News and views from your Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner
Quite astonishing from Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles on Question Time this evening.
I think he said his constituency was 37 miles from Westminster, and there he was on telly arguing passionately for his right to a second home allowance – because (I paraphrase) it’s really difficult to get in to work on time otherwise.
Beware those who tell you that the New Tories will bring a new dawn.
I have heard that somewhere before…
I have never been a huge fan of Big Brother.
(The name of the show itself is not the kind to endear itself to a Liberal Democrat in any case). And so I never really ‘got’ the way that Jade Goody roared to fame.
And then there was the Shilpa Shetty episode…
But I have to say that it did strike me as poignant that Jade passed away on Sunday – on Mother’s Day.
Perhaps it has struck a chord because I lost my own mum to ovarian (as opposed to cervical) cancer a year and a half ago, but I have noticed myself listening unexpectedly to the debate in the media about whether or not Jade has been right to do as many interviews; have the wedding covered; have Max Clifford managing the whole affair…
‘Was this the done thing?’ the pundits have mused. ‘Was it in good taste?’
I haven’t read the interviews. I don’t know if Jade has explained why she has chosen to live out her last weeks and days in the media spotlight.
Certainly she may have understood that it was the media that enabled the brief life that she has had to be so successful.
As the parent of a toddler, I am personally drawn to believe that she has done what she has done in order to provide as well as she can for her children after her death.
That she has wanted to make sure that even her death could be used in order to take care of their futures.
It is in this sense that the news on Mother’s Day was poignant.
Whatever and whoever she was – I wish her safe passage.
Hastings & Rye Liberal Democrats are asking where local MP Michael Foster was on Friday when MPs voted on a new parliamentary bill aimed at ending fuel poverty.
The Bill was just 11 votes short of the number it needed to make progress.
Just one in ten Conservative MPs and one in fourteen Labour MPs were in Parliament to support the Bill. Nearly three quarters of Lib Dems were present but it was not enough to stop the Government blocking the Bill.
Nick Perry, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesperson for Hastings & Rye, said:
“The Fuel Poverty Bill was ‘talked out’ by the Government on Friday because not enough MPs turned up to support it. It needed 100 MPs but it only got 89.
“This is a crying shame. With millions of people across Britain struggling to afford to heat their homes, this Bill is desperately needed.
“With such a narrow margin of failure, it is really disappointing that whilst Michael Foster signed the Early Day Motion, he was not in Parliament to support this important Bill.
“The Bill, which is being proposed by Liberal Democrat MP David Heath, would deliver a massive home insulation programme which would halve the energy needed to heat the average home. And it would end the scandal of those who use pre-pay meters – generally the least well-off – paying higher rates for their gas and electricity.
“Our best hope now is to put as much pressure as possible on the Government to change their minds and support the Bill. Without government support I am afraid it looks doomed.”
Campaign groups such as Consumer Focus and Age Concern have condemned the Government for blocking the Bill’s progress. Help the Aged have said that, “Millions of older people… will be devastated and dismayed by this result.”
[Do you think Michael Foster should have voted for the Fuel Poverty Bill? Please use the form to send in your comments]
16 April this year is the twelfth anniversary of Paddy Ashdown’s first trip in a Hastings fishing boat.
Speaking with Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner, at a recent party meeting in Lewes, former Lib Dem Leader Lord Ashdown said,
“Nick, I want you to send my very best wishes to the fishermen of Hastings. I have happy memories of our 5am start, and the comradeship of the boats and the crews that I sailed with.
“I wish them well and the people of Hastings happiness and strong livelihoods in these tough times.”
Nick said,
“It was great to spend a bit of time with Paddy, and to hear that Hastings and our fishing community has made such a good and lasting impression on him.
“We are proud of this industry and heritage, and are committed to securing its future.”
Paddy Ashdown was MP for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001, and leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 until 1999; later he was the International High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002-2006) and is an active Liberal Democrat peer.
I am told that there was an Observer online poll as to whether the recent allegations against Old Hastings Lib Dem Councillor Sue Palmer were a storm in a teacup.
I didn’t see the result of the poll, and I have not been privy to the details of the case itself, but I noted the many comments in support of Cllr Palmer following the reporting of the story in the local press.
The Standards Committee has now met and passed down its judgement.
It has been mentioned to me that their decision might have been unlawful, given the judgement in the high profile case concerning Ken Livingstone when he was Mayor of London.
In this case, you may recall that Ken had compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard.
I am reminded that Mr Justice Collins, sitting at the High Court, stressed that the Mayor had the right to freedom of speech in a democratic society and to express his views within the law ‘as forcibly as he thought fit’.
The judge added, ‘Surprising as it may perhaps appear to some, the right of freedom of speech does extend to abuse.’
Whatever the legality, I do wonder whether (given the information in the public domain about what actually happened) the independent investigation, the inevitably lengthy document resulting, and the standards committee hearing, were a proportionate response.
