Richard Baum

The Liberal Democrats are holding their spring conference in Birmingham this weekend, starting to set the scene for the general election campaign. Today Vince Cable, our shadow Chancellor and the politician widely believed to have been most on-the-ball with the financial crisis, made his speech. His message was this:

“We the Liberal Democrats were right about the financial crisis. We warned of the dangers and led the debate when the crisis came. And now we have a clear vision for the future of the British economy.

“Now the public wants to know who can guide the country out of the present crisis. Who’s going to deal with the broken, discredited banking system. Who’s going to lead Britain out of the longest recession since the War. And who will deal with the unsustainable level of Government borrowing.”

Vince set out the answers to these questions in the speech, and you can read it here.

Vince Cable went on to say “The challenges are enormous. We have to be frank with people about the difficulties ahead. We have to be fiscally responsible. But the Tories and their cronies want to create a financial panic to frighten people into voting for them on May 6th.

“Only the Liberal Democrats have identified £15bn of savings to make from bloated bureaucracy and unaffordable commitments. We will identify our priorities and debate them publicly. That’s open, democratic and Liberal.

“Only the Liberal Democrats will invest in jobs with a Green New Deal.

“Only the Liberal Democrats will change our unfair tax system so that 3.6 million people will no longer pay any income tax at all. Pensioners will be £100 better off and the average person’s income tax bill will be cut by £700.

“People are desperate to see the back of this Labour Government. But they don’t want the same old Tories. And make no mistake, the Tories are exactly the same.”

Rick

The former leader of the Conservative MEPs who stood against Tory-backed Michal Kaminski has announced his defection to the Liberal Democrats at the Party’s Spring Conference in Birmingham.

Edward McMillan-Scott, the Conservative’s most senior MEP, has joined the Liberal Democrats.

The former leader of the Conservative MEPs who stood against Tory-backed Michal Kaminski has announced his defection to the Liberal Democrats at the Party’s Spring Conference in Birmingham.

Edward McMillan-Scott, the Vice-President of the European Parliament with responsibility for human rights and democracy, was welcomed to the Liberal Democrats by Leader Nick Clegg.

Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire said: “I have been around the higher circles of the Conservative Party for long enough to fear that on Europe Cameron says one thing in opposition and will do another in Government.

“I have long fought against totalitarianism and the extremism and religious persecution it brings. It was wrong of Cameron to associate with MEPs who have extremist pasts in his new European alliance.

“My reasons for joining the Liberal Democrats are that in Nick Clegg they have a leader whom I like, admire and respect. They are internationalists, not nationalists. They are committed to politics based the values of fairness and change.

“From being a liberal Conservative I become a conservative Liberal. Most of my family are liberals: I am pleased to join the Liberal family.”
 
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

“I am delighted to welcome Edward McMillan-Scott to the Liberal Democrats.
 
“For many years he has fought for human rights and democracy world wide and he is rightly a respected politician across Europe.
 
“As someone of principle he has refused to cosy up to right wing extremists, despite pressure from the Tory machine.
 
“This flies in the face of David Cameron’s claims of change. It shows that people of principle, who believe in fairness and want real change for Britain are at home in the Liberal Democrats.”

My campaign for a fairer system on Criminal Records Bureau checks and Police DNA retention continues.

Frequent readers will remember that I have been highlighting for a while now the injustices in the current CRB system, where rumours, hearsay and spent convictions are revealed on many people’s disclosures. The campaign for reform continues, and I have heard from dozens of people unfairly penalised by the current unfair laws.

A related topic is DNA retention by the Police. At present, despite the European Courts ruling the practive illegal, the government still allows the Police in this country to keep DNA records of innocent people on their database. This needless and worrying invasion of our civil liberties needs to stop.

I have asked a number of formal questions on both of these topics to the Greater Manchester Police Authority in recent times, through Bury Council’s representatives on that body. The latest question on DNA retention of innocent people came in February, and I find its answer is very worrying.

The GMPA said “some people who are arrested in connection with an offence but who subsequently are never charged or against whom no further action is taken still have their fingerprints and DNA taken and retained”

This is a breach of the law. But more worrying was the next passage, which said: “Simply because an individual is not later charged in connection with the offence with which they were arrested or no further action is taken or indeed is acquitted when the matter goes to court, does not necessarily mean they are “innocent” of that offence… Innocent is a vague term that does not adequately deal with the various stages in a criminal case. A simple example could be for instance, where a criminal offence has been committed, but an individual is not charged with that offence since the CPS do not feel that a prosecution would be in the public interest, or indeed where is insufficient evidence to charge.”

