Lib Dem Council Tax proposals announced

I have had first site of the delayed Lib Dem Kingston Council Tax proposals. More bad news for Kingston residents. Almost 7% rise (including the GLA). On top of this they are cutting frontline services with the closure of the family archive service, reductions in the Museum opening hours and cutting staff in the libraries. Also cuts to roads maintenance.

Sorry state of affairs. They have been in power for four years and have done nothing about the structural problem of staff numbers rising by nearly 40% since 2000. I have blogged on this in the past.

Whatever else it is now clear that Kington will have the shameful honour of having the highest Council Tax in London; all because we have had a lazy Lib Dem run Council and a Leader who by his own admission "Came into local Government to spend money not save it!"

A policeman with too much to say

This is an interesting piece in the Telegraph about the nonsense spputed by our chief police officer Ian Blair.

Am I alone in thinking it is the job of the police to catch criminals and not act as pseudo-psychiatrists on issues that no one seems to be raising?

Higher taxes from Hughes

It is startling that there is any politician left that does not believe that taxes are not high enough already. I accept he is arguing that the better off should pay more tax but what exactly does he mean by that. More income tax, more inheritance tax, more which tax?

I am a little dissapointed the Conservative party is pulling back from their look at flat tax. I have no idea whether it would work but I do know we should have investigated and discovered the truth of what a simpler tax system could do for us and our economy.

People to be offered 'health MoT'

At last!!

For sometime readers of this blog will have been aware of my view that one of the problems with the way this Government has approached the reform of public services is that they have spent far too long worrying about the "supply" side. It has all been about structures (as in schools currently) and salaries and buildings. Those things are important and having good public services need state of the art facilities.

However, whilst all that happens I have been worried about the fact that maybe they should be managing the demand side. should they not be worried about the prevention of ill health more. This report at least might signal a change in emphasis.

Can anyone disagree with incapacity benefit reform?

Doubtless some of this is the fault of the last Conservative Government but the bit I find disturbing about the idea of benefits reform is the sheer scale of the numbers involved here. There is genuine need, but can anyone be surprised that the unemployment numbers have fallen at the same time that incapacity benefit claims have risen?

I actually agree with the Lib Dem David Laws on what he says. It is all very well setting targets but can they deliver?

Votes ebb away from Lib Dems with poll slump to 15%

Opinion Cartoon - Daily Telegraph - 24th January 2006

Sadness for Oaten: No sympathy for his party

There has been an awful lot of sympathetic blogging bout the predicament of Mark Oaten; my blogging colleague Iain Dale amongst them. On one level, the personal and family, I can understand this. However the charge sheet relating to Mark Oaten is not a good one.

• He has misled his party


• We presume he misled his family


• He deluded himself that he could become the Lib Dem Leader – it would have been interesting if he had won!


• He argued in the Orange book of the Lib Dem modernisers that the family should be upper most in the minds of the state; and then he betrays his own.


• He lets down his constituents

The Lib Dem party now has “sleaze” attached to them in a way they used to gain their political position over the Conservatives seats they now hold.

In the sort space of a few months the Lib Dems have gone from a serious threat to at least one of the two major parties to be a joke party. Nobody ever really cared what their policies were but now they are just looking dishonest and deceitful. What a fortnight they have had:

• An alcoholic leader


• Back stabbers who briefed on national TV against him and forced him out


• An alcoholic leader in the House of Lord’s (what a pair!) who now regrets his wasted years and money given up to alcohol


• A leadership campaign that has disappeared without site through its torpidity


• A potential leader now permanently to be know as Ming the Merciless


• A Home Office spokesman who wanted to be Leader who now admits to three in a bed romps with his rent boy whilst his wife and young kids were at home.

So, I feel sorry for Mark Oaten; I am sure being outed by the News of the World is not pleasant. But I can feel no sorrow for a party that made its success on the misery and problems of other parties and painted themselves as a clean, young, trustworthy and just plain “normal” party. They clearly are not and are in freefall.

Incidentally, as the news was breaking one BBC reporter gave away on live TV how he was surprised that it was “that” Lib Dem frontbencher. Apparently there are other issues widely known to the press and yet more revelations about others might well follow. There will be many worried about their closets and skeletons over the coming weeks and months!

