The right thing to do

Michael must resign.

That is the conclusion I have come to.

It may be that there is a U-turn in the offing.

But if transpires that there is no change of heart by Gordon Brown, and no decision that the Iraq War Inquiry will be a public inquiry after all, then our MP must hand in his resignation as a Government Minister.

He must resign for a second time over the issue of Iraq.

Last week in my column, I shared with you my uncertainty as to why our Labour MP has decided to become a Government Minister during the death throes of the New Labour project.

This week, following my open letter (in which I encouraged local people to send in their own expressions of dissent) I believe Michael Foster has an opportunity to show us that he is, after all, the kind of MP that people thought they elected in 1997.

There are some who are skeptical about the first resignation – as parliamentary private secretary to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith. Michael is clear that he resigned; some constituents, including some who post comments on these Observer columns, believe otherwise.

There is no longer any need for ambiguity.

It is alleged that Gordon Brown opted for secrecy because he had been requested to do so by the office of the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

My own party leader, Nick Clegg, responded to this with utter disbelief:

“If the inquiry is to have any legitimacy, the prime architect of the decision to go to war in Iraq alongside George Bush should give his evidence in public under oath.

“I think anything less will make people feel this is just a grand cover-up for, after all, what was the biggest foreign policy mistake this country has made since Suez”, he said.

So, if there is no about-turn by Gordon, I urge Michael Foster both to act, and to persuade other Ministers to act with him.

I urge him to put aside thoughts of the final salary pension.

I urge him to speak out against this flagrant denial of the public will towards greater political transparency and accountability.

Let’s not pretend this is not an important issue.

It is fundamental to the crisis of confidence that the British people are having in their politicians.

My Conservative counterpart appears to agree with me on this. To her credit, she has written this week about the need for the Inquiry to be held in public.

However her comments are the weaker because of the Conservatives’ own position as backers of the Iraq War.

On many of the key issues for Hastings & Rye, it seems clear that she does not have the strong, radical voice that this constituency needs.

Unless he is saved by another Gordon Brown volte-face, Michael Foster’s mettle will truly be tested on this issue.

It won’t just be local Liberal Democrats who will be listening for a strong, radical statement from our representative at Westminster.

Raising the flag for Armed Forces Day

I took my daughter along to the ceremonial raising of the flag on Monday morning, again at Hastings Town Hall.

I feel it’s really important to come to events such as this with her.

Not only because of her own family history, but because we must keep alive down the generations an awareness of the sacrifice that our forebears have made on our behalves.

Our great British freedoms are something we oughtn’t to take for granted.

Armed Forces Day is celebrated across Britain on Saturday – 27 June.

Castle Ward Forum AGM

I attended the Castle Ward Forum AGM on Saturday morning at Hastings Town Hall.

Living in Manor Road in Castle Ward, I like to keep up to speed with what is going on, and the Forum always has its collective ear to the ground!

I was especially glad that I did because I found out that Judy Russell, long-time Secretary of the Forum is standing down.  There are many people that contribute to the work of the Forum, but Judy was (quite rightly) singled out by Honorary Freeman Pam Brown for special praise.

No doubt Judy will keep an interest in the Forum in the future.  It will take an army of volunteers to replicate her efforts.

Also standing down is James Leathers.  James gave a thoughtful and inspiring Chair’s report.  Of course he is absolutely right that poverty is not just about income, it is about choice and opportunity.  These remain salient issues for Castle Ward, despite all the regeneration money that has been poured into new buildings in the centre of Hastings.

[How do you rate the work that has gone on to regenerate Hastings?  What work is still to be done from your point of view?  Please use the form below to send in your views]

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MPs’ pensions and the Election of 2010

On Monday I wrote a letter to our Labour MP about the Government’s decision to hold its Iraq War Inquiry in private.

It was an open letter.

Through it, I have urged the people of Hastings & Rye to write their own letters – writing to Michael Foster as a new member of the Government – to express their dissent.

I am hopeful that it will be published by the Observer this coming Friday.