They are also really saying that “innocence is a vague term.” To my understanding, it is absolutely not. Innocent people are innocent until proven otherwise. Even where the Police think they’re guilty, even where they’ve got off on technicalities, they are still innocent. It might be annoying sometimes, but it’s the law and the fundamental basis of how we live. The Police and CPS need to try again to get a conviction, and if they can’t, people are innocent and that’s that. And their DNA should not be taken and kept.

If the Police consider someone not innocent even when the courts have said so, what kind of justice can there be for those seeking to get on with their lives in peace?

GMPA also appear to be saying that even where the CPS have said that a conviction would not be in the public interest, this can be over-ridden by the Police if they wish to keep DNA records. Again, I find this disturbing. What right do the Polic ehave to make this decision and break the law?

I really don’t like that response from the GMPA. It’s not on that our Police have such a loose definition of innocent.

Rick

One of the interesting things about the Bury North general election campaign is that two of the three major-party candidates are under 30 - the Labour Party candidate and me. This election is the first time people born post-Thatcher will be voting, and represents an election where new media, the internet and single-issue causes that are important to young people will have influence like never before.

Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman for Youth and Equality, Lynne Featherstone today launched our party’s ‘Free to be Young’ policy paper, which we hope will be of interest to everyone, but in particular to the young people who will be voting for the first or second time this time round, and to all those who care about children and young people.

Launching the paper at The Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, the policy outlined how the Liberal Democrats will ensure that all young people have better access to after-school facilities, comprehensive support and training for those entering the workplace and legislation in place to stamp out homophobic bullying.

The paper includes proposals to:

• Introduce a new ‘Paid Internship’ scheme allowing 800,000 young people to receive a ‘Training Allowance’ of £55 a week for up to 3 months
• Support schools, colleges and apprenticeship schemes to promote opportunities for disabled children and young people
• Immediately remove young people under 16 from the National DNA Database unless they have committed a sexual or violent offence
• Ensure that all schools include ways to tackle homophobic bullying and at least one teacher in every school has sufficient training to do so
• Cut back on bureaucracy and red tape so youth organisations are free to be creative and flexible

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone said:

“It is clear that Labour will continue to fail our young people and the Conservatives will ignore them completely.

“While youth organisations are left to do their vital work on a shoestring, greedy bankers are bailed out by the taxpayer and flaunt their bonuses while we watch every penny.

“Our young people will inherit an economy where it is tougher then ever to enter the work place.

“It is high time that realistic measures are put in place to support the future workforce from mass unemployment and crippling debt.

“Only the Liberal Democrats will give young people and those who work with them the chance for a real future.”
Take a look at this and all of our other policies at www.libdems.org.uk

Rick

Tonight I visited Bury Hospice at the invitation of the Chief Executive, to view their plans for a new facility, and to meet some staff and take a tour. It was a very informative and enjoyable hour and a half, for which I’m grateful.

The visit started in slightly surreal fashion, I must admit, as I arrived just when two other local PPCs were leaving from earlier appointments. It was clearly some kind of politician’s open day, as Michelle Wiseman the Tory PPC for Bury South, and Maryam Khan the Labour PPC for Bury North were in the lobby leaving as I was going in. I did fear slightly that the coming-together of three opposing political forces in one place unexpectedly would result in some kind of time/space vortex occurring, but thankfully there were no black holes to be seen. It was though the first time Maryam and I had met, which was a shame because I didn’t have chance to even say hello. I’m sure our time will come though. This politics lark is weird like that - candidates come to recognise their opponents names so well and yet sometimes barely ever see each other.

I had never been to the Hospice before, which is not something to be proud of when it’s clear that this is a wonderful and respected facility giving a very high level of care to local people reaching the end of their lives. I am glad I went tonight, and although the tour was only a brief one I did have a long chat with the Chief Exec about the Hospice, its relationship with the NHS, its funding challenges and the need for donations to keep it going. As someone professionally involved with the NHS and voluntarily involved in a charity myself, I know how hard it is to deal with those two things, so doing so in unison and on a massive scale as the Hospice does is extremely tough. The people involve deserve our thanks and respect for the service they provide.