Conservative Home poll of members on support for David Cameron

This is an interesting poll on the current position on party support for David Cameron

Lib Dems shambolic handling of the theatre

The Lib Dem’s admitted this week that the Theatre was nearly six months behind schedule because the Council’s business partners had not transferred the required funding. They forgot to tell anyone about it though!

There was huge controversy in the summer of 2005 over the Lib Dems breaking numerous promises by providing £3m of taxpayers’ money, opposed by the Conservatives, to own part of the Theatre property company. The Council’s majority "partners" in the company are General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH) and Kingston University, who pledged £3m and £500k respectively. GMH would have the control of the company but the only action taken by the partners so far has been to name directors to the company.

We had a Council meeting last week at which the Lib Dems admitted that: “I have to be honest, the money (from GMH) has not yet been transferred.” They also failed to rule out any additional council funding being provided to keep the Theatre running in the meantime. Could be another 1/2 % increase in Council Tax?

We were all informed in June 2005 that the "deal" was being rushed through without the opportunity for proper Council scrutiny because the building work needed to start in September 2005 to meet the plan of opening in September 2006. Part of that deal was to fund the running costs of the theatre staff up to the opening in September 2006. It does not take much to work out that the theatre will need six months more running costs and it has only one source of income - the Council tax payer!

The Conservative Group have asked me to be a Council appointed trustee on the Kingston Theatre Trust because despite the fact we disagree with the idea of the Council funding the theatre we need to ensure that the money the Lib Dems have allocated is spent wisely.

The right approach for the Lib Dems?

Unsurprisingly Polly Toynbee is not someone I have a great deal of affection for. However my newsreader picked up this article this morning in the Guardian which I think give some thoughtful pointers on the current position of the Lib Dems. With their leadership battle turning to bitterness and dirty tricks (See this article on the Police being called in to the Oaten campaign) there is a lot of thinking, and maybe rethinking, they now need to do.

Start again on drugs

I will be frank that I do not understand the classification of drugs. My own party claims that cannabis should be reclassified back to where it was a year ago because it has led to confusion in people's minds as to the relationship between classification and danger. Confusion? I do not think that many people knew what the classification meant either now or a year ago.Whatever else the Lib Dem position of wishing to legalise cannabis would be very wrong.

So I find my self in agreement with Noddy Clarke that we need a new system. I am sure he would not adopt my system because I would have three classifications: dangerous, very dangerous and deadly!

Sex offences in education

I find this a complex and difficult subject.

What is emerging is that there are a variety of reasons for people being placed on the sex offenders register some of which are not the downloading of child pornography or offences aganst children. It is shameful that in the age of the internet there has not been more done to formalise what can and cannot prevent you from teaching in schools if you are a sex offender. As the Bichard enquiry attempted to get implemented there needs to be a rationalisation of the various lists surrounding this issue.

But I also have another problem.

I was sexually abused at school.

I enjoyed school immensely. It was a good Kingston school; a school that is sadly not doing so well today.

At the time it happened I was not aware that is was sex abuse. When you are 11/12 you do not think of such things. I also loved the subject the teacher taught and would not have done anyting to upset what was for me a happy school life. I heard some years later that he had moved on and been caught at another school,

Which brings me to my concern. Whilst there is rightly grave concern about the idea that those convicted of child offences could get to teach again in schools what is being done to prevent these offences occurring in the first place? Is there something that can be done about this?

A prostitution Strategy?

This is an interesting area of policy and one that has difficult moral issues.

By having a prostitution strategy the Government appears to be saying that because "the oldest profession in the world" cannot be stopped we must therefore regulate what happens. This is an interesting perspective because my understanding is that one of the major sources of prostitutes is those young women who wish to travel here from Eastern Europe. Although they do not know it at the time they will pay for their passage here by becoming associated with a pimp in the UK. One cannot help thinking therefore that rather than expending energy trying to regulate prostitution the Government be spending more energy regulating the flow of migrants for prostitution.