It is highly symbolic in my view that immediately after Gordon’s ‘mea culpa’ to the Labour Party, and his promises of change, we get this appalling decision.

I will return to it in a future column.

Some pundits may tell you that the meeting in Committee Room 14, a week last Monday, was all about the desire of the Labour Party to demonstrate unity, and to bolster any residual hope it may hold of winning the next General Election.

I am afraid (even at this tender age) that I am more cynical. My own view is that Labour MPs know all-too-well that Labour will be crushed. What they have decided to do is to save their gold-plated pensions.

I have started to do a bit of research on this. 

Did you know that 13 years’ service appears to be the magic number in respect of MPs’ pensions?

Let’s do the maths from 1997…

The Parliamentary Labour Party has clearly done this simple calculation. They have considered the implications of changing Leader (with the imperative for a quick General Election) and have promptly backed Gordon Brown and an election in 2010.

And I would betcha that this has not been the only pension calculation being done over the last couple of weeks.

MPs pensions are final salary pensions. And they are ridiculously generous.

Interestingly, a local resident wrote to all the parliamentary candidates for Hastings & Rye before the recent elections, noting the absence of any direct reference to a pension in our MP’s expenses statement.

This resident has asked for an actuarial assessment of our MP’s pension pot. We will see if he gets one.

 But I digress.

You will no doubt be aware that there are Labour MPs who have joined the Government for the first time in the last couple of weeks.

In my letter to Michael Foster, the new Equalities Minister, I wondered aloud why he could possibly want to align himself even more fully with Gordon Brown in the dying days of New Labour, never before having been a member of the Government…

I suppose one could say that, over the years, he has voted in the House of Commons in exactly the way that a Minister would have done; so why not receive the status and the perks of the job?

On Michael’s website he recalls the moment:

‘At about 9.30 in the evening I received a call from Gordon to ask if I would like to take over as Equalities Minister in his ‘reshuffled government’. It didn’t take me long to say yes as it’s a job that will certainly fit in with my constituency role’.

He should also be clear with us whether it ‘fits in’ with his pension settlement.

Open letter to Michael Foster MP on Iraq War Inquiry

 

 

 

Dear Michael,

You are now a Government Minister.

Whilst I have congratulated you on your appointment, I am still uncertain why you have chosen, at this late stage in the life of New Labour, to align yourself even more fully with Gordon Brown.

I am writing to you today, horrified to have learnt that you, the Government, have decided to hold your Iraq War Inquiry in private.

I hope you will note the words of Rose Gentle, whose son was killed in Iraq.

She has said to the BBC that she will continue to lobby for a public inquiry, and she adds, “We have fought and fought for this but it will be no use and it could all be for nothing behind closed doors.”

I hope you will guarantee to pass every single dissenting letter from your constituents to the Prime Minister on this issue.

I am sending a copy of this, my personal dissent, to our local media, because I am asking as many local people as possible to write to you, demanding that you use your new-found influence to change Gordon Brown’s mind, and hold this inquiry in public.

You, the Government, owe this to the British people.

Yours truly,

 

 

 

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Cross-party meeting on hospital parking charges

We had the long-awaited cross-party meeting on hospital parking charges today.

It was a constructive discussion and the Trust is to be congratulated on its recent decision to overturn the delay on ‘pay-as-you-leave’ parking.

There were a number of issues raised by the different attendees including the current parking enforcement contractor, pricing, the staff parking situation, blue badge holders, infection control funding…

The Trust has agreed to make a press statement next week on our discussions.  I am very hopeful that the Board will take soundings from the public before making a final decision on its new tariff structure.

We need transparent processes at all levels of government and governance.

Today was a step in the right direction.

Nick joins panel for Equitable Members Action Group debate

A belated entry due to a busy election week.

Last Thursday we had an interesting, and at times shocking, discussion at the Hastings Centre on The Ridge. 

My Labour and Conservative counterparts and I joined a panel to discuss the current position for Equitable Life policy holders.

