British politics – with the interests of the most vulnerable in our society as our priority.  Long may it remain this way.

Michael Foster, Cliff Richard, and the Party Conference season!

It was remiss of me not to wish our MP Michael Foster a happy birthday in my column for the Observer last week. 62 years young. He’s the Cliff Richard of Hastings’ political life. Happy birthday Michael!

Last week also saw the beginning of the Party Conference season, with the Labour Party in Birmingham for the first time.

There can’t have been many delegates that have come back from Birmingham with a spring in their step and a song in their heart. But I can imagine our New Labour Michael being one of them.

Knowing that the song wouldn’t be ‘The Red Flag’, I started to wonder if it might be a Cliff number – what about ‘Blue turns to grey’ (a reminder of Gordon at the podium?); or ‘Can’t take the hurt any more’; or (sorry) ‘Great Balls of fire’; ‘I wish we’d all been ready’ (for a November election); or maybe, ‘The golden days are over’…

I was crying with laughter at the possibilities by the end of my scroll through the Cliff lyrics website that I found via Google. Sad, I know. I think it’s the sleep-deprivation of new parenthood.

In truth, I’m not sure if Michael went to the Labour Conference just gone, but it must have been a very strange affair for the delegates. There must have been a pretty surreal quality about it. Gordon with his now mandatory Conservative-blue background, churning out the same old phrases. Bold phrases rendered meaningless by repetition – like new money announced three times over!

Phrases like, “This is the New Labour promise of opportunity and security, not just for some but for all”.

Phrases like, “Neighbourhood policing for every family in every community, three million more homes and a safer environment, managed migration with a new points system, an NHS with better access to your GP, clean hospitals and the right to check-ups and screening”.

All these promises – good things in themselves, but now sounding as hollow as the trust that the British people has in the Labour Government itself.

The Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, has said that politics in Britain is broken (and surprise surprise, a few days later, one Davey Cameron has latched on to the phrase). It is broken not just because of the arcane system by which we elect our politicians, but because trust in politicians’ promises has been eroded further than ever before.

Gordon Brown’s rhetoric is tired. New Labour in government is tired. And the country is gradually tiring of them.

By contrast, this week the Liberal Democrats will welcome Nick Clegg to his first conference as Leader of our party. We are in good spirits locally and nationally. We have a combination of energy, ideas and experience that is beginning to convince people that the Liberal Democrats are worth taking seriously.

And if I were a Cliff fan, which I’m not, I think I’d be humming ‘Hope set high’ on my way to Liverpool on Thursday.