TELL ME WHEN ITS OVER?

The rumbles of discontent within the Con Dem Coalition have been decidedly detectable for quite awhile. So the news that the largely Lib Dem Plans to reform the House of Lords (awaited since 1910) have been dropped after Conservatives "broke the coalition contract" should not surprise many disinterested observers. It has all been reminiscent of being a distant observer to a slow car crash, in that you can see that is happening but there is nothing you can do about preventing it.

While I have no problem with either sweeping the anachronism that is the House of Lords into oblivion or making it entirely democratic, in the current economic climate the prospect of Lords reform keeps few aside, from political anoraks, awake at night, there are literally more important things to worry about. The fact that, Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg announced that agreement on an elected Lords could not be reached with fellow Conservative coalition members must surely add a little extra sting.

Nick Clegg stated that plans would be shelved rather than face a "slow death". Getting his retribution in quickly, the Lib Dem leader said Lib Dem MPs could not now support Conservative-driven changes to Commons boundaries in 2015. Even David Cameron has admitted that things are not going to well with the Lib Dems.

Aside from deep (almost vindictive Tory driven) public sector cuts and enforced public sector job losses, the coalition has failed to really deliver anything for the Lib Dems. Yet the coalition may last for a while longer as some Conservative and Lib Dem MPs may be reluctant to face the prospect of electoral oblivion at the of the electorate (for both the Tories and the Lib Dems) may concentrate the mind.

HAS ANYONE TOLD DAVE...

News that the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, desires action to be taken in the New Year (after due consultation) to improve transparency and curb excessive executive pay packages in the public sector, should welcomed. The move, is apparently, intended to ensure that public sector workers don’t feel they were bearing the brunt of the cuts while their bosses are not. The Deputy PM indicated that there would be moves to increase transparency and that legislation could be brought forward in the New Year. I wonder if he has told Dave and George yet? I suspect the answer might be not yet, as apparently senior Conservatives are said to be sceptical about the plans and say no government work is under way on implementing them.

TALKING THE TALK?

We are all far too used to members of the energy cartel repeatedly raising their domestic customers bills, no doubt to help deliver a healthy profit and a healthy dividend to the shareholders. The latest was Scottish and Southern Energy (21st July) who were the latest gas and electricity supplier to announce a rise in prices.

Their domestic household electricity bills are set to go up by an average increase of 11%, and its household gas bills by an average 18%, from 14th September 2011. British Gas earlier in July also announced that the cost of its electricity and gas will go up from 18th August.

Members of the energy cartel are naturally blaming a 30% increase in wholesale energy prices. Scottish Power which is one of the big six announced price rises in June, with the cost of its gas going up by 19% from the start of next month, and its electricity rising by 10%.

The component parts of the Con Dem Government talked tough before the Westminster general election but just like it New Labour predecessor (in thirteen years of significant majority government) are set to do nothing to investigate or regulate the questionable activities of the energy cartel members.

"We are proud that we took the industry into public ownership. When we come to power, it will be reinstated as a public service for the people of this county and will not run for private profit."  

David Cameron, Nick Clegg, nope - Tony Blair (House of Commons 12th December 1988) - and people wonder why we all get cynical?

SONS OF BANKERS!

Sometimes you may wonder why people get involved in political life - motivators can not doubt be wide and varied, from righting an obvious wrong, a particular issue (or issues) that need sorting out or fixing, a passion for the environment, social justice, even a somewhat selfish desire to better themselves - while the later is less palatable, it is the case in certain circumstances. For the life of me I can find no obvious reason for getting involved in politics for David Cameron, George Osbourne, Boris Johnson, Nick Clegg, and their ilk - other than a need perhaps to have something to do everyday.

Now, we have been repeatedly told that we are all in it together, sounds nice,but, its not quite true, most of us are very much more in it than some are. The Guardian (05.02.2011) revealed that a number of Con Dem ministers set up blind trusts so that they can continue to profit from financial interests which could present a conflict with their government responsibilities.

Ironically there was a threefold increase in this sort of thing under the Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government by way of comparison with the previous sleaze tainted New Labour government. The Guardian noted that 16 ministers, including the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, and the cabinet office minister, Francis Maude, put blind trusts in place, as recorded by the official register of ministerial interests.

Do you remember this...

"It is wholly untenable to have millions of people making sacrifices in their living standards only to see the banks getting away scot-free."

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, 17 December 2010

and also this...

"Bankers have to realise that the British public helped to bail out the banks and it is very galling when they see bankers pay themselves unjustified bonuses."

David Cameron, Prime Minister, 17 December 2010

The previous New Labour government made much of its light financial regulatory touch, at least until the wheels came spectacularly off the wagon, will the Con Dem's make much of their effective refusal to take any action over banking regulation. Before they were in government and before the last Westminster election Vince Cable (now the Business Secretary) and George Osbourne (now the Chancellor) were at it hammer and tongs as to who was going to be toughest when it came to regulating and controlling the worst excesses of the banks. And since they went into government?

The Con Dem UK Government missed an opportunity to break up and 'privatise' the larger 'publicly owned' financial institutions, they should have sold the shares on the open market with specific quotas on how many shares any one institution can own. From where many people are sat these bloated overgrown banking organisations appear to be a serious block on the ‘free market’ and too busy lining their own pockets.

George Osborne and the Tories appear to have reluctantly gone along with the much publicly stated need to regulate the more unsavoury aspects of the banking sector, but, whether they will actually and eventually do anything is open to question. Perhaps they ought to declare an interest regulating the banks in the City may impinge on the acquisition of future lucrative directorships in City banks unless they have them already that is?