Clinton backs Blair as UN chief

This BBC article would be an interesting retirement sinecure for Blair. Just think of all those wars he could start with the UN's blessing?

Which makes me think: does Clinton really believe that a global organisation that felt humiliated and betrayed by the actions of the Prime Minister would be the same organisation that would want to give him their top job. It would be like the Nobel Peace Prize being given to Blair for his work in Iraq!

John Hemmings pulls out

I know this wil dissapoint some readers of this blog. I did inform you that John Hemmings MP was going to stand for the leadership of the Lib Dem's. Having commissioned his own poll he has decided to withdraw.

The race will not be the same without him and their will be real dissapointment amongst Labour and Tory members.

Not sure how he would have done it though because as well as being an MP he is also a Brimingham Councillor until 2008!

Conservative and Green

Campaigners Emission Mission To Save Park And Ride (from Surrey Comet)

I agree with the Greens. In fact before I saw this article I had agreed to second a motion to Council to try and get the administration to take Park and Ride more seriously.

The Lib Dems told us they wanted a permanent park and ride but here we are four years later and we have nothing. Instead of Kingston dealing with the problem the LibDem solution was to try and dump all our cars in another Borough. Not surpisingly the other Borough's had no interest in this.

The Council had a consultant produce a report and the Lib Dems ignored it.

I also agree it is a shame that we do not have a Climate Change Strategy, like Woking with it's Conservative controlled Executive.

Kingston's Lib Dem administration promised to put "the environment at the heart of everything we do". All I can reflect is that it is a good job the world is not dependent on Kingston Lib Dems to save us from global warming!

The ides of early January

It is very odd how early January is historically a time of some political importance. A number of important political events have happened in the first two weeks if January. Whether it is the period immediately after polticians have made their new year resolutions and they start to act on them I have no idea. Here is a selection:

1977 Jenkins quits Commons for EU
1986 Heseltine quits over Westland
1957 Anthony Eden resigns
1979 Callaghan says there is no chaos
1957 McMillan becomes PM
1971 British Minister's home bombed
1984 Tony Benn starts back to Commons

2006 Kennedy resigns

Not now!!

Matt in the Daily Telegraph

1985: Gas blast kills eight in Putney

Amazing to think that this was 21 years ago. Anyone who lives in South West London will remember this disaster and the devastation that was caused by the explosion.

Quite simply it could have happened anywhere.

King Charles' Road

Improvements Have Made Road A Deathtrap (from Surrey Comet)

A resident who lives near King Charles' Road has raised the issue of traffic calming. As regular readers of this blog will recall this issue has been bubbling away for some time now.

Basically the Councillors agreed to a traffic calming scheme that when installed was clearly a death trap. The scheme should never have been installed and officers have had some serious questions to answer about why they allowed such a scheme to be proposed.

Contrary to the letter the scheme has been back to the Councillors. In fact a residents group was formed that worked with officers to redesign the scheme. That redesign went out to consultation and the Councillors have agreed to the modifications.

The main element of the modifications is to remove the "island" Give Way's and replace them with speed tables across the entire junction - similar to that used in other parts of Berrylands. A plan of the new Avenue South junction can be seen here.

We will see whether this yields a better result.

Kennedy may be finished – but so is his absurd, irrelevant party - Sunday Times - Times Online

There are some good editorials on the Lib Dems in the Sunday's

Simon Jenkins in the Times

Matthew D'Ancona in the Telegraph

Poll sees dramatic slide in Lib Dem support as voters flee to Conservatives

YouGov plc - Understanding People

This was the only one of the recent polls that had put the Conservatives still behind Labour. This time it has them neck and neck with a dramatuc fall in the Lib Dems. The only caveat is that this was taken over the period of the Lib Dem leadership debacle!

John Hemming's Web Log

John Hemming's Web Log

This is probably the last bit of news that Lib Dems want to hear but apparently John Hemming is considering standing for the leadership election.

There is clearly something wrong with either this guy or the Lib Dem party.

How bad is it?

If any Lib Dem out there wants to delude themself that this is not that bad then I suggest they have a look at the BBC "Have your say".

