23/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

St. George
Every time the question about a national day for the English comes around it seems to get bound up in rhetoric of whether we should, or should not, be proud to be English.  Whether we (as a people) are given to this sort of celebration or not.  Whether we even have anything to be proud of.  Well, I am certainly proud to be English.  I am indeed given to this sort of celebration.  And I do believe that England has a great deal to be proud of.  Times are hard for many and they’re going to get harder.  One of the things that will help get us through is to remember our long, colourful history.  Another is looking at our communities and the decent, proud, generous people who live in them.  We sell ourselves short sometimes, getting bogged down in arguments about benefits cheats, teenage parents, corrupt bankers and knife crime.  Let’s try to remember our good points too.  A national day to keep that in mind is a good thing. 
Happy St. George’s Day!

Stand And Deliver
Yesterday the Prime Minister put on his mask, strapped guns to his hips and laid in wait on the side of the highway.  The first carriage to come along was carrying the Middle Class.  Gordon leapt out into the road and shouted : “Stand and deliver!  Your Money Or Your Life!”  People might be forgiven for thinking Robin Hood had arrived, stealing from the rich (well, prosperous, anyway) and giving to the poor. 

Until the next wagon to happen by.  “Stick ‘Em Up!  I’ll be taking all your jobs, please.” Gordon ranted, aiming his six guns at a bunch of weary working class travellers.  “I know the prosperous employ everybody else, I just don’t care.  The public sector isn’t big enough yet anyway!”  Leering evilly, Gordon smirked: “Don’t worry, you’ll be looked after.  As long as you meet the criteria.  You need to be a teenager, out of work for six months or more, driving an eleven-year-old car, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, born on the Sabbath under a blood red moon.”  Or something like that. 

Having now put the lie both to the Big Idea that the middle classes have nothing to fear from New Labour and to their Manifesto commitment against huge tax increases, Gordon Brown finally openly reverts to type.  It’s back to the Seventies with a hit parade of class warfare, economic ruin and social jealousy.  Since today is also William Shakespeare’s Birthday I think a quote is in order. 

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
- Shakespeare’s Othello

I’m aware that my metaphors are something of a mish-mash.  Much like that disastrous nonsense of a fabricated budget.  Give me strength.

The Small Print
At the end of April ‘09 we move officially into Campaign Season.  The run-up to the County Council and Euro-Elections mean that some rules come into force which I am advised I must adhere to since I am a candidate for the Roman Bank & Peckover county division.   As a consequence of this I will be obliged to include an amount of ‘Small Print’ at the end of every blog post detailing my Conservative affiliation and some other campaign-related details.  My posts will also be slightly delayed as they will need to be ‘approved’ by my local organising secretary.  She’s a good sport and I’m not particularly controversial, so I don’t anticipate any problems.  I’m only making this advance notification in case anybody wonders why small print suddenly starts appearing at the end of my posts.  It doesn’t mean I’ve sold out, or am under the dictatorial thumb of Big Brother.  It just means (like any good Conservative) that I want to stay within the law and do the right thing as a county candidate.  Somehow, I doubt that telling readers I’m a Conservative at the end of each post is going to be a big surprise to anybody.  But if it is I’d have to ask… what Blog have you been reading all this time? 

Three Thousand Readers
My latest ‘hits count’ for the blog website is three-thousand individual readers a week.  TWELVE THOUSAND a month?  Bloody hell!  (Excuse my French.)  Who are you all?  Thank you for reading but please… leave a comment once in a while!  It’s exciting to know my occasional rant encourages some inspection.  It’d just be nice to get some feedback!  Speak now, or forever hold your pieces.  <Ahem>
  

Posted in England, St. Georges Day, Budget, Labour Party, Cambs. County Council, My Campaign, Conservatives | No Comments »

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 »

16/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Low Low Low Prices - Everything Must Go!
While browsing the web today I visited Nichola Harrison’s site. She’s a Lib Dem County Councillor and I often read her blog because she writes well, is clearly passionate and is often entertaining (perhaps unintentionally, I’m not sure.) Now I must stress that I seldom actually agree with her conclusions, but I do have a soft spot for people who can make a good argument and write from the heart. But her blog piece today, entitled: “If The Lib Dems Ran The County Council” just demanded a response. I apologise in advance for any readers who aren’t particularly interested in party versus party pieces, but I just can’t help myself.

The Lib Dems seem to be proudly trumpeting their claim that if only they were in charge the council tax rise would have been smaller. In opposition its easy to throw a figure and an ‘alternative budget’ (I use the term loosely) into the mix with grand claims. After all, you don’t have to implement it, do you? Then, should the time ever come that you do have to implement it you can introduce that hoary old chestnut “the circumstances are different now.” Of course they are. The circumstances are always different when a brash promise (or series of them) has to actually be realised. Now I don’t blame Nichola or her party for playing the opposition game. I suppose, if the Conservatives were in opposition, we’d probably do the same. But Nichola regularly bemoans the dangers of “party politics” interfering with actually doing the right thing (which, in principle, I agree with her about) while simultaneously playing the exact same game herself. (Which turns her argument to mush.)

Nichola then goes on to say:-

“The party believes that under the Conservatives the Council has become sloppy in the way it uses its resources, so that many millions are being wasted on unnecessary luxuries like the press office and glossy brochures, and on inefficient contractual arrangements for school transport and highway maintenance.”

I love that term: “The Party Believes.” Well, this blogger believes that: “under the Liberal Democrats the council would flush its resources away on pointless vanity projects and have nothing left to actually do the jobs the people who live in the county need.” Why is what Nichola “believes” any more valid than what I “believe”? Readers, you’ve seen the Lib Dems at work often enough around the country. You can make your own call. Would a Liberal Democrat council spend money wisely? I Doubt It.  