One question that may also remain unanswered is whether or not they will do anything about tax evasion, tax avoidance and the regulation tax havens? It's odd really because the Con Dem's have displayed such zeal in their efforts to chase people on benefits. Sadly I suspect the answer will be no (in relation to tax evasion at least) as any such move would ruffle more than a few feathers in the City and no doubt more than a few awkward questions at dinner party's?

ALL IN IT TOGETHER...

We keep being told that we are all in it together, the revelation in The Guardian (05.02.2011) that the number of ministers setting up blind trusts so that they can continue to profit from financial interests that might present a conflict with their government responsibilities has increased threefold under the coalition (as revealed by official documents) may well suggest that many of us are significantly more in it, than some in the Con Dem Cabinet. The Guardian notes that 16 ministers, including the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, and the cabinet office minister, Francis Maude, have blind trusts in place, as recorded by the official register of ministerial interests.

The Independent on Sunday (06.02.2011) notes that Britain's four biggest banks – Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds Bank – are expected to pay out a total bonus pool of about £5 billion over the next few weeks to their high-performing bankers and traders. RBS's chief executive, Stephen Hester, is due for a bonus of £2 million; the recently departed boss of Lloyds, Eric Daniels, will take home a £2 million bonus while Stuart Gulliver, the new chief executive of HSBC, is set to be paid a Diamond-style bonus of about £8 million.

Remember this...

"It is wholly untenable to have millions of people making sacrifices in their living standards only to see the banks getting away scot-free."

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, 17 December 2010

and

"Bankers have to realise that the British public helped to bail out the banks and it is very galling when they see bankers pay themselves unjustified bonuses."

David Cameron, Prime Minister, 17 December 2010

So much for curbing the bank's bonus culture...

VINCE - THE NEW PREZZA?

I am wondering whether or not Vince Cable is the new John Prescott, by which I mean someone who is rolled out annually at the Party Conferences merely to make the right noises amongst all the smoke and mirrors to distract the eye and the heart and to keep the park faithful and the rank and file happy / quiet with a combination of the usual 'right on' rhetoric, sound bites and radical sounding statements.

Yet, once the sound and fury have subsided little or nothing has changed... certainly not the Party policy or Party actions in the corridors of Whitehall. From a Lib Dem leadership point of view this must be worth a punt or two. I mean this worked for years for Tony Blair with New Labour, so there is no earthly reason why it should not work for Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems, who have happily climbed into bed with the Tories.

FORMER TORY DONOR BACK IN THE UK

The former Conservative party donor Asil Nadir (the former Polly Peck tycoon) has voluntarily returned to UK. Whatever his motives for returning, after he fled the UK to North Cyprus some 17 years ago to evade a potential trial for fraud, his timing is quite interesting. Nadir who was charged with fraud and 66 counts of theft when he was chief executive of Polly Peck, a business empire which traded in products as diverse as groceries and electronics. It has been alleged that he (once Mr's Thatcher's golden boy) secretly transferred £34m out of the company, leading to its collapse.

Now With Turkey in the process of trying to negotiate it's entry into the European Union, a number of loose ends need to be tided up, two biggie's include the on-going problem of Cyprus, along with Turkey's continued oppression and persecution of the Kurdish people. The former is particularly important to Greece and also to Cyprus (the non-Turkish occupied portion that is) as the Cypriot Republic is also an EU member.

While David ('Call me Dave') Cameron and his predecessors Brown and Blair would have liked to ignore or brush under the carpet so to speak the plight of the Kurds, there are plenty of voices within the EU who won't that happen. I digress the real motivation for Mr Nadir's return may lie in the fact that Turkey, anxious to smooth a path into the EU is bringing pressure on nominally independent Turkish Cyprus to cease to be a safe haven for criminals, embezzlers and other unsavoury characters, whose presence is an embarrassment to the Turkish Government on the mainland. 

Additionally, the election of a Conservative (well a largely Conservative) Government may have been interpreted by Mr Nadir, as an indication that he might receive a slightly warmer and more friendly reception now, rather than ending up being extradited by the increasingly co-operative Turkish Cypriot Republic, where he has been hiding for the last 17 years. I wonder how long it will be before he graces the door of Downing Street? If I was Mr Cameron, I think would stay in Cornwall and leave that one to Mr Clegg...

TIME TO STOP DIGGING...

I am impressed with that Nick Clegg chap from the Con Dems, he seems to have managed to irritate the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly all in one go... That's pretty impressive work for one brief statement in the House of Commons on the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum - what with the London centred parties deciding that Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish electoral concerns should take a back seat as David ('Call me Dave') Cameron desperately tries to pander to both Lib Dem's dreams of electoral reform and hard core Tory backbench (and not so backbench) opposition to any attempts to extend democracy and give a measure of equal worth to ordinary peoples votes. I wonder who else he will be able to annoy when he really gets to work with the public sector / public service cuts? 

BLAND AND METRO CENTRIC

All in all, it was a pretty bland, metropolitan (London) centric debate - largely focused on winning English votes. There was next to nothing in it for Welsh, Scottish or Irish voters (or viewers). The really scary bit was actually the utter lack of choice being offered across the bridge / border to voters in England, that and how depressingly similar the polices of the big two actually are!

There were times when Brown and Cameron might as well have swapped scripts. Much of what they said was irrelevant to our communities. In Wales, there is a real choice, Plaid offers a sensible different choice and we have different priorities - looking after pensioners, protecting our schools and hospitals and making sure our economy comes out of recession. The people of Wales (and Scotland) were ignored last night - they won't be ignored by Plaid Cymru (and the SNP).