The Government got an absolute pummelling.  And quite rightly so.  See this link for the debate in Westminster Hall the previous week – it’s a pretty good account of the problems across the piece.

I had to laugh at Mrs Rudd suggesting (in a subsequent press release) that she ’savaged’ Michael Foster’s Labour Government on these issues.

Perhaps she did scold them a bit.

Rather like the Head Girl challenging a rum decision at hockey.

Hastings & Rye is going to need a stronger voice than this at Westminster when the Brown train crashes into the bumpers…

Vote for a General Election

Just over one day to go before the East Sussex County Council and European elections.

Will you be voting?

I hope so.

It’s a key step towards resolving the political crisis we are in at the moment.

The number of people that have opened their door over the past few weeks to tell me that they are utterly disgusted with politicians and will not be voting is now beyond my counting fingers.

I understand the reaction, but it’s not a solution.

In any other situation, if we had the opportunity to change things for the better for the people we care about, by exercising one of our rights of citizenship, so that scoundrels don’t prosper – wouldn’t we do so?

Of course we would.

Taken to its logical conclusion a mass no-show on Thursday just serves to maintain the status quo, and that’s the last thing that we need in this country…

I read an interesting article in The Times by the comedian Frank Skinner. He (as well as my Conservative counterpart in her column this week) was writing about the hit show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

His premise was that the results of BGT are much more meaningful and democratic than many of our political election results. With tongue firmly in cheek (at least I thought that it was) he says that voters in BGT are far more informed about what they are voting for than many who vote in our political elections. And he plugs his new campaign called: ‘If you don’t know, don’t vote!’

Well here are two things you should definitely know about tomorrow’s elections.

The first is that if you don’t vote, you will give political extremists an electoral chance that they don’t deserve.

The second is that if you give Labour a good hiding, then Gordon Brown might be ditched, a new Labour Leader installed and, surely, a General Election called by the Autumn.

There are various opinion polls doing the rounds at the moment.

[My particular favourite is the one that shows more people inclined to vote for the Lib Dems than Labour at the next General Election.]

But other polls are suggesting that more than half of the people in the country want a General Election.

So go to it team.

Show New Labour the door, and you may bring forward the General Election that this country so badly needs.

Your Lib Dem candidates in Hastings and St Leonards divisions are:

Anne Gallop (Ashdown & Conquest); Anne Scott (Baird & Ore); Roger Weeden (Castle & Braybrooke); Oliver Maloney (Central St Leonards & Gensing); Christine Benner (Hollington & Wishing Tree); Tricia Kennelly (Maze Hill & West St Leonards); Chris Beaumont (St Helens & Silverhill); Stuart Murphy (Old Hastings & Tressell).

Our candidates for Brede Valley & Marsham, and Rye & Eastern Rother are, respectively, Derek Greenup and John Smith.

Lib Dems celebrate hospital parking charges victory

Local Liberal Democrats are celebrating the news that East Sussex Hospitals Trust is to introduce ‘pay as you leave’ parking at the Conquest and the Eastbourne District General Hospitals in the Autumn, despite having decided in March 2009 to postpone the plans for a year.

Responding to the Trust’s statement, Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye said,

“This is a wonderful start to the process of change that is necessary in order for local people to get a fairer deal on hospital parking charges.

“I want to say a big thank you to all those people who have contacted Margaret Williams and I to share their stories, and their determination that there must be change.

“I am pleased that the Liberal Democrats have been able to play a part in helping the Trust to understand just how unfair the local community feels these charges, and their enforcement, have been.

“The introduction of ‘pay as you leave’ parking is an encouraging signal from the Trust, before our cross-party meeting at the Conquest on 12 June. But it must be the first of a number of steps.

“At the meeting on 12 June I will be putting forward further proposals, which include: a review of pricing; the need for clarity in respect of which grades of hospital staff are paying for parking, and a review of whether staff should be paying at all.

“I hope that these proposals will receive the backing of the other political parties.

“In the medium term, we hope that it will be possible to consider an initial free period of parking, for which the visitor, patient or carer is not charged at all,” said Nick.