Rick 

Unlike a lot of parliamentary candidates, I have a full time job which I am trying to do whilst campaigning. I work in the NHS, for a mental health organisation which provides services to Bury as well as other areas around here.

My wife-to-be (on 7th August) Tamsin is not only a PPC-widow but is also a full time public servant - she’s a primary school teacher, which means that we both get to moan about the state of public services at home! What annoys me is that I’ve been elected as a Councillor to try and fix them, so she gets to finger-point a bit more than I do, but neither of us run the show so that’s OK!

We were having a chat the other day in Nando’s, a place where I suspect high-charged political discussions are few and far between. But in between munching on my peri-peri chicken pieces and those nice nuts they have there, I got all philosophical and asked her what one thing she would do if she was in charge of education for the day. She said that she’d lower class sizes, which surprised me a bit because if I was in charge of education for a day I’d hack into the computer systems and give myself twelve degrees and a PhD, and then I’d remove all the A-Level records of that beautiful girl who turned me down when I was 17.

But she is clearly a lot more sensible than I am.

There are two things interesting about her answer though. First, that out of everything that anyone talks about regarding education - the gap between rich and poor students, discipline, grade inflation, skills shortages etc - she picked class sizes straight away. And second, that she followed it up with “ooh, no wait, maybe something else…” and then listed lots of other things she’d like to change, before finishing with “But we don’t have the opportunity.”

At that point we had to leave to go and see Cirque du Soleil, and so our conversation had to end because she wanted to talk about clowns. That’s a shame because I could have told her about the Lib Dem education policy, which was outlined by Nick Clegg last weekend.

We propose an investment of £2.5billion in schools, to reduce class sizes and achieve many of the things that Tam and lots of other teachers want to see. That equates to an extra £2,500 per pupil for the million pupils on free school meals in this country. This “pupil premium” would raise the amount spent per pupil in the state sector to that in fee paying schools.

Imagine what teachers could achieve with that kind of additional funding!

Our plans would get rid of anomalies which exist under Labour now, like catchment areas with different funding arrangements which means that needy kids in some areas don’t get the funding they need.

This money isn’t going to be given lightly, but what we will do is cut the reins between schools and the government to let the people who know schools best - the highly skilled and dedicated teachers who are frustrated under the current system - the opportunity to innovate. We invite teachers to re-invent the curriculum to challenge and stretch. We say to teachers, cut class sizes in your school if that’s where you think the money should be spent. And we ask teachers to make sue that this money means that more children achieve well at school.

I genuinely believe that this approach, a pupil premium where it’s needed most, is the fairest and most sensible way to give teachers what they want, and to give pupils what they need from our schools.

Rick

Nothing beats coming home from a freezing leafleting session to a nice warm house. Unfortunately for me and everyone else (even those sensible enough not to deliver leaflets on weekends!) the cost of keeping houses warm has more or less doubled in recent years. Despite the cost of wholesale gas fluctuating wildly, bills seem to only ever go up. However, those good people at Scottish and Southern Energy have cut their bills!! Sadly it’s only by 4%, which is nowhere near the commensurate fall in wholesale prices, and of course comes right at the end of winter when demand is about to plummet.

Commenting on the cut, Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Simon Hughes said:“Token price cuts in March won’t fool customers already hit by bumper bills.Wholesale prices have plummeted but customers have hardly seen any benefit. 

“The Liberal Democrats will change the rules so that fuel bills reflect fuel costs and consumers are not ripped off again and again.” 

Let’s be fair - any reduction is better than no reduction. But it’s time the energy companies were held to account. For too long they have been profiteering on the wild fluctuations in wholesale energy markets. Meanwhile people are struggling to stay warm and live in fear of the bill. I now pay well over £1,000 per year for domestic heating, and I know lots of other people are in the same boat.

Energy bills need to be tied closer to the real costs to the companies, when prices go down it should trigger immediate reductions to domestic energy tariffs. And with regard to tariffs people need greater support and advice to ensure they are on the best tariff deals with greater incentive for green energy. 

