19/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

In my last post I had a bit of a dig at local rivals the Lib Dems and their proposal to slash council tax rates.  My point was that it’s easy to say this stuff in opposition, but that I did not believe that from a position of power (which I truly hope, with all due respect to Lib Dem rivals, never comes to pass in Cambridgeshire) they would follow though.  In the spirit of fairness I did also say that I understood they were playing the “opposition game” and that I expected the Conservatives might not behave so differently in their shoes.

Well, lo and behold, while browsing randomly on the web today I stumbled upon this. 

Conservatives condemn Labour and Lib Dem
pact to hike council tax

Sure enough, down in Reading where the Conservatives are in opposition to Labour in the Borough Council, Lib Dems have voted with Labour to push through a rise, while Conservatives call for a freeze.  Now if that doesn’t prove the point I was trying to make, I don’t know what does.  In opposition, local government parties (including, sadly, my own on occasion) can promise the world.  In power, given the task of delivering, reality sets in.  The best laid plans of mice and men are found wanting.

I don’t think this is the fault of the parties in local government, actually.  The fact is, all parties want to try and offer great services for fair and reasonable costs.  The thrust and parry of politics on both sides can be inelegant, we disagree on some points of fair governance, but all want to achieve the best outcome for the electorate.  Even Labour, possibly with the exception of Gordon Brown’s cabal, who just want to cling to power forever like leeches on the skin of the country.

The problem with our services is that there is never enough money to do everything, or even most things.  Why?  Because we waste too much of it on nonsense and because we have made it impossible, or at least very difficult, for people to do anything for themselves.  The government is constantly trying to give councils less money, while giving them ever more top-down ‘targets’.    We are burdened by a ridiculously expensive public sector which employs far too many, pays some of them far too much and encourages ever more waste.  On top of all this we insist on bailing out every failing institution which comes to the government with a cap in its hand and a sad face.  There is only so much money to go around (the ability of the Bank of England to print it with a Mickey Mouse logo notwithstanding).

I’d like to see Council Tax rates going in reverse.  Each year, your bill would tell you how much of a percentage LESS than the previous year it would be.  With the Labour government’s waste, over-regulation and poor practice, this is presently impossible.  A rise is necessary almost everywhere because we have to take care of people and that means more money.  When an election is finally called we can only hope that a Conservative government sweeps in with a massive majority and can then set about restructuring and stripping away the fat.  A lean, powerful, dynamic public sector will make lower council taxes possible.  I know it seems such a thing can never happen, but I remain hopeful that it can.  Falling Council Taxes.  Can you imagine?  You’d almost look forward to the bill.  (Okay… maybe that’s taking it a bit too far!)

Posted in Liberal Democrats, Labour Party, Election, Cambs. County Council, Conservatives | No Comments »

04/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

“I’m Just Nipping Down The IMF For Some Milk & Cheese”
In the 1970s, the Labour Party had so thoroughly trashed the economy of Great Britain that we sat on the verge of bankruptcy.  Strikes plagued our nation.  Working hours were curtailed while people struggled to pay their bills in the face of rising unemployment and hardship.  The Labour government, shame-faced and craven, stumbled weakly to the International Monetary Fund with their begging cap in hand and asked for help to bail us out.  It was an embarrassing, desperate fall for a country that had once been the most powerful trading nation in the world.  It spelt the end of Labour’s reign, paving the way for Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives to sweep in and quite literally save the country from destruction.  To this day some sections of society loathe Thatcher and this is because she had to make very painful and radical decisions to ‘fix’ the economy, cleaning up the mess left behind by her predecessors.  But fix it she did and Britain was returned to prosperity.  It wasn’t perfect, of course.  We had problems.  But we could afford to buy our groceries and pay our mortgages again.

Flash forwards to 2009.  After more than a decade at the wheel Labour have presided over yet another financial disaster.  It’s true that some elements of this one are global in origin.  But where is our manufacturing base?  Where are our entrepreneurs?  Where are the wealth-creators that are necessary to ride in on their white horses and save the day?  They’ve been taxed and over-regulated and demonised into oblivion.  It is not good enough that Labour always want to blame somebody else.  They have been in power since the last century! They have had ample opportunity to prove that a progressive left government can work and they have failed.

For the last few months I, and some other sceptical commentators, have been suggesting that Britain’s finances are even more dire than the government would like us to believe.  We’ve said that the country is already slipping into a state of technical bankruptcy, that we have been for some time, and that it is only a monumental credit bubble and some complex spin operations which have covered this up.  Time and again spokesmen and media have assured us: “This is not the case”.  Only a couple of months ago Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown both laughed off the idea that a new visit to the IMF would be necessary for the United Kingdom.

This week the Daily Telegraph has a story with the headline: “Britain should not fear asking for IMF cash.”  Following a briefing from a senior Labour cabinet member it argues: “Britain should not be afraid or ashamed of taking money from the International Monetary Fund.”  Apparently, the IMF is all different now.  There should be no ’stigma’ attached when one of the once-richest countries in the world has to beg for help.  Again.  It’s just a loan after all.  Another loan.  So, there we have it.  Full circle.  The Labour Party have mismanaged their way back to bankruptcy and begging and they are trying to fool the voters into thinking it doesn’t mean anything.  It’s just a little household shopping trip, apparently. 
“Darling!  I’ll be back soon.  I’m just nipping down the IMF for some milk and cheese.  Do we need anything else?”