Moreover, we should ask how much all this has cost local Council Tax payers, at a time when Council Tax demands are landing on our doormats and we are, again, facing rises in this as well as other bills?
Cllr Richard Kemp, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Liverpool and the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at the Local Government Association has recently called for the scrapping of the Standards Board for England (SBE) and local standards committees because he doesn’t think they are either working well, or providing value for money.
On recent evidence from Hastings, he might be right.
Many thanks to Arthur Burgess the CVRA’s esteemed Chair (pictured), and the other Clive Vale residents who gave me such a warm welcome last night at their March meeting.
Charged not to speak about the Euro or County elections (because the other parliamentary candidates are not to address CVRA before June) I spoke a bit about my own background, my reasons for being a Liberal Democrat, and my hopes that the audience might consider supporting us at forthcoming elections. It was a bit nerve-racking, but a great experience all told.
Research undertaken by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that in 2007-8, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust was one of the highest charging Trusts in respect of average fee per hour for patient/visitor parking.
Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, with help from the office of Norman Lamb MP (Lib Dem Health Spokesperson), has also established that the Trust received £850,000 from visitors parking, and that the costs of providing the parking amounted to just under £400,000.
Following the submission of a Freedom of Information Act request, the Trust said that it did not hold information on average length of stay in its car parks.
Nick has joined forces on this issue with hospital campaigner Margaret Williams, and said at the weekend,
“When we met with the Chair of the Trust in autumn last year we learnt that the Trust does not receive an adequate market forces supplement in respect of Government funding.
“As the recession bites, we appreciate that the Trust may not be able to waive charges altogether. But when there is a clear link between deprivation and health inequalities, ours more than any other English Trust should be leading the way in securing a fairer deal for local people. Especially when charges have been scrapped altogether in Scotland and Wales.
“In my view, the Trust must at least look again at an initial free period. Following pressure from Lib Dem MP John Pugh, this has been achieved recently in Southport, in the North West.
“All the political parties should work together to keep the pressure on, until this is agreed”, he said.
[If you are against hospital parking charges, please sign the petition using the button above]
Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, has challenged his party to knock on one million doors before the County and European elections on 4 June.
Local Lib Dems have been to out in Farley Bank, Hastings this weekend, to do their bit.
County Council candidate for Old Hastings & Tressell, Stuart Murphy, said,
“We need to communicate with local people if we are going to get people re-engaged in the political process. In these difficult times, it’s more important than ever for people to see that politicians genuinely want to listen to their views.”
Lib Dem parliamentary hopeful for Hastings & Rye, Nick Perry said:
“It was good to be out in Farley Bank today. It is always the local residents that know just what needs to happen so that our area is regenerated in the way that it deserves. Our job is to get people involved, and to support them to have their say.”
Don’t know if you saw Charles Moore on the BBC’s Question Time programme this evening?
If not, you can catch up via this link.
Personally, I found most of his comments sneering and repulsive.
As I understand it, this man’s relationship with the Conservative Party goes back a long way. Mr Moore is said to be a close friend of Oliver Letwin, one-time Shadow Chancellor and the Tories’ current policy guru.
He recently attended the Hastings & Rother Business Forum in support of my Conservative counterpart.
If I was her, I’d be pretty ashamed.
[Am I wrong about Charles Moore? Use the form below to send in your comments]
‘The problem is that you lot are too nice to get on in politics.’
If I had a pound for every time I have heard that said of the Liberal Democrats, I could probably go down to three days a week at work.
The Lib Dems are often thought of as a party that can afford to think and act in a consistent and principled way because there is ‘no danger’ of us getting into government.
Well, with the second largest share of the vote across the country in 2008, that is certainly not true at a local government level.
And with the economic crisis leading more and more commentators to predict a hung Parliament, and some even to speak of a national government, the prospect of Liberal Democrats as power brokers and policy makers at Westminster is more realistic now than it has been for a hundred years.
In particular, it is Labour that sees a threat in the increasing national standing of the Liberal Democrats.
In Hastings, this appears to have resulted in some skewed accounts of what has been happening at the Town Hall, from the Labour Party.
Prior to the elections of the coming summer, Labour is wanting to discredit the Liberal Democrats in the eyes of the electorate. Labour wants you to believe that the Lib Dems are in cahoots with the Conservatives locally.
Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.
It is the Liberal Democrats, not the Labour Party, that lead the Opposition to the Conservatives across East Sussex, and it is the Liberal Democrats who are attempting to wrest control of the County Council from the Conservatives in June.
Personally, I am willing to see my party criticised for our policies by others with opposing views. I am prepared to answer for we believe in. But I reckon it to be unjust when what we believe in, or how we act, is deliberately misrepresented by our opponents.
This is the kind of behaviour that has turned a huge number of people off the political process altogether.
‘Going negative’ is a common strategy in political campaigning – it has even been used by President Obama at times – but let’s make sure we give the electorate the facts. Because to fail to do so, is to fail democracy.
And we need to protect the little of our democracy that we have left.
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