When the Tory party was in it's blackest days those in the party were always trying to put positive spins on what was happening. We also always thought it was good that at least the public was listening to us and the press keeping us in the public eye. In fact, of course, it was an utter disaster and we appeared divided and a mess. The trouble for the Lib Dems is throughout the past 13 years of Tory turmoil it was neve as bad as this - a public slaughtering by a party built on trust.

Still, they will come to learn.

The not to be trusted Lib Dems

ePolitix.com - Campbell enters leadership contest

Kennedy is finished...stabbed in the back, the front and in full view of the public. But then he too was also not a great representative of the supposedly "nice" party of politics because he lied.

Unlike some murders we know the perpetrators here; Cable, Davey, Teather. I have some time for the work that Davey does in Kingston but he has not done himself favours here (his TV interview was not good but he did sound unwell). As for the odious little Teather girl!! What is clearly emerging now is that the young guns were really being organised by Campbell to set the leadership up for him. A bit like the nursery sorting out an early retirement present for Grandad.

The Scandinavian Welshman Opik feels they have damaged their party with their silly public games and he has been vehement in his critiscism. He is right the damage is significant but the idea of Campbell being a good Leader is laughable. We lost two good men from our leadership race because they would be in their late 60's by the next election. Strange, one would have thought that of all the parties that might take a risk with a youthful Leader the LD's would be favourites.

Still I just hope there are no heavy drinking Lib Dem Councillors in Kingston because clearly they will be out of work soon.

The plot thickens

Iain Dale's Diary

Iain Dale has done a good job reporting on the Kennedy episode.

In particular he has highlighted how Kennedy's former press officer (who now works for ITN) knifed him by sending a dossier to Lib Dem HQ yesterday afternoon.

The road to destruction

Unbelievable!

Of course you can have sympathy for the man but it is baffling that Kennedy has deceived the people who voted for him, he leads a party that has kept it secret and we have a press that knew and refused to print it. He seems to be a man who needs help but all this from his supposed friends about how brave he has been is nonsense. If they were real friends they would be telling him to go. He would never have got in front of the cameras and made this confession had he not been told that ITN were about to run a story about his drinking. Whichever way you cut it Kennedy lied over years about this and he is finished. If he stays on they will be the pointless and silly party (although some rightly argue they are anyway!).

Now he seeks to wrong foot his internal critics by calling this election which only someone acting as a stalking horse will stand in. He has been revealed as a fool. This is a disaster for the Lib Dems and they will pay heavily for it. The fact is that if Kennedy stays they are doomed and if he goes they will be launched into a damaging leadership campaign which will lead to a fundamental fight between the right and the left.

Who would win that fight? Well whoever it is they will be a failure; especially if it is Hughes.

Ever since I have been in politics we have had the Lib Dems locally crowing about the divisions within my own party. To have the divisions in the Lib Dems gives me some joy and to see the destruction of the Lib Dem party in this way reminds me of Jeremy Thorpe and the destruction of the Liberals.

In fact the real disgrace is the entire parliamentary Lib Dem party who have kept this secret and pretended that all was well when they were all aware of this devastating disease. If only for the sake of Kennedy and his family they should have made him depart prior to the last election. I suppose thoguh they feared for losing their seats had he gone then - such is politics.

Linked here is the quote of Jenny Tonge on the Today programme. With friends like her who needs enemies?

New Year - New Computer

I am afraid I have had a major computer failure.

I am in the process of formatting, reloading etc etc. All very dull and time consuming; still will be good to start New Year with a clean machine that opens and shuts down fast!!

Posts will start again soon and I will do some back dating as I have been writing entries off line.

See you all soon!!

REUTERS Showcase

REUTERS Showcase

This a superb picture review of the year just past.

So for the resolutions

So for the resolutions…

I have two; one political one non political.

The first is that I want to cycle more next year. I cycle quite a bit anyway but really only when the weather is fine. Kingston is not that big a Borough and I think I should try a little harder.

The second one is to do something about reducing Council Tax. Whatever you may feel about the CT it is the system we have. As this article in the Telegraph points out the number of staff employed in Local Government is ballooning (as I have blogged on Kingston before) and the time has come to do something about it ourselves rather than just keep on blaming the Government.