We do need something else.  A new government.

Posted in Election, Europe, Recession, Parliament, Credit Crunch | No Comments »

19/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

It’s Not Big & It’s Not Clever
I’ve got to get this off my chest.  But before I do, I need to make a few qualifications.  First of all, I strongly believe there are way too many people employed in the public sector, that some of them get too many perks and that some of them get too much pay.  It needs to be dealt with and I hope a future Conservative government stops the waste, particular on the infamous government ‘non-jobs’ (Co-Odinator in charge of Street Football et al.) which can be done by other departments and most especially the unelected, overpowered Quangos which are the bane of the country.  That said, the current trend of every jumped-up oik demanding to know the detail of every public sector employee’s pay negotation is irritating.  Some people just want to find a scapegoat they can use to divert the public attention from whatever nefarious thing they are doing (Gordon Brown is a case in point.)  Others are just trying to make themselves look important.

Just look at the headline on this week’s Fenland Citizen.  “Anger over perks silence”.  What we have here is an independent (the only independent) on the District Council who seems to think that he needs to up his profile.  Maybe he’s worried that, yet again, the local District Council is being hailed as one of the best in the country?  You’d think, being a member of it, he’d be proud… but it seems not!  Maybe he doesn’t like the fact that it keeps winning awards?  It’s almost entirely Conservative, you see.  The people in his area (Manea) may notice the fact that their Conservative District Council is actually rather excellent and choose to “complete the set” at the next election. 

Here’s the thing.  You don’t get to be rated one of the best councils in the country by employing people for tuppence.  You have to pay a fair market rate when you are going to ask a senior official to juggle millions of pounds and be responsible for an army of staff.  It’s not like you can just employ somebody from Burger King to do it (no offense to Burger King, I love ‘em) I’m all for making savings.  Hell, we need to do it now more than ever!  But it is patently false economy to make savings by trying to pick a fight with your best people, who have a track record of performing admirably year after year.  I guess that’s the job of an independent.  Make some trouble, bask in the dubious ‘limelight’ of the local press.

Rob Bridge, the council’s new Corporate Director, has replied to Mr, Archer, quoting the Data Protection Act as a reason for not answering questions about Mr Taylor.   In an email Mr. Bridge states: “In relation to the contractual and financial information about Mat Taylor, unfortunately because of the council’s Data Protection Act responsibilities I cannot give you the information you have requested. I believe that to do so would breach the second principle of the Data Protection Act.”  Don’t take my word for it.  This comes straight from the report in our fine local newspaper, the Fenland Citizen.

So that response is pretty clear, isn’t it?  Never mind that the law prevents the information being revealed and that this has been explained to Mark Archer, patiently and clearly.  Let’s not let that get in the way of a newspaper crusade which might get him a little exposure.  Call me a cynic, but I can only see this as blatant self-promotion.  Which would be okay if it was helpful.  It’s not.

Posted in Fenland District Council, Election, Conservatives | 1 Comment »

12/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Chocolate Prohibition
Apparently, a Scottish doctor is recommending we tax chocolate.  It’s ‘bad for us’ and we need to be ‘protected’ from its evil influences.  Just like alcohol, cigarettes and the like, he feels the government needs to wade bravely in and (for our own good, of course) help us make ‘the right choices’ in all matters dietary.  I can’t believe even the Labour party would be stupid enough to try this.  “How to lose half the vote overnight” a young lady colleague of mine commented today.  She was joking, but it was one of those growled, piercing-gazed jokes that don’t brook argument.  Visions of a chocolate prohibition bring to mind enclosed “sweeteasys” where very angry women gather to sell contraband and plot the overthrow of the establishment.  It would make the credit crunch look like a cakewalk!

The Great June Election Debate
You might think, by following discussions via the media, that it’s now a foregone conclusion that Gordon Brown will call an election sometime in 2010.  Not so!  A great many folk are still of the opinion that the Butcher of Threadneedle Street  and his Cabinet of Sock Puppets are hatching a devious plan.  It goes something like this:-

• Pretend I’ve Made Deal With Obama
  Spin The Obama Thing, Hope For Bounce
  Pretend I’ve Led Massive New Plan At G20
  Spin the G20 Thing, Hope For Bigger Bounce
  Massive Giveaway Budget Using Printed Money
  Spin Giveaway Budget, Hope For Megabounce
  Call Snap Election In June 2009

Gordon is surely being advised that going the “long route” to an election risks utter devastation of the Labour party.  His MPs must be pressuring him to go earlier - to limit the political bloodbath.  He’s had “bounces” before.  If his plan works he might just be able to kid enough people that something is being done that they’ll give him another.  If the G20, plus the new president of America, seem to be following his lead on the much-touted ‘global new deal’ then it’s not out of the realms of possibility that a gullible and frightened public might fall for the line.  Of course, its a house of cards that’s going to come tumbling down in spectacular fashion, but if that can be held off until after an election is won then what does the Prime Minister care?  The ruin of a nation is a small price to pay for another four years in charge of the economic wasteland that will remain.

Of course, what we hope and pray is that the British People know the spin and lies for what they are.  It’s not as if we haven’t seen enough of it to recognise the pattern.  Come June, if a snap election is called, let’s just see them gone for a long, long, long, long time.  Pretty Please, with sugar and chocolate on top.

Posted in Election, Parliament, Credit Crunch | No Comments »