There are too many tariffs and special offers. We need streamlining across the industry with the emphasis on the best deal for the consumer not the shareholders. After all, there’s no real choice other than to keep warm.

Rick

The Bury Lib Dem campaign against congestion charging was finally vindicated today when it was revealed that funding for public transport may be made available WITHOUT the need for congestion charging after all!

A costly and controversial referendum on congestion charging was held across Greater Manchester after local Councils in the city region were the only ones in the country to bid for funding contingent on congestion charging. The proposals were rejected by almost 80% of local voters after a campaign led by the Liberal Democrats in Bury. We called for funding for public transport without unfair road charges, but were told at the time that there was no alternative.

 Now, that lie has been exposed after it was revealed that money from the Transport Innovation Fund, which was conditional on charging schemes being introduced, will now be made available to all councils – including those in our region - with NO strings attached.

Unsurprisingly lots of people are annoyed that we were lied to, leading to an expensive consultation exercise, loads of money wasted promoting the original TIF bid, and a hugely costly referendum.

The Manchester Evening News reports how then transport secretary Geoff Hoon warned on the eve of the vote that unless Greater Manchester said ‘yes’ it it would get NO extra transport cash. Council chiefs in Greater Manchester – who also warned at the time there was ‘no plan B’ – have since come up with an alternative £1.5bn funding package based on borrowing against future council tax rises.

A ‘discussion paper’ released by the Department for Transport says TIF’s ‘weaknesses’ lay in its ‘too narrow focus’ on congestion and its ‘failure to win public acceptance for the more challenging proposals’.

 Greater

Sean Corker, who led the campaign against the congestion charge as part of the pressure group Manchester Against Road Tolls, called for an inquiry into how much was spent promoting TIF.

“

Remember, the Lib Dems were the only party in Bury against the TIF bid’s proposals for congestion from the start. The Tories signed the TIF proposals, and Labour campaigned publicly for them.

I knew we were right then, and we have been vindicated. It is now up to the government to properly fund public transport in the area without imposing unfair congestion charges on motorists.

Rick

Fans of men emerging from lakes in wet t-shirts should vote Liberal Democrat according to a new book published this week. Actor Colin Firth, who played the dashing (but no more so than me…) Mr Darcy in the BBC’s adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” is just one of a host of names from all spheres of public life to contribute to a book entitled “Why Vote Liberal Democrat.”

Other contributors include former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC and musician Brian Eno, who I like a lot at the moment because he worked on Paul Simon’s latest album. And any friend of Paul Simon’s is a friend of mine! 

The book, which goes on sale on Today, covers topics as varied as fair taxes, gay rights, looking after our armed forces, political reform and the fight against climate change.

Other contributors include Gurkha veteran Madan Kumar Gurung, political reform campaigner Pam Giddy and Duwayne Brooks, Stephen Lawrence’s best friend who was with him on the night he died.

Commenting Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

“There are hundreds of reasons to vote Liberal Democrat, but there is also just one reason: the will to create a better, fairer Britain by doing things differently. This is what unites all the contributors to this book.

“I am delighted such a great group of people from so many different backgrounds have come together to share their reasons for backing the Liberal Democrats.”

Sadly there’s nothing in the book to explain why our election logo looks a bit like the Somerfield supermarket logo. But maybe they’re saving that for the sequel “Making Britian Great Again - Nick Clegg’s First 100 days in Downing Street” which will be published in September.

You can get a copy of the book here should you wish. There will be precisely no points for wit on offer for anyone who sends in a comment along the lines of “I bet it’s a very short book” etc etc etc.

Rick

I was very sad to hear of Michael Foot’s death today, at 96.

He was a political giant, whose contribution to parliament and to British political life was huge. I don’t share all of his beliefs, but I like to think I do share his commitment to democracy and the achievement of progress through parliament.

I never met Mr Foot. He was Labour leader at the time that I was born, and had long ago left the front benches before I even became aware of what they were. But his speeches and the ideals he espoused in them remain, as do the memories others have of a very decent man who stood firm in his beliefs. He wasn’t the most popular politician when he led the Labour party, nor was he the most successful in elections. But votes and passing trends mean less when conviction and personality are as strong as they were in Mr Foot. His legacy is much more than the votes give him credit for, and those seeking to make the country better in the future will owe him much.

My condolences to all those who knew him and are mourning his death.

Rick