In principle, I would agree with Nichola that lower council tax is a good thing.  Who wouldn’t?  None of us want a big bill that we struggle to pay.  Or the sweaty brow of the District Council Enforcement Department leering over our shoulders.  But if slashing the bills means we cannot afford to pay for the services that the people of Cambridgeshire need, we can’t do it.  There are some very vulnerable people who rely on those services.  Who need more care, not less.  It’s the Labour Party who seem to think money can be conjured with the wave of a magic wand.  The Lib Dems are on board with that too, apparently.  I prefer the real world.  Fairy tales are all well and good, but when you have to pay for stuff you need actual money.  Not fictional money.  Slashing the budget in an “Everything Must Go” Closing Down-type sale is not (to my mind) smart management.  Even as an opposition ploy.  It helps nobody.

Finally, Nichola Spells Out Her Party’s Priorities:-

highway maintenance and better traffic management
more police to tackle anti-social behaviour
better local youth services and
more support for voluntary and community organisations
free vegetarian pizza every Friday (I made this last one up.  Sorry.)

Well… uh yeah. Of course. That’s what we all want, Nichola. (Not the vegetarian pizza, obviously.)  That’s what is on every prospective councillor’s election literature, both Lib Dem and Conservative, I would guess. A wish list is a lovely thing. I share your values. I just doubt your party’s  ability to deliver them. Whereas the Conservatives have been delivering fairly consistently for quite some time. I do not claim the Conservatives are perfect. I want to work to help improve the party. I do not claim we are immune to mistakes. That would be Gordon-Brown style arrogance. I just trust Conservatives with my taxes before I’d trust anybody with a yellow rosette. In my experience, Tories Do It Better.  Now that sounds like a slogan for a T-Shirt.  Somebody call the printers…

Posted in Liberal Democrats, Labour Party, Cambs. County Council, Conservatives | 1 Comment »

30/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Gordon Brown - The Taxman Cometh
Our Prime Minister is truly a master of squeezing every penny he possibly can from anybody who has the temerity to be productive.  It never ceases to amaze me the new and devious ways he invents to get our cash.  All of our cash.  Not just the rich, not just the middle-classes, he taps each and every one of us, siphoning off huge portions of our hard-earned pounds.  It wouldn’t be so bad if he did something decent with it like actually improve our schools or hospitals.  But Labour’s idea of ‘improvement’ is to set up a body of overseers and introduce a stack of tick-box forms.  Even when he hands money to the non-productive section of society he dresses it up as a generous boon from the government.  Notice he never mentions that he has created a benefits trap.  Anybody unlucky enough to have fallen into it has little chance of ever escaping.  Another ‘client’ for the government’s ongoing social experiment.  It got me thinking.  He loves the inheritance tax because as far as Gordon is concerned you shouldn’t even be able to escape his icy grip in death.  He loves borrowing because that lets him tax people who haven’t even been born yet. 

That is our Prime Minister in a nutshell.  Tax the Womb.  Tax the Tomb.  It never ends.

Newton Here I Come!
If you’ve read any of my earlier blog entries you probably know that I am standing as the Conservative Candidate for the Roman Bank and Peckover Ward of Cambridgeshire’s County Council.  The ‘proper’ campaign starts at the end of April.  I’ve been out and about in the area since I was selected last year making sure people get to know me and I have a good understanding of the views and concerns of my neighbours in the ward.  Over the last two weeks I’ve been delivering my “In Touch” newsletter to the people of Leverington.  I’ve finished that now and this week my team and I will be in and around Newton delivering door-to-door there.  If you live in Newton and happen to see me, please do feel free to say “Hello!”  If you’ve got any views or comments, I welcome the communication!  I hope I didn’t miss anybody but if you live in Leverington and for some reason have not received your “In Touch” newsletter, please let me know and I’ll drop one in to you personally.

Posted in Labour Party, My Campaign, Cambs. County Council, Leverington, Newton | No Comments »

28/03/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Basic Rate Tax Increase
There are some rumours flying around that there may be a rise in the basic rate of tax coming as part of Gordon Brown’s forthcoming ‘Bribery Budget’.  The gist of it is that, in order to try and regain some of his lost popularity he might throw some tax cuts and other sweeties at the public to get them back onside.

My response that is “Good. That’s a fair thing to do.”  My question though is Could We Afford It Now? If Gordon hadn’t blown all this money on one silly scheme after another, maybe we could. In which case, I’d applaud the prime minister (which would feel really weird.)  Trouble is, we can’t afford it. So if he does it then its got to come from increased taxation elsewhere, borrowed money, or printed money, or cuts.

Now let’s be honest , it’s not going to come from cuts because Gordon is more scared of that word than the word “sorry.”  If it comes from increased taxation I guess it’ll be the rich who they try to get to pay. Good luck with that. There are a lot of highly paid accountants who might think otherwise.

If it comes from borrowed money then first you’ve got to raise it with gilts (not as easy as he thought, that) in which case its more money for our kids’ kids’ kids to pay. Well done Prime Minister. Your party want to rob from the grave AND the womb. Talk about taxing the candle at both ends.

Of course there’s always the printing press to fall back on. More false economy, devalue everyone’s money with your monopoly currency, then give it back and claim its a gift. Kinda like an evil version of Santa Claus who steals the children’s toys then repackages them and gives them back… broken.

I know I’ve made my dislike of the Prime Minister and the Labour Party clear in the past but each day I am amazed at the new levels of revulsion they make me feel.  The public won’t fall for Gordon’s gamble, even if the rumours do turn out to be true.  Will they? 

Posted in Labour Party, Credit Crunch